The current fashion style of the Tidal Empire has all evolved from traditional clothing, but it is much simpler than the old designs, and the overall look is extremely similar. Because of this, outsiders like Ye Chui could not spot the differences straight away.
It is just like the historical dramas from the other world Ye Chui came from. Each dynasty had its own distinct costumes, yet television shows often mixed them all together. To the audience, everything still counted as “ancient clothing” and no one felt anything was wrong. However, real ancients would definitely feel a strong sense of dissonance if they saw it. Right now, Ye Chui and his group were exactly like those television viewers, unable to notice anything unusual, whereas to the Tidal people they stood out as obviously as fireflies in the night.
“We’ve only been in the capital for half an hour and we’re already exposed…” Ye Chui could not help feeling sad about this supposed secret infiltration.
Enemies were not frightening. Useless teammates were tolerable. The most terrifying thing was having an idiot teammate among them… He looked at Debbie with utter helplessness.
Because of what they did in the Gorge Sea a few days earlier, the trail of the Any Name Magic Society had been exposed. Now that their group was about to enter the Tidal Empire, the Church had clearly raised the alert long ago. The guards had all seen portraits of them. Although Ye Chui and the others were disguised, under the spotlight-like attention they were receiving, their distinctive physical features still made it easy to identify them.
Since things had already reached this point, the only choice left was to find a way to escape first.
Black shadows instantly appeared around Ye Chui. Magic weapons emerged one after another from the darkness: [Arsenal of the King]. Bang! Bang! Bang! A storm of dense gunfire instantly struck the Dark Swordsmen surrounding them, forcing them back several metres. Ye Chui waved his hand, scooped the elven baby into his arms, and shouted, “Retreat first!”
The whole group immediately followed Ye Chui and charged in one direction down the main street.
“Stop right there!” The moustachioed man was pushed back by Ye Chui’s attack, but his strength was considerable. He blocked the magic bullets with the shield on his wrist, then drew the longsword at his waist and leapt forward to attack.
Gu Ni hurriedly took the vibranium greatsword from Green, spun her body in a full circle, and with a loud clang collided with the moustachioed man’s sword.
His sword was extremely powerful and ferocious. Gu Ni’s brows furrowed slightly. Her petite body was forced back three steps, but the moustachioed man fared worse. He was sent flying back along his original trajectory and crashed onto the ground.
His raw strength was actually slightly greater than Gu Ni’s. The only reason was that the sword in Gu Ni’s hands was simply too powerful; it neutralised his attack, while Gu Ni’s strike landed fully on him.
Gu Ni staggered a few steps, quickly shouldered the greatsword, and hurried to retreat with the main group.
“President, we won’t escape like this!” Green said anxiously to Ye Chui. Dark Swordsmen were rapidly closing in from behind. Green had knocked several down with his brick. More Dark Swordsmen, Tidal Swordsmen, and magicians were gathering ahead. Bart and Evans fought them off as they came.
“I’ll bring out the flying magic vehicle right now…” Ye Chui replied quickly.
At that moment Debbie suddenly noticed the miniature Black Pearl ship still cradled in the elven baby’s arms. Her eyes lit up as an idea struck her. She shouted, “No need, I have a better way…” With that, she rushed to Ye Chui’s side, took the little ship from the elven baby.
The main street ahead crossed a river that ran through the city. They had passed this river when they first arrived in the capital.
The water flowed swiftly. Debbie flung the Black Pearl straight into the water with a whoosh. “Everyone get on board! I’ll take us out of here!” she yelled. She summoned her own White Ship Black Sword. With this sword she could control the ship’s movement. Perhaps because she felt guilty for getting everyone discovered, she was now desperate to redeem herself.
Several drops of sweat instantly slid down Ye Chui’s forehead. “Bloody hell, that river is far too narrow…”
As he spoke, the moment the Black Pearl touched the water it expanded rapidly. Under the astonished gazes of countless Tidal citizens, it transformed into a colossal black vessel. The ship even smashed through a small bridge. Its stern ended up blocking the very street down which Ye Chui’s group was fleeing.
Ye Chui helplessly covered his forehead at that moment. Letting such an enormous ship sail through a tiny canal…
“Get on board first!” Debbie continued shouting, scrambling onto the Black Pearl’s deck ahead of everyone else.
The others had no choice but to leap aboard the black ship one after another. The hull almost completely filled the riverbed. Forget sailing, it could not even float.
Yet what happened next left both Ye Chui’s group and the citizens of the Tidal Empire utterly dumbfounded. As Debbie waved her black sword, the sails of the Black Pearl billowed. The ship, wedged tightly in the canal, began to tremble. The trembling turned into violent shaking. Amid strange clattering sounds, the massive vessel actually started moving along the nearly dry riverbed! And its speed kept increasing!
“It can actually do that!?” Ye Chui was stunned. He realised this must be a special ability of the White Ship phantom beast itself. So Debbie had confidently told everyone to board because she understood her summoning power…
“Wow, I didn’t expect it to work like this either,” Debbie remarked casually just as he was thinking that.
Ye Chui: “…”
Fine. She had not thought it through at all. They had nearly been screwed over by her again…
Countless Dark Swordsmen chased relentlessly along the riverbanks.
At that moment Ye Chui’s group suddenly sensed something. Their expressions changed dramatically.
A terrifying roar suddenly came from the distance. Accompanying the roar, a fearsome dragon-shaped phantom howled as it skimmed along the canal straight towards the ship!
“It’s… the Frenzied Dragon phantom beast!” Evans exclaimed in shock.
The Frenzied Dragon, one of the twelve phantom beasts!
Evans and Bart’s father, Sheral, had once been a Tidal citizen and a member of one of the twelve clans. Years ago he lost the contest for clan leadership to his brother and left the Tidal Empire in disappointment. The original Frenzied Dragon phantom beast had therefore split, producing the Divine Dragon phantom beast that Sheral now controlled.
Now the true Frenzied Dragon was charging towards them with overwhelming might.
The Frenzied Dragon clan had remained neutral during the rebellion in the Tidal Empire, but Ye Chui’s group had now invaded the imperial capital, forcing the clan to act.
“It’s Uncle…” Bart’s face paled as he watched the ferocious dragon rushing towards them. He quickly nocked an arrow and fired.
His clothes began to flutter. A powerful phantom beast started materialising on his body: the Divine Dragon!
Bart’s Divine Dragon met the Frenzied Dragon head-on.
Then… the Frenzied Dragon opened its enormous maw and swallowed Bart’s entire Divine Dragon in one gulp…
Compared to the Frenzied Dragon, the Divine Dragon Bart summoned was like an earthworm facing a serpent!
The power gap was simply too vast.
The Frenzied Dragon continued its unstoppable charge and instantly reached the stern of the Black Pearl. Seeing the danger, Ye Chui stood on the bow deck. He had no time to act himself, so he urgently shouted to Turtle Baby, “Turtle Baby!”
Turtle Baby was hugging Celty. Hearing Ye Chui, she knew he wanted her to raise a protective barrier and hurriedly prepared to do so. But at that exact moment there was a loud clunk. The Black Pearl shuddered violently. The Celty ball in Turtle Baby’s arms shot out like a pinball. Accompanied by Celty’s “Waaah!” scream, it flew towards the grassy riverbank.
This caught Turtle Baby completely off guard. She failed to deploy the turtle-pattern shield in time.
Bart was still reeling from how pathetically his Divine Dragon had fared against the Frenzied Dragon. His mind was shaken. When the Black Pearl lurched, his body involuntarily bounced into the air and flew straight towards the Frenzied Dragon.
“Brother!” Evans immediately leapt off the ship and rushed towards Bart.
Ye Chui’s expression turned grim. He looked at Debbie and saw her sweating profusely, pointing ahead. “The canal bends up there… what do we do? I don’t think we can make the turn!?”
Faster than words, the Black Pearl reached the sharp bend. The massive hull predictably failed to navigate the corner. It scraped along the embankment and soared into the air.
“Aaaaaah—” Screams erupted from everyone on board.
Down on the street below, pedestrians looked up at the descending ship and also cried “Aaaaaah—” while scattering in panic.
Boom!
The black ship crashed onto the bluestone pavement. Then, astonishingly, it continued moving forward!
Indeed, the vessel was now racing along the main street. Its keel scraped against the ground. Propelled by the earlier momentum and Debbie’s White Ship phantom beast control, the Black Pearl began tearing down the street!
Debbie’s little face was taut with tension. She stood at the bow waving her black sword and shouting nonstop, “Move! Get out of the way! We’re going to crash! We’re going to crash…”
Ye Chui felt the pressure she was under right now surpassed even that of the bald guy racing through streets in movies. This was literally a ship sailing on land, speeding like mad!
Wherever the Black Pearl passed, devastation followed. An entire avenue was ruined!
Thanks to the chaos it caused, when the Black Pearl suddenly vanished, the Dark Swordsmen who hurriedly arrived at the end of the street saw only a collapsed mansion reduced to rubble and its owner weeping bitterly. Ye Chui and his companions were nowhere to be found…
“Send every guard, every Black-armoured Guard, every magic society and mercenary group! Search for them with everything we have!” The moustachioed man arrived panting at the end of the street. He looked at the wrecked avenue and the houses that had collapsed after being grazed by the black ship. His face filled with rage as he roared, “The Any Name Magic Society is utterly despicable… This is a provocation against the Tidal Empire! Catch them! We must catch them!”
…
Inside a dilapidated, abandoned house, the members of the Any Name Magic Society hid, breathing heavily. What had just happened was simply too thrilling…
Ye Chui checked his iPad grimoire to confirm no one was approaching, then spoke seriously to Debbie. “I told you countless times we were infiltrating secretly. Look what’s happened now. We’ve nearly destroyed half the capital. The entire Tidal Empire knows we’re here!”
Debbie squatted on the floor looking innocent, drawing circles on the ground with her finger…
“What do we do now?” the President asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Bart and Evans fell off the ship. We don’t know if they’re all right. Miss Celty was also accidentally thrown off too. What’s the next step? Do we go look for them?”
“Bart and Evans are veteran members. They can look after themselves. As for Celty… the magic I placed on her is very strong and won’t wear off quickly, so we don’t need to worry about her for now. She survived buried underground for thousands of years. The only remaining divine immortality on her is this much.” Ye Chui pondered.
He walked to a broken window. Through it he saw a dense grove ahead with a tall building under construction inside, giving off a somewhat mysterious feeling. Ye Chui pointed at the structure. “Our next destination is there… That should be the Ancestral Temple!”
The others looked over curiously. Resha asked with curiosity, “Little brother, how can you be so sure?”
“Simple.” Ye Chui smiled faintly and pointed to a sign beside the path leading into the grove. Large characters were written on it: Ancestral Temple, Imperial Forbidden Ground!
