Chapter 548 (1/2)

Chapter 548: 548

That envoy had finally told the truth . It was indeed true that not all those who had ventured into those waters had gone missing, but there were only a couple of survivors, and after making it out of that place alive, all of them had looked much the worse for wear and panic-stricken and kept telling people that there were monsters on the island in those waters, but they hadn’t been able to give a detailed description of the monsters and appeared demented .

It had been the king of this statelet who had been the first to have the survivors arrested and interrogated . During the interrogation, one of them had regained part of his sanity and claimed that there was a stone city and a magnificent palace on that island, the likes of which n.o.body had ever seen before, that there were countless treasures in it, but all those who entered the stone city fell prey to the defensive measures in it and got killed; those who managed to land on the island fought each other to get a bigger share of the treasure, and a lot of them died in the fighting; there were bodies everywhere; some who valued their lives more fled the island, but after leaving the island, they found themselves wreathed in thick fog and unable to find the correct direction; they were trapped in the fog for a very long time and afterward, in order to survive, they started killing their companions; when the last few of them were trying to kill each other, there was an earthquake which dispersed the fog, enabling them to find their way back and saving them from the fate of dying on the sea .

“The envoy said all the others who had come back with that man had gone crazy, that that man was the only one having enough sanity left to speak normally . Right now all of them are locked up in a dungeon beneath the royal palace . Their king, after hearing about the tons of treasures in the stone city, wanted to take possession of them all, so he pretended to cooperate with the monarch of the Fangcun Kingdom, planning to use the latter’s men to deal with those maniacs and defensive measures on the island while his own men transfer the treasures . The reason why he doesn’t dare join hands with us is because there are too many of us for his men to handle,” recounted Yao Yi .

It was exactly what Ling Zhang had conjectured . All the others were indignant after hearing the story .

“This king is such a wily old fox . We would sure as h.e.l.l be hoodwinked by him had Brother Zhang not thought of this,” said Yuwen Jin .

“Right now our first priority is to figure out where that island is specifically,” said Ling Zhang as he looked at Yao Yi . “Does that envoy know anything about it?”

Yao Yi shook his head . “No . Their king and the one in charge of the flotilla are the only ones having knowledge of that . ”

Ling Zhang switched his gaze to Yuwen Tong, who gave it some thought and then said, “We need to find that survivor . Here’s how we’ll work it out – we get ash.o.r.e right away instead of waiting until night, and then Brother Zhang and I will pay their king a visit and distract him; Brother Ji and my grandfather-in-law will take that envoy to the royal palace, find that dungeon and bust that survivor out . ”

Neither Ji Yanlai nor Ji Yin raised any objections, so the fleet slowly pulled up to the port .

…

“Welcome, welcome, Your Majesty . Please forgive me for not having come here sooner to meet you . ”

The king of the statelet had been startled when informed that the fleet of the Great Wen had docked . Baffled as to why Yuwen Tong had suddenly changed his mind, he had promptly taken some men and come to the port to welcome Yuwen Tong .

Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang disembarked from the vessel at a gentle pace, making towards the group of men welcoming them .

At the same time, Ji Yin and Ji Yanlai, pinioning the envoy, had quietly left the vessel from the other side . They were so fast none of those coming to welcome them noticed .

…

The royal palace was not very big . Ji Yin and Ji Yanlai, with their superb kung fu, soon made a circuit of it . The envoy, pinned to Ji Yanlai’s side, didn’t dare make a sound . Though aware that he was betraying the king, he was too scared to yell for help, knowing that his life was in Ji Yanlai’s hands .

The envoy being cooperative, Ji Yanlai and Ji Yin found the entrance to the dungeon beneath the royal palace when Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong, accompanied by that king, were halfway to the palace .

“Thi–This is the place . It’s guarded . n.o.body can get in without the king’s authorization,” said the envoy tremulously .

Ji Yanlai snorted and, with a swift wave of his hand, a couple of leaves (n.o.body knew when he had picked them) shot out and hit the Mobility Acupoints of the five guards outside the entrance, immobilizing all of them .

“Let’s go inside,” said Ji Yanlai before he gripped the envoy by the scruff of the neck and swooshed through the entrance like the wind . The guards, panic-stricken from their sudden loss of mobility, saw two white figures flash past them like ghosts . They couldn’t even tell whether those were human beings or not, let alone see what they looked like . Though ghosts were believed to appear only at night, the guards still felt fine beads of cold sweat breaking out over their backs .

This dungeon beneath the palace was used for holding felons, but there were not many guards in it .

Like the palace above, this prison was also small . It didn’t even stack up against any of the prefectural prisons in the Great Wen .

Ji Yanlai, playing the same old trick, prodded the Sleep Acupoints of all the guards and, after they limply sank to the ground, had the envoy lead the two of them to the cells where the couple of local pirates who had escaped from the island were locked up .

Several of the pirates got scared and started shouting at the sight of Ji Yanlai and the other two, cowering into the corners of their cells, babbling on in a foreign language neither Ji Yanlai nor Ji Yin understood .

The envoy stammeringly interpreted for the two of them . “Th–They take you for monsters . They’re terrified . ”

Ji Yin inquired, “Where’s the one of sound mind?”

The envoy responded, “I’ll need some time to find him . It’s my first time being here as well . ”

It was true that the envoy had never had the chance to come here to meet that pirate, for he had been in their company throughout their journey to this country .

Ji Yanlai let go of him . “Find him,” he instructed .

Not daring defy Ji Yanlai, the envoy immediately started searching and soon found that pirate in a separate cell .

The pirate warily sized up Ji Yanlai and Ji Yin and then, holding the bars with his hands, babbled to the envoy for a few moments, agitation written all over his face .

“What did you say to him?” Ji Yanlai asked the envoy .

The envoy twisted his head around and started trembling all over as he met Ji Yanlai’s gaze, his eyes becoming unfocused . In a monotonous voice, he said, “I asked him if he knows the specific location of the island . ”