Chapter Thirty-Eight: Return on a Night of Blood, The Art of Internal Breath Cultivation

“How could it end like this…”
Qian the Elder’s eyes brimmed with boundless unwillingness.
He had betrayed his master because he felt there was no chance to advance to grandmaster under Bitu’s command, no hope of rising further.
He’d joined the Starhunters, driven by ambition, hoping to seize from their Immortal Masters the opportunity to ascend in one leap!
He had already become the eighth seat among the Starhunters, and it was just for the greed of five thousand taels of silver!
But…
All such thoughts ended abruptly in this instant.
He was dead!
“The captain is dead!”
“Qian the Elder is dead, run for your lives!”
Now, many pirates aboard the ship had witnessed it with their own eyes, scattering in every direction!
Though they usually swaggered across the seas, blades stained with blood, deeming themselves heroes, at this moment, in the rain and darkness, witnessing this terrifying slaughter—blood dyeing the sea—they finally understood what true fear was!
How could there be a man who, alone and wordless, took up a spear and wiped out an entire pirate ship?
“Where do you think you can escape? Kill them all.”
Bai Xuan strode forward swiftly, spearing down every pirate who dared to resist on the deck. Some leapt into the sea, but in this storm, with the waves surging, perhaps not one in a hundred would survive!
Moments later, the ship was deserted, corpses strewn across the deck, blood flowing in rivers, swiftly washed away by the torrential rain—leaving only faint traces of red as proof of the slaughter that had taken place!
“A great battle, erased by my hand into nothingness!”
Bai Xuan hefted his coldiron fish-spear, noticing several faint notches upon it, left from colliding with blades. The killing intent in his heart finally subsided. “Exhilarating! Only by wielding my hard-trained martial might with such abandon do I not waste my life… To slaughter, nothing more!”
An hour before, he had seized and interrogated the vice-captain who had tried to escape, learning the cause of this battle—Qian the Elder’s betrayal—and so resolved to end it in a single, decisive strike.
With Qian the Elder dead, one less source of chaos plagued the eastern sea!
Afterward, he made a hasty search of the ship, slaying any hiding pirates who resisted. The storeroom in the hold contained only weapons—blades, spears, staves, bows, and crossbows—and barely a hundred taels of silver.
“So poor?”
Bai Xuan frowned, but was relieved to find a chest of wound medicine and several bottles of blood-replenishing pills—all excellent medicines of great worth, and most importantly, much needed by the Thousand Currents.
“Hm? What’s this?”
He lifted a compartment. It was heavy, weighing thousands of catties—impossible to move for anyone who hadn’t broken through their qi and blood three times.
With a gentle exertion, Bai Xuan drew out the secret compartment and found within a porcelain bottle, tightly sealed, its contents clearly precious beyond measure!
“To kill a man in ten steps, to walk a thousand miles without pause!”
“Alas, with my strength alone, I can’t sail away this great ship; I’ll have to abandon it.”
Under the cover of night, Bai Xuan’s figure vanished quickly, leaving behind a dead ship adrift upon the waves.

...

Aboard the Thousand Currents, candlelight flickered dimly in the hold.
“So the boatswain went out gathering herbs and came back with wound medicine and blood-replenishing pills?”
The ship’s physician lifted the chest of medicines, a peculiar look on his face.
Did that make any sense?
“That’s right.”
Bai Xuan’s expression didn’t change. He answered calmly.

Here, there was no first mate or captain to contradict him; he could say whatever he liked, and no one could catch him in a lie.
Couldn’t wound medicine grow on a deserted island?
Medicine was not so rare a thing!
“Very well, then.”
The ship’s doctor shook his head.
He didn’t care where Bai Xuan had obtained the medicine. At least, now that they had supplies, the wounded aboard would have a chance; fevers and infections would greatly decrease, and even the gravely injured could be saved.
Within his cabin, Bai Xuan returned to the spacious quarters befitting the boatswain, rolling something in his hand.
“Let’s see what I gained.”
In this massacre, he had wiped out an entire ship—over a hundred pirates, spearing down at least forty or fifty himself. The rest fled into the sea, swallowed by the storm.
The greatest gain came from Qian the Elder himself, who was both seasoned and formidable, famed for his Water-Cleaving Blade Technique.
Just on his person, he carried five silver notes, each worth a hundred taels.
But most important was a thin sheepskin manual, densely inscribed with tiny characters and annotated by Qian the Elder’s own hand.
“‘The Art of Internal Breathing’!”
Internal breathing concerned the cultivation of the viscera. Once mastered, it greatly supported external martial training and bestowed hidden divine strength!
It was said that only those skilled in internal arts could reach grandmastery; even those who had perfected external arts would, in the end, have to turn inward and master the breath.
“No wonder Qian the Elder’s blade was so formidable—enough to threaten my copper skin and iron bones. So it was because he’d mastered internal breathing.”
Bai Xuan finally understood...
His copper skin and iron bones, even before further breakthroughs, could withstand the blows of those who’d broken through their qi and blood three times—yet Qian the Elder had nearly shaken his vital energy, leaving it unsettled for a quarter hour before it calmed.
Such power could only be explained by the support of internal breath!
“My next step is to cultivate this internal breathing technique. It will doubtless grant my strength a truly terrifying ascent.”
Bai Xuan was deeply satisfied.
There were few other treasures. This wasn’t because pirates were poor, but because if they sailed with a ship full of loot, who would be robbing whom?
Pirates always stashed their spoils in hidden bases. Even if an outsider defeated them at sea, there’d be little to gain beyond a ruined, sinking vessel.

...

When dawn broke, the storm abated.
In the bright sunlight, the deck was washed clean by rain, all traces of battle vanished, the ship looking new once more.
Thanks to Bai Xuan retrieving the medicines, the wounded stabilized—their fevers receding, breathing steady.
The crew now looked at Bai Xuan with new eyes: some with respect, some in awe.
“Set sail!”
Captain Bai Xuanji appeared, calling out in a strong voice.
Though he had used the Blood-Burning Secret Art, he was still in his prime, his qi and blood vigorous. Now his face was merely a little pale.
At his command, the Thousand Currents swiftly departed, sails unfurled, heading toward Thousand Peaks Island.

On the small island, two days later...
Several large sailing ships arrived, black pirate banners fluttering in the wind!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several figures leapt onto the deck of Qian the Elder’s flagship.
After drifting away, the flagship had been blown back to the island by the wind, now run aground.
“A great battle took place here—someone slaughtered the entire ship, blood ran like rivers!”
On the deck, the cracks still held dark stains of blood, not yet washed away by the rain.
“Indeed. We don’t know how many struck, but in a stormy night’s ambush, they wiped out the lot.”
The black pirates discussed among themselves.
They were all warriors who’d broken through their qi and blood three times, and even they were shocked—Qian the Elder’s strength was formidable. Even facing him together was fraught with peril, yet in one night, the traitor was cut down, and no one knew by whom!
Just then—
“One man.”
The leader surveyed the scene in silence before finally speaking in a quiet voice.
“What?”
“One man—just one man wiped out this entire ship… How laughable. Qian tried every trick and couldn’t harm him in the least.”
The speaker turned.
Had Bai Xuan been present, he would have recognized the man at once.
The Starhunters’ fourth seat, Grandmaster Luo Yun!
“Good heavens… That powerful? Could it have been Master Bitu returning to clean house? No, impossible—he was gravely wounded and has already gone into seclusion.”
Nearby, Luo Yun’s vice-captain drew a sharp breath.
“A half-step grandmaster?”
“No. If it were a half-step grandmaster, or someone even stronger, Qian would have surrendered at once. He knew his place—he wouldn’t have dared to resist a grandmaster.”
Luo Yun clasped his hands behind his back, speaking calmly. “There are blade marks, sword scars, traces of bows and crossbows… Qian must have believed he could fight his opponent, so he struck.”
“In other words, in Qian’s eyes, the other’s strength was on par with his own—just three qi and blood breakthroughs.”
“Three breakthroughs?”
“One man, slaughtered an entire ship?”
The two vice-captains exchanged glances.
They were both shaken—
Even with the two of them together, facing Qian the Elder’s flagship, they wouldn’t dare claim they could escape unscathed!
“The eastern sea surges, new waves ever rising. Truly, each generation brings forth new talents.”
Luo Yun shook his head, eyes narrowed.
He, too, was astonished—when he had broken through three times, even he could never have won such a battle, let alone slaughter every foe!
“Go back and tell Master Bitu: someone has carried out his punishment for him; there’s no need for the Starhunters to clean house.”
“Let’s leave the ship here. If anyone sees it, they’ll know the fate of traitors!”
“The Starhunters’ eighth seat?”
Luo Yun snorted derisively.
They’d only just proclaimed their new eighth seat to the seas, and Qian the Elder had already been slain, his ship soaked in blood—a stinging slap to the Starhunters’ pride, and a humiliation beyond measure!