Chapter 733: Chapter 22 Breaking the Seal (Part 2) Chapter 733: Chapter 22 Breaking the Seal (Part 2) Meizhou Island
Amid the white sands and the greenish-blue waters, lush bushes dotted the landscape. The cliff on the western side of the island rose steeply. Overlooking the spread of the island from the cliff, an abandoned wooden ship covered in moss and vines stood out vividly, its body blending into the cliff face as if it had grown from the island itself.

“Plop~”
A long plank had been thrown down from the ship, landing right at Ruchika’s feet.

“Come on up.”

A lean sailor wrapped in a turban motioned the young boy aboard with a wave of his hand.

Ruchika stepped onto the trembling plank and, in a few strides across the water, he lightly jumped onto the deck. Underfoot, he felt something soft. Bending down to look, he saw it was a torn-in-half, triangular yellow dragon official flag, stained with dark brown blood marks.

Ruchika looked pensive.

This was an old-style bird ship, once the main war vessel of the officials. However, since the founding of the Allied Fleet, all the officials’ warships had undergone significant upgrades. Many had been outfitted with Europa’s Magic Motion Technology, rendering these fragile and cumbersome bird ships obsolete, relegated to the annals of history.

The ship’s masts had been chopped off, haphazardly hung with cables, which now supported clothes reeking of a strong fishy smell. Sailors in ragged clothing and bare feet occasionally came in and out of the cabin, and a soup pot had been set up on the deck, marked with stains.

It went without saying that this ship was no longer seaworthy but had been converted into a dwelling house.

An Eight Immortals table and a few chairs were placed on the deck, while several flamboyantly dressed, heavily made-up prostitutes were shuttling between the sailors with wine jars in hand. Several grease candles grilled in the room, intensifying the strong aroma of alcohol and rouge. In the center of everyone’s attention sat a sickly man who kept coughing, revealing a mouthful of black teeth.

Ruchika surveyed the man with the black teeth, particularly noticing the red deity with three heads and six arms tattooed on the small arm exposed when the man covered his mouth with a handkerchief. Ruchika’s eyes suddenly lit up.

Ruchika had visited various places in recent days and had learned that Saint Watson’s disappearance, much like that of the devilish Pirate Leader, was most likely tied to the century-old South Seas legend, Heavenly Mother Crossing the Sea.

He had done his homework before coming. This deity was likely the “Filthy Vajra,” a mythical figure said to have practiced the secret Filthy Vajra mantra before the Heavenly Mother attained enlightenment. It held a deep connection with the Lu Mountain Sect.

The man before him was naturally from the Lu Mountain Sect.

There might be some gains this time.

Meanwhile, the black-teethed man was also sizing up Ruchika,
White shirt, suspenders, a denim hat, fine eyebrows, and big eyes–someone might believe it was a woman dressed as a man.

“Kid, where are you from?”

“Calcutta.”

The man with black teeth suddenly realized, “Ah, so you’re a little Red Head.”

Ruchika shook his head, “I’m not a follower of Sikhism, I am…”

“I’m not interested in listening,”
He rudely interrupted Ruchika, “You’re all just lapdogs of the British. Who sent you, and what do you want with me?”

“It’s Yao Huoding from the Heavenly Queen Temple in Quanzhou who sent me. I want to know about Heavenly Mother Crossing the Sea.”

“Yao Huoding…”

“`
The man with black teeth stroked his chin, as if trying to recall the name, “Near in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, far as the South Seas, everyone can recite a line or two of the legend of Heavenly Mother Crossing the Sea, but few can clarify it. You have indeed found the right person. However…”

The man with black teeth’s words suddenly took a turn, “Why should I tell you?”

As his voice fell, Ruchika pulled a heavy snakeskin pouch from his pocket and tossed it onto the eight immortals table. A crisp jingle sounded as the loose snakeskin pouch spilled several gleaming coins. Clinging and clanging together, especially a gold coin that rolled far on the table before it came to a stop with a thud, displaying the ‘voc’ monogrammed emblem on its face.

He was indeed from the East India Company.

The man with black teeth narrowed his eyes, “You come to meet me alone, without leading the British artillery and strong ships. Aren’t you afraid I’ll slaughter you and swallow your gold coins?”

“Sir, it’s best you don’t do that. Violence doesn’t solve everything, for you or for me,” Ruchika shrugged his shoulders.

After pondering for a while, the man with black teeth said gruffly to Ruchika, “If this was six years ago, when I followed Tianbao Dragon Head to fight the Red Haired Devils, you would have been stripped and thrown into the sea by now.”

He sighed again, “But times have changed, and my ship cannot go to sea anymore.”

The man with black teeth grabbed the snakeskin pouch and tossed it behind him. The dazzling golden light refracted by the candlelight scattered across the dark room, eliciting a strong cheer from the sailors and prostitutes, who scuffled to pick up Ruchika’s gold coins.

“Regarding Heavenly Mother Crossing the Sea, what do you want to know?”

Ruchika sat down primly, facing the man with black teeth, “Everything.”

…
“Even if you are a disciple of Yan Gong, there’s no reason for such fierceness. When our King returns, I will definitely report your misconduct!”

The giant blue shell flew away while shouting back at Yang Zichu.

Yang Zichu shook his tail lazily without chasing and just sneered, “If you hadn’t had those two hard shells to save your life, I wouldn’t leave you with a name to file a complaint.”

“This Heavenly Mother Ashram is truly remarkable!”

Yang Zichu, with Yan Gong’s jade pendant in his mouth and a square jade horse pendant in his hand, couldn’t help but let out a satisfied belch. He’d been out for over half a day now, and his irritability and ferociousness need not be detailed.

Yang Zichu swam south for a while until he reached Ma Ling’s Poison Fire Pool. He saw a surge of bluish-green fire from beneath the earth, clearly demarcated from the seawater. Yang Zichu shivered involuntarily.

“I’ve stirred up plenty of trouble along the way. I should put some eyedrops in at Li Jiang’s first, better not to provoke this Ma Ling,” he thought.

Just as he was about to leave, he changed his mind, “Many major demons of the Heavenly Mother Ashram have been secluded from the world for hundreds of years, and although many of them aren’t very bright, they aren’t fools either. Taking advantage of the fact that no issues have come to light yet, if I want to muddle the water to give the Governor a chance to escape, I might need to use some self-harm strategy.”

With that thought, Yang Zichu clenched his teeth and dove into the Poison Fire Pool.

As soon as he entered the pool, Yang Zichu felt a chilling and stinging sensation all over his body, his vision blurred, followed by a momentary heart stoppage, feeling as if his skin and scales were about to burst open.

Yang Zichu convulsed with pain, but he stubbornly kept diving. He sneezed and dozens of bolts of lightning burst from his nostrils and mouth, exploding in clusters throughout the toxic pool and causing the earth around the cavern to crack open.

Finally, unable to endure any longer and about to surface, Yang Zichu caught sight of a ginger-yellow gourd growing between the precipices of the poison fire. Throughout his journey, relying on Yan Gong’s jade pendant to domineer, he never cared for consequences; he simply swallowed the gourd in one bite, bit it several times, but couldn’t pull down the vine from the cliff, so he spat it out and shot up from the Poison Fire Pool. His scales were already falling off, his naked dragon body ulcerated, dragging a thick mist of blood he headed north, like a bloody eel, leaving nothing behind but chaos.

After a while, a giant black skull slowly rose in the devastated Poison Fire Pool. It looked around bewildered, and on its head dangled a bare gourd vine.

“Hm?”

“`