Voyage With The Pirate King

Unwilling to die she easily summoned back her flying daggers and shot them at the creature but before they could reach it a bright red barrier appeared defending the beast from her attack.

Her strong desire to live made her rush over to her maidservant cowering on the ground. She grabbed the servant before tossing the frightened girl at the creature to buy herself some time.

The maidservant screamed as she was swatted away by a sharp claw scratching her abdomen. Blood splattered as the creature's bottom half seemed to be covered in a black and red fog once more. The room descended into chaos as she ran away crying out for help.

She rushed towards the door but before she reached it it was shut by the fog. She was pulled back by her ankle her nails scratching the floor. Mortified she was suddenly surrounded by the creature and this time she couldn't even cry out.

The maidservant further cowered at the corner scared even to open her eyes until the terrifying presence left the room. Two minutes later she rushed to the hall staggering all the way in. But instead of a warm welcome, she was met by drawn swords pointing at her.

Raising her hands covered in blood she stammered with her eyes as wide as light bulbs. "It's, it's me..... I, I am not a mon-monster. The, the young miss, miss," she said while pointing outside the door.

"Uh, it's just a servant. Go see what she bawling about," said Xunshi Zhe sending some crew members. The overseer who had been hiding at the corner suddenly sprung up before rushing to follow the pirates but when he saw the nasty wound on the man dead on the ground and on her daughter's maidservant he did an abrupt u-turn before falling at Ji Yao's feet.

Ji Yao had been examining the corpse of the man who had died as soon as he entered the main hall. It seemed he had unconsciously walked to the overseer's home after the attack only to bleed to death as soon as he got there.

"Your Highness, your highness please save, save my daughter. I will give you, I will... I will give you half of my treasury please," he said touching Ji Yao's boots. 

"I thought it was my Lord just now. All of a sudden he is back to his Highness. How interesting," commented Zhang Li in the peanut gallery.

Repulsed Ji Yao was about to kick the man away when Rui Fei beat him to it sending the man flying across the room.

Rui Fei turned to look at Ji Yao abruptly tucking away his fierce expression but instead of the expected praise Ji Yao was looking at the corpse before saying, "I hope you didn't knock him out because he is hiding something from us."

Rui Fei, "....."

He turned to the bald man who lay unmoving and his heart sank. Would his Yao-ge get angry if he can't wake that annoying man up? "Damn it," he mumbled before calling over his backup that was still sitting in their seats eating their meal like this entire raucous didn't affect them in any way.

"Wake him up," he said and Rui Yewan immediately got up after tossing a juicy piece of sesame chicken in his mouth. He dusted his hands before getting up but Rui Li didn't follow. She was eyeing a certain someone's cup with an eager gaze.

"You too Li-er," said Rui Fei after catching her staring stupidly at a cup.

As though caught with her hand in the cookie jar she jolted up as she said, "Okay, okay... who am I supposed to kill?" She drew her sabre with a menacing smile like she was ready to slay some one.

Rui Yewan, "WTF?"

"Not kill..... just wake him up," said Rui Fei glad he had clarified otherwise they would have gotten into bigger trouble.

"But that's not what we do.... we send people to the underworld not the opposite," replied Rui Li before walking over to kick the man awake, "Hey, wake up... this is not an inn or brothel. You can't sleep here."

"Actually, he can because it's his house, plus that's not how you wake a fainted person," said Rui Yewan as he turned the man over.

Rui Li shrugged her shoulders before she kicked him again saying, "Hey, we are going to empty your entire treasury."

Rui Yewan chuckled while saying, "That's not going to, fuck. He woke up." It was as if at the mention of money this passed out man came back to life coughing up a mouthful of blood.

"There, see... works all the time," she proudly spoke as Rui Fei leaned down and picked up the man by the collar. Since daddy Yao wanted to speak to him then this obedient cub would drag this man over for the benefits. From another angle, you could say Ji Yao was his sugar daddy or whatever the kids call it these days.

"Hah, he didn't even need me. I should have just kept eating," said Rui Yewan before following behind Rui Fei.

With a loud thud, the man's body tumbled to the ground and Rui Fei stood next to Ji Yao with a look that said you can praise me now. Ji Yao saw it clearly but he deliberately chose to pretend like he hadn't seen Rui Fei's tail wag asking the overseer, "What do know about this?"

The man bit his lips swallowing down the blood in his mouth. He looked at Ji Yao pleadingly before saying, "It's, it's the rumours... they, they are true. But recently the creatures have been leaving the forest hunting for prey though they have never reached this far before. Wuwuwuwu... my poor daughter. Please save her your Highness."

Ji Yao turned to look at Rui Fei and the two stared at each other in tacit understanding. They seemed to have an idea why the creatures suddenly appeared here. It was all because they had messed with the keystone and from their past experiences with the Yinying they knew those creatures held a grudge.

"Show us on a map," said Ji Yao shifting his gaze to the man kowtowing before him. The overseer hurriedly sent his servants to get the largest map they had of this region before laying it out on the table.

***

Meanwhile, a few shoreline cities over a fisherman pulling his fishing nets out of the sea had a sudden fright when he discovered an ashen-faced woman with emerald hair in his fishing net. 

Mortified he took a step back contemplating whether to throw this lifeless corpse back into the sea. Such a beauty like her might land him in trouble and be accused of committing the crime. But as he picked her up he noticed she was holding onto something glowing in the dark.

Thinking it was some sort of treasure he tried to open the fingers clutching the item in a death grip. It must have been something very important to her because no matter how hard he tried to pry those fingers open they wouldn't.

Thinking he could use a meat hook to chop her hand off and dispose of the body he turned his back to fetch it. But as he turned away the once lifeless woman got up and stared at him with a threatening gaze her intentions clearly written on her face.