Min Tianxi added, "According to the laborers on Heiye Island, the few children the Bailong brought along to play looked sallow and malnourished. When eating in the work sheds, they wolfed down food more fiercely than the adults. Clearly, they suffered quite a bit on their journey south."
This was perhaps one reason for the Bailong people's discontent—following the Moqi uncle and nephew meant their wives and children went hungry.
He Lingchuan said softly, "Moqi Song treats his nephew's soldiers as his own power. In most cases, an uncle and nephew are close as immediate family, so there's usually nothing wrong with that."
Min Tianxi asked, "Since we know the Bailong harbor treasonous intentions, should we strike them down or drive them away?"
He Lingchuan shook his head. "The Bailong people possess outstanding combat prowess. It would be a waste to simply let them go."
His own subordinates were a ragtag bunch. The pirates could amount to something with proper drilling, but turning the sons of farmers and laborers into elite troops would cost money, energy, and time—
and time was what he lacked most.
This force was unlike the Panlong City Army, or even the Yuheng City Army, which had a solid foundation. Having never set foot on a battlefield, never tasted blood, never endured trials, and never killed a person, how could raw recruits become elite soldiers?
Now that an elite force of several hundred had practically landed in his lap, he was genuinely tempted and loath to drive them away.
"Then should we strike first to gain the upper hand?"
The evening breeze made He Lingchuan's robes flap noisily. "Until they rebel, they are law-abiding folk. If I round them all up now, how could they ever submit to me?"
To make such a warlike people submit obediently without divided loyalty, conciliation was useless, as were schemes and tricks. It required direct, frontal subjugation through sheer force!
Knock them flat, beat them into submission, and they would fall in line.
Otherwise, they would remain resentful, never truly accepting him, nodding to his face while secretly working against their lord.
"They want a place to settle down and expand, and I need an elite force. Why not give each other a chance? If they can take my island, good on them. If they can't—" He Lingchuan chuckled softly. "They already lost to the Ya Kingdom. If they lose to me this time, it proves they aren't suited to running their own show, and they'll just have to obediently become my subordinates."
Min Tianxi caught the scent of danger. "My lord, their target is you!"
Using himself as bait? That was far too dangerous.
"When you and I met on Fishbone Reef, wasn't your target me as well?" He Lingchuan said with amusement. "If you could do it, why can't they?"
Danger? Ever since obtaining the divine bone necklace, he had been dancing on the edge of a blade every few days. He had long forgotten what safety even meant.
Min Tianxi looked sheepish and scratched his neck, though he also felt a bit of gloating amusement.
Another group was about to get their heads battered bloody. That proved he wasn't the only one who had been blind.
"Besides, the Moqi uncle and nephew might not be the only ones targeting me."
Min Tianxi said, "Ah? Oh, you mean..."
"Now that they have their target, when do you think they'll strike?" The bobber sank into the water—a fish had taken the bait. He Lingchuan swiftly raised the rod and carefully reeled in the line.
"Uh." The answer was not hard to guess, and Min Tianxi blurted out, "The Emperor's Flowing Dew?"
When the Emperor's Flowing Dew descended, pandemonium would erupt.
Min Tianxi was not the only one who could see that He Lingchuan commanded a motley crew; the Moqi uncle and nephew could see it too. The Bailong were battle-hardened veterans—far superior to a bunch of pirates and peasant-conscripts.
Choosing to rebel at that moment gave them at least two of the three factors: heaven's timing, earth's terrain, and mortal harmony.
"Wherever I am at that time, that's where they'll launch their surprise attack." He Lingchuan drew in the fishing line, hauling another large fish from the water. This one was over a foot long, with dorsal fins like halberds.
"We already know the time, target, and location of their strike. Can we really not handle it?" Once the Bailong people's ambitions were exposed, they were playing with an open hand.
"The willing takes the bait—they chose this themselves." The fish just caught was golden-yellow and quite imposing. He asked Min Tianxi, "What kind of fish is this?"
"Around here we call it the yellow club. It's delicious whether steamed or braised in brown sauce." Flattery now rolled off Min Tianxi's tongue effortlessly. "My lord catches nothing but fine fish."
He Lingchuan smiled slightly, his peripheral vision flicking upward toward the sky.
For the mirror against his chest had alerted him:
"That white bird has taken to the sky again. Circling twice and keeping its eyes on you."
Over the past two days, the mirror had spotted this sky-bound scout. Wherever He Lingchuan went, the white bird followed.
This also matched He Lingchuan's prediction: for Yu Zecheng to find the island where Zhu Erniang was hiding, he had to possess aerial reconnaissance capabilities.
The spot he chose for tonight's solitary angling reached deep into the sea, surrounded by vast waters on all sides. Far behind him was an empty sandy beach without a single tree.
If the white bird wanted to keep watch on him, it could not hide in the grove behind the beach—that was too far away.
Nor was it a nocturnal bird; it could not keep its eyes on He Lingchuan from afar in the dark. Thus, it could only take to the sky intermittently and circle a couple of times to confirm he was still sitting on the reef, fishing.
He said to Min Tianxi, "Tonight, your dinner table won't just have fish to eat."
Min Tianxi was taken aback, unsure what he meant. "There's more?"
He Lingchuan smiled, suddenly drew Fusheng, and hurled it toward the sky!
Though He Lingchuan did not even look up, the white bird in the sky caught a glint of cold light below as something shot toward it.
It was alert, rolling over to dodge the strike, then turning to fly toward Suoding Island.
Discovered! Flee!
Yet before it had flown thirty or forty feet, that beam of cold light chased it down from behind, whirling as it sheared off its wing!
Those on the reef heard a loud splash as the bird struggled on the water's surface.
He Lingchuan pointed to where it had splashed down several tens of feet away. "Here comes our prisoner."
Min Tianxi immediately plunged into the water and swam over to grab the white bird. When his lord gave an order, forget leaping into water—he would dive into a sea of fire if told to.
To his surprise, the bird spat two blasts of frost that nearly pierced through his arm.
Well now, an avian demon, is it? He feinted twice, then suddenly clamped his hand down on the white bird's neck. The bird's thrashing was futile; unable to fly or peck him, it could only kick up great splashes of water.
Min Tianxi scrambled back onto the reef, his face sporting two fresh scratches from its talons. He held the white bird before He Lingchuan.
He Lingchuan eyed it twice. "Whose subordinate are you?"
The white bird let out two furious chirps, refusing to answer.
He Lingchuan seemed to speak to himself, but he was actually asking the eyeball spider inside his lapel, "I wonder if Erniang recognizes it?"
In his ear, Zhu Erniang's voice immediately sounded: "I saw this white bird in eastern Mou Kingdom, and on Suoding Island I saw it fly to Yu Zecheng's side. It has been spying on my underground nest!"
Through the eyeball spider, she instantly saw the white bird's appearance clearly.
He Lingchuan asked the white bird, "So, you came with Yu Zecheng?"
The white bird lunged forward fiercely, trying to peck him.
It truly possessed the arrogance of the Beijia demon race. He Lingchuan said to Min Tianxi, "It's yours for an extra dish."
"Aye, excellent!" Min Tianxi drew his blade and cleanly severed the white bird's neck with a single chop. "So plump! We'll have roast fowl tonight. I hear demons with cultivation aren't just delicious, they're deeply nourishing."
Chapter 972