Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 77

That night, Huo Fenghua was dressed in black nightwear as he lay in ambush with a little over a hundred men in a desolate patch of weeds along the Wu River. From there, they could clearly see what was happening at the Wu River ferry crossing. Shenlong Docks had gathered nearly two hundred men at the crossing. Tonight they were going to ferry Donglin troops across the river.

By the riverbank, the ferryboats bobbed and swayed. People moved on and off continuously. Torches blazed all around, lighting up the crossing, and faintly, they could also make out unrest among the Donglin cavalry on the opposite shore.

There were close to five hundred Donglin soldiers in total. Each ferry could carry at most around fifty people at a time, and with warhorses added in, it would probably take more than ten trips tonight to get them all across.

On the broad river, the waves rolled gently. The night air was cold, and the river wind kept sweeping over. After standing for a while, Huo Fenghua felt his hands go icy. He turned around and warmed them by placing both hands on Wen Heyi’s neck.

Wen Heyi immediately shrank and struggled but didn’t dare make a sound. His soft body twisted as he flushed slightly.

Before they set out, Huo Fenghua had warned Wen Heyi that tonight’s operation couldn’t make even the tiniest noise. Wen Heyi’s head was usually muddled, but at critical moments he could still be useful. He was a little afraid of Huo Fenghua, and especially obedient to him.

Huo Fenghua grinned as he watched Wen Heyi squirm, then suddenly noticed Wen Heyi seemed to be chewing something. He pulled his hands back and asked in a low voice, “What’re you eating?”

Wen Heyi clamped his mouth shut.

“Open up. Let me see,” Huo Fenghua said.

Wen Heyi timidly opened his mouth.

By the thin moonlight, Huo Fenghua saw something glittering inside, like candy. He asked softly, “Malt candy?”

Wen Heyi nodded.

Huo Fenghua snapped, “I told you no candy. Spit it out!”

Wen Heyi puffed his cheeks, glaring at him without speaking.

Huo Fenghua rolled up his sleeves and hissed, “Open your mouth!”

Wen Heyi sulked a bit longer, but with Huo Fenghua staring him down, he finally opened up.

“Wider,” Huo Fenghua ordered. Then he stuck a finger into Wen Heyi’s mouth, yanked out the whole sticky chunk of malt candy stuck to his teeth, and tossed it on the ground. The candy was horribly tacky. Huo Fenghua wiped his hand on Wen Heyi’s sleeve, thinking as he did it that this “son” of his was nothing but trouble.

Ji Jing had been standing beside them the whole time, watching silently. Hu Dong had ordered Ji Jing to bring men tonight and follow Huo Fenghua to the riverbank to intercept the ferryboats. He carried his usual twin sabers on his back. All night, aside from monitoring the crossing, he’d been secretly sizing Huo Fenghua up, thinking this “Guangtou Qiang” looked unreliable while also knowing, deep down, that the man was dangerous and not to be underestimated.

Besides Ji Jing, Lan Shuilian had sent people too. It was a young woman named Hua Yuan, bringing along more than twenty tall, sturdy men. Tonight they would all follow Huo Fenghua’s command.

Hua Yuan and Hua Yang were twins. Since childhood they’d followed Lan Shuilian, learning to read and practice martial arts. They were famous in Wuhetan, and also Lan Shuilian’s most troublesome and formidable aides.

As Huo Fenghua wiped his hand on Wen Heyi’s sleeve, Hua Yuan quietly offered a silk handkerchief. Huo Fenghua paused, took it, and smiled. “I’ll return it after I wash it clean, Miss Hua.”

Hua Yuan turned her head away and said softly, “No need.”

Hua Yuan wore tight black clothes. In the moonlight she looked both alluring and graceful, her features clear and lovely. Ji Jing had long been interested in her, and at that moment he felt distinctly displeased. He gave a low cough and said to Huo Fenghua, “The ferry’s moving.”

Huo Fenghua planted one foot on a large rock beside him and looked toward the crossing. Sure enough, the covered ferryboat began to sway forward, moving along the rope stretched across the Wu River toward the far shore.

Upstream, seven or eight men in waterproof suits with ropes tied around their waists slipped beneath the surface and swam soundlessly toward midstream. Their job was to drill the boat once the first batch of Donglin soldiers boarded, when the ferry had left the far shore but hadn’t yet reached the center.

Huo Fenghua held his breath and focused. Only when the ferry reached the far side and the first group of Donglin soldiers had fully boarded did he raise one hand high and hook all five fingers inward, signaling them to move.

The ambushers followed, creeping closer to the crossing.

Huo Fenghua and Wen Heyi were in front. Each held a short blade. They snuck up behind the outer sentries, clamped hands over their mouths, and slit their throats.

The ferry, meanwhile, wobbled away from the far shore. Before it reached the middle of the river, sudden commotion broke out onboard. Someone had discovered water coming in through the bottom. With seven or eight men drilling at once, the water poured in fast. Moments later, the boat was flooded and began to sink, forcing the men aboard to jump into the river to save themselves.

Because the ferry hadn’t reached midstream yet and was much closer to the far shore, the Donglin soldiers who jumped in all swam back toward their own side.

The Shenlong Docks men at the crossing had no idea what was happening when a shout rang out, “Ambush!”

Huo Fenghua’s group stopped hiding and charged the crossing with loud yells. In an instant, they smashed through Shenlong Docks’s men, scattering them in every direction with no chance to fight back.

Huo Fenghua pulled a signal firework from his robe, lit the fuse, and launched it. It burst in midair, bright enough that all of Wuhetan could see it clearly.

At the same time, Hu Dong and Lan Shuilian had led their people to surround Shenlong Docks. Hu Dong accepted Bao Wentong’s severed head from a subordinate, then tossed it into Shenlong Docks’s inner courtyard over the wall and shouted, “Resist and die!”

After Third Master Luo’s power changed hands overnight, Wuhetan’s strongest force, Shenlong Docks, was also wiped out in a single night by the combined effort of Huo Fenghua, Hu Dong, and Lan Shuilian.

At the Wu River crossing, corpses lay everywhere. Those Shenlong Docks men who threw down their weapons and surrendered were now squatting on the ground, penned into a corner, forbidden to stand.

Huo Fenghua stood by the riverbank, gathered his inner energy, and shouted across the water, “Which general is leading troops on the far side? General, be at ease. This is an internal dispute within Wuhetan. It has nothing to do with Donglin. If you wish to enter the city to search for someone, send a messenger over and we’ll discuss terms!”

This stretch of the Wu River was nearly three hundred zhang wide. On the far shore, people were only faint silhouettes, yet Huo Fenghua’s voice carried over clearly.

A moment later, Huo Fenghua saw someone on the opposite bank raise a torch and wave it in a regular pattern.

He couldn’t read the signal, so he asked casually, “What’d they say?”

Wen Heyi suddenly said, “It means they’re willing to negotiate.”

Huo Fenghua’s heart jumped. He stared at Wen Heyi in shock, but Wen Heyi still looked blank and dazed. When he saw Huo Fenghua looking at him, he called out ingratiatingly, “Dad!”

Only then did Huo Fenghua relax a little. He figured it was something in Wen Heyi’s buried memory that slipped out, without him understanding it. He said to his men, “Send a small ferry over. Bring two people here for detailed talks.”

Not until before dawn did Huo Fenghua finally meet the commander leading the Donglin pursuers on the riverbank.

This was a garrison force stationed on Xichou’s northern border after Feng Tianzong had destroyed Xichou despite being ill. Their commander was a deputy general, nearly forty years old, named Luo Shicheng.

After meeting Luo Shicheng, Huo Fenghua realized this man wasn’t particularly passionate about capturing Feng Tianzong. Maybe from years steeped in camps and battlefields, his personality was slick and lazy. It had been him who’d sent men into the city to contact Bao Wentong and offer terms to get Bao Wentong to agree.

They met on a small ferryboat moored at the crossing. Huo Fenghua had people bring wine and dishes onboard, saying he wanted to share a cup of morning wine with Deputy General Luo.

Luo Shicheng lounged as he sat down, unfastened his shoulder armor and helmet, lifted the cup to his nose and sniffed. “Good wine.” Then he set it down again. “I don’t care about your Wuhetan affairs, but we must enter the city to search for Feng Tianzong. If not, I’ll have no choice but to send for reinforcements and fight our way in.”

Huo Fenghua smiled at him. “Deputy General Luo, rest assured. Isn’t that exactly why I’m inviting you into the city?”

Luo Shicheng looked at him.

Huo Fenghua said, “Wuhetan isn’t big. Five hundred troops entering the city would cause a stir. To be blunt, I’m just running gambling houses here to make money. I’m not Wuhetan’s master, and I can’t control all the people here. I’m only afraid that you won’t find Feng Tianzong and you’ll end up provoking other trouble.”

“So what are you proposing?” Luo Shicheng asked.

Huo Fenghua raised one hand, five fingers spread. “Fifty. Fifty men enter the city, and you can search however you want, but don’t disrupt Wuhetan’s order. If you bare your fangs and offend someone you shouldn’t, I can’t help you.”

Luo Shicheng stared at the cup, seemingly weighing it.

Huo Fenghua asked, “Deputy General Luo has definite intel that Feng Tianzong is in Wuhetan?”

Luo Shicheng replied, “Not exactly. Only that someone noticed they headed north. We have to search Wuhetan once, that’s all.”

Huo Fenghua smiled. “Then it’s perfect. I make things convenient for you, you make things convenient for me. After you’ve searched Wuhetan, you can go back and report. I keep making money here. We stay out of each other’s way. How about it?”

Luo Shicheng sized Huo Fenghua up, then finally lifted his cup.

Huo Fenghua clinked his cup against his. “Come, I’ll toast you.”

Luo Shicheng recalled the two men he’d previously sent in secret to contact Bao Wentong. Then he personally selected fifty men and entered the city to search for Feng Tianzong.

Huo Fenghua, together with Hu Dong, hosted Luo Shicheng’s squad, providing food and lodging to facilitate their search in Wuhetan, while also placing them under tight surveillance.

Afterward, Huo Fenghua met again with Hu Dong and Lan Shuilian at Shenlong Docks. They sat down and divided up Shenlong Docks’s territory. Huo Fenghua didn’t want to monopolize the Wu River route. He only wanted to open the waterway, so his next step could be building large ships and sending Bu Xian Xian to the Donglin coast, luring wealthy merchants onboard to indulge themselves.

But Shenlong Docks had been a massive organization. Even with the head cut off, the body was still tied together by tendons. Huo Fenghua had to stay outside, grinding through arrangements with Hu Dong and Lan Shuilian until everything was settled and nothing could go wrong. Only then did he hand off the current matters to Xiong’er to watch and return home to rest.

By then, two full days and nights had passed. During that time, Huo Fenghua barely slept.

He reached his bedroom door and was about to push it open when Su Zeyang happened to open it from inside, stepping out.

“Senior Brother…” Huo Fenghua drew the words out, then dove headfirst into Su Zeyang’s arms. He wrapped his arms around Su Zeyang’s waist and fell asleep on the spot.

Su Zeyang froze for a moment, then lifted him into his arms, carried him inside, and laid him gently on the bed.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>