Chapter 21
The chill of late autumn settled on the canal's surface, creating a thin, grayish-white mist. At daybreak, leaden clouds hung low, casting the withered, yellow reeds on both banks in a dead, dark shadow. A green-sailed official vessel broke through the stagnant current, sailing upstream. The black "Imperial Commissioner" flag hoisted from its bow remained motionless in the damp, cold morning breeze, heavy as a falling iron curtain. The vessel's hull was deep in the water, and aside from a few sturdy boatmen silently rowing at the stern, there was no one on deck. Only a few dim candlelight shone through the tightly closed carved wooden windows, illuminating the fine drops of condensation on the window frames.
Inside the cabin, candlelight flickered. Gu Linzhi sat at a square table covered with a plain blue cloth, holding a yellowed, ancient river engineering map, his gaze scanning the dense, spider-web-like markings on it. Mo Ya, like a shadow behind him, stood beside him, his presence as restrained as possible. The only sounds in the air were the subtle crackling of the burning candle wick and the monotonous splash of the boat breaking through the current.
Sudden!
“Swish, swish, swish—!”
Without warning, a shrill cry of piercing the air ripped through the canal's deadly dawn! Dozens of crossbow arrows, gleaming with a cold, blue light, shot out from the dense reeds on both sides like a swarm of poisonous bees. Their angles were cunning, covering the entire official ship! The arrowheads were clearly laced with a deadly poison!
"Enemy attack! Protect the boat!" A boatman at the stern screamed loudly, but his voice was instantly drowned out by the rain of arrows!
“Puff, puff, puff!”
“Ugh—!”
The dull thud of arrows piercing flesh and short screams rang out almost simultaneously! The two boatmen rowing at the stern were caught off guard and instantly pierced their vitals with several crossbow arrows. They fell into the icy river before they could even utter a groan! On the deck, several members of the "Shadow Scale" who had been standing like wooden stakes reacted like lightning, their short blades unsheathed and dancing in a flash of cold light! Most of the crossbow arrows were blocked and knocked away, splashing sparks into the water, but two members were still hit by arrows in the shoulders and arms. They groaned, but their movements did not slow down at all!
The attackers were clearly well-trained! As soon as the first wave of arrows subsided, dozens of dark figures suddenly rose from the reeds on both sides of the river! Clad in tight-fitting water jackets, dusty, worn uniforms, their faces smeared with mud, they wielded a variety of naval weapons, including water-dividing spears, ghost-head knives, and daggers. Like piranhas scenting blood, they silently and swiftly pounced on the official ship! Their movements were agile, treading water as if it were flat ground!
"Damage the bottom of the boat!" A scarred man who looked like a leader roared in a low voice, his voice carrying the cruelty unique to pirates!
Several dark shadows instantly dived into the murky water like swimming fish, aiming directly at the keel of the ship!
"Protect the lord!" a "Shadow Scale" captain shouted from outside the cabin. He parried a slashing ghost-head knife with his short blade and stabbed it accurately into the throat of a pirate with his backhand! Blood splattered!
The deck instantly descended into a chaotic battle! Blades flashed, flesh and blood flew everywhere! Though few in number, the members of the "Shadow Scale" group stood firm like a rock, forming a formation to defend the cabin entrance. Their moves were brutal and precise, each blow carrying the murderous intent of shattering bones and shattering throats! The pirates, outnumbered and fearless, surged forward like a tide. The clash of weapons, roars, and the howling of the dying mingled with the rustling of the river, dyeing the canal's early morning a bloody battlefield!
Inside the cabin.
The candlelight flickered in the roar of battle. Gu Linzhi remained seated, his eyelids unmoved. The river engineering diagram in his hand remained motionless, as if the bloody battle outside were merely insignificant background noise. Only on Mo Ya's stern face did the muscles tense slightly, a trace of cold murderous intent flashed through his dead eyes, and his right hand quietly pressed against the hilt of the short blade at his waist.
"Your technique is too crude," Gu Linzhi suddenly spoke, his voice low and calm, as if he were evaluating a piece of inferior porcelain. His slender finger gently tapped on an inconspicuous tributary marker on the river engineering map. "The ambush point is chosen at 'Old Stork's Mouth'. The current is fast and there are hidden whirlpools. It seems easy to hide, but in reality... when the ship reaches this point, the helmsman will instinctively turn outward, and the ship will tilt, exposing the most vulnerable side to the reeds on the left bank."
He raised his eyes slightly, his gaze passing through the cracks in the carved wooden window, falling on the depths of the seemingly peaceful reeds on the left bank. His eyes were deep and cold, as if they could penetrate layers of disguise.
"The real killer move is right there."
Before he finished speaking!
"boom--!!!"
A dull, thunderous roar suddenly erupted from beneath the ship! The entire official vessel shook violently and tilted! The hull let out a tooth-grinding groan! A massive column of water, carrying shattered plank debris, shot up from the breach in the ship's bottom! The icy river water rushed in like a broken dam!
The ship... was pierced!
The fierce battle on deck was instantly interrupted by this sudden change! The Shadow Scale members were caught off guard, their footing unstable, and their formation slightly disrupted! The pirates let out bloodthirsty cheers, and their attack became even more frantic!
"Abandon ship! Jump into the water to protect the adults!" The team leader roared angrily, and with a knife he knocked down two pirates who rushed over and tried to get closer to the cabin!
At this moment of extreme chaos!
Deep within the reed patch on the left bank that Gu Linzhi had singled out, several seemingly ordinary, dense reeds suddenly parted to the sides! Three ferociously shaped, heavy crossbows flashing with a cold, icy light suddenly appeared! The cold iron crossbow bolts, as thick as a child's arm and tipped with sharp barbs, were already filled with terrifying power. The cold arrowheads locked onto the cabin, which was completely exposed due to the ship's tilt!
"Release--!!!" A voice as cold as a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue rang out in the reeds!
“Bang bang bang——!!!”
Three terrifying, scalp-shattering bowstring cracks! Three terrifying cold iron crossbow arrows tore through the air, piercing the air with a piercing scream, like three poisonous dragons from the underworld, swooping straight into the cabin! Their target was precisely where Gu Linzhi was! The arrows were so powerful that they could pierce through the armor! The angle was so sharp that there was no room for dodging!
This was a truly decisive blow! Taking advantage of the chaos created by the sinking of the ship and the fatal angle exposed by the tilt of the hull, he used the crossbow to deliver this thundering blow! Ruthless! Accurate! Definite! Leaving no room for maneuver!
"Sir--!!!" Mo Ya's pupils suddenly shrank! For the first time, a violent emotion fluctuated across his stern face! He roared fiercely, his body like a taut bowstring, ready to throw himself at Gu Linzhi regardless of the consequences!
A critical moment!
Gu Linzhi moved!
He was still sitting upright, not even changing his posture! At the moment when those three cold iron crossbow arrows, powerful enough to pierce through metal and stone, were about to tear through the cabin wall and nail him to the chair!
His right hand, placed on the river map, moved so quickly that only an afterimage remained! He suddenly pressed down!
“Crack!”
A crisp sound of a mechanism flicked! The plank beneath him, along with the seat, flipped downwards in an instant, revealing a dark hole barely wide enough for one person! Gu Linzhi's figure disappeared silently into the hole like a ghost blending into the shadows!
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!”
Almost as he vanished, three terrifying cold iron crossbow bolts smashed through the carved wooden window, piercing the spot where he had been sitting with devastating force! The thick planks were torn apart like paper! The seat was instantly shattered by the immense force! Sawdust, broken porcelain, and paper flew everywhere like an explosion!
The entire front half of the cabin was shattered by this devastating blow, and the air was filled with smoke and dust!
"Sir!" The black crow's eyes were bloodshot and he roared as he pounced towards the flap hole!
Below the cave entrance, there wasn't the expected river water, but a narrow secret passage barely wide enough for one person to pass through by bending over! It led directly to the bottom of the boat! Gu Linzhi's figure had already darted several feet through the secret passage, his dark robes flashing in the gloom!
"Chase! Don't leave any one alive!" From the reeds on the left bank, the cold voice roared with a hint of exasperation!
The pirates who were destroying the ship and besieging the deck were like chicken blood, and their attack became more frantic! They tried to rush into the cabin or jump into the water to surround them!
"Kill!" A terrifying glint of ferocity blazed in Mo Ya's eyes! His stern face twisted with an intense murderous intent! He unsheathed the short blade from his waist, no longer guarding the cave entrance. Like a tiger unleashed, he led the few remaining members of the Shadow Scale group, charging forward against the bandits, who outnumbered him several times over! The blade flashed like a streak of silk, and every swing unleashed a shower of scalding blood! He actually strangled and forced the bandits who had rushed towards the cave entrance back!
The scene underwater was even more brutal! Like water ghosts, several members of the Shadow Scale team engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy who had breached the boat and attempted to enter the secret passage. Large pools of blood continuously surged in the murky river water!
Chaos! Blood! A desperate fight raged in the middle of the canal!
No one noticed when, in the narrow passage beneath the ship, Gu Linzhi's sprinting figure suddenly stopped. He tilted his ears, concentrating. The deafening shouts and cries of killing, the clashing of weapons, the creaking of the hull bursting with water, the crash of bodies falling into the water... formed a massive noise barrier.
But in the intervals between these noises, an extremely subtle buzzing sound, like the high-speed fluttering of a poisonous bee's wings, penetrated his eardrums! Sharp! Rapid! With an icy, inhuman penetrating power!
This voice... is so familiar!
Gu Linzhi's deep eyes flashed with a cold light like a glacier suddenly cracking! He suddenly raised his hand, and a steel needle as thin as an ox hair, shining with a faint blue luster, appeared between his fingers! The tip of the needle was aimed at a gap in the plank somewhere above the secret passage!
“Buzz—buzz—!”
The beeping sound seemed to have sensed something and suddenly became sharp and piercing! It seemed to be right above my head!
Gu Linzhi's wrist shook!
"call out--!"
The fine needle, with an inaudible sound of breaking through the air, accurately penetrated into the gap in the planking above his head!
“Buzz…!”
The sharp "beeping" sound was like being strangled by the neck, and it made a short whine and stopped abruptly!
Almost at the same time!
"boom--!!!"
An explosion, more powerful and closer than the one that had sunk the ship, suddenly erupted from above Gu Linzhi's head! The violent shockwave tore a terrifying hole through the thick planking! Blazing flames mixed with the pungent smell of sulfur and gunpowder instantly poured into the dark passage! The scorching airwaves suddenly lifted Gu Linzhi's black robe backwards!
The firelight illuminated his calm face, and also illuminated the few pieces of charred, finely structured metal debris falling from above the hole - it was the Beidi "buzzing whistle" that could trigger an explosion!
There are traps within the traps!
The drill that exposed the cabin was a bait, the crossbow attack was the killer move, and the gunpowder trap hidden in the interlayer of the ship's planks and triggered by a "buzzing whistle" was what was truly prepared for Gu Linzhi... the deadly coffin nail!
If it weren't for the fatal "buzzer" that exposed his position, if it weren't for Gu Linzhi's deep familiarity with the Beidi "Phantom" tactics... at this moment, he would have been sent to the icy bottom of the canal along with this broken ship by the explosion that was so close to him!
Gu Linzhi's figure remained motionless in the scorching heat. He slowly raised his hand, wiping away a thin streak of blood on his cheek, left by the flying sawdust. Warm blood stained his fingertips, a faint sheen shimmering in the dim light. His deep eyes peered through the burning hole, gazing out at the chaotic battle and blood-red river beyond, flames blazing into the sky. His gaze was as cold as a thousand years of black ice.
"Very good." His deep voice echoed in the dark passage filled with smoke, blood, and flames, with a chilling chill that chilled one's bones. "This account, the truth... is recorded."
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