The ship was waggling violently. At first Young Master Han thought they had encountered stormy waves.

As a veteran sailor, he could easily handle a storm like this. The turbulence did not affect the journey in the least. He marched ahead and was even in a good mood to joke around with the servants, “Whoever is at the helm, tell him not to disturb my wedding night with my lady!”

Servants smiled and teased him, “The Madam of the Young Master seems rather fragile. You need to treat her dearly! I hope you are not the only one who can get out of bed tomorrow morning. We would also like to pay respects to the Madam!”

Before their voice died away, they all heard a snap over their heads. Then howling down from the sky was the sound of a whoosh, which made the watchman let out a cry. A string of poundings was heard afterwards as if the deck had been battered with countless sundries all at once!

“What is going on?” Young Master Han suddenly grew stern. Instead of getting back inside the room, he held Sheng Weiqiao up and stepped closer to the deck, shouting sharply, “What are you doing on the deck?!”

“Young Master, something bad happened!” Before someone could check things out, people on the deck rushed inside in haste, shrieking, “Young Master, it is the Wuyi Battalion! The Battalion of the family of Gongsun!!! They shot down our mainsail. We can"t go anywhere now!”

Young Master Han was startled, “Wuyi Battalion?! Didn"t they all die covering the retreat of Gongsun Su?! Though a few of them maybe got away, how is it possible for them to grow strong in a matter of months?!”

The Battalion, consisting of only dozens of people, was the trump card of the family of Gongsun. Han Family and Pan Family were frightened out of their wits by this Battalion. Putting suspicion aside, even Young Master Han himself was careful not to let down his guard!

He was in no mood to enjoy the wedding night! Throwing Sheng Weiqiao aside and alerting the crew to keep an eye on their surroundings, he hurried onto the deck. With the dim light from the sunset, he saw a ship approaching rapidly towards them!

What caused Young Master"s pupils to shrink all of a sudden was that at the head of the towering ship stood a man, wearing a feathered black cloak with his long-untied hair fluttering wantonly against the backdrop of the dark golden setting sun. He wore a mask, which covered most of his face and left out only his snow-white jaw. The mask was carved into the shape of a crow fluttering its wings. Under the hollowed-out eyes of the crow laid a pair of eyes, staring at them coldly without a faint of emotions!

“Wuyi Crow Slaughterer! He"s not dead?!” The eye contact with this man astounded Young Master Han and let him go on saying, “So many people saw him falling into the sea with arrows stabbed in his body. The blood reddened the sea, attracting numerous sharks vying for the flesh! How… how did he survive all this?!”

No wonder he could not get hold of himself!

The Wuyi Battalion was the trump card of the family of Gongsun. Crow Slaughterer, the head of the Wuyi Battalion and the capable right hand of Gongsun Family, had taken the t.i.tle for only several years but made remarkable achievements in battles!

Previously, Han Family and Pan Family joined forces to ambush the family of Gongsun. Their plan at the time was to slay all Gongsun family members. However, the Wuyi Battalion, Crow Slaughterer, in particular, rendered the scheme impossible. Only Gongsun Tu was killed. Gongsun Su managed to escape, and even his daughter and son were rescued and returned safely to Daimao Island!

At that time, in order to hold Gongsun Su hostage, Han Family and Pan Family resorted to drastic measures at all costs. Nevertheless, wielding swords and facing arrows head-on, the Wuyi Battalion under the command of Crow Slaughterer was absolutely invincible and saved Gongsun Su from the siege! Shortly after that, coming to the rescue of Gongsun Su"s children, the Battalion went back to fight with the enemy.

Looking back, Young Master Han was still terrified. He knew it very well that pirates had always been outlaws. They were overwrought in the battle, lost their sanity already, and could have slain their own parents. But still, Crow Slaughterer managed to strike terror into the heart of Han Family and Pan Family so much so that some trembled and stumbled into the mouth of sharks by a glance from Crow Slaughterer. One could only imagine how imposing Crow Slaughterer was back then！

Though Crow Slaughterer was not as penetrating and domineering as he used to be, just looking at his towering figure cross the sea gave Young Master Han gooseb.u.mps!

“Maybe the family of Gongsun decides to strike back?” Young Master Han thought to himself in a flash. Suddenly, the hull vibrated, and Young Master Han regained the balance and continued his speculation, “Crow Slaughterer pretended to be dead for days but showed up out of the blue. He must have an ulterior motive and it must be significant. He… wait!”

He glanced at the calm sea and, at a stroke, felt like falling down into an ice cellar, holding the arm of his confidant next to him and roaring, “Putting down sampans! Now! All of them! Split up now!”

His confidant was shocked, “Young Master, Crow Slaughterer is indeed terrifying, but if we retreat without a fight….” In his confidant"s opinion, he was the Young Master of Han Family, and Crow Slaughterer was nothing more than a subordinate of Gongsun Family. Such a retreat, if known by others, would surely damage the reputation of the Young Master.

“Don"t you remember our hull underwent two shakes?!” Young Master Han hurried to the location of sampans and explained hastily, “If I was right, Crow Slaughterer would have already sent people here to drill holes in the bottom of our ship. If we don"t act now, our ship will be flooded soon, and it will be too late to retreat. You want to stay and fight those lunatics?!”

The confidant went silent and thought to himself what a joke Young Master made. He was also in the ambush sea battle against Gongsun Tu, and he remembered how relieved they all were when Crow Slaughterer fell into the sea!

But now Crow Slaughterer reappeared, and he would be the last person who would like to wage a sea battle against him!

“Bring the siblings with us!” After all, Young Master Han was raised to be the Sea Master, after all. He was taken by surprise but remained calm, commanding the staff to put down the sampans and giving orders, “In any case, sampans are not as fast as the towering ship! Bring those two along with us as hostages. If Crow Slaughterer dares to chase after us, you shout out to him their names. If one of us escapes, we will get to spread the words that the family of Gongsun killed the son and daughter of Ningwei Marquis!”

In the meantime, the first sampan was released onto the water. Due to the fear of Crow Slaughterer, they placed the sampan in the opposite direction from the towered ship coming toward them. They used the hull to block the view of the towering ship to buy more time to escape.

Young Master Han took the lead and jumped onto the sampan. He encouraged the servants, “It will get dark soon. We"ve pa.s.sed the 15th day of the month, and the waning moon would only go up after midnight. As long as we get away till the night falls, even the mightiest Crow Slaughterer will not be able to find us! We"ll get even with him one day when we a.s.sembled all of our brothers!”

Sheng Weiqiao and Xu Baomo were the tickets out, so they were on board with Young Master Han. Since the sampan got a limited carrying capacity and they were running for their lives, Young Master Han brought with him another two servants. He even tied up Xu Baomo to put himself at ease. Being covered by the shadow of the ship, they began to paddle the sampan into the distance.

Young Master Han a.s.sumed Crow Slaughterer would never expect him to abandon the ship decisively; thus, so long as they look out for those who drilled the ship, they would stand a chance of escaping.

While paddling with the confidant, he kept an eye on the sea and was prepared for a sea battle at any time.

The sampan was only meters away from the ship. Young Master Han, staring at the sea, heard a week sound of an arrow shooting out, and he dodged subconsciously, only to find an arrowhead popping out of his chest. Who would have thought!

At the same time, two servants on the sampan let out a small cry, and both fell into the sea!

“Wh… what….” Though Young Master Han was severely injured, he dodged the arrow timely and kept it from piercing his heart. Despite being a spent force, he tried to turn around to figure out where did the three arrows come from?

Before he could turn his head around, Sheng Weiqiao, who was sitting next to Xu Baomo solemnly, reached her hand out to his waist with a sharp stern look flashed through her face!

The soft sword was quite a treasure bestowed upon Xu Baomo. With a gentle press on the gadget in the hilt, the sword would spring out the sheath limberly. Sheng Weiqiao, with the soft sword in hand, cut the neck of Young Master Han without hesitation!

The sword blade swung up and down, the head of Young Master Han was thrust high up by the blood coming from the abdomen. While flipping in midair, he could finally get his wish to see the archer who was also on a small sampan. What stunned him was that the archer was wearing the feathered black cloak and a crow mask. He was Crow Slaughterer!

“How did he know I was going to abandon the ship?!”

In the last moment of his life, Young Master Han had many thoughts, “No! Even if he expected my move, I just saw him standing on the bow, so it is impossible for him to just show up here and ambush me unless the one on that ship is a fake Crow Slaughterer!!!”

Crow Slaughterer had never shown his looks. If someone of similar features, shape, and dress posed as him at a distance, how could those who were terrified of Crow Slaughterer discern the difference in a flutter?!

The whole picture was getting clear by now: firstly, let people shoot down the mainsail of Young Master Han"s ship and temper with the bottom of the vessel. Then let the fake Crow Slaughterer stand in the front of the towering ship and deter them with his notoriously fierce reputation. At the same time, the real Crow Slaughterer, riding a sampan, went around a different direction and sieged the ship!

Young Master Han shunned the fight and decided to use sampans to bail themselves out, falling for the trick.

Even if he stayed on the ship and faced “Crow Slaughterer” head-on, the real Crow Slaughterer could still get on the ship from the opposite direction and attack him while he occupied himself with the fake one!

Crow Slaughterer was already omnipotent on the sea, but now he resorted to schemes and intrigues, which made it impossible for his enemy to survive!

That was the last idea running through Young Master Han"s mind. His head dashed into the deep sea, so did his thoughts into the eternal darkness.

“Cut the rope, Sister!” Xu Baomo was surprised slightly by the killing of Young Master Han and his two servants but completely stupefied by Sheng Weiqiao"s action!

For a moment, he could not recover himself. He urged, “They were killed, but we can"t know for sure whether those killers are our friends or enemies.”

The reasons Sheng Weiqiao could pull off the killing were three-fold. Firstly, Young Master Han was severely injured by the arrow attack. Secondly, he did not guard against Sheng Weiqiao, for he thought she was too fragile to be in a fight. Thirdly, the soft sword of Xu Baomo was indeed an excellent sword. If not for these reasons, Sheng Weiqiao could not have pulled it off!

At the moment, Xu Baomo was not sure how these attackers would treat them, so he was anxious to be free of ropes.

Hearing his brother"s words, Sheng Weiqiao, covered in blood, came to her sense and went to cut the rope. Since this was the first time that she ever killed a man, her hands were shaking. Looking at the sword quivering in her hand, Xu Baomo was unease and draw a deep breath, “Calm down, Sister! Calm down! It was just a pirate. His life doesn"t matter! But if you tremble like this with the sword in hand, you will kill me too!”

He knew his sword well. It could cut through gold and jade in an instant. Otherwise, Sheng Weiqiao could not have cut the head off using her strength alone. If he had been scorched by this sword, however gently, his flesh or even organs would have been cut off!

As Sheng Weiqiao got the nerve to unsheathe a sword and kill a man, she also got herself together and calmed down after a few deep breaths and untied Xu Baomo with clumsy cuts.

Seeing the rope coming off Xu Baomo, both of them were relieved!

Just when they were taking a break, an arm suddenly protruded from the back of Sheng Weiqiao and held her gently. Unguarded, Sheng Weiqiao let out a cry and stumbled back into the hug of the man with a heavy smell of blood!

“Shh!” Hearing the familiar voice, Sheng Weiqiao restrained herself from wielding the sword and stabbing him. Sheng Shuihe laid his hand on her shoulder but could not stop himself from shaking. Through her thin dress made of brocade, she felt his cold palm. Sheng Shuihe said with a smile, “Hold me tight! Don"t let them find out I just got a tougher look but was weak inside… Or we won"t be able to make it out of here with the little manpower we have!”

Sheng Weiqiao was frozen and trembling. Maybe she was scared, confused, or found it unexpected, and she whispered subconsciously in a quiet voice, “Who are you?!”

In the meantime, Xu Baomo was totally surprised, “Brother Hengshu?! Why are you here!?”