Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 64 Nine Dragons Spitting Pearls, Layers of Subcontracting

"Madam Yan reincarnated? We're supposed to capture her? Hiss—!"

The other three people gasped when they heard the news for the first time.

When he spoke, Qian Wuye carried a strange, pungent odor that seemed to seep into his very bones. A foul, stagnant breath emanated from his nose like snot, making him appear both eerie and nauseating.

But nobody thought he was joking.

This "Night Fragrance Gentleman" Qian Wuye is no ordinary person.

The title sounds like someone who carries manure, and in fact, he really was someone who carried manure.

But among all the night soil collectors in Yuegang, he has become the undisputed overlord of the entire industry, the legendary "Dung King"!

Don't underestimate the term "dung tyrant".

He monopolized the business of emptying chamber pots for tens of thousands of households in Yuegang, composted them, and sold them to surrounding counties. He lived a very comfortable life.

It can be said that they have both manpower and money at their disposal, making them far more powerful than those fishing gangs and a force to be reckoned with by the other three unorthodox groups.

Among the four, only because his family was wealthy and powerful, and he had a weakness in Yuegang, making it inconvenient for him to show his face, did they all wear masks.

Therefore, given Qian Wuye's status and position in the underworld, there was no need for him to lie.

The three of them felt their calves cramping. Dealing with a few Tanka people temple keepers was a completely different matter from facing the reincarnation of Madam Yan head-on.

Amidst the fear, there was also some anger.

"Why didn't you and your employer tell us beforehand? Using Xie He as bait to capture Madam Yan's reincarnation, do we even deserve to do this?"

"Could that gunboat that easily blasted the Xie family's merchant ship out of the fog just now have been Madam Yan's?"

"Now that we're on your pirate ship, how are we supposed to get off? Fifth Master Qian, you've really ruined us!"

Master Qian, however, nonchalantly gestured for them to calm down:
What are you afraid of?
Xie He knew only a limited number of secrets, was unaware of our identities, and like everyone else, was under a curse placed on him by the treasure-level talisman "Keep Silent," preventing him from revealing sensitive information.

Besides, none of the four of us rely on the sea for a living, so we don't need to go to the East China Sea to make a living.

Even if we offend the Tianfei faction in the sea god belief, do you think they would come looking for trouble with us?
On this land of China, it is still the nobles who call the shots.

As is widely known, the lineage of the Heavenly Consort has eighteen subordinate deities.

Maozhu Five Narcissus, Mulan Weir Three Water Gods, Inspector Lin, General Fubo Ma Yuan and Lu Bode, Jiaying and Jiayou, Grand Steward Yan
They also trained their own temple army ghost soldiers, the "Gao Li Ghosts," whose strength surpassed that of the "Five Peaks Selection" and the "Sea Shore Ghosts."

Despite their great strength, the various precepts that ghosts, gods, and earth spirits must abide by under the "Twenty-Four Seasonal Laws" are far more stringent than those for the living.

The "Female Heavenly Law," which governs the conduct of gods, humans, and ghosts, stipulates:
“The divine officials under the jurisdiction of the righteous gods shall not allow their subordinates to come and go as they please, and harm good people.”

Anyone who disobeys this order will be sentenced to nine years of hard labor; those who know of it but do not heed it will be sentenced to death; those who deliberately defy the law will also be severely punished.

Punishment methods were varied, including caning, imprisonment, exile, execution by needle, beheading, dismemberment (or extermination), pouring iron balls into the body, pouring molten copper into the body, and so on.

The Heavenly Princess, who was born into the Tanka people, made a grand vow before her death: to never marry, to stay away from worldly affairs, and to only rescue refugees on ships in distress at sea.

This is how the power of the Big Dipper descending, manifesting in the human world, communicating with the spirits of the vast ocean, and performing supernatural transformations came to be.

Without fulfilling their grand vow, this group of people who worship the sea god will not be able to reach the shore.

This is what they mean by "a gentleman can be deceived by his principles"!

After giving them some reassurance, Master Qian revealed his true intentions:

"In order to find Madam Yan's true identity, the employer actually made two preparations."

On one hand, they sent Xie He out as a target to arrest and interrogate Lady Yan's temple priests in order to find the true identity of the dragon, and on the other hand, they wanted to lure out Lady Yan's reincarnation.

After reincarnation, one needs to start cultivating from scratch. Since one's strength is not great, the four of us are enough to handle it.

Regardless of who interfered this time, now that we've been exposed, our hopes of catching Madam Yan's reincarnation are slim.

The entire responsibility lies with Xie He!

The intrusion of the "Blue Robe" gave them the wrong idea, and they didn't realize that there were actually two groups of people making the move. They just kept making wild assumptions.

"On the other hand, the benefactor behind the employer possesses a unique skill that allows him to roughly sense the dragon aura emanating from other people."

It was confirmed that the dragon's remains were located within the Jiulong River basin.

So, starting with the sending off of the Wangchuan last year, the men of our lineage have been trying to go with the flow and instigate an evil uprising throughout the entire Kowloon River basin.

Based on the divination results of the nobleman, we explored all the burial sites where yin and yang meet along the Kowloon River.

The shell of a dragon is a deadly temptation in the eyes of any evil creature; if they get close enough, they will rush towards it like moths to a flame.

Since the first path is blocked, let's focus on the second one.

The other three, who had managed to attain official positions, were not stupid; their eyes lit up again.
"So, what you mean, Master Qian, is that important people only care about the result and not the process."

As long as we can pinpoint the location of Madam Yan's hiding place and find the exact location of her dragon-like body, no one will care if our mission fails.

"Could it be that you actually already have a lead?" Everyone stared expectantly at the tyrant Qian Wuye, whose disciples and followers were everywhere and whose information network was better than anyone else's.

The latter inhaled the "Five Grains Reincarnation Qi" from his nose again, his face full of inscrutable meaning:

"That's natural.

Why do you think our employer went to such lengths to seize power and take over Moon Harbor at all costs?
On the surface, it's for the economic interests of this world trade center.

In fact, the day of the Dragon Raising its Head on the second day of the second lunar month is the day when the divine ritual of "Nine Dragons Spitting Pearls" is launched.

Even if Prince Jinghai's heir, Wang Cheng, who disappeared and never reappeared, cannot be found, there is another backup in Yuegang to ensure that the dragon energy required for the ceremony is absolutely guaranteed.

They even used the power of their formation to drain the escaped crown prince dry.

Whoever finds Madam Yan's true identity will be the greatest contributor in the eyes of the nobleman!

Everyone was energized.

Since the pirate ship could not be disembarked, they decided to go back and lure all the evil spirits active in the Kowloon River area into Yuegang, thus gaining the greatest merit, being promoted from a lowly position, and obtaining an official rank.

Only then did the tyrant Qian Wuye reveal his burgeoning ambition:

“Blood offerings are not accepted by the righteous gods.”

I had already prepared a good show for those Wufengqi and Shanhaihui, who control everything and don't even allow beggars to be caught or have their offspring harvested.

Please lend me a hand.

The other three bowed together.
"Of course, once we arrive at Yuegang, we will follow all of Master Qian's orders."

However, they did not realize that this task targeting Madam Yan had been subcontracted five times before it reached them, passing through the hands of the nobleman, Pu Shouying, Xie He, Master Qian, and finally back to them.

These people are all incredibly stubborn, each claiming they're not afraid of retaliation from the Heavenly Princess's faction.

But battle reports can lie, but the front lines cannot!

Some people's eyes began to flicker slightly.

On the Qingyi, Wang Cheng led A Xiao, the Zhang brothers, and two prisoners to the captain's cabin, where they took their seats as host and guests.

He finally had the opportunity to ask his own question:

"Sister Axiao, you went all this way just to capture Xie He? Do you have a grudge against him?"

The pearl diver hesitated only slightly on her cool face before recounting everything that had happened while Wang Cheng and his group were away.

"Recently, the temple keeper mysteriously disappeared. After tracing the trail, the investigation finally led to Xie He. That's why we planned to capture him and interrogate him for information while he was out."

I want to know what they're up to.

If you hadn't suddenly appeared like gods, I might have really suffered a great loss in the encirclement of five officials.

What about you?

Wang Cheng and the Zhang brothers exchanged a glance. They had originally planned to return to their clan to recruit crew members and had no intention of keeping it a secret from A Xiao, one of their own.

They decided to share some of the intelligence with her.

After hearing about their seemingly nonchalant yet astonishing achievements, A-Xiao looked at Wang Cheng with even greater respect.

Don't listen to his constant talk about "the power of the collective" and "the help of his brothers." Others may not know Zhang Wu and Zhang Wen's abilities, but surely she does.

Despite having a fishing boat and more than thirty Tanka people as backup, this scholar actually stole a sailing warship all by himself.

She couldn't help but admire Wang Cheng's courage, ability, and luck.

After briefly explaining their recent situations, both sides looked at Xie He lying on the ground.

A-Xiao raised her hand and removed the talisman from his forehead.

Xie He woke up groggily, and when he looked up, he saw "Wang Fugui," whom he had just been muttering about. His face immediately turned ashen, as if he had seen a ghost.
"It's you? Why aren't you dead? Didn't Wufengqi say they were going to send out all the sailing warships and wait!"

Only after the words were uttered did he realize that he was actually in the middle of a sailing warship.

Through the porthole of the captain's cabin in the stern, I could see the majestic sails on the deck, the gleaming bronze cannons, and a Five Peaks flag that had not been taken down.

"This is... how did you..."

I vaguely realized something, but I couldn't believe it and was so incoherent that I couldn't speak.

Boom!
Wang Cheng had no interest in listening to the wailing of a defeated dog. He kicked him to the ground and stepped on his back, coldly saying:

I ask, you answer.

Tell me, what are you trying to do by collecting the dragon energy from the heroes of the sea?
What did the Three Pearl Pools of the South China Sea collect during the Great Pearl Harvest?
Who is the benefactor behind this?

(End of this chapter)