Chapter 103 - 94: Capturing the Water Monkey Alive, the Lu Family Attacked

Chapter 103: Chapter 94: Capturing the Water Monkey Alive, the Lu Family Attacked

Precise, swift, and incomparably cruel, the blade flashed across the joints where the Water Monkey’s limbs met its torso.

"THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!"

The muffled sound of the sharp blade cutting through Scale Armor, muscle, and bone was brief and horrifying.

Dark red, almost black, Demon Blood shot out like four small fountains, splashing onto the deck’s ropes and the nearby Water Patrol Officers’ pant legs.

It immediately gave off plumes of acrid white smoke, emitting a corrosive "HSSS! HSSS!" sound.

"GRAAAAAH—!!!"

A shrill, agonizing howl that defied description suddenly erupted from the Water Monkey’s wide-open mouth!

The sound was unlike any known beast’s roar; it was more like the collective wailing of countless wronged souls drowning in an abyss of despair.

It scraped sharply against everyone’s eardrums and nerves.

On the deck, the legs of several young Water Patrol Officers went weak, and they nearly collapsed.

Even some of the veterans turned deathly pale, clenching their jaws tight.

Chen Xuan flicked his wrist, and the Demon Blood clinging to his blade was shaken off, scattering into crimson beads.

With a reverse grip, he slid the long blade precisely back into its sheath with a "CLICK."

It was as if those four clean, cruel cuts had nothing to do with him.

Only then did he glance over at the fiend on the deck, writhing madly in agony and hatred. Without its limbs, it was unable to move. His voice was perfectly level. "Cage."

"Quick! Bring it over!"

A few of the braver men suppressed the fearful churning in their stomachs.

Shouting, they lifted the specially made iron cage.

The cage was welded from wrought iron bars as thick as a thumb. Each bar had a cold, hard, blue-black sheen and was exceptionally heavy.

Having lost its limbs, the Water Monkey still hadn’t given up the fight. It writhed madly on the deck with its remaining torso.

It used its ferocious head and terrifying teeth to bite and slam into everything around it.

The steel deck screeched as it was scraped, a sound that set one’s teeth on edge, leaving behind deep white scratches.

Seven or eight men held lassos with slipknots and long poles.

Holding their breath, they fumbled frantically from all directions, trying to control it.

They finally managed to loop the lassos around its neck and body, using the long poles to fend off its biting.

Working together, they dragged the still-struggling demon towards the cage entrance.

"CREAK... CRUNCH! CRUNCH!"

After being forcibly shoved into the iron cage, the Water Monkey immediately used its serrated teeth to bite down hard on the iron bars.

A heart-stopping sound of grinding and fracturing metal rang out as sparks flew where its sharp teeth met the iron.

Its terrifying bite force, strong enough to chew through the ship’s planks, actually left clear dents and teeth marks on the solid iron bars!

Seeing this, all the onlookers gasped, their scalps tingling with fear.

’If those teeth sank into flesh and blood, what a horrifying sight would that be?’

Chen Xuan no longer watched the caged beast. His gaze shifted to the pitch-black silhouette of the mountain forest on the shore.

It was as if his eyes could pierce the night’s curtain and see the one who held the whip.

He ordered in a low voice, "Guard it closely. If there’s any strange movement, if it tries to break the cage..."

He paused, then uttered two ice-cold words: "Kill it."

"Sir!"

Without another word, Chen Xuan turned and walked towards the ship’s railing.

With no running start, he tapped his left foot lightly on the edge of the deck.

His figure shot out abruptly, like a giant swift startled from its nocturnal roost.

His clothes fluttered in the river wind as his form cut across the dozens-of-meters-wide river surface.

His toes landed precisely on the peak of a dark reef at Jiang Xin, and he used the momentum to leap again.

His movements were both elegant and fierce.

When he landed the second time, he was already standing steadily on the gravelly shore.

A few more leaps and bounds, and his figure vanished completely into the deep darkness of the mountain forest, leaving no trace.

He was going to retrieve that whip.

The whip that his wife’s slender yet firm hand had once held.

And, of course, he also had to ask the one who held the whip whether their surname was Li or Liu.

...

Aboard the Ironclad Ship, time flowed slowly in the tense, dead silence.

The river wind whimpered. The Water Monkey’s intermittent roars and the sound of it gnawing on the iron bars of its cage mixed with the LA-LASH of the river water slapping against the hull, hammering on everyone’s taut nerves.

About five minutes later.

"BANG!"

The sharp crack of a gunshot suddenly exploded from somewhere in the mountain forest on the shore, shattering the night’s silence.

There was only one shot—brief and abrupt. It was followed by an even deeper silence, as if the gunshot had been a mere illusion.

The men on the ship looked at each other, the palms of their gun-holding hands sweating.

Another five or six minutes passed, which felt like an eternity.

At the edge of the woods on the shore, a dark figure stirred.

Chen Xuan walked out with a steady gait, dragging a person behind him.

The person was limp, as if every bone in their body had been removed.

Lifeless, they left a crooked trail on the gravelly beach.

Holding the person, Chen Xuan repeated his earlier feat.

Again displaying his astonishing skill, he returned to the deck in two leaps.

He tossed the person in his hand into a corner like a discarded sack of rags.

The person let out a faint groan but couldn’t even turn over.

"Full speed. Return to Yin Mountain," Chen Xuan ordered, his voice devoid of any inflection.

"Yes, sir! Returning at full speed!"

The engine’s roar intensified, and the smokestack belched out thicker black smoke.

The Ironclad Ship cut a conspicuous white wake as it turned its bow.

It sped off, breaking through the waves, heading downstream toward the docks of Yin Mountain County.

The wake behind the ship churned under the moonlight.

Gradually leaving the murderous intent and bloodshed of that stretch of water behind.

...

「Yin Mountain County, the Lu Family’s Old Mansion.」

Tonight, this sprawling, hundred-year-old compound, which stood in the western part of the county seat, had cast aside its usual quiet dignity. It was now ablaze with lights, as if facing a great enemy.

In every room, from the main house to the side wings, all the electric lights were on. Their brilliant glare shone through the glass windows, casting the courtyard’s rockeries and plants into sharp relief.

Around the courtyard walls, dozens of newly hung windproof hurricane lanterns and kerosene pressure lamps were lit.