Li Yuan stood alone on the quiet pier as the sun was just rising. No fishermen were out this morning—too close to the day of tribute payment. In three days, the Sea Emperor's fleet would come, and the entire island was hiding in tense anticipation.
But Li Yuan was not hiding. He knelt at the edge of the pier, letting his fingers touch the tranquil surface of the water. And through his Comprehension of Water, which resided in his Wenjing Realm, he began to listen.
Not with his ears. Not with his eyes. But with something deeper—a resonance between his consciousness and the very essence of the water.
Stories flowed to him like an endless river.
This water had touched Hakeem's ships. It had washed blood-stained decks. It had heard the cries of children taken, the tears of mothers who lost, the prayers of desperate men. And in every drop, in every current, those memories were stored—not as separate facts, but as an emotional resonance that Li Yuan could feel with a painful clarity.
Twelve large ships, he mapped out in his mind. Nineteen small ships. They come from the north in a dispersed formation—the large ships in the center, the small ones as scouts on the wings.
Hakeem himself sails on the largest ship—a three-masted vessel named "The Conqueror". It's also where he keeps the most valuable plunder. And the most... valuable hostages.
When he heard this, something cold settled in his chest. Not hot anger. Not explosive hatred. But something more like... a crystallizing decision. Like water slowly turning to ice.
There are children on that ship, he heard through the resonance of the water that had touched Hakeem's ships last week. Children taken from Mahara Island three years ago. Some sold. Some kept as collateral—to ensure the other islands don't rebel.
And the latest... a girl from the northern mainland. Brought by slave traders six months ago. Black hair, eyes that still carry hope despite so much being lost.
Li Yuan opened his eyes and looked at the horizon. He didn't know if that girl was Mina—Yara's sister—but the description was close enough to make the possibility real.
A line has been crossed, he mused with absolute clarity. Not just by Hakeem, but by the system that allows a person like him to exist. A system that sees children as commodities, that turns desperation into profit, that builds power on top of unspoken suffering.
And I... I have walked around systems like this for too long. Observing. Understanding. Trying to find a way to change from within without violence.
But sometimes, water must freeze.
He found Yara in the market—or what was left of it. The woman was talking to an old fisherman, trying to extract information about the pirates' routes.
"They always come from the north," the fisherman said in a tired voice. "Following the ocean currents that flow around the islands. There are three main routes they use, depending on the weather and—"
He stopped when he saw Li Yuan approaching.
Yara turned, her eyes immediately searching Li Yuan's face. "You found something."
Not a question. A statement. She had learned to read Li Yuan's expression—or lack of it—well enough.
"Yes," Li Yuan said simply. "We need to talk. In private."
The old fisherman nodded quickly and stepped aside, leaving the two of them alone in a quiet corner of the market.
"I heard the structure of their fleet," Li Yuan began without preamble. "Twelve large ships, nineteen small ones. Hakeem sails on the largest ship with the most valuable hostages."
When he said "most valuable hostages," something flickered in Yara's expression. Through his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan heard a surge of hope and fear mixed in her intention.
"Mina?" she whispered.
"Maybe. There's a girl who matches her description—black hair, brought from the northern mainland six months ago." Li Yuan looked at her with eyes that offered no false reassurance. "But I can't be sure until we see with our own eyes."
Yara gripped her hands tightly—so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "Then we have to get on that ship. Somehow. When they come—"
"No," Li Yuan cut in with a voice that carried finality. "That would be suicide. Hakeem has a hundred men on that ship, all armed and trained. We can't fight them directly."
"Then what?" Yara asked with a frustration that finally boiled over. "We just sit and wait? Observe? Let them take their tribute and leave like they do every month? While Mina—if it really is her—remains a hostage?"
When she spoke, Li Yuan heard through his Wenjing Realm more than just the words. He heard the desperation that had grown over three years of searching. He heard the unhealed guilt from her father's death. And under all that, the deepest fear: that she would find Mina too late, or never find her at all.
"No," Li Yuan said in a softer voice but no less firm. "We will not sit and wait. But we also will not act impulsively."
He looked out at the sea—at the horizon where clouds were beginning to gather in a pattern that only he could read with the understanding that came from resonating with the water itself.
"There's a storm coming," he said calmly. "A big storm. Two days from now, maybe three. Right when Hakeem's fleet will be in these waters."
Yara followed his gaze, seeing the clouds that were still distant and didn't look threatening to an untrained eye. "You're sure?"
"Yes." Li Yuan didn't explain how he knew—not with a weather forecast or a sailor's experience, but by listening through the water itself, feeling the changes in temperature and pressure that resonated through the sea like vibrations in a massive musical instrument.
"A storm," Yara repeated, and through her Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan heard how her mind began to work—connecting the dots, seeing the possibilities. "You want to use the storm."
"Not use. Leverage." Li Yuan looked at her with eyes that carried the weight of a decision he had already made. "The storm will come with or without our intervention. But where Hakeem's fleet is when that storm arrives—that is something we can influence."
Yara looked at him in a long silence. Then she whispered, "You want to sink them."
"I want to destroy a system that has made these islands live in fear for ten years," Li Yuan corrected in a voice that remained calm but carried something different now—something hard, something non-negotiable. "Hakeem and his men who chose this life—who chose to build their wealth on the suffering of others—they have made their choice. And that choice has consequences."
When he said this, something in his expression—or perhaps in the tone of his voice—made Yara step back a little. Through his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan heard a mix of admiration and something akin to fear in her intention.
"I've never heard you talk like this," she finally said. "With... with this kind of coldness."
"Water," Li Yuan said with a simplicity that carried the philosophy he had lived for fifteen thousand years, "flows gently around obstacles. That is its natural state. But when the seasons change, when the temperature drops low enough, water freezes. It becomes hard. Sharp. Impenetrable."
He looked back at the horizon, at the clouds that were slowly gathering.
"I have flowed around systems like this for too long. Trying to find a way to change without violence. But there is a line that should not be crossed. And the trafficking of children—the systematic oppression of thousands of people who cannot protect themselves—that has crossed the line."
"So now," he continued in a voice that was almost a whisper but carried an unshakable weight, "the water will freeze. Not out of hatred. Not out of vengeance. But because balance demands it."
Yara looked at him in a long silence. Then, in a voice that was also a whisper:
"How many will die?"
"Hundreds," Li Yuan answered with brutal honesty. "Maybe more. Depends on how many can escape the storm."
"And you... you can make peace with that?"
Li Yuan looked at his own hands—hands that had existed for fifteen thousand years, that had touched so many lives, that had helped and sometimes failed to help. Hands that would now be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people.
"I have to," he finally said. "Because the alternative is to let this system continue. To let more children be taken. More families be destroyed. More generations live in fear."
He looked back at Yara with eyes that had seen too much to offer easy comfort.
"This is not a good choice versus a bad choice. This is a bad choice versus a worse choice. And I have made my choice."
They spent the rest of the day talking to fishermen—not all of them, just the ones Li Yuan could trust not to leak the plan. The old man they had met in the market, whose name was Jelani, became the most valuable source of information.
"There are three main routes," Jelani explained, drawing a rough map in the sand with a stick. "The eastern route—safe, but slower because it's against the current. The western route—fast, but it passes dangerous reefs. And the middle route—a balance between speed and safety."
"Which one do they usually take?" Li Yuan asked.
"Depends on the weather. If the sea is calm, they take the western route for speed. If there are signs of a storm, they take the more sheltered eastern route."
Li Yuan nodded, already starting to see how the pieces could fit together.
"And if there's news that one of the routes is dangerous? For example, a shifted reef or an unexpected current?"
Jelani looked at him with sharp eyes—eyes that had lived long enough to recognize when someone was planning something more than just an academic question.
"They would avoid that route. Hakeem may be cruel, but he's not stupid. He won't risk his ships to save a few hours."
"Good," Li Yuan said calmly. "That's what I needed to know."
After Jelani left—with instructions not to tell anyone about this conversation—Yara turned to Li Yuan with an expression full of questions.
"You want to lure them to a specific route."
"Yes. A route that will place them exactly where the storm will hit the hardest."
"How?"
Li Yuan smiled—a thin smile that didn't reach his eyes. "By making the other routes look more dangerous. By spreading word—through sources they trust—that there are problems on the eastern and western routes. By making the middle route seem like the only reasonable choice."
Yara looked at him with a mix of admiration and something darker. "You've thought about this in great detail."
"Yes."
"Since when?"
Li Yuan looked at the sea, at the clouds that were slowly but surely growing on the horizon.
"Since I first heard the stories from the water. Since I heard the cries of children absorbed by every drop. Since I realized that there are things that cannot be changed with patience and understanding alone."
He turned to look at Yara with eyes that carried the weight of fifteen thousand years of experience.
"I've tried other ways, Yara. I've spent thousands of years trying to change systems from within, trying to find peaceful paths. And sometimes it works. But sometimes..." He let the sentence hang.
"Sometimes water has to freeze," Yara finished softly.
"Yes."
They stood in silence, watching the sun slowly descend to the horizon. And through his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan heard the change in Yara's intention—from frustration and doubt to something more like... acceptance. Maybe even respect.
"I'll help you," she finally said. "Whatever you need."
"Thank you," Li Yuan said with simplicity. "But there is one thing you need to understand: when this happens, when the storm comes and the ships start to sink, you cannot lose focus. Our goal is not just to destroy the fleet—it's to rescue the hostages. To find Mina if she is there. And that will require perfect timing."
Yara nodded with a serious face. "I understand."
"Good. Because we only have one chance at this."
That night, after Yara had returned to the inn, Li Yuan went back to the beach alone. He stood at the water's edge, letting the waves touch his feet, and listened.
Not just to the sea. But to something deeper—to his own Zhenjing, the inner world where his comprehensions existed like a spiritual landscape.
There, in the center, the Comprehension of Water flowed calmly. But there was something different now. Something that had shifted in its resonance.
The water was still soft. Still flexible. But there was a new hardness within that softness—the potential to freeze, to become something sharp and unforgiving.
This is not a fundamental change, he mused as he felt the shift. Water does not stop being water when it freezes. The essence is the same. Only the form changes—temporarily, in response to the conditions around it.
And I... I have not changed into something else. I am simply responding to what the situation requires. Like water that freezes in winter and melts in spring, I will be what this moment needs me to be.
Without regret.
Without hesitation.
Because hesitation, in a moment like this, would only cause more suffering.
He closed his eyes and let his Wenjing consciousness flow into the sea—not to hear stories of the past, but to feel the future. To feel the pattern of the coming storm, to understand with precision where and when it would hit with the greatest force.
And in that resonance, he heard the answer.
Two days. The storm would arrive in two days. And if Hakeem's fleet was on the middle route at that time—in a place where there was no protection from islands or reefs, where the waves could grow without hindrance—they would face the full force of the sea's fury.
Not because Li Yuan commanded it. Not because he used spiritual power to manipulate the weather.
Only because he understood the patterns. Because he listened deeply enough to know what was coming. And because he was willing to use that knowledge mercilessly.
Frozen water, he mused with a calm acceptance. Not because it hates. But because the season demands it.
And the season for the Sea Emperor and his system has come to an end.
Li Yuan opened his eyes and looked at the stars that were beginning to appear in the darkening sky. Two more days. Two days to refine the plan, to ensure every detail has been considered, to make a final decision that cannot be undone.
And then... then the water will freeze.
And when that ice melts again, the world will be different.
For the better, he hoped.
But even if not—even if unforeseen consequences arise—the choice had been made.
And Li Yuan would not back down.