But the mercenaries' few guns and ammunition were certainly insufficient. When the bullets ran out, the pirates finally rushed out, firing as they slid down the rope ladder onto the speedboat.
Fu Tianmu watched the pirates slide down from the cave onto the ship. His expression turned serious, because there were actually more pirates than there had been in the cave earlier. They were densely packed together, at least two hundred in number, armed with long guns and short guns. With so many people and so many ships, if they were to catch up, they still wouldn't be able to escape.
Although Fu Tianmo knew Zhou Xuan possessed special abilities, he also knew from his observations that these abilities had limitations. They were effective at varying distances; beyond that distance, they would become ineffective, and he had just witnessed Zhou Xuan's significant energy depletion. Whether they could escape this pirate den depended entirely on fate!
The waterway inside the cave is only six or seven meters wide, making it impossible to navigate as smoothly as at sea, and the speed certainly can't be very high. However, it's still faster than a person running.
The pirates behind them jumped onto the ships, firing their guns and trying to move them, but no matter what they did, the engines on the boats wouldn't start. And it wasn't just one boat that couldn't start; dozens of boats in the entire cave were unable to move!
If only a few of the ships were immobilized, there might be a problem. But if all of them were immobilized, while the three ships that Zhou Xuan and his group sailed away were perfectly fine, then it means they tampered with them!
A pirate leader-like figure was gesturing and cursing. Some pirates found some paddleboards and started paddling, and the smaller ships were paddled and chased after them.
Meanwhile, the other pirates opened fire on the three boats ahead with rifles and rocket launchers.
Zhou Xuan shouted, "Everyone lie down! Don't look up!"
The heavy machine guns and rocket launchers on the pirate ships were unusable, just like the boats – all show and no substance. But the ones brought out from the cave were usable. The pirates, in their haste and rage, fired wildly, but their aim was terrible.
Two of them landed in the sea, creating high waves. The yacht driver, out of fear, drove too fast and crashed violently into the rock wall of the cave. The speedboat exploded. In the flames, the following boat slowed down slightly, but at that very moment, a rocket hit the speedboat, blowing it to pieces along with the people on board!
Li Junjie, at the very back, let out a loud shout. He ducked low and steered the boat through the thick smoke. Several more rockets then landed in the sea behind them, creating churning waves.
Fortunately, the pirates only fired indiscriminately, and no ships chased after them.
Fu Tianlai then realized that Zhou Xuan must have tampered with the ships while jumping and touching them. Otherwise, it would be impossible for dozens of ships to remain without a single one moving! The distance naturally increased, and after five or six hundred meters, the pirates' rockets lost their aim. Because they only had one rocket launcher, and the pirates were clearly far less experienced and accurate than Brooklyn, the rockets went very far off course, two landing in the sea. The other two hit the rocks, blasting the cave walls into a shower of rock fragments.
Before the fifth shot could be fired, Li Junjie suddenly shouted, "Oh no!"
The others on the speedboat also screamed in alarm as they looked ahead!
Zhou Xuan turned his head and saw that about ten meters ahead, a large iron bar, as thick as an arm, was blocking the water. The bar was covered with iron spikes about half a meter long, like a long mace. There were obviously traps installed on the rock walls on both sides. He hadn't seen them when he came in.
However, the situation was different when they came in. Since the pirates were sailing their own ships when they came in, it was normal that they didn't lower their ships to block the way. But what should they do now?
The pirates behind were rowing slowly, but they would eventually catch up. Ahead lay the Wolf's Fang, an impassable obstacle. Speedboats couldn't cross it, and even if someone managed to flip over, it would still be seawater. No land, no road, no boat – it was still a dead end!
Li Junjie slowed down, and the pirates rowing behind him adjusted the coordinates of the rocket launcher. The accuracy of the fired rockets gradually improved. One of them was even only a few meters away from Zhou Xuan's speedboat, and the explosion nearly capsized it.
Everyone was extremely anxious. Li Junjie slowed the boat down very slowly, and when it was only two or three meters away from the Wolf Fang Thorn, it almost came to a stop.
Zhou Xuan's ice energy was greatly depleted, but he had no choice but to act again. Taking advantage of the chaos, he squeezed to the front, only a few meters away from the wolf-tooth spike at the front of the boat. He lay prone on the ice and used all his strength to transform the two middle sections of the spike into gold. At the instant they transformed, he simultaneously used his ice energy to absorb them, and the four-meter-wide spike in the middle suddenly fell into the sea!
Li Junjie was taken aback, then exclaimed with delight, "Damn, what's going on?" But he didn't hesitate, steer the speedboat through the gap, and out of the opening. After another twenty meters or so, they emerged from the cave, and a bright light appeared before them as they entered the vast ocean!
As Li Junjie steered the boat to its highest point, he laughed and said, "Damn, these pirates' spikes used to block the ship are so old that they broke at this crucial moment. Hehe, what good luck, what good luck!"
Fu Tianlai glanced at Zhou Xuan and saw Zhou Xuan give him a weak, slight smile. He knew in his heart that it was Zhou Xuan who had done it. In this day and age, there is no such thing as extraordinary luck. There is always a reason for everything!
They drove at full speed for five or six minutes in the ocean. After leaving the island about a thousand meters behind, Li Junjie slowed down and turned back to ask, "Which way?"
The yacht operator is dead, as are the mercenaries and Brooklyn and Thomas, whom Fu Tianlai later hired. There is no one left who knows the terrain here.
There are only eight people left on the speedboat now. Apart from Gao Yuzhen and Fu Tianlai's bodyguards, there is only the Fu family, including Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan was somewhat familiar with the terrain. After all, he had ice energy within him, and when he was captured by the pirates, he did so intentionally, so he paid close attention to the terrain. He remembered very clearly that when he entered the island cave, it was due south.
When Li Junjie asked, Zhou Xuansong immediately pointed to the south and said, "Let's go south, I remember it's this way."
Li Junjie nodded and said, "Okay, hold on tight!"
The yacht was started up again, and in less than ten minutes, the pirate island was completely gone. However, after the island disappeared, all around was the vast, boundless sea, and no one could tell which way was which. When they came, the yacht captain had a compass and navigation equipment, and he was familiar with the terrain, so they didn't get lost. But now, no one on the yacht was familiar with the terrain, and even Zhou Xuan was scratching his head, unable to find his way.
After driving for a while, Li Junjie felt uncertain and asked again, "Zhou Xuan, are you sure this is the direction?"
Zhou Xuan scratched his head, glanced at the sea, and was somewhat speechless. Just a moment ago, on the island where the pirates had their lair, Zhou Xuan could be sure he was due south, but after leaving the island, he had completely lost his sense of direction!
Fu Tianlai and his bodyguards were not familiar with navigation, and Fu Ying's parents certainly didn't know anything about it. Gao Yuzhen and Li Junjie didn't know either, and Zhou Xuan naturally knew even less. Besides, his ice energy was no longer effective at this point, and it was severely depleted!
Li Junjie gritted his teeth, muttered something to himself, and then accelerated to the maximum speed in one direction. He was taking a gamble; he couldn't just circle around here. He didn't have much fuel left, and if he couldn't see the shore and ran out of fuel, he'd be in big trouble!
When you're doing something, what you fear most often comes to pass. After running for two hours, the fuel really did run out. When the speedboat turned off the engine and the noise subsided, all around was still the vast, boundless sea!
The worst part was that the fuel was gone, and there was no food or drink prepared on the boat. Apart from three semi-automatic rifles and a dagger, there was nothing else. Even if they wanted to row, there were no oars!
When we escaped from the cave on Pirate Island, we didn't even think to get some water. Now we're just waiting on the speedboat. Our only chance of leaving this place is to encounter a passing ship before we survive. Otherwise, we'll either become fish food or die of thirst and starvation!
The time was unclear, but judging from the sun slanting across the sky, it was probably around four in the afternoon, and night would fall in two or three hours.
The biggest fear at sea is encountering a storm. Speedboats like theirs, without fuel and unable to move, face a storm without any means of communication; their only option is to wait and die!
Zhou Xuan silently circulated his internal energy to recover some of his icy energy. He moved his hands and feet and said, "It's getting dark. I'll go to the sea and see if I can catch a fish to eat. Although there's no water to drink, it's better to have something to eat to replenish my strength than to go hungry!"
Fu Ying, holding Zhou Xuan's hand, frowned and said, "Zhou Xuan, we don't have any diving equipment. Besides, how are you going to catch fish with your bare hands?"
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Yingying, you know I'm a great diver. It's okay. Besides, there's no wind or waves now, which is perfect. Let's see if we can catch it or not. If we can't, so be it. But we should at least try. If we don't try, we'll never have a chance!"
Fu Ying knew that Zhou Xuan was an excellent diver, and that was how they met. After Zhou Xuan said that, she looked around at the sea. The water was gently rippling, and there were indeed no waves.
Zhou Xuan gently pinched Fu Ying's cheek. Only after pinching her cheek did he realize that her grandfather and parents were also there. He glanced to the side and saw Fu Ying's parents staring at him. His face immediately turned red, and he quickly took off his coat and shoes. Then he plunged headfirst into the seawater!
The slightly cool seawater sobered him up a bit, and he tried to activate his ice-energy again, but by this time, it was severely depleted, and he could only reach a distance of six or seven meters. At a depth of seven or eight meters below the surface, there were hardly any fish in this area, so he couldn't swim further out and had to dive deeper!
Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge (Chapter 185) - Encountering Danger Again
When I dived to a depth of about 20 meters, I felt that the water flow was not very strong, and the detection range was not very far, only about 12 or 13 meters in total, which was less than half of the height at the peak.
There weren't many fish, only a few small ones swimming by occasionally. Zhou Xuan's ice-based detection revealed a squid with tentacles over a meter long about five or six meters below. Thinking that there must be other fish in the area where this creature was, he dived down another five or six meters.