47: Chapter 47: Foreshadowing Detonates, Using Someone Else to Do the Deed

In the quarter of an hour after Demon General Fuhai fled, the two words shouted most often on the city walls of Blue Moon Island were "Chase them?"

Lu Hu was the first to rush to the battlements with his saber drawn. Half of his body leaned out, the killing intent in his eyes still burning intensely.

"My Lord, the ink trail hasn't dispersed yet!"

"If we bite onto him now, we might be able to pin that beast down in the outer sea!"

Leng Feng also wiped the demonic blood from his face. Looking at the churning black tide to the east, he did not immediately object.

Because everyone could see it.

That Demon General Fuhai was fleeing in extreme wretchedness.

With one of his main tentacles severed, his demonic blood splattered all the way into the sea, and most of his remaining forces dispersed. If they could really catch up now, they would not only kill a crippled great demon, but also seize the entire supply line behind him, along with his potential lair and treasury.

But just as Lu Changyuan took two steps forward, his feet suddenly swayed.

It wasn't that he wanted to stop.

Rather, it was as if the entire stretch of the city wall behind him collapsed at the same moment, filled with the dull sounds of armor plates clashing against the wall and men collapsing to the ground.

The Dao soldiers, gunners, and Qi Condensation Cultivators who had been gritting their teeth and holding the line just now collapsed in heaps once the Qi they had been desperately holding onto dispersed.

Some slumped directly into the pools of blood, unable to even grip their sabers.

Some leaned against the battlements, panting heavily, their lips as pale as paper.

The palms of several crossbowmen had long been rubbed raw and bloody by the bowstrings and winches. They hadn't dared to look down earlier, but now that they relaxed, even their fingers began to tremble uncontrollably.

Su Qingli's face was already pale, and at this moment, she could only barely stand steady by supporting herself on the Formation Plate.

"We cannot pursue."

Her voice was not loud, but it forcefully suppressed the bloodlust-driven restlessness on the city wall.

"The Forbidden Great Array was just forced open once, and the primary formation eye is already overheating. The outer water formation and the barricades have also been mostly worn down. Out of the fifty ballistas, at least a dozen have cracked arms and overheated talisman slots. If we force another round of firing, they will explode on their own."

As if to confirm her words, a crisp "crack" suddenly echoed from a lateral backup bunker.

A ballista arm that had not yet been unloaded cracked by half an inch on the spot.

Lu Hu whipped his head around, his eyelids twitching violently.

Su Qingli did not stop.

"The Sea Cavalry Battalion has just finished two charges. The seahorses are foaming at the mouth, and their lightning patterns are still crackling erratically. The Black-Armored Giant Crabs are also barely holding themselves up."

"Going out to sea to pursue them now is not beating a drowning dog."

"It is dragging a group of people who are already at their limits to risk their lives against a Demon General at the Perfection of Foundation Establishment, who knows the sea routes and likely has a lair to rely on."

Lu Hu opened his mouth, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white, but he still didn't argue back.

Because he saw it.

The Black-Armored Giant Crabs were already crouching by the gap in the eastern section, their giant claws still clamping half-broken bones of sea beasts, their carapaces heaving heavily.

And his fiercest Purple Lightning Seahorse was also snorting softly behind the city gates, white foam dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Leng Feng looked at Lu Changyuan and said in a low voice, "My Lord, if we really want to pursue, we must first change the men, the ships, and the ballistas."

"But right now in the city, there is no one more capable of fighting than this group on the city walls."

Lu Changyuan stared at the eastern sea for a long time.

There was still a large patch of demonic ink left behind by Demon General Fuhai, like a broken black line, tugging at the fiercest murderous intent in everyone's hearts.

Of course he wanted to pursue.

More than anyone else.

But wanting to was one thing; whether they could afford to pursue was another.

After a moment, he slowly withdrew his gaze.

"We will not pursue."

As these words fell, the fierce aura on the city walls, which had almost driven them to charge out despite their exhausted bones, seemed to be forcefully suppressed.

Lu Hu gritted his teeth, the veins on his temples bulging.

Lu Changyuan, however, merely swept a glance at him.

"If you push your men one step further, who will block the gate if a second wave of beasts sneaks up tonight?"

"If we drag all the crossbowmen, Array Master, Sea Cavalry, and newly advanced Foundation Establishment Cultivators out, who will defend the island with only the remaining wounded soldiers and Qi Condensation Cultivators left in the city?"

"If we pursue now, we will kill a demon general."

"But if we fail to catch up, or run into something else along the way, what we lose will be the entire Blue Moon Island."

Lu Hu's chest heaved violently a few times, and in the end, he slashed his saber fiercely onto the city brick.

"...Understood."

Only then did Lu Changyuan turn around to give orders.

"Secure the city."

"The wounded are to withdraw first. Array Master and crossbow smiths, immediately enter the bunkers to check for damage. Leng Feng, take men to clear the eastern gap. Shi Jian, lead the auxiliary soldiers down the wall to collect the corpses and extract their cores. All mobile Foundation Establishment Cultivators will take turns on guard duty until dawn."

"The demon general's treasury won't run away."

"Let's defend through tonight first, then we can talk about other things."

Thus, before dawn, the entire island once again transitioned into another kind of busyness.

The wounded were carried down from the city walls batch by batch, the Workshops were fired up again, and the crossbow smiths and Array Master, without time to sleep, repaired ballistas and formations directly in the bunkers where the smell of blood had not yet dispersed. Mortal auxiliary soldiers and low-level Cultivators began going down the walls to collect corpses, dissecting and extracting usable demon cores, demon bones, carapaces, and venom sacs, piling them on the open ground inside the city until they literally formed several small hills.

The tide of beasts that had almost crushed them last night finally revealed its other side.

Enough of them had died.

Enough to significantly bolster Blue Moon Island's military merits, Materials, and Alchemy foundation for some time to come.

As Lu Hu patrolled among the piles of corpses with his saber in hand, he couldn't help but click his tongue. "If our treasury isn't fat after this battle, then it would really be a miracle."

Leng Feng did not join in the lighthearted comment. He merely handed several newly extracted demon cores to Lu Changyuan. "My Lord, we managed to defend the city, but since that Demon General Fuhai isn't dead, we must still guard against him in the future."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

He of course knew.

The victory of last night's battle lay in successfully defending.

But it was still far from the time when they could truly wrap things up.

Especially that Demon General Fuhai, who had lost his main tentacle but had also gotten a good grasp of Blue Moon Island's trump cards; once he caught his breath, he would return sooner or later.

Therefore, what he wanted was never just to settle the accounts.

He also had to see how to untangle this deadlock in the next step.

"My Lord!"

Just then, an outer patrol scout rushed into the front courtyard of the discussion hall, almost rolling and crawling.

Before he could even stand completely steady, he fell heavily to one knee, his voice hoarse from traveling through the night: "The outer sea... something major has happened in the outer sea!"

Lu Changyuan looked up. "Speak."

"The Blood Shark Pirates' lair has been wiped out."

This single brief sentence instantly stunned several of his trusted aides in the hall.

Lu Hu was taken aback for a moment, and then a bright light suddenly burst from his eyes. "Who did it?"

"The Deep Sea Royal Clan."

The scout swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva, clearly still feeling a chill when he spoke these words. "At least three great demons at the False Core level led the army, sweeping through the deepest Black Tide Trench in the outer sea. Several paths of escaped Loose Cultivators all say that the main island of the Blood Shark Pirates was mostly collapsed, and the surrounding auxiliary islands couldn't be saved either."

Su Qingli's eyes narrowed. "Is the news reliable?"

"It is," the scout said immediately. "We aren't the only ones who detected it. Right now, the Loose Cultivators and small clans in the outer sea are in an absolute uproar, with rumors spreading everywhere. Putting the various pieces of news together, they all point to one thing: the Deep Sea Royal Clan didn't go to seize territory or negotiate this time. They went with the sole purpose of completely smashing the Blood Shark Pirates."

For a moment, a silence fell over the discussion hall.

Then, Lu Hu was the first to be unable to resist letting out a low chuckle.

The laughter was suppressed at first, but then it grew louder and louder, finally carrying a sense of sudden, clear relief.

"It worked."

"Those pirates were truly killed with a borrowed knife."

Although Leng Feng was more composed than him, a clear look of satisfaction appeared on his face for the first time.

Because every core member present knew that this was no sudden, accidental disaster.

It was a trap they had laid down step by step beforehand.

The fake traces left near the Merfolk, the Blood Shark Pirates' tokens intentionally dropped on the Cold Iron Mine battlefield, the remnants of the Explosive Talismans, the method of operation, and the deliberately misdirected clues... Taken individually, these things might have only seemed like thin threads. But when the Deep Sea Royal Clan was already highly tense due to the unusual movements of the Dragon King Palace, being pulled in the same direction by all these threads made their final target almost inevitable.

Yet there was not much smugness on Lu Changyuan's face. He only asked calmly, "Is the leader of the Blood Shark Pirates dead?"

"Dead."

The scout took a deep breath and continued to report, "He is dead. The news didn't come from just one source, but all the different leads match up. The Blood Shark Pirate Leader failed to break through the encirclement, and the several auxiliary islands are also basically completely finished."

"What about the Deep Sea Royal Clan itself?"

"They also suffered significant casualties," the scout said. "After all, it was the Blood Shark Pirates' main lair, and their deathbed struggle dragged down many elites of the Sea Clan. But the Royal Clan still hasn't retreated. They seem to be searching for something, scouring even the sunken warehouses and the hidden vaults on the side islands."

Hearing this, Lu Changyuan's eyes finally narrowed slightly.

They weren't just venting their anger.

At least, not only that.

They were looking for something.

What were they looking for?

Clues related to the Dragon King Palace, or that fake lead they had planted, claiming that "the Blood Shark Pirates have grasped the movements of the ruins"?

Whichever it was, the result was the same.

The Blood Shark Pirates, this cancer of the outer sea, had been pulled out by the roots.

Meanwhile, Blue Moon Island, the actual mastermind behind the scheme, sat on the island and waited for the result without shedding a single drop of blood.

Lu Changyuan slowly leaned back in his chair, his gaze sweeping across the faces of everyone in the hall one by one.

Lu Hu's eyes were filled with satisfaction, Leng Feng's with a cold light, while Su Qingli had already begun planning their next moves based on this piece of news.

Very good.

This was precisely the situation he wanted.

Killing a person oneself only reduces the enemy by one.

Getting the enemy to do the killing for you is the true way of borrowing a knife.

"Investigate the news from the outer sea in greater detail."

Lu Changyuan finally spoke, "Especially three things. First, did any survivors from the Blood Shark Pirates escape? Second, what exactly did the Deep Sea Royal Clan dig up from the Blood Shark Pirates' lair? Third..."

He paused, the coldness in his eyes deepening.

"Where will they go next after wiping out the Blood Shark Pirates?"

The scout immediately accepted the order and withdrew.

However, the atmosphere in the hall did not relax because of this.

Because everyone understood.

Although the destruction of the Blood Shark Pirates was a highly satisfying event, since the Deep Sea Royal Clan had already fought to this point, their anger and actions would not stop here. They would either continue to search deeper into the outer sea along the fake lead, or they would gradually shift their gaze toward this near-sea region.

As expected, Su Qingli quickly pointed this out.

Unrolling a newly delivered sketch map of the sea territory, she placed her fingertip on several undercurrents between the Blood Shark Pirates' lair and Blue Moon Island, saying in a low voice, "If the Royal Clan doesn't find what they want, they likely won't let it go. Extrapolating from these current lines, as long as they push further southeast, they will sweep into our sea territory sooner or later."

Lu Hu frowned. "Doesn't that mean that even though we used a borrowed knife to kill the Blood Shark Pirates, we might turn around and draw the Royal Clan's attention to us?"

"It's not necessarily a bad thing."

Lu Changyuan looked at the sea chart. His tone was flat, yet it made several people in the hall raise their eyes.

"With the Blood Shark Pirates completely dead, the outer sea has lost a vicious wolf. If the Royal Clan really comes this way, their first bite won't necessarily be on Blue Moon Island."

"Moreover, most of their attention right now is likely still on the Dragon King Palace."

Having said this, he did not continue to explain further.

Because this judgment was already enough.

For Blue Moon Island right now, the most important thing is not to panic over a knife that has not yet fallen, but to seize this hard-won breathing room to grab everything they can.

And the most valuable thing before them was not just the uncollected mountain of corpses outside the city.

But also the clues to the treasury left behind by that crippled demon general to the east.

After the discussion adjourned, Lu Changyuan stood at the highest point of the city wall, gazing far out into the outer sea.

The morning light fell upon the sea of blood from last night, yet the surface of the water remained dark, like a giant cauldron that had not yet cooled. Occasionally, sea birds flew past in the distance, only to be startled into shrieking and flying away when hit by the residual Demonic Qi.

Lu Changyuan watched for a long time, then suddenly let out a low chuckle.

There was not much joy in that laughter.

Only a cold determination after having forcefully broken open the situation.

By evening, when Su Qingli brought the latest batch of intelligence up to the city wall, her brow was still furrowed.

"My Lord, although the Blood Shark Pirates have been wiped out, the Deep Sea Royal Clan's army has not withdrawn."

"They still seem to be searching for something, and after clearing out the lair, several of their scouting lines have begun pushing toward our sea territory."

Lu Changyuan took the Jade Slip briefing, his eyes showing not the slightest ripple of emotion.

He knew.

This plan of killing with a borrowed knife had succeeded.

But since the knife had already tasted blood, whether it would turn back on them later would depend on who was faster in the next round.