The man in black leapt towards Yu Chen, and a fierce battle ensued.

  His qi erupted, the blood he’d spat out earlier flying into the air and coalescing into a bloody dart that was nearly invisible against the night sky. The cultivator’s face twisted into a bloody scowl as he made a throwing motion, sending the dart shooting towards Yu Chen.

  The boy was already moving. Cycling his movement technique, he leapt to the side, dodging the attack as he took short pitter-pattering steps that brought him across the deck in an instant.

  Yu Chen appeared beside the man, but this time the cultivator wasn’t caught off guard by his speed.

  His eyes flashed as he calculated the boy’s angle of attack, already swinging his blade before Yu Chen could appear. Yu Chen’s eyes shot up as he tried desperately to abort, leaping out of the way before he even had a chance to strike out with a heavy blow.

  He was caught off guard. He’d pulled back far enough to avoid the worst of it, but the glancing blow still marked him, and he could feel the warm, wet liquid running down his arm to splash against the deck below.

  He took a step back, readjusting, but the pirate didn’t let up, a gleam of satisfaction filling his eyes. He lunged forward, thrusting his thin blade forward in quick, violent motions as he tested Yu Chen’s defenses. Half the ribs in his side had been cracked or broken, but it was as though he didn’t even feel it as he pressed the attack. Yu Chen sprawled backwards to avoid another thrust, and the man’s mouth spread into a wide grin filled with blood-stained teeth as the boy fell to the deck.

  Yu Chen didn’t stay down long. He hit the deck with the back of his shoulders, rolling backwards before leaping back to his feet. He dashed forward, attempting to get close to the other cultivator.

  His attack was brought up short as three bloody darts cut across the space towards him, forcing him to hastily leap to the side.

  This was the biggest disadvantage Yu Chen had against Foundation Establishment cultivators right now. His body was as strong, in fact stronger, than most of the Foundation Establishment cultivators he’d met, but he lacked any ability to externalize his qi. He couldn’t fight them from range, and that made it incredibly difficult for him to get close enough to bring his tempered body to bear.

  His heartbeat against the inside of his chest as he considered what to do, sending a stream of energy through him that caused him to feel refreshed even in the midst of battle. Qi surged through his body, demanding to be used as his reserves welled up.

  But all that energy did him little good without any way to manifest it.

  The deck was covered with blood from the wounded and dead, the perfect tool for the demonic cultivator. He smiled as he reached out, lifting it up into the air to form into more bloody darts. Yu Chen smiled back, casting a fearless grin towards the older man.

  The pirate released the darts, sending them flying through the air towards Yu Chen as he ran, but they never came near him. He slid under one and leapt above another, landing on the mast and kicking off to avoid the third. The cultivator pulled on the blood around him, sending more and more darts flying through the air towards Yu Chen.

  He dodged them all, and when his foe least expected it, Yu Chen was there. He accelerated with a sudden burst of speed, cycling his movement technique to the max as he burned his qi without care, every beat of his heart slowly refilling his reserves.

  The cultivator backpedaled a step, bringing the thin blade up to block a blow, but Yu Chen simply smashed a hard fist against it without a care in the world. The explosive blow contained all the might he could muster, the qi surging into his fist to condense into two infinitesimally small points on his knuckles.

  There was a single brief moment as the weapon resisted before it was blasted out of the pirate's grip, flying across the deck to land with a clatter. Yu Chen’s attack had left the pirate wide open, and the dumbfounded look on his face did little to protect him from the barrage of heavy blows. He landed a heavy fist right below the man’s solar plexus, lifting him off his feet and into the air, where a hard blow to the side of his head sent him crashing into the deck.

  Yu Chen slammed a foot down as the pirate fell, aiming to crush the man’s skull, but some unconscious sense of preservation caused him to roll out of the way. The boy growled in frustration at the near miss, lashing out with a kick that sent the pirate tumbling across the deck.

  He was only delaying the inevitable. Yu Chen took two short steps beginning to walk to the pirate’s side as the man pushed himself up onto his knees, but he came to a halt as the man looked up.

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  The pirate bled from all over, his bones were broken and his ribs were crushed. Even the side of his head was deformed from where Yu Chen’s blow had smashed into it, partially caving it in. But there was no look of terror on the man’s face, or one of pain, or even resignation. Instead, he wore the sly grin of a man who’d watched you walk into a trap.

  Yu Chen felt his skin prickle and began to leap backwards, but a large spike thrust out of a nearby puddle of blood, thrusting through his thigh and pinning him in place. Sharp aching pain erupted all over his body as more bloody spikes formed, spearing through his flesh.

  Two, no three, separate spikes pierced through the arm that had been cut, his own coagulated blood turning against him.

  Another spike pierced through each of his palms, rendering his fists near useless as the blood covering them, blood he’d beaten out of his enemy, was turned into a weapon.

  Yu Chen gave a light cough, wavering on his feet as the other cultivator stood up. The pirate raised his arm, a vicious look crossing his face, but whatever technique he’d been about to activate never came as he collapsed, the life fading from his eyes.

  It was a lesson, Yu Chen realized, as the bloody spikes sticking through his body dissipated, allowing his own blood to leak from the numerous holes they’d left behind. A wounded foe was only ever more dangerous, never less. His thoughts began to slur as the crashing sounds of the battle around him blended together in a thunderous din.

  He fumbled with the ring on his finger, trying two times before he managed to inject it with a thin stream of qi, bringing forth one of his rejuvenation pills. He nearly dropped the small lozenge as it slid through blood-slicked fingers that refused to work properly, but in the end, he managed to bring it to his mouth and swallow it down.

  He cast a blurry look around, watching as the pirates began to swarm across the deck of the Lady. Sun Yuan and the strange swordsman could only hold back so many at once, as many of the pirates simply ran past them and swarmed across the deck of the Sleeping Lady.

  One came running towards him, screaming words that were lost in the noise of battle as he waved a sabre above his head.

  Yu Chen let out a cold snort, wincing in pain as he slapped a bleeding palm against the side of the blade that came swinging down towards him. The blade twisted in the pirate’s hands, and Yu Chen gritted his teeth, slamming the side of his wounded hand into the pirate’s neck as he stumbled past.

  He couldn’t hear the sound of breaking bones and cartilage snapping as the man’s neck failed to stop his hand, but he certainly felt it.

  The sabre fell out of the man’s nerveless fingers as he fell to the deck, gasping for a breath of air that never came. But Yu Chen paid him no mind, wavering on his feet as the pirate choked to death. He felt lightheaded from the blood loss, everything around him appearing as though in a dream.

  He watched as Yan Ziqi killed the Foundation Establishment expert he’d been fighting against as well, crushing him under a storm of artifacts that crackled with power. A much cleaner death than the one Yu Chen had offered.

  Another cultivator rose to take their place, and Yan Ziqi was soon preoccupied again.

  Serbo au Serbo’s bow had claimed more than a dozen lives before a Foundation Establishment expert closed in with him, forcing him into close combat and giving the others the breathing room that allowed them to swarm the deck. He killed the man quickly, and it was a testament to the barbarian’s fearsome power that he reaped lives with similar ease whether he was at range or locked into a desperate melee.

  More cultivators swarmed the man as he swung about him with two wickedly sharp cleavers, rough-wrought but blazing with power. Two Foundation Establishment cultivators fought back against him, but even together they were not enough.

  Sun Yuan and the swordsman had split apart, fighting across the deck as they fought to hold off their foes, when Xue Lan made her presence known. The air around them shook for a brief second as a formation activated, lighting up the deck with a white glow.

  An oppressive aura fell over the ship, slowing the movements of the enemy cultivators aboard.

  Their enemies panicked as their movements faltered, and slowly but surely, their side began to win. A gleam crossed Yu Chen’s eyes as he watched as first one, then another, of their foes broke and ran, rushing back across to the safety of their ships.

  Yu Chen had only had a short respite, but he was already beginning to feel better. The power of the pill combined with his natural regeneration had gone a long way towards bringing him back to fighting condition. His wounds had scabbed over, his skin itching like fire as it knit itself back together again. Even the haze in his head had begun to clear, as fresh blood spread through his body with every thump of his heart.

  Which was good, because some primal instinct welled up within him as he watched his enemies turn and flee. Like an animal, the chase excited him. He dashed into motion, wincing as the wound in his leg pulled. He pushed it out of his mind, diving after the fleeing pirates like a wolf chasing sheep. He showed them no mercy and offered no quarter as he cracked their skulls and broke their bones, leaving a trail of wounded and dead behind him.

  It was Ji Rong’s face that flashed through his mind as he slew a bloody path across the deck.

  Not the face he’d known in life, the full-figured face of a rotund fellow who ate and laughed a bit too much. A face that had always wore a smile that brought out the tiny wrinkles around his eyes, a sign of his good cheer.

  No, it was the face he saw in his dreams. The face he’d seen in Death.

  A hollow thing he’d lifted off of the ground, its desiccated skin pulled tight against the bone, its empty eye sockets staring into his soul. Its lips were nearly gone, the softer tissues torn away by the birds and the beasts, but what remained stretched upwards in a smile laced with mockery, as if it knew some deeper truth that no one else could grasp.

  They killed, and killed some more, fighting for freedom and the river, fighting for life, fighting until the day came when Ji Rong’s mocking smile shifted to gratitude.