Chapter 414: Giant Beast Asking for Help
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Those who weren’t taken away kept silent out of fear. They regretted it so much that they wanted to kick themselves to death. They shouldn’t have listened to the rumors and followed these people to clamor to see the Emperor.
“Now that all of you have seen me, I’m sure you can go with peace of mind to accept your punishment, right? All those who came to the palace today to cause trouble will be dragged away and given fifty strokes of the soldier’s pole. Thereafter, throw them out of the palace, whether dead or alive.”
Fifty strokes with the soldier’s pole! Even if the official didn’t die, he still wouldn’t be able to stand up for the rest of his life!
The pleas of his ministers rose and fell. Xiao Jin did not even look at them and ordered the Imperial Guards to take them away straightaway.
Duke Jingguo looked at the ministers who were taken away and shook his head helplessly.
“Duke Jingguo, come in with me,” Xiao Jin said.
Duke Jingguo followed Xiao Jin into the sleeping chamber. As soon as he entered, the door behind him was closed.
Duke Jingguo knelt in front of Xiao Jin and bowed. “Your old servant can rest assured now that Your Majesty’s health is fine.”
Xiao Jin’s expression softened slightly when he looked at the elderly man. “It has been hard on you these past few days.”
Duke Jingguo shook his head. “It’s been hard on Your Majesty. What about the Empress’s funeral…”
“The Empress is still alive!” Xiao Jin interrupted Duke Jingguo icily.
Duke Jingguo raised his head in shock and met Xiao Jin’s look of certainty. Fie had also sent people to investigate and found out that Su Ying had indeed fallen into the flood waters from the dam while trying to block the crack in the dam. Under such circumstances, how could she still be alive?
Duke Jingguo sighed with emotion at the Emperor’s deep feelings for the Empress, but he still had to accept reality eventually. However, this matter could be delayed.
“Your Majesty, if it wasn’t for those bastards from the Jing Prefecture, such a major incident wouldn’t have happened to the new dam of the Jing Prefecture. Now that Your Majesty has returned, you must punish those people severely…” So as to appease the Empress’s spirit in heaven!
Duke Jingguo didn’t finish his sentence as he was afraid that Xiao Jin would be sad.
Xiao Jin’s dark eyes turned ominous. “1… will definitely make them regret being alive!”
No one knew what Duke Jingguo said to Xiao Jin in the chamber. After Duke Jingguo left, Xiao Jin ordered people to empty the rooms in the inner hall of the sleeping chamber and let the Young Princess and Young Prince move in.
After Duke Jingguo left, Xiao Jin sat alone in his sleeping chamber in a daze. He was now afraid of being alone. When he was alone, he would miss Su Ying like mad.
Xiao Jin clenched his fists tightly, and his jaw tensed up. However, no matter what other people said, he firmly believed that Su Ying was still alive!
In the darkness, Su Ying heard someone calling out in her ear.
“Su Ying… Su Ying, where are you? Su Ying…”
“Su Ying, you said that you would never leave my side. Su Ying…”
Su Ying frowned and opened her mouth to respond, but no matter how hard she struggled, she could not move. She could only watch as the slender figure moved further and further away from her.
“Su Ying, Su Ying!”
“Xiao Jin!”
Su Ying suddenly woke up and realized that she was dreaming.
She sat up and rubbed the spot between her eyebrows. Then she stared at the moonlight streaming in through the window somewhat in a daze.
Not only did she miss the children, but she also missed Xiao Jin.
However, she didn’t waste too much of her energy in this depressed mood. She didn’t die, so she would return eventually.
After waking up in shock, Su Ying was no longer sleepy. She sat cross-legged on the bed and was about to circulate her energy when she heard a knocking sound coming from the ship.
The night on the sea was not peaceful. In the past, it was only the sound of waves hitting the ship. However, the sound today was a little different.
Su Ying got up and walked to the window to look at the ship’s hull under the moonlight, but she didn’t see anything.
She turned around to go out. As soon as she walked out, she saw Mo Tu walking out of the cabin.
The cabin was very dark, but the two of them could see each other in the darkness.
“You’re still up so late, Heroine Su?”
Su Ying replied, “I heard some strange noises and came out to take a look.”
“What a coincidence. I heard it too.”
The two of them walked to the deck one behind the other. The sound of the knocking could be heard again.
Su Ying came to the guardrail. Just as she went near, a huge creature suddenly jumped out of the sea and let out a wail.
“Be careful!” Mo Tu swiftly leaped forward and shielded Su Ying with his body.
When the giant creature jumped out of the sea, Su Ying saw its appearance clearly. It was a whale.
Just as the whale breached the water, its tail swept against the ship. The sound they heard just now was caused by this action.
This was probably the first time Mo Tu had seen such a large whale. He turned around warily and picked up the harpoon at the side before standing by in an attacking posture.
Su Ying stopped him and said, “It doesn’t look like it has any malicious intent.”
Mo Tu turned around and glanced at Su Ying. “Heroine Su, you recognize this monster?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Even during the apocalypse, there were still marine creatures in the deep sea, and whales were one type.
This sort of whale was not aggressive, and it would not attack humans or ships unprovoked. However, tonight, it had been circling the ship and looked like it was in pain. It was probably asking for help.
Su Ying took out a flashlight and shone it on the surface of the sea. Before long, the whale breached the sea surface again and slammed its body heavily on the surface of the sea, as if doing so could relieve the pain in its body.
With the help of the light, Su Ying could vaguely see that its body was covered with parasitic barnacles. She knew that these things caused whales to feel extreme pain.
Did it come to their ship to get them to help it clean the barnacles?
However, in their current situation, they did not have what it took to help the whale at all.
Suddenly, Su Ying recalled the fresh and sweet taste of the barnacles.
She licked her lips and said, “I’ll go down and take a look.”
Mo Tu was shocked. “This giant creature is so huge. It’s too dangerous for you to go down like this.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Su Ying didn’t wait for him to say anything else. She straightaway took off her outer robe and jumped head-first into the sea.
She put on the headlights and quickly found the location of the whale. She returned to her interspatial store and took out the sonar device. She then turned it on to transmit sound waves to the whale.
The sound waves emitted by this sonar device could make the whale fall asleep within a short time.
Sure enough, the whale quickly quieted down and fell asleep upright in the sea.
Su Ying took out her dagger and net and quickly approached the whale.
This whale was even bigger than the ones she had seen in the apocalypse, but this huge whale’s entire body was covered in parasitic barnacles that were torturing it tremendously.
Without any delay, she took out a dagger and pried the barnacles off before putting them into the net.
Mo Tu stood on the deck and paced back and forth nervously. He did not see any movement in the sea for a long time.
Just as Mo Tu couldn’t wait any longer and was about to dive into the sea to look for her, Su Ying suddenly broke out of the water.
Upon seeing this, Mo Tu quickly threw the hemp rope down and pulled her up.
Su Ying tied the net on her body to the hemp rope and climbed up the rope herself. Then, she and Mo Tu pulled up a whole net of barnacles together.
Mo Tu looked at the big bundle of barnacles and widened his eyes in shock. “What… what is this?”
Su Ying laughed. “Delicious stuff.”
She dragged that large net of barnacles to the kitchen at the back of the ship and asked Mo Tu to boil water.
“You can just eat this thing after throwing it into the water and cooking it? Aren’t you afraid of getting poisoned?”