Beginning with the Ubume Bird

Chapter 191: Chapter 28 Frenzy

“Tianbao~”

A pirate with a scorpion tattoo on his neck walked over.

“What’s the matter, Gu?”

Li Yan rubbed his eyes.

“I checked the situation on the other ships, including the casualties, and I’ll report to you.”

“Speak.”

Gu tallied the accounts meticulously:

“There’s no significant damage to the four lorcha boats. Each has about ten to thirty fewer people, but there’s nothing serious. When the waves hit, two leaders acted on their own initiative and threw overboard quite a bit of cargo that has now drifted too far to retrieve.”

“The cannons are undamaged, right?”

Boats can be replaced, the Red Flag Gang isn’t short of boats, but in Lantau Island, adding all the various cannons together, there were only a little over two hundred in total. Li Yan had armed each boat to the teeth this time, each lorcha equipped with cannons and explosive shells—a luxury even the official fleets couldn’t afford.

If those two leaders panicked and dumped the cannons, Li Yan would need to have a serious talk with them.

“No.”

“That’s fine, then,”

“We’ll have to tow the broad boat from the Fudongtang Dock back. It definitely can’t be repaired at sea. Also, about twenty of our brothers on board died. All the cargo is gone, too.”

“Salvage as much of the cargo as you can. Pick out the valuable stuff and save it. As for the fallen brothers, give them thrice the usual amount as per our gang’s rules.”

The others on the boat didn’t seem to feel much; there was a sense of fortunate survival, but Li Yan wasn’t in high spirits. The thrill of easily capturing Humen and capturing Lin Yuanfu had been washed away.

Gu nodded, retreating in silence.

Watching Gu’s retreating figure, out of the Red Flag’s hundred or more Gaoli ghosts, he had brought over fifty this time. To be honest, they were quite handy to have around. Except for a few individuals like Xue Ba, the Gaoli ghosts were normally led by Chaoyi and were only nominally subordinate to Li Yan.

But the gang’s money and grain were managed by Li Yan’s people. The Gaoli ghosts had families to feed as well and couldn’t afford to show disdain towards Li Yan. Gu’s attitude towards Li Yan was representative of most of the Gaoli ghosts.

“Hey, what’s in the iron net?”

Cha Xiaodao slurped a mouthful of fish soup and leaned in.

“I’m not greedy. You took the first hit losing Patriarch Lv’s Notes during this incident, which led us here. I have no issues if you take the bigger share. You pick first, I’ll take thirty percent. Fair enough?”

Cha Xiaodao understood that without Li Yan’s Pentecost character, let alone attacking Humen, they wouldn’t even dream of using the gang’s boat to rob merchant ships at sea.

“Yes, I used Patriarch Lv’s Notes to get us to this point. Had it been any other fruit, I would’ve had to work with my own hands, and even then, there was no guarantee of a comfortable life…”

Li Yan pondered for a moment and then looked up at Cha Xiaodao, “Set the stuff aside for now, help me think this through. Is it possible for me… to stay in this world permanently?”

Cha Xiaodao was surprised, but after careful consideration, realized it wasn’t an impossibility.

Li Yan counted on his fingers, “I currently command tens of thousands of men and hundreds of boats. Frankly, if this were a confrontation between travelers, aside from the unfathomable Proxy Traveler, I wouldn’t be afraid of several Eight Extremes or Nine Luminaries coming at me. But without this fruit, I’d be nothing more than someone at the peak of Ten Cities.”

The greater one’s ability, the greater the deeds one can accomplish. Li Yan’s capability to turn the world upside down in this realm was inseparable from the support of the Red Flag Gang.

He paused, then added:

“Think about it, how did the Jie Master get his influence? How can he produce those items without batting an eye? Unless… he’s not fighting alone, but instead commands one, or perhaps even more than one, resource-rich Yan Fu Fruit.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to create a pathway that allows me free entry and exit to this world.”

Heavenly Mother Crossing the Sea, the Taiping Document—this fruit had too much to offer. If he could establish a stable base here, he could use the capabilities of the Red Flag Gang to supply an endless stream of resources for Li Yan!

“If I remember correctly, opening a pathway into a fruit requires very high permissions, even affecting the operation of Yan Fu itself. Only Proxy Travelers recognized by Yan Fu have the ability to do that. How will you manage it?”

“Aside from the Proxy Traveler, as compensation for the inherently weak amplification base of the Five Immortals Category, Walkers who inherit the Five Immortals can, upon meeting certain conditions, also establish such a channel.”

Cha Xiaodao was stunned, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

“I’ll look it up for you.”

“No need, I’ve already inquired with Earth Endurance. The so-called certain conditions are triggering a Yan Fu event of sufficient difficulty and using the authority of the Five Immortals Category to exchange the reward for opening a permanent channel.”

Just like what Taishuai did before, although, not as domineering as her, Li Yan thought silently to himself.

Cha Xiaodao caught on immediately, “That Frozen Tail Roc Map?”

Li Yan nodded.

“The Walkers who form the pact, the Yan Fu event can be shared. Replace him with your authority, and it’s that simple.”

“Where do we find the rest of the maps?”

“Quanzhou.”

“And how do you know this?”

“Move it with emotion, enlighten it with reason.”

The exchange between the two was as swift as pouring beans out of a bamboo tube.

Li Yan sat up.

“Once the channel is established, we’ll split the produced resources fifty-fifty. Next time you use Patriarch Lv’s Notes, follow the same method and consider it,” he said.

Cha Xiaodao waved his hand and began to laugh, “No need to consider, I agree. I’m starting to understand why it only took you four months to reach Ten Cities Peak. If this deal goes through, you call the shots from now on.”

Li Yan’s lips curled up, but he said nothing.

“Let’s see what goods are there, and find out what the Demon Thief and Yishi’s people were fighting over.”

Just then, a pirate rushed over, gasping for breath:

“Tian, Tianbao, when we were cleaning up those shipwrecks at sea…”

“Did you find what I asked you to look for?”@@novelbin@@

Li Yan got up.

The ships of the Demon Thief and Yishi were no longer worth salvaging, but that of the East India Company’s Wrath might well be.

From the information of A Fleeting Glimpse, Li Yan clearly saw the words “Magic Motion Technology (Legend) (Unique)” and that thing called the Heavy Cannon Regeneration Machine.

The Heavy Cannon Regeneration Machine. One could guess, it wouldn’t be small. Fish Bone Azhen’s barrels would hardly contain it.

If this thing wasn’t damaged, Li Yan had just stumbled onto a huge bargain!

“No, not that, we—we picked up a foreign devil, still alive.”

“Oh, then tie him up and bring him aboard, lock him next to Old Man Lin.”

Li Yan’s disappointment was clear to see.

The pirate agreed and ran to the side of the ship, shouting to his brothers at sea, “Tie him up and bring him aboard, lock him next to Old Man Lin~”

Mr. Hu, who was repairing the mast on the opposite ship, waved back.

“Tianbao, is that thing you’re looking for, perhaps those big sweet potatoes we hauled up that look like seashells but are made of iron?”