Chapter Eighty-Three: Dragon City

So many people were on the deck, including the formidable old captain, Lucky Jo Aran, a man of high standing and great power, and not one of them had seen how the Eastern man had boarded the ship. The deck stood two or three stories above the sea, and the little boat was more than ten meters away. The crowd had only seen a blur of afterimages flash by before the man was suddenly standing in front of Lin Qi.

A hazy violet aura slowly spread from the center of the man's brow to every part of his body. His rumpled clothes at once straightened; the frost clinging to his blue fox-fur coat fell away in showers, and the slightly disordered garment quickly looked as good as new.

Just moments before, he had seemed so wretched and ragged, but now he was clean and immaculate, like a prince who had just bathed and dressed. Yet the arrogance on his face, that overbearing insolence and unrestrained tyranny, was something not even a true prince could hope to match.

What shocked Lin Qi most of all was the bloodstained aura that seemed to seep from the man's very bones. He appeared to have been soaked in blood for decades; even his breath carried the scent of human blood. Standing before him, one almost seemed to hear the wails of countless wronged souls at one's ears.

Enzo shifted silently to the side and stepped in front of Lin Qi.

Lin Qi's expression changed slightly. He stepped forward, put his shoulder to use, and shoved Enzo aside by two paces. What a joke. He would never let Enzo take a blade for him. Since childhood, Blackbeard had taught Lin Qi that brothers should face knives together, not let one another stand in the way of danger.

The Eastern man lifted the long brows that slanted upward like two swords thrust into his temples and said in a hoarse voice, “I mean no harm.”

His gaze swept across the deck, and his eyes suddenly lit up. He reached out his right hand toward a blue-striped sea bream that had just been speared more than ten paces away. Five strands of purple mist burst from his fingertips, and with a rush of wind, the fish, weighing nearly a hundred catties, flew into his grasp.

Everyone on deck changed color at once. What kind of uncanny skill was this? To seize something from more than ten meters away through the air was a feat Hammer and Butcher could manage too, but only by relying on something external. Yet this Eastern man had snatched the fish over with absolutely nothing to aid him.

Lin Qi drew in a sharp breath as if he had a toothache. What sort of power was this? If he could pull a fish of over a hundred catties from more than ten paces away, could he also twist a person's neck from the same distance?

Something even more astonishing happened next. With a light sweep of the man's five fingers, the entire fish split open without a sound. The skin, bones, flesh, and innards—all of it was separated under some strange force. The Eastern man smiled with delight, picked up a piece of flesh as white and lustrous as jade, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed carelessly a few times, and swallowed it.

Lin Qi suspected that digestion and absorption had begun the instant the meat entered his mouth, because the moment the man swallowed it, color returned to his face, and a healthy flush gradually spread across his cheeks. Even a faint steam seemed to rise from his head.

“Marvelous beyond words!” the Eastern man laughed several times. Under the dazed, ghost-struck stares of the crowd, he wolfed down nearly fifty catties of fish, then let out a belch and finally stopped with immense satisfaction. Lin Qi stared at his belly in astonishment, but it did not swell at all. Where on earth had all that flesh gone?

Among the Black Tiger family, even the biggest eater, Hammer, could manage two roasted lamb legs in one sitting, but if you asked him to eat fifty catties of cold raw fish at once, he would never manage it. Yet this man ate with such unrestrained enjoyment, as though raw fish that cold were the finest delicacy in the world.

With a forced laugh, Lin Qi asked in the most fluent Eastern tongue he knew, “Sir, may I ask who you are?”

The Eastern man clapped his hands, took out a spotless silk handkerchief, and wiped the fish juices from his fingers. Then, under Lin Qi's angry gaze, he tossed the handkerchief into the freezing wind. The wind caught it and sent it fluttering away into the distance.

“Dragon City. Dragon as in the dragon soaring through the nine heavens; city as in a fortress as solid as gold and iron!” With both hands clasped behind his back, the man—stunningly handsome, haughty, arrogant, tyrannical, and utterly lawless—tilted his chin and said languidly, “This is your ship? Not bad. Though compared with our Dragon Whale Warship it is trash, given what a bunch of barbarians you are, being able to build a vessel like this is passable enough!”

He gave a few cold snorts and said calmly, “Prepare a spacious guest cabin for me. I will ride your ship to the nearest port. Once you deliver me to shore, I shall repay you handsomely.”

He lifted an eyebrow and snorted. “Do you have any beautiful maidservants aboard? Prepare four for me: one to wash clothes, one to make the bed, and two to prepare soup and broth. As for the foul-smelling laborers on this ship, keep them away from my cabin. Half a month ago I fought a fierce battle with a three-headed sea dragon and suffered a minor injury. I must rest well and recover my vitality.”

Without waiting for Lin Qi to speak, Dragon City rattled on at his own pace. His words were cutting and venomous to the extreme. The sailors who could understand the Eastern tongue were so enraged they wanted nothing more than to stab him a thousand times over. Yet after Dragon City had released purple energy from his fingertips and purple light from his brow, the seasoned sailors who had traveled far and wide suddenly recalled a certain legendary kind of being. They tightened their grips on their fish spears, but no one dared say another word.

What had Dragon City just said? That he had fought the ruler of the northern seas' monsters, the three-headed sea dragon, in a great battle? Damn it, was he serious?

Looking at the domineering, insolent Dragon City, Lin Qi helplessly spread his hands and smiled bitterly. “A clean guest cabin we do have, but as for four beautiful maidservants... I’m afraid not. On our ship, you can have as many female fish as you like, but women? Not a single one.”

Dragon City looked at Lin Qi in surprise. “No women aboard your ship? Then how do this bunch of foul laborers while away the endless night? Surely not... between the two of you men... heh, heh!”

He gave a few odd laughs. Seeing Lin Qi's expression grow extremely strange, Dragon City curled his mouth and shook his head. “Very well. After all, this is a barbarian land—what else can one expect? So be it. Since I have accepted your kindness, I shall remember this favor.”

He forcefully patted Lin Qi on the shoulder and said indifferently, “Take me to the guest cabin. Since you are one of my Eastern descendants, I will not kill and seize your ship myself. Heh.”

With a strange laugh, Dragon City flicked his hand over the ship's side. A strand of violet energy howled outward. More than a hundred meters away, a fish that had just leaped from the water was struck and burst with a thunderous crack into a spray of blood and pulp.

A sycophantic smile appeared on Lin Qi's face. “Honorable Sir Dragon City, please. I shall clear out the captain's quarters for you. Would that be acceptable?”

Off to the side, Lucky Jo Aran's nose nearly twisted with rage.

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Dinner now; I'll keep writing after I eat!

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