Chapter 282: Stirring Up the Wind and the Waves
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Heavenly Saint Cult was a large family, and the 'Si' in Si Yunxiang's surname meant to manage, to control. Ever since Heavenly Saint Cult was founded, Si Family was in charge of managing the cult's skills, inheritance, wealth, and propagation.
Because Si Family was extremely important, the saintess of Heavenly Devil Cult would most often come from Si Family. She would be its head, and to some extent, the importance of Si Family would even be higher than that of the cult master sacred teacher.
Granny Si was like that before, and Si Yunxiang was the same after.
Therefore, Long Jiaonan naturally knew Si Yunxiang's worth. This time she caught the sixth princess of Eternal Peace Empire as well as the cult master and saintess of Heavenly Devil Cult, making her quite pleased with herself. However, she was still very careful and removed the taotie sack from Qin Mu's waist as well as the spirit weapons on Ling Yuxiu's body. She then stretched her hand out and groped around Si Yunxiang's body.
Si Yunxiang chuckled. "Sister Long, don't grope me. There are no spirit weapons on my body since I'm walking down the spell path."
Long Jiaonan sneered. She took her hairpin and said, "Spell faction? I see you're an expert on sword skills as well! The power of this hairpin isn't little!"
The Pig Slaughtering Knives, iron hammer, and the rest of the weapons on Qin Mu's back were also removed, while the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone that were hidden in his sleeves were also ransacked. However, when Long Jiaonan saw that these items were all ordinary and not spirit weapons, she stuffed them back in again.
She whistled, and the small red snake tunneled around the clothes of the trio to search for more spirits weapons.
Long Jiaonan was an experienced person, so she absolutely wouldn't leave them any chance to make a comeback.
The most crucial point was that Qin Mu hadn't brought the dragon qilin along when he was going out for a stroll with the two women. At this moment, the dragon qilin was still sleeping in the city lord's manor!
"Let's go." Long Jiaonan, who was dressed as a female, was charming. As she embraced Qin Mu's arm, there was even a hint of shyness in her expression. "My boat is by the sea, and it has already waited quite a while for cult master, saintess, and princess. When the crown prince realizes what happened, the three of you will already be in the east sea."
Qin Mu smiled. "Sister Long is really thoughtful."
Long Jiaonan whistled, and the small red snake slithered onto Qin Mu's body and hung itself on his left ear, spitting out its forked tongue as it hissed. Long Jiaonan smiled gently. "No matter how sweet your mouth is, it'll be hard for you to escape my grasp. Don't try any tricks. Xiao'hong can take your life by just opening his mouth."
The three women and the one man walked out of the fair and met Chen Wanyun, Wei Yong, Yue Qinghong, and the rest of the scholars. As the two groups came face to face, Long Jiaonan gave a smile and whispered to Qin Mu, "Act natural, don't force me to kill you and your friends."
Chen Wanyun stopped and took a look at the three women. "Cult Master, this maiden seems unfamiliar, may I ask who she is?"
"An old acquaintance. You guys are shopping?"
"I didn't want to come out, but what could I do when Fatty Wei, Qinghong, and the rest forced me to go out, saying that we should meet the local events and customs," Chen Wanyun said helplessly. After he was done, he brought everyone into the fair.
Long Jiaonan then brought Qin Mu and the rest to the port.
In the fair, Chen Wanyun's face sunk, and he said swiftly, "Cult master is in danger!"
Wei Yong, Yue Qinghong, and the rest were stunned, not understanding what he meant. Chen Wanyun said solemnly, "The weapons on the cult master's body were missing. They never leave his body, yet now they were gone. Also, the hairpin on Junior Sister Si's back, the spirit weapons on the princess were also missing. There's definitely something wrong with that woman… Go inform the crown prince, I shall track them down!"
Wei Yong, Yue Qinghong, and the rest finally understood the severity of the matter and immediately returned to the city lord's manor. Chen Wanyun in the meantime left the fair while thinking to himself, 'That woman looks somewhat familiar, I seem to have seen her before. I wonder who she is…'
Long Jiaonan brought Qin Mu and the rest to the port and boarded a ship. "Set sail!"
The ship immediately sailed toward the east sea. Behind them, Chen Wanyun left a trail before jumping into the sea, sprinting on the surface of the water o follow the ship.
The speed of the ship wasn't slow, but he sprinted as if he was flying so he could follow at a steady pace.
On the ship, a person said solemnly, "Young Sect Master, there's someone behind."
Long Jiaonan came to the aft of the ship and was slightly stunned when she saw Chen Wanyun stepping on the waves. "Just an imperial scholar. Does he really think he can defeat the dragon king in the sea?"
She executed her whistle, and there was a strange change. Not long later, satiny sea snakes that were over thirty yards long appeared from beneath the water and swam rapidly toward the scholar.
Chen Wanyun was astonished, and flying swords flew out from the sword sack on his back, slaying the sea snakes that came pouring over.
The area in which he was fighting instantly seemed like it was boiling water that was overflowing from the pot. Countless flood dragon-like sea snakes broke through the water and attacked him frantically!
When Chen Wanyun had slaughtered his way out of the ambush of the sea snakes, the ship had vanished without a trace.
He rose into the sky and stood in the air to look around. As he looked at the jade ripples of the huge sea in a radius of ten thousand miles, he couldn't find where that ship had gone to.
"Crap!" Chen Wanyun's expression turned grave.
On the ship, Long Jiaonan didn't restrict the movements of Qin Mu and the rest, letting them wander around and watch the ship going further and further into the depths of the sea.
Qin Mu raised his head and saw the sky high above and the deep sea below. There was no way to leave a trace on the surface of the sea.
He was full of excitement and spread open his paper to start painting at the bow of the ship. Long Jiaonan came over to have a look and saw that he was drawing the sea. There were perilous waves and dark clouds sweeping everything away. A ship traveled with the wind and the waves while lightning flashed in the darkness outside, brightening the place for an instant.
There was a peculiar artistic mood to this painting which made people feel like they were in that painting.
"I didn't expect Cult Master Qin's painting skills to actually be not bad," Long Jiaonan praised. "If you went to the capital to sell your arts for a living, you should be able to achieve the reputation of a distinguished and accomplished scholar."
A boatman at the side walked over with an executioner blade and waved it near Qin Mu's neck while chuckling. "What a pity this Heavenly Devil Cult Master is about to die yet he still has the mood to scribble."
Long Jiaonan sneered, "Old Ghost Three, before my father orders him to be killed, he is still a guest invited by our Dragon Rider Sect, give some respect!"
Ling Yuxiu's eyes lighted up, and she came over to see Qin Mu's painting while giving a secret glance to Si Yunxiang.
Qin Mu seemed to be not satisfied with the painting and placed the finished painting aside to start on another piece. It contained wind, rain, lightning, and perilous waves once more, but there was no ship this time.
Long Jiaonan was originally watching with keen interest, but when she saw Qin Mu drawing the same kind of paintings over and over again, the freshness of the sight faded away. She walked away herself, leaving only Xiao'hong to remain on Qin Mu's ear.
Qin Mu painted a few more paintings of the storm on the sea. Then, he raised his brush as if to add a few finishing touches to the paintings. As he laid down his first stroke, the painting seemed to become slightly different. The storm inside seemed to be flying out.
Qin Mu added a final stroke to the dozens of paintings and threw them off the ship without extra trouble.
Long Jiaonan sighed in pity to herself when she saw this sight.
With his hands behind his back, Qin Mu looked towards Long Jiaonan with a smile. "I've heard that there are strong wind and waves on the sea, so I wonder if Sister Long's ship will be able to handle the turbulence?"
Long Jiaonan sneered, "The weather is all clear now, so about what wind and waves are you speaking?"
Just as she said that, the wind suddenly grew stronger, becoming a gale from a breeze in just a matter of a few breaths' time. The sky then turned dark, and the gale erupted. The height of the waves surpassed the mountain tops, throwing the ship into the sky before it went crashing down.
Everyone on the ship was caught off guard and hurried to stabilize themselves. However, bolts of lightning crackled and struck at random. Amid the chaos, Qin Mu flicked Xiao'hong who was hanging on his ear away.
Just as the small red snake flew out and was about to reveal its true form, several hundred bolts of lightning gathered together and struck its body with a world-shaking bang!
Long Jiaonan was shocked when she saw the small red snake falling into the sea.
There were countless bolts of lightning striking the area where the small red snake had fallen. It finally revealed its true form in the seawater, but it was continuously electrocuted by countless bolts of lightning, turning its body numb and making it sink to the bottom of the sea.
"Where did the storm come from? Why does it only strike Xiao'hong?" Long Jiaonan's heart was flustered, and she looked around, but only saw pitch black darkness. This made a weird feeling rise up in her heart. "This situation looks very similar to his paintings…"
Qin Mu's left hand grabbed onto Si Yunxiang while his left took hold of Ling Yuxiu. The three of them then jumped into the pitch black sea.
Long Jiaonan cried out in astonishment, and the ship under her feet suddenly split into five pieces, throwing everyone on board into the sea. Right at this moment, she saw another ship sailing over from the fierce waves, and Qin Mu, Ling Yuxiu, and Si Yunxiang were standing on the bow of that ship. The young cult master waved at her, and the ship sailed into darkness, vanishing without a trace.
Long Jiaonan immediately gave chase, but a huge mountain-like wave came crashing onto her, submerging her in the water.
She grunted and broke out, but just as she leaped into mid-air, countless bolts of lightning came bombarding down and they all focused on her body, turning her tender on the inside, crisp on the outside.
Long Jiaonan did everything she could to fight back against the lightning, when it suddenly vanished and the wind stopped. The sea became dead calm.
Long Jiaonan was totally drenched and stood on the surface of the water miserably. Looking around, she saw ink gradually dispersing in the sea.
A huge red python swam to her side, its body covered in injuries.
An icy cold feeling swept across Long Jiaonan's heart as she looked around. The boatmen on the ship had died in this abrupt disaster, with Old Ghost Three having died the most miserably among them.
"Was this peril of the sea drawn by Cult Master Qin?" Long Jiaonan was still in slight disbelief.
Qin Mu and the two girls stood at the bow of the ship that soon dispersed and turned into a pool of ink which vanished into the sea. The three of them mobilized their vital qi and landed on the water's surface. Up ahead, they saw an island.
"Long Jiaonan brought us into the depths of the east sea, so it'd be quite difficult for us to return to River Prefecture by the sea; it would exhaust us to death."
Thus, Qin Mu suggested, "Why don't we go over there to rest first. Chen Wanyun is very smart and should have already informed the crown prince. With Fan Yunxiao's ship, it won't be difficult for them to find us."
When the three of them came onto the island, numerous small humans in yellow suddenly came out running from the forest. They wielded knives, forks, staffs, and cudgels while rushing forward aggressively. However, when they came in front of them, these small humans all stopped in their footsteps and looked up at them in terror.
"Giants!" one of them shrieked at the top of his lungs.
This army immediately dispersed and escaped in all directions. These small humans were only a foot tall. Some of them hid in the crevices of the rocks, some under the sand, some went under the leaves, while others just decided to play dead on the ground when they couldn't find any place to hide. They stuck their tongues out and opened their eyes wide.
"So many Solomon's seals?" Si Yunxiang was astonished. "They are Solomon's seals that have turned into spirits. They can be eaten and would help in raising the cultivation by a great amount."
"The giants are going to eat us!" One of the Solomon's seal that had been playing dead rolled over and jumped to his feet. He immediately began running after turning around, but only to crash into a tree and faint.