31: Chapter 31 The Last Hope of Zhoujia Village

The sea surface remained a lead-gray silence.

When the Clam Spirit poked its head out from the side of the ship, Qin Yin saw it.

The Clam Spirit leapt up from the sea surface and onto the deck.

It opened its shell, and that mucus-stained pink tongue cautiously poked out from the gap in the shell.

It gently lifted the small divine statue coiled at the tip, and then properly placed the statue back in its original position, fitting seamlessly with the base.

Having finished all this, the Clam Spirit retracted its tongue, closed its shell, and simply stayed on the deck like that.

Qin Yin stared at the Clam Spirit for a long time, and seeing that it did not move and that Lord Qinling's divine statue had no abnormalities, she withdrew her gaze.

It looked like Lord Qinling was going to take the Clam Spirit back.

Confirming that Lord Qinling's divine statue had returned to its place, Qin Yin untied the sail rope tied to the bollard and said to the crew members.

"Return to port."

The ship shook slightly, the sails billowed, and the bow slowly turned around.

The sea breeze on the return journey was gentle and steady, and the swells were not large.

Qin Yin steered the helm, her gaze falling on the distant sea horizon, her peripheral vision occasionally falling on that small divine statue.

The ship sailed for half an hour.

The clouds split open a few narrow gaps, casting down a few thin pillars of daylight.

Seeing this, Qin Yin was about to adjust the sail direction, but she heard shouts coming from about a li away.

"Help! Save me!"

Qin Yin and the crew members all cast their gazes over.

That was an old fishing boat one size smaller than the fishing boat of Qin Family Village, and its hull was very dilapidated.

On the deck, five crew members were huddled together back-to-back, desperately waving broken oars, harpoons, and even a piece of cabin plank in their hands.

Surrounding them were more than twenty Cone Snails.

The shells of these Cone Snails were also dark purple, and the sickle-like tentacles at the top were waving frantically.

Several of them had already climbed onto the ship's side, their sickle-shaped tentacles raised high, aiming right at the neck of the young crew member on the outermost side.

The young crew member was close to exhaustion.

His harpoon poked into the shell of a Cone Snail, but it was tightly jammed by the shell and couldn't be pulled out.

He pulled back desperately, his face flushed red, his soles slipping in a pool of blood.

He couldn't pull it out.

And the sickle tentacle hung above his head, about to fall!

Just at that moment, a streak of golden light flashed across.

It severed the sickle tentacle hanging above the young crew member's head.

Not only that, this streak of golden light also cut all the Cone Snails on the deck in half.

All the sickle tentacles froze uniformly in mid-air at the exact same instant.

The more than twenty Cone Snails and their more than twenty pairs of protruding, pale eyeballs simultaneously lost their focus.

On that tattered fishing boat, the five surviving crew members completely didn't understand what had happened.

Until these Cone Snails split open, they realized that these Cone Snails were dead.

The young crew member slumped on the deck, panting heavily, his eyeballs wide open.

He desperately turned his neck, wanting to find something.

Who killed these terrifying Cone Snails?

The remaining crew members were equally confused, some holding broken oars, others hugging a piece of cabin plank.

They kept turning their heads to look around.

Then, they saw that fishing boat from Qin Family Village.

That slightly larger fishing boat with billow-filled sails was slowly sailing closer.

Standing at the bow was a woman holding a saber; the saber was already sheathed, and her expression was calm.

Behind her, a divine statue hung at the entrance of the cabin.

The oldest middle-aged man among the five crew members took a deep breath and asked.

"Who killed those monsters just now? Who saved our lives?"

"Lord Qinling saved you."

Qin Yin raised her hand, pointing to the low-browed and downcast wooden carved divine statue inside the cabin.

"That is Lord Qinling worshipped by our Qin Family Village. This sea and this shore are all under the protection of Lord Qinling."

The five crew members looked in the direction of Qin Yin's finger and saw that divine statue.

The divine statue was located in the shrine hanging at the cabin entrance. It was very small, very crude, and the carving skill of the wood was also ordinary.

The lowered eyelids and calm corners of the mouth were not much different from those clay and wooden statues in ordinary temples.

But just a moment ago, more than twenty Cone Snails were cut in half at the exact same instant.

This made them clearly understand that the divine statue before their eyes was by no means like those in ordinary temples.

"Lord Qinling?"

The middle-aged man muttered repeatedly.

Their village also had a small temple, worshipping a lord surnamed Zhou.

But for many years, they had never seen a deity manifest its divinity.

"Why did Lord Qinling save us?"

Another crew member asked with a hoarse voice.

There was a very deep wound on his face, and blood was still trickling down, but he couldn't spare the effort to wipe it, only staring straight at that small divine statue.

Qin Yin was silent for a moment.

She recalled the day of her first voyage out to sea, when Lord Qinling's divine statue emitted light to drive away evil spirits.

She remembered Lord Qinling bestowing a dream and granting a talisman, leaving all the children in the village safe and sound.

She remembered that rainy night when she and Qin Mo, having been blessed by Lord Qinling to become martial artists, slaughtered all the monsters.

Sometimes she also wondered, why did Lord Qinling want to save the villagers of their Qin Family Village?

And she also had her own answer.

"No reason."

Qin Yin said.

The five crew members listened in a daze.

"Lord Qinling is benevolent. Seeing you fishermen suffering from the harassment of monsters, he made a move to save your lives. It's just that simple."

Yes.

It's just that simple.

The five crew members looked at each other.

Then they lowered their heads and bowed deeply towards Lord Qinling's divine statue at the cabin entrance.

"Thank you, Lord Qinling, for saving our lives."

One of the old men bowed extremely deeply, his graying hair almost touching his knees.

He kept mumbling something in his mouth, indistinctly, probably a few auspicious phrases from his hometown decades ago, having long forgotten the original words.

Qin Ling lay inside the shrine, watching the scene before him, without making any other movements.

"Can the boat still be sailed?"

Qin Yin glanced at the broken boat and asked.

The middle-aged man got up to inspect the rudder and sail rope, nodding and saying.

"It can be sailed."

"Then follow behind us."

Qin Yin had already turned around.

"We'll escort you for a stretch."

She steered the helm, and the bow turned.

Behind them, that broken boat slowly hoisted its tattered sails and followed along.

Inside the cabin, the small divine statue stood quietly as before, and beneath its lowered eyelids, benevolence seemed to settle.

The sea breeze pushed the ships, moving steadily northward.

In the distance, the coastline was already faintly visible.

After seeing the coastline, Qin Yin drove the fishing boat to part ways with this small broken boat, sailing towards Qin Family Village.

The five crew members in the other small fishing boat watched the distant fishing boat of Qin Family Village.

After seeing that what was scooped up in the fishing net were those terrifying Cone Snails, they had all thought that their lives would remain in the East China Sea just like so many of their ancestors.

Until the benevolent deity named Lord Qinling appeared.

...

The wharf of Zhou Family Village.

When the boat docked, it was already past noon.

The wharf in the bay was only about two zhang long, built with piled stones, exposing the dark cyan water line at low tide.

At this moment it was high tide, and the hull gently brushed against the stone surface, emitting a weak, dull thud.

The five crew members who had escaped death stumbled off the boat, collapsing on the wharf and panting heavily.

The terror from the sea had not yet faded from the gaps in their bones, and now that their feet stepped on solid ground, that lingering fear recoiled even more fiercely.

Only that middle-aged man was slightly better off. His surname was Zhou, and his given name was Hu. He was considered a figure of some standing in Zhou Family Village.

"Without Lord Qinling, this last hope of our Zhou Family Village would have perished in the East China Sea."

Zhou Hu covered his crotch with lingering fear.

"Is that sweat?"

"Turns out it's urine. Well, of course, how could an ocean voyage of this magnitude make me sweat?"

"No, it seems some shit came out too."