"Did any of you see Chen Sanshi last night?"
Zhou Rong ordered the entire army to halt, then summoned all the generals commanding ten thousand men and questioned them.
"No."
"Indeed, we did not."
"Now that you mention it, that's true."
Ling Qia, a martial cultivator of the Ling family, said, "After every battle begins, we stay alert in secret and devote all our attention to guarding against Chen Sanshi, lest he suddenly appear anywhere. But last night, we only saw him standing on a small boat in the distance. He never made a move."
"A small boat?"
Zhou Rong narrowed his eyes. "Explain in detail."
"Just as it sounds."
Ling Qia repeated, "He stood alone on a tiny skiff, following the rebel army's main force as it withdrew. I feared he was plotting something, so I did not rashly charge in. We merely faced each other from afar."
Zhou Rong's expression sharpened. "The entire army will rest where it is. Withdraw the vanguard from the enemy's water stronghold as well. Then search every ship within our fleet one by one!"
"Governor Zhou..."
Prince Qi considered the implications. "Are you worried Chen Sanshi slipped in amid the chaos?"
"Absolutely impossible!"
Ling Qia declared with utter certainty, "Yesterday may have been called a melee, but our army's 'Flying Cloud' and 'Sea Coverer' were the ones pushing forward. The medium and small warships in the rear maintained their formation the entire time. There was absolutely nothing unusual."
"This one can guarantee it as well."
Qiu Xin, a Peak Qi Refining cultivator of the Shengyun Sect and a first-rank Formation Master who commanded the Shengyun Sect cultivators participating in the Battle of Chibi, said firmly, "The tower ships all possess Water Control Grand Arrays. Each grand array corresponds to a core Formation Flag,