Chapter Forty-Six: Landing in the Southeast District!

Boom!

Inside the ship’s cabin, an explosion echoed.

After the blast, Zhou Hun scrambled up from the floor, looking rather disheveled.

“Captain Zhou, what happened?”

A squad member hurried into the cabin, his face tense with worry.

Zhou Hun glanced at the scattered remains across the floor and laughed. “Nothing! One of them pulled a grenade, tried to take me down with him. Luckily, I’ve got starforce shielding my body.”

His subordinate replied, “These Fusang dogs sure are tough. Good thing we charged into the lower ammunition chamber first—otherwise, they’d have blown the whole ship sky-high.”

Zhou Hun nodded. “Let’s go! We’re finally done here. Let’s see how Ye Xun deals with the Fusang dogs who are still alive.”

…

“Little Third, didn’t the reporter ask you to film? Do it properly!”

On the pockmarked deck of the Fusang, battered by shellfire, Yang Ye rested his hand on a teenage boy’s shoulder and smiled.

The boy nodded nervously.

This boy was the dark-skinned youth from the fishing boat—the one who’d been filming the battle between the two ships with binoculars and his phone. Being the third child in his family, he was nicknamed Little Third.

When Yang Ye noticed him livestreaming with his phone, he simply had someone bring the boy aboard.

Yang Ye led Little Third to a row of kneeling Fusang crew members.

Having overcome his nerves, Little Third began streaming with his phone.

There were twelve surviving Fusang men, each wounded, bound hand and foot, forced to kneel on the deck, their eyes burning with hatred as they stared at Yang Ye.

Yang Ye, clad in the red uniform of the Star Martial Administration, stood with arms akimbo. He paced between Little Third and the Fusang prisoners, then spoke coolly, “These Fusang dogs invaded the maritime borders of Huaxia and killed our fishermen. This is unforgivable! Some accuse me of disrupting international peace!

I know exactly who said that—just saw it on the news—a certain councilman named He Xiaodong, right? For those words, I swear I’ll livestream myself slapping you when I get back, and I always keep my word!

Disrupting international peace? So what if I did!

And you Fusang dogs, listen up. From now on, in all Huaxia territory, I don’t care who you are—if I see a single one of you, you die. Before I return, you have plenty of time to get the hell out! Anyone who harbors Fusang dogs, no matter who they are, will be executed with you!

And to the rest of the world: from now on, if any of our fishermen leaving Huaxia’s shores are harmed, I swear—even if I have to chase you to the ends of the earth—I will make you pay!

From now on, all fishermen at sea are under the protection of Ye Tianzu!”

As Yang Ye spoke, the fishermen watching the livestream were moved to tears.

After so many years, finally a cultivator had stood up to defend them!

—

Little Third’s hands shook with excitement as he held his phone.

In the somewhat shaky video, Yang Ye pointed at the twelve Fusang prisoners behind him. “Everyone, pay attention—this is their fate! And just a warning, the following footage isn’t suitable for children.”

With that, Yang Ye waved his hand.

With a flurry of slicing sounds, Zhou Hun and his squad drew their war blades and beheaded all twelve Fusang prisoners in a single breath.

At the sight of heads rolling to his feet and the thick scent of blood, Little Third couldn’t contain himself and ran to the ship’s rail to vomit.

Yang Ye burst out laughing. “Kid, you’ve got to toughen up. When I was your age, I’d already killed people.”

Little Third looked about thirteen or fourteen. Yang Ye wasn’t lying—when he was cultivating in the mountains, his master had forced him to behead several cultivators by the age of ten.

Killing is something a cultivator must face!

Seeing Little Third’s distress, Zhou Hun and the others laughed as well.

Looking at the bloodied Zhou Hun and his men, who were grinning like demons, Little Third suddenly found them oddly warm and friendly.

Yang Ye stepped forward, ruffled Little Third’s hair, and asked with a smile, “Interested in cultivation? I can see you have good potential.”

As he spoke, Yang Ye had already probed Little Third’s body with his starforce.

“Ah!” Little Third cried out in surprise and delight.

Seeing his reaction, Yang Ye grinned. “From now on, you’ll study under Zhou Hun’s guidance.”

“Yes, Inspector Ye!”

Little Third saluted him excitedly, though his gesture was off, drawing another round of laughter.

…

Yang Ye and Long Xiaoqing returned to the Tianxun.

“Maoli, are you sure the information you got is accurate?”

On the deck, Yang Ye glanced at Maoli and spoke calmly.

Maoli smiled. “Don’t worry, Inspector Ye. I’ve had people watching—Zhao Fei has indeed taken in several Fusang cultivators. They’re unruly types, too, causing plenty of harm to ordinary citizens in Yangcheng.

Inspector Ye, your strategy is brilliant—by acting in the name of justice, when you take down District Chief Zhao Fei and his people, public opinion will be on your side.”

—

Zhou Hun shook his head. “Settling personal scores is only incidental. What I really want is to clean up Huaxia’s cultivation world.”

Maoli, of course, didn’t believe him.

After speaking, Yang Ye picked up the radio and called to Captain Wei Yong, “Old Wei, send some men to tow the Fusang to Tianjin Port. Then push the Tianxun to full speed along the coast—I’m heading to the Southeast District.”

“Yes, Inspector Ye!” Wei Yong replied.

Half an hour later, the Tianxun started up, heading straight from the East China Sea to the South China Sea.

…

The speech Yang Ye gave on the Fusang’s deck caused a massive stir as soon as it spread.

Fusang was first to issue a protest to Huaxia.

Their argument: the Fusang was only driving away Huaxia fishermen who had intruded into their waters, but Inspector Ye, without distinguishing right from wrong, massacred the entire Fusang crew and threatened Fusang’s citizens. This, they claimed, was immoral and deserved punishment.

Accordingly, Fusang announced it would send a delegation of one hundred, led by ten late-stage Star cultivators, to negotiate in Xiajing, demanding that the butcher Ye Tianzu pay the price!

After seeing the Fusang Prime Minister’s statement on the news, Yang Ye appeared on the Xiajing News Live Channel and said, “Fine! If Fusang’s hundred-man delegation isn’t afraid to die, let them come! I guarantee none of them will return. If I fail, I’ll livestream myself beating off!”

Several small neighboring countries also issued protests. Even though Yang Ye hadn’t mentioned them by name, he’d made threats, which they claimed were condemnable.

Huaxia’s parliament convened an emergency session to discuss the major incident caused by Yang Ye.

At least half the lawmakers proposed removing Inspector Ye from his post, arresting him, and handing him over to the Xiajing courts to appease international opinion.

These lawmakers were almost all from the great aristocratic families—people Yang Ye had offended recently. They seized this opportunity to try to remove him.

However, Tian Zhong and his faction sided with Yang Ye. As cultivators who still cared about their country, they strongly supported Yang Ye’s actions.

While parliament was in chaos, Yang Ye landed with his men on the Southeast District coast and headed straight for the Star Martial Administration’s Southeast Branch!

Although there was no livestream this time, Yang Ye had Little Third film everything with a better camera.

Once it was over, the video would be posted online.

If they’d streamed live, what if District Chief Zhao Fei’s Fusang cultivators saw and fled?