163: Chapter 163 Villains' Plot, Ambush at Storm Canyon (2)

The Death Squad Leader crouched on the reef. He pulled a nautical chart from his bosom—it was folded in four, and after opening it, he pressed it against his knees.

He tapped his finger on the narrowest waterway in the center of the chart, marked by two long, narrow stone walls—Storm Gorge.

The chart marked the water depth on both sides of Storm Gorge—the depth at the gorge entrance was less than three zhang, so the fleet could only travel in a single file down the middle.

Once the single-file fleet was trapped between the two walls, they would only have two directions—the bow, which could not turn until it exited the gorge, and the stern, which was blocked by the ships behind.

The dependents would simultaneously break the water from both sides to board—aiming for the widest part of the hull, where the gunwales were highest but the cargo hold below the deck was closest to the waterline.

After breaking the water to board—the first wave would not kill; they would charge the deck and push the people forming the formation toward the formation eye.

The second wave would strike the bottom of the ship from underwater—the Qi-breaking arrows would sever the rear formation eyes.

Once the formation eyes were broken, the large circular formation on the deck would shatter into small circular formations, each fighting on its own—that was when they would surround and kill Lu Changyuan.

"Tell the people underwater to count from the stern toward the bow—the sixth formation position is the weak point of the Third Squad. The person in that position is a new recruit who can barely hold a sword. Cut through here—" The Death Squad Leader's finger drew a horizontal line from left to right across the middle of Storm Gorge on the chart.

The Old Demon took the chart. He used the tips of his webbed fingers to measure the width of the waterway—after measuring, the webbing dragged a faint water mark across the paper.

"Your head—" The Old Demon handed the chart back. "Is worth this much."

The Death Squad Leader folded the chart and tucked it into his bosom. The three men in black crouched on the reef, waiting until dawn.

During the coldest moment before dawn, fog rose on the sea surface. The fog pressed from the direction of Dragon Burial Trench toward Storm Gorge—pushing from the Deep Water Zone toward the shallows. Upon entering the gorge, the wall of fog was compressed by the reef walls on both sides, and the fog layer thickened by nearly double.

The reef walls on both sides of the gorge entrance were reduced to two blurry, dark gray silhouettes in the fog—the narrow waterway between the silhouettes had no visible end.

The Death Squad Leader stood in a recessed crevice in the gorge wall—the crevice was about five zhang above the water, and one zhang below were the dorsal fins of the dependents lined up in two rows underwater. He leaned against the stone wall, knees slightly bent—his entire body fit perfectly into the crevice, making him invisible from any angle outside the gorge entrance.

The Death Squad Leader pulled the cloth back over his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. In the crevice behind him, a sensing Formation Plate was embedded in the crack of the stone wall—the dark red Array Pattern on the plate lit up in a circle in the fog and then went out.

The Formation Plate was connected to an extremely thin sensing line—the line hung down from the crevice to the water surface, with the end of the line tied to the spine of the leftmost dorsal fin of the dependents. As soon as the fleet's spiritual energy fluctuations entered the gorge, the Formation Plate would light up.

"The day after tomorrow, at the Hour of the Dragon." The Death Squad Leader chewed on these words. Then he rested his hand on the hilt of his sword—his fingers did not loosen after placing them there.

At the same moment—Logistics Supervision Department of Zhenhai Fortress.

Lu Changyuan sat behind an old wooden table—on the table lay the dispatch order for the second batch of transport missions. The vermilion military seals on the dispatch order were two more than the previous time—the urgent seal for the left flank frontline and the dispatch seal from the fortress Command Headquarters.

The ink of the urgent seal was pressed extremely deep into the bamboo slip—the material of the bamboo slip at the edge of the seal was indented by the thickness of a sheet of paper.

The "urgent" meant that the mortality rate of the wounded on the left flank frontline had not decreased over these two days—the Central Camp reported secondary infections from miasma, and the medicinal soups from the Military Medical Bureau could not stop it.

The Logistics Department increased the quota from eighty pills to one hundred and twenty—but Gu He could only refine eighty pills a month. Lu Changyuan picked up the wolf-hair brush next to the dispatch order—and wrote a small line next to the blood awakening pill entry on the allocation sheet: "Still eighty pills next month."

The door curtain was lifted—not by the sea breeze outside the tent, but by a hand from the outside pushing the curtain to the right, toward the tent pole.

A personal guard walked in—Commander Tie Zhan's personal guard, wearing a dark gray military robe, with no sword at his waist.

His right hand pulled a Jade Slip used for leaving messages from his sleeve—the front of the Jade Slip had no seal, only three extremely faint golden marks that Chu Yunfei had lightly carved onto the surface with Sword Intent.

The golden marks were almost invisible in the sunlight—one needed to press spiritual energy onto their fingertips and rub the surface of the Jade Slip for them to appear.

"Deputy Envoy Lu—this was left by Lord Chu Yunfei before he departed. Someone from the Ministry of War in the Royal Capital is trapped on the island at Broken Star Reef—he wants you to pick them up on your way during the second transport mission."

The personal guard placed the Jade Slip on the corner of the table—after placing it down, he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. The distance from the Pier to the Logistics Supervision Department was not long—but his breathing rate was nearly twice as fast as normal.

Lu Changyuan picked up the Jade Slip. He rubbed the surface with his thumb—the three extremely faint light golden scratches glowed shallowly for half a breath under the touch of his thumb's Spiritual Pressure.

Broken Star Reef—three hundred li west of Storm Gorge.

"When did Lord Chu leave this?"

"The morning of the day he left. After he left it, he said—" The personal guard paused. He was recalling the original words. "He said to give it to you when the second batch of dispatch orders came down. He said you had already sent out the first batch—and couldn't catch up. The second batch would be just right."

Lu Changyuan placed the Jade Slip on the dispatch order. The Jade Slip rested between the urgent seal and the dispatch seal—on a blank space.

He looked down at the nautical chart on the table—on the chart, Broken Star Reef was marked in the bottom-left corner, and Storm Gorge was in the lower-middle position.

From the fortress to the left flank frontline—taking Storm Gorge took two days. Detouring around Broken Star Reef added another day and a half.

The arrival deadline on the dispatch order was three days. If he didn't go to Broken Star Reef, he would just make it by the second day—but if he went, he would exceed the limit.

What Chu Yunfei left was a military order. A dispatch order from the Envoy of the Grain Supervision Office—it had a higher priority than the transport deadline. Exceeding the time limit—but with a military order to back it up.

He rolled up the nautical chart from the table.

When Commander Cai walked into the Logistics Supervision Department, he still carried the briny scent of the sea from the Pier.

He had spent the entire morning at the Pier watching the people of the Sin Battalion load cargo onto seven ships—spiritual rice, purification liquid, spare armor plates, medicine for the wounded, and replacement Materials for formation bases.

The draft of every ship was nearly three fingers deeper than the last time.

He tapped his pipe against the door frame twice—there was no fire in the pipe bowl, and what fell out were wood shavings he had picked up at the Pier. The wood shavings fell from the edge of the pipe bowl onto the coarse cloth mat laid inside the tent.

Lu Changyuan spread the nautical chart out on the table. The route on the chart had two lines marked in ink—the first line was the original route, heading southwest from the fortress Pier, passing through Storm Gorge, and arriving directly at the left flank frontline.

The second line was newly marked yesterday—branching off from the original route, veering about twenty degrees west, circling to the arc top of Broken Star Reef, and then turning back south.

The total mileage of the second line was nearly four hundred li longer than the first—four hundred li meant an extra day and a half of travel by water.

"Broken Star Reef—" Commander Cai tapped his finger on the location of Broken Star Reef on the chart. His fingernails were filled with debris from fish demon scales—scraped from the gaps in the cargo crates while unloading this morning. The debris left a faint grayish-green mark on the paper.

"Taking a detour will consume an extra day and a half of spiritual rice. For seven ships, that's nearly forty shi more."

"Military order." Lu Changyuan placed Chu Yunfei's Jade Slip on the chart—the Jade Slip covered the intersection of the two routes.

Commander Cai glanced at the Jade Slip—the three light golden sword marks on the surface shimmered in the tent's lamplight. He tucked his pipe back into his belt—as he did so, the pipe snagged on the belt, causing it to sag by half an inch. He pulled it up but couldn't keep it there—so he simply let the belt hang down.

"Then we detour."