Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 57 The Guardian Object: The Wind Lion, Occasionally Fighting
There really are ghosts and gods in this world!

Believers are responsible for offering incense to spirits and deities, and spirits and deities are responsible for protecting believers; this is the most fundamental contract between humans and gods.

Before the Han Dynasty, ghosts and gods were not separate entities. Superior ghosts roamed freely in their respective regions, and whether they did good or evil was entirely up to them.

Even the ghosts and gods of today possess both a divine title and a ghostly title, one for reward and the other for punishment.

If an ordinary assassin dares to use the cover of ghosts and gods to drug and assassinate someone, he will surely offend the ghosts and gods, and it will be no better than dancing on a grave. He will die a gruesome death that very night.

Although Prince Jinghai was a moderate advocate of appeasement, when it came to matters of divine authority, he would never hesitate to act decisively in such situations.

But you said it was my eldest son who offered incense?
That’ll be fine!
His raging anger vanished instantly, and he even smacked his lips in silent admiration.
"This child has been smart since he was a child."

This unconventional way of doing things...it's just like me! The Wang family's offspring are definitely the best!"

Furthermore, these traitors' subordinates betrayed the Cai Shui Wang family first, and then thought that Prince Jing would repay evil with kindness and protect them after they simply burned a few sticks of incense? That's really wishful thinking.

I don't know if it's just my imagination, but even the smoke from the burning incense seems to be more evenly distributed.

Moisturizes things silently!
At this point, not only was the lower deck below the waterline lacking air circulation, but after all the side gun ports were closed, there were very few ventilation openings inside the entire warship.

In addition, the interior of the sailing warships features a continuous deck, and there are almost no complete partitions or blind spots in the cabins.

The effects of the sleeping potion were naturally maximized in a closed environment.

Thump, thump. Layer upon layer of crew members collapsed, their various advanced firearms rendered useless, turning into piles of decorative fire sticks.

In just half an incense stick's time, the unexpected incense attack easily wiped out most of the ship's fighting force.

Wang Cheng also realized that he seemed to have inadvertently discovered a new continent:

"A closed sailing warship at sea is a perfect match for the rooster's crow and the incense of returning to the soul."

"I'll come again next time if I have the chance—oh no, I mean, to show my filial piety to my elderly father."

He raised his hand and sent out a paper crane made of talisman paper to notify Zhang Fushun to come to his aid, and stepped onto the stairs leading to the open deck.

Next, he needs to face the most difficult task: take down the sailors on duty tonight, as well as Cui Sheng, the seventh-rank official captain!

Perhaps because this parachuted-in captain couldn't fit into the Japanese circle, he didn't go into the cabin to celebrate with them, but instead stayed on the deck with seven or eight of his personal guards.

They had shields arranged in a circle, a brazier in front of them, wine and meat, and were all wrapped in furs, but the cold wind still kept seeping into their bones; the conditions were truly harsh.

Fortunately, most of these people were skilled in both internal and external training, otherwise they really wouldn't have been able to persevere.

After Cui Sheng finished his New Year's toast, seeing that the crowd's morale was still somewhat low, he raised his glass to encourage them:

"Brothers, as early as the second day after we started hunting down those Tanka people, I sent a message about the situation here to our partners in Yuegang."

He said that the eldest daughter of the Han family was terrible with directions, and the ship captain who was specially assigned to guide her was that damned kid from ahead.

Without this kid and his Star-Tracing Technique and Needle Map, the [Han Xingfa] wouldn't have been able to return at all. The [Monkey Showmen] in Yuegang will handle that; we don't need to worry about it anymore.

“We’ve been having a tough time lately, but the little fishing boats up ahead are having it even worse.”

"Brothers, hold on for two more days at most. Once we take down that fishing boat, we'll head straight back to Yingzhou. After we get to port, I'll find a group of the youngest geishas to treat you all to a good meal!"

Hearing Choi Seung's grand promises, the group of imperial guards weren't particularly impressed by the geishas with their pale faces and blackened teeth.

But after spending so much time at sea, the sheep in the pen and my own brothers all seem quite handsome.

When the time comes, just cover your face, and it will look exactly the same.

If all else fails, go find a respectable woman to climb around with at night.

No woman from Yingzhou would refuse a night with these Dazhao people, who averaged 1.7 meters tall, hoping to leave behind offspring.

Anyway, they were having a great time stationing troops in the major ports of Yingzhou.

Just as the guards were about to raise their glasses to thank their ship's captain for his generosity, one of the guards, who was huddled in a corner of the bulwark and responsible for keeping watch on the Zhang Fushun, suddenly shouted loudly:

"Hey, the fishing boat ahead has turned and is coming towards us at a fast speed!"

Everyone suddenly stood up and turned to look.

The Zhang Fushun, which had been sailing against the north wind in the same direction as them, suddenly turned around and rammed into them like a knight charging forward. It first lowered its sails to slow down and sailed alongside the Ziying, then turned around and rammed into them.

The fishing boat was filled with the scent of incense. The Lion Head's ability, [Ghost Head Wind], was fully activated, and the whistling wind dispersed the wind and snow, filling the sails so that the latter had no time to dodge.

The guards had just discovered the anomaly and sounded the alarm when the Zhang Fushun ship had already charged forward.

clang!clang!clang!
But what surprised everyone even more was that no matter how loud the alarm bells rang, the Japanese who were celebrating in the cabin did not react at all, and there was not even a sound of them running.

Cui Sheng roared in anger:
"Go and see what's going on! If they dare disobey my orders and drink to cause trouble, I'll have them all commit seppuku!"

The two guards closest to the hatch rushed down to call for help.

But they had barely disappeared into the darkness beneath the hatch when a sharp, dragon-like clang of a blade echoed across the deck. Two figures were thrown out and landed on the deck, already reduced to two gruesome corpses with blood trickling from their brows.

Then a footstep sounded in the darkness, "thump thump thump," like heavy hammer blows striking their hearts.

Everyone's expression changed drastically.

"Enemy attack! The enemy has already boarded the ship."

"What about those Japanese? Were they all taken care of by one person?"

Impossible, absolutely impossible! "

Just as morale was in disarray, the Zhang Fushun ship had already reached the Ziying ship.

Boom!

Side impact, reverse boarding.

Zhang Wu/Zhang Wen: "Brothers, follow me and kill them—!"

The Zi Ying ship shook violently. Taking advantage of the moment when the stonemason Cui Sheng and his personal guards lost their footing, a lithe figure in a wetsuit shot out from the hatch.

Together with the Tanka people who had jumped aboard the Ziying by a rope, he pulled out a crudely made three-barreled musket.

"Fire!"

The fuses of the muskets had long been tied together, and the gunpowder and iron shot from the three powder chambers were poured out together.

The attack enveloped Cui Sheng and his group, who had instinctively huddled together after being intimidated by the feint.

At such close range, whether it's your temple's ghost soldiers or your heavily armored ironclad cavalry, they would all be riddled with holes.

"Ah! Don't even think about it!"

Stonemason Cui Sheng was, after all, a seventh-rank official who had been granted a title and was in the ranks of the elite. The moment he saw dozens of three-eyed muskets pointed at him, he immediately realized what was happening.

He immediately reached into the sharkskin pouch at his waist, pulled out a stone whistle shaped like an upright stone lion, put it to his lips, and blew hard.

With just a fleeting glimpse, the "rare commodity" technique helped Wang Cheng glean information about the stone lion.

This is also a talismanic object, but it is of a very low level, a "Wind Lion" that is a treasure of a county among the national, state, prefecture, and county levels.

It belongs to a branch of the Minzhou stone lion worship, and its main function is to suppress wind and ward off evil spirits. They are mostly distributed in the windy places along the coast or islands to prevent wind damage.

In the hands of those who practiced the Lu Ban method, it acquired other ingenious uses; it could be used to avoid harm, or it could be used to harm others.

call--!
A biting, eerie wind swept by, carrying with it dozens of colorful, ghostly figures with lion heads and human bodies.

One after another, soft arms that seemed to melt in the wind grabbed Cui Sheng’s shoulders and arms, lifting him up like pulling up a radish, and landing him on a sail that was thicker and longer than a roof beam above his head.

The next moment, all of his personal guards lay dead in pools of blood at his feet!

A group of Tanka people abandoned their three-eyed muskets, which had become fire pokers and were difficult to reload in a short time, and drew their sabers and ring-pommel swords from their waists, surrounding Cui Sheng from all sides.

Especially the Zhang brothers, Wu and Wen, who had already lit the lamp of their hearts, walked at the front of the group, one holding a knife and the other a stick.

Seeing his personal guard, which he had painstakingly trained, wiped out in a surprise attack, Cui Sheng's eyes widened in fury:
"I want you to die!"

A pair of disheveled, naked ceramic figurines, seemingly locked in combat, were thrown onto the deck.

Snapped!
The terracotta figures exploded, revealing many grayish-white human faces that rushed to crawl into the bodies of the corpses on the ground.

Then, a group of corpses opened their gray eyes, twitched, and got up again.

They drew their swords and charged at a group of Tanka people despite being outnumbered.

Spells of Curse: Occasionally, a Battle of Wits!

Relying on this fearless and unorthodox skill, he managed to temporarily restrain a group of Tanka people.

Just as the stonemason was about to use his skills again, Wang Cheng had already rushed up the main spandrel along the net-like side support cables.

Without saying a word, he swung his knife at Cui Sheng, who had hurriedly put down the "Wind Lion" and was using three short sticks twisted into one long stick to defend himself.

Wang Cheng knew that the Lu Ban School was skilled in the art of cursing and had experienced several battles of magic with officials of the third rank, but this was the first time he had fought them head-on.

It was precisely because they knew that direct combat was never the forte of these carpenters, stonemasons, and bricklayers that they dared to challenge him to a one-on-one duel.

Suddenly, knives and clubs clashed.

clang--!
Amidst the heavy snowfall, a bolt of lightning suddenly erupted from the massive sails of the sailing warship.

(End of this chapter)