Chapter 7: Deep Sea Hunt |
The information in the crystal ball was extremely important.
On the one hand, it was a war merchant’s alchemy knowledge, an immense treasure.
On the other hand, there might be information pertaining to who the young captain was, how Bloodcores were made, and how the pearl bubbles were supposed to be used.
These were all important things to the survivors.
Thirdly, Jia Sha had encrypted the teleportation coordinates of the Green Jade Gold Coffin several times over.
Zi Di didn’t have time to decrypt it on Mystifying Monster Island, thus she took it with her to break it later to ascertain the Gold Green Jade Coffin’s trail.
They could only rely on themselves.
But even after racking their brains for a long while, they couldn’t come up with anything.
Too difficult.
For the next two days, Cang Xu and Zi Di made no progress.
The tower spirit’s control over the crystal ball grew, thus everyone was mobilized to brainstorm a solution to this problem, but no one had one.
Only Cang Xu and Zi Di were magicians, the others’ input wasn’t even worth mentioning.
War Merchant was on a completely different level, and the tower spirit was a great mountain that obstructed the survivors’ futures.
The plan hadn’t even been carried out yet, and if it suffered this devastating setback, if the tower spirit deleted all of its data, it would deal a serious blow to the young captain’s prestige and everyone’s morale would crumble.
Bai Ya had just finished mopping up a deck, he sighed as he leaned against his mop.
He was in a very bad mood.
In fact, he had not slept well for the past two or three days.
He was haunted by nightmares, often of the dying Jia Sha.
He was the son of a hunter, an ordinary person, yet he had killed a member of the clergy. Although he did it out of necessity, every time he thought back to it, the guilt of it always pressed on him.
At that moment, Bai Ya saw something outside as he passed by a porthole. The Deep Sea Monster Fish was sailing through the serene ocean depths, it was as dark as the survivor’s futures.
"What was that?" Bai Ya squinted his eyes.
In the depths of the dark sea, a faint light appeared.
The light began to grow stronger and larger in the dark seawater.
"How can there be light in the depths?” Bai Ya thought to himself just as he heard an alarm go off.
Everyone on board was alerted at that moment.
"What’s going on?” The young captain immediately paused his cultivation and hurried over to the navigation cabin.
Zi Di and Cang Xu had arrived first.
Zong Ge also came a moment before him.
"An enemy is attacking.” Cang Xu was driving the alchemy ship.
Zi Di, who was helping on the side, explained the situation, “It is a sunfish, it considers us its prey and is rapidly approaching.”
"What is a sunfish?" Lan Zao and Mu Ban asked with bewilderment after rushing in.
"It's, it’s an ocean magic beast." Fei She replied with panting breathes, he had arrived last. “Although it lives in the water, it has an abundance of light and fire magic power, every fully grown sun fish is at the gold level. Its scales, eyes and meat are all highly sought after products.”
"This fish lives around volcanic sea floor, we may be near one.”
"Gold level?!" Everyone turned pale.
The strongest among them, Zong Ge, only had peak silver level battle qi.
The gold level artificial magic beasts on Mystifying Monster Island were to powerful to face and caused the survivors much suffering. They were still flawed however, unable to use magic.
Unlike them, the sunfish was a genuine gold level magic beast, and could use its magic-like abilities.
"Can we fight it?” Zong Ge steeled himself, “Does this ship have any weapons?”
The half beastman was unyielding, and his first thought was to confront the beast head on.
The ghostly Zi Di shook her head, "We’ve only obtained this alchemical ship a few days ago, we aren’t familiar with its workings yet. We are barely able to drive it as is.”
"We can withdraw, it isn’t necessary to fight in the depths." Lan Zao's suggestion was met with approval from everyone else.
But Cang Xu refuted his proposal, "At our current speed, we won’t be able to break away from this sunfish.”
“Don’t tell me War Merchant designed this ship to only be this fast?”
"Oh please, this is a gold level magic ship."
“Can’t this thing go any quicker?”
"Sigh." Cang Xu sighed, “It’s very possible that this alchemy hasn’t hit its top speed, he problem is we have no idea how to do so.”
This ship was a deep sea submarine.
If it were a normal vessel, with sails, a rudder, oars, and the like, Cang Xu and the others would have known how to sail it.
But this vessel adhered to the War Merchant’s design concepts, it was too complex, and surpassed the knowledge of anyone present.
The alchemy ship’s alarm continued to blare with ear-piercing shrieks.
The hold’s illumination turned red, indicating the situation was becoming more urgent.
The red light reflected on the survivors’ grim or nervous faces.
The magic image appeared on the wall again, this time showing the sunfish with its enormous physique and awe-inspiring presence.
Zi Di and Cang Xu looked up at each other from their efforts to operate the complex machinery.
“That wasn’t me.”
“Like the alarm, this should be the alchemy ship trigger a defensive mechanism to protect itself.
The survivors’ eyes concentrated on the magical projection.
In the pitch-black water, the sunfish was quickly swimming towards them, its immense eyes emitting a resplendent yellow radiance. The smallest of its thick and tightly packed scales were the size of washbowls and glistening with golden light.
The sunfish was bigger than the Deep Sea Monster Fish by a large margin.
It shot out of the dark like a shooting star.
Then suddenly, it began to slow, and aimed itself at the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s open fish mouth.
A moment later, the aura of magic power surged from its body.
A yellow burning beam of light spurted from its mouth.
“Get out of the way!” Many people fearfully shouted at once.
The ghostly Zi Di promptly drove the alchemy ship out of the way, it as a suspenseful situation.
The sunfish missed, causing it to speed up again and close the distance between it and the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
It began to shoot the yellow light again.
This time, because of the shorter distance between them, despite Zi Di reacting without delay, she couldn’t move the ship fast enough.
The alchemy ship brushed by the light beam, it was very difficult to evade.
The attack caused the Deep Sea Monster Fish to shudder violently, making everyone inside it shake, and caused a few of them to fall to the ground.
The incessant alarm and red light began to sputter and flicker.
Zi Di anxiously shouted, “The front starboard side hull is damaged, there is a hole, one meter in radius, in the outer shell, dented against the inner layer, if it is hit again, it’ll leak!”
What could they do?
As everyone was panicking, the alchemy ship’s hull suddenly let out an ear-piercing screech.
The sound surged through the seawater, forming a spherical ripple that quickly spread out from the ship.
The sunfish was confused and disoriented by the sound wave, causing it to slow down.
Zi Di and Cang Xu looked at each other again.
“What was that?”
“It was another of the ship’s defensive abilities.”
The two tried several times in a flurry, but didn’t accomplish anything.
But the alchemy ship’s defensive mechanism was automated.
Cang Xu analyzed, “The Deep Sea Monster Fish was designed to slink through the deep sea, it was almost certain War Merchant considered what would happen if it encountered wild magic beasts.”
“This sound wave was one of those responses, it is capable of repelling magic beasts.”
However, despite being effected, the sunfish didn’t give up and still tailed behind them.
As time passed, it seemed to grow better, as if it was adapting to the sound waves.
In the cockpit, many people began to panic again.
“Think of another way, and fast!”
“It’s still hunting us.”
“Don’t worry, perhaps there are stronger automated defenses within the alchemy ship.
Everyone discussed amongst themselves.
Zong Ge coldly snorted, “We can’t place our hopes completely into external factors, we must float upwards and reach the ocean surface.”
“The water pressure is normal there, allowing us to leave the ship and fight!”
“Everyone, grab an alchemy crossbow and a musket, those can impede it temporarily.”
“We also have the gold level cannon, it’ll be a blessed sight if it can shoot the fish!”
The half beastman proposed his combat strategy.
The young captain nodded.
The plan was sound, it was worth implementing.
“We will move here in accordance with the plan.” The young captain decided.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish ascended straight up.
The sunfish chased after them.
Water leaked into the ship. Then, as the alchemy ship was resurfacing, it encountered a large shoal of fish.
It was a school of sailfish.
The small ones were a meter long, the medium ones were 2-5 meters long, and the large ones were close to 10 meters long. They had long and narrow bodies, fine scales, and had prominent maxillae that looked like sharp swords.
The second most distinct characteristic was the sailfish’s towering backfin. It was taller than the fish’s body and at once looked like a flag and like a sail.
Although they didn’t have a gold level sailfish king, there were 20 silver level magic sailfish.
If they went around the school of sail fish, there wouldn’t be enough time to surface and fight.
The young captain made a snap decision, “Charge into the school, perhaps they can help free us from his sunfish.”
There was nothing else he could do.
Cang Xu nodded, “There is no other option.”
Everyone clenched their teeth as they rushed through.
At first, the sailfish were frightened off by the sonar, and large amounts of them scattered and fled.
However, the silver level magic sail fish quickly organized a counteroffensive, and soon after, they spurred on the entire sailfish school to attack the alchemy ship.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish was like a horse nudging a beehive, and was swarmed on all sides by the school of sailfish.
Its sturdy hull dealt with most of the sailfish easily, however, the silver level sailfish leaders were somewhat troublesome.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish weathered their attacks and continued to float up.
The colliding sailfish caused dings to echo across the alchemy ship’s surface.
The survivors were worried the stab their way into the ship and rush in. Under the young captain’s leadership, everyone in the cockpit used a communal underwater breathing spell scroll.
Soon after, everyone scattered to their porthole, with crossbow or musket in hand, and readied themselves for battle.