Chapter Seven

“Avoid the authorities? Why?” Zhang Wu was taken aback, but instinctively obeyed Wang Cheng’s suggestion. He turned the boat away from the Jiulong River estuary and headed for the floating settlements of the Tanka people.

After all, they were boat-dwellers, making their homes on the water and leaving no vulnerabilities on land. Even if they accidentally left some trace behind, there was no need to worry about being manipulated.

Wang Cheng didn’t rush to answer his question. His gaze once more fell on the information he had just glimpsed.

Within the illusory pavilions and towers in the Money Eye, a new object had appeared: a cloud-patterned seal, its main motif an abstract Water Ghost—Ghostly Skill: Turtle-Headed Form!

Five Divine Skills: Cultivation, Karma, Reliance, Demonic, and Ghostly—each with a different origin. After Wang Cheng shot down the leader of the Water Ghosts, he had, in passing, collected this very ability from his foe.

At the same time, after the line “Taboo: Pure Yang objects...” another appeared:

“Profitless deals are still deals. Kill the owner, salvage the scrap, and randomly ‘purchase’ one relic from the opponent!”

Seeing this, what more could Wang Cheng say? The “Rare Goods for Sale” function of the Mountain Ghost’s expenditures seemed, on the surface, to be a treasure for facilitating trade, but as noted, even profitless deals count as deals.

As long as he could kill the original owner, all their wealth, curiosities, and secret arts could potentially be reclaimed as his own.

Were not the sea traders who ventured out much the same? In an instant, a “licensed” sea merchant could become a “pirate” with nothing to lose.

“The method of use lies in the heart. I like it!” Even if only a single relic could be acquired at random—and most of the time it would be junk—it was already extraordinary.

Like any other commodity, whatever Wang Cheng reclaimed was his to use or sell.

There was no need for the buyer to study arcane arts or tactics; whoever bought this Ghostly Skill would instantly become a new Water Ghost.

When he tired of it, he could simply retrieve it into the Money Eye and sell it to someone else.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Wang Cheng’s suggestion that Zhang Wu lie low for a while; the real issue was the identity of the Water Ghost leader.

Water Ghost: Pu Shoucheng, age 24. Ostensibly a ship leader under Xu Hai, Grand General of the Pirates, but in truth, a go-between for Xu Hai and the powerful coastal gentry, disguised as a foreign pirate.

Obsession: On the clan leader’s orders, to block the waters within two hundred li of the Jiulong River estuary, intercepting and destroying all ships returning today...

A cold gleam flashed in Wang Cheng’s eyes.

“A complete blockade of the estuary? They’re after me! This man’s surname is Pu—likely from one of the southeastern gentry families, masquerading as a pirate. The Water Ghosts’ invasion is just a smokescreen.”

There was something that would seem utterly counterintuitive to ordinary coastal people: those so-called “pirates” might be savage, but regardless of which of the sixty-six island kingdoms they hailed from, many were just hounds raised by the various powers of the Great Zhao Dynasty.

Xu Hai, Grand General of the Pirates, was not their only master.

The truly fearless brutes who charged at the front and even fought over an iron pot were the genuine pirates. The higher-ranked, lazier ones lurking in the rear were impostors and guides.

Behind these impostor pirates always lurked the “pirate faction” of water traders and the shadows of the mighty families of Great Zhao.

Think on it: besides the water traders, who among the common folk could afford to buy ships, hire crews, and participate in maritime trade or plunder?

The real players were the powerful officials, the great clans, the aristocrats, and the wealthy merchants!

Especially after seeing this Pu as the Water Ghost leader, Wang Cheng had his suspicions.

The real reason the authorities betrayed their promises, first pacifying and then turning on his family, was most likely because his father, the Sea-Pacifying King, had offended those same smuggling gentry and local dignitaries!

At the very least, it was one of the reasons.

Wang Cheng was no longer the naive youth he once had been. He knew full well that the interests of an organization as a whole and those of its managers or enforcers seldom truly aligned.

When commands from the central government reach the local officials, a complete reversal is nothing surprising.

He pondered inwardly:

The Water Ghosts’ rapid response showed that their backers were deeply involved in the Wang family’s extermination, and in the shamanic ritual that sent off the royal vessel to fill the sea eye—they had been prepared in advance. Indeed, they must have known at once that he had survived, and so lay in wait along the coast.

If they could sink royal ships to fill the sea, there was no doubt they meant to eradicate all traces.

Fortunately, even the sovereign of a nation could not completely ban the sea; their blockade would not last long.

A few days in hiding, and he could slip back in.

He looked again at the information drawn from “Rare Goods for Sale”:

“Pu Shoucheng? And acting on the Pu clan leader’s orders? Perhaps this Pu family is the breakthrough—a thread I can tug to unravel the mastermind behind it all.”

At this, Wang Cheng began to form a plan.

He looked back at the confused Zhang Wu and Zhang Wen, and the rest of the boatmen.

From the perspective of “Wang Wealth,” he delivered news that would shatter the lives of all East Sea traders and Tanka boat-dwellers:

“Before we encountered these Water Ghosts, I wasn’t entirely sure. But now, I think I understand why they aren’t afraid of the Five Peaks Banner.

“Do you remember I insisted you all stay at sea at least four days?”

The crowd felt a growing sense of dread and pressed him: “Why?”

Wang Cheng sighed.

“Because four days ago, when the court was supposedly negotiating the pacification of the Sea-Pacifying King, they suddenly turned and ambushed the entire Wang clan.

“Last night, before I fell into the water, I glimpsed two royal ships passing through the estuary into the East Sea—half a month earlier than scheduled. At the time I thought I was mistaken, but now I am certain: the sea god pushed out to sea by the authorities yesterday—the ‘Royal Duke’—was the Sea-Pacifying King himself, newly dead!”

“What?! Impossible!”

“The Sea-Pacifying King was the greatest water trader of our time—how could he have died? How could he?”

Meeting their disbelieving gazes, Wang Cheng mercilessly shattered their last hopes.

“The very fact that these Water Ghosts dare to rampage again proves that the Sea-Pacifying King can no longer protect these waters—or any water trader or boat-dweller in the world.

“What we have suffered today is just the beginning. All coastal people must prepare for great upheaval.

“With the mutual-trade leader fallen, the next decade, from the coasts of Great Zhao to the East Sea islands and the southern seas, will belong to the pirates.”

At this, Zhang Wu, Zhang Wen, and the rest of the crew were utterly convinced. Their eyes reddened; sorrow welled up on every face.

They turned as one to face the sea eye and the forbidden mountains, and solemnly knocked their heads to the deck three times.

According to folk belief: “One bow for ancestors, three for gods, four for ghosts.” Three bows was a god’s rite; four was for ghosts.

Their triple kowtow meant that, instinctively, these Tanka already regarded the departed Wang Zheng as a sea god, caring nothing for whether he was truly sent off on a royal vessel.

Zhang Wu wiped his eyes and instructed his brother to erect a god-statue for the “Royal Duke” as soon as they landed, to be enshrined on their fishing boat as the ship’s deity.

Seeing Wang Cheng’s surprised expression, he forced a wan smile.

“Scholar, forgive us.

“You’ve always studied in the prefectural city, and don’t know the ways of the sea. The Royal Duke is the sky to us boat-dwellers and fisherfolk.

“If I may risk my head to say it, the court has always been harsh on us southeastern folk! In addition to the regular tax, there’s the boat tax, the fishing levy, the salt duty, and all manner of invented fees. In some places, we even have to tribute pearls, tortoiseshell, turtle skins, and rare shells. Worst of all are the endless corvées.

“It was only in these three years, with the Royal Duke guarding the East Sea and allowing us to trade, that we saw any hope at all.”

Zhang Wen, who had read a few books, added:

“No people in the realm suffer more from forced labor than those in the southeast. The great families have all kinds of ways to pass taxes and labor down to commoners. Our land here in Min Prefecture is eight parts mountain, one part water, a bare fraction of fields. If not for the sea, how could we amass enough to satisfy the gentry’s endless exactions?

“We boat-dwellers truly owe the Royal Duke a great debt.

“This very ‘Zhang Fushun’ was bought with the profits my father saved during those three good years. They say adding a boat is like adding a son; most boats bear their owner’s surname. See this boat, and you know the Royal Duke was a benefactor to the Zhangs and countless others.”

The other boatmen agreed:

“We Tanka may be illiterate, but one thing is certain—we are united, and we repay kindness!

“The Royal Duke was one of us, striving to lift us from our lowly status, to give our children a future.

“He was our sun.

“He gave everything for the water traders and the lifting of the sea ban—even his life and his family’s. We may be born low and fit for nothing else, but we will never let the Wang line’s incense die out.

“I imagine the other boat-folk ashore, having heard the news, are already burning incense and bowing in his honor.”

For the first time, Wang Cheng felt the true weight of the title “Sea-Pacifying King” in the hearts of the boat people, and his throat tightened.

He realized, perhaps, that this was the most precious inheritance his father had left him.

Pride surged within him, but so too did hope for breaking the sea ban in the future—because he had the people’s hearts.

He looked at the crowd, who felt they had spoken out of turn and now hesitated, and waved his hand dismissively.

“The dynasty has its own laws. The Royal Duke’s cult is an official one; there’s nothing to avoid. Once the shamanic ritual is complete and the royal ship sent off, he is automatically entered into the official pantheon—not a criminal nor an illicit god. He can be worshipped openly; even the sovereign would not dare violate the ‘Twenty-Four Seasonal Rites.’

“I’m a scholar; I know the law better than you do. Rest easy.”

The boatmen were overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly.

They did not know that the Sea-Pacifying King’s heir before them already had other plans.

Previously, Wang Cheng had been too pressed to consider “stockpiling talent,” even when he encountered two men of county-level ability. But after the Water Ghosts’ attack, he had changed his mind.

He must gather talent—the sooner, the better!

Recall that when the Han Emperor founded his dynasty, his core team were all fellow townsmen from Pei County—not because all the realm’s great talents were born there, but because they gathered by fate, honed by chaos, and grew into statesmen.

Starting from nothing, except for a few key figures, training up local talent was entirely sufficient.

The world’s most gifted swordsman might be the beggar who just froze to death on the next street, but without the right circumstances, even a true dragon might as well be a worm.

The Zhang brothers—one with a “Forgetful Fate,” the other a “Lucky Fate”—could both be developed into capable leaders.

But now was not the time to reveal this directly, for even if Wang Cheng aspired to be the successor of the water traders, he still lacked the most crucial resource—money!

He felt his empty sleeves and once again tasted the terror of poverty from his previous life.

“Never mind that the identity of the Sea-Pacifying King’s heir cannot yet be revealed; even if one day it is made public, how could I secure my followers’ loyalty without one thing?

“It must be silver—white, shining silver!”