Chapter 21: The Great Monster
Flames rose high above the river, and the raucous cries of those cast into the water echoed all around.
Amidst the swirling fog, the great ships clustered together, forming a flat island—a formation once devised for the convenience of battle, now turned into an obstacle hindering escape.
Cries and wails of anguish, the whimpering of the wounded, melted away into the distant haze of gunpowder.
Chen Sheng was dead. The government troops had arrived.
The outcome was already decided.
County constable Lei Ji had effortlessly encircled the river bandits, trapping them completely. With their leader dead, the stronghold would soon collapse without further resistance.
He was in no hurry to take possession of the water fortress. First, there were still many desperate defenders, and he could not afford to lose his men—they were not just his own followers, but the very strength of Meilan County. Second, he could not claim all the credit himself; better to wait for the magistrate to inform the Prefect of Jiujiang, then join forces with the two neighboring counties that had been plundered. This would minimize risk. In this way, the other counties would be grateful, no one would face blame from above, and the prefect could use his capital connections to promote their joint achievement.
Zhou Liang, the magistrate’s brother-in-law, was not entirely useless and had shown some valor on the battlefield. Before setting out, he had asked his brother-in-law if he should trip up Zhao Jia. The answer was a firm “no.” Magistrate Lü was greedy, wanting everything for himself, and would not risk his best general over his brother-in-law’s petty jealousy.
...
Zhao Jia was gasping like a broken bellows, leaning on his broadsword as he looked back at the surviving soldiers.
They had come thirty strong; now only a dozen remained. Some were wounded, some had fallen overboard, and a few were too gravely injured to be saved. He was most worried about the two who had gone overboard—Da Zhuang and Little One.
At last, his gaze settled on Big Mouth’s face.
Big Mouth was staring across the river, as if searching for something.
"Three-Legs? Tiger? Wart-Headed Toad… Black Cat." Zhao Jia found it all rather strange.
Lei Ji boarded the ship to check on Zhao Jia. “How are you?”
Zhao Jia snapped to attention and bowed. “Thanks to you, Third Master, and your reinforcements.”
“As long as you’re alive.” Lei Ji did not linger, moving off to direct his troops in rounding up and retrieving bandits from the water.
...
Lu Xun used the wart-headed toad to expel water from the bellies of two men, then plunged back into the river, still hoping to acquire a useful head for himself.
Underwater, he soon found several more constables who had fallen in. Some were already beyond saving, their wounds too grave. Before he could recover them, the government sailors were already at work—not out of camaraderie, but because their armor was too valuable to lose. Every lost piece was a capital offense. Armor was precious; to lose it meant a loss of fighting strength, and the government troops could not afford that.
Lu Xun kept well away from the government sailors. His enormous toad form was unmistakably unnatural.
He drifted over to the corpse of a sallow-faced river bandit, reached out with his webbed forelimb, and twisted the head. To his surprise, the head stayed firmly attached—a first for him. His usual method of collecting heads had failed.
Unable to remove this one, he moved on to another corpse.
A gentle twist.
["Zhang Chao’s Skull"]
Type: Luó (Mortal—Human)
Quality: Ordinary
Skill: Floating on Water
Annotation: “As swift as the wind, as still as the forest, as fierce as fire, as immovable as the mountain, as inscrutable as the shadow, as sudden as thunder.”
["Rob money, grain, and women!"]
“Straightforward indeed.”
“Crush!”
[Crushed an ordinary Luó-class head, gained bone ash: one qian.]
Upon gaining the bone ash, Lu Xun’s strange inner space seemed to split in two—one half for storing heads, the other for bone ash. When he focused his mind, he could see the amount of bone ash.
[Bone ash: one qian.]
“Enhance the skull.”
Nothing happened, just as he expected.
Three-Legged Old Cat had only been able to upgrade his skill to a true spell after completely devouring the skull of a spirit cat.
He tried a few more, but only one other came loose, and its obsession wasn’t “Rob money, grain, and women!” but “Eat, drink, whore, and gamble.”
Now he understood: the heads he could take must all be tied to some purpose, or rather, an obsession.
Fulfilling the obsessions of these heads was the key to returning to the modern world.
He had noticed another trend among the heads: the stronger the obsession in life, the heavier it weighed after death. This strength showed in many ways.
“Crush!”
[Obtained bone ash: one qian.]
“I wonder how much bone ash I’d get if I crushed the wart-headed toad’s skull?”
[Crush the Five-Tongued God ‘Wart Monk’s Skull’?]
“No, no!”
It was just a passing thought. The wart-headed toad was born with a spell, had been crucial in the fight against the savage tiger, and was an excellent escape tool. With Three-Legged Old Cat, he had an “ultimate combo”—frog leap for speed, cat for mid-air maneuvering—a small but powerful combo. He would never crush the toad’s skull without another spell-casting head.
“That bandit chief—now there’s a character. His head…”
...
Glug, glug.
The toad kicked and floated on the water, its two golden eyes peering above the surface.
Night was falling. The government troops had camped along the shore, their bonfires reflected on the river.
Ripples spread across the water as the wart-headed toad drifted to shore.
As he landed, he switched to Three-Legged Old Cat’s head.
“Urk, urk…”
Crawling ashore, Lu Xun was dizzy and weak, bile staining the ground. Usually, two or three head-swaps were his limit, but today he’d added the savage tiger’s head. The strain was immense; his mind could barely endure it. As soon as he relaxed, the pressure released and he retched again. Still, he was gradually growing used to it; this side effect was becoming insignificant.
...
“You’re saying it was Three-Legs who saved us?!”
Little One’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Da Zhuang, spoon halfway to his mouth, froze as well.
As he’d been slipping into unconsciousness, he had indeed glimpsed a massive tiger’s head—but had thought nothing of it. After all, a cat turning into a tiger wasn’t much of a stretch for a spirit creature. He shrugged and ladled out another bowl, continuing to eat.
.