Yang Tiansheng leaped to Li Jincheng's side and slapped his shoulder hard, laughing. "Not bad, Boss Li! Yang Second didn't make friends with you for nothing!"
Li Jincheng couldn't smile. He answered honestly, "If you hadn't come, I'd have started figuring out how to get away in one piece... I only wanted to vent some anger for Yang Second. I never intended to fight the Court to the bitter end."
"Going this far already makes you a damn good friend!"
Yang Tiansheng put an arm around his shoulders, speaking with extraordinary sincerity in an offhand tone. "Doesn't the old saying go that adding flowers to brocade is easy, but delivering charcoal in the snow is hard? Hardship reveals true friendship!"
The two looked toward the enormous fleet approaching them head-on. They could already clearly see the Eastern Factory agents moving aboard the merchant ships at its vanguard.
Li Jincheng silently tightened his grip on the Bright Silver Spear, turned his head, and said softly, "After this, our Chain Wharf will probably really have to join your Bright Cult. Does your earlier offer still stand?"
Yang Tiansheng thumped his chest. "It stands! Every word I spit out is a nail driven home!"
Li Jincheng smiled and exhaled a stale breath. "Then today, let's join forces and kill until heaven and earth turn upside down!"
Yang Tiansheng said, "You got it!"
Both stepped forward, about to leap.
Just then, a figure blazing with golden light flashed over their heads, carving a thirty-meter arc of blade qi through the air like a bolt of silk and cleaving the leading Eastern Factory merchant ship in two.
Blood sprayed like mist; banners toppled like clouds.
A moment earlier, the merchant ship had surged proudly at the head of the fleet, its banners streaming. Now, like