“Eeeek!”

At the very moment the Chief of the Eighteen Dongting Camps screamed at the sight of the children and nearly had a seizure—

“Attack!”

“Attack!”

Voices suddenly erupted, shouting for an attack.

At the same time, torches flared to life all over the reed forest.

‘What the hell!?’

As confusion took hold from the sudden chaos, my ship transformed.

It turned into a crab-clawed battle boat.

Faced with the incoming pirates, Cheongwol shot up from her spot and spread her massive pincers wide.

Grrrrng. 『I knew it! I told you we couldn’t trust parasites that live off others’ kills!』

Earlier, when Cheongwol had asked what pirates were, I explained it in a way she’d understand: they were creatures that survived by stealing others’ prey.

She’d reacted sharply to that, saying there was no trusting such beings.

In nature, a predator that steals prey doesn’t just commit theft—it robs others of the energy they fought to earn.

Losing that energy in the brutal ecosystem could easily mean death.

At the time, I’d told her Lee Tae was trustworthy at least—but clearly, Cheongwol had never dropped her suspicions.

Suddenly, Cho, Yeondu, Sister Jeokwol, Moji, and Soji floated into the air, ready for combat, while Yohwa and the others rushed to shield me.

The Dragon Fangs all reached for their weapons.

Then came Cheongyu Sojeo’s cold voice.

Shiaa. 『I had a feeling this might happen, so I prepared something.』

Wondering what she meant, I turned to the rear of the boat—

and saw the river behind us was half water, half serpent.

Somehow, she'd gathered a swarm of snakes, slithering silently behind our ship.

Clearly, she’d done her own prep, knowing we were headed into pirate territory.

It was an explosive standoff waiting to happen.

But just then, the chief of the pirates clung to the ship’s railing and shrieked out toward the others:

“Stop! You idiots! When did I tell you to attack?! I said to show respect to the man my brother serves!”

The moment he yelled that, the kids flinched in midair, and Cheongyu Sojeo—her hand halfway raised to signal a strike—paused and blinked at me.

Shiaa? 『Respect? Huh?』

Sssrrrk. 『Daddy, what’s “respect”?』

Pii? 『Food?』

As confusion swept the deck, the pirate chief shuffled forward, wringing his hands and smiling sheepishly.

“S-So sorry! I told my men that this was the man my sworn brother serves and to stay hidden and then come out and show proper respect... but these idiots must’ve heard attack instead. They’re so used to pillaging every day, they probably got confused... Ha ha... idiots, right?”

“Confused?”

“Yes, you see, ‘respect’ and ‘attack’ do sound similar, don’t they?”

It did seem off, but... he wasn’t wrong.

In Zhongyuan dialect, the word for respect (gonggyeong) sounds like gongjing, while attack (gonggyeok) is gongjiyi.

If you say attack quickly, it might sound like respect, and if you say respect slowly, it might still sound like attack.

“You morons! What are you doing!? Line the path with torches for Lord So-ryong’s journey! You don’t know what respect is?! Respect! Not attack!”

As the chief barked at them from the railing, the boats hovered awkwardly in place.

Seol-noona stared in disbelief.

“Something’s fishy. Looks like they weren’t ready for this at all. Maybe they were gonna attack, but backed off when they saw those scary creatures.”

She was clearly suspicious.

And the pirate chief shrieked dramatically in response.

“Eeeek! W-Watch your words! That’s a dangerous accusation! I swear, it’s just a misunderstanding! They misheard! They were lining up for a salute, not an ambush! Gods, how am I running a pirate crew with such idiots!”

Sweat poured down the pirate chief’s face as he made excuses.

The children circled him warily, eyes full of doubt.

Grrrrng. 『This feels shady.』

Shiaa. 『I agree.』

Guoo. 『Just has that sketchy vibe.』

Pii! 『Food! Food!』

As they hovered around him, the chief shut his eyes tight and trembled violently.

He couldn’t even speak—just waved his hands in a silent “no.”

“Ugh...”

That’s when Lee Tae stepped in to defend his ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) brother.

“Lord So-ryong, my sworn brother likely wanted to greet you with proper etiquette, and it seems his men misunderstood his intent.

I promise you—he’s not someone who would do such a thing.”

“Is that so?”

With that, I told the kids preparing to lift off again to stand down and let the tense guard around me ease.

To be honest, I’d started to feel a little suspicious too.

But even if they had been planning an attack, they were too scared now to try anything else.

‘I thought this was some kind of coordinated suicide mission.’

“Alright, kids, come here. These uncles say it was a mistake. You're okay now, so calm down. Cheongwol, too. And Cheongyu Sojeo, please call back the snakes.”

Shiaa. 『I’ll pull them back a bit, then.』

Sssrrrk. 『Okay, Daddy.』

As the children backed off, the chief’s face lit up with visible relief.

“Th-Thank you!”

Beaming with gratitude, the pirate chief raced back to the ship’s railing.

He’d been rushing back and forth all night—and now he shouted across the water again:

“Move faster, you dolts! This is Lord So-ryong, son-in-law of the Sichuan Tang Clan and ally of the Dragon Fangs! His ship is filled with spirit beasts that not even the Dragon Fangs could face one-on-one, so get moving!”

He seemed to be explaining very clearly, yet the pirates still stood frozen.

Sssrrrk.

Shaaa.

Pii?

Bubububurururu.

But then the children formed a line beside him, and even Geumdo poked his head out to stare them down—and finally, the terrified pirates snapped into action.

“Uwaaaah! A... a turtle?!”

“A g-gigantic turtle!”

In moments, the boats scattered around us lined up neatly along the waterway, and torches lit up the path like a red carpet stretching across the river.

Now that—That looked like a proper show of respect.

***

By nightfall, we reached West Dongting Lake, following the pirate-guided waterway.

As the narrow channel ended, an enormous expanse of water, as vast as the sea, unfolded before us.

“This is West Dongting Lake. We often call it Yunmeng Swamp.”

“It looks much wider than I expected. How long does it take to get from here to East Dongting Lake?”

“About half a day’s journey?”

“That far, huh? Guess I’d better get a full view first. Since we’ll be searching anyway, it makes sense to check the area from above.”

“From above? Uh... from where, exactly?”

The moment I saw that the horizon stretched endlessly across the lake, I called Cho to me.

They’d said most of the whirlpools had been appearing around East Dongting Lake. I wanted to check just how far we had to travel, and how vast the lake really was.

“Cho!”

Chrrr! 『Got it, Dad.』

Wrapped in Cho’s coils, I soared above the foggy water into the sky.

As we rose higher and higher, clouds came into view.

Chrrr. 『Dad... higher?』

“Yes, Cho.”

Chrrr... 『Really...?』

Her voice trembled with uncertainty.

She usually avoided flying above the clouds, though I wasn’t exactly sure why. Being asked to go higher now seemed to make her nervous.

But to get a full view of the lake, we had no choice. From here, I still couldn’t see all of it.

“Don’t worry. I’m with you. Let’s go just a bit higher. We still can’t see the whole lake.”

Only after rising above the clouds, where the chill set in, did the full shape of the lake come into view.

And when I saw it—

I couldn’t hide my shock.

The lake was nothing like I imagined. It was far larger than any Dongting Lake I remembered.

I’d been to China several times for field research, so I had a rough sense of the lake’s size.

Back then, it was around 2,600 square kilometers. Some Qing-era records claimed it reached 6,000 square kilometers.

But this... this was practically an ocean.

‘Seoul is about 600 square kilometers. I thought it would be ten times that. But this? This looks even bigger.’

I couldn’t estimate precisely, but it looked way larger than Seoul multiplied by ten.

Searching this whole place wasn’t going to be easy.

Just then, Cho’s trembling voice reached my ears.

Chrrr... 『Dad... I’m cold...』

We’d come up too high. As a centipede-type spirit beast, Cho clearly didn’t do well in the cold.

I quickly wrapped her in my arms.

“My girl’s cold? That won’t do! Let’s head down now, Cho.”

Chrrrt. 『Okay, Dad.』

We descended to the boat and sat by the firepit, Cho wrapped in my arms, and I let my thoughts wander—back to the immense lake we’d just seen from above.

Given its size, searching wouldn’t be easy.

Boats weren’t allowed on East Dongting Lake, which meant Geumdo couldn’t be used.

So the only option was aerial recon using Cho and Yeondu.

They’d have better visibility than by boat, but... if whatever we were chasing was also underwater, this was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Is something troubling you, Young Master?”

At the sound of Ji-ryong’s voice, I turned my head.

He’d been waiting for breakfast to finish cooking and was now watching me closely.

“Oh, I was just thinking—after seeing the lake from above, it’s way bigger than I expected. Finding the whirlpool’s going to take some time.

Even just mapping it out with Cho and Yeondu might take days. I had no idea it was this big.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Ji-ryong nodded, then smiled.

“But don’t worry. We’ve got help.”

“Help?”

He glanced toward the Chief of the Eighteen Dongting Camps.

***

“So... you’re saying we’re supposed to put all our boats on East Dongting Lake tonight?”

“Yes. We’ll need your help.”

Ji-ryong’s plan was to send all the pirate boats onto East Dongting Lake during the night, while I watched from above.

If a whirlpool appeared, I’d swoop in.

Basically, he wanted to use the pirates as bait.

We didn’t know what kind of spirit beast we were dealing with, but apparently, if you sent out boats, it would come and try to capsize them.

So we’d launch as many as we could—like tossing out handfuls of bait when fishing.

“B-But if we launch boats on East Dongting Lake, won’t we get our heads chopped off?”

The chief blinked, confused by Ji-ryong’s request.

To this, Ji-ryong smiled and replied smoothly,

“That only happens if you get caught, doesn’t it? And don’t all Dongting Lake rogues get beheaded if they’re captured by the authorities? Surely men of the lake wouldn’t be frightened by that.”

In other words:

“You’re criminals anyway. Why are you afraid?”

The chief’s face froze.

Polite wording aside, the meaning was clear:

“You’re crooks. What’s the big deal?”

What, you scared?

“W-Well, still, I mean...”

As the pirate chief trailed off with an awkward expression, Ji-ryong suddenly wore a grave face and murmured to himself.

“Huh... And here I thought, since you all claimed to respect us so deeply, you’d put your lives on the line to help. So what happened last night... was that really respect, or an attempted attack after all?”

If they didn’t show proper respect now, he was implying, then last night’s incident might be reclassified as an ambush.

The chief panicked and blurted out,

“N-No! That’s not what I meant! I just hesitated for a moment, that’s all! Of course we’ll help! How could the Dongting Eighteen Camps possibly refuse a request from the man my sworn brother serves!”

So... just a moment of hesitation, but they’re in.

Ji-ryong winked at me with a sly grin.

The bait was ready.

‘Well then... time to get the fishing gear ready.’

We had a whole school of fresh bait.

Time to go fishing.

‘Wonder what we’ll catch.’