Among the many variations and improvements were the ropes that Bao Cong tied off in a quick slip knot around each of their bodies. It would allow the group to stay attached to one another such that if one person missed their grip, they could still be dragged along. Thankfully, the pull of the river was so great that it was unlikely the sailors would notice a change even with the addition of the five underwater cultivators.
However, Wu Ying realized a flaw in his plan. If no ship came, they had no way of getting into the port. Worse, they needed one to arrive in the night rather than during the day when their swimming forms would be easy to spot.
He mulled over his options, finally landing on having the group gather bunches of deadwood. If necessary, they would float in under the cover of these branches, going in in small groups and hoping that they would be missed by the guards. Floating deadwood was not uncommon, but five different clumps would likely draw attention if they all arrived too close together.
Wu Ying was growing impatient, concerned they would be caught by the city patrols, when they finally spotted a suitable ship. Even better, the vessel was arriving late in the day. Rather than risk waiting longer, Wu Ying called his friends to get ready.
Together, the group slipped into the water silently, timing it so they entered the fast-flowing river while the ship’s watch was looking away. It helped that their river entrance was hidden by low-hanging weeping willows and floating rushes. As quietly as possible, the group swam mostly under water to where the ship would pass. They were all tied together. Tou Hei, their strongest swimmer, led the pack, with Yin Xue in the back as he was incredibly insufficient. Unlike the others, he had not spent much time in the numerous rivers and lakes that dotted the landscape of the kingdom. Still, the greater strength offered to a cultivator helped offset his lack of technique.
Directly behind his monk friend, Wu Ying noticed that the current was stronger than ever, driving them and the ship forward equally quickly. Wu Ying sped up his strokes, pulling and kicking as best as he could underwater so that they could reach the ship in time. Thankfully, as cultivators, their ability to hold their breath was significantly increased. Their bodies’ need for air had reduced—though they were no Nascent Soul cultivators who existed only on the chi of the world. As the ship swept past them, Wu Ying silently cursed as they missed the prow where they had meant to attach themselves.
Tou Hei struck first, swinging his curved, sharpened hook at the side of the boat. It struck, skipped along barnacles, and dislodged, leaving the monk to flounder as he tried to regain his position. In the meantime, Wu Ying had managed to make his way to the boat’s side and strike with his own implement. This too failed to make purchase, the rotten wood beneath tearing apart after a moment of pressure. Wu Ying kicked and twisted as the floating debris swung by him, his loss of momentum dragging him back.
Next up was Li Yao. She was focused, legs beating in rapid rhythm as she kicked her way to the rudder passing by them. As Wu Ying tried his best to catch up, he watched ice form around the body of her hook. She swung, striking deep into the wood near the rudder. In a burst of energy, the hook dug into the wood of the ship and released the collected chi of her attack. It quickly formed a small glacier that adhered to the wood, dragging along Li Yao and the other cultivators. With all four cultivators stuck to her body, her breathing grew strained from the ropes pulling against her waist, catching on her hips, tugging on her arms. She refused to give up, focusing on her chi, expelling ice and cold as she manipulated the glacier to become sleeker, to give better purchase around the bottom of the ship.
Bao Cong, never having lost momentum while trying to attach himself to the ship, swam under the keel and came up and around the other side. Already, Li Yao’s ice formation had formed a thin layer around the other side, allowing Bao Cong’s chi-infused hook to bury in the wood and hold. With the weight taken off one side of her body, the female cultivator wrapped her hand around the trailing rope and pulled it close. Dragged along by the rope, Wu Ying and Tou Hei continued to swim, doing their best to catch up. Yin Xue did the same on the other side.
In short order, the group was able to attach themselves to the ship using the crusty-ice for additional purchase. Li Yao was the first to extract her reed, sliding it into the air near the ship to suck down oxygen in greedy mouthfuls. Thankfully, even if it was difficult to draw oxygen from the surface, their strong lungs and the supplementary energy that rushed through their bodies allowed the cultivators to last for hours underneath the water. Of them all, Wu Ying struggled the most, his lower cultivation forcing him to require more air.
Once he had fastened himself properly, he tied himself off to the ship, wrapping his arm around the edge of the rope to ensure that he could continue being dragged along before he focused entirely on conserving energy and drawing down as much air as he could. To his surprise, the flow of energy from his semi-porous aura had improved under the water. Upon further exploration, he realized that it was the increased pressure and the lack of variation in the environmental chi surrounding him that allowed him to improve his circulation methods. Grateful for the additional energy that he used to keep himself alive, Wu Ying focused deep within.
In that way, the group drifted into port and enemy territory.
Chapter 21
Wu Ying lost track of time as he floated and circulated his chi. The struggle to stay conscious as he breathed through the thin reed and circulated his chi caused him to focus only on those two things. To his surprise, he found that this forced concentration pushed his grasp of the aura cultivation exercise even further—so much so that he felt a clear improvement in his ability. A part of him wondered if he had yet achieved the threshold for Minor Achievement. Sometimes, these types of exercises lacked a clear marker. He might not be an Energy Storage cultivator, but none of the others had his cultivation exercise either.
When they finally arrived, Wu Ying found himself slowly floating, the reed clenched between his teeth as he sucked in slow, measured breaths. He didn’t notice the change in light or the lack of motion, nor even the hands that detached his death grip on the rope and drew him to the water’s surface. It was only when his face broke through the clear air that Wu Ying realized where he was. And that he was being slowly dragged away from the ship to beneath the docks. A hand clamped over his mouth when he opened it, silencing him.
When Wu Ying came fully to his senses, he found Bao Cong holding him tightly, hands around Wu Ying’s armpits. Wu Ying gave a nod, acknowledging that he was fully sensible, before the cultivator let go.
He then leaned in, whispering into Wu Ying’s ear, “The others have already gone ahead. We need to go. Soon.”
Wu Ying nodded, doing his best to reduce the amount of noise and splashes he made as they swam underneath the dock. In the dark of the night, the pair moved to the river’s banks, peering around the edges of the dock. A splash next to Wu Ying’s face made him jerk, only for him to relax when whatever had been tossed aside sank into the water. In the darkness of the night, whatever it was sank away quickly, though by the smell of the water around them, Wu Ying could guess.
When they reached where water and the bottom of the dock met, they stayed low, bobbing in the water with a hand against the wooden panels. Late as it was, there were few people on the docks beyond the patrolling guards and the dock workers moving back and forth from the single ship that had arrived. Without work to do, most of the dock workers were likely in town, where additional work lay in cleaning up the fires and destroyed buildings.