Three Saints

Three Saints' Great Ships?

Rain fell on his shoulders, soaking tiny gray spots into them. Damp, stifling heat flooded his lung cavity, and Liang Qu's heart stirred as he stepped forward twice.

Upturned eaves sliced through the daylight. Beneath lead-gray clouds, masts tangled with rigging rose in dense ranks, like utility poles scattered across a field. As the rivers sank and surged, they churned the thin mist.

Golden-feathered hawk falcons circled through the rain. Water birds plunged into the river, fleeing in panic.

Liang Qu was awestruck.

He had never seen masts so thick and towering. By rough estimate, there were no fewer than a thousand, with countless smaller poles besides. What kind of immense ocean-going fleet lay beneath those masts? "Water Bro! Major event!"

The Green Mane Horse tore through the curtain of rain. The reins jerked, its hooves scraped white streaks across the stone slabs, and it slid onward, unable to stop.

Liang Qu reached out and pressed a hand against the horse's chest, applying slight force to halt its momentum.

"Slow down. What happened?"

Li LiBo was drenched from head to toe. After taking two ragged breaths, he could not care less about soothing the horse and flipped down from its back.

"Xu Tiling's orders! King Su and the King of Bohai have arrived. All officials of Pingyang Prefecture are to go welcome them at once! Water Bro, change into your official robes and hurry!"

Rain-soaked water birds folded their wings, hid atop the rafters, and shook out their feathers.

At the major prefectural offices of Pingyang Prefecture, every official stood in orderly ranks according to rank and grade, heads lowered as they whispered among themselves.

Liang Qu looked up.

The leading Treasure Ship was several hundred meters long and unimaginably broad.

Moored before them, it