Chapter 13: The Whole World is One Family (Part 1)

  In the end, only three cargo ships were able to approach smoothly, and the others mysteriously disappeared into the fog.

  Geng Shaohua immediately ordered that the remaining four ships be tied together with ropes to prevent them from being destroyed one by one.

  Everyone was quietly busy, secretly maintaining a high level of vigilance, and no one knew what would happen next.

  "Lao Yi, let's begin!" Xiao Si walked to the back of the boat and said to Yi Bo who was standing beside the rudder.

  Yi Bai nodded, exerting his internal energy to blow out a series of whistling sounds. The pitch was sometimes urgent and sometimes sharp, but it was the unique way that the Twelve Linked Ring Formation of the Yangtze River transmitted messages.

  At this moment, the helmsmen of the other three ships had all been replaced by Yibomen's subordinates, who immediately understood the meaning hidden in the whistle and quickly ordered the winches to adjust the angle of the sails.

  After a brief moment, the four boats formed a line and retreated in unison, slowly backing away towards the middle of the river.

  The surrounding fog surged, one moment it receded like a tide to reveal blurry human figures, the next it charged forward like thousands of horses and soldiers, swallowing everything in its vast whiteness.

  The world fell silent, except for the sound of tense and suppressed breathing, only the wind was howling.

  Time is like a tough piece of cowhide, being stretched by an invisible hand to infinity, but no one knows when it will suddenly snap.

  Suddenly, in the dense fog behind the stern of the ship, a few clusters of faint blue lights gradually lit up, vaguely resembling a large boat anchored in the middle of the river. Several people stood at the bow, but unfortunately, the fog was too thick to see clearly.

  The people on the boat let out a low cheer as the four cargo ships accelerated towards the large ship in front of them.

  At this moment, a strange change occurred, and the white fog from all sides suddenly converged. The fog grew thick at an unbelievable speed, like a tangible milky liquid that surged forward with overwhelming momentum.

  "Wooo——" In the fog, hundreds and thousands of huge white birds suddenly shot out. Each white bird was condensed from the fog, spreading its vast wings to block out the sun and diving down towards the people on the boat.

  At the same time, in the river below, a burst of white waves suddenly shot up into the air. The waves twisted and turned in mid-air, transforming into giant snow pythons as thick as a barrel, opening their bloody mouths to hiss and devour.

  "Everyone, lend me a hand!" Geng Shaohua saw the urgent situation and loudly shouted, urging the true yuan to sacrifice the ancestral treasure "Bagua Copper Watch" from his sleeve.

  Mrs. Geng, Qin Qiong, Wan'er and others each put out a palm to press against his back, pouring their own refined true energy into Geng Shaohua's body without hesitation, even Yi Bai put down the helm and rushed over to help.

  "Hum——" The bronze cylinder, originally only a few feet in size, suddenly rose and expanded to dozens of times its original height, suspended high above the cargo ship. It emitted a brilliant blue divine light that spread out in all directions like a tide or cloud, transforming into a spherical canopy with golden threads visible on its surface, shining brightly. The Eight Trigrams pattern appeared on it.

  Under the joint efforts of everyone, the golden pattern on the Bagua copper plate spun faster and faster, quickly covering the four cargo ships within a radius of tens of meters. The white bird Snow Python swooped in one after another, heavily colliding with the light shield, and immediately "Boom Boom" burst into a cluster of water mist.

  The Bagua copper plate was violently shaking, emitting a faint green gas, and the light shield was also twisting and deforming uncontrollably, shrinking inward.

  "Quickly think of a solution, this canopy won't last much longer!"

  Fang Xuanling, although a weak and bookish scholar, had a bold spirit. Standing at the bow of the ship, he gazed up at the white birds swooping down from the sky and said: "It's strange, why do they keep staring at the cargo ship and attacking it, but never deviate to other places?"

  Xiao Si's mind flashed with inspiration and he shouted: "Extinguish the lights! All the lamps on the boat, not a single one is left!"

  The crowd was stunned, and Qin Qiong shouted: "Quickly, do as General Xia said!"

  "Plop, plop, plop——" In an instant, the lights on all four cargo ships went out, leaving only the faint blue glow of the octagonal copper plaque flickering and flashing.

  Geng Shaohua gritted his teeth, concentrated and put away the Eight Trigrams copper plate. With a "whoosh" sound, a green light flashed into his sleeve, and before his eyes, he was suddenly plunged into an inky blackness that seemed to swallow everything in sight.

  Everyone held their breath in extreme tension, both hands tightly grasping the Xianbing magic blade, waiting in a tight formation.

  Time slowly passed, and the ship became quieter than ever. Xiao Si suddenly felt refreshed and saw a vast expanse of white birds and snow snakes above her head, flying about aimlessly like headless flies, unable to find a target to attack.

  He let out a long sigh of relief, knowing that he had gambled correctly this time, and only then did he realize that his palms were covered in cold sweat.

  Yì Bó Gōng concentrated his eyes and gazed forward, the mysterious large ship he had seen earlier had already disappeared into the depths of the thick fog.

  "Fourth Master, what should we do next?" Mrs. Geng's voice was slightly trembling and hoarse.

  Xiao Si had just thought of speaking when he heard a faint and distant sound of the guqin drifting in on the wind.

  It was a Southern ancient style, singing "Lotus leaves are vast and boundless", the sound of the zither is elegant and depicts the scenery of Jiangnan, but compared to the dense fog in front of me that seems to hide endless killing intent, it inexplicably reveals a sinister and eerie atmosphere.

  Suddenly, a porter's hand "dang" loosened his grip on the copper rod, and he walked forward with his eyes fixed straight ahead.

  "Wan'er hastily called out the name of the servant: 'Zheng Guo, what are you doing?'"

  Zheng You didn't seem to notice, and with one step he stepped out of the boat's gunwale, his foot landing on empty air. Yi Bai saw this and rushed forward to grab his arm.

  Something incredible happened, Zheng You's feet stepped on the surging fog outside the boat, and he actually walked steadily, stumbling and disappearing into the darkness.

  Yi Bo stretched out his hand to grab something, but suddenly felt a figure flashing beside him. Another sailor from the boat stepped out of the cabin and into the thick fog.

  Fang Xuanling's face changed slightly as he said, "This melody——" He had just opened his mouth when the sound of the qin suddenly echoed in his ears again, "Lotus Leaf, He Tian Tian", causing his heart to feel a wave of dizziness and confusion, and like Zheng You and that sailor, he walked forward stiffly.

  "Hold on to the origin and stick to one! Don't listen to the sound of the zither!" Qin Qiong let out a low shout, took a step forward, and slapped Fang Xuanling's back with his palm.

  A gentle and powerful aura emanated out, Fang Xuanling's body shook slightly before softly falling into a coma.

  But in just a short while, the trackers, sailors and some slightly inferior escorts on the four cargo ships all went ashore, as if enchanted, one by one, lining up to walk into the mist outside the ship.

  Xiao Si's body had an unknown female corpse's cold energy protecting it, so he wasn't afraid of this strange zither sound. He hastily shouted: "Knock them out!" His hand rose and fell, and with a slap, one of the thugs was knocked unconscious.

  Geng Shaohua and others worked together, but someone still walked out of the cargo ship and disappeared into the fog.

  The sound of the zither gradually turned mournful and sad, another poem "Wind and Rain Like a Dark Night".

  Wan'er couldn't resist at first, her slender body trembling slightly as she let out a soft cry. Xiang Xiao Si didn't care about anything, grabbing Wan'er's delicate hand and transferring his star energy to her.

  At the critical moment, Old Hou suddenly took out a black whistle from his pocket and blew it loudly.

  Every time he blew a whistle, the black whistle would emit a faint light, like ripples seeping into the thick fog.

  The whistle was sharp and shrill, like a monkey's cry, the sound pierced people's eardrums, making their blood vessels tremble, and the invisible magic of the piano music weakened greatly, almost inaudible.

  After a brief moment, the distant piano sound came to an abrupt halt. Old Hou put down the black whistle with a sigh of relief and panted heavily.

  Yi Bai gazed at Old Master Hou with a cold smile and said, "So it turns out that you are the notorious thief Hou Junji, also known as Third Master Hou, who dominated the two lakes over ten years ago. Indeed, a true master does not reveal his appearance. I apologize for my disrespect!"

  Apart from Xiao Si and Wan'er, everyone else was shocked upon hearing this. It turned out that over a decade ago, a mysterious lone thief appeared in the two lakes region, calling himself "Little White Ape", stealing from thousands of households with ease and never getting caught. Later on, for unknown reasons, he suddenly disappeared without a trace, who would have thought that he had transformed into the current owner of Fuci Tang!

  Hou Junji let out a bitter laugh and said, "Is Yi Wuya blaming me for not taking action earlier? To be honest, I also have some unspoken difficulties. Now that my identity has been exposed, this Fozitang is probably finished."

  Yi Bai was stunned and suddenly heard Qin Qiong shouting: "Look quickly, there is a boat in front, it seems to be ours!"

  Everyone heard the sound and looked away, like Geng Shao Hua's cultivation, it took all his might to barely see that more than ten zhangs away, there was a cargo ship drifting downstream, vaguely approaching.

  He couldn't help but look at Qin Qiong in surprise, thinking to himself: "This person has such exquisite skills, why would he be willing to be a porter?"

  In the blink of an eye, the boat had drifted five or six zhang away. Yi Baiyi, being a bold and daring person, said: "I'll go take a look!" With a flick of his whip-like leg, he sprang up onto the cargo ship opposite them.

  He gradually came to and found that the goods on the boat were still intact, but all the people had disappeared, leaving only an empty boat drifting on the river, like a ghost ship.

  Geng Shaohua and his wife, as well as Wan'er, also landed on the cargo ship. Wan'er's cultivation had just broken through the Guan Wei boundary, and she was already able to refine her true yuan to control the wind and move freely, so this distance of several zhang was nothing to speak of.

  Several people exchanged a glance, all feeling shocked. No need to ask, eight or nine out of ten people on the boat were enchanted by the piano sound just now and abandoned the boat. But looking at the empty cargo ship and the scattered blades and wooden clubs on the ground, they couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.

  "Whoosh!" Qin Qiong exerted his strength and tossed over a thick rope, securing it to the iron stake at the bow of the boat. He pulled the two boats together, saying: "First, let's gather all the remaining people onto our boat."

  Hou Junji nodded slightly, seeming to know Qin Qiong's true identity, and left with two young servants.

  In a short while, all the others from the three boats, including those who had been knocked unconscious, gathered together, totaling less than twenty.

  After a flurry of activity, the crowd gathered at the stern of the boat to think of a countermeasure. Perhaps it was because two consecutive offensives had been resolved, and the enemy in the dark had temporarily lost its momentum, and the river surface had returned to a dead silence.

  Geng Shaohua looked at Qin Qiong and said: "This brother, your skills are not ordinary, you're definitely not a nobody, but I don't know what kind of expert you are?"

  Xiao Si was startled, knowing that Qin Qiong was a major offender of the Sui Dynasty. If his identity were to be exposed and spread out, he would likely not be able to escape unscathed.

  He hastily answered: "Not a high-ranking person, just the distant nephew of my seventh great aunt's neighbor's younger brother-in-law."

  Geng Shaohua was stunned for a moment and didn't ask anything else.

  Mrs. Geng asked: "Strange, why didn't the bandits pierce our cargo ship?"

  Hou Junji said with a sigh: "Once the boat sinks, all the medicine will be soaked in water and become worthless."

  Before he had finished speaking, Yi Bo suddenly shouted: "Look, what's that thing floating over?!"

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