"Hey, this ship's just interest! We're taking the rest of the goods too!"
"The oil on Ship No. 30 looks good. We're claiming that one as well!"
Brother Fa switched his voice again and again, using different tones to provoke the other side while pretending there were hundreds of people on their team. The act was so realistic that even Jing Shu and the others were dumbfounded—it almost felt true.
Ugh! Counting everyone, they only had six people including Xiao Hei! Look at Xiao Hei, the poor guy was about to pee his pants!
For the underground black market and the Slave King, this was a disaster stacked on top of another. One side had pirates show up out of nowhere, and the other lost contact with more than twenty ships. By the time they finally thought to check the positioning system, those ships were already close to Williams!
"Chase them! Turn around and chase!"
"Don't let a single one escape, damn it!" The furious Slave King issued the order, sending his troops in two directions to crush anyone who dared to target his cargo. Several heavily armed helicopters took off, while nobles and their bodyguards grabbed their guns to deal with the "pirates." No one could figure out how the hell pirates even showed up here—the canal was narrow as hell, so where could they have come from?
The whole place was a mess. Slaves who realized something was wrong started jumping into the river to flee. Some who'd been enslaved too long just hid in the cargo hold, dazed. They knew if they ran, they'd starve anyway. Others, unwilling to die as slaves, rallied a group of Black men to raid the kitchen and steal food for their escape.
Ship No. 24 was already chaos, and the situation outside was even worse.
Soon, several speedboats caught up. No matter how fast the cargo ships went, they couldn't outrun those boats. Machine guns mounted on the decks opened fire, sweeping the cargo ship's deck indiscriminately. Bullets tore through everything—slave or not—and the deck was soon slick with blood and screams.
Ling Ling stood on a high point, sniping the attackers one by one. Tank, fully suited in Jing Shu's exoskeleton armor, fought like a walking war machine. Monkey and Snake Spirit tore through the shadows, their strength unmatched. The little snake killed plenty in the dark, its venom quick and silent.
Tank boarded Ship No. 25, unstoppable in his armor, bullets bouncing off him as he slaughtered his way through. He took control of the ship, staging a full-on pirate robbery scene that panicked the nobles and bigshots. Desperate, they redirected their firepower toward him.
"We can't leave empty-handed," Brother Fa said. "If we can get this ship moving, it's ours. Once we report the contribution, we can ship it back. It's full of metal ore, worth a fortune."
Now Ships No. 24 and 25 were speeding ahead. In the Slave King's mind, these people couldn't escape anyway. Cargo ships were slow; how far could they really go? But those twenty-odd missing ships? Gone, completely gone. That alone made him furious enough to throw in everything he had.
As a support and navigator, Jing Shu's main job was to guard the control room. She didn't care how the raiding slaves looted the ship—most of what they took were worthless feed and low-grade food anyway. The more chaos they caused, the better her team's chances of slipping away.
The glass around her shattered, and gunfire and explosions filled the air outside. Inside, Xiao Dou, her fat hen, curled in its nest, half-asleep and utterly unbothered. Jing Shu, though, was worried. The nobles' armed forces were now fully deployed. Just the six of them couldn't hold out for long. Machine guns were bad enough, but now they'd even started using grenade launchers, trying to sink the ship altogether!
"The ship can't take much more," Jing Shu said, firing her gun at a Black man trying to break in.
Brother Fa bit down on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. "The canal's exit is just ahead. Once the passage widens, take Ship No. 25 and get as far as you can. If you can't, jump into the river. Your mission's done once Old Goat reaches Williams."
"What about you? You're not coming with us?" She looked at the pile of luggage beside her—taller than she was. Everyone else came to fight; she came carrying baggage.
"Me? I've still got work to do. Once I let you all out, I'll block the canal with Ship No. 24. That way, the others can't pass or turn around. Their speed will drop by half. Otherwise, how could you possibly escape?"
Jing Shu frowned. "You're planning to die with them?"
"Start the ship first, then come over to us. We'll wait for you on No. 25."
Brother Fa laughed. "Don't worry. No one wants to die if they can live. I just need to make sure they can't turn back, buy Old Goat some time, and give you a chance to run. I'll disguise myself later, maybe as one of the Black men. Oh right, what's your name again?"
"Mirror. You?"
"I'm Zhang Facai. They call me Xiao Zhang, but I prefer Brother Fa."
Jing Shu never found out if Brother Fa survived. At the canal exit, he went first, turned the ship around, released Ship No. 25, then anchored No. 24 sideways across the canal, sealing it completely.
A ten-thousand-ton cargo ship blocking the canal—no one was getting through that.
Tank steered Ship No. 25 roughly, but they made it out alive. The whole crew felt like they'd just escaped hell itself. For the first time, Jing Shu understood what "raining bullets and roaring fire" really meant. Snake Spirit was slightly injured, but everyone else was still alive.
They all breathed in relief and pushed the speed as far as it would go. Just thirty more minutes and they'd be clear of pursuit.
But then the sky started to rumble. Armed helicopters appeared overhead, racing toward them. To their horror, the helicopters dropped bombs, blowing up the ship blocking the canal. A massive explosion sent up a mushroom cloud, the shockwave tearing open the riverbank.
BOOM!
In the dark night, the ship turned into a sea of flames. Black men screamed as they leapt into the water.
"Brother Fa didn't make it," Ling Ling said quietly, peering through her night vision.
Tank patted her shoulder. "We can't waste what he bought us with his life. If it comes to it, I'll stay behind. Don't you dare hesitate."
There was no time for grief. The helicopters were closing in, searchlights cutting through the dark and illuminating Ship No. 25.
"No time to be sad," Ling Ling muttered, pulling an RPG launcher from Tank's pack. "Those are armed helicopters, fast ones. The RPG might not keep up. If we miss three shots, we jump."
Jing Shu wasn't about to hold back either. She pulled out her own RPG. Those helicopters were no joke—if she didn't fight back, she'd be the one getting blown to bits.
===
I just finished migrating my Xianxia Handbook to AO3. If you haven't read the Webnovel version yet, or if you read it before this announcement, I highly suggest checking it out. I've made some changes and added extra information.
If the Webnovel version felt a bit dense or "full" of narration, this AO3 version might be easier to follow since I included bullet points for clarity.
I don't plan on adding any major new content to the handbook since I think it already covers the core and most important aspects of the Xianxia genre. Future updates will probably just focus on cultivation stages and formal titles.