167: Chapter 167 Internal Strife Collapses, The Capital Chess Game (3)

About half a cup of tea later—the last dead soldier fell. The young dead soldier had been lifted by The Old Demon, who gripped his throat with his left hand, and slammed onto the edge of the reef—the spot where he landed was exactly where the underwater reef slope tilted toward the deep sea. His body rolled down from the reef, only to be caught by the shoulder on a sharp, jutting rock halfway down.

The Old Demon wanted to pursue—but after the tendons in his right hand were severed, his entire right palm hung limp from the wrist; his fingers could not move, and he could not use his right hand to grab anyone. He switched to using his left hand to grab the young dead soldier—only to be stabbed again in the back by the middle-aged dead soldier.

This blade pierced in from the side of his back—the position was less than two inches higher than the previous wound, but it struck exactly at The Old Demon's kidney. The Old Demon turned his head and bit down hard on the middle-aged dead soldier's shoulder—refusing to let go.

The middle-aged dead soldier used his left hand to draw another short blade from his waist—and thrust it horizontally into the cartilage gap behind The Old Demon's gill cover. The tip of the blade entered from the left gill cover—and pierced out through the throat.

The Old Demon fell. As he collapsed, he was still clutching one of the young dead soldier's legs—tugging it until the young dead soldier's knee joint dislocated at an unnatural angle.

Less than half of the remaining fish Yao Beasts in the water were still on the reef—they circled The Old Demon's corpse; two were biting at the wounds on The Old Demon's body, while the others trembled. The scales continued to crack in the mist—the edges of the cracked scales turned from white to gray, and their texture shifted from brittle to crumbling.

The result of the infighting—all three dead soldiers died on the reef, their feet soaked by the tide at the edge of the reef. The Haiyuan Clan vassal, The Old Demon, lay heavily injured at the water's edge—the knife wound on his gill cover continued to discharge gray-green gill fluid, until his gill slits stopped moving entirely.

Less than half of the fish Yao Beasts remained alive—the rest jumped into the water one by one in the mist. After jumping in, their dorsal fins did not move toward the mouth of the gorge; they scattered toward the deep water. The ambush circle at Storm Gorge had completely dissolved.

Lu Changyuan knew nothing of this. After the fleet sailed for another day and a half on the westward course—Broken Star Reef emerged from the mist on the sea surface. The perimeter of Broken Star Reef was a ring of scattered atolls—the atolls contained magnetite, and as the ship approached, the compass needle began to veer to the left.

Commander Cai shortened the sail—switching to a sampan to enter the reef area. The sampan passed through the extremely narrow waterway between the atolls—the reef at the bottom of the water was less than three feet from the hull, and the magnetite sand on the surface of the reef emitted a series of very low, grinding sounds as it rubbed against the bottom of the boat.

In the center of Broken Star Reef—a stone house crouched on a reef terrace less than twenty zhang wide. On the lintel of the stone house was carved a different Array Pattern—the old Array Pattern of the Zhenhai Fortress Quartermaster Office, its formation glow now dull. The door was cracked open—a scent of smoke and fire wafted from the gap.

Lu Changyuan stepped onto the reef terrace—the door of the stone house was pushed open from the inside. An old man with graying hair stood at the doorway—wearing an old Ministry of War official robe with a torn cuff, his right hand leaning on a broken, old Formation Ruler.

There was a large patch of dried sea salt stains on the front of his official robe—spreading from the collar down to his waist. His gaze was not panicked—but his cheeks were worn with a very thin layer of red blood streaks from the wind and sand on the reef.

The Old Formation Master was from the Ministry of War in the Royal Capital—sent by the Ministry of War to inspect an old formation base in the waters near Broken Star Reef. The formation base was one link in the surveillance formation network buried by the Ministry of War in the waters surrounding Dragon Burial Trench three years ago—having not been repaired for three years, the spiritual power supply to the formation base had mostly ceased.

He had set sail on a Ministry of War ship—but encountered a group of sea beasts surging up from the deep water midway, and the sea beasts smashed his ship. He wedged the broken ship onto an atoll—and hid himself in the only location marked as a magnetic zone on the nautical chart.

The sea beasts would not approach the magnetic zone—the strong magnetic waves from the magnetic reef would interfere with the sensory organs inside the sea beasts, causing them to lose their sense of direction upon entering. He had waited in this stone house for nearly a month—relying on the water in the storage tank and compressed military rations for thirty days.

Piled inside the stone house was the formation base repair plan he had drawn during this month—the animal skins were covered with a complete deduction of the formation base repair, derived step-by-step from the root of the formation base's spiritual power supply toward the end of the formation veins.

After the Old Formation Master saw the military flag on the sampan—he did not say how long he had been trapped. After boarding, he looked around the entire deck layout of the ship, stood still in the middle of the boat, and said one sentence.

"Who drew the formation base for this ship? It is drawn well."

That night—on a shipping lane about three hundred miles north of Broken Star Reef, Lu Changyuan sat in the cabin. Outside the porthole was moonlight and the calm sea beneath the moonlight.

Someone knocked on the cabin door twice—the rhythm of the knocking was extremely light. He pulled the door open—outside stood a person dressed in gray. One of Chu Yunfei's attendants—the one who had been sitting behind the sea rock by the campfire earlier.

He took two things out from his sleeve—a flask of spiritual wine and a letter. The bottle of spiritual wine was stamped with the seal of the Royal Capital's Quartermaster Office—it was not wine from the fortress. Lu Changyuan unfolded the letter.

There were only three lines of text on the letter. The first line: "Brother Lu—the wine is to thank you for the medicine. That pill of yours allowed me to endure the most difficult night—after that night, the intensity of the Cultivation Technique backlash dropped by half a level."

The second line: "I am an Envoy of the Grain Supervision Office of the Royal Capital's Ministry of War—not a captain. Early Stage Golden Core. It was not convenient to say before—I could not expose my identity in an unfamiliar fortress while suffering from the Cultivation Technique backlash. Please forgive me."

The third line: "Zhenhai Fortress is the first line of defense. The Royal Capital is preparing for a larger-scale battle—a scale so large that all forces in this sea area will be drawn in. Your island is in that position—hold it. When I return to the Royal Capital—I will find a way to ensure you are not empty-handed when you are drawn into it."

Attached to the end of the letter was a jade token—military standard, with the full name of the Grain Supervision Office of the Ministry of War engraved on the front, and Chu Yunfei's name on the back. A passage token—the holder could obtain passage rights equivalent to the level of a Deputy Envoy of the Grain Supervision Office at the Royal Capital's Ministry of War Grain Supervision Office and various frontline Logistics Supervision Departments. It was not a get-out-of-jail-free card, but an admission ticket.

He put the letter down. Moonlight shone in from outside the porthole—shining on the jade token, the characters engraved on the front of the token reflecting a very faint dark silver color under the moonlight.

The spoils of war—the Materials from that Late Foundation Establishment Stage Yao Beast were sold at the market, netting forty percent, and the advance payment from the four battalions of the left flank covered the rest. The Medicinal Pill was given to Commander Tie Zhan—his old Dantian injury was mended, and Commander Tie Zhan could now unleash the full combat power expected of the False Infant Stage.

The wound medicine secured the first military supply order on the left flank—the Quartermaster would spread the word for Blue Moon Island himself. The Royal Capital—he held a passage token, and the owner of the token owed him a favor. The remnant map—the remnant map that Chu Yunfei had dug out from the old archives of the Grain Supervision Office, with a marking line extending from the fortress toward the Dragon Burial Trench, leaving a circle drawn in dark red ink at the broken edge at the bottom of the remnant map.