Chapter Forty-Five: A One-Sided Slaughter

Apart from the missiles, over a dozen large-caliber automatic cannons and long-range torpedoes equipped on the Sky Patrol also began to fire in rapid succession.

Most of the missiles launched from the Sky Patrol were intercepted, but a few struck the Yamato with deadly precision.

A series of thunderous explosions erupted.

In addition to the missiles, a barrage of shells landed on the Yamato as well.

In an instant, the Yamato was engulfed in the blaze of the explosions.

“Well done!”

Yang Ye, peering through his binoculars, slammed his fist onto the ship’s railing, exclaiming with excitement.

Regrettably, the first wave of assault failed to disable the Yamato’s ability to retaliate.

Soon, the Yamato’s own weaponry opened fire.

On the sea, when two well-armed hunter ships exchanged attacks, there were rarely any true victors.

Even if one was sunk, the other would suffer severe damage as well.

Yang Ye didn’t care.

Losing a ship simply meant buying another.

After all, he was flush with cash.

Even after remitting more than half of the taxes he had recently collected, there were still over a trillion Wu coins sitting in his account.

The missiles and shells fired from the Yamato soon found their mark on the Sky Patrol.

Amidst the violent explosions, the Sky Patrol rocked violently, one of its turrets blasted clean off and tumbling into the sea.

In the distance, three fishing boats that had been battered by the Yamato limped to a halt.

The fishermen on board, watching the Sky Patrol take hit after hit, were overcome with emotion.

In this era ruled by cultivators, at long last, someone was standing up to protect them.

“The Sky Patrol! It’s the Sky Patrol!”

On one of the fishing boats, a deeply tanned youth waved his phone excitedly.

“What about the Sky Patrol?” an elderly fisherman beside him asked curiously.

The youth replied, “Grandpa, that’s Inspector Ye Tianzu’s ship! Just recently, Inspector Ye wiped out the Jiang family, the top cultivation clan in Xiajing!”

The old man grunted, “So what? It’s just cultivators fighting over power. What does that have to do with us regular folks?”

The youth shook his head. “It’s different! Think about it—just the other day, the village announced that this year, the state would pay back the pensions owed to all those over sixty. That’s thanks to Inspector Ye! If he hadn’t collected so much tax, how would the government have money to hand out subsidies?”

The old man nodded. “So it really is Inspector Ye’s doing. I hope the Sky Patrol makes it—I feel a pang every time it’s hit!”

“Wait!”

All of a sudden, the youth let out a cry, startling his grandfather.

He dashed to the cabin, grabbed a data cable, and connected the electronic binoculars to his phone.

---

“What are you doing, San’er?” the old man asked.

The youth grinned. “Grandpa, I’m recording a video! If I post it on MicroView and it goes viral, I could make quite a bit of money!”

Before long, a video of the two ships exchanging fire was uploaded by the youth.

The title was: “Battle Between Xiajing’s Inspector Ye and Fusang’s Yamato.”

In the video’s description, the youth narrated the reason behind the clash.

Once posted, the view count skyrocketed exponentially.

---

After more than ten minutes of fierce combat, both warships were riddled with wounds.

But compared to the Sky Patrol, the Yamato of Fusang had sustained far worse damage.

Suddenly, a bright white flare shot up from the Yamato, bursting in the sky.

Immediately, the Yamato ceased fire.

At once, Yang Ye’s radio crackled at his waist. “Inspector Ye, the Yamato requests a ceasefire and close-quarters combat!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yang Ye picked up the radio and asked.

Wei Yong replied, “It’s international convention. When two ships engage in battle at sea and the outcome is undecided, they may agree to a ceasefire and have the cultivators onboard settle the fight.”

“Excellent! Let’s do close-quarters then!” Yang Ye said with a laugh.

He’d been hoping for just this.

The Sky Patrol had a total of fifty-one cultivators, including himself, all at the planetary stage.

And both he and Long Xiaoqing were far more powerful than a late-stage stellar cultivator.

The Sky Patrol ceased fire.

Then, the two giant ships rapidly drew closer.

Yang Ye gave the order over the radio: “Listen up, everyone! Conceal your auras! When we’re within a hundred meters, leap aboard in one go. Kill everyone on board—leave no survivors! If you can bring the ship back, do it. Patch her up, slap on a new coat of paint, and she’ll fetch several billion easily!”

“Yes, Inspector Ye!” came the chorus of voices over the radio.

---

“Grandpa, take us closer. The ships are about to fight hand-to-hand! I want to see Inspector Ye with my own eyes,” said the youth excitedly.

His words were met with a slap on the head from his grandfather. “Are you out of your mind, boy?”

The youth just grinned sheepishly.

The old man thought for a moment but eventually agreed. “But from now on, no more posting videos online. Did you read the comments on your last one? They nearly gave me a stroke!”

The comments he referred to were from people accusing Inspector Ye of disrupting international peace and provoking war.

There weren’t many such remarks, but the heated responses pushed them to the top, catching the old man’s attention.

“Grandpa, that’s just a handful of trolls. Ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent of netizens support him.”

---

The youth explained.

The old man, his stance wavering, soon relented.

By then, the other two fishing boats were also slowly approaching.

Fishermen, hardened by life at sea, had nerves of steel.

As they drew nearer, the youth’s phone suddenly rang.

It was a reporter from a TV station, offering him five million Huaxia coins to livestream from his phone.

The youth hesitated, but the old man said, “Do it! The money doesn’t matter—what’s important is letting all our countrymen know Inspector Ye is fighting for Huaxia! Remember, this is our territorial waters!”

The youth nodded emphatically.

---

The two massive warships edged closer.

As the hulls passed within a hundred meters of each other, fifty cultivators from the Sky Patrol vaulted from their deck, leaping the distance to land on the Yamato.

Ordinarily, a hunter ship might carry a dozen planetary-level cultivators, supplemented by dozens at the meteor stage and a crew of a hundred or two.

The Yamato was similarly manned, but with one difference: this time, it also carried a newly-advanced stellar cultivator.

Unfortunately for them, Long Xiaoqing and Yang Ye were aboard.

Even from afar, Long Xiaoqing sensed the presence of the stellar cultivator on the Yamato.

She, along with several dozen other cultivators, landed on the Yamato’s deck.

The stellar cultivator revealed himself—a middle-aged man in black robes.

At first, seeing so many late planetary cultivators, he frowned, then sneered.

So what if there were dozens of planetary experts? They’d fall before him like wheat to the scythe.

Just as he was about to act, a blur appeared before him.

Before he could react, pain exploded in his abdomen, and he found himself flying through the air.

With a single kick, Long Xiaoqing launched her opponent, then, in a flash, met him mid-air with a flurry of punches and kicks.

Not until she had beaten the Fusang stellar cultivator beyond recognition did she let him crash to the deck.

Only then did Long Xiaoqing realize the ship had fallen eerily silent.

Both sides stood in stunned amazement, staring at her.

With a satisfied clap of her hands, Long Xiaoqing shouted to Zhou Hun and the others, “What are you all waiting for? Kill them!”

That snapped everyone out of their stupor, and the battle erupted in full force.

A one-sided slaughter had begun…