Section Three: The Kidnapped Bandit (Part Two)

The shrimp-man escorted Wei Wuji onto the sea bat, instructing him to await an audience. Then, at a leisurely pace, he walked up the smooth back of the bat to inform the Swordfish Captain, who in turn reported Wei Wuji’s intentions to the leader of the Whale Clan and the mermaid princess seated at the very center of the bat’s back.

The little mermaid princess, bored, was fiddling with her pearl necklace. Each pearl was the size of a human thumb, and most impressive was their uniformity and rare blue hue. Such a string of pearls, taken to Landia, would fetch a fortune, enough to purchase a ship identical to the Celestia. Upon hearing the captain’s report, her beautiful eyes widened with delight. “Really? Bring him here at once. I want to see what amusing thing he has brought to offer me.”

Wei Wuji was led by the shrimp-man to a spot not far from the mermaid princess, though at least four sawfish guards stood between them. These guards, covered in gray scales as hard as iron, stood nearly two meters tall. Though Wei Wuji was considered robust among humans, he appeared slim and small beside them, to say nothing of the whale-man at the princess’s side, who stood over three meters tall.

The sawfish guards bared their teeth at Wei Wuji in a display of intimidation. As a race, their strength was not insignificant among the Feixi, and their prolific breeding meant they were numerous. Yet individually, they could not match the Whale or Shark Clans in strength or intellect, and so their status remained middling, never equal to the others.

Wei Wuji maintained a faint smile, hands behind his back, following the shrimp-man until they stopped. He gazed levelly ahead, sizing up the petite mermaid princess. She was small, about the size of an ordinary human girl, seated on a gem-studded chair with a sea beast pelt draped over her knees. Her delicate arms looked as if they could be wrung for water. Her face was no less beautiful than that of any maiden, perhaps even more exquisitely shaped, with a delicate oval face any girl would envy. A headpiece of red coral and multicolored gems hung from her brow.

“What amusing thing have you brought for me?” The mermaid princess, upon seeing Wei Wuji, could not help but stand up. The beast pelt fell away, revealing her silver fish tail. Her upper body was clad in a pearl shirt so exquisite that every noblewoman on the continent would covet it—a garment woven entirely of pearls, the alluring curves beneath faintly visible.

“Your Highness, there’s no need to rush,” rumbled a thunderous voice. It was the massive Whale Clan leader speaking, his gaze now boring into Wei Wuji.

Wei Wuji smiled slightly and spoke in the common tongue of the continent: “Your Highness, I have nothing amusing to offer you. However, I can give you an experience unlike any you have ever had—something thrilling, something that will, in the end, delight and exhilarate you.”

At his first words, the princess’s expression fell—she was sorely disappointed. Yet as he continued, her anger turned to joy, and she clapped her hands. “Really? If you can truly delight me, I’ll overlook your earlier deception.”

Wei Wuji gave a mysterious smile. “Then let us begin.”

No sooner had these words left his lips than Wei Wuji sprang into action. He moved with such astonishing speed that not even the Feixi around him, nor the sawfish guards, could react. Only the Whale Clan commander let out a roar of fury. A sudden whirlwind whipped across the bat’s back as the man from Huaguo, moving at a speed that left afterimages, dashed toward the still-smiling mermaid princess. Thus began a sudden assault.

A fist the size of a banquet table swept toward Wei Wuji, the wind from its arc strong enough to knock someone off their feet. The Whale Clan commander was enraged. That someone should attempt to kidnap the princess before his very eyes was a challenge to his authority, to his entire clan, and to the Western Feixi Empire itself!

The wind ceased. What the Feixi saw was a scene they could scarcely believe: the human had stopped Commander Pompey’s fist with a single hand, and their revered princess was limp in his arms, her expression anything but willing.

Commander Pompey was truly furious now. Retracting his fist, he launched another blow with full force, caring not if he damaged the sea bat itself—he meant to reduce this arrogant human to a pulp! The Feixi who had considered intervening quickly stepped back. Those who knew Pompey’s temper understood that when his wrath was unleashed, friend or foe, all were liable to be caught in his attacks.

But the fist halted abruptly over a meter above Wei Wuji’s head, because the kidnapper sighed and, with one hand, lifted the little mermaid princess by her neck, showing that he could easily end the life of this rare beauty at any moment.

However furious Pompey might be, however reckless, protecting the princess was his duty. And in his heart, he harbored a secret sentiment: he regarded the little mermaid as a younger sister.

At this point, the kidnapper spoke slowly. “I don’t wish to do this, but there are so many of you, and I don’t want either myself or any of you to scare them. I’ll just be taking her as a guest for a few days. If you agree to my terms, she’ll be released unharmed once we are somewhere safe.”

“What terms?” Pompey ground out, barely suppressing his fury. “Put her down first. If you hurt her even slightly, you’ll bring disaster upon all humankind. The Western Feixi Empire will not forgive you—she is Emperor Sargon’s only daughter.”

“Is that so?” Wei Wuji obediently loosened his grip, shifting from holding the princess by her neck to cradling her in his arms. The princess, though indignant at the indignity, gasped for breath, glaring at him fiercely, yet unable to speak for the moment, so tightly had she been held.

Wei Wuji glanced at her again. Now, their bodies were pressed close enough for skin to touch. He could catch the faint, sweet and slightly fishy scent rising from her, and even see the soft curve of her barely concealed breast.

“You’re not tricking me, are you? You’re so big—you must be quite strong. Why do you take orders from someone so small?” Wei Wuji asked, puzzled.

“The princess is not yet of age. If you were facing His Highness the Crown Prince instead, you’d have been diced into bits by now,” the giant’s eyes fixed on Wei Wuji, his words biting, though the arrogance from before was gone. With the princess in this human’s grasp, and considering how easily he’d blocked that punch, it was clear this human was beyond the strength of most ship guards.

Wei Wuji began to understand. Stroking his chin, he muttered, “It seems I underestimated you, little lady—or perhaps I’ve simply been lucky.”