Tonight Wencheng had a lantern night market. Yang Qiao and Miao Shi wanted to join the excitement, so led by Wei Jia, a whole group went off to enjoy themselves. Meanwhile, Mo Zi brought Chou Yu and the others back to the ship first.
Chou Yu followed Fei Xia, walking at the very front. As he jumped onto the deck, he let out a strange cry and immediately stuck his head over the gunwale, lowering his voice to say, “Brother Mo, there are dead people.”
Mo Zi froze, about to rush onto the ship, but was stopped by Zan Jin.
“Ding Gou and I will go up and check first.” At the same time, he said to Luo Ying, “You stay with Brother Mo.”
Luo Ying immediately drew her long sword, blocking in front of Mo Zi, completely focused on listening for any movement around them.
Mo Zi lightened her breathing. Though she very much wanted to go up and see what happened, she couldn’t drag down her brothers either. The fact was, her martial skills were the worst. If she willfully and pridefully charged ahead, the result would harm both others and herself.
Zan Jin didn’t make her wait long. Soon he waved to her. “Brother Mo, everything’s fine now, you can come up.”
Mo Zi boarded the ship and saw the bloodstains and corpses on the deck—among them were quite a few Qianniu Guards. Her heart pounded violently. Just as she was about to head toward the lower cabin, Huayi and Xiao Yi came toward her, making her involuntarily breathe a sigh of relief.
“Yuan Cheng?” Huayi’s expression was as fierce and cool as ever, Xiao Yi was grinning—they should be fine, right?
“The master is safe,” Huayi said.
Though this counted as good news, Mo Zi couldn’t smile. Quite a few faces showing no signs of life—she had pulled sails and raised flags together with them, laughing and chatting. She had also thought that once they returned to Great Zhou, no more would sacrifice their lives. She hadn’t expected—
“What happened?” she asked.
“Someone attacked at night.” Huayi’s answer was truly simple.
Mo Zi reached out to pull Xiao Yi over.
Xiao Yi wrinkled her face into an old woman’s, grimacing and crying out in pain.
Mo Zi looked and saw her right sleeve’s upper arm had a large hole torn in it, with layers of cloth strips binding the area inside. She exclaimed in alarm, “You’re injured?”
After crying out in pain, Xiao Yi resumed her indifferent expression. “Minor injury. The opponent’s every move aimed to kill, but I wanted to keep them alive, so I carelessly took a blade. Fortunately, it wasn’t poisoned.”
Mo Zi glared at Huayi.
Huayi noticed and coldly threw four words at Xiao Yi: “Skills not refined.” That blade could have originally severed her entire arm. If not for his sword being one step faster in taking the opponent’s life—
Xiao Yi shrugged and returned four words to him: “Teaching not good.”
Mo Zi didn’t care whose negligence it was. “Xiao Yi, when you return to the capital this time, just stay by Sanniang’s side.” Household intrigues were a bit less bloody than martial world fights.
“Miss gave me my freedom.” After Mo Zi and Bai He, Xiao Yi was the third. “It’s just that I had nowhere to go before.”
Mo Zi discovered Xiao Yi was really tight-lipped. “Do you have somewhere to go now?” Looking at those senior brothers of hers, they were all wandering martial world heroes who knew nothing of what home meant. Was she going to join them too?
“I’ll follow you for now. Once you’re settled, I’ll go with my senior brothers.” Deep in Xiao Yi’s bones was a freedom and carefree spirit even greater than Mo Zi’s, which is why she always climbed trees and rooftops in the big mansion—she was actually looking at the distant martial world. But she also cherished relationships, content to stay by Qiu Sanniang’s side, and wanted to see Mo Zi settle down safely before she’d go do her own things.
Only now did Mo Zi understand Xiao Yi, understand the thoughts behind her quiet demeanor. Somehow feeling a bit moved and a bit envious, she smiled. From now on, she would never again tell her to stay hidden.
“What are the casualties?” Under the moonlight, the dark blood color and suppressed moans of pain made it impossible to look away.
“Six dead. Fifteen wounded.” Huayi remained concise.
“Doctor Hua?” They’d need to keep a ship’s doctor from now on.
“Already treating their wounds. I still need your people to help.” Huayi pointed at the Chou Yu brothers, Zan Jin, and Ding Gou, who had already started helping.
“Of course.”
Mo Zi also said to Luo Ying: “If you’re not afraid of blood, lend a hand.”
Without a word, Luo Ying rolled up her sleeves and went to bandage the wounded.
“Lord Yuan is in the cabin, Mo Zi. Go check on him.” Xiao Yi’s face also had fine scars—this was her first battle entering the martial world, a fierce life-and-death struggle. Having fought it, she was no longer afraid.
“Wait, let me look around first.” With Yuan Cheng safe, Mo Zi felt relieved, but she wanted to find traces the opponents had left behind. “How many of them survived?”
“Forty-two boarded the ship. Thirty-six died, six remain.” Huayi’s speech was not only brief but precise.
Mo Zi went up to the ship’s upper deck and discovered her cabin had been turned upside down. She suddenly understood—they hadn’t come looking for people to cause trouble, but were after something.
“Huh? Those people even came up here? I thought we’d blocked them all below.” Xiao Yi was surprised at the chaos in the room. “Check carefully, make sure nothing’s missing.”
This cabin was the only continuously used place on the upper deck, just to provide cover, so naturally there was nothing valuable. But because of Xiao Yi’s words, Mo Zi had a strange feeling.
Suddenly crying out in alarm, she ran toward the bed, then patted her chest. “Good, good, the pillow’s still here.”
Xiao Yi paused, then laughed. “Hiding your private savings in the pillow?”
Mo Zi replied, “Not private savings—something more valuable. Of course I have to sleep with it under my head to feel secure. Look, no matter how they searched, the pillow remained perfectly intact. Let’s go.”
Xiao Yi glanced at her. “Not taking your pillow with you?”
“The most dangerous place is the safest place. Besides, those people are either dead or captured.” Mo Zi blew out the candle and urged Xiao Yi to leave.
Not long after they left, a black-clothed person jumped out from the clothing chest, tiptoed to the bedside, pulled out a dagger, and gently sliced open the pillow, reaching both hands inside to grope around. As a result, he actually did find a small box. Overjoyed, his eyes practically glowed. Just as he was about to open it—
Suddenly, there was light behind him.
“Better not open it.” Mo Zi had returned. She held a lamp in one hand and a wooden ball the size of a head in the other. “Don’t blame me for not warning you in advance—what you’re looking for isn’t inside.”
The black-clothed man’s eyes immediately showed murderous intent. In a buzzing voice he said, “You’re quite bold. With no martial skills, you still dare come back alone?”
“I have helpers.” Mo Zi added, “And my people will come up very soon too.”
“Kill one, count one. Your little life definitely can’t be saved, unless—” This assassin was quite flexible. “Unless I can leave in one piece and take the item with me.”
“You’re quite good at negotiating, but unfortunately the conditions you’re offering are too poor—they completely fail to meet the standard of a win-win.” Mo Zi aimed the flame at a certain point on the wooden ball.
The black-clothed man first didn’t understand her words, then saw a thin string on the ball start to burn. Staring blankly, he asked, “What are you doing?”
“Experimenting.” Mo Zi tossed the ball in her hand out.
“What?” Experimenting? To be exact, the black-clothed man still didn’t quite understand this meaning, but the other party’s mocking expression treating him like an idiot made him furious beyond measure. “A warrior can be killed but not humiliated.”
Mo Zi sneered coldly. “Warrior? What kind of warrior are you—just a dog.”
The black-clothed man gathered his energy and gripped his blade, carrying furious killing intent toward Mo Zi. “I’ll advise you again—that ball at your feet is far more important than the box in your hand. You’d better throw it out.”
The black-clothed man misunderstood her meaning, thinking she wanted him to throw the small box. He snorted. “Stop playing tricks, accept your death.” A killing strike, supremely fierce.
But what he cut was the door panel. Enraged, he shouted, “If you’ve got guts, don’t run.”
Mo Zi laughed heartily, locking the door from outside. “I’m not running, but I’m not stupid either. If I don’t have martial skills, can’t I still dodge? Let me ask you, has the string on that ball burned out yet?”
The black-clothed man didn’t know what evil possessed him, but he actually turned to look, and actually answered her question. “So what if it’s burned out?”
“There’s nothing you can do about it, but this time I really do have to flee.” Having said this, Mo Zi turned around, braced both hands on the railing, and leaped down.
At that moment, there was a loud bang.
Everyone waiting in the main cabin as Xiao Yi had instructed was greatly startled. Some curious ones wanted to stick their heads out to look, but were sternly stopped by Mo Zi who stood against the wall by the window. Thus no one saw the things shooting out violently from the second floor, like swift arrows, striking the ship’s hull and the water.
Only after the commotion completely disappeared did Mo Zi let everyone leave the cabin, bringing Zan Jin and Ding Gou back up to the second floor. Chou Yu insisted on looking, and she didn’t stop him.
Upon reaching the upper floor, Chou Yu saw the window paper full of holes and couldn’t help swallowing hard. “Brother Mo, what kind of thing did you create this time? Looking at it makes my heart panic, but my guts are strangely excited.”
Ding Gou said unkindly, “You’re asking for a beating. I’ll give you a good thrashing, guaranteed to stop your heart from trembling and make your guts shrink back.”
“The power seems insufficient.” Mo Zi wasn’t in a hurry to enter the room, pushing hard on the outer cabin wall. “Didn’t fall apart, and couldn’t penetrate the planking either.”
Chou Yu gasped. “Penetrate the planking? Brother Mo, this is ebony—almost as hard as iron.”
“Ah, I forgot.” Her own ship, yet she didn’t remember.
“No wonder, plus with such a small size…” She started muttering to herself until interrupted by Chou Yu’s cry of alarm.
“Mother of mercy! Is this a person or a honeycomb?”
“Alive? Dead?” She stepped forward to enter.
Ding Gou stretched out his hand to block her. “Dead. You’d better not look.”
Mo Zi pushed his hand away. “Something I created, first time using it—how can I not look? Without looking, how can I improve it?”
“Brother Mo, this guy died in an ugly way. Don’t get scared.” Though Chou Yu didn’t block her, his tone also suggested he didn’t want her to look.
“You’ve been with me how long, and you still think I’m some young lady who can’t stand seeing dead people?” Mo Zi’s expression was somewhat helpless. “Environment shapes people—I’ve been shaped into someone cold-blooded too.”
Zan Jin said, “That Brother Mo can say this means the blood isn’t cold.”
Mo Zi smiled gratefully at the comfort given by her brother. Then, walking around them, she saw the person sitting against the wall.
Eyes once brimming with killing intent now filled with terror, a face once fierce and evil now covered in bloodstains, a body once intimidating seemingly shrunk a size. Black clothes covered in barbs, ebony on one side and blood on the other. Chou Yu’s description was apt—like a honeycomb.
She didn’t stare at the dead person for long. This person was an assassin—either he died or she died. Of course she had to preserve her own life.
Turning her gaze away, she searched for the ball’s wreckage. The wooden ball was like paper scraps, shattered very fine. Comparing the barbed iron pellets with the round iron pellets, the barbed ones had greater penetrating power—quite a few were embedded in the tables and chairs. But because of the barbs, friction between them increased, reducing destructive power. If she used more gunpowder and made the iron pellets even smaller, would it come closer to the primitive form of a hand grenade?
Hmm, still needed more improvement.