Watching Tu Lingchen kneeling on the ground, weeping uncontrollably.
Yan Naier could scarcely believe her eyes. Was this still that carefree and unrestrained Liu Chen from before? Was this still that elegant young gentleman who treated power and influence as mere dung?
To preserve his miserable life, he would actually kneel and beg for mercy like this?
Had she never truly understood him, or had Liu Chen changed?
In short, Tu Lingchen’s kneeling brought Yan Naier an incomparable shock, even a sense of subversion.
But what he said was correct. During their adventures together, Liu Chen’s martial arts had far surpassed hers. She did not know how many times he had saved her life, nor how many times he had placed himself before her to shield her.
Yan Naier did indeed owe him many debts of life-saving grace.
According to righteousness, according to debts of gratitude, she ought to let him go.
Yan Naier gazed at Tu Lingchen kneeling on the ground, and said word by word, “You saved my life many times. I indeed ought to repay you. But public matters are public, private matters are private. How could I confuse the two? Therefore, for me to let you go is absolutely impossible.”
At these words, Tu Lingchen could not help but tremble, his entire body turning ice cold. “Yan Naier, you are actually so cold and heartless, completely disregarding my life-saving grace towards you?”
Yan Naier said, “I will beg my husband not to kill you. Consider this as my repayment of your life-saving grace.”
Then, Naier paid Tu Lingchen no further heed, and said in a cold voice, “Tully family warriors, will you surrender willingly, or shall I commence a massacre?”
At this moment, the family warriors escorting Tully Wen and Tu Lingchen numbered merely over two hundred, and each one was wounded.
While Yan Naier led several thousand cavalry. There was simply no contest.
Count Tully Wen slowly regained consciousness, his face deathly pale. Recalling the over one hundred thousand troops destroyed under his command, another mouthful of blood gushed forth.
“Surrender. Count Sauron will treat me with the courtesy due a feudal lord.”
After speaking, he vomited several more mouthfuls of blood, and Count Tully Wen once again lost consciousness.
With their lord’s command, the Luan Yang City family warriors set down their weapons one by one and knelt to surrender.
Thereupon, Count Tully Wen and Tu Lingchen were both captured!
…
Unlike Count Tully Wen’s stubborn persistence, Gui Xingfu was undoubtedly treacherous and cunning!
In the vote on whether to enter Devil’s Harbour, Gui Xingfu and Hai Wuyan had not raised their hands.
Unlike Tu Lingchen’s indecision, Gui Xingfu had always harboured a sense of unease in his heart.
But in this four-family allied army, he had contributed the fewest troops, merely five thousand sailors and several dozen ships.
The other fifteen thousand troops were still at the border between Linhai City and Tianshui City, and would only head south after the Allied Army to Destroy Sauron had landed.
Therefore, in this four-family allied army, Gui Xingfu did not have much say, so he could only watch helplessly as the over one hundred thousand troops entered Devil’s Harbour.
When he saw one to two hundred abandoned ships floating upon the entire sea surface, he already felt something was amiss in his heart.
When countless oil barrels rolled down from the cliffs at the entrance to the bay, and were then completely ignited. When a fire wall several thousand metres long, driven by the tidal currents, surged towards the coast like ten thousand galloping horses, Gui Xingfu felt ice cold throughout his body.
At this moment, he knew, it was over!
The over one hundred thousand Allied Army to Destroy Sauron, the outcome of total annihilation was already sealed!
Regarding his understanding of Sauron, Gui Xingfu surpassed anyone else.
From the annulment of marriage to fraudulently seize Chaos Rock Island, to earning one hundred thousand gold coins in half a year, these two times he had personally crossed swords with Sauron, and the pain that penetrated to the bone remained vividly clear to this day.
Later, Sauron obtained fifteen thousand Silver Wolf Legion troops through Yan Naier. Then, with fewer troops defeating more, he recaptured Tianshui City.
Though Gui Xingfu had not directly confronted Sauron in these matters, he had watched them clearly. Regarding Sauron’s cunning, one could not overestimate it enough.
Therefore, though nothing had yet happened. The instant the tidal currents drove the fire wall forward, Gui Xingfu concluded that the annihilation of the Allied Army to Destroy Sauron was already certain!
Even, he vaguely guessed that these large ships abandoned upon the sea surface were certainly filled with terrifying oil.
Though, he completely did not know that in this world there existed such oil in such quantities?
Having seen through Sauron’s scheme, Gui Xingfu did not go to find Tully Wen, but instead took his son Gui Qinzhong and directly abandoned ship, jumping into the seawater to escape.
Only the father and son duo jumped from the ship to escape, not even informing the soldiers of the Gui fleet aboard their own ship.
After a moment’s hesitation, he passed by the flagship of Hai Wuyan and Hai Naier, and directly transmitted his voice using dragon power, “Quickly abandon ship, escape by sea, quickly…”
The reason he notified Hai Wuyan and Hai Naier to flee was due to the strategy of befriending distant states while attacking nearby ones.
Tully Wen’s Luan Yang City was too close, while the Yingzhou Hai family was too far away.
If the main force of Luan Yang City’s navy were completely annihilated, this would only benefit the Gui family, with no drawbacks, and the Gui family could even replace many trade routes.
After informing Hai Wuyan and Hai Naier, Gui Xingfu took his son and, without looking back, submerged in the water using all his dragon power, fled desperately.
Moreover, the direction of his flight was not towards the shore.
Because, with the tidal currents and strong winds, all the great flames would sweep towards the coast. Fleeing towards the beach was a dead end.
Therefore, Gui Xingfu fled towards the vast ocean, towards the entrance to Devil’s Bay.
Hai Naier, A Shi Zhuo, and Hai Wuyan reacted somewhat more slowly.
But, when the first oil-filled cargo ship exploded.
Hai Wuyan also immediately knew that the annihilation of the Allied Army to Destroy Sauron was imminent, irreversible.
Thus, he immediately took several dozen trusted warriors, abandoned ship to escape, and swam towards the entrance to Devil’s Bay.
Hai Naier and A Shi Zhuo followed closely behind.
Among the four-family allied forces, only Count Tully Wen alone fought desperately to fulfil his duties. Even when the entire sea surface was completely burning, he still attempted to command the fleet to escape, rather than fleeing alone.
…
Two hours later!
The over one hundred thousand troops of the Allied Army to Destroy Sauron had been completely annihilated.
The several dozen trusted warriors led by Hai Wuyan had either died or gone missing. Now there were only about ten or so remaining.
Though A Shi Zhuo’s swimming ability was mediocre, his martial arts were very high, so he successfully escaped.
Hai Naier, having grown up by the sea since childhood, possessed extraordinary breath-holding skills, so she also successfully escaped.
The group of over ten people, having swum out of Devil’s Bay, carefully hugged the coastal reefs, continuously swimming northwards.
After escaping, Hai Wuyan and Hai Naier’s hearts were filled with infinite shock, infinite pain.
Seventy thousand sailors, over one hundred thousand troops, a full ten times Sauron’s forces, yet the result was… total annihilation!
This outcome, how could it be merely shocking!
In this great defeat, the most tragic was naturally Luan Yang City Lord Tully Wen. Originally he was the third feudal lord of the Nu Lang Kingdom, possessing forty thousand sailors, unrivalled across the Nu Lang Kingdom.
But previously, to plunder the Magic Mirror Secret Island, he had lost five thousand sailors. This time, thirty thousand sailors were completely annihilated.
Of forty thousand sailors, thirty-five thousand were destroyed.
This was not merely being severely weakened, but losing even the coffin money.
With merely five thousand sailors remaining, let alone supporting Luan Yang City’s maritime trade, even protecting the territory and maintaining peace would be a stretch.
In terms of military strength, Luan Yang City fell from the third greatest feudal lord in the world to near the bottom.
While his Yingzhou Hai family had truly been severely weakened.
Of the Yingzhou one hundred thousand sailors, this battle alone lost forty thousand.
If it were an ordinary naval battle, even in a great defeat, half would return.
But this time, it was total annihilation, not a single ship survived!
Hai Wuyan clearly felt that his position as heir was already tottering.
He had over ten siblings, each one like wolves and tigers. In this great defeat, as the young master of the Yingzhou Hai family, he must bear the blame.
As for Hai Naier, originally she did not possess much inheritance rights. But to form a marriage alliance with A Shi Luo, Hai Gang had granted her inheritance rights to thirty thousand sailors.
And now, these thirty thousand sailors had also been lost completely.
Thus, the marriage contract between Hai Naier and A Shi Luo was also tottering. Hai Gang’s plan to extend his influence to the mainland had also nearly suffered half its losses.
In this great defeat, though Hai Wuyan and Hai Naier had preserved their lives, the blow to their fates and prospects was nearly devastating.
Gui Xingfu perceived the state of their minds, and said, “Young Master Wuyan need not lose heart. Prince Zhuli is not a lord without righteousness. He will certainly help you preserve your position as heir to Yingzhou.”
Hai Wuyan sighed, “Originally, my Hai family accepted the Rock People into the Lei Archipelago to add wings to a tiger. But now, they have become guests overwhelming the host, too large to control. This Yan Mo, the half-brother of Sauron, is equally cunning and equally ruthless, and even more cold and heartless.”
Gui Xingfu said, “As long as you escape with your life, everything has room for recovery.”
And at this moment, Gui Qinzhong suddenly pointed towards the distant sea surface, and said, “Father, look…”
Gui Xingfu and the others raised their heads to look, and instantly saw upon the sea surface several thousand metres away, a hundred boats vying to be first, a fleet, a full hundred ships or more.
Looking more closely, they discovered they were uniformly the fierce little ships of the Rock Pirates.
Gui Qinzhong said in terror, “Sauron has come in pursuit, my life is finished!”
Hai Wuyan said, “It is not Sauron. His Rock Pirate ships served as bait, and have all been buried with us.”
Hai Naier widened her beautiful eyes, and instantly saw upon the bow of the lead ship that tall, robust man, who was actually… Yan Mo!
Soon, Yan Mo’s fleet arrived in grand array before the few of them.
Seeing the several people in the seawater, Yan Mo said, “What leisure and elegance you all possess. After a great battle, you are actually taking a swim in the sea.”
Hai Wuyan and Hai Naier’s expressions changed dramatically.
If Yan Mo were to kill the few of them here, it would be completely undetectable.
Gui Xingfu’s expression first changed, then he laughed heartily and said, “Might this be King Yan Mo?”
“Indeed.” Yan Mo said, “You should be the sworn brother of my cheap father, Gui Xingfu, yes?”
“Precisely.” Gui Xingfu said, “King Yan Mo, how come you are so late?”
On the day the battle commenced, Hai Wuyan had also written inviting Yan Mo to participate in the battle, so Gui Xingfu said the king was so late!
Yan Mo laughed heartily and said, “Don’t drag me into this. I came to observe, and conveniently see if there were any bargains to be had. Indeed, there is a huge bargain right before my eyes.”
After receiving the letter, Yan Mo first tossed it aside, then his mind moved, and he led one hundred Rock Pirate ships southwards.
He truly had never considered participating in the battle, merely observing, then seeing if there were any opportunities to gain some benefit.
As a result, last night, he witnessed an unprecedentedly shocking spectacle, and at that time he too felt ice cold throughout his body.
“That half-brother of mine, truly formidable, truly ruthless.” Yan Mo sighed, “Not only did he survive a great calamity, but he actually burned your over one hundred thousand troops clean with a single fire. Watching it made my heart leap with fear!”
Gui Xingfu said, “And now this younger brother of yours regards you with infinite hatred, viewing you as an enemy.”
Yan Mo waved his hand and said, “You need not sow discord. Now your lives are in my hands. Tell me, should I kill you and make peace with that younger brother of mine, or conveniently extend a hand to save you?”
Hai Wuyan said, “Please, Brother Yan Mo, for the sake of our shared lineage, save us.”
Yan Mo said, “I can save you, but I have one condition.”
Hai Wuyan said, “Please speak.”
Yan Mo said, “Cede the Thunder Archipelago, as well as the Elk Archipelago.”
Previously, the Yingzhou Hai family had merely lent the Thunder Archipelago to Yan Mo, and could expel him at any time.
But now, Yan Mo wanted complete cession, and not merely the Thunder Archipelago, but also the Elk Archipelago, which was larger in area and had better conditions.
Hai Wuyan’s expression trembled, and he said, “This matter is too great. I cannot decide this.”
“I know you cannot decide this.” Yan Mo said, “Therefore, I intend to use you and Hai Naier to make a transaction with your father.”
Then, Yan Mo ordered a small boat to be lowered, and received Hai Wuyan, A Shi Zhuo, Hai Naier, and the Gui Xingfu father and son onto the Rock ship.
Then, with a single command from Yan Mo, he led his fleet northwards in grand array.
And at this time, Yan Zhuoer led the remaining several dozen Rock ships southwards from the Tianshui docks in the north, searching this sea area for traces of surviving enemy troops.
Soon, the two fleets encountered each other head-on! Moreover, both were Rock Pirate fleets.
Yan Zhuoer and Yan Mo stood upon the bows of their ships, gazing at one another.
Yan Mo’s gaze narrowed. He had not expected that the surviving Mother Queen had changed to such an appearance.
Yan Zhuoer (the Queen) said, “King Yan Mo, if you hand over those few people in your possession, you could conveniently make peace with your younger brother.”
Yan Mo shook his head and said, “Impossible.”
Then, Yan Mo said, “Though you have already joined the Sauron family, we Rock People do not fight amongst ourselves. You clear a path, how about that?”
At this moment, the Rock Pirate fleet led by Yan Mo was a full three times that of Yan Zhuoer. In a true fight, Yan Zhuoer was certain to lose.
After brief consideration, Yan Zhuoer ordered her fleet to clear the route, allowing Yan Mo’s fleet to pass, watching him take away Gui Xingfu, Hai Wuyan, and the others.
And Yan Mo, towards Yan Zhuoer’s departing figure, knelt upon both knees and kowtowed three times.
…
Six days had passed since the great battle commenced.
Zhuli had been waiting at the Luan Yang City docks since last night, with a cup of wine still placed upon the table.
He had poured it when the fleet set sail, saying that when the allied fleet returned victorious, he would drink it using Sauron’s head as accompaniment.
Moreover, at that time Tully Wen and the others had issued military pledges, to completely annihilate Sauron’s fleet within five days.
Though it would take time for the great army to land in Tianshui City territory, destroy the Sauron family, and capture the main city. But the result of the naval battle would certainly be delivered very soon.
Six days, this great naval battle must have had a result.
The sun rose from the east.
In the blinding sunlight, Zhuli saw a fleet upon the sea surface.
He instantly grew excited, waiting for Sauron’s head to be placed before him, then he raised the wine in his hand, waiting to drink.
And at this moment, Yan Mo’s voice came from upon the sea surface.
“Prince Zhuli, the one hundred and thirty thousand Allied Army to Destroy Sauron has been completely annihilated!”
Instantly, Zhuli felt as if struck by lightning!