"So huge..." Zhuge Liang stared wide-eyed at the extraordinarily massive creature. It was the first time he'd ever seen such a colossal being.
"Yeah, it's gigantic," Gan Ning said, patting Zhuge Liang on the shoulder. "Do you want to keep one? I can catch you a smaller one, but forget about that big one."
Zhuge Liang turned to look at the brawny man beside him—one of the most renowned generals in the world, who had made a name for himself during the battle of Ji Province. Yet for some reason, Zhuge Liang couldn't shake the feeling that Gan Ning was nothing like the serious, imposing figure he had imagined. Instead, he seemed a bit... unconventional.
"Xingba, are you sure that Kun won't cause any trouble?" Chen Xi asked worriedly. The size of that whale-like creature far exceeded Chen Xi's expectations. Its massive body, spanning hundreds of meters, was practically a small island.
"It shouldn't cause any trouble. Now that I think about it, these large Kun are quite docile. As long as we don't provoke them, they won't attack us," Gan Ning replied after some thought. "But those big fish can be annoying—they often follow us."
"That's good to know. Just looking at that Kun is terrifying. I can't believe you once considered hunting it. I think it's best if we leave it alone," Chen Xi said, frowning at Gan Ning.
Chen Xi's intuition told him that it was better not to provoke that giant Kun. Its sheer size could crush their ships, and with the cloud-like aura and glowing shield it had, it might as well be a sea monster from the 21st century.
"Don't worry, strategist. I won't mess with it unless I'm confident," Gan Ning laughed. He glanced at the massive waves created by the Kun diving into the water, then turned to his flagship and shouted, "Hoist the sails!"
A loud horn echoed through the air, signaling the fleet's departure. With Gan Ning's warship leading the way, they began their journey southward.
"You guys even have something like that, huh?" Chen Xi chuckled, pointing to the soldier vigorously blowing the horn.
"Heh, heh, heh! I got this from the natives in Zhuya County. They gave it to me, and I liked how powerful and loud the sound was, so I use it to issue orders," Gan Ning replied with a laugh. "Tell the others to pick up the pace! Engage the cloud energy!"
Following Gan Ning's orders, three soldiers each picked up a large horn and blew into them—one long note, followed by two short notes.
Soon, the ships behind them began to close in, and a layer of cloud energy gradually formed around the entire fleet, creating a large "V" formation with Gan Ning's flagship at the front. The fleet's speed noticeably increased.
"How's that?" Gan Ning asked proudly, looking at Chen Xi.
Taishi Ci glanced at Gan Ning, fully understanding his pride. The first time Taishi Ci learned that cloud energy could be used to coordinate the fleet, he had been utterly amazed.
"Impressive, General Gan," Zhuge Liang said before Chen Xi could respond. "This is indeed a clever and practical technique. I'm curious, General Gan, do you have other commands like this?"
Gan Ning raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected Zhuge Liang to figure out his signaling method so quickly. After all, it had taken Gan Ning a lot of thought, along with an accidental suggestion from Taishi Ci, to come up with this system. During their first drill, Taishi Ci had been so shocked that he nearly worshiped Gan Ning on the spot. Yet, Zhuge Liang had seen through it immediately.
"Hahaha, so you're Zhuge Kongming, right?" Gan Ning laughed heartily and gave Zhuge Liang a thumbs-up. "You're sharp! When Ziyi first saw this, he didn't understand it either, but you figured it out right away. Here, take this as a token." Gan Ning reached into his pouch and handed Zhuge Liang a green pearl.
Originally, Gan Ning had dismissed Zhuge Liang as a mere child, possibly a servant accompanying Chen Xi. But now that Zhuge Liang had demonstrated such keen insight, Gan Ning couldn't help but respect him. Gan Ning had a knack for getting along with capable young people, despite their age differences.
"Go ahead and take it. Xingba often trades with the natives and gets quite a few of these pearls," Chen Xi said with a smile. "By the way, did you create a whole set of horn signals?"
Zhuge Liang, seeing that Chen Xi didn't mind, accepted the pearl. It was the first time he'd ever seen a green pearl like this.
"I've only created the basic signals for now. During naval battles, the enemy won't know our orders, and we won't need to waste time with runners," Gan Ning replied proudly.
After Chen Xi had once asked him how to command a fleet without using runners, Gan Ning had spent a long time solving the problem.
"That's already impressive enough. What about more detailed commands?" Chen Xi asked with a smile. "Like the conversations we're having now—how would you convey those?"
"Huh?" Gan Ning was momentarily stumped. He thought his system was already quite advanced, but Chen Xi's question made it seem even more complex.
"I'm just joking. What you have is more than sufficient. Anything beyond that falls under intelligence communication," Chen Xi said, laughing and patting his own forehead. There was no need to push Gan Ning further—he only needed to know how to command the navy. If they needed to transmit more complex information, they could just use coded messages.
"Intelligence communication?" Gan Ning seemed to have grasped something.
"Never mind. Let's play a game, and you'll understand," Chen Xi sighed. "Zi Fang, do you have a book? Any book will do."
Mi Fang quickly found a thread-bound book and handed it to Chen Xi. "Kongming, pick any word from it. Tell me which page, which line, and which word, then write the numbers down using yin and yang lines."
Chen Xi handed the book to Zhuge Liang, confident that he would understand the instructions. Sure enough, Zhuge Liang hesitated for a moment, then caught on. He picked a word, converted the page, line, and word position into a series of yin and yang lines, and then smiled wryly at Chen Xi.
"I see now. Using this method, no one could crack the code. And if necessary, you could even encode the message using another cipher," Zhuge Liang said, shaking his head with a bitter smile. He realized that all previous codes were now obsolete. Once he had transformed the numbers into yin and yang lines, he understood the full meaning of Chen Xi's earlier words.
By replacing yin lines with short notes and yang lines with long notes, they could encode an entire book using horn signals. As long as the recipient knew how to translate the signals and had the correct reference book, they could decode the message.
"In fact, you could even create a new base text using a random selection from the Qianziwen. No one would be able to crack it," Chen Xi laughed, and soon Gan Ning, Taishi Ci, and Mi Fang joined in. However, it was clear that none of them fully understood what he meant.
"Kongming, I'll leave it to you to explain to them and create a cipher system for the navy," Chen Xi said, seeing their confusion.
"Alright, I'll create a code that even Zichuan won't be able to decipher," Zhuge Liang said, eager to take on the challenge. The idea had clearly sparked his interest, and he was already thinking of ways to make the code even more complex. Let's see how you'll crack this one!