Night had deepened.
The goateed old man wore a dark blue-green robe and spoke coldly, flanked by two expressionless sword attendants.
A layer of red pooled inside the cabin, its stench of blood soaring into the sky and drawing countless water birds to circle overhead. Some even swooped down, snatching strands of flesh before everyone's eyes, then tilting back their heads to swallow them whole.
The goateed old man did not stop them.
Or rather.
He deliberately allowed it!
The others were all dumbstruck, curling their limbs inward as they trembled in the cabin. Every nerve within their skulls throbbed violently under the assault of the smell.
The weather had yet to turn warm.
The crimson muscles exposed on the surface of the body steamed with rolling heat.
On the crosses, Yi Zhiheng and Yi Zhiyu hung their heads. Their minds had long since blurred, and all they felt was the bone-piercing cold of this winter.
Even now, they had not understood how the matter had been exposed, or how it had drawn the attention of an elder of the Yi Family.
Beneath the skiffs.
Blood-red tentacles spread like blood vessels, covering the gaps between the boat bottoms. Fine little feelers drifted silently while the central lump of red flesh pulsed like a heart.
One tentacle stretched out.
A Gold Horn Shark cruising through the water opened its jaws and bit down, carrying it away into the distance.
The goateed old man gazed quietly at the horizon. Seeing that the intended deterrence had been achieved, he sighed and tucked both hands into his sleeves.
"Shu Han, Bin Hong."
"Elder!"
The sword attendants on either side dropped to one knee.
"Two of the fish guards aboard have been lost. You two people will watch over them for now. I will send