The impact continued. Although Bearded Man and Hairy Peak were stunned, there was nothing they could do but wait. Whether they lived or died was up to them. Zhou Xuan, however, knew the danger and used all his strength to condense a protective shield around the submarine. If the submarine were forced to explode by the impact at this moment, the three of them would be doomed.
The massive shockwave instantly struck the ship's hull and collided with Zhou Xuan's protective air shield. Zhou Xuan felt as if he had been struck in the chest by a thousand-pound hammer. His vision went black, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The submarine was rocking violently, and countless instruments sounded alarms. In a panic, Beard and Hairy Peak quickly tried to raise the submarine. Fortunately, although the shaking was intense, the submarine was not destroyed and the diesel engine was still running normally.
Zhou Xuan slumped in his seat, his head hitting the cold steel wall of the submarine hard. The pain brought him back to his senses, and without thinking, he quickly activated his supernatural ability to protect the submarine.
As Zhou Xuan activated his special ability and condensed it into a protective shield that enveloped the submarine, the alarms on the instruments inside the submarine quickly subsided, and it rose towards the surface of the trench at top speed.
Fortunately, the strange creature that rammed the submarine didn't pursue it any further. Zhou Xuan couldn't detect it either, but it wasn't that it didn't chase after him. Rather, when it collided with the submarine and exploded with the mechanical arm of the submarine that he had protected with his special ability, it was obviously thrown against the ship's hull by the force of the explosion, smashing through the hull. He didn't know if it was dead or alive, but it was good that it didn't pursue him.
The submarine quickly ascended three or four hundred meters. Seeing that the terrifying thing hadn't caught up, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Mao Feng, panting and wiping his sweat, asked, "What... what kind of monster was that?"
The bearded man, his face deathly pale, exclaimed, "This is terrifying! This thing is even more powerful than a high-explosive bomb. The mechanical arm on the submarine was blown to pieces. Even a high-efficiency bomb couldn't destroy such high-strength steel equipment like this. What's even stranger is how our submarine remained unharmed under such a powerful explosion?"
Zhou Xuan didn't understand what the bearded man was saying, but Mao Feng did. He was also very surprised and suspicious, but no matter what, the submarine hadn't been destroyed and he was still alive, which was a good thing. In his shock and fear, he urged the bearded man to quickly return the submarine to the surface.
The submarine ascends faster than it descends, because it cannot go full speed when descending, but it can go full speed when ascending. After more than ten minutes, it descended to a depth of two or three hundred meters. The instrument panel and radar showed that the cargo ship on the surface of the sea was still there.
Zhou Xuan finally caught his breath, his chest tight with suffocation. The explosive force had seriously injured him. Fortunately, the submarine was approaching the surface, but just then, that feeling of danger returned.
Zhou Xuan's body trembled, and he quickly shouted, "Quick, dive to the surface! That thing is coming again!"
The ability couldn't detect the monster. The submarine's pilot's view was also facing upwards, so they couldn't see the direction below the sea. Although Zhou Xuan was shouting, none of the three could see whether the strange creature was chasing them.
Zhou Xuan's only feeling was that almost precognitive sense of smell in his mind. In the past, when his life was in danger, his superpower would give him a spontaneous warning of danger.
Mao Feng was terrified. Up until now, Zhou Xuan had presented himself as powerful and mysterious, seemingly omnipotent, but now even Zhou Xuan was flustered and unable to cope. Naturally, he didn't have the courage to continue, and he threw all thoughts of the fire meteor to the back of his mind.
Mao Feng couldn't help but yell at the bearded man, but the bearded man didn't need him to urge him. He had been diving to the surface at full speed all this time, and didn't need anyone to give him instructions. Even if he yelled, the bearded man couldn't do anything about it, as he had already reached the maximum speed.
Zhou Xuan reached out and grabbed the steel armrest on the seat, then used all his superpowers to protect the submarine. The monster was getting closer and closer to him, and he had no other choice but to use his superpowers to protect the submarine. The monster must be related to unknown abilities or alien things, otherwise he would not have been unable to detect it.
Since the superpower couldn't detect it, it was impossible to transform and devour the monster. So, although this thing wasn't considered huge—at least that's how it looked at them—among marine creatures, even the largest humpback whales, great white sharks, and other ferocious ocean predators posed no threat to Zhou Xuan. Superpowers could make these things disappear in the blink of an eye.
However, Zhou Xuan could not transform or devour this thing. But one thing was certain: this monster could not easily break through Zhou Xuan's special ability. The moment the two collided, it was like Mars colliding with Earth, and both were damaged.
It seems the monster wasn't killed by the explosion; perhaps it was just stunned for a moment. Once it regained its senses, it gave chase. Maybe it angered the monster.
Although Zhou Xuan couldn't detect it, his supernatural ability allowed him to detect changes in the seawater within tens of meters of the submarine. The seawater below parted as if a torpedo was traversing through it, and he immediately knew that the monster was chasing after him from below and was ramming into him again at a very high speed.
Zhou Xuan couldn't help but secretly groan. This thing was like a madman, ramming its own body into the submarine. It was obviously mentally challenged. If it were a creature with human-like intelligence, it wouldn't do such a thing. At least it would consider its own life. Even an animal wouldn't easily do something like trying to take a person down with it.
Mao Feng and the bearded man couldn't see down there, so they naturally didn't know the danger was approaching. They were terrified when they heard Zhou Xuan's shout. Although they couldn't see, Zhou Xuan's abilities were obviously far superior to theirs. If Zhou Xuan was so afraid, what could they possibly say?
In his moment of crisis, Zhou Xuan realized that when he condensed his supernatural power into a beam, it could detect much farther than when it was dispersed over a 360-degree range. If he could condense his supernatural power into a beam and focus it on a specific point, would that greatly enhance the submarine's defensive capabilities?
It's possible, but that would require Zhou Xuan's defensive point to be absolutely accurate. Otherwise, even the slightest deviation would prevent him from protecting the point where the monster would strike, leading to the destruction of the boat and the loss of life.
Zhou Xuan had no time to think further. In this critical moment, he had no choice but to take a gamble. Without hesitation, he channeled all his supernatural power into a single beam. He then detected the point in the seawater below the submarine where the split impact force was pointing towards the submarine's hull. He immediately channeled all his supernatural power to that point and took the gamble.
When Zhou Xuan was protecting the submarine in the trench, his supernatural power covered the entire surface of the submarine, which naturally consumed much more of his supernatural power and wasted a lot of energy. Now, he is focusing all his energy on protecting a single point, which is obviously much stronger than that one burst of energy.
Mao Feng and the bearded man couldn't see anything, but they felt the submarine shudder violently. There was no explosive sound like the first shudder; instead, there was a very light sound, like a balloon popping. Then, a long, sharp object, like a bayonet, pierced through the point Zhou Xuan was protecting, and with a "thud," it pierced the bearded man's chest. The bearded man died instantly without uttering a sound.
Mao Feng cried out in fright, "Ouch!" The bayonet-shaped object had pierced the submarine for at least a meter, killing the bearded man instantly. After wobbling a few times, it was suddenly pulled out, and seawater shot in like arrows from the opening.
They were just a hair's breadth away from diving back to the surface; at that point, the depth was only a few dozen meters.
The submarine's other instruments were not damaged, but a hole was pierced through it. Fortunately, the pressure was not particularly high in the seawater at a depth of 30 to 40 meters. However, if the seawater filled the inside of the submarine, it would still sink to the bottom of the sea.
Mao Feng, having seen the bearded man operate the submarine before and having some understanding of it, quickly steered the submarine back to the surface. Seawater powerfully gushed into the submarine through the hole, forcing Mao Feng to maneuver it with difficulty.
Zhou Xuan continued to probe the direction of the danger posed by the monster. Just now, if he hadn't used his special ability to protect the point of impact with all his might, the impact force of the monster would have smashed the submarine into pieces. However, while he was protecting it with all his might, the monster's sharp beak only made a point of impact. As soon as the two collided, the sharp part pierced through the submarine wall and did not cause the violent explosion that occurred the first time.
Mao Feng frantically maneuvered the submarine, but fortunately, the submarine was very close to the surface at this moment, and it did not slow down. Almost instantly, the submarine surfaced a large section of the surface. Without thinking, Mao Feng quickly got up, forcefully opened the entrance cover on top of his head, and rushed out.
Zhou Xuan also climbed out, panting, but only from the submarine did he see that the cargo ship was still about two hundred meters away from them.
The sun was directly overhead, but neither Mao Feng nor Zhou Xuan felt its intense heat.
Mao Feng pointed in terror at the sea and cried out, "Mr. Hu... Mr. Hu... that... that..." His teeth chattered as he spoke, too terrified to utter a word.
Zhou Xuan looked in the direction he was looking, and saw a strange, black, arrow-like object, four or five meters long, rapidly "shooting" towards the submarine from about fifteen or sixteen meters to its left. It truly was like an arrow released from a bow.
Volume 1, Chapter 478: The Strange Deep-Sea Killer (Part 2)
Chapter 478 The Bizarre Deep-Sea Killer (Part Two)
Zhou Xuan had already exhausted too much of his special ability when he protected the submarine just now, and he couldn't practice to recover or use the Nine Star Beads to restore his energy in time, so it was impossible for him to protect the submarine again.
Seeing that the thing was hurtling toward the submarine at incredible speed, seemingly determined to destroy it, Zhou Xuan immediately leaped into the sea beside him.
Mao Feng exclaimed "Oh dear!" and jumped into the sea after Zhou Xuan. Now he could only follow Zhou Xuan closely.
The moment it jumped into the sea, the monster that shot out like an arrow collided with the submarine. Without Zhou Xuan's supernatural power to protect it, the submarine shattered into dozens of pieces with a loud "boom" and sank into the sea.
Mao Feng and Zhou Xuan quickly surfaced and peered towards the submarine. They saw a line of seawater stretching dozens of meters far from the point of impact. Then, the thing leaped out of the water, jumped in mid-air, and fell back into the water. It then accurately rushed towards the direction where Zhou Xuan and Mao Feng had fallen into the water.
The moment the monster leaped out of the water, Zhou Xuan and Mao Feng both saw it clearly.
This extremely deadly and bizarre creature turned out to be a large swordfish, four or five meters long, with a sharp mouth that was one and a half meters long. It was its long and hard mouth that destroyed the submarine.
Zhou Xuan was astonished. No matter how strange this swordfish was, it couldn't possibly damage a submarine made of steel, nor could it resist his supernatural abilities. There must be some unknown strangeness about this swordfish.
But he had no time to think about it, as the swordfish shot towards them like an arrow.
Mao Feng witnessed the ferocity of this swordfish firsthand. Its sharp beak smashed the mechanical arm on the submarine to pieces, and it pierced a hole in the submarine's steel wall, which bullets could not penetrate, without sustaining any damage itself. Now it had completely smashed the submarine to pieces. How could Zhou Xuan and the other two possibly stop it?