As they traveled, Wu Long and his group purchased clothes made of lighter materials, that would be not so hot to wear here in the southern lands. He admired how they looked in these thinner clothes that exposed a little more of their skin for a while. As Cao Mei saw them she sighed and shook her head as she knew that it would only exacerbate her problem, but it was not like she could tell them to wear more clothes in this heat. Even if it was still spring, the blazing sun was heating up the lands, causing a haze to appear in the distance.
“Do you not mind your women to be looked at?”
At some point, Cao Mei asked Wu Long.
“Hmm, it’s not like I do not mind, it’s just that it is natural that such beauty will attract a lot of attention. I am not someone who will restrict their choices in clothing or will limit where they walk because I don’t like them being looked at. Besides they are my women, no matter how much others look at them.
As long as they do not cross my bottom line I will not touch your men’s lives. Although I suppose I must apologize for bringing you trouble”
He replied, accurately pinpointing the source of her slight distress, but also in a voice her crew could hear.
“Hmph, pretentious prick. And who even knows where that bottom line of his is”
Some of them said in low voices to each other. But they had to tone down their mockery and stop trying to strike up conversations with his women. Not because they feared him, but because they feared the man beside Cao Mei, her trusted aide who told them that if they did not behave he would personally shove them to feed demonic sea beasts later.
“No… It’s not like you are purposely causing trouble”
She shook her head. At the same time, she also appreciated how considerate he was to his women.
“Are you really trying to change this country?”
He suddenly changed the topic, this time talking in a voice that could not be heard far from them.
“Yes, we at least do what we can”
“Hmm, it is not like I do not want you to succeed, but I would suggest not doing any drastic moves at least for now”
“What do you mean?”
“There are larger forces at work in this country and a lot higher stakes than it seems on the surface. They have recently suffered a chain of setbacks so they might tighten their grip on the situation… but I am currently unable to solve it so I do not interfere much”
He replied vaguely, but she somehow got a feeling that he knew a lot more than he was letting on.
“Are you saying that it may be getting worse?”
“Not necessarily, but there will be more people in place to make sure you do not succeed, and those people will be dangerous if you encounter them, at least in the Foundation Building Realm”
He said with a smile and as she widened her eyes at the mention of the Foundation Building Realm, she looked at him in silence for some time.
“Then, is there no hope?”
“Why not? I am going to clash with them eventually so they will naturally be eliminated. It would just take some time for me to get there”
As he said it with absolute confidence, a light of profound shock appeared in Cao Mei’s eyes, as she somehow inexplicably felt that he was not bluffing. There was something magnetic in the confidence he spoke with, as there was not even a shadow of a doubt in it.
‘Hmm, I think I understand a little’
She thought, as she somehow now understood the reason so many beauties were around Wu Long.
“I understand, I will tell Mother about this. But… I do not know the results”
She said since she was not sure her mother would listen to such vague advice coming from someone she had never even seen. Cao Mei also sprinkled some bait to see if Wu Long would show interest in her mother, as the suspicions she had about them never subsided. But he simply smiled at her attempt to ‘expose’ him and shook his head.
As they traveled for a week, they finally arrived at the seashore. The area looked not suitable for ships to stop in since there were rocky mountains stretching far into the sky and to the sides as far as the eye could see. But as they moved through a concealment formation, a cave entrance entered their view.
There was no map of the caves on purpose, and only a select few remembered the exact path they had to take. Wu Long and the others agreed to put on veils that obstructed their vision, which of course, was completely useless in front of him, and even in front of anyone with slightly better directional memory, but he did not delve into that since no one asked and there was no need to unnecessarily complicate the matter.
As they arrived and were unveiled, they saw a small bay with a sand beach surrounded by cliffs. There was only one way in and out of this area through the maze-like caves behind them. They could also see only two relatively narrow waterways between cliffs as the sea could not even be seen from inside the bay. A ship stood anchored at the center of the bay waters, and at the beach stood small boats that would be used to get to the ship.
“Get ready”
Wu Long whispered to Cao Mei as they walked closer to the boats. Her eyes slightly widened and she soon also felt a bad premonition, as there were no loyalist army people among the crew that greeted them, only hired hands like the rowdy fellows that coveted Wu Long’s women along the way.
“Where is Wen Zhong?”
She asked, and the expressions of the people greeting them slightly changed. This was the name of the one she left in charge of the ship.
“It seems our esteemed Pirate Princess is smarter than what we gave her credit for, or at the very least has a lot better intuition”
A voice resounded, and the kingdom army arrived from the cave entrance behind them. They were hiding in the tunnels they did not go into to trap them inside the bay. A large number of troops also appeared from the ship itself. Though they would have to cross the water to get here. Among the ones who were in the caves were several officers like the two Wu Long killed before, and one Revolving Qi Realm army commander.
“And what do we ha-…”
But as the army commander’s gaze fell on the cultivation bases of five women mixed into the group, his voice cut off as his back instantly became drenched in sweat. Even in his wildest nightmares he never foresaw that there would be such powerful people here.
“Haha, hey guys, the Pirate Princess is as good as done, so no need to be humble, come with us! The army’s going to reward us quite handsomely for this”
Meanwhile, the clueless renegade crew members started calling out to people they knew were also not of the loyalist descent. The crew members did not move, and looked at them as dead men, as they knew how powerful were the beauties with them.
“Yo! We can see that you even brought some tasty-looki-…”
Just as they started looking at Ye Ling and the others, and almost everyone could see that obscenities were about to pour from their mouths, a light flickered around Wu Long, as an empty sheath appeared in his left hand and a sword finished an outward arc in his right.
The currently speaking man’s face split as his lower jaw was cut off and hung on a thin piece of skin remaining to connect it. A noise-like shriek with gurgling sounds escaped what was left of his face as he fell to the knees, trying to lift up and connect his lower jaw back. 𝐨𝘃𝗹.
“You see, this is where the bottom line is, so don’t cross it”
Wu Long lightly turned his head to the now terrified men behind him and said. He soon saw them vigorously nod as they suddenly lost all interest in his women.
“Wu Long, can I?”
Hua Ziyan asked, looking at the Revolving Qi Realm army commander. She previously heard from Wu Long that the cultivation base was not the end-all-be-all of combat potential.? Wu Long looked at him and seemed to size him up. It was a little early for her to take on opponents of a higher realm than her, but he did not want to discourage her eagerness, and she would also learn a lot if she were to fight him.
“Hmm, if Min’er supports you, you can, but if he gets close to hurting you I am going to immediately cut off his head”
He replied, and Hua Ziyan pleadingly looked at Shen MIn who wryly smiled, as she could not deny the eyes that she made.