Chapter 1083: Sea Disaster in the Bay

This surprise attack continued until they had stolen six large ships and the remaining vessels, alerted, heightened their vigilance.

Watching these large ships sail towards Luting Beach, Wulu decisively ordered: "Send the remaining ships in pursuit."

"Yes!"

Previously, several small boats had been transporting Bailong people at Luting Beach, but Wulu hadn't paid them much mind. The small boats couldn't carry many people, and those transported were mostly women and children. These large ships, however, were different; each could carry at least three to five hundred people. With just a few more trips, several thousand Bailong people could successfully escape.

There were islands thirty li off the coast, and once the Bailong people escaped Storm Bay, it would be difficult for him to catch them again.

Fortunately, these large ships were moving very slowly, sometimes motionless on the sea, sometimes turning in circles. Clearly, the Bailong people controlling them were not very skilled. At this speed, they could easily be overtaken.

The Yaguo people released the boatmen on shore, ordering them to operate the ships. Following Wulu's command, two hundred elite soldiers were dispatched to the large ships and twenty to the small ones, and they vigorously pursued. It must be said that Wulu's army had strong execution; within a quarter of an hour, more than a dozen ships had set sail.

Between Storm Bay and Luting Beach lay a long natural reef. Ships had to bypass it to reach Luting Beach. In a game of chase, both sides were quickly over a hundred zhang from shore.

The golden eagle also pursued, circling above the escaping large ships. Soon, it noticed something moving on one of the sails, but it was obscured by the canvas, and thick patches of fog were rolling in, enveloping the sails, making it difficult to discern.

The object moved again. What was that...? It flew lower to get a closer look; it appeared to be a person! Someone was standing on top of the canvas. As the eagle circled closer again, the canvas on one side of the bow was blown open by the wind, and the person suddenly came face to face with the golden eagle!

It was a Yaguo soldier, but his hands were tied behind his back, and he was dangling and swaying from the mast, with cloth stuffed in his mouth! This was the ship's original guard. Why would the ship thieves tie him up there?

Still somewhat confused, the eagle suddenly saw a shadow emerge from the bottom of a short sail. It was a young Bailong man, with loose braids tied back, staring intently at it. Dressed in yellowish-brown, the same color as the canvas, he was difficult to spot when standing behind the sail. The man held a crossbow. Just as the canvas was blown open, the golden eagle spotted two dark crossbow bolt tips aimed directly at it!

Startled, it tried to turn and flap its wings to leave, but the opponent was quicker, pressing the trigger mechanism. With a soft 'tseng' sound, almost drowned out by the wind, the special crossbow bolts, starting as two, split into four, then eight... The longer the distance, the faster they would multiply.

Fortunately, the distance between them was only about twelve zhang, and the crossbow bolts only split three times before reaching the golden eagle. The golden eagle was terrified, leaping upwards and suddenly retracting its wings to reduce its target size. Even so, the sixteen arrows covered a large area, and at least three hit it!

This was "Arrow Locust," one of the magical artifacts gifted to He Lingchuan by Wang Xingyi, the State Preceptor of Mou. He Lingchuan had previously found the "Pear Blossom Needles in a Rainstorm" to be too labor-intensive and material-consuming. Coincidentally, the weapon smiths of Ling Mountain shared this view, so the "Arrow Locust" they created possessed a "fission" ability: the greater the firing distance, the more arrows would split off.

If fired from a hundred zhang away, disregarding accuracy, the resulting shower of arrows would be as dense as a swarm of locusts. This was originally an area-of-effect ability and a powerful weapon for mass casualties, but considering the golden eagle's agility and Wan Qifeng's unstable position on the swaying mast, He Lingchuan lent him the artifact, knowing his aim wouldn't be as precise as usual.

However, the golden eagle was protected by primal energy and its wings generated strong winds, deflecting several arrows. Nevertheless, it was wounded, with two new holes in its wings, making it impossible to ride the wind; it could only fall into the sea. This was Wan Qifeng's objective: simply to shoot it down, thereby depriving the Yaguo people of their aerial view.

Wulu hissed, feeling a dull ache in his ribs. The golden eagle was his spirit beast, capable of sharing its vision with him. However, when he used this ability, their fields of vision would overlap and influence each other. This meant that when the golden eagle shared its vision with him, its keen eyesight would be limited by human vision, making it less sharp than usual.

It was the same for He Lingchuan and his Eyeball Spider. There was a price to pay for real-time observation with one's own eyes. Furthermore, according to the spirit beast contract, if the eagle was injured, Wulu also had to bear a portion of the damage.

"Damn him!" Once he caught this Bailong man, he would personally execute him! Just then, two small boats suddenly capsized on the sea.

Wulu thought the boatmen were up to something, but when he looked through his spyglass, his eyes widened instantly! Serpent-people, again! But these were much larger, several zhang long at least, comparable to medium-sized whales. They worked together, grabbing the small boats and shaking them furiously. The soldiers on board didn't even have time to cry out before the boats capsized!

They used the same method against the large ships. However, capsizing a large ship was more difficult. Fortunately, the serpent-people had another tactic.

These cargo ships had been borrowed by Bailie from Blade Port. To carry more people, their cargo holds had been emptied before departure, so they lacked heavy ballast and were therefore shaken violently. The angle of their sway easily exceeded ninety degrees, and on several occasions, the inside of the gunwale was pushed below the waterline.

They were experienced in attacking ships, knowing they didn't need to grapple with these humans who couldn't swim well. They only needed to force them into the water. The sea would do the rest for them.

With such extreme swaying, neither the boatmen nor the sailors could withstand it, let alone the Yaguo soldiers! They were accustomed to solid ground, growing up on land. When faced with such violent pitching, most of them couldn't react in time and simply fell into the water.

From too far away, Wulu couldn't hear, but he could imagine the screams of his soldiers falling into the water. *Plop-plop*, the sea surface was remarkably lively, as if dumplings were being dropped in. This was a shipwreck happening right in the bay!

Even observing from the shore, this scene was exceptionally tragic and shocking. Without exception, all the ships pursuing the Bailong people had stopped; they were either capsized or their soldiers were fighting the serpent-people on deck, each in hysterics. Who could still pay attention to the escaping targets ahead?

"What in the world are these things!" So fierce in the water? Wulu's face turned ashen. Unconsciously, he tightened his grip, almost crushing his spyglass. He had miscalculated; there were actually giant beasts among these serpent-people! They had simply been hidden in the sea before. The sea actually hid such large creatures capable of attacking ships.

These Yaguo soldiers, born inland, were not skilled swimmers. After falling into the water, they could only flail and cry for help, utterly useless. The Yin Hui nearby swam over and easily began to slaughter them! Several Yin Hui, with arrows still embedded in their bodies, killed with particular vigor, splashing blood across the sea surface. Earlier, soldiers had shot arrows at them from the ships, and the primal energy had caused them considerable pain. Well, karma had arrived quickly!

Seeing his soldiers struggling in the water and being massacred, Wulu urgently ordered his subordinates to rush to the reef for rescue. They fired arrows at the Yin Hui in the water while also shooting rope-arrows or rope-spears to the drowning soldiers, allowing them to grasp the ropes for easier retrieval by those on shore.

The serpent-people moved like dragons in the water; humans absolutely dared not enter the sea. Wulu's quick thinking to come up with this method in haste was truly sharp, and at the same time, he didn't forget to send reinforcements to Luting Beach to stabilize the situation. Of the one thousand three hundred soldiers who had pursued by ship, most were now flailing in the water. Adding the two thousand six hundred men besieging the Bailong people, he still had over two thousand three hundred troops available to deploy. Of these two thousand three hundred-plus men, four hundred were sent to rescue their comrades in the water.

Immediately after, battle cries resounded from the northeast: The Bailie and Bailong people were attacking Storm Bay! This army had been in defensive contraction for a long time, and after Wan Qitong's serious injury, they had even been in disarray, making the Yaguo people feel victory was within reach. Yet, in just a short time, they had shifted from defense to offense, launching a fierce assault on the Yaguo army that had been encircling them! Clearly, they intended to seize this opportunity and launch a coordinated attack with the serpent-people.

Wulu couldn't help but sneer. Did the Bailong clan truly think they could turn the tide of battle with just these serpent-people? Naive!

With thirteen hundred soldiers in the water, Wulu's troop deployment was certainly less flexible than before, but the remaining nearly two thousand soldiers were more than sufficient to suppress this counterattack from the Bailong clan! His army had fought in shifts and was well-rested, whereas the opposing Bailong clan had struggled and fought for ten hours; though resilient and brave, they were at the end of their tether.

This final wave of attack was like a dying flicker. If the Yaguo people could suppress it successfully again, the Bailong clan would be broken! Therefore, Wulu, far from being alarmed, was delighted. He immediately dispatched another seventeen hundred men to attack Luting Beach, keeping only two hundred personal guards by his side. The opponent's reinforcements had appeared; once a trump card was revealed, it was no longer a trump card. Now it was his turn to play his hand. With his command, the army mobilized instantly.

The battle at Luting Beach once again intensified. With the addition of these seventeen hundred men, the situation immediately changed. The Bailong people's fierce bravery was no match for the overwhelming numerical disparity and the gap in primal energy.

Wulu had originally intended to slowly wear them down, achieving final victory with minimal casualties, but now he had changed his mind. The end of this campaign was fast approaching, wasn't it? He also admired the Bailong people's tenacity, so he thought, let the Wan Qi family, with all their resilience and bravery, fall into oblivion forever!

After a long while, a trusted subordinate arrived with a soldier: "General, this man has details about the sea beasts to report." This was exactly what Wulu urgently needed. "Speak," he commanded.

The Yaguo soldier replied, "Reporting, General, these serpent-like monsters are called 'Yin Hui,' as my brother once told me. They are unique to the Yangshan Archipelago in the west."

Wulu's heart stirred as he remembered the Bailong captives saying their reinforcements came from the west.

"My elder brother is a merchant and often travels to and from Blade Port in the west," the soldier continued. "He said the Yangshan Archipelago, opposite the port, originally belonged to Bailie but was covered in a malevolent miasma and infested with man-eating Yin Hui, making it inaccessible to humans. Later, Bailie sold the area to someone else, and surprisingly, the miasma over the islands receded. Since then, the Yin Hui, born of that malevolent energy, have coexisted peacefully with ships and humans."

"Coexisted peacefully with humans, yet attacked the Yaguo people hundreds of li away?" Wulu frowned. "Who subdued them? The person who bought the islands?"