The moment Shao Shang locked eyes with Chengying, he knew for sure—he wasn't going to die. But sometimes, staying alive wasn't necessarily a good thing. He wasn't exactly a good person himself and understood full well that there were plenty of ways to make life worse than death.
Like a dead fish, Shao Shang was hauled aboard the World's End. Looking at the vast deck, as expansive as a town square, he opened his mouth but couldn't speak a word. If he had a chance to do it all over again, even with a hundred ships under his command, he would never have provoked this damned monster.
Chengying descended the upper deck holding the Ice Empress's hand and landed in front of him, towering over him in silence.
At times like this, saying nothing was even more intimidating. Chengying felt that if he spoke now, he'd lose all sense of authority. His disciples, whispering behind him, only made it worse.
But regardless of how little authority he seemed to have, to Shao Shang, Chengying was now a man who literally held his life in his hands. He immediately threw himself to the ground, begging for mercy.
"Spare me, my lord! I didn't know who I was dealing with—it was the pig grease clouding my eyes! You are truly wise and mighty. As long as you spare my life, I'll serve at your command without question, even if it costs me my life! "
Of course, he didn't actually say "Mount Tai," but Chengying got the gist and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
"Loyalty? Forget it. With your lack of integrity, if you ever got captured, you'd spill all my secrets the second someone raised their voice."
The Ice Empress nodded in agreement.
"Exactly! He reeks of blood—definitely not a good person. And he stinks too. Let's just kill him."
"Mercy, please! I swear absolute loyalty! Just say the word, and I can summon all twenty-something ships under my command—they'll all belong to you! " Shao Shang quickly changed tactics when he realized they didn't trust him, trying to tempt them with benefits.
"You mean those twenty-something fishing boats of yours? "Chengying stomped on the deck with a smile.
"You think I need your broken-down fleet? "
"This…" Shao Shang looked at the deck beneath him and realized his small-time operation meant nothing to someone like this.
"I… I also know the locations of several other pirate lairs nearby. I can lead you there and help you seize their treasures! "
Chengying's smile didn't falter.
"You think I'm interested in a few barrels of spoiled wine or some women who've been passed around your entire crew? I doubt your entire fleet has even a hundred gold soul coins to its name."
Shao Shang's face filled with despair. He couldn't think of a single reason why Chengying should spare him. He might only have one chance left to speak. Gritting his teeth, he said,
"My lord, I have a sea chart—one that marks the locations of many dangerous sea beasts. I got it from an adventurer! "
Chengying didn't look pleased at all. Instead, he frowned. A sea chart could indeed be useful—but looking at Shao Shang's ragged, empty state, he couldn't help but wonder where it had been stored...
Sure enough, just as Chengying suspected, Shao Shang struggled to roll over, reached into his pants, and after some rummaging, pulled out a crumpled, foul-smelling piece of parchment…
Chengying: "…"
I freaking knew it!
Watching that stinky parchment being handed his way, Chengying yanked the Ice Empress back and pointed at Shao Shang, his face twitching:
"Open it yourself! Don't bring that thing over here! It reeks—and who knows if you've, uh, done anything to it! "
It wasn't an unreasonable concern. Pirates lacked healthy outlets at sea, so... Well... Things happened.
But Shao Shang was thrilled. Clearly, the big shot was interested in the chart. He quickly unfolded it and eagerly explained:
"This one's a deep-sea giant squid. I don't know its level, but one tentacle crushed my flagship.
This here is the Demonic Orca King—travels in packs, extremely dangerous.
And this one—most terrifying of all—the Deep Sea Demon Whale King. Anyone who sees it dies. The only way to pass is from the side of its blind eye."
Shao Shang went on enthusiastically, while Chengying had already committed the entire chart to memory. His vast spiritual power wasn't doing much else at the moment, but its passive effects still worked just fine. Photographic memory came standard—like a mental 4K camera. Unfortunately, he also memorized the few stray hairs stuck to the chart…
"All right. Now that you've handed over the chart, you're no longer useful. Men, take him away! "Chengying ordered the sailors.
"No, please! I'm the only one who can read the chart! It's useless without me! " Shao Shang cried desperately.
Chengying didn't even look at him. He turned to the Ice Empress and said,
"Sorry to trouble you again—can you clean him up with some fresh water? I really can't let him stay on the ship smelling like that."
The Ice Empress nodded in agreement. Compared to Chengying's well-disciplined sailors, this pirate was truly repulsive.
She raised her hand and tapped the air. Instantly, the water vapor condensed into a massive block of ice that landed on the deck. Sailors quickly pushed it away to be melted down for drinking and cleaning water—standard practice aboard the World's End.
Thanks to the Ice Empress's endless "clean water" buff, Chengying had the luxury of letting his crew wash their faces, bathe, or whatever else they needed. For any ice-type Soul Master, this would've been a trivial task—she just made it look even easier.
While the sailors scrubbed the stinking Shao Shang clean, Chengying fetched pen and paper and began redrawing the sea chart. It had no scale or coordinates, just odd symbols. Thankfully, the soul beasts' depictions were at least distinguishable—fish vs. shrimp, for example.
"小冰 (Xiao Bing), can you identify any of these soul beasts? We need to find a way to standardize the map. The common hundred-thousand-year soul beasts are fine, but we definitely want to steer clear of things like the Deep Sea Demon Whale King." Chengying handed the map to the Ice Empress.
She lay on the chart and pointed to various sea beasts with her little hand.
"This squid is ugly. Never seen it. What's this thing? Don't know either. I've heard of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King but never seen it. Oh! I know this one! The Sea Princess! Her territory is near the icy sea where I live."
Upon hearing that, Chengying located the mermaid icon representing the Sea Princess and began sketching in latitude and longitude based on her descriptions. Though the Ice Empress only recognized a couple of things and the map was crude, after a few adjustments, it became barely usable.
"There should be a few sea soul beasts here that aren't quite at the hundred-thousand-year level, right? Should we pass through a few of their territories and catch some for a taste? " the Ice Empress asked, licking her lips with anticipation.
Chengying: "…"
Are you sure you're a soul beast? You have zero guilt about eating your own kind, huh?