Chapter 564: Chapter 548 San Niang’s Story

Six Harmonies Divine Skill truly lived up to its reputation as one of the top divine skills, its regeneration speed also being top-notch.

After Zhao Changhe had meditated for several hours, his True Qi had essentially recovered by half. Although he wasn’t able to leave yet, he was at least able to take things out from his ring.

He sighed deeply, opened his eyes, and the stars and moon shone brightly above.

Night had fallen again.

In the distance, the crackling sound of a campfire could be heard, and San Niang, wrapped in his outer garment, squatted in front of the flames, skewering a large shrimp that she had caught at some unknown time.

Her exquisite figure was wrapped in his oversized clothes, the sleeves covering her entire palms, with only her fingertips slightly peeking out, looking especially adorable. Her squatting there, grilling and eating, also looked very heartwarming.

“Awake?” Sensing his gaze, San Niang spoke without even lifting her head, “Wait a bit, the shrimp will be ready soon.”

Zhao Changhe said, “Didn’t we still have some fish left?”

“Isn’t it boring to just eat fish?” San Niang wouldn’t tell him that she had caught the shrimp deliberately because she didn’t want all the work to be done by him and wanted to show some of her own worth. Catching the shrimp had hurt her ribs badly.

Seeing that the shrimp was almost done, she handed it over with anticipation, “You didn’t eat much fish. You must be hungry, try this.”

Zhao Changhe took it and bit into it.

He felt that although it lacked seasoning, the taste was unexpectedly not bad.

Perhaps seafood, which many people just blanch and eat, is good enough if it’s fresh, and it doesn’t necessarily need anything else.

“It’s tasty.” Zhao Changhe quickly finished the shrimp and said with a smile, “I think it tastes better than the fish I grilled.”

San Niang’s eyes curved with a smile, “Naturally! You can’t cook at all! Even grilling needs some skill!”

Seeing her looking quite proud, Zhao Changhe found it irresistibly cute and laughed, “That’s true, being the boss, you must have a few tricks up your sleeve. Hey, boss lady…”

“What?”

“Having eaten so much at your place, is this the first thing you’ve personally cooked?”

San Niang sternly responded, “No.”

Zhao Changhe wondered, “What else have you made?”

“The sweet osmanthus wine from Yellow Sand Market, I personally… dealt with it.”

“…”

San Niang asked, “How’s your recovery?”

“I can handle things now…” Zhao Changhe took out a bottle of medicine, popped a pill himself, and handed one to San Niang, “This is for conditioning internal injuries and restoring True Qi. Your meridians have also been tangled up; this should be appropriate.”

San Niang consumed it and then eagerly eyed his ring, as if expecting him to produce some other treasure.

Zhao Changhe leisurely took out a new set of clothes, “Change out of the one that smells of the sea.”

San Niang snatched the clothes with satisfaction; this was indeed what she wanted.

Zhao Changhe could only laugh and cry thinking, healing you isn’t as important as whether you smell or not, huh? Women.

But the next moment his eyes widened.

San Niang, as if it was nothing, stripped off her outer garment right in front of him, revealing a glimpse of delicate spring scenery, tremblingly pale. She quickly changed into the new ones, the spring scenery now concealed.

Zhao Changhe swallowed unconsciously.

San Niang glanced at him, her expression a mix of smiling and not, “Your medicine is really good. The dislocated hand has basically recovered after this time of rest, though I still dare not use too much force, and the ribs aren’t hurting as much. The medicine for adjusting the meridians and recovering True Qi, I can feel my meridians starting to revive too, it’s very effective.”

Zhao Changhe blankly said, “Uh, that’s good, isn’t it?”

San Niang grinned, “It means you won’t be able to bully me soon.”

“You can’t soon,” meaning for now it was still possible while the iron was hot.

The air fell quiet for a moment involuntarily, the cracking of the campfire, the sound of the surrounding waves, every noise resonating, yet the night seemed even more silent.

San Niang tightened her jacket and hugged her knees by the campfire, watching the flickering flames silently.

Zhao Changhe always felt, in this solitary man-woman night atmosphere, with San Niang who was not some shy young girl but rather a mature woman, there always seemed a feeling that hugging her wouldn’t be opposed, being adults and all…

Zhao Changhe had held himself back time and time again, but finally he managed to suppress his thoughts.

Relationships hadn’t progressed to that stage… Did he really need one-night stands or casual hookups at this moment in his life?

Besides, San Niang was notoriously complicated; who was to say his so-called feelings weren’t just an illusion? Strictly speaking, he might as well admit that he hardly knew San Niang, although they had known each other for a long time.

Zhao Changhe turned his head, the water he had collected with a jade box lid just filled the lid. He took it and passed it to San Niang, “San Niang, this time I have water, do you have a story?”

San Niang looked up at him, her expression strange, and after a long while she spoke, “You clearly have liquor.”

Zhao Changhe: “…”

Right, his True Qi had recovered so he could bring out the liquor gourd.

He fished out the liquor gourd and handed it over, “Here.”

You’re all from the Four Symbols Sect, Chichi, you wouldn’t mind this liquor gourd being used by San Niang, would you?

San Niang unceremoniously took it, to Zhao Changhe’s surprise, and instead of tilting the gourd’s mouth upwards as he had imagined, she directly put her red lips to it and guzzled a large mouthful.

Zhao Changhe instinctively reached out his hand, then lowered it again.

San Niang set down the gourd and exhaled comfortably, “What’s with that look? Disgusted by my saliva on your gourd’s mouth?”

Zhao Changhe didn’t know how to respond; he could only honestly drink his water, feeling indescribably strange inside.

As the clear water entered his belly and refreshed him, he heard San Niang say leisurely, “My mother was a member of the Bandit Brothers led by Ying Wu, ranking third and much older than Ying Wu.”

Zhao Changhe thought to himself that a story was coming.

He had always thought that San Niang’s father was Ying Wu’s old brother; it turned out to be her mother—that was a misconception on his part.

Who said a woman couldn’t be a member of the Bandit Brothers?

“However, my mother and Ying Wu didn’t suffer together for long. She was from Jiangnan, and as a female horse bandit in the west, she really struggled with the local conditions. After reaching the Ninth Level of Mystical Gate Cultivation, she bid farewell to the old brothers, planning to return to Jiangnan and become a local tyrant.”

Zhao Changhe nodded. It could be said that San Niang’s mother wasn’t too loyal in this aspect, but it was understandable since being a female horse bandit was indeed inappropriate. There were only so many Secret Treasures in the world and anyone with the strength of the Ninth Level of Mystical Gate in a region would be a local magnate—why would anyone settle for being a bandit in thriving Jiangnan?

San Niang continued, “At that time, Jiangnan was ruled by the Dragon King Hai Pinglan. Somehow, my mother ended up having dealings with him after returning home.”

Zhao Changhe: “…your father is Hai Pinglan.”

“Yes, I take my mother’s surname,” San Niang said. “The reason the Four Symbols Sect rebels against Xia Longyuan actually has a lot to do with everyone’s background. For example, your Qing’er, his family used to be generals who surrendered to the previous dynasty. Xia Longyuan has always been wary of the Huangfu Family, as you know. And Chichi’s mother was a princess of the former dynasty; she herself is a princess of the current dynasty. Although Hai Pinglan never claimed kingship, he was effectively an autonomous prince, so I can be considered a princess of a lost kingdom.”

“A princess club, huh… What about Vermilion Bird? Whose princess is she?”

“Hee, I won’t tell you; go and ask her yourself.”

“…Let’s stick to your story. I see you call Hai Pinglan by his name directly, quite disrespectfully.”

San Niang took another slow sip of wine, then slowly said, “Hai Pinglan destroyed a nation, fled overseas with his remaining forces, and turned into a pirate. He was severely injured at the time; nominally, he was the pirate leader, but actually, it was my mother, as the second leader, who managed the pirates’ affairs. I was only two or three years old at the time, and grew up as a pirate until my teenage years, eventually being called the third leader.”

Zhao Changhe: “I thought the three leaders were partners… turns out it’s really a family business.”

He thought to himself that the wild and cool temperament was cultivated from that life; it made sense, but how did you end up like this…

“Because the so-called leaders were just titles the pirates gave themselves; we never named ourselves that way. Someone self-styled as the Dragon King,” San Niang said sarcastically. “Anyway, being a pirate isn’t a lifelong profession. Once we had a stable base, people started having children and various families came to settle. My mother led the people in expanding the base and establishing defenses. Gradually, the islanders also came to pledge allegiance, and it began to form a prototype of a small nation, which is Penglai. People say the King of Penglai has the surname Yuan because they are misinformed, still holding onto impressions from earlier years.”

“That makes sense.”

San Niang went on, “This pioneering effort lasted more than ten years; I led the teams for a long time. Hai Pinglan was always in a state of unhealed injury and hardly did anything. It’s not surprising that outsiders thought the king had the surname Yuan, as word of mouth spread to the mainland, and they might even use other homophones. In fact, we hadn’t founded a nation then…”

Zhao Changhe understood: “So, in this view, after Hai Pinglan recovered from his injuries, did he seize power and found a nation?”

“Exactly. My mother died, and the cause of death is a mystery; I’ll tell you more about it later. At that time, I didn’t know whether he had killed her or not, but some old brothers felt something was wrong and protected me as I escaped, going back to the old trade and becoming a pirate again. The old man you met, with the bristly beard, was once the most loyal guard commander to Hai Pinglan, and he left in anger over this matter, recognizing me as the leader.”

Zhao Changhe looked at San Niang with an odd expression—after all this, you turned out to be the pirate queen.

“To keep a low profile, they still called me the third leader, but it didn’t help much.” San Niang smiled, “It wasn’t long before we were besieged—ridiculous isn’t it? In the early years when my mother was a pirate, although there were many small nations at sea, there was no ‘official’ capacity to organize a siege; now there was, coming from the nation we had established.”

Zhao Changhe: “…”

“After several sieges, we suffered heavy losses. At that time, I felt I was the cause of everyone’s downfall; if I were gone, they could disperse to various small nations and islands and live out their lives peacefully, so I quietly left one night to seek refuge with the Bandit Brothers, which my mother had always longed to join.”

San Niang sighed, “Once I reached the mainland, it wasn’t easy to find the Bandit Brothers. I could only return to Jiangnan for a while and secretly look around. One day, I saw a woman wearing a firebird mask fighting with the young lady of the Tang family… forgive me for being blunt, but at that time, I thought they were quite weak, so I told them to stop fighting, that they wouldn’t be able to kill anyone like that…”