Chapter 280: Hijacking

Chapter 280: Hijacking the Ship

The night at sea always felt darker and more profound than on land. The ink-black sky pressed low, and the starlight seemed soaked through by seawater, dim to the point of being nearly invisible.

In his sleep, one could hear the waves persistently slapping against the hull, interspersed with the faint murmur of voices...

"Did you put the drug in?"

"It's in the water. Not sure if the potency will survive being boiled."

"It should still work. These three are far too vigilant—we couldn't get at their food or drink, so this was the only way."

"The boss said, kill the other two if you can, but that one with the prettiest face—the young man—absolutely cannot be spared."

"That's been repeated eight times already. Our ears are growing calluses."

"This time is different. We must act with extreme caution."

"What about the other passengers on the ship?"

"Do you even need to ask? Not a single one left alive."

"Enough talk. Be careful—that tall, big-built young man won't be easy to deal with..."

The passenger ship was far less spacious than the Fu ship. The cabins were cramped, and the rooms couldn't fit two beds. Chi Yu and Chu Ci slept in the rooms on either side of Meng Wan's.

In the middle of the night, Chi Yu was the first to sense something wrong. Footsteps sounded outside the door—very light, the step of someone trained in martial arts.

He sat up quietly in bed, his eyes gleaming in the darkness.

Moving quietly and carefully, he slipped on his shoes. Just as the footsteps outside stopped in front of Meng Wan's door, he kicked his door open with a bang and, without even seeing the face of the person in the doorway, immediately started fighting them.

The longer they fought, the more alarmed he grew—his opponent was a formidable fighter.

"Xiao Ci! Husband! Someone's making a move!" Chi Yu shouted in the brief opening he found, and in an instant, the oil lamp in Chu Ci's room lit up.

Then came the sound of frantic footsteps on the deck, and someone yelled: "Someone's been killed!!!"

The crewmen with torches were mixed in with the masked assassins, the assassins chasing the crewmen all over the ship, cutting down anyone who ran across their path. Blood mixed with seawater, spreading across the whole deck.

The doors to the rooms around Meng Wan's slid open silently, figures slipping out one by one. They all moved quickly and gracefully, and while Chi Yu was busy fighting, they headed straight for Meng Wan's door.

But Chu Ci was faster. He burst out of his own room, a cloth covering his face, and hurled a large handful of red powder into the middle of them.

The attackers may have been prepared—they all wore face coverings—but the next second, their exposed hands and eyes began to burn with burning pain.

"Ah!"

"Stay back—it's... poison..."

The first five or six collapsed, screaming in agony, and the ones behind who hadn't touched the powder scrambled back.

Taking the chance, Chu Ci kicked open Meng Wan's door, grabbed Meng Wan, who was already alert with his pack on his back, and bolted.

"He's out of powder! After them!"

The masked men behind them chased without stopping. The man fighting Chi Yu was slightly outmatched, and Chi Yu, while fighting, blocked several of the masked men chasing Meng Wan and Chu Ci, letting them break out of the encirclement. Then he switched to defense, staying close behind them.

Their passenger ship was different from the Fu ship—lower to the water, with cabins above the deck, so you could see the sea the moment you stepped outside.

By now, everything outside was chaos. Crewmen ran everywhere while masked men swung their weapons wildly.

Chi Yu was still tied up fighting someone, trying his best to keep Meng Wan and Chu Ci within his protection. Chu Ci, meanwhile, kept throwing powder nonstop. Only Meng Wan, unarmed and defenseless, stayed surprisingly calm, even taking a moment to look out at the dark, freezing sea.

Chu Ci's powder was clearly running out. Chi Yu gritted his teeth and, even at the cost of getting hurt himself, landed a heavy blow on his opponent. His long blade drove straight for the man's neck—the man jerked his head back to dodge, and the blade cut a gash across his face and sliced off his mask.

"It's you!" The man Chi Yu had been fighting all this time was Jian'er, Xia Yuan's young attendant. They'd spent two months together, and Chi Yu had no idea the guy was a skilled fighter, almost as good as him.

"Why are you doing this?" Chi Yu wondered—was he a spy planted by one of Lord Xia's political rivals? But why target Meng Wan?

Seeing he'd been found out, Jian'er didn't say a single extra word. He kept fighting Chi Yu despite his injuries, like it was a fight to the death, not caring if he lived or died.

But he was already worse than Chi Yu, and with his injuries, he got even weaker. Within ten moves, Chi Yu ran him through the heart with his blade.

Chi Yu had barely caught his breath when another man—who'd been pretending to be a regular masked robber—took the chance to rush at Meng Wan at lightning speed. He moved fast and fierce, clearly better than Jian'er. He'd been waiting all along, making sure he wouldn't miss, aiming to kill Meng Wan in one strike.

"Everybody freeze! Give us your valuables!" Right then, grappling hooks flew over the ship's railing, and the next second, seven or eight small boats came out of the pitch-black sea.

The sea was too dark, and the ship was in total chaos—no one had noticed the pirates had targeted them.

No one saw this coming, not even the masked assassins, who all stopped fighting.

The cold eyes of the man trying to kill Meng Wan flickered with surprise, but he didn't stop for a second. In almost the blink of an eye, he was in front of Meng Wan, raising his sword to strike.

"This one's pretty—grab him for the boss to have some fun with!" A lot of them had their eyes on Meng Wan. Even with Chu Ci and Chi Yu guarding him, a pirate from the boat right next to theirs moved incredibly fast, grabbed Meng Wan, and dragged him onto the small boat.

The man who wanted Meng Wan dead spun around to jump after them, but a guy in a bamboo hat flew over from a nearby boat and blocked him.

Without saying a word, the two started fighting, evenly matched for now.

The bamboo-hat guy's move seemed to be a signal. Pirates from the other boats swarmed onto the ship fast and started fighting the masked assassins.

Meanwhile, the pirate on the small boat grabbed Meng Wan by the collar, looked him up and down, and said with satisfaction: "Not bad, that face is pretty. The boss likes this type."

Meng Wan was like a ragdoll in the pirate's hands. His desperate struggles were useless, like scratching an itch, and he was easily thrown into the boat's cabin.

"The boss likes them obedient. This one's too wild—might as well kill him." The pirate said it casually, and as he spoke, he actually swung his blade at Meng Wan, who was lying in the cabin. Bright red blood sprayed across the hemp cloth of the cabin, soaking through to the outside.

The man fighting the pirate—the one who'd wanted to kill Meng Wan—froze. He hadn't expected Meng Wan to be taken care of without him.

Chu Ci went numb the second Meng Wan was snatched away right in front of him. His mouth opened to shout, to scream, but no sound came out—only tears came first.

Dad!

With shaking hands, he tore a cheap jade pendant from his waist, and from the little pouch hanging below it—no thicker than a finger—he pulled out a small packet.

By now, Chi Yu was already fighting the pirates who'd come on board. A lot of the masked assassins had been closing in on the small boat where Meng Wan was, but when they saw him cut down by the pirate, they all stopped.

Chu Ci was already recklessly jumping toward the small boat, and as he did, he threw the powder everywhere, not caring who it hit, and the sea wind carried it all over.

Anyone who was too slow and accidentally touched the powder started rotting where it touched.

"Something's wrong! Old Five, Old Six, get out of here!" The pirate who'd killed the man on the boat remembered something and dove into the sea the moment Chu Ci got on.

Seeing this, Chi Yu dropped his blade and jumped into the water, grabbed the pirate who might have killed Meng Wan, and beat him up good.

Chu Ci, crouching on the boat, grabbed the man's hair floating on the water, while Chi Yu, in the water, beat the pirate with everything he had.

The pirate, getting beaten and howling in pain, yelled: "You little brat, you're really serious, huh?"

"What's true or false? Hand over our husband! Hand him over, hand over...huh?" Chi Yu was stunned, staring at Meng Wan clinging to a small broken plank right beneath the boat.

What was going on?

His husband was here—then whose blood was that in the cabin?

Chi Yu stopped, but Chu Ci still hadn't let go, and was now desperately trying to pull something else out from his clothes to shove into the pirate's mouth.

"Xiao Ci, don't—your husband's fine." Chi Yu whispered to Chu Ci.

Fine? Really fine?

His madness instantly receded as reason returned. Chu Ci followed Chi Yu's gaze and indeed saw Meng Wan gripping the plank, clinging for dear life, frantically making eyes at him.

Chu Ci's grip loosened, and the medicine packet fell toward the sea, but Chi Yu snatched it just in time and tossed it back onto the passenger ship.

The thoroughly beaten pirate was furious, but he had more important things to deal with. In front of everyone, he shoved Chu Ci into the sea, pushed the boat away from the passenger ship, and shouted, "Brothers, any loot on this piece-of-crap boat?"

"Not a damn thing! They're all top fighters—retreat!" The men above yelled as they dove into the water, each a master swimmer, diving into the sea like fish into the ocean.

The man who wanted to kill Meng Wan sensed something was wrong. On instinct, he blocked the pirate he'd been fighting, but the other wasn't interested in dragging out the fight. Seeing his companions dive into the sea one by one, he too tried to break free and dive in after them.

But the man intent on killing Meng Wan hadn't figured things out yet and refused to let the pirate go. They fought for real this time, and only then did the man who wanted Meng Wan dead realize the source of his unease.

This pirate hadn't been going all out!

He was a top-tier master, one of the rarest in the world, and those at his level were few in number and well-known in the martial world. Yet this man had been dealing with him so easily?

Knocked back by a palm blow, it suddenly clicked as the pirate leaped into the sea: "So you're the White Dragon of the Waves—Ge Quan!"

Ge Quan didn't look back, gesturing for his brothers to retreat quickly.

"Brother Chu, should we still go after them?" a killer on the passenger ship asked.

Feng Chu coldly tore off his mask. "Chase? You'd all get yourselves killed. We're going back."

---

"Master Meng, look what your precious son did to me!" The pirate who had grabbed Meng Wan and been beaten complained, with a hurt look on his face.

They had come ashore at a small fishing village, still within the territory of Annam.

The group had taken over a house at the village entrance and gathered outside the kitchen in the yard.

Meng Wan had bathed and changed into clean clothes. He said, a little sheepishly, "The child is young and impulsive. Please don't hold it against them, big brother."

"I'm your second brother, Fan Er." Fan Er said irritably, then looked up at Chu Ci, who was helping Meng Wan hang clothes on the other side. This "child" was taller than him—where was he supposed to get justice?

Ge Quan came over and kicked Fan Er. "Not satisfied? Then return the fruit preserve jar and lotus root powder that Wan Geer sent over around New Year."

Fan Er grinned. "Satisfied, perfectly satisfied. Brother Quan, I was just joking with Wan Geer, you know how it is."

Ge Quan ignored him and handed Meng Wan a bowl of stewed croaker, topped with a couple of wild vegetables. "We came a bit late. Did you get scared?"

"Not late at all, just in time." Meng Wan took the bowl and ate a bite. A man around thirty by the kitchen door smiled at him—that was Fan Er's husband.

Meng Wan returned the smile. "Thank you, Second Sister-in-law. It's delicious."

"Eat as much as you like. There are shrimp fritters in the pot," Fan Er's husband said cheerfully.

They had known Meng Wan for a while and had always been curious about this lord's husband. Now that they finally met him in person, they found him nothing like they'd imagined.

"Husband, what the hell is going on?" Chi Yu had been wanting to ask Meng Wan since they came ashore. He couldn't understand why they'd been ambushed and then ended up with these pirates.

Chu Ci finished hanging the clothes and pricked up his ears.

Meng Wan patiently picked out the fish bones, eating the meat slowly. "These people are all my friends. I started contacting them after Lord Xia asked me to go to Annam with him."

Chi Yu: "...Huh?" He really didn't get it.

Meng Wan didn't explain further, and instead asked Ge Quan, "Brother Ge, were the people on Cat Ba Island caught?"

Before Ge Quan could answer, Fan Er jumped in: "Caught. When we got there, the kid was trying to run. Brother Quan broke his legs and left him at the North Sea ferry. Our people are there—he can't escape."

That was what Meng Wan had been most worried about. He let out a sigh of relief. "Good."

Ge Quan asked him, "Where are you heading next? Back to Qinzhou to see Lord Song?"

Meng Wan had his own plans. "I'll go back, but I need to wait for Xia Yuan to return first... Oh, and where's Jin Rong?"

A hint of warmth appeared in Ge Quan's eyes. "Didn't you say Tong'er was in Qinzhou? I sent him ahead to find him."

Meng Wan nodded. "Good. After Xia Yuan leaves, we'll go back to find them."

"That master on the ship earlier seemed to recognize me. Will it screw up your plans?" Ge Quan asked apologetically, recalling the man's outburst.

Meng Wan wasn't concerned. "Even if he hadn't recognized you, they wouldn't easily believe I was dead. They'd suspect something anyway. It's fine. As long as the rest of the arrangements go smoothly, I'm just small fry."

Meng Wan had done his part. The rest was out of his hands.