Chapter 2

After finishing his questioning, Zu Qicang slightly relaxed his right hand, and heard the man stubbornly say, "The ship is full of our people, you can't escape."

Zu Qicang gave him a cold look, then once again firmly pinched his mouth with his right hand. His left hand's two fingers began to roughly probe the man's wound.

The man's entire body arched, the veins on his forehead bulging, but Zu Qicang held his mouth tightly with his right hand and pressed him to the ground, causing him to emit low growls one after another.

"I'll ask you one last time, where is the antidote?"

The man reached into his waistband with his right hand, pulled out a small bottle, and placed it in front of Zu Qicang. Zu Qicang said coolly, "You take it first, and I'll take it after I see that you're fine."

Seeing the man swallow the antidote without hesitation, Zu Qicang nodded and slowly released his right and left hands. But just as the man let out a sigh of relief, Zu Qicang's two fists suddenly struck his temples heavily. The man couldn't even struggle and stopped breathing after three seconds.

Zu Qicang picked up the small bottle containing the antidote and swallowed it all in one breath.

From the sudden attack to taking the antidote, there were many possibilities for errors and mistakes, but Zu Qicang couldn't think about it much now because his current situation was too dangerous. With his lower body paralyzed, if the other side was careful, he would surely die.

After taking the antidote, Zu Qicang felt a cool sensation in his waist, indicating that the antidote was taking effect. However, he didn't wait quietly for it to work; instead, he began to move the body.

During the process, he searched the man's body and found a dagger on his ankle. Then a look of confusion appeared in his eyes. He touched the man's leather armor, the axe on his waist, the necklace around his neck, and the strange hair ornament.

'No... this person doesn't seem to be a soldier on the ship.'

A thought flashed through Zu Qicang's mind: 'Could it be that the attackers are not from Prince Yu's people?' He had originally thought that Cao Sheng had sent people to kill Liu Zhicheng on the ship. In the vast sea, it would be too normal for someone to die from an illness.

But now, feeling the man's equipment, he realized that things might not be that simple.

He remembered the man's words: "The ship is full of our people, you can't escape."

Zu Qicang frowned. In the darkness, he moved the body to the ship where he had been lying and covered it with a blanket, making it look like someone was still sleeping. As for himself, he slowly crawled behind the door, holding the axe and dagger, waiting quietly.

A few minutes later, two noisy voices came over.

"What's going on with Old Song? He's been gone for so long."

"Damn, did he find some treasure? This level is all officers."

Two sets of footsteps approached from outside. When they checked the third room, they entered Zu Qicang's room. Without candlelight, only the dim light from outside, the two men were immediately drawn to the body on the ship.

One of them waved his hand and slowly drew the axe from his waistband, tiptoeing toward the body on the ship. The other man also drew his axe and followed closely behind.

The first man reached the bed and quickly lifted the blanket. When he saw the body on the bed, his face showed surprise, but before he could identify it, he felt a sharp pain in his neck. His face froze, and he fell onto the bed.

A dagger was embedded in his neck, blood gushing out from the artery.

The other man immediately turned around, but saw Zu Qicang, who had already thrown the dagger, now throwing the axe. The flying axe struck the second man's face, and he fell with a scream.

The entire action was swift and clean, and the two attackers were killed instantly. Zu Qicang immediately stood up, his legs still a bit sore but able to move. Clearly, the antidote was taking effect.

He quickly dragged the bodies to the door and, using the corridor's light, identified them. When he saw the bald heads, tattoos, and brown eyes, his eyes showed concern.

'Are they pirates?'

'But how dare pirates attack the fleet of Da Qi?'

This time, Da Qi had sent over twenty ships, with an estimated ten thousand crew members and soldiers. He couldn't imagine what kind of pirates would dare to attack such a fleet. Moreover, the drug they used, "Hero's Fall," was an official Da Qi drug, which made Zu Qicang sense a conspiracy.

However, it was also because of this that they carried the antidote, as they feared they might accidentally poison themselves.

But he suddenly remembered that the first pirate had mentioned the word "Liu" when attacking him, which was strange. If they were just pirates, how could they know Liu Zhicheng, or was it a different word with the same pronunciation?

But the pirates had clearly drugged all the soldiers on the ship. If they were sneaking in to attack, why would they talk to Liu Zhicheng?

With too few clues, Zu Qicang couldn't figure it out and didn't dwell on it. Instead, he picked up the dagger and axe from the bodies, wiped the blood off with their clothes, and put the dagger in his pocket. He then walked out of the room with the axe.

Zu Qicang's way of walking was peculiar. His body was crouched like a cat, his back arched, ready to spring at any moment. His heels never touched the ground, always an inch off, and he only used his toes, allowing him to dodge in any direction at a moment's notice.

Stepping out of the door, the corridor was dimly lit by candlelight. Zu Qicang quietly entered the two adjacent rooms and found that the officers had all been killed, their bodies stripped and thrown on the floor. It seemed the pirates had taken their belongings.

He continued down the levels, room by room, and the situation became even stranger.

There were no shouts, no pirates, and the empty corridor was silent except for the creaking of doors. The entire ship seemed to have turned into a ghost ship.

Zu Qicang slowly walked to the deck. As he passed through the cabins, everyone was gone. He could still see half-eaten meals, dropped clothes, and weapons, as if they had left in a hurry, as if they had encountered a sudden disaster.

Suddenly, a wet liquid dropped onto Zu Qicang's neck. He quickly turned, holding the axe in front of him, but saw nothing.

Dripping sounds echoed in his ears.

Zu Qicang touched the back of his neck with his left hand and saw a clump of fresh red blood on his fingers.

'Is it blood?' Zu Qicang looked up and saw several holes in the ceiling, from which fresh red blood was dripping onto the floor, making dripping sounds.

Zu Qicang narrowed his eyes and quickly walked to the stairs. For some reason, he had a growing sense of unease.

At the end of the stairs, Zu Qicang carefully pushed open the door to the deck and peeked through the gap. But just as he opened it a bit, he saw an eye looking at him through the gap, filled with hatred.

Zu Qicang frowned but didn't flinch, continuing to push the door open. He saw a Da Qi soldier's body lying on the deck, his head toward the door, his face full of malice.

Zu Qicang carefully examined the body and saw that the man's neck had been completely twisted, with no other injuries.

Looking up, he saw the deck covered with the bodies of Da Qi soldiers, piled together, blood pooling and spreading, filling the air with a pungent smell.

Walking on the deck, Zu Qicang looked around the bodies and found no pirate weapons or bodies. He flipped through several bodies and saw a terrifying wound on each soldier's neck, the flesh torn open.

'Were all the people on the ship drugged, and then the pirates came and cut their necks?'

'In this situation, there must be a traitor on the ship.'

But apart from the bodies of Da Qi soldiers, he saw no pirates, as if they had never been there. The entire fleet was quietly floating on the sea, with only a few flickering lights and no other sounds.

'Did the pirates leave?'

'But so many ships are a huge wealth. Why didn't they take any? And they left all the supplies on the ships.'

'Could they have just come to kill and then left?'

'But how could they withdraw so quickly?'

Zu Qicang stood at the edge of the ship, the dark sea around him like a giant mouth swallowing everything. Apart from the Da Qi fleet, he saw no other ships. It was as if the pirates who attacked the fleet had vanished into thin air.

'This doesn't make sense. The whole situation is too unreasonable.'

The strange situation left Zu Qicang puzzled, as if the three pirates he had seen were illusions. He could only continue to examine the bodies on the deck. There were 232 people in total, and apart from him, no one on the ship survived.

Now, alone in the vast sea, Zu Qicang couldn't possibly operate the ship. He was trapped in a floating prison, surrounded by the bodies.

'First, I need to collect dry rations and fresh water, find a sea chart, and look for a logbook.'

'With such a large ancient ship, I can't operate it alone. If I want to leave, I can only use a small boat.'

The more he thought, the less optimistic his expression became. Navigating the vast sea alone was truly a matter of fate. But he had no other choice.

Just as he began to check the dry rations and fresh water, a loud roar suddenly came from the sea.