The Princess being damaged made Yun Ye very heartbroken. This kind of error should have been avoided, but he and Liu Renyuan together made a miscalculation that led to this mistake.

Military orders should be military orders, absolutely not changeable by human factors. They were formulated to be executed, not to be violated because you wanted to capture Takayama Yoko or rescue innocent people. This beast called war wouldn’t care whether you acted from good intentions or malice—it would advance along its predetermined route. Who won or lost, it didn’t care.

“You’re the captain. On this ship, you have the say. I absolutely won’t interfere recklessly in the future. This battle loss was caused by my error. Liu Renyuan, don’t be upset. No matter what, we won. What the sharks ate were pirate corpses, not ours. So the victors shouldn’t be criticized.”

Yun Ye painfully conducted self-criticism and shouldered all responsibility himself. As captain, Liu Renyuan must possess absolute authority. His prestige taking a hit wasn’t good for anyone.

Qiu Ran Ke, soaking in fresh water, woke up. Seeing Yun Ye, he buried his head in the water. If there was someone in this world he least wanted to see, that person was definitely Yun Ye.

Robbing Yun Ye—Qiu Ran Ke had no psychological burden whatsoever. But being rescued by Yun Ye would be the death of him. Being capsized by a woman was simply the ultimate humiliation. Now suffering half-dead, he had no face to see people, much less acquaintances.

“Don’t be embarrassed. I rescued you just to capture you and behead you. Over these years, you’ve committed quite a few evil deeds. Being beheaded by me—you shouldn’t have any complaints, right?” Yun Ye moved a chair to sit before the wooden tub. Making a hero as bashful as a woman was also a rare skill. Not appreciating it now would be letting himself down.

Actually, once a person threw away their face, there was no obstacle they couldn’t overcome. Qiu Ran Ke thought for a while, not wanting to drown himself, so he lifted his head and looked at Yun Ye saying: “I originally planned to rob you. Now in this state, I have no means. Do as you see fit. Qiu Ran Ke has but one rotten life. As long as there’s no humiliation, hack and kill as you please.”

His cheeks had two holes. When he spoke, it leaked air a bit. His mouth probably hurt a lot too.

“Your mouth can’t drink congee anymore in the future, right? With these two holes, what about dropping food later?” Very disgusting holes that continuously oozed pus. His face was swollen like two buns. His gums were also pierced ragged by the steel needle.

Qiu Ran Ke stopped for a while and said: “I very much want to die, just afraid that after death I’ll become a lonely wandering ghost. Yun Ye, my whole life has been very unsuccessful. Besides Yaoshi and Hong Fu, I have no one else I can be close to. Help me—notify them of my death. Forget about Daming Temple—they should be very disappointed in me. We don’t count as friends, but we also don’t count as enemies. I wanted to fight you but never had the chance. Otherwise, even dying in battle, I wouldn’t regret it.”

Yun Ye shook his head. He already had a way to deal with this fellow. Patting his shoulder, he left. Whether or not he was a fallen hero, the crime of devastating the Great Tang’s maritime borders couldn’t be escaped. Just seeing he showed no guilt for killing Tang merchants showed he had no sense of belonging to the Great Tang whatsoever. Similarly, such a person—the Great Tang needn’t care whether he lived or died. Whether he could survive depended on Heaven’s arrangement.

The Mai brothers were captured alive by the Chengqian. They weren’t as clever as Takayama Yoko. Seeing the Chengqian pursue them, they actually grew bold ambition, wanting to take down the Chengqian. The result of turning around to attack the Chengqian was being completely routed. Who knew what the Mai brothers were thinking—at the final moment, they lowered sails and surrendered.

Yun Ye didn’t even have the mood to see such people. Although the brothers kept saying they wanted to use the wealth they’d plundered over many years to exchange for freedom, they were still hung on both sides of the ship’s rail to feed sharks. Not until the ropes tied to their waists were also bitten through by leaping sharks did the remaining half-corpses fall into the ocean. Yun Ye and Li Tai were already worrying about having too much money—who had time to find those brothers’ pitiful wealth? Moreover, Yun Ye only needed to ask his subordinates if he wanted to know—it wasn’t just those two brothers who were captured alive.

Takayama Yoko ran without a trace. The sea route home was also calm and waveless. When encountering a not-very-large island, Yun Ye put Qiu Ran Ke down, gave him an axe, a knife, and tossed him a bag of rice before planning to leave.

“Marquis Yun, give me that Wa woman. A person alone on an island always needs something to relieve boredom.” Qiu Ran Ke didn’t complain about his fate but worked hard to争取 his interests.

Yun Ye curled his lips and had someone throw that Wa woman down too, saying to Qiu Ran Ke: “I very much hope you can create a new race.” After speaking, he rowed the small boat back to the Princess. This island was extremely remote and not on any shipping route. If after this disposal, Qiu Ran Ke could still return alive to the mainland, Yun Ye would congratulate him on his great fortune.

In this great battle, Wu She didn’t take action from start to finish. He quietly watched the entire slaughter, then returned to his cabin not knowing what he was thinking about. Even Liu Fang’s invitation to drink tea was politely declined. By the looks of it, the old man had reached a new threshold. Yun Ye very much hoped the old man could break through. He was very curious what Wu She would be like after breaking through.

He strictly forbade anyone from disturbing the old man’s contemplation and specially found Gou Zi to care for the old man’s eating, drinking, and bodily functions. Whenever anyone had a breakthrough, Yun Ye would be happy. This kind of experience he’d never experienced in later generations.

After sitting on a ship for a long time, people would go crazy. The first to go crazy was Li Tai. He actually grabbed Yun Ye’s neck and said frantically he wanted to eat celery-stuffed dumplings—wanted to eat them desperately. If he couldn’t eat them tonight, he would definitely die. He also lay on Yun Ye’s bed playing dead dog, determined not to give up without eating celery-stuffed dumplings.

This fellow missed land to the point of madness. Drifting on the ship all day, he couldn’t feel stability or reality. After this emotion fermented, it became celery-stuffed dumplings.

God! On the ship right now there were only bean sprouts and potatoes. Yun Ye put bean sprouts under the sun to turn green and casually wrapped him a few dumplings. After Li Tai ate one bite, he threw the dumplings away and developed a high fever that wouldn’t subside.

“Where is there celery?” Yun Ye sprawled over the map looking everywhere. At this time, for a bundle of celery he wouldn’t hesitate to exterminate a nation. The merchants, seeing the lord’s reddened eyeballs, trembled one by one, all mobilizing their brains to think where there might be celery. The prince was now unconscious, his mouth covered in blisters. All were old hands who ran the seas—they knew this was a heart ailment. The prince wasn’t accustomed to ship life. Now his heart ailment had erupted and needed treatment. To treat this heart ailment, one was to hurry home—arriving at Guangzhou there would be celery. Or as long as they reached Guangzhou, even without celery Li Tai would recover.

But reaching Guangzhou required at least another month. The prince couldn’t possibly hold on until then no matter what. What could be done? Finally, one merchant carefully answered: “My lord, this small person heard that Arab merchants’ ships always plant some celery in flower pots. Don’t know if it’s accurate. The nearby islands or countries won’t have celery.”

Yun Ye grabbed that merchant’s chest and said: “What you said is true?”

“Small person only heard of it, never seen it.” Yun Ye released the merchant, turned around and said to Liu Renyuan: “The Qingque will guard the merchant fleet. The Princess and Chengqian will attack, hunting down every Arab merchant ship. Remember—don’t let a single one escape.” Yun Ye was already seeking medical help in desperation. He vowed that in the future on the Princess, he must plant more vegetables in flower pots, even if only one plant.

Arab merchant ships met with disaster, chased all over the world by the formidable Princess and Chengqian. But no matter how they ran, or however their ships’ guards resisted, they would be caught up to. Those who dared resist would be beaten miserably.

When the terrified Arabs offered all their treasures and female slaves, only hoping to preserve their lives, those fierce sailors didn’t even glance at them. Kicking over the Arab wealthy merchants, they pressed for celery’s whereabouts. Upon hearing there was no celery, those Arab wealthy merchants would receive a merciless whipping. When they thought they were about to die, they discovered those bandits had already left on that terrifying giant ship, not touching treasures or women. From that moment, the Arab wealthy merchants vowed that in the future whenever going to sea, they must plant celery in flower pots. The Celery Bandit was truly too terrifying.

Heaven doesn’t let down those with determination. After Yun Ye robbed seven or eight Arab merchant ships, he finally found celery on one ship. The dignified Hereditary Marquis, holding those two pots of celery, cried like a baby in confinement.

No time to wrap dumplings—he picked two celery leaves and stuffed them into Li Tai’s mouth. Fortunately, Li Tai, who hadn’t eaten a grain of rice for two days, greedily ate the celery leaves. Seeing this scene, Yun Ye even had thoughts of worshipping Buddha. He’d considered almost every possibility, just never thought Li Tai would suffer this kind of psychological illness and nearly lose his life.

The celery dumplings were wrapped. Li Tai, having just eaten a little celery, reluctantly sat up, eating dumplings one after another. That greedy appearance made Yun Ye’s heart ache endlessly. This prince should be enjoying the highest level of wealth in Chang’an, having whatever he wanted, living extremely leisurely days. But now, accompanying him eating fish every day, gnawing potatoes, eating a meal of bean sprouts only every two or three days. What ordinary Chang’an commoners ate was ten times better than these two Great Tang top nobles.

Having eaten the dumplings, Li Tai seemed to gain tremendous satisfaction. The look in his eyes also changed from murky to clear: “Ye’zi, did I cause you trouble?” Li Tai looked at the stubbly, red-eyed Yun Ye and asked softly.

Yun Ye sniffled and said: “No, you just wanted to eat celery-stuffed dumplings. Not a big deal.”

“I’m still not strong enough. Ye’zi, did I have a breakdown? On the ocean wanting to eat celery-stuffed dumplings—how did I come up with this? I remember now—the first time in my life I ate extruded food without soup was at your home. You said it was celery-stuffed dumplings. I remembered it—that there was such a dish in the world.”