The Silver-Stream River was a vast, glittering artery of deep blue water that flowed eastward across three provinces, carving a path through towering pine-covered canyons before emptying into the boundless expanse of the Eastern Sea.
At the grand docks of Silver-River Market Town, giant three-deck passenger barges forged from heavy ironwood sat anchored along the piers. Their thick hemp ropes creaked against the wooden pilings as the rushing river current slapped rhythmically against their hull plates.
Li-Wen stepped onto the wooden pier, his heavy leather boots making quiet, measured sounds against the damp planks.
CRUNCH... CRUNCH... CRUNCH...
He carried two neatly tied wooden boxes of warm honey oat cakes under his right arm. Across his broad back, the Pitch-Black Heavy Blade rested in absolute silence, its dark iron scabbard completely still. His dark traveler's coat, unbuttoned at the chest, fluttered gently in the river breeze, and his white-rooted hair caught the bright golden rays of the afternoon sun.
In his left arm, he held little Xiao-Yue securely.
The small girl was holding her golden sugar lotus in one hand, while her other hand hugged her pink lotus lantern. The soft, ruby light radiating from the lamp created a gentle three-foot sphere of comforting warmth around them, shielding her small face from the spray of cold river water.
"Brother Li-Wen! Look at that big boat!" Xiao-Yue squeaked, her clear eyes wide with wonder as she pointed toward the largest three-deck ironwood barge moored at the main pier—the Eastern-Gull Express. "It's as big as a floating house! Does it go all the way to the ocean?"
"It follows the river east," Li-Wen murmured, his deep, raspy voice flat and steady. "It is faster than walking the mountain trail."
"Yay! We get to ride on a floating house!" She giggled, taking a tiny, content bite of her golden sugar lotus.
They walked up the wide wooden gangplank toward the barge's upper deck entrance.
At the top of the gangplank stood the barge captain—a burly, sun-cured man with a thick gray beard and a sharp, experienced eye named Captain Lin—along with four crewmen checking passage tokens.
When Captain Lin saw the tall, broad-shouldered man approaching with a massive heavy blade on his back and white-rooted hair, his eyes narrowed slightly. Having sailed the Silver-Stream River for thirty years, he recognized the terrifying physical presence of an elite martial artist instantly. However, seeing the warm box of oat cakes and the sweet little girl resting comfortably in the man's arms, Captain Lin's tense posture relaxed by a fraction.
"Greetings, traveler," Captain Lin said, offering a polite, traditional fist-and-palm salute. "The Eastern-Gull Express is departing for the Eastern Realm Delta in half an hour. First-class cabin on the top deck is ten silver coins per person. Quiet, private, and away from the lower deck trade cargo."
Li-Wen did not speak. He reached into his coat pocket with two broad fingers, pulled out a heavy silver ingot worth fifty coins, and placed it calmly into Captain Lin's palm.
"A quiet cabin," Li-Wen said flatly. "Do not disturb us."
Captain Lin looked at the heavy silver ingot in his palm, his eyes widening in surprise. He immediately bowed his head respectfully. "Understood, my lord! Third deck, Cabin One—the largest private suite at the stern! The view of the river is clear, and no crew or lower passengers will bother you!"
"Follow me, sir!" A young crewman quickly stepped forward, bowing deferentially as he led Li-Wen and Xiao-Yue up the polished wooden stairs toward the grand upper deck.
Third Deck, Cabin One was a spacious, quiet suite built from fragrant cedar wood.
Large lattice windows stretched across the rear wall, offering a breathtaking, unobstructed view of the wide Silver-Stream River and the pine-covered mountains receding into the background. A heavy oak table sat in the center of the room, flanked by soft fur-lined chairs and a raised sleeping platform.
The moment the young crewman bowed and closed the wooden door behind them, the absolute quiet of the suite returned.
Li-Wen set the two wooden boxes of warm honey oat cakes on the oak table and carefully placed Xiao-Yue down onto one of the soft, fur-lined chairs.
"Mmm! It smells so good, Brother Li-Wen!" Xiao-Yue squeaked happily, setting her pink lotus lantern in the center of the oak table. Its warm ruby glow illuminated the fragrant cedar walls, filling the room with a cozy, comforting atmosphere.
Li-Wen untied the hemp twine on the first wooden box, lifting the lid.
A cloud of sweet, golden steam rose into the air, carrying the rich aroma of toasted oats, wild mountain honey, and churned butter. Inside lay twelve thick, golden-brown oat cakes, warm and crisp at the edges.
Xiao-Yue's eyes sparkled like stars! She immediately reached out her small, gloved hand, picking up a warm oat cake with both hands, taking a big, eager bite!
"CRUNCH!"
"Mmmmm~! It's so sweet and warm!" She cheered, her small cheeks puffing up like a happy squirrel as she chewed enthusiastically. "Brother Li-Wen, eat one! Quick, before it gets cold!"
Li-Wen sat down on the wooden chair opposite her. He picked up a warm oat cake with his broad, scarred fingers and took a small bite. The crisp texture and sweet, rich flavor melted on his tongue, bringing a quiet, momentary stillness to his dark, void-like eyes.
"It is good," Li-Wen murmured, his deep voice carrying a rare, subtle softness.
"See! I told you Sister Silver-Hair's town has the best cakes!" She giggled, taking another happy bite.
Outside the lattice windows, a deep, resonant iron horn echoed across the water!
HOOOOOOOO—!
The heavy ironwood barge shuddered slightly as the crew cast off the thick mooring ropes. The massive wooden paddle wheels on both sides of the hull began to turn, churning the blue river water into white, frothy foam as the Eastern-Gull Express smoothly glided away from the docks of Silver-River Market Town, heading down the wide, open river toward the east.
For two days, the ironwood barge traveled smoothly along the Silver-Stream River.
The lower decks were bustling with loud merchants, traveling scholars, and low-level mercenaries drinking tea and playing dice. But on the secluded third deck, silence reigned supreme. No one dared to approach Cabin One, as the crew had strictly enforced Captain Lin's order to give the quiet, white-haired traveler total privacy.
During the daytime, Xiao-Yue sat by the large lattice window, watching white river gulls dive into the blue water and small fishing boats glide past the steep canyon cliffs. Li-Wen sat quietly on the wooden bench beside her, meditating in silence, his primordial marrow maintaining its quiet, infinite density while his broad hand rested close to the dark grip of his blade.
However, on the night of the third day, as the river widened into the mist-covered Black-Gorge Basin—a dangerous three-hundred-mile stretch of water bordering the Eastern Realm—the peaceful atmosphere on the river began to shift.
The moonlight above the canyon was blocked out by thick, unnatural pitch-black clouds.
The temperature over the river dropped rapidly, not from Li-Wen's physical cold, but from a heavy, suffocating stench of decayed blood and dark spatial Qi that began to rise from the depths of the foggy water!
Inside Cabin One, Xiao-Yue had already fallen into a peaceful, sweet sleep on the fur-lined bed, her small breath steady and quiet. Beside her pillow, her pink lotus lantern burned with a dim, tranquil ruby light.
Li-Wen sat on the wooden chair by the lattice window.
His dark, void-like eyes slowly opened.
His acute physical senses detected twenty microscopic, high-speed spatial vibrations moving beneath the river surface, cutting through the water at fifty miles an hour, surrounding the Eastern-Gull Express from all directions!
THUMP... THUMP... THUMP...
Heavy, wet iron hooks attached to dark steel chains suddenly shot out from the foggy water, slamming violently into the outer hull of the barge!
On the lower and middle decks, frantic screams of pure panic immediately erupted from the sleeping passengers and crew!
"ENEMY ATTACK! IT'S THE RIVER-BLOOD PIRATES!"
"BOARDS! THEY ARE CLIMBING THE HULL! RUN!"
"WHERE ARE THE GUARDS?! DEFEND THE SHIP!"
BOOOM—!
The heavy wooden doors of the main deck were smashed open! Dozens of tall, fierce-looking men wearing dark, blood-stained leather armor and bone masks leaped onto the wooden deck! They carried curved, jagged sea-blades radiating dark crimson Qi, their eyes burning with ruthless, predatory greed!
Leading the boarding party was a giant, seven-foot-tall man carrying a massive, blood-stained iron anchor on his shoulders—Captain Blood-Anchor, a notorious Stage-5 High Sovereign from the dreaded Eastern-Sea Blood-Tide Coalition!
"Hahaha! Kill the men! Take the silver and the high-grade cargo!" Captain Blood-Anchor roared, his voice thunderous as he slammed his iron anchor onto the main deck, shattering three wooden planks! "Anyone who resists will have their soul extracted and thrown to the river beasts!"
Over fifty elite pirate assassins swarmed the middle deck, slaughtering the ship's guards like sheep, their curved blades dripping with fresh blood!
Captain Lin and ten surviving crewmen were forced back against the base of the third-deck wooden stairs, their iron swords trembling as they looked up at the giant Stage-5 Sovereign approaching them with a psychotic grin.
"Captain Lin!" Blood-Anchor sneered, dragging his blood-stained anchor across the floorboards. "Hand over the master key to the upper-deck private cabins! I heard a wealthy traveler paid fifty silver coins for Cabin One! That kind of money belongs to the Blood-Tide Coalition!"
Captain Lin's face was pale, covered in sweat and blood, but he stood his ground at the foot of the stairs, clutching his longsword tightly. "Blood-Anchor! The traveler in Cabin One... is not someone you can afford to provoke! Leave this ship immediately if you value your life!"
"Hahaha! Not someone I can provoke?!" Blood-Anchor laughed hysterically, his dark crimson Qi exploding outward, crushing Captain Lin onto his knees! "In this Black-Gorge Basin, even a Stage-5 High Sovereign from the Central Realm has to kneel before my Blood-Tide Coalition! Men! Go up to Cabin One! Break the door and drag everyone out!"
"YES, CAPTAIN!" Four Stage-4 pirate commanders sneered, drawing their curved sea-blades and rushing up the wooden stairs toward the third deck!
Inside Cabin One, the room was perfectly quiet.
Li-Wen stood up from his chair. He did not draw his heavy blade. He did not look at the bed where Xiao-Yue was sleeping peacefully.
He walked over to the wooden door, his heavy leather boots making no sound against the cedar floor.
BOOOM—!
The heavy cedar door of Cabin One was violently kicked open from the outside!
The four Stage-4 pirate commanders stood in the doorway, their curved blades dripping with blood, psychotic grins plastered across their faces!
"Hahaha! Hand over your spatial ring and your—"
The lead pirate commander's sentence was cut short.
Li-Wen stood in the dark doorway.
His dark traveler's coat was unbuttoned at the top. His short hair, heavily streaked with pure white roots, rested against his broad shoulders. His dark, void-like pupils looked down at the four pirates with flat, absolute, and bone-chilling indifference.
He did not wait for them to finish their sentence.
Li-Wen simply reached out his broad right hand, grabbed the lead pirate commander by his neck, and pulled him forward into the doorway.
CRUNCH.
With a casual, microscopic squeeze of two fingers, the Stage-4 pirate's neck, spine, and spiritual core were instantly crushed into fine powder!
Before the remaining three pirates could even process what had happened, Li-Wen stepped through the broken doorway onto the third-deck balcony, holding the dead pirate by the neck, and tossed his body casually over the wooden railing.
SPLASH.
The body hit the river below.
The three remaining pirate commanders froze in sheer, paralyzed horror! Their curved blades trembled in their hands, their breath catching in their throats as they looked at the broad-shouldered man standing under the moonlight.
Down on the main deck, Captain Blood-Anchor and fifty pirates looked up at the third-deck balcony.
"Who the hell are you?!" Blood-Anchor roared, raising his massive iron anchor, his dark crimson Qi flaring violently! "How dare you touch my commander! Do you know who I am?!"
Li-Wen stood on the upper balcony, looking down at the fifty blood-stained pirates crowding the main deck below.
The cold night breeze blew past his white-rooted hair. His face was flat, smooth, and completely devoid of emotion—a face carved from ancient, cold iron.
He pulled his right hand out from his coat pocket and extended a single, broad index finger downward toward the main deck.
"You are too loud," Li-Wen said softly, his deep, raspy voice carrying an absolute, cosmic physical weight that vibrated through the ironwood frame of the three-deck barge.
"Xiao-Yue is sleeping."
Li-Wen lightly flicked his index finger downward.
FLICK.
A single, microscopic wave of absolute-zero sapphire kinetic energy shot down from his fingertip, striking the center of the main deck!
CRACKLE—! CRUNCH—! REPRESS—!
In less than a microsecond, Captain Blood-Anchor, his Stage-5 spatial domain, his massive iron anchor, the fifty elite pirate assassins, and their twenty river-boats surrounding the hull were completely snap-froze into solid, pale-blue ice!
They didn't even have time to scream. Their psychotic grins, their drawn blades, and their dark crimson Qi were permanently locked inside fifty lifelike, pale-blue ice statues standing on the main deck!
CRUMB.
Li-Wen took a quiet step back toward his cabin door.
His leather boot lightly tapped the wooden floorboard.
The fifty pale-blue ice statues, along with the giant anchor and the twenty pirate boats surrounding the ship, collapsed silently into a massive heap of sparkling frost-dust that dissolved harmlessly into the rushing river water below!
The fifty dreaded pirates of the Eastern-Sea Blood-Tide Coalition were erased in a single second—without a single drop of blood spilling onto the wooden deck.
Silence—absolute, pristine, and bone-chilling silence—returned to the Eastern-Gull Express.
Captain Lin and the ten surviving crewmen sat on the wooden deck, their eyes wide, their mouths agape, staring at the completely empty, clean floorboards where fifty terrifying assassins had stood moments ago.
Not a single scratch remained on the ironwood ship. The heavy dark-red Qi that had hung over the river was completely cleared away, replaced once more by the crisp, cool night breeze of the Black-Gorge Basin.
Captain Lin looked up at the third-deck balcony, but the broad-shouldered man was no longer there. The wooden door of Cabin One had been pulled shut, blocking out all sound from the outside world.
Captain Lin fell to his knees on the clean deck, bowing his grey-bearded head deeply toward Cabin One in profound, trembling reverence.
"Thank you... Northern Sovereign..." Captain Lin whispered softly into the night wind.
Inside Cabin One, the soft ruby light of the pink lotus lantern illuminated the quiet room.
Li-Wen walked back to the fur-lined bed, checking on little Xiao-Yue.
The small girl was still sleeping peacefully, her white sheepskin coat wrapped snugly around her shoulders, her small breath sweet and steady. She had not been disturbed by a single sound.
Li-Wen sat down quietly on the wooden chair by the lattice window, resting his broad back against the fur lining, his left hand gently hovering near the warm lamp.
Outside the window, the misty canyon walls of the Black-Gorge Basin slowly faded behind them as the ironwood barge glided smoothly into the wide, open waters leading toward the Eastern Sea Realm.
The Northern Sovereign sat in the quiet dark, guarding his sister's sweet sleep as the ship sailed onward into the dawn.
See you in next chapter....