While Li Daoxuan was relaxing in the water as if the battlefield above had nothing to do with him, the real chaos was erupting on the surface.
Zheng Zhilong's second brother, Zheng Zhihu, was already preparing to board.
On his flagship stood a boy of twelve. He was now called Zheng Sen. The name carried weight, expectation, and a future that had not yet unfolded. For now, though, he was simply a boy watching war up close, standing beside his second uncle and trying to learn how men carved their names into the sea.
Zheng Zhihu lowered his voice.
"Your second uncle is about to board their ship. After I jump across, you stay here and command. Do not follow me into the fight. Do you understand?"
Zheng Sen shook his head stubbornly. "I want to jump too."
Zheng Zhihu clicked his tongue in irritation. "You are twelve. Your bones have barely grown. Do you think the sea cares about your courage? Once I cross over, someone must command this ship. You will take my place here. That is your battlefield."
The boy hesitated, then nodded. "Understood. Second Uncle… be careful. Do not die."
Zheng Zhihu burst into loud laughter, the kind that drowned out fear. "If you are afraid of death, what kind of battle is this? Watch closely."
At that very moment, the flagship smashed into Liu Xiang's vessel with a thunderous crash. Wood shrieked against wood. The entire deck tilted violently. Zheng Sen lost his footing and rolled across the planks.
Zheng Zhihu did not move.
He bit his steel saber between his teeth, gripped a rattan shield in his left hand, caught a sail rope with his right, and launched himself across the gap.
For an instant he seemed suspended between two ships, as though even the wind paused to watch.
Arrows came first. The enemy reacted quickly. Several shafts streaked toward him, but each one struck the rattan shield and bounced off with dull impacts. By the time his boots hit Liu Xiang's deck, he was already moving.
His first kick sent a pirate flying backward before the man's saber had fully descended.
Zheng Zhihu tore the blade from his mouth and roared, "Python Two has arrived. Who dares stand before me?"
Five pirates rushed him at once.
The exchange lasted only moments. Steel flashed in tight arcs. Zheng Zhihu did not retreat, did not hesitate. One fell. Then another. The remaining three followed, their bodies tumbling into the sea as though the ocean itself had claimed them.
"Liu Xiang!" he shouted, charging forward with shield and saber. "Where are you hiding?"
He cut his way from bow to stern, then wheeled back again, a one-man storm tearing across the enemy deck. Pirates swarmed him, but none could withstand a single decisive strike. Blood streaked across wet planks. Men stumbled and fell.
Liu Xiang saw it all and felt his spine go cold.
He did not dare face this monster directly. Instead, he retreated step by step, shouting for his men to block the advance.
It made no difference.
From the ship behind, Zheng Sen watched in breathless awe. His second uncle moved like something out of legend, carving a path through enemies without even seeming to blink.
Then the boy noticed something wrong.
On the enemy stern, Liu Xiang was no longer retreating blindly. He had seized a large fishing net that hung near the rail. Quietly, carefully, he climbed onto the sterncastle.
Zheng Sen's heart clenched.
"Second Uncle, look out!"
His voice tore from his throat, but it was swallowed by the chaos of battle. Clashing steel, shouting men, crashing waves. No one heard him.
Zheng Zhihu had just cut down another opponent when the net dropped.
It fell from above, wide and heavy, wrapping around him before he could react. The coarse ropes tangled his arms and legs in an instant.
A chill ran through him. He cursed inwardly.
From behind, Zheng Sen screamed, his voice cracking with desperation. "Save my second uncle!"
The Zheng marines surged forward, but they were a step too slow.
Liu Xiang leapt down from the sterncastle and delivered a savage kick. Under normal circumstances, Zheng Zhihu would have dodged such a strike easily. Entangled in the net, he had no room to move.
The impact sent him straight overboard.
He hit the sea still wrapped in rope.
Zheng Sen's vision blurred. "Jump in! Pull him out!"
The Zheng marines rushed to the railing, but Liu Xiang was already there, saber flashing. He drove them back before they could dive.
Everything unraveled at once.
Without thinking further, Zheng Sen vaulted over his own ship's rail and plunged into the water.
The sea swallowed him in cold silence.
He kicked hard, swimming toward where his uncle had fallen, searching frantically beneath the surface. But a massive hull stood between them. The deep draft of the warships formed a dark wooden wall beneath the waterline, making a direct path nearly impossible.
He knew the cruel truth. A man who fell into the sea had only minutes. After that, only a corpse rose.
Tears mixed with saltwater as he swam.
Then something streaked past him.
It cut through the water with terrifying speed, so fast that Zheng Sen barely registered the shape. More unsettling than the speed was the movement itself. No human he had ever seen swam like that.
He froze mid-stroke.
"Was that… a person?"
It was.
Li Daoxuan shot forward like a living torpedo, water parting around him as though the sea recognized him as one of its own. In the blink of an eye, he reached Zheng Zhihu.
Below them, Zheng Zhihu was sinking.
He was an excellent swimmer, but the net bound his limbs completely. No technique could compensate for that. His lungs burned. His eyes remained open in stubborn fury.
Then he saw him.
The imperial envoy. The trusted man. Mr. Li.
Approaching like a fish.
Zheng Zhihu's mind faltered. Humans did not move like this.
Li Daoxuan reached him and spoke calmly, though they were deep underwater.
"Do not struggle. I will get you out."
Zheng Zhihu's thoughts shattered. He can speak underwater?
Li Daoxuan grabbed the net and pulled hard.
It did not tear.
Even with extraordinary strength, rope woven for the sea resisted brute force. He realized immediately that tearing it apart would waste precious seconds.
With a thought, the bone blade concealed along his skeleton extended outward with a subtle metallic snap.
Zheng Zhihu stared in horror as a sharp blade slid from Li Daoxuan's elbow.
The blade cut through the net.
Then another emerged.
Then several more, unfolding in a circular arc from his arm like something not born under heaven.
If Zheng Zhihu had air in his lungs, he would have screamed.
The blades flashed rapidly. Rope split apart in all directions. Within moments, the heavy net disintegrated into loose strands drifting in the current.
Freedom.
Zheng Zhihu forced his limbs to move and kicked upward with the last of his strength. The surface seemed impossibly far, yet suddenly it broke open above him.
He burst through and dragged in a massive breath of air.
Alive.
His first thought was not relief.
It was confusion.
"Where is Mr. Li?"
He looked around wildly. The man who had saved him had not surfaced.
Alarmed, Zheng Zhihu plunged his head back into the water.
There, in the shifting blue below, he saw Li Daoxuan already far away, gliding effortlessly. A pirate who had fallen overboard struggled nearby, but before the man could scream, a blade extended from Li Daoxuan's arm and pierced straight through his chest.
The sea swallowed the body without ceremony.
Zheng Zhihu's scalp went numb.
Who in the world was this Mr. Li?
Not a mere imperial envoy.
Not a simple eunuch.
If this was a man, then the word "man" had suddenly become far too small.