The Cang Pirates had collapsed.
Gu Xizhi was killed, Luo Guanyu was beheaded, Yu Daoguang's cultivation withered away... Five of the Cang Pirates' leaders were cleanly slain in two separate conflicts.
Then, the remaining bandits actually, surrendered?
More than thirty Cang Pirates had been beheaded, and nearly twenty remaining; with such a fighting force, if united, they could have broken through and escaped, but they chose the utterly disgraceful path of surrender.
It was unexpected, yet somehow made perfect sense.
This was the nature of pirates: they lacked faith, strict organizational structure, unified Daoist constraints, state territory, or a sense of belonging to a mentorship. When faced with an immense crisis they couldn't endure, it was not surprising that they'd opt to surrender now.
