No matter what Jiang Weiyang said, the King of Nanyue had no intention of letting them leave.
“Why is Marquis Jiang in such a hurry to leave? It’s still early.”
“Could it be that Marquis Jiang finds my hospitality lacking?”
“Don’t be anxious, Marquis Jiang. I have prepared a great deal of entertainment. I’m certain you will be satisfied.”
The King of Nanyue said so much, all with the aim of preventing their departure. Jiang Weiyang couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words and drew a pistol from her waist.
“Let us go, or my army will break in and bombard Nanyue.”
Jiang Weiyang had sailed the seas for many years; she was not a good-tempered person. She had met the kings of too many nations. To get things done, one had to be soft when necessary, but when it was time to be hard, one could not yield an inch.
If she were alone today, it would be fine. Staying to exchange pleasantries with the King of Nanyue for a few more hours wouldn’t be a problem. But the situation today was clearly amiss. Most importantly, Her Majesty and Her Highness were by her side. If anything were to happen, it was a responsibility she could not bear, and a betrayal of Great Zhou she could not commit.
No matter what, she could not take a gamble if there was even the slightest hint of danger.
Without hesitation, Jiang Weiyang fired the gun into the air. It was a signal flare. Red smoke immediately appeared in the sky. Upon seeing the smoke, the army of Great Zhou would surround this place within a quarter of an hour, and the fleet would prepare to open fire.
The guards who had entered with them had not appeared. With such a large cloud of red smoke and the loud report of the gun, it was impossible for them not to have heard, unless they had all met with misfortune.
At this thought, Jiang Weiyang drew her sword. The dozen or so officials and guards formed a circle around her, each one producing a pistol.
Most of these dozen officials were military officers, with only four civil officials. But firing a gun was something a civil official could do. Besides, according to the Six Arts of a gentleman, while a civil official’s horsemanship and archery might be slightly inferior to a military officer’s, they were by no means incapable weaklings.
These few civil officials had followed Jiang Weiyang to sea for many years and were long familiar with firearms.
With more than a dozen guns, the people of this Heigelie Temple would not necessarily be able to stop them.
Chi Wan also placed her hand on the hilt of her saber. She had a gun—one that used metallic shell-cased cartridges and could fire once every two seconds.
Before they had set out, new progress had been made on repeating firearms, but they had not yet been tested to ensure their safety.
She had a gun, but she didn’t rush to use it. They were too close to their opponents. The two-second pause after firing could easily lead to trouble, so she prepared to use it in conjunction with her saber.
She nudged Yu Jiuzhou. “Take out your gun. Don’t stray too far from me.”
Yu Jiuzhou nodded. She wasn’t worried about the people. Even if Heigelie Temple had several hundred men, it would be difficult for them to break through a dozen guns.
But what if there were snakes?
She hadn’t forgotten that Heigelieyan snake. Ten, or even dozens, could be dealt with. But what about hundreds, or thousands?
Even if there weren’t as many as she imagined, even just a few dozen could cause them to suffer heavy losses.
“Snakes,” Yu Jiuzhou reminded her.
Chi Wan understood immediately. The gun’s cooldown was two seconds, but a snake’s strike could take only a fraction of a second.
She quickly said to Jiang Weiyang beside her, “Firing formation.”
The dozen or so people split into two teams. The odd-numbered members would fire, then the even-numbered members. After the even numbers fired, the odd numbers would fire again. This way, they could ignore the cooldown time.
Chi Wan reached into her backpack. It was modeled after a modern travel pack and could hold a great deal. Every guard carried one; they could be considered military packs.
Inside were medicines and various other useful items.
Military regulations required that the pack must be worn whenever leaving the ship. In case of an accident, the contents could be used for self-rescue.
When they went to sea, their packs also contained fish bladders—or rather, life vests made from them. They were durably buoyant, light, and discreet, making them easy to store in a backpack.
There were also things like sheepskin or cowhide flotation devices, but they were too large and inconvenient to carry, so they were kept on the ships.
Going to sea naturally required diverse preparations. The pack of any random soldier or guard could at least ensure they wouldn’t die in the short term and could await rescue. Moreover, the army conducted extensive training, teaching soldiers how to survive in the wilderness and at sea.
Chi Wan and Yu Jiuzhou were using the identities of guards, so they naturally carried backpacks as well.
Chi Wan’s pack was filled with many things, including medicine to repel snakes, insects, rats, and ants. She knew that the places they were going not only had many snakes, but also poisonous insects and ants. The ants there were larger than three or four normal ants combined; one bite would not heal for months, and a more venomous one could even be fatal.
So before setting out, she had prepared a large amount of medicinal powder. Sprinkling it around could block snakes, insects, rats, and ants. It would provide extra safety if they had to land on an island.
When it came to dealing with snakes, a physician had the most methods. She took out the medicinal powder and kept it in her robes, ready to use. The moment snakes appeared, she would scatter it.
As long as she had the medicinal ingredients, she could make more powder if she ran out. But if she lost her life, it was truly gone. There was no need to be frugal.
As they prepared to counterattack, the King of Nanyue’s expression turned ugly. It had soured the moment the signal flare went off.
He said coldly to the priestess beside him, “I told you long ago not to provoke the people of Great Zhou, but you refused to listen. Now look, you’ve implicated me as well.”
The priestess shot him a cold glance, and he immediately took a few fearful steps back. How could he not be afraid? If he weren’t, would he have allowed himself to be threatened into offending the people of Great Zhou?
The priestess walked over, speaking in unfamiliar Han language, “Give me the sword, and you may leave.”
She pointed at the sword in Jiang Weiyang’s hand, her expression one of absolute certainty.
So, it was indeed Jiang Weiyang’s sword she wanted.
Chi Wan sized up Jiang Weiyang’s sword. It was certainly valuable and represented honor, but beyond that, there was nothing special about it.
But Jiang Weiyang appeared furious. “A scholar can be killed, but not humiliated. This is my sword. Where the sword is, I am. If the sword is lost, I die.”
Chi Wan could understand. For many, honor could not be trampled upon. That was the honor Jiang Weiyang had earned through years of sailing the seas. On what grounds could someone else take it away?
The priestess pulled a human-bone whistle from her waist. “Hand it over, or die.”
Jiang Weiyang sneered, “Then you can try and see the power of our Great Zhou’s firearms.”
There was a compartment for bombs in the backpacks. Each pack could hold two. Even if only a few of them still had their packs, nearly ten bombs would be more than enough for the enemy to handle.
The priestess placed the whistle to her lips and blew. The tone was strange and long, sounding very peculiar.
Chi Wan felt the medicinal powder in her robes and relaxed slightly. As long as they could hold out for a quarter of an hour until their people arrived, what did it matter how many snakes there were?
She didn’t believe the other party had that many snakes.
The Heigelieyan snake had been extinct for a thousand years. Even if it wasn’t truly extinct, the fact that it hadn’t been discovered by anyone for at least a millennium was enough to prove its rarity.
Just as they thought, the whistle was to summon the Heigelieyan snakes.
From the roof and the ground, many snakes began to emerge. There were certainly dozens of them. Before long, nearly a hundred more swarmed in, and their numbers continued to grow.
Chi Wan quickly took out the medicinal powder. “Sprinkle the powder on yourselves.”
Sprinkling it on the ground would be a waste. They were definitely going to leave, so they couldn’t just keep sprinkling circles. It was more convenient to apply it to their bodies, allowing them to move.
Everyone had medicinal powder in their backpacks. Theirs were small packets, but enough for personal use.
Chi Wan held a large bag, which she could use to sprinkle powder as they walked to prevent the Nine-Eyed Snakes from rushing them.
The dense mass of snakes drew closer and closer. Perhaps smelling the powder, they stopped. One by one, they raised their bodies, standing erect except for their tails. Some said this was a snake’s combat posture.
They once again saw the snakes’ bodies clearly. There were indeed nine spots on their bellies, but they also had two eyes on their heads, which added up to eleven.
The Heigelieyan snakes looked extremely venomous. The group huddled closer together, clearly frightened by the dense swarm of snakes.
Humans have a deep-seated, primal fear of snakes. Few people are not afraid of them, especially such bizarre and obviously aggressive ones.
The group stood close together, smearing the powder on themselves. Chi Wan had Yu Jiuzhou stand next to Jiang Weiyang, while she held a handful of powder at the ready.
If it were just her and Yu Jiuzhou, the two of them could easily leave Heigelie Temple. But what about Jiang Weiyang and these officials? Fortunately, they only had to hold on for a quarter of an hour.
A quarter of an hour wasn’t long, but it wasn’t short either. Without some means of defense, so many snakes could bite them three times over.
The priestess began to walk toward them. As she moved, the bells on her ankles jingled, and the Nine-Eyed Snakes danced to the sound, a truly bizarre sight.
Their goal was to stall for time, so if the enemy didn’t make a move, neither would they.
The longer they delayed, the more time they bought.
The priestess crouched down, dipped her fingertip into the powder scattered on the ground, and brought her hand to her nose to sniff it. She remained crouched for a while before standing up.
“Is there a physician among you?”
The priestess’s dry, hoarse voice rang out. “No matter. You will all die.”
The priestess continued to blow the whistle, and the Heigelieyan snakes began to crawl toward them uncontrollably. Driven by the whistle, the Nine-Eyed Snakes paused for a moment when they passed the powder, then began to circle them, which proved the powder was effective.
But the whistle’s sound grew more and more intense. To stop the Nine-Eyed Snakes’ attack, they had to kill the priestess first.
Chi Wan aimed her gun at the priestess and fired. However, the priestess merely took a step back, unharmed.
A bulletproof vest? An ancient version?
She believed that many wondrous things existed in the world. There were many types of soft golden-thread armor that even sabers couldn’t cut, yet were light and thin to wear. It wasn’t impossible for one to be bulletproof.
“Throw the bombs.”
As soon as Chi Wan spoke, someone threw a bomb.
The bombs they had were still rather crude and not very precise, nor were they very powerful, but they were sufficient.
A bomb landed at the priestess’s feet, and she finally moved, rolling away from the spot.
Chi Wan grabbed Yu Jiuzhou’s hand and flew up to the top of the wall. Those without internal energy also managed to scramble up the wall in a few moves.
Before the Nine-Eyed Snakes below could react, several more bombs were thrown down, sending them flying.
“Fire.”
Without wasting words, Chi Wan sprinkled powder along the corner of the wall. They needed to get to high ground now, mainly to stall for time. Once their people arrived, a single fire would be the end of Heigelie Temple.
The bombs weren’t very powerful, but they were effective against a swarm of several hundred snakes. Blasting a dozen or so at once was no problem.
But under the priestess’s whistle, the Nine-Eyed Snakes’ formation became more and more dispersed, and they only managed to kill a little over a hundred of them.
The scattered Nine-Eyed Snakes began to climb the wall from other places. Chi Wan immediately leaped to the other side of the wall. Yu Jiuzhou, in perfect sync, jumped with her. The Nine-Eyed Snakes quickened their pace to chase them.
“Let’s get out first.”
Once they were out of Heigelie Temple, they would be fine.
But when they reached the main gate, they discovered it was locked, and there were archers on the walls. So, they had been prepared for this.
Chi Wan was annoyed. “Marquis Jiang, watch her.”
After saying this, she drew her saber. It had been too many years since she had fought someone. She recalled how so many people had wanted her life back then, and today she was facing it again.
Of course, the priestess wanted Jiang Weiyang’s sword, but Jiang Weiyang’s sword was her life. How could she hand her life over to someone else? Besides, so many guards had died in Heigelie Temple. If she didn’t raze Heigelie Temple to the ground, she might as well not be a Prince.
Jiang Weiyang knew her duty. She raised her sword and cautiously watched the archers on the wall. They now had archers in front and venomous snakes behind. To get out, they had to fight for their lives.
“Fire.”
No more holding back. They would fire first and ask questions later.
Only nine of them remained. Together, they aimed their guns at the archers on the wall. Catching them off guard, they fired repeatedly, and more than ten archers fell from the wall.
There were only about a hundred of them. With guns, dealing with archers was easy; it was a matter of superior weaponry.
The archers on the wall reacted, quickly beginning to shoot arrows. A dense volley of arrows flew toward them, and the group quickly drew their sabers and swords to block.
Yu Jiuzhou’s eyes grew cold. “To the side of the gate.”
There were eaves next to the gate, creating a perfect blind spot. To aim at them, the archers would have to come down from the wall. Once they were down, it would be much easier. And then there were the snakes. Aside from the priestess, they probably didn’t recognize people. Those archers likely didn’t have any medicinal powder on them.
They quickly ran to the side of the gate. Before long, the archers came down one after another. Just as Yu Jiuzhou had predicted, the Nine-Eyed Snakes indeed attacked indiscriminately.
Those who were bitten immediately fell into an indescribable state, convulsing on the ground as if in a frenzy. The expressions on their faces looked… happy?
Recalling the hallucinations caused by the Heigelieyan snake’s venom, they knew what was happening.
They continued to fire, aiming at the archers. The next moment, someone was ramming the gate from the outside. It was too early; it shouldn’t be their people.
Someone peeked through a crack in the gate. “It’s not our people, nor is it the Nanyue army. They look like Zhancheng militia.”
Yu Jiuzhou frowned. These people must be under the priestess’s command.
The priestess was still insistent on taking Jiang Weiyang’s sword. “Marquis Jiang, give me the sword.”
Jiang Weiyang handed the sword over without hesitation. Yu Jiuzhou drew the blade and observed it for a moment, finding nothing unusual. She then took the scabbard. There was nothing special about the scabbard either!
She glanced inside the scabbard, and her eyes suddenly lit up. There was something inside.
“There’s something in your scabbard.”
“What?”
Jiang Weiyang quickly took the sword back, wanting to get the object out.
On the other side, Chi Wan charged into the swarm of snakes. Her saber moved like lightning, and no snake could get near her. Soon, she was beside the priestess. She slashed with her saber, and the priestess raised her arm to block.
Strangely, despite her strength and the quality of her saber, she failed to sever the other’s arm. But the priestess’s clothes were torn.
Chi Wan moved her blade rapidly, slicing the priestess’s sleeve to shreds. What came into view were shimmering scales.
A snake person?
The scales were truly hard; even a gun couldn’t pierce them. Looking at the demonic black-and-red scales covering the other’s body was terrifying.
Chi Wan began to circulate her internal energy, and her saber moved even faster.
Finally, with a cry of pain from the priestess, Chi Wan managed to pry off one of her scales. A direct slash couldn’t break them, and a gun couldn’t pierce them, but there were gaps between the scales. By thrusting her saber into the gap between the scales and prying with force, the scale came off without any issue.
Her speed was too fast. The priestess didn’t even see how she had struck before a dozen scales had been pried from her body. Soon, the priestess’s arm was completely devoid of scales, and the bloody limb was so painful she couldn’t speak.
Chi Wan remained calm. No matter what, this person had to be killed.
But the priestess was prepared. She quickly retreated into the main hall, and before Chi Wan could pursue, she opened a secret passage and jumped in.
The secret door slammed shut with a bang. The snakes above also quickly scattered. Had she retreated?
The archers, however, were as dead as could be. Although there were only a few of them, Yu Jiuzhou’s group had no problem killing a hundred or so men with their guns.
But there was one problem. Yu Jiuzhou shook the gun in her hand. “There are a lot of people outside, but we’re out of bullets.”
Leaving now was clearly not an option; there were too many people outside. But staying in the temple wasn’t an option either. Who knew when those snakes would return?
Chi Wan, meanwhile, was thinking about the secret passage, but she couldn’t pry it open. “Burn it.”
Turn Heigelie Temple into a pile of ruins, and see how that snake person and her swarm of snakes could hide.
She decisively knocked over the lamp oil in the main hall and lit the flammable areas. The entire hall quickly went up in flames.
She strode over to Yu Jiuzhou’s side. “We’ll go over the wall on the other side.”
By the time the temple gate was broken down, the fire in Heigelie Temple would be beyond saving.
Chi Wan led the group to the other side, passing by the place where they had first arrived. Thinking of the guards they had brought, she decided to take a look.
Arriving at the room where they had rested, Chi Wan kicked over a table and pried it open, only to find not a tunnel entrance, but the button for a mechanism. She had everyone else go outside before pressing it, but there was no sound at all.
After a moment, a wall finally moved aside. She saw several of the guards. They lay there with expressions of bliss, but the wounds on their necks were black, and the poison was still spreading.
Just as she was about to approach, she was suddenly startled and drew her saber to slash. As a precaution, she swung it several times. When she looked again, a Nine-Eyed Snake was dead beyond dead.
Chi Wan’s expression was cold. Seeing these guards die so miserably, that priestess had to die.
She didn’t check the other rooms. None of the other guards had appeared; it was likely they had met a grim fate.
Arriving at the side wall of the temple, Chi Wan was the first to fly up onto it. The temple walls were high; without internal energy, it was impossible to climb them.
Seeing no ambush outside, she hung upside down from the wall. “Come up.”
The people below began to help each other. Some used their hands to boost others, giving them the momentum to reach the middle of the wall. Then, with a grab and a push, they could leap up, and Chi Wan could just catch their hands and pull them up.
Seeing that it was working, Jiang Weiyang quickly said to Yu Jiuzhou, “You go first.”
Yu Jiuzhou didn’t hesitate. She had internal energy and could leap high. Without needing a boost, she directly grabbed Chi Wan’s hand.
Next was Jiang Weiyang. Before she was up, Chi Wan heard the slithering sound of snakes again. “Hurry up, the snakes are back.”
Jiang Weiyang quickly used the support to get up, which was also easy.
One after another, they went up. Just as the last two remained, the Nine-Eyed Snakes appeared. They actually leaped directly at them.
“There’s no time. You two, quickly.”
Chi Wan said directly, “Marquis Jiang, pick two people to hang upside down. I’ll go down and help them.”
She could fly up directly and didn’t need assistance, but the remaining two were different. If they waited any longer, at least one would have to be sacrificed.
She stretched out both hands. “You two, together.”
The two didn’t hesitate, stepping firmly on Chi Wan’s hands. With a powerful heave, she sent them flying up—or rather, threw them up. The moment she threw them, she quickly drew her saber and chopped the Nine-Eyed Snake that was almost upon her into several pieces.
Seeing snake after snake leaping toward her, she gave a cold laugh, scattered a handful of some unknown powder, and threw out a flint. A dust explosion occurred.
As the Nine-Eyed Snakes were sent flying by the blast, Chi Wan was already on top of the high wall.
Such a high wall kept people out, but it also kept snakes out. They couldn’t leap this high in a single bound, but their climbing speed was fast.
Fortunately, without Chi Wan needing to say anything, they were already jumping down.
When she got up, only Jiang Weiyang and Yu Jiuzhou were left. She smiled and wrapped an arm around Yu Jiuzhou’s waist. “Wife, I’ll take you down.”
Jiang Weiyang: “?” What time was it to be showing off their affection?
Before she could say anything, Chi Wan had already taken Yu Jiuzhou down. She quickly followed, jumping down. Unlike Chi Wan, they had to roll on the ground a few times to absorb the impact.
Once they were outside the temple, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, their people arrived in a flash. The sound of the army’s running shook the ground.
The people outside the temple had already been brought under control. The group then went over. Dozens of people had come, but now only a few remained. How could they not be angry?
Just then, a familiar figure ran over. “Are you all right?”
“Xia Qu?”
Following her were Chun Gui, An Yizhi, Qiu Lai, Zheng Yi, Dong Ying, and even Yu Xingchen.
Chi Wan’s eyes widened in confusion. Wait, how did they catch up? She and Yu Jiuzhou had come out on a trip; they hadn’t planned on bringing so many people.
“What are you all doing here?”
Xia Qu waved her hand. “That’s not important. We just arrived and saw you sending the signal. Well, isn’t this something? We immediately brought the army over. So, what’s the plan? Are we wiping out Nanyue or leveling Zhancheng?”
As she spoke, Xia Qu seemed quite excited. A war of annihilation! Not everyone gets to fight one. Nowadays, the newcomers in Great Zhou were getting more and more formidable, and people like them had retired early. But if there was a war of annihilation, they would guarantee to run faster than anyone else.
Chi Wan was speechless. After a long moment, she said, “First, level this temple.”
“Alright, it’ll be quick.”
Rows of cannons were rolled out, aimed at Heigelie Temple, and began to bombard it. In at most half an hour, Heigelie Temple collapsed, and all its secret passages were buried beneath the rubble.
Whether the priestess was dead or alive was no longer important. What was important was that they now knew the object the priestess was looking for was in Jiang Weiyang’s scabbard. That made things much simpler.
During the bombardment, Chi Wan and the others had already returned to the ship and were trying to figure out how to get the object out of the scabbard.
Finally, Chi Wan said, “Why don’t we cut it open? When we get back to Great Zhou, we’ll get you a new scabbard.”
Jiang Weiyang: “…” What could she do? She could only agree.
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