Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 151 Ventriloquism Mastery, Three-Way Battle (Please Subscribe and Vote)

On the vast sea outside the Jinghai Prince's palace.

"Fire! Fire!"
Our reinforcements are right behind us; they'll be there in a quarter of an hour.

The captain of the ship gave orders that as long as we break into the Jinghai Prince's palace, we brothers are allowed to plunder it at will for one day.

Gold, silver, jewels, fine silks, and beautiful palace maids—all the loot will be ours; he won't take a single penny!

The captain and leader shouted loudly to boost morale.

It just doesn't say that all the merchants accompanying the army were backed by Mao Haifeng, who would take a cut of everything from consumption and monetization to transactions. According to the Tang Dynasty's "three horses sharing the spoils" principle, he could take two-thirds of the spoils.

Upon hearing this, the crew, mainly composed of Japanese pirates, laughed wildly while operating the cannons:
"Hahaha, this palace is even more magnificent than the king's royal residence. This time, all the treasures inside are ours!"

"I've long wanted to try what it's like to be with a Dazhao woman who's even taller than me. Great shiphead, may you triumph!"

"Support the Great Shiphead to become the new King of Jinghai! Lead us to continue plundering Dazhao, and give us all the women of Donghai Kingdom and Dazhao!"

Immediately, cannon fire roared, and streaks of orange-red light illuminated the sea as they shot toward the palace in the night.

Although these Japanese pirates were despicable, they were highly disciplined and skilled in combat.

Mao Haifeng's motives were impure to begin with. When he gathered this core group, he took advantage of their tendency to be polite but lacking in principles and to be opportunistic.

It is much easier to win them over than to win over ordinary Tanka people.

Of course, when vying for the top position, it's standard practice for all parties to do their best to bring in foreign aid. The other two bigwigs, Xu Weixue and Peng Laosheng, as well as Wang Cheng, are also doing this.

But Mao Haifeng was clearly making a desperate attempt to find a solution; this kind of foreign aid can't be brought in casually.

Just like back then, if the Tang army hadn't brought in the Uyghur army and promised them that they could plunder Chang'an at will: "On the day the city is captured, the land and people will belong to the Tang, and the gold, silk and women will all belong to the Uyghurs!"

It wouldn't have led to An Lushan's rebel army considering them rebels, resulting in the Battle of Xiangji Temple, which left a significant mark on history, nor would it have left behind that amulet.

After all, in this world where ghosts and gods reign supreme, to a certain extent, people's hearts are destiny. After doing such a thing, how can one expect to continue to live up to one's destiny? It's simply impossible.

Mao Haifeng is clearly a rebel himself, yet he dares to use such methods. It can only be said that he doesn't care about selling his adoptive father's land.

As fear and unrest spread through the port.

Wang Cheng also keenly noticed the change in the horizontal scroll "Destined by Heaven," and his own morale surged at this moment. He turned his head and glanced at the louse spirit beside him.

"Lord Dragon Tail!"

"Young master, just you wait and see."

Despite our short history, our Donghai Kingdom is no less profound than those small, long-established countries in Southeast Asia.

There are many secrets that Mao Haifeng, that ingrate, doesn't know.

The louse spirit with two legs and four arms lifted a white jade array talisman almost as tall as itself and connected it to the [Five Mountains Soaring Beauty Bureau] outside the palace.

Although this old thing's combat power is very weak, he has lived long enough and his former masters, such as Lord Yan, the Immortal Lice, Liu Bowen, and the Prince of Jinghai, are all extremely powerful. His mastery of formations is arguably the best in the East Sea Kingdom.

He quickly chanted the incantation:

"The Big Dipper has seven stars, and the seven celestial bodies are shrouded in mystery. The swift messengers are armored and mighty. They drive the Five Sacred Mountains on the left and command the Six Ding on the right."

Wherever the talisman goes, a thunderous roar resounds. Those who dare to defy it will be reduced to dust. So be it!

Boom!

A thunderous roar suddenly erupted above the five mountain peaks that semi-encircled the area—one round, one straight, one curved, one pointed, and one flat—and five deep, resonant voices responded:

"Follow the order!"

Then a strong wind swept through Pinghu Port, and the smell of incense and earth suddenly became stronger. At the junction of the mountains and the sea, five illusory divine generals clad in iron armor rapidly materialized.

Each of them had a battle flag planted behind them, in red, black, white, yellow, and blue, corresponding to the five peaks and five colors respectively. Each of them was taller than the highest palace in the imperial palace.

They raised their hands together, making a gesture of prohibition with a single palm.

Om-!
Heavy ripples spread rapidly through the air.

The cannonballs that stretched across the sky had just reached the palace gates when they seemed to hit an invisible speed bump, slowing down involuntarily until they came to a complete stop.

It crashed to the ground with a clanging sound in front of the palace gate.

Mao Haifeng originally thought that those berths were a loophole in the coastal defense that only he knew about.

Little did they know that the "Five Mountains Soaring Formation" was not simply about suppressing destiny; those loopholes were not loopholes at all.

It's just that no external enemy had ever been able to reach Pinghu Port in the past, so he, the number two, had never known that there was a defensive barrier hidden in the palace.

The changes at Wushan Songxiu Bureau were clearly not within the plans of those assassins.

A shout came from the bow:

"Burn incense to worship the cannon god, place the cursed stone! Place the burning shell!"

Although the vanguard consisted of only two warships, their equipment was anything but ordinary; they were cannons that had been gilded and blessed with various precious metals by the silversmith.

If they were allowed to unleash their full firepower and bombard the enemy relentlessly, even these five armored generals couldn't guarantee they could completely withstand it.

But since Wang Cheng knew they were coming, he never intended to give them a chance to launch a second volley.

As a group of Japanese pirates were nervously loading their weapons, someone suddenly shouted:
"Listen, can you hear a sound? It sounds like it's coming from inside our cabin!"

Everyone immediately held their breath and listened intently.

"Wang Wang Wang"

From afar came the barking of a dog in the deep alley, then a woman awoke with a start and stretched, her husband muttering in his sleep. Then the child awoke and cried loudly. The husband also awoke. The woman stroked the child and nursed him; the child cried while suckling, and the woman patted and soothed him.
Suddenly someone shouted, "Fire!" The husband jumped up and shouted back, the wife jumped up and shouted back, and the two children cried together. In an instant, hundreds and thousands of people shouted, hundreds and thousands of children cried, hundreds and thousands of dogs barked, and amidst the sounds of things being pulled apart and collapsing, the crackling of fire, and the howling of the wind, all arose at once.
Unbeknownst to them, everyone was captivated by the sound, becoming lost in the illusion created by the surrounding sounds, and then they really did fall into a sea of ​​fire!
Everyone was suddenly awakened, and when they opened their eyes, they were completely surrounded by flames.

"Oh no!"

"The ship is on fire! Escape!"

They ran around aimlessly like headless flies.

The acrid smell of burning wood and flesh filled my nostrils; every breath felt like my lungs were about to catch fire. My skin burned intensely, and my eyes were blinded by the thick smoke.
By this point, their five senses had been completely dominated.

In the short time it takes to drink a cup of tea, all the more than one hundred people on the two boats were burned alive into human-shaped charcoal, while not a single piece of wood on the boats was ignited.

Even the Japanese pirates who accidentally fell into the water were burned alive in the water, which was simply bizarre and eerie.

On the shore, no more than two hundred feet away as the crow flies, a scholar in a white robe loudly ended his "ventriloquism" performance:
To find out what happens next, please stay tuned for the next episode!

Oh, you've finished your performance, that's enough for now.

Snapped!
He opened his folding fan, revealing the word "open and honest," then stood up, carrying a gourd on his back, and drifted away.

That was the fifth-rank storyteller's signature skill: ventriloquism!
As long as you stir the emotions of a large audience, immerse them in the performance, and subconsciously believe everything described in the ventriloquism, the event will actually happen to them.

Of course, the levels of difficulty vary greatly; hypnosis is the easiest, while creating a life-threatening situation that can kill a person is the most difficult.

Dong Piao's casual introduction of the fire, which resulted in the deaths of over a hundred people, is enough to demonstrate that Uncle Dong Qi was indeed exceptionally talented in ventriloquism.

After receiving Wang Cheng's "Miscellaneous Talks on Folk Arts" written for him in his spare time, he was already preparing to open up a new track in folk arts and to prepare for the goal of reaching the fourth rank. Even the third rank, "Living Ghosts and Gods," was within reach.

"It's almost time, we should set off."

Wang Cheng handed over this vanguard force, which was destined to be abandoned, to his seventh uncle to deal with, without even glancing at them again.

With his arms outstretched, Senior Sister Shen Yueye personally draped a dark black four-clawed python robe over his shoulders, tied a jade belt around his waist, and put on satin boots.

He also carried a sandalwood sword case containing the Five Emperors' Golden Coin Sword, exuding an air of nobility and majesty.

The phrase "A gentleman as fine as jade, unparalleled in the world" seems to be embodied here.

Even a great beauty like Shen Yueye was almost unable to look away, thinking to herself:

"If there were a system of official positions where combat power was determined by good looks, wouldn't Fugui be able to say to everyone, 'You're all going to die'?"

Wang Cheng had no idea what his senior sister was thinking, so he turned around and strode out of Litang Palace.

The loyal followers left to him by his father were already fully armed and stood in a dark mass outside the palace gate, each with a red rope tied to their arm to distinguish them from the others in the Five Peaks Banner.

Wang Cheng's expression was cold and stern:

"Gentlemen, today we rise up against the rebels! To avenge the old ship captain!"

The direct descendants here already know that Mao Haifeng is the traitor who colluded with the Qingliu faction to betray Prince Jinghai and extinguished the Tanka people's hopes for a change of fortune.

The hatred in my heart had been burning fiercely for a long time.

Finally, the day had come; shouts ripped through the clouds:

"Revenge! Revenge!"

Then, like flowing water, they parted ways. Wang Cheng took the lead and stepped out of the palace gate. Along the way, people with red ropes tied to their bodies joined in, and the procession grew larger and larger.

As they passed the ancestral temple and statues at the edge of the harbor, they bowed deeply to their father/Prince Jing, and then filed onto the warship that came to greet them.

The white sails of the naval fleet stretched like a sea of ​​clouds, employing a feint attack while secretly advancing towards the Black Peak Flag's stronghold.

Just as those assassins who bombarded the palace were completely annihilated.

The main forces of Xu Weixue, the "Peddler of a Thousand Gold," and Peng Laosheng, the "Knife Seller," have arrived at the Black Peak Banner's camp, one on the left and one on the right.

Although most of their "money slaves," who had been secretly bribed by Wang Cheng to instigate trouble, had already been killed in battle, Mao Haifeng had slaughtered them.

But now the die is cast and the arrow is ready to be released.

At the signal of the two captains, shouts came from all directions:
"Mao Haifeng is a modern-day Sima Yi, with ulterior motives, coveting the Jinghai Prince's family business!"

"Mao Haifeng's plot to harm the young master is an unforgivable crime!"

"Brothers, let's purge the court of corrupt officials and kill the treacherous ministers!"

There's no need for on-site investigations; with just a little political acumen, they can easily shift the blame directly onto Mao Haifeng.

Since things have already come to a head, it's now a contest of who can shout the loudest and who can punch the hardest!
After the Jin Dynasty, if you wanted to openly kill any powerful minister, you only needed to say that he was Sima Yi, and that he looked similar enough.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Tan Daoji; during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Changsun Wuji; and more recently, Li Shanchang of this dynasty, at least six or seven people died because of this name.

The one who narrowly escaped death was Li Jing, the military genius of the Tang Dynasty.

This was because he died eight days earlier than Emperor Taizong as a sign of respect, thus transforming himself from a first-rank "living ghost" into a true celestial "ghost"!
People at the time said that it was not without reason that the lead bullet that Sima Yi fired on the banks of the Luo River grazed Li Jing's scalp and hit Li Shanchang right between the eyebrows.

For thousands of years, this name itself has been a terrifying evil spirit that haunts the upper echelons of ancient empires, capable of killing a powerful minister with just a single shout.

Although Mao Haifeng is not old enough, considering the educational level of his pirates and sailors, the name is vivid and descriptive enough.

The Xu and Peng families had far fewer sailing warships than Mao Haifeng, and both of them adopted traditional tactics.

Reserve the sailing warships as reserves, and send all the other, weaker, hard-sailed warships forward.

"Boarding! Jumping onto the board!"

Furthermore, with Wang Cheng having infiltrated their ranks in unknown numbers, the three naval forces quickly descended into chaos upon engaging in combat.

(End of this chapter)