Chapter 806: Begging for Mercy (1/2, Request Subscription)

【I am Fang Yue, and I want to force the Helmsman's cooperation by creating a greater crisis.】

【My idea soon found an opportunity: when I stopped supplying Ghost Stone, the Helmsman halted the voyage.】

【We stopped dead on the perilous Han Jiang, motionless.】

【The Helmsman seemed to be staring at Tian Ruichi, demanding something—but failed. Then, Chenqing seized the chance and tossed a barrel of red, strange oil into the lake.】

【Soon, an unknown and terrifying giant shadow slowly rose from beneath the Han Jiang giant ship, extending massive tentacles that sliced the vessel clean in two and dragged it into the lakebed!】

【I sank to the lakebed, where the Great and Noble Parchment Master fused with the 【Linglong Eight Imagery Jade Flute】, granting me autonomous active abilities even while touching the lake water—but only to that extent.】

【Deep, dark lake water surged like a tide, swallowing me whole. In my final moment of consciousness, I saw nothing but splintered wooden planks and the corpses of others sinking into the lakebed.】

【Darkness then fully consumed me.】

【I died.】

【The entire ship was annihilated.】

Along with the Parchment's text, premonitory images also surfaced.

The images had only two segments: the first showed Fang Yue himself standing at the bow, arguing with the Helmsman, then suddenly, over a dozen massive tentacles burst from the lake surface, clawing at the Han Jiang giant ship, splitting it in half and dragging it into the lakebed.

The second image showed Fang Yue sinking into the lakebed, surrounded by the corpses of his companions and shattered ship timbers in deep water.

Glub glub glub.

Watching the bubbles rise from his own mouth in the image, Fang Yue strangely felt a sense of familiarity—as if this deep, dark lake environment felt eerily familiar.

Wait!

A flash of insight struck Fang Yue's mind.

He knew where this feeling came from.

Back when he was with the Da Yang Caravan in Chunuan City, he had once pursued a strange called 【Jingli Gui】.

That strange had weak power but a special ability: it could enter mirrors, and the world inside the mirror was unmistakably a deepwater realm.

That deepwater environment felt nearly identical to the one in the image.

But compared to it, the deepwater world connected by 【Jingli Gui】 seemed far more dangerous and terrifying.

I recall Han Jiang in Qing Guo connects to the Wanliu Sea—could that deepwater world actually be…?

Fang Yue knew little of the Wanliu Sea; even Qing Guo's records on it were scarce.

Yet in the limited accounts, the Wanliu Sea was vast, and no one had ever crossed it.

This alone could be inferred from how difficult Han Jiang was to cross—how much more terrifying must the Wanliu Sea, the Origin, be?

Pushing aside those thoughts, Fang Yue turned to more practical concerns.

Chenqing's plan was too dangerous; they had no way to gauge the danger level lurking in Han Jiang.

If the threat was weak, the Helmsman would ignore it; if it was strong, they'd all die together—and with this uncertainty, it was literally gambling with their lives.

Then, I must try a different angle.

"Parchment, I'm going to put a knife to the Helmsman's throat and force it to obey me—predict for me!"

【I'm tired.】

Fang Yue:???

Fang Yue blurted: What the hell? You just predicted once—how are you already tired?

【Tired! Tired! Tired! Just tired! The kind that won't get up without Golden Stone!】

As the Parchment's text surfaced in his mind, an image also appeared—a cute, ancient-style girl in pink, pouting, yet blinking her eyes with hopeful anticipation.

Pretending to be cute won't work. Golden Stone is one of my bargaining tools with the Helmsman. Give it to you, and I lose one option.

【Stingy! Stingy!!】

【I'm not working anymore! Hungry! Tired! Going to sleep!】

Fang Yue: …

Parchment? Zhi Zhi? Xiao Zhi Zhi?

…Parchment Master.

【Here!】

I'll give you some Blood Stone to fill your belly. Think long-term—I'm not hoarding Golden Stone. If I can resolve the Helmsman's issue without using Golden Stone, won't that Golden Stone eventually be yours anyway?

The Parchment widened its cute big eyes, patted its little head, thought for a moment, then slapped its thigh.

【That makes sense!】

【It's mine—it'll be mine eventually. I won't let that wooden-faced thing get it!】

Wooden-faced…

Fang Yue's lip twitched, but he said nothing—just told the Parchment to get to work.

【I am Fang Yue. I've abandoned all pretense. I've gathered people and confronted the Helmsman directly, demanding it change course to Jingcheng.】

【Under the threat of fists the size of sandbags, the Helmsman sneered.】

【The ship capsized.】

【From a 90-degree tilt to a full 180-degree flip, the hull turned completely upside-down—yet still sailed on Han Jiang.】

【All aboard were touched by Han Jiang, sinking into the depths—some drowned instantly, others struggled briefly before falling still.】

【I fought desperately, broke the surface, but saw only the Helmsman sailing away with the Han Jiang giant ship—leaving behind only Tian Ruichi, tightly bound with ropes.】

【The Helmsman took Tian Ruichi away, leaving me stranded in the endless expanse of Han Jiang.】

【Dark shadows swam toward me from all directions.】

【I fought desperately—but was still swallowed by the lakebed's strangeness.】

【I died.】

【In my final second before death, I wondered: why didn't I feed the Golden Stone to the Parchment Master first? Then my sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain.】

"... That last line was definitely something you added yourself!"

【None of your business! None of your business!】

My fists are hardening. They're hardening.

Three days without a beating, and you're already climbing up to rip the roof tiles off.

【"What are you doing? I'm your Zhi Zhi! Your most, most important contract partner!"】

And you still know you're my contract person? Then get to work properly. My current situation is very dangerous.

【"You want the horse to run, but you won't let it graze. Without grass, how am I supposed to work!"】

Eat, eat, eat — sooner or later you'll eat yourself to death!

Fang Yue pulled out a few Blood Stones with a sour look and materialized the parchment.

He used the parchment-transformed right hand to stuff them into the parchment.

【"Yay!"】

【"It's the taste of Blood Stones!"】

Fang Yue noticed that the texture of the parchment seemed to have improved again, quite different from how it was at the very beginning.

Also, he wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but when his paper-transformed right hand touched the parchment, there was a strange, odd feeling.

Thinking about it, he used that hand again to stroke the parchment, and the very next instant an image immediately surfaced in his mind.

It was the cute girl who had been happily munching on Blood Stones — halfway through the stone, as if being tickled, she suddenly fell to the ground, letting out a silvery, bell-like laugh of surrender.

【"Don't touch, don't touch anymore! Hahahahaha! There, that spot is so itchy! Ah hahahahahaha!"】

【"Fang Yue, stop, stop it, I surrender, I surrender!"】

(End of this chapter)