"What happened?" Brother Red Chicken was always the quickest to react, sprinting a few paces to stop in front of Xiahou Aotian.
The self-proclaimed protagonist of a prominent clan was completely drained of color. His gaze was vacant, residual terror lingering deep in his eyes, as though he had yet to recover from the fright.
This made the others both curious and grave. For someone as chuunibyou as him to be frightened to this degree, whatever lurked in the sea had to be terrifying indeed.
Eagle of Freedom, Yun Meng, and Natsuki's Love quietly tensed their muscles.
Facing the somber gazes of his companions, Xiahou Aotian took a deep breath and said, "Sunken ships. The seabed is covered in shipwrecks. Right at their center lies an extraordinarily massive vessel, roughly four or five times the size of ours. Those wrecks surround that giant ship, forming a very bizarre array. Though the drone's searchlight had limited reach and I couldn't see the entire formation, I can be certain that there is indeed a massive array down there.
"That array is utterly bizarre. I've never seen anything like it. Trying to crack it would be extraordinarily difficult."
*No shit. That's an array laid down by ancient cultivators. They had genuine lineages and inheritances; their array mastery is obviously far superior to Spirit Realm walkers'. It's the difference between middle school math and advanced calculus,* Zhang Yuanqing thought, then asked aloud, "And then?"
Just that wouldn't have scared Xiahou Aotian out of his wits.
Xiahou Aotian lowered his voice. "I piloted the underwater drone toward the giant ship at the center to investigate. Just as it drew close, I suddenly saw what looked like a woman in white drifting out of the cabin, vanishing in a flash. I hurriedly adjusted the camera angle to pursue that white silhouette, but no matter how I searched, I couldn't find her. Instead, I discovered... discovered..."
At this point, his face turned ghastly. "I discovered that the seabed was packed with the bodies of fallen warriors. Thousands upon thousands of them, standing on the sea bed, standing on the prows, their heads craned up to look at me—pair after pair of dead, glazed white pupils..."
Brother Red Chicken and the others pictured the scene, a chill creeping into their hearts.
Meanwhile, Yin Ji and Zhang Yuanqing, being Night Walkers, maintained their composure.
They were already accustomed to such sights.
Xiahou Aotian continued, "They seem to have turned into Water Ghosts or yin corpses, but they didn't attack the drone. Just as I planned to steer the drone into the ship to explore, the camera swung around—and I came face-to-face with a woman's visage. I don't know when, but she had already swum right in front of me! Right after that, the feed cut off. Fuck! Scared the living shit out of me!"
After listening, Yin Ji said in a solemn tone, "We cannot enter the water. The depths are teeming with Water Ghosts. If we fall in, survival is nearly impossible. We must cross these waters as quickly as possible."
Brother Red Chicken and Natsuki's Love immediately looked troubled.
Neither of them possessed flight capabilities, nor were they Night Walkers. The ship beneath their feet was their sole reliance.
Xiahou Aotian glanced at them and lifted his chin. "I've got several jetpacks. If you two beg me, then as the protagonist, I'll surely be generous enough to help you out. Hmm, though jetpacks have limited power and can't reach Yashan Island. What a pity, guess I can't help you after all."
*Then what was the point of your nonsense...?* Brother Red Chicken's mouth twitched.
Zhang Yuanqing pondered carefully. For now, it was certain that falling into the sea would most likely be a dead end. Thus, their next objective was to protect this warship and successfully make landfall on Yashan Island.
Another possibility was having to proactively plunge into the sea and fight three hundred rounds against the army of Water Ghosts.
If they made the wrong choice, a team wipe could happen in minutes. The margin of error in an S-rank dungeon was brutally low, which underscored just how vital a walkthrough guide was.
He voiced his thoughts.
Yin Ji said softly, "There is no need to overthink it. In Transcendent stage dungeons, puzzle-solving carries more weight than combat. But once you reach the Saint stage, combat is the main theme. Many crises can only be solved through sheer brute strength. The strong survive, the weak perish. It is intensely ruthless."
This was addressed to Zhang Yuanqing, as he was the only one present who was new to Saint-stage dungeons.
"Thank you for the advice!" Zhang Yuanqing appreciated Yin Ji's goodwill.
"Right now, this ship is our only reliance. That Water Ghost army on the seabed feels far too sinister. We should cross the sea as soon as possible. Hopefully nothing goes awry," Xiahou Aotian muttered, turning to hurry toward the stern.
Suddenly, he stopped again and said, "Let me perform a divination to see if we can smoothly reach Yashan Island."
This was far more accurate than a Starlord's Star Physiognomy.
The Saints present immediately looked at him with keen anticipation.
Xiahou Aotian relished being the center of attention. With a smug expression, he retrieved a palm-sized antique tortoise shell from his inventory, cupped both ends with his hands, and shook it vigorously.
As he shook it, the patterns on the shell lit up, glowing brightly.
*He really has a ton of items...* Seeing this, even Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help marveling. He thought to himself that it was almost absurd that the Scholar class could form Spirit Realm clans.
Didn't the major organizations ever want to rob a Scholar clan?
On second thought, though, it made sense for Spirit Realm clans to align with the Five Elements Alliance and the Taiyi Sect. Once they became vassals of the court and offered regular tribute, those troubles naturally vanished.
At that moment, Xiahou Aotian stopped. The light on the tortoise shell faded. Under everyone's eager gazes, he carefully tipped out three copper coins.
One look at the result, and Xiahou Aotian's face drained of color.
"How is it?" Brother Red Chicken asked hurriedly upon seeing his grim expression.
"An omen of utmost calamity..." Xiahou Aotian looked up, met his companions' eyes, and enunciated each word, "I divined whether we could smoothly make landfall."
A chill ran up the Saints' spines, sending a prickle of dread across their scalps.
*So the probability of the entire group falling into the water is very high. I'm a Night Walker and have the Yin-Yang Robe to protect me, so the danger is somewhat lower for me. But Brother Red Chicken and Natsuki's Love aren't adept at water, so they're probably...* Zhang Yuanqing quietly opened his Star Eyes and looked toward the two of them.
He saw that the dark clouds between their brows had dissipated considerably, replaced by a glaring, scarlet bloodlight.
This meant their mortality rate was extraordinarily high—higher than anyone else's...
Yin Ji glanced at Yuanshi Tianzun and said softly, "This is an S-rank dungeon, fraught with peril at every turn. Whatever Star Physiognomy and divination show will inevitably be the worst outcomes; auspicious omens are out of the question."
As she spoke, her gleaming, beautiful eyes held a trace of pointed emphasis.
*She saw Brother Red Chicken and Natsuki's Love's physiognomy as well. She's hinting that I shouldn't speak recklessly; shaking morale right before a battle is a terrible idea...* Zhang Yuanqing instantly caught Yin Ji's meaning and said, "Let's sail. Don't waste time. The longer we linger on the sea, the greater the danger..."
Yin Ji nodded slightly. Yuanshi Tianzun was sharp; a single look was enough for him to grasp her intent.
Just then, everyone heard a thunderous boom in the distance. The next second, a streak of sickly green flame swept across the night sky, bathing the ocean's surface in a ghastly green hue.
Boom!
The streak of flame struck the ship squarely. A furious shockwave erupted, tearing the ship's superstructure to shreds and sending countless broken timbers flying in every direction.
The entire warship lurched violently to one side, threatening to capsize. Caught off guard, the Saints on deck were thrown off their feet, tumbling in the direction of the tilt.
Only Yun Meng, relying on the Wood Demon's exceptional balance and agility, instantly steadied herself. Her feet seemed rooted to the deck as she craned her neck toward the direction of the incoming fire.
Her pupils narrowed into vertical slits, her irises turning amber; the beast-transformed eyes granted her night vision.
Dozens of meters away across the water, a line of gigantic warships had appeared out of nowhere. Linked bow to stern, they formed a tight defensive line across the sea, blocking the Saints' navigational path.
On the decks of those warships stood dense clusters of shadowy figures, silently staring at the paddle-wheel ship.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Mounted along the warships' gunwales, cannons roared, spitting eerie green flames in a second wave of assault toward the Saints' paddle-wheel ship.
Streaks of green fire tore across the night sky like meteors, whistling as they crashed down.
Wearing a silver ring on her head, the fair and pretty Yun Meng felt her heart drop. She shrieked, "Here it comes again! Ghost ships! The ghost ships are attacking us!"
If this barrage landed cleanly, their ship would be blown to pieces and sink in an instant, plunging everyone into the sea. Or worse, if someone had the misfortune of taking a direct hit from those green-flamed cannonballs, even Saints would face mortal danger.
"Fuck!"
Brother Red Chicken sprinted to the gunwale, his hands held high as if hoisting something.
With a whoosh, blazing crimson fireballs materialized in an instant, hovering fiercely in midair.
He thrust both hands forward, sending the fireballs soaring upward to intercept the sickly green shells, forming a rough, improvised defensive net.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dazzling flashes erupted in midair as orange-red flames clashed with ghastly green ghost fire, like magnificent bursts of fireworks.
Yet several cannonballs still breached the barrier, hurtling toward the paddle-wheel ship.
At this critical juncture, Eagle of Freedom rushed to the rail, shouting "Fuck!" in English as she flung her arms wide and threw them upward.
With a roar from the sea, a wall of water over a dozen meters tall surged up, swallowing the cannonballs.
Splash!
Tons of seawater cascaded down in churns of white froth, tossing the paddle-wheel ship like a leaf.
The Saints on deck finally caught a brief breath.
"It's here! The chained-ship battle line from the Battle of Yashan! That's the exact tactic Zhang Hongfan used back then to crush the Southern Song navy!" Xiahou Aotian shouted.
"Now is not the time to show off your history trivia!" Brother Red Chicken roared angrily. "Their artillery is too dense! I can't block this much on my own! A few more salvos and we're done for!"
He paced frantically in circles.
Facing them was an entire fleet, whereas they had only one ship—and no cannons of their own. They were sitting ducks.
Given the destructive power of those ghost cannons, two or three shells would be enough to sink their small paddle-wheel craft.
Natsuki's Love knitted her brows tightly. "Our ship is small, so it's nimble and turns fast. What if we skirt around them?"
"They're not just one ship, they're a fleet. We can't steer clear of all of them. It's like having ten people pointing guns at you; no matter how agile your footwork is, you can't dodge every bullet, and we don't even have weapons to shoot back with." Zhang Yuanqing gazed into the distance, focusing his senses.
He felt an intense surge of Yin energy radiating from those warships. The shadowy figures on deck were definitely not living people.
Now even Yin Ji frowned.
Even as they spoke, cannons thundered again in the distance. Dozens of sickly green trails of fire shot into the air—another dense barrage was incoming.
"Fuck, here they come again!"
Brother Red Chicken repeated his maneuver, conjuring half-meter-wide fireballs and thrusting them forward to meet the incoming ghost artillery.
Natsuki's Love pulled out a large-caliber pistol, taking potshots at the cannonballs in a barely helpful effort.
*At a time like this, the Night Walker's lack of area-of-effect offensive skills is laid completely bare...* Zhang Yuanqing summoned his Yin-Yang Robe, shook it out, and draped it over his shoulders. Raising a palm toward the sky, he fired head-sized fireballs to help Brother Red Chicken intercept the shells.
Watching Natsuki's Love shoot, he couldn't help thinking: *If only Guan Ya's rifle were here. With Natsuki's Love's insight, she could pop a cannonball with every shot. Well, given that damn rifle's backlash, Natsuki's Love would probably be the first to bite the dust.*
Yin Ji summoned her spirit servants, commanding them to transform into gusts of Yin wind that swept toward the cannonballs to alter their trajectories. However, the moment the spirit servants touched the sickly green fire, they shrieked and were instantly incinerated into ash.
In just a few seconds, she lost seven or eight spirit servants.
Boom!
Right then, a cannonball breached the interception net and smashed heavily onto the deck. A ferocious shockwave tore outward, sending shattered timber flying and knocking Zhang Yuanqing and the others off their feet.
Brother Red Chicken, standing right at the gunwale, was blasted clear off the ship, plunging toward the ocean.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing ignored his own bruised body and quickly conjured a fireball, hurling it outward.
The fireball detonated with a bang, its swirling flames coalescing into Brother Red Chicken in his short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and flip-flops.
"Thanks, man, thank you! I almost bit it!" Brother Red Chicken gasped in profound gratitude.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the entire ship shuddered violently with a boom. Without Brother Red Chicken's interception net, a cannonball had slammed directly into the right side of the hull.
Immediately, everyone felt the paddle-wheel ship begin to tilt slowly.
"A hole's been blown in the hull! We're gonna capsize!" Eagle of Freedom lunged to the gunwale, leaned over to look down, and yelled anxiously in Chinese.
"So you do know Chinese after all, you banana!" Brother Red Chicken yelled back in accusation.
*Is now really the time to complain about that? This team feels impossible to carry...* Zhang Yuanqing's heart sank. If all else failed, their only choice would be to jump into the sea.
Right then, the Qinghe girl Yun Meng dashed to the railing and scattered a handful of pitch-black seeds.
The next moment, the seeds clung to the hull and rapidly grew into thick vines. Like tentacles, the vines wound and intertwined with one another, sealing the cannonball breach completely airtight.
The tilting of the hull immediately slowed and stabilized.
"Phew..." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhang Yuanqing said immediately, "There's only a thirty-second gap between salvos. We don't have enough time to sail around the fleet. A few more rounds and the ship will be destroyed and everyone dead. Everyone, use whatever trump cards you have right now! This is no time to hold back!"
Brother Red Chicken hastily added, "I can only hold off three more waves before my spiritual energy runs dry."
Everyone exchanged looks, momentarily at a loss.
"Is this an S-rank dungeon...?" The slightly chubby Eagle of Freedom felt a wave of helplessness wash over her.
They had barely set sail and were already facing such a terrifying crisis.
*I could fly across,* Yun Meng murmured inwardly. But she could carry at most one teammate. Moreover, carrying someone would severely hamper her agility; if she caught a cannon barrage in midair, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Xiahou Aotian gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and said, "Give me two minutes."
Without waiting for the others to react, he reached into the void. Heavy thuds rang out in rapid succession as a pile of pitch-black components clattered onto the deck.
There was a thick, two-meter-long barrel with a ten-centimeter bore, a half-man-tall base mount, an energy pack engraved with incantations, a targeting scope, hinges, and various other parts.
"Are you assembling a cannon on the fly?!" Brother Red Chicken stared in disbelief.
Xiahou Aotian ignored him, lifting the heavy base to the gunwale. Locating the anchoring spikes, he swung a hammer and began pounding away with loud clangs and bangs.
*Mounting a cannon there is pretty risky...* Zhang Yuanqing's mind stirred. He pulled out the Lucky Necklace, tossed it over, and said, "Put this on. It'll bring you luck."
Xiahou Aotian caught it, glanced at Yuanshi Tianzun in surprise, said nothing, and went right back to work.
Meanwhile, the roar of cannons erupted once more. A dense volley of sickly green streaks of flame descended like a magnificent meteor shower, turning the world an eerie shade of green.
Zhang Yuanqing, draped in his Yin-Yang Robe, joined Brother Red Chicken in unleashing barrage after barrage of fireballs to intercept the overwhelming barrage.
Yin Ji utilized a Water Ghost item to assist Eagle of Freedom in conjuring ocean waves and walls of water, swallowing up cannonball after cannonball.
During the onslaught, another shell struck the prow, throwing everyone into disarray. But Xiahou Aotian was lucky enough to dodge the brunt of the blast wave, steadily assembling his cannon without missing a beat.
Finally, after four harrowing rounds of bombardment, the exhausted Saints heard Xiahou Aotian roar:
"Done!
"My cannon's assembled! Time to strike back!"
By the gunwale stood a sleek, high-tech, pitch-black cannon. It rested on a one-meter-tall base, its two-meter barrel jutting over the railing. The 100mm caliber radiated an immense sense of security.
At the rear was a steering handle, and embedded into the cannon's body was the incantation-carved energy pack, connected to the weapon by cables as thick as two fingers.
"Witness my secret weapon in action, you secondary characters!"
Perhaps influenced by the Lucky Necklace, Xiahou Aotian had grown even more chuunibyou. Gripping the handles, he adjusted the aim, swiveled the muzzle toward the distant line of warships, and stepped on the foot trigger.
The incantations on the energy pack flared with blinding brilliance as a surge of immense power flooded into the cannon.
Boom!
A golden fireball resembling a miniature sun shot out of the barrel, streaking across the dark, abyssal sea straight into the enemy fleet.
Boom!
A burst of golden radiance rose from the sea, illuminating the water and the sky. Squinting against the blinding light, everyone watched as two colossal warships were engulfed in golden brilliance. The resulting explosion unleashed massive tidal waves, shattering the fleet's linked battle line.
"Holy shit..." Brother Red Chicken was flabbergasted. "You had a weapon this overpowered?! Why didn't you bring it out earlier?!"
*So strong...* The others were struck dumb.
Xiahou Aotian laughed like a maniac. "The protagonist always makes his entrance at the very end! Filthy undead, feel my wrath!"
Natsuki's Love glanced at the energy pack. "That thing must be expensive, right?"
"Not too bad!" Xiahou Aotian cackled wildly. "It's an energy pack forged by a Dominator! Cost eighty million! Ten shots total—eight million per blast!"
As he laughed, tears began streaming down his face.
*Ah. No wonder he was reluctant to bring it out earlier...* Enlightenment dawned on everyone.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Wearing a manic grimace, Xiahou Aotian repeatedly stomped the trigger, unleashing miniature sun after miniature sun, transforming the distant horizon into an ocean of blinding light.
The rolling swells churned by the blasts surged outward, rocking the paddle-wheel ship like a tiny skiff.
*Eight million per shot? Two shells equal the cost of an ICBM? The cost-effectiveness is pretty low. Then again, you can't bring an ICBM into the Spirit Realm... and it doesn't seem to have auto-tracking or targeting, so it probably wouldn't hit agile targets at all,* Zhang Yuanqing mentally assessed the threat of this weapon to himself.
Its firepower was immense, but its utility and value-for-money were terrible. Still, used in this exact situation, it was an unbeatable weapon for turning the tide.
It was just way too expensive—ordinary people couldn't afford to whale like this.
"Forty-eight million," Brother Red Chicken helpfully reminded him.
"D-don't remind me..." Xiahou Aotian ground his teeth.
When the final two "suns" were discharged, the energy pack went completely dark. Far across the churning, tempestuous sea, not a single trace of the fleet remained.
Chapter 348