"Jump! Jump!" Jiang Tang shouted anxiously from below.
“But we can’t swim,” Li Jun said hesitantly.
"It's okay, jump quickly!" Jiang Tang's urging had little effect on Li Jun and Meng Yuan. In the end, it was Chu Qingfeng who came to their rescue.
He stood behind Li Jun and Meng Yuan and shouted, "Close your eyes and hold your breath. I will use magic to take you there."
The two did as promised, but Chu Qingfeng's magic was merely a push from behind, causing them to fall into the sea. Shocked and furious, the two struggled in the water, only to discover that they wouldn't sink if they didn't exhale.
But it's impossible to stop breathing forever. By the time their faces turned bright red, the barbarian sailors had already swum over, grabbed the two men, and pulled them onto the boat. At that moment, Chu Qingfeng was already on the small boat, smiling as he watched them, not even getting wet.
Before they could even scold him, a giant wave crashed over them. The barbarians struggled to paddle their small boats away with their oars. Their large boat was tossed into the air by the wave and broken in two. It was quickly swallowed by the waves, and nothing floated up except for some broken pieces.
Li Jun's face also changed color. The power of nature is so great that even if a person has great spiritual power, it seems insignificant in front of it.
"This is troublesome. All our food and fresh water are on the boat," Meng Yuan said, almost groaning. The small boat was rocking even more violently, making his seasickness even worse.
Li Jun gave a wry smile and said, "Anyway, we can't eat anything right now."
Suddenly, a barbarian began to sing loudly, and then all the barbarians joined in, singing a song together. The song was rough and bold, and Li Jun and Meng Yuan couldn't help but listen attentively.
"Do not say this journey is fraught with difficulties, for where in the world is there no storm?" The barbarians sang and sang, and in the end, they kept repeating this line. In their constant repetition, the hardships and difficulties seemed to have left Li Jun and his companions behind.
"A ship, a ship!" the barbarian sailor suddenly shouted, pointing ahead in surprise. Li Jun strained his eyes and could vaguely see a white sail slowly approaching him.
This was the third day since they abandoned ship. The weather had improved, and the sea was clear again. The barbarian sailors used various methods to catch fish from the sea, and the crew managed to stay afloat by eating live fish. Fortunately, the fish contained water, so thirst wouldn't threaten them for the time being.
“It seems we’re saved,” Li Jun said.
"This deal is still a long way off for us, at least half a day from now," Jiang Tang said. "If they don't see us, we'll just be disappointed."
"We need to make sure they find us." All eyes were on Chu Qingfeng, who frowned and said, "Why are you looking at me?"
"Immortal Master, do you have a spell that can ignite fire in the air?" Li Jun asked, recalling Lei Hun's fireball magic.
“Exactly.” Chu Qingfeng smiled. No wonder everyone was looking at him. Under these circumstances, only their magical abilities could create a miracle.
He flicked his fingers into a hand seal, drawing several talismans in the air while chanting prayers. A moment later, a ball of red fire ignited in the air. The barbarians exclaimed joyfully, "Good! He truly is an immortal! Everyone, keep up the good work and rendezvous with that big ship as soon as possible!"
The large ship seemed to have spotted them, slightly adjusted its course, and headed straight for them. Chu Qingfeng breathed a sigh of relief, stopped his prayer, and the ball of fire disappeared as well.
Li Jun, standing at the stern of the small boat, suddenly felt that the boat was moving too slowly. He sat down cross-legged, regulated his breathing for a while, and then forcefully swung his palm towards the sea behind the boat. His spiritual power was extremely strong, and with this palm strike, the boat's speed increased by almost half. Meng Yuan found it quite interesting and tried it himself at the stern of another boat. The two of them raced each other to propel their boats forward.
Even so, it took them more than two hours to meet the large ship. A rope ladder was lowered from the ship, and everyone climbed up one by one.
"Thank you all for saving me." Li Jun bowed to thank them, but the captain did not return the bow and only gave a cold snort.
Feeling rather puzzled, but since someone had saved him, Li Jun couldn't say anything. He looked up and met the captain's gaze; their eyes locked.
"What a strange deal." Jiang Tang glanced at Li Jun and then at the other party's captain. Although the two looked different, they were similar in age, height, and build. More importantly, they shared a similar aura, which drew them to each other involuntarily.
"Who are you people?" The other captain seemed tired of staring at Li Jun and asked loudly.
"Just a bunch of adventurers." Li Jun didn't want the other party to know too much, so he asked in return, "May I ask what you do, my benefactor?"
“Just like you. Judging from your clothes, you’re a mercenary.” The other party recognized Li Jun’s identity at a glance, then turned his gaze to Chu Qingfeng and said, “So there’s an immortal here too. You adventurers are quite a target.”
Chu Qingfeng silently bowed without uttering a sound. He sensed a powerful spiritual energy emanating from the young captain, an energy perhaps only comparable to that of Li Jun. He had been quite surprised when he first met Li Jun; unlike Meng Yuan, whose spiritual energy was acquired through arduous cultivation, both Li Jun and this young captain seemed to have derived their spiritual energy from some kind of opportunity.
The young captain turned his gaze to Meng Yuan again and smiled slightly. His smile was as radiant as the sun, and Li Jun suddenly realized that he was an extremely handsome man.
The young captain nodded to Meng Yuan and said, "What a brave general!"
Meng Yuan glanced at him warily and gave a standard military salute. Since the other party had realized that he was a military officer, he could not be treated with the same etiquette as an ordinary person.
The young captain's gaze swept quickly over the barbarians before returning to Li Jun's face. Their eyes met again, but only briefly.
"You have a group of excellent subordinates." The young captain nodded, seemingly noticing the relationship between Li Jun and the others, with a hint of envy in his voice.
"I wouldn't dare; they are merely my friends. Your subordinates are truly outstanding, my benefactor."
Jiang Tang had already noticed the group of people who had remained silent behind the young captain. He noticed that among them were warriors in full armor and mages in long robes and cloaks. If he were someone like Li Jun or Chu Qingfeng, who were extremely sensitive to spiritual energy, he would know that this group possessed extremely powerful abilities.
"It seems we share the same goal. I'm here to deal with that serpent demon, and so are you," the young captain said calmly, his tone almost indifferent. But judging from his upright posture and demeanor, he must be a well-educated scion of a noble family.
With a very polite nod, the young captain said to himself, "Please introduce yourself first."
Section 3
"My name is Li Jun, this is Immortal Master Chu Qingfeng, this is Meng Yuan, and this is Jiang Tang." Li Jun introduced his people one by one. After all, they had saved him, and he couldn't be impolite no matter what. He reminded himself of this, but he didn't realize that he couldn't help but feel a sense of restraint in front of this young captain.
"I am Ling Qi." The young captain said his name but did not introduce his men. Then he smiled slightly and said, "Whether you are here to deal with that dragon demon or not, since you are mercenaries, let's make a deal."
Upon hearing the word "transaction," Jiang Tang's ears perked up. Li Jun guessed what the other party meant and said, "Young Master Ling, please speak."
"I'm hiring you to help us get rid of the dragon spirit." Ling Qi's words were unwavering, seemingly leaving no room for Li Jun to object. Before Li Jun could speak, Jiang Tang spoke first: "Oh no, we've already finalized the deal for the dragon spirit. We're capable of dealing with it ourselves."
“We have enough to deal with the dragon demon; we don’t need these people,” one of Ling Qi’s warriors shouted.
"Hmm?" Ling Qi snorted, and the soldier immediately shut up and quietly took a step back. Li Jun also used a stern look to stop Jiang Tang. Although Jiang Tang showed a hint of fear on his face, he did not stop talking.
"Cooperation is possible, but we can split the profits 50/50 at most. This deal will be split equally between us."
"Hehe, I see." Ling Qi laughed and turned to look at Li Jun. Li Jun smiled wryly. He had tricked Jiang Tang into becoming the financial officer and promised him that he would have the final say on matters concerning income and expenditure.
Seeing Li Junyi admit it with a wry smile, Ling Qi said, "Alright then. If it weren't for our need for money, we could have left all the treasure to you."
"If we weren't also waiting for money to do business, we could have left all our treasure to you," Jiang Tang muttered to himself, but didn't say it aloud.