"Shh—" Qi Ling quickly covered Jian Lan's mouth and said, " Jian Lan, this matter can't be spread any further, otherwise where will I put my face! If Xiao Wu and the others find out, it will be incredibly embarrassing!"
"Alright, alright, I won't tell anyone. Let's keep it a secret between the two of us," Jian Lan said with a smile. "Now can you tell me why you have absolutely no Soul Power left in your body?"
"Well, I don't really know either," Qi Ling said helplessly. "My power disappeared inexplicably, and I have no clue what's going on. Right after the battle with the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, I ended up like this."
Upon hearing this, Jian Lan pondered and said, "Hmm, to be honest, Qi Ling, I really can't imagine that you could deal with such a terrifying being. In my perception, that guy should be even stronger than Limit Douluo, a being that's closer to a god."
"So, I suspect that you might have used some special power to defeat it, which led to this result. After all, both of your Martial Soul are too special; it wouldn't be surprising if something unimaginable had happened."
Hearing Jian Lan say this, Qi Ling nodded and said, "Yes, that's certainly possible. I don't have any good memories of the latter part of the battle with the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, and I don't remember what happened at all."
"However, I have a feeling that my strength will gradually recover automatically, so there's no need to worry about it."
Knowing that Qi Ling's power would recover on its own, Jian Lan felt relieved. Then Qi Ling asked about their experiences over the past few days.
That day, after Qi Ling used a special power to send Tang San and the others away, they landed safely at sea. Then, they boarded the Dragon Abyss Boat prepared by Tang San and arrived at the island.
Upon arriving on the island, Tang San and his companions encountered Ji Xiang, a doctor fishing by the sea. It was from him that they learned about the details of the island and the pirates.
"Then we started looking for you on the island, because it's the only land in the area, and if you were alright, you would definitely have come to this island," Jian Lan said.
"Furthermore, Xiao Wu and Tang San are quite certain that you are not in any danger. The most likely explanation is that you were injured and are recuperating somewhere on this island, which is why we have been searching for you."
Qi Ling helplessly covered her forehead and said, "Why didn't you ever consider that I might fall into the hands of these pirates? If you had come sooner, I wouldn't be suffering like this."
Jian Lan said helplessly, "These pirates are, after all, natives of this place, and Ji Xiang is also a resident here, so of course we can't just take action directly."
"Furthermore, these pirates insisted that they hadn't seen anyone. We only had this one option left because we had searched the entire island, which is why we forced our way in."
"Alright, there's no other way then. Let's hurry and check on Xiao San and the others," Qi Ling said. "But with their strength, dealing with these pirates shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Afterwards, Qi Ling and Jian Lan came out of the room, intending to find Tang San and the others, but they happened to run into Ma Hongjun and Oscar, who were searching for people everywhere.
"Ah! Boss Qi! So you're here!" Ma Hongjun exclaimed happily upon seeing Qi Ling. "Great! We've finally found you! I knew those pirates were untrustworthy; you couldn't believe a word they said!"
Qi Ling also said, "I'm fine. Where is the others?"
"Oh, Xiao San and the others are up ahead, holding off those pirates. The rest of us came in to Boss Qi!" Ma Hongjun said. "Now that we've found you, Boss Qi, let's go back up ahead."
Just as the group was about to leave, Oscar suddenly asked Qi Ling anxiously, " Boss Qi, did you see a very pretty girl in red dress walk by here just now?"
"Uh... this..." Cold sweat immediately streamed down Qi Ling's forehead. Wasn't this describing her exactly?
"Why are you asking this, Oscar?" Qi Ling retorted.
But Oscar blushed and said, "No, it's nothing. Boss Qi, you guys go and meet up with Xiao San and the others first. I have some things to take care of, I'll come over as soon as I'm done."
Qi Ling had no choice but to let Oscar act on his own. Anyway, he had the Mirror Sausage, so there was no need to worry about his safety. The group headed towards the entrance of the pirate group's stronghold.
Upon arriving at the entrance of the pirates' stronghold, Qi Ling saw Tang San and Zi Zhenzhu facing off. Although both were Soul Saint, their actual combat strength was on completely different levels. Zi Zhenzhu was suppressed by Tang San throughout the entire confrontation and had no hope of winning whatsoever.
When they were on the verge of defeat, Zi Zhenzhu even considered having the entire pirate crew attack together, using their numerical advantage to force Tang San to surrender.
But to everyone's surprise, Tang San was stunned by Zi Zhenzhu's lack of martial ethics. His Divine Slaughter's Domain erupted instantly, and the chilling killing intent made everyone in the Zi Zhenzhu Pirate Crew feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, and they could no longer muster any will to resist.
"You've lost!" Tang San gripped the spear formed from Blue Silver Grass, pointing it directly at Zi Zhenzhu's neck. "Where is my elder brother? Hand him over now!"
Despite Tang San's threat, Zi Zhenzhu showed no intention of handing over Qi Ling, saying, "I... I don't know! I haven't seen anyone!"
Tang San's eyes turned cold, and he said, "Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"
Zi Zhenzhu, however, appeared resolute in the face of death, saying, "Go ahead and kill me if you dare. You think I'll hand over the people? Not a chance!"
Seeing that the two sides were deadlocked, Qi Ling could no longer stand by and watch, so she went out and said, " Xiao San, don't fight, I'm fine."
Upon seeing Qi Ling suddenly appear, Tang San's face immediately lit up with a smile. He retracted his Blue Silver Grass and said, "Big Brother! We've finally found you!"
Zi Zhenzhu was startled by Qi Ling's sudden appearance. She already considered Qi Ling one of her own, and immediately stood up, about to say, "You..."
Just as Zi Zhenzhu was about to speak, a sword was suddenly placed against her neck. Jian Lan appeared in front of her with a start, smiling as she said, "Captain Zi Zhenzhu, some things can't be said carelessly, do you understand?"
Zi Zhenzhu didn't know whether the fairy-like beauty before her didn't want her to say anything, but she could sense that the person in front of her was definitely in a bad mood. If she opened her mouth again, she might really lose her life.
So Zi Zhenzhu wisely shut her mouth and didn't say another word. As long as she didn't say anything, she wouldn't make a mistake!
After a while, Xiao Wu and the others returned. They were overjoyed to see Qi Ling suddenly appear. Xiao Wu even hugged Qi Ling and cried again, which took Qi Ling a long time to comfort her.
After learning that Qi Ling's power was temporarily unusable, no one paid much attention. After all, this kind of thing was commonplace for Qi Ling; it seemed that his body always had to have some kind of problem.