The storm came way quicker than expected. In just the blink of an eye, the wind was howling against our ears, and the NPC captain was pressing a palm to his sword hilt and shouting, "Drop sail!"

……

Pitter patter...

Huge rain droplets pitter-pattered against the deck. I looked up. Thunder roared against our ears, and purple lightning cut across the sky like a demonic eye. A few seconds later, the rain turned into a massive downpour that washed all the dirt and grime on our armor in no time.

"Should we head inside the hold now, big brother?" asked Beiming Xue while narrowing her eyes.

I shook my head. "The storm is too great. We need to help the sailors to stay on course. If it strikes a reef or worse, capsizes, we won’t be getting to Dragon Domain anytime soon. Also, the ship hold is small enough that dodging is almost impossible. Even I can be one-shot if I’m struck by multiple God Devil Breaks at the same time!"

While saying this, I activated Battle Astral Wind to protect myself. The more dangerous a situation was, the more I needed to remain calm and collected.

……

As the storm continued to rage over the sea, I kept one hand on the Chill of the Nine Provinces and the other on Murong Mingyue’s shoulder. Priests had low Strength stats, so she needed my help to steady herself on the rocking ship.

Suddenly, Beiming Xue pointed to the sky and exclaimed, "What is that?"

A black object was falling toward us. When I realized what she was pointing at, I exclaimed in horror, "Is that a fucking fishing boat!? Drop to the ground now! It’s going to crash right into our ship!"

We all dropped to the ground at the same time. Less than 5 seconds later, the fishing boat crashed into the bow like an artillery shell, smashing the harbor emblem of the ship into smithereens. Rainwater started to pour into the hull earnestly, so we needed to fix the gap as soon as possible.

I grabbed one of the planks that had split away from the fishing boat, ran to the affected area and planted it over the gap. However, I didn’t have any nails to affix the plank, so I had no choice but to take out a pair of shoddy daggers and nail it to each side of the plank. It worked, but it wasn’t going to last long for sure.

As I returned my gaze to the deck, I saw that Demon Hunter and the dozen of Ice Age players had rushed over with shocked expressions. He said seriously, "What happened? Did something punch through the floor of the bow? Quick, we need to fix the ship before it’s too late! The NPC sailors can’t handle everything!"

Three metal-armor players immediately moved toward us. The archers and mages and the back followed. They all wore worried expressions on their faces, but I knew better than to trust them.

……

I wrapped an arm each around Lian Xin and Murong Mingyue’s waists and pulled them behind me. The storm was severely limiting our vision range, and I could no longer see Demon Hunter’s movement clearly.

Inside the party channel, Lin Yixin said, "Watch out! They’re about to make a move!"

I could see it myself. The moment Demon Hunter approached Beiming Xue, his sword had come out of its sheath, and the light of Ultimate Strength Break and Barrier Break glimmered from the blade. The other two metal-armor players were unsheathing their swords and cutting two of Beiming Xue’s retreat path as well. It was obvious what they were planning. Kill Beiming Xue, and they had at least a 1% chance to get her to drop the Xuanming Bow. If they succeeded, then it would be worth it even if it cost them all their lives.

Whoosh!

I immediately activated Heavenly River Transformation and caused a pair of bloody wings to spread behind me. Then, I punched Demon Hunter’s sword with my left fist, and kneed the second metal-armor player in the chest to cancel both their Ultimate Strength Breaks.

He Yi unsheathed her new Suppressing Fire Sword and moved into position while Beiming Xue darted to the back. Eyes grim with determination, she activated Chengying and Hanguang, lashed out with Godslaying Blade, and sent the third metal-armor player flying straight out of the ship.

"Ah!"

The player let out a painful groan before sinking into the infinite blackness that was the sea. There was no need to imagine his fate.

Demon Hunter ordered with a hateful expression, "Kill them!"

The mages immediately cast their strongest spell, God Devil Break. There was only so much space on the deck, so the three God Devil Breaks nearly covered everything.

Beiming Xue was well aware that her class had poor HP and Intelligence, so she activated her invincibility skill without hesitation before retaliating with Skypiercer and Spiraling Arrow Blade. They dealt massive damage to the enemy mages and priest shields.

Crack!

I stabbed an enemy cavalryman through the chest and pulled out the weapon in rapid succession. Then, I immediately turned around and thrust with Universe Break at Demon Hunter.

Demon Hunter’s pupils shrank. He slid his left foot backward to widen his stance, and he held his sword at an odd angle as if trying to parry my skill. Did he seriously think he could afford to parry my skill in this situation?

I shook my wrist a bit so that my blade would fall on the weakest spot of his blade instead of the parry spot. A parry shatter occurred just as I expected it would.

Crack!

557982!

The one hit dropped Demon Hunter to less than 20% HP instantly.

"Leave this to me!"

Beiming Xue dashed toward Demon Hunter and pulled out her dagger. After she sliced his neck open with her dagger, she followed up with a super close range Bone Eroding Arrow that killed the berserker. Demon Hunter’s face was filled with disbelief. He probably thought he would survive longer than this.

……

"This is taking too long, Lu Chen! None of us can take another round of God Devil Break," Lin Yixin said urgently. "Use your Xuanyuan Slash and one-shot the mages now!"

"Got it!"

I raised my sword and manifested a gigantic golden sword, shocking all the enemy mages, priests and the tamer. They must’ve seen the footage of the SSS Rank Ancient Divine Skill in action before. Well, they were about to experience it with their bodies now.

Boom!

The Xuanyuan Slash whooshed over the ship and one-shot the remaining ambushers easily. Something absolutely terrible and unexpected happened, however. Chill of the Nine Provinces had triggered its Mountain Crush effect, so the entire ship was split in half! Oh shit!

"Oh. My. God!"

He Yi and Lin Yixin could hardly believe their own eyes. "Lu Chen you idiot! Why did you break the ship!? We’re so dead!"

Seawater poured earnestly into the new gap. The entire ship was sinking at an unbelievable rate.

There was a loud noise, and the storm abruptly ripped the bow in half. Before I knew it, He Yi, Lin Yixin, Lian Xin and Pure Moon were already beyond my reach.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Beiming Xue’s eyes were bloodshot with panic.

I shouted as loudly as I could, "Everyone find a plank and cling to it so you won’t drown! It’s every man and woman for themselves now!"

"Mn!"

I was watching Lin Yixin carving several pieces of planks for Lian Xin and Pure Love with the Suppressing Fire Sword when a huge shadow suddenly cast over me. Shit! The mast is…!

"Beiming watch out!"

I pushed Beiming Xue out of the way right before the mast smashed our last remaining foothold to pieces. She was able to plant her dagger through the piece of smashed desk she fell on and steady herself, but she couldn’t help but scream helplessly as she tried futilely to row against the stormy currents with one hand, "Big brother! What do I do? Big brother! I’m scared…"

The night was pitch black. Even with my Dark Pupils, I could barely pierce the impenetrable curtain of darkness.

The bigger plank beneath Murong Mingyue and my feet abruptly broke into two pieces. It threatened to pull the two of us apart.

I hurriedly held out the Chill of the Nine Provinces to Murong Mingyue while shouting, "Sis! Grab onto the hilt quickly! I’ll pull you over!"

Murong Mingyue hurriedly grabbed onto the sword hilt, but again disaster struck as I pulled her close. The plank I was standing on broke because it couldn’t withstand my weight, causing me to fall straight into the water. Luckily, Murong Mingyue was able to stay on top of the remaining plank on her knees, and I managed to cling onto the edge and not be swept away. There wasn’t much else I could do in such ferocious waters though. Soon, I couldn’t even see He Yi, Lin Yixin and everyone else anymore. It was at this moment Murong Mingyue looked down at me and joked, "This reminds me of a certain Rose and Jack…"

I replied, "I admire your ability to joke in any situation."

Then, I asked inside the party channel, "Is everyone okay?"

He Yi, Lin Yixin and the others responded, "We’re fine, but god knows where we’re drifting to…"

"Beiming?"

"I’m fine too, big brother. And drifting."

Pure Love consoled, "Don’t worry. Judging from the map screen, we’re drifting straight toward Dragon Domain. It shouldn’t take more than 24 hours of drifting for us to reach the other shore…"

"That is an optimistic observation if I ever heard one."

I grimaced. "Anyway, try not to die until we reach our destination. We’ll probably run into some sea monsters on the way, but they shouldn’t be strong enough to kill us…"

He Yi asked concernedly, "I’m not worried about the others, but what about Mingyue? She’s a priest with almost no offensive abilities. What can she do if she encounters a sea monster?"

I replied, "It’s fine. Sis is with me right now."

"Good, good. Anyway, take care of yourselves, everyone…"

……

Our conversation continued a bit longer before we fell into silence.

I felt like the sound of the sea waves were making my ears numb. My body certainly felt as cold as ice.

Still kneeling on top of the plank, Murong Mingyue asked me, "Hey, it’s not comfortable down there, is it? You want to take turns or something?"

I replied, "It’s fine. There’s no need to make both of us miserable…"

Suddenly, an idea entered my mind. I raised my free arm and dispelled the Fusion Armor. The Ancient Divine Dragon immediately appeared above our heads and looked at me with its round eyes.

"Oh right, I almost forgot…" Murong Mingyue chuckled.

I grabbed onto a vine and pulled myself onto its back. Words couldn’t describe how relieved I felt when I was finally out of this goddamned water.

……

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Less than a minute after I climbed onto the Ancient Divine Dragon, a black cloud of seagulls suddenly descended on me and attacked me! They were called Night Gulls, and they were Level 278 fiend-rank mobs with red eyes. They kept pecking at me like crazy!

"Die!"

I swung my weapon and executed Burning Blade Slash + Summon the Storm combo. My experience rose quickly, but the Ancient Divine Dragon still lost tenacity like crazy.

Plop!

A short moment later, the Ancient Divine Dragon lost all of its tenacity, and I dropped right back into the ocean. Only then did the Night Gulls vanish as if they were never there. I was willing to bet good money that these bastard birds were the apex predators of this area, and they attacked any airborne target that entered their domain. Unfortunately, my plan to save myself some pain didn’t look like it was going to work.