Lu Xun had mentioned that yin hui often lurked in the water to ambush passing ships. Sunlight could not penetrate deep into seawater; as long as they hid in the deep, they had only to wait for overcast skies or nightfall before climbing aboard ships or coming ashore.
Qiu Hu was also gazing into the distance. Suddenly, he remarked, "A few died on the shore."
With their keen eyesight, they could just make out several small, motionless black specks on the sandy beach.
Those were not rocks; those were yin hui.
Qiu Hu muttered, "Isn't that a bit too fast?"
With the yin fiend gone, the weaker yin hui were the first to succumb.
"Without yin fiend energy, I'm afraid these creatures can hardly survive."
Zhu Daniang formed a few more hand seals for the wind-summoning incantation. In an instant, the ship glided several li away, and Longji Island was blocked from sight by other islands.
Everyone stood by the gunwale, poised for battle.
Yet the heavens were merciful. After a dozen or so breaths, the clouds obscuring the sun drifted away, and sunlight once again bathed the world—though no longer blazing, it was still enough to burn the yin hui.
Under such conditions, the yin hui would not surface.
Over two quarters of an hour later, the small boat sailed into safe waters and only then slowed down. Zhu Daniang said, "They've probably turned back."
Yin hui usually did not stray far from Longji Island.
He Lingchuan had heard from Lu Xun that some of the larger yin hui could venture into other waters, but without a leader to organize them, they generally stayed close to Longji Island.
Their arrival had likely thrown the yin hui into disarray. The beasts did not seem particularly bright.
The setting sun was about to sink beneath the horizon, the light steadily dimming. The surrounding water gurgled softly, unusually serene.
Zhu Daniang asked He Lingchuan, "Why did you want to go onto the island in the first place?"
Surely he hadn't brought them all this way just for an island tour?
"The Yangshan Archipelago isn't a bad place, if you take away the fiend energy and the yin hui," He Lingchuan said, stroking his chin. "We need a foothold of our own."
Ever since leaving the Yuan Kingdom, he had been pondering the future.
Having arrived on this new continent, the most urgent matter was neither dragging the Lu family to court nor taking back their ancestral estate—neither of which was even conceivable before securing a firm foundation—but rather gaining a solid foothold and growing his strength.
If you want to arm-wrestle the master of this territory, you first have to turn yourself into a powerhouse.
He had discussed this back and forth with his chief steward, Ding Zuodong. The conventional path was to go to Bailie, purchase a large mansion or estate, invest in business, and gradually expand operations.
However, that presented two problems.
First, after centuries of continuous development, land prices in the territory of Bailie were steep, and income-generating estates came with hefty price tags. Whatever property one acquired, land taxes, deed taxes, and miscellaneous fees were unavoidable.
Ding Zuodong had calculated it for him: buying a fertile estate covering fifteen qing would cost a total of fifteen thousand five hundred taels of silver in expenses—several times more expensive than back in the Yuan Kingdom!
And that was just for a single estate.
So buying land, houses, or estates right now felt an awful lot like being a sucker who bought at the peak.
Second, the current business environment in Bailie was terrible. The authorities already had precedents of penalizing and confiscating foreign capital and coercing foreign merchants to sell goods at depressed prices. How could he know they wouldn't target He Lingchuan's businesses in the future?
What if, just as his business picked up, they came along to reap him like chives?
Thus, when He Lingchuan heard that the Yangshan Archipelago was completely unmanaged and virtually abandoned, his interest had been thoroughly piqued.
What was so great about being a landlord?
He wanted to be an island lord!
As long as he got his hands on this archipelago, everything on the islands would belong to him. He could develop it however he pleased, and who would dare levy extortionate taxes and duties on him?
Seeing his grand daydream, Tao Ran hurriedly reminded him, "Eldest Young Master, there are still pirates on the outer islands."
"As long as it hasn't devolved into collusion between officials and outlaws, pirates are a minor issue. We can persuade them to leave." When it came to suppressing bandits, He Lingchuan was a professional.
River bandits and sea pirates might live in different environments, but their organizational structures were bound to be much the same. He believed the pirates here had to be far simpler in makeup than the Longchuan river bandits.
"Quite so." Qiu Hu and Tao Ran exchanged a glance, neither bothering to ask what would happen if the pirates refused to leave.
Did their group look like devout, tender-hearted folk?
Thinking about the future planning and development of these islands, they even felt a stir of excitement.
He Lingchuan stretched lazily. "Then that settles it. As soon as we get back to port, we'll—"
With a loud splash, something breached from the water and slammed straight into him.
It happened so abruptly that no one was prepared, and the impact was immense. The two humans and one demon beside him all heard a dull thud.
He Lingchuan was knocked right off the vessel, plunging into the water alongside his attacker.
Seawater could isolate divine sense, and caught completely off guard, those aboard the ship had no time to come to his rescue.
Yet they could clearly see the true face of the assailant: it was a gargantuan yin hui!
The beast was thirty feet long, its scales glossy and pitch-black, throwing up a massive spray of water as it hit the sea.
It locked its four arms tight around He Lingchuan, snapping its jaws toward his neck. Its upper jaw was structured like that of a snake; though its fangs were not as long as a real serpent's, they could spring out like switchblades to deliver a lethal bite.
Fortunately, thanks to its sheer length, while its front half sank into the water, its tail still whipped outside.
Zhu Daniang had millennia of brawling experience after all, and her reflexes were astonishingly fast. A burst of crimson spider silk shot out, sticking fast to its tail.
A yin hui's scales were slick and coated in seawater, normally difficult to adhere to. But Zhu Daniang had captured countless bizarre opponents in her time, some crustacean beasts slicker than any yin hui, unable to hold even a drop of water. This red silk of hers was designed specifically for such foes, reputed to stick to anything and even capable of striking through water.
The expelled silk instantly spread into a web and cinched tight, wedging snugly into the crevices between the yin hui's scales.
Like snakes, yin hui grew scales directly from their hide, with tiny folds between them; when closed flush, not even a single hair could slip inside.
Yet a single strand of Zhu Daniang's spider silk was less than a tenth the thickness of a human hair!
"My Lord!" Qiu Hu vaulted off the gunwale, drawing a hand axe in midair and chopping down at the yin hui.
Held fast by the spider silk, the yin hui thrashed wildly in the water, clearly tearing into its prey.
As Qiu Hu's axe came down, the beast lunged forward violently, causing the blow to cleave into its back instead of its neck.
Black blood splattered everywhere.
It didn't even attempt to parry, exposing its entire back to Qiu Hu. It ignored Qiu Hu splashing into the water beside it, focusing all its strength solely on He Lingchuan.
This was truly fighting with sheer desperation.
Qiu Hu breached the surface and swung his axe once more, finally striking true across the back of its neck.
With a single stroke, it was sheared straight through to the base, leaving only a shred of flesh and skin connected.
Yet the yin hui's body continued to thrash frantically, sending water churning all around.
When Qiu Hu moved to tear its head off, he discovered that its jaws were clamped desperately around a shield.
The instant He Lingchuan was tackled, the soul-snatching mirror had transformed into a round shield, blocking the yin hui's assault. The creature had snapped its jaws with blinding speed, each lunge almost imperceptible to the naked eye, yet He Lingchuan held the shield across, intercepting every single strike.
Had it been anyone else, their head would have been spinning the moment they were dragged into the sea, and they would have been bitten in an instant.
Chapter 890