Chapter 62 - Perils of the Sea, Part Two
"Sea beast? What sea beast?" Gu Hai looked at Chen Tianshan as his expression changed.
ROAR!
Suddenly, a thunderous roar came from underneath the sea, as an oppressive force soared up from the bottom of the s.h.i.+p.
BANG!
A ma.s.sive wave promptly flung the s.h.i.+p over a hundred zhang into the air.
AHHH! AHHH!...
Many cultivators burst out screaming.
Gu Hai"s party immediately grabbed onto the railings before they flew into the air from the s.h.i.+p.
Monstrous sea waves erupted all around. Gu Hai noticed a colossus silhouette while he was tumbling through the air. A colossal black hornless dragon"s-head had emerged from the sea. It was glowering and roaring, a hideous dragon"s-head, with a huge scar over its left eye, making it look even more aggressive.
ROAR!
A sky-shaking dragon"s roar thundered across the sky, blasting the sea all about them. The dark clouds in the sky churned and gathered around, with occasional lightning and a heavy downpour. Seeing all this, a terrified look appeared on everyone"s faces.
According to Gu Hai"s estimation, this monster was at least three hundred zhang long. At least three hundred zhang, because most of its body was hidden under the waves.
"Flood dragon, Thousand Islands Sea beast, flood dragon!? Why is it here, why the h.e.l.l is it here?"
"We are finished, we are completely finished, it"s a flood dragon!"...
Screams filled with panic rang out all around.
Gu Hai and the others" eyes widened in shock.
Flood dragon? This was not a cloud beast! Although the size was just about the same, its imposing manner was completely different.
The cloud beasts were just humongous monsters, but the flood dragon before them could summon the winds and call the rain, and command the sea with its roar! Its strength was on a whole new level.
ROAR! The flood dragon"s roar shot through the sky.
The huge s.h.i.+p suddenly appeared insignificant before the flood dragon.
BOOM!
The s.h.i.+p crashed back into the sea as the blue light s.h.i.+eld around it flickered fiercely, as if it would collapse at any moment.
Most of the cultivators turned pale with fright.
"We are finished, we are finished!" everyone screamed in horror.
ROAR!
Suddenly, another roar resounded from under the sea.
BOOM!
Just as the s.h.i.+p came falling down, it was once again tossed into the air by the stormy sea.
RUMBLE!
The dark clouds blotting the sky gathered once again, lightning flas.h.i.+ng and thunder clapping, along with a heavy downpour.
"There is another sea beast? Another sea beast that can affect nature? How is this possible?"
All around, screams and rumbles rang out to no end.
When the s.h.i.+p was falling down again, Gu Hai finally got to see the other sea beast.
It was a huge turtle, at least two hundred zhang long. However, this giant turtle was significantly different; there was a dragon horn on the colossal turtle"s head, which looked particularly vicious.
ROAR!
The giant turtle let out a roar, setting off a storm all around them immediately. A gigantic whirlpool, spinning at a terrifying speed, had suddenly formed in the sea.
"Bixi!? It"s a Bixi! How is this possible? Why did a Bixi appear here as well?" A desperate look showed up on many cultivators" faces.
Judging by the past, they would be done for just encountering one of them. And today, they had encountered two ferocious sea beasts.
Everyone was so downcast that they were about to break into tears. Had they known about this, they would not have come chasing after Gu Hai.
BANG!
Their s.h.i.+p crashed into the sea again, right between the two colossal sea beasts.
The two sea beasts didn"t seem to care much about the s.h.i.+p. The Flood Dragon and Bixi glowered and roared at each other, giving the impression they would not rest until one of them was dead.
"We are finished, we are doomed! What should we do?" screamed Chen Tianshan as a horrified look appeared on his face.
"Put on the life jackets, quickly!" Gu Hai shouted at the top of his lungs.
While speaking, he quickly took out three life jackets. It was something that Gu Hai had made way back; although he didn"t know whether they would be useful in their current predicament, he still put one on.
Chen Tianshan and Gao Xianzhi hurriedly put on the life jackets.
While the others were still frozen with terror, Gu Hai and the two tied ropes around each other. At the same time, Gu Hai instructed Gao Xianzhi to quickly stuff the Throne Master token inside his soles and tie his shoes properly.
Sure enough, the flood dragon let out a roar as it fiercely whipped its tail!
BANG!
The dragon flung its tail with a tremendous force. Under its terrifying strength, the huge s.h.i.+p tore into pieces with a loud crash.
"AHHHH!"
"Save me!"
"Save me!"...
Crying and shouting came from everywhere, but in the blink of an eye, everyone was caught up in a huge wave.
ROAR! The Bixi roared in anger, totally ignoring the wave that crashed over it.
BOOM!
The two colossal sea beasts started to fight with each other.
Meanwhile, the dark clouds churned as lightning came cras.h.i.+ng down from the sky, one bolt after another. The terrifying aftershocks of the fight churned the sea. The cultivators were simply too late to notice anything and were dragged under the sea by the whirlpool in the blink of an eye.
RUMBLE!
Gu Hai could feel the impacts everywhere. It was quite terrible. The two sea beast actually fought by employing the force of the sea.
An ordinary cultivator like him was simply unable to counter it with his prowess.
At present, Gu Hai and Gao Xianzhi were in the Xiantian Stage, while Chen Tianshan was in the Golden Core Stage. However, even Golden Core Stage seemed so insignificant and small before the two sea beasts.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One after another, powerful shockwaves from the battle struck Gu Hai.
Even with his external strength cultivation, Gu Hai was still unable to persevere for too long. Slowly, Gu Hai lost his consciousness and fainted.
Similarly, Chen Tianshan and Gao Xianzhi also blacked out.
The madly thras.h.i.+ng sea waves knocked them out cold.
------
After the heavens knew how many days and nights, the flood dragon and Bixi left, the billowing dark clouds scattered, and the sea slowly recovered its calm.
Looking at the mirror-like sea, no one would guess how terrifying were the sea waves that had thrashed this place.
The s.h.i.+p was torn into pieces under the terrifying might of two t.i.tanic sea beasts. All the pa.s.sengers aboard it had completely disappeared, swept away by the vast sea.
Everything was calm until another s.h.i.+p pa.s.sed by. Atop the mast of this s.h.i.+p fluttered a giant banner, with "Golden[1]" written in large characters on it.
[TLN: Actually, the character here used was Feng "丰" from 大丰帮, which is the name of the gang they belongs. Feng means abundant; plentiful; rich; full, but as using any of those or their synonyms for the name sounded awkward, we have decided to use Golden Tong, and hence "Golden" on the banner.]
At the bow, stood several men dressed in black robes with a frown as they looked into the distance.
"Flood dragon and Bixi? These two sea beasts have always minded their own business, why in the h.e.l.l did they fight here? For many days and nights, the seas were raging like mad, all we could do was dock at a nearby island and wait!" said one of the men, frowning.
"Yes! We have been delayed for a few days. If Boss blames us...?" said another man, worried.
"Furthermore, a few people were able to escape because of the big waves. How should we explain it to Boss?"
Everyone sunk into silence.
"Look, someone"s there!" one of the men warned as a gleam appeared in his eyes.
As everyone turned their gazes, they noticed three people wearing odd vests far away in the sea. It was Gu Hai"s party, the trio were floating in the sea, unconscious.
"Pull them up!" ordered one of the men, shouting.
"Yes!"
Soon, the three were pulled up. The makeup on their faces has already disappeared, but after having been floating in the sea for a couple of days, their faces were somewhat bloated, no one could tell who they were.
Wearing the life jackets, the three had tied themselves together with the rope, and therefore remained together.
A black-robed man sent his True Qi into the trio"s body.
"Elder, they are still alive. Two are in Xiantian Stage and the other in Golden Core Stage. Although they are alive, their injuries aren"t light!" informed the black-robed man.
"Two in Xiantian Stage and one in Golden Core Stage!? Good, good, good!" the Elder suddenly broke into laughter.
"Elder, what"s so good about it?" Everyone was confused.
"Didn"t five people escape a few days ago? We can use these three to fill the numbers. At least, we have reduced our losses by half. Boss isn"t going to blame us much!" the Elder said happily.
"Right, that"s right, Elder is wise!" Everyone"s mood immediately went over the moon.
"No one can ever speak about this; otherwise, don"t blame me for being impolite!" stated the Elder coldly.
"Yes!"
"Full speed ahead to Nine-Five Island, we are returning to our headquarters!" ordered the Elder, delighted.
"Yes!"
------
After the heavens knew how long, Gu Hai woke up from his stupor.
"Ke ke ke!" After a series of coughs, Gu Hai vomited up some sea water as he drowsily woke up.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Chains clattered before Gu Hai discovered in surprise that he was simply unable to move his hands.
Turning his head and looking around, he noticed his hands bound with chains and he could not move them.
No, not just his hands, even his legs were bound with chains.
Furthermore, Gu Hai"s face seemed to have been covered with a bronze mask above his nose.
"What"s going on?" Gu Hai"s expression changed.