"Le Yin bro, you're really humorous."
Yan Gēr forced a smile: "Could there be anyone else called Qin Le Yin?"
"I suppose not... I am Qin Le Yin now."
Le Yu rubbed his temples, pushing away distractions of poetry and distant lands, and looked at them, asking, "Is there something you need?"
The Shi Family members exchanged glances. Although they were indignant earlier, they couldn't help being a bit cowardly when the time came. Only Yan Gēr put an arm around Le Yu's shoulder and asked warmly, "Le Yin bro, feeling better? I heard you were unconscious and carried onto the ship this morning."
"Feeling better, thank you for your concern," Le Yu replied, "Just some lingering weakness in the limbs, but should be fine after a few hours of sleep."
Le Yu only remembered drinking Jing Zhengwei's blood until he passed out and when he regained consciousness, he was lying in the Shi Family's ship, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.
At first, he thought Jing Zhengwei's blood was poisoned, suspecting that the Qin Day Harmony Combat Technique had such aftereffects, that defloration would actually contaminate the blood. And coincidentally, it perfectly countered Qin Le Yin, the vampire. However, once his mind cleared, he recalled this was a side effect of the Eye of Nessie.
Indeed, an original Eye of Nessie is a flawless Illusion Divine Weapon, but as a replica, the disposable Eye of Nessie used by Qin Le Yin not only required a ten-minute activation time but once the 'All Skills Level +1' buff disappeared, the user would fall into an absolute weakened state, with physical and spiritual power reduced to their lowest.
To think ten minutes of intense pleasure would require paying for ten hours of weakness and exhaustion... truly not enduring.
Originally, Qin Le Yin's heart injury was fatal, but the Blood Drink Eight Rice Flow saved him — as the name suggests, practitioners gain comprehensive enhancements of physical strength, spiritual power, reflexes, and recovery as long as they come into contact with blood. The more blood, the stronger the enhancement, but it also becomes harder for the practitioner to control their actions.
If he were in a sea of corpses and blood, Qin Le Yin might have been so excited he would've stabbed his own temple.
If a practitioner directly consumes blood, they will automatically use the Internal Scenic Battle Technique on themselves, the healing effectiveness of which is proportional to the level of Eight Rice Flow. By then, Qin Le Yin's Eight Rice Flow had already advanced to the Peak of Perfection, and drinking blood gave him a healing effect equivalent to having the best Medical Officer treat his heart.
Moreover, Blood Drink Eight Rice Flow allows practitioners to rapidly enhance their combat technique realm in a blood battle; Qin Le Yin was able to elevate all three techniques of Eight Rice Flow to the level of Integration and Mastery at such a young age due to experiencing dozens of brutal blood battles.
So, what are the drawbacks of this forbidden combat technique that boosts experience, enhances combat, and comes with its own recovery?
The most obvious drawback is that practitioners must frequently consume blood; without blood, they will fall into a mad state similar to withdrawal symptoms, even biting their own hands to drink blood.
More fatal is that practitioners often cannot control their battle will and fall into a frenzy for enemy blood.
At the time, Qin Le Yin actually had many opportunities to kill Jing Zhengwei directly, but he chose a method of near-torture to prolong the fight just to bathe in more of Jing Zhengwei's blood, which is why Le Yu found a chance to counterattack.
In comparison, 'loss of control' is the biggest weakness of the Blood Drink Eight Rice Flow, and Qin Le Yin's memories confirmed this — in many of his past blood battles, he was countered by the enemy precisely because he fell into a blood frenzy.
However, after suffering a fatal wound, Qin Le Yin would immediately regain his senses and use smarter tactics to achieve victory.
This time was no different.
After regaining his senses, Qin Le Yin almost forced Le Yu to resign himself to die, while he was able to heal his wounds through drinking blood.
But now, as Le Yu recalls the event, he doesn't feel much anger.
Even though it was a lie.
There was indeed a touch of sincerity in his words.
Qin Le Yin merely wished for Jing Zhengwei to depart peacefully.
It was his final gesture of goodwill toward a friend.
Yet fate, truly, is unfathomable.
"Still, take care of yourself," Yan Gēr said insincerely, "By the way, did Feng Gēr talk to you about the ship fare?"
"Feng Gēr? Oh, you mean Shi Huaifeng," Le Yu shook his head, "What ship fare?"
Yan Gēr counted on his fingers and said, "It's the shipping cost, you see. Our Shi Family transported people and goods for the Qin Family, charging a fee is reasonable, isn't it?"
"It certainly is reasonable," Le Yu looked confused, "But is such a small amount of money really worth discussing with me?"
With time, environment changes one's heart and body; Le Yu, having been a big shot for a while, naturally exuded the air of a wealthy man, and the difference between Qin Le Yin and Jing Zhengwei's identities wasn't significant, so adapting was quite natural for him.
His first reaction to the ship fare issue was: Do you really need to ask me about this?
Yan Gēr looked at Le Yu's expression and thought Qin Le Yin was probably pretending.
He didn't believe Qin Le Yin couldn't catch his insinuation, judging it was an attempt to muddle through by playing dumb, so he went straight to the point: "Also, we feel that you Qin Family seem to have brought too much cargo, and there are too few of you. When you reach Yanjing, you might not be able to protect your assets, but we'd be happy to help the Qin Family safeguard them for now."
Le Yu blinked, looked at their expressions, with an incredulous face: "Wait, are you saying you're here on behalf of the Shi Family, to rob me?"
"Not rob, exactly," someone quickly said, "just temporarily safeguard it. After all, the Qin Family doesn't have many people and can't use all that money, leaving it with us Shi Family is reasonable, for everyone's benefit."
Le Yu rubbed his temples: "So, because our Qin Family has a lot of money, we should share some with you guys?"
"The word 'share' sounds so unpleasant," Yan Gēr laughed, "Shi and Qin families have always been on good terms, united we benefit, divided we harm. Now that both families are far from home, it's precisely the time for us to join hands and cooperate fully."
Hehe.
Yan Gēr and the others contemplated Qin Le Yin might get angry, might sneer, might outright ignore them.
But what they didn't expect was for Qin Le Yin to burst out laughing.
Laughed very happily.
Laughed very sincerely.
Laughed to the point where they felt a bit scared.
Because they had never seen Qin Le Yin like this.
"Hey, hey," Le Yu, whose abs felt a bit painful from laughing before fully recovering from weakness, asked, "Have you discussed this matter with your Patriarch or Shi Huaifeng?"
"The Patriarch and the eldest young master have a close relationship with the Qin Family, so even if there's a good intention for cooperation, it's hard to bring up. So we young people have to step in." Yan Ge'er squinted and said, "It seems that, Brother Le Yin, you don't want to accept this gesture."
"Sorry, your good intentions are misplaced." Le Yu finally held back his smile and waved his hand, "If there's nothing else, please leave, I still want to contemplate life a bit."
"Qin Le Yin." Others whispered, "Think it through, whose ship is this, and whose people are on the ship!"
"If you don't eat the toast, you'll be forced to eat the penalty drink. Must you make things ugly to know what time it is?"
"Without the protection of our Shi Family when you reach Yanjing, you will be ruined sooner or later, don't mistake yourself!"
Yan Ge'er grabbed Le Yu's shoulder and said harshly, "Qin Le Yin, I'm telling you, if you don't give a satisfactory explanation, the Qin Family won't be able to get away with it!"
"I'm begging you, don't be like this, okay?" Le Yu sighed.
Just when everyone felt a moment of joy, thinking Qin Le Yin was going to relent, they heard him continue, "I really don't have the mind to bicker with you kids now, how about this, take this money for candy."
Le Yu pulled out a few gold coins from his pocket and tossed them, waving them to leave quickly.
The people of the Shi Family were immediately furious!
"Ungrateful!"
"Do you still think this is Xuanzhu County!"
"Truly, giving face but not taking it!"
At this moment, footsteps suddenly came from the cabin as a group of people walked onto the deck.
"Big brother!" Qin Yueyang, wearing a black cross white coat, saw Le Yu and immediately rushed forward, saying, "Your body hasn't recovered; why did you come up alone?"
"I wanted to get some sun."
"You should've called me to help you up!"
"I don't like being helped by men."
When Shi Huaifeng, who followed up, saw Shi Qu and Shi Yan, he frowned and asked, "I seemed to have heard you all, what were you arguing about?"
"Nothing," Yan Ge'er immediately said, "We were just discussing future itineraries with Brother Le Yin, after all the Qin Family has few people but holds great wealth, we must be cautious in everything..."
Yan Ge'er's eyes brightened when he saw the blue-clothed operatives behind Shi Huaifeng, and continued, "This time, our Shi Family's acquisition of two Dawn-Dusk giants is greatly indebted to the Statistical Department's help, why not let the Qin Family also spend big to prepare gifts, build good relations with the Statistical Department and open the road to Yanjing?"
Yan Ge'er's thoughts could be described as extremely sinister — hinting at the Qin Family's current state of 'children holding gold', while deliberately arousing the Statistical Department's interest, intending to slice the Qin Family's flesh under the cover of the Statistical Department.
The Yanjing Statistical Department certainly wasn't easy to deal with, not to mention the head, even a small operative wasn't something an outsider could provoke. Only if these Statistical Department operatives took interest in the Qin Family would they bleed to satisfy their appetite.
Just as Yan Ge'er anticipated, those blue-clothed operatives' eyes lit up upon seeing Qin Le Yin, as they swiftly stepped forward, and then —
"Greetings, Hongle Walker!"
They knelt on one knee and said in unison, "Welcome Hongle Walker back to the capital!"
Le Yu looked at them puzzled, "What's up, the game's over? I don't have to pretend anymore?"
The blue-clothed operatives respectfully said, "This time Walker succeeded on your mission back to the capital, Jun Zuo has other arrangements, but there's no need to continue hiding your identity."
"All right, then I won't pretend."
Le Yu crossed his arms, glanced at the gradually panicking Shi Family youths, and smiled, "Didn't expect, did you? Qin Le Yin, besides being a Dongyang businessman, is also a person with reputation in Yanjing."
Having died as an alternate substitution four times, been a spy, an assassin, and the president of the Silver Blood Association, Le Yu really had no interest in playing some facade-smacking game with these kids, not even getting angry.
Taking them seriously felt like an insult to his past opponents — Yin Yin Yin, Qin Le Yin, Jing Zhengwu, Blue Flame, Kui Zhao felt ashamed.
But...
Le Yu crooked his mouth, showing them a wicked and wild smile.
"Shi Huaifeng, these kids were just trying to split my money." Le Yu squatted down to pick up the gold coins he tossed earlier, "I even bowed and gave them some gold coins to buy candy, but they spoke rudely to me, what do you suggest should be done?"
"Whatever you say should be done!" Shi Huaifeng directly stated his stance.
"Really? Then I won't hold back." Le Yu said, "Tie them up and toss them into the sea, everything they eat, drink, defecate, and urinate will be in the sea, and when they reach Yanjing, they can be brought up."
"Although they're still children, they can't be let off."