The core skill of a Transcendent-stage Siren was God of Horses. It boasted two primary abilities: Charge and Man and Steed as One. Channeling God of Horses to ride a steed into a charge against an enemy granted boosts to both strength and speed, inflicting immense damage. If one encountered an unbeatable foe, the charge also served as an extraordinarily useful escape tool.
As for Man and Steed as One, it was the Siren's life-saving safeguard. So long as their steed remained summoned, any fatal blow dealt to the Siren would be transferred onto the horse instead.
The steed died in its master's place.
The stallion forged of seawater brushed past its target. The mutated, monstrous Peggy whipped her head around, her amber, savage eyes sweeping about to track down her vanished prey, low hisses rumbling in her throat.
The next instant, Zhang Yuanqing materialized beside her. Swinging his fist, he slammed it heavily into her skull, instantly shattering both her and her mount into a burst of white foam.
Man and Steed as One activated.
Amidst the gushing foam, Peggy reformed, tentacles writhing. A rasping hiss tore from her throat. She clearly had not anticipated being killed in a single heartbeat. In sheer terror, she bolted to the edge of the deck and hurled herself toward the ocean.
The open sea was a Siren's true domain.
*Splash!*
Peggy plunged from the deck over a dozen meters up, crashing into the pitch-black surface.
Diving into the icy water, she moved as agilely as a fish, rapidly swimming toward the ocean depths. At the same time, her throat emitted acoustic waves imperceptible to human ears, summoning the horrors lurking in the sea.
Even as she called to the oceanic beasts, she manipulated the seawater, preparing to stir up a tsunami to crush the enemy on the deck.
Suddenly, something clamped around her throat.
The sound wave cut off. The turbulent undercurrents vanished, and she once again saw the wooden deck and the cabin structures. She had never left the ship.
*Crack!*
Without hesitation, Zhang Yuanqing snapped her neck. With his other hand, he condensed the divine power of the sun into a blazing, pale-gold blade and drove it straight into Peggy's chest.
Peggy let out a shrill hiss. Her limbs convulsed, and the eight tentacles behind her lashed violently against the deck.
A few seconds later, the luster in her eyes faded. Her tentacles went limp, twitching only in feeble, unconscious spasms.
Zhang Yuanqing casually cast the corpse aside and exhaled a breath of yin qi, which materialized into the Ghost Bride clad in her bridal robes and red veil.
"Kill every crewman in the berths," he commanded coldly.
The battle had begun, meaning the dangers of this S-rank dungeon were about to trigger in full force. He had to wipe out as many aberrants as possible before the enemy could react.
Ordinary monsters were nothing to worry about on their own, but with a boss present, even minor minions could become the final straw that broke the camel's back.
"Yes, husband!" The Ghost Bride dissolved into green smoke and vanished.
Zhang Yuanqing bent down to pick up an automatic rifle, snapped his fingers, and disappeared from the deck.
The next moment, he arrived in the captain's ocean-view bedroom on the second deck. The room was quiet and dim, illuminated only by a faint, murky glow from a green-shaded lamp on the nightstand.
On the soft, wide bed, the quilts were neatly folded. The captain was nowhere in sight.
*James isn't in his quarters?* Zhang Yuanqing instantly recalled what the naval soldier had said on deck: *The captain invites you to the bottom hold!*
If the captain wasn't here at this hour, he could only be down below.
A surge of powerful yin qi swept into the room as the Ghost Bride, draped in her red wedding robes and gold-embroidered veil, returned to her master's side.
"Husband, I have completed the task you assigned," she said with a slight curtsy.
"No survivors?"
"None."
Zhang Yuanqing nodded in satisfaction and opened his mouth, swallowing the Ghost Bride back into himself. Those crewmen were merely standard dungeon mobs; a Level 6 Ghost Bride could slaughter an entire ship of them as easily as chopping vegetables.
Moments like this were where the advantages of being a Night Wanderer shone brightest. Any other class would have had to do the dirty work themselves, hacking their way through one by one.
Walking over to the window, Zhang Yuanqing gazed down at the churning waves while his thoughts raced:
*There's a Wind Mage down in the bottom hold. She can sense me through the movement of air currents. If I try to sneak down, she'll definitely spot me. I might as well just push through by force.*
From yesterday's inquiries, he knew the Holy See's contingent totaled five people: two knights, two nuns, and one cardinal.
With the Siren dead, only four remained. Even if the captain counted as an elite monster, there were at most five enemies down there.
*I have three Level 6 yin corpses, one Level 6 spirit servant, plus Little Doubi as my lucky charm. I can definitely take this fight!*
There was no reason to shrink back.
With that settled, Zhang Yuanqing sat cross-legged and spat out a Level 4 spirit servant. Splitting his consciousness in two through the imprint in his sea of consciousness, he kept half in his physical body and used the other half to take control of the spirit servant.
Directing the spirit servant, he drifted straight down through the floors of the second and first decks, passed the crew quarters, and sank further until he reached the bottom hold.
A spirit servant had no physical form, so a Wind Mage could not detect it through shifting air currents.
At the ceiling of the bottom hold, an old woman with hollow eye sockets weeping black blood quietly poked her head through, peering down into the space below.
The bottom hold spanned an enormous area, crammed with provisions, spare cruise ship components, backup dinghies, and crates of cargo. The light from the gas lamps seemed smothered by some mysterious force, leaving the hold dimly lit and barely visible.
The old woman's hollow sockets slowly swept across the hold, suddenly fixing on a single point.
Behind a low barricade built from stacked flour sacks, Zhang Yuanqing spotted three figures: Captain James, the Wind Mage Isabella, and an elderly man draped in a bright red robe embroidered with golden patterns.
Isabella and the cardinal sat cross-legged beside a circular array, their hands clasped in silent prayer.
Beneath their garments, tentacle-like outlines bulged and squirmed, painting a deeply unsettling scene.
Wearing his naval cap and double-breasted uniform, Captain James stood straight as a ramrod to the side, watching the two clergy members pray.
Just then, the white-haired cardinal opened his eyes. His voice was raspy and deep.
"Has Lieutenant Haas arrived?"
Captain James glanced back toward the entrance and shook his head. "A little longer. I already sent soldiers to bring him."
The skirmish on the deck had concluded swiftly, with the aberrants managing only a few scattered shots. Though the three in the hold had heard gunfire, it was common enough for patrolling soldiers to fire upon wandering sea monsters that attacked the ship.
Consequently, they had paid it no mind.
*Ending it quickly was the right call,* Zhang Yuanqing muttered through the old woman, focusing his gaze on the blood-red circle.
The formation was composed of layered hexagrams arranged with striking geometric precision. Merely staring at it with full concentration made Zhang Yuanqing dizzy. His body reacted with sudden distress, growing weak as a visceral repulsion toward the array welled up within him.
"Take a knight and go up to see what is happening," the cardinal commanded, his voice laden with a heavy, rasping rasp as if something were caught in his throat. "There are still three days of sailing before we reach Port Surly. We must deliver the demon seed so the Lord's power may grace this realm."
Eavesdropping from the ceiling, Zhang Yuanqing raised an eyebrow. The aberrants' objective immediately became clear: they intended to carry the source of corruption—the demon seed—back to the outside world to infect society.
This was likely the demon seed's own desire, and everyone aboard was merely a corrupted puppet under its thrall.
*This is just a dungeon. I don't care about the grand mission of saving the world. My task is simply to survive five days. First, I'll wipe out all the aberrants on board, then practice the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record to ward off the seed's taint and endure the remaining three days. If all else fails, I can jump into the ocean and steer clear of the ship...*
Right then, the cardinal abruptly lifted his gaze to the ceiling, snapping coldly, "Who is up there!"
From those pale-gray eyes, two bolts of lightning as thick as fingers erupted, striking the old woman dead-on.
The Level 4 spirit servant disintegrated instantly in the electrical blast. Zhang Yuanqing's spirit snapped back into his physical body, his soul racked by a searing, tearing pain that made his face twitch.
Taking a deep breath to steady the spiritual trauma, he slipped on the Gale Gloves, snapped his fingers, and dissolved into starlight.
The next instant, brilliant starlight flared inside the bottom hold where the demon seed was kept.
Zhang Yuanqing stepped out directly before the three aberrants.
"Haas?" Captain James blurted out in utter astonishment.
He was shocked by the lieutenant's arrival, but even more shocked by the way he had appeared.
Without wasting a breath on words, Zhang Yuanqing unleashed two wind blades slashing straight toward the magic circle. Instinct told him that destroying the array was his top priority.
The threat it radiated was simply too immense.
Chapter 709