When Jing Qian stepped out of the cabin and rose above the deck, he was startled to discover that his ship had somehow joined up with three others.
At this moment, the four ships had surrounded a small black-canopied skiff from all directions.
From each vessel, several sharp steel cables had shot out, hooking onto the skiff and holding it firmly in place.
Standing atop each steel cable was a hardened fighter, blades in hand, eyes cold and predatory.
The fluctuation of mana Jing Qian had sensed earlier was coming from that little skiff.
Strolling through the dimensional layer, he, as usual, moved straight to the center of the conflict and secured the best vantage point to spectate.
The canopy of the small boat was suddenly torn away, revealing the cabin inside.
There, a tall woman was half-lying within, cradling a boy not yet grown, his breath so faint it was barely there.
The woman's face was ashen; she was gravely wounded.
Forcing herself, she maintained a thin veil of Life Essence to protect herself, though it trembled as if about to collapse at any moment.
She lifted her head and addressed the burly man standing at the prow of the skiff:
"Wu Yan, when has my Jing family ever wronged you? Why must you drive us to utter ruin?"
Wu Yan's face was hard as iron, a glint of disdain and cruelty flashing in his eyes.
His lips curled into a cold smile, his voice low and full of menace:
"The Jing family? Hah. Past favors are nothing but smoke in the wind. In this cultivation world, the weak are meat and the strong do the eating. Your Jing family is in decline, yet you still hope we'll honor old ties? Naïve."
The woman showed no surprise at his response. Instead, she turned to speak loudly to everyone present:
"All of you here, everyone, are descendants of the comrades from the Hunling ship."
"Our ancestors fought and died together on the battlefield, bound as brothers in life and death."
"If they knew that we, their descendants, had turned on one another, killing each other, how could they rest in peace?"
Blood spewed from her lips as she pressed on:
"Back then, when compensation for the fallen was left unsettled, it was my Jing family that exhausted our fortune, paying out the pensions in advance so that every household could endure."
"Now, the Maritime Office has officially acknowledged our forebears' sacrifice. Once we return, we can finally receive proper compensation."
"At that time, all the suffering we've endured these many years will at last be overturned."
"So why must you hound the Jing family with no regard for reason?"
"If you kill those who served the realm, and word gets out, not only will you lose the compensation owed to you, but you will all have to pay for our lives as well!"
"If you let us go, I swear this: my Jing family will voluntarily renounce any claim to the pensions we already advanced. We will not seek repayment."
Grasping at survival, she played every card she had left:
"A-Bao, you can tell Qian Yuan that the official shop license he's always wanted, the Jing family is willing to hand it over, freely."
The reply came from a short, stout man standing on one of the steel cables.
He sighed and said:
"Sister Ran, it is we who wrong you. It is I, A-Bao, who am ungrateful."
"But there is no helping this!"
"If it were only Manager Qian coveting your family's license, I would never have gone this far."
"But the matter of the pensions word has already spread. The head of the Maritime Office has decreed that the Jing family will be the recipient."
His voice grew more agitated as he continued:
"One of the newly forged ninth-rank sword boats had already been promised by Manager Zhou to his nephew."
"But now it must be diverted to the Jing family."
"And the Fate-Burning Opportunity prepared for Xiao Qian, the head even approved borrowing the school supervisor's seventh-rank Fate Furnace for it."
"Yet that opportunity had already been set aside for Manager Xu's young daughter."
"There are only three managers in the Maritime Office, each one holding immense authority."
"The Jing family has offended all three in one stroke. How could you possibly hope to survive?"
"We all rely on the Maritime Office for our livelihoods. If the managers demand something, how dare we refuse?"
The fat man's words may have sounded tactful, but the grip on his blade never loosened in the slightest.
In his mouth, the Jing family had already become the target of all.
In this world, good deeds truly find no reward.
Think of the Jing family bearers of the Tidal Life Pattern, descendants of cultivators who once reached the Dragon-Elephant Realm.
A hundred years ago, when the Hunling Ship met disaster, it was the Jing family who poured out their fortune to cover the bereavement payments for the crew.
Yet now, with their house in decline, that kindness had long since been forgotten. Former friends had turned into bitter foes!
The woman before them was the last surviving member of the Jing family with an official Fatebinding rank. But with her Sea of Consciousness destroyed and her mana depleted, there was no path left to survival.
Surrounded by wolves, her heart grew cold.
She gently removed the mask from her nephew's face.
His pallid features were covered with a thin layer of fish scales.
For the sake of the family's future, the boy had been forced at a young age to consume sea demon flesh and blood, straining himself to nourish his life force. The result was demon essence invading his body, leaving behind terrible side effects.
This, too, was the fault of the elders' failures.
When she was young, the family still possessed some resources, enough to support her cultivation.
But after her elder brother perished, and the family's last ship was lost, everything had gone downhill.
She raised her voice once more:
"Brothers here today, if any of you can kill Wu Yan, I will give all of my Jing family's ancestral compensation to you. I will swear it with blood!"
"The Jing family is down to just the two of us. Once I die, the family will vanish forever. This is the only chance!"
Wu Yan, standing at the bow, threw back his head and laughed wildly.
"Eldest Sister Jing, don't think anyone will be fooled. Before we came here, we already signed blood contracts. This battle guarantees you and the boy have no path to live."
"Even on the Hunyi Ship, we've already smoothed things over. Even if this great sea beast hadn't appeared, you would never have escaped."
"Besides, I've already condensed my Azure Wing Life Essence, stepping into the Dragon-Elephant Realm. Of everyone here, none can match me!"
"You'd best give up your delusions."
Before he could finish, a thunderous boom erupted from the ship behind him.
"Boom!"
The sound was muffled, coming from below deck as though some heavy object had smashed into the bottom of the hull.
"The ship is leaking!"
"The hull's been split open!"
Almost at once, the other three vessels shared the same fate. Within moments, one after another, they too exploded with booming crashes.
No orders were needed. In an instant, every man present bolted for his ship.
On the endless sea, the ship was life itself; there could be no mistakes!
Even Wu Yan, newly ascended to the Dragon-Elephant Realm, felt a flicker of panic.
He sprang from the skiff, tapped lightly on one of the steel cables, and leapt toward his ship.
But as he hung suspended in midair, a sudden chill surged up his back.
There was no time to turn; he could only muster his mana in defense.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a shadow flashing past!
He knew he hadn't imagined it because in that same instant, a fang-shaped blade pierced effortlessly through his defenses and drove straight into his chest.
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