Ryan Ling looked down into the water and sure enough, there was a shark circling the boat. The guy screaming wasn’t anyone else—it was Hayden Zheng, clutching a rope on the side rail, scared half to death.
"Hurry up and save him!" Anqi Chen shouted at Ryan, anxiously. The waves below were raging, and none of her people dared jump in.
"Heh, they all tried to kill me—why should I jump in and save them? Whoever wants to go, go ahead!" Ryan sneered coldly, glancing at Hayden Zheng’s sorry state. He’d almost felt a bit of sympathy, but Anqi Chen was still acting all high and mighty, barking orders, so he shut that down. No way was he doing it.
Anqi Chen panicked, and Hayden Zheng was even more terrified, nearly losing control as he called out, "Master Ling, I know I was wrong! Please save me—The Zheng family will always remember this debt!"
At that moment, Jason Lin, Warren Yuan, Harvey Jin, and the others all rushed out from the cabin. One look at the scene told them exactly what was happening, but they knew Ryan’s temper well—he’d already been convinced once, and now, seeing his icy expression, no one dared speak up.
"Master Ling, Hayden Zheng was rude and even tried to hurt you, but we’re all traveling together. Please, just do us a favor and save him!" Anqi Chen had dropped her heiress attitude; this was a life-or-death moment. Hayden was with her—if he died at sea, she’d never be able to explain it when they got back.
"Master, maybe..." Warren Yuan couldn’t help but speak up, worried the whole thing would blow up.
"Chief, they’re all here because of Commander Gabriel Xue. If Hayden Zheng gets eaten by a shark, Commander Xue’s reputation will take a huge hit!" Harvey Jin pleaded.
"Alright, for Commander Xue’s sake, I’ll save him—just this once. But only this time, no repeats!" Ryan nodded. No matter what, he had to give Gabriel Xue some respect.
In a flash, Ryan stepped forward and unleashed a powerful pull, yanking Hayden Zheng back onto the deck in an instant. Hayden was so frightened his clothes were torn to shreds, and he sat there shaking, unable to speak for a long time.
"With guts like that, you think you can kill Japanese bandits? What a joke!" Ryan shook his head. These rich kids were just here to make trouble.
Just then, zombie lieutenant Frank Qin suddenly started squealing and pointing at the sea.
"What now? Every time you yell, it’s bad news!" Warren Yuan snapped, then glanced at the ocean—and his face instantly turned white. He quickly looked at Ryan. "Master, this is bad. Big trouble!"
Ryan froze and stared at the water, sucking in a breath. At some point, hundreds of sharks had appeared, densely packed and blood-red, like ghosts from Hell. Within seconds, they’d completely surrounded the boat.
This wasn’t a military vessel—the hull was flimsy and couldn’t withstand so many blood sharks crashing into it. The boat itself wasn’t big; if the sharks attacked together, it could easily flip and sink.
Hayden Zheng, just hauled aboard, was now shrieking and scrambling into the cabin. Even Anqi Chen, usually fearless, turned pale and hid under a table. Her bodyguards and maids were panicked, looking like their souls might jump out of their bodies.
"Oh my god, we’re getting swarmed by blood sharks! The Sea Lord wants us dead! We’re doomed! Sea Lord, we haven’t done anything evil—please spare us!" The captain and crew rushed onto the deck, fell to their knees, and started kowtowing to the sharks.
They hadn’t even finished bowing when several blood sharks slammed into the hull, rocking the whole boat violently. More sharks joined in, attacking like the ship was a bleeding beast, and every shark wanted a bite.
At this point, not just the Chen and Zheng groups—even Jason Lin, Warren Yuan, and the others looked pale. Clearly, none of them had ever seen anything like this before.
......
On a hidden reef in the distance, several people were watching Ryan’s boat with smug expressions.
"So what if he’s some martial arts champion? Big deal. I bet he can’t even get past the first test—the Blood Shark Formation!"
"Exactly! That crappy boat of theirs is gonna break apart any minute. I ramped it up this time—there’s at least two or three hundred blood sharks out there. Even if they brought twice as many grandmasters, they’d still be dead meat!"
"Right. Did you see them? Everyone on that boat is totally panicking. Those Chen and Zheng heirs claim to be from the top ten families in Jiangdong? What a joke—they’re trash among trash!"
"And let’s be real, that Ryan kid might be tough on land, but out at sea, he’s way out of his league. I give it five minutes before that boat flips. Once it does, even a top grandmaster surrounded by sharks in the open ocean has only one ending—death!"
The ones talking were none other than the Water-Breaker Sword Sect warriors on Shark-Hook Island. Dressed in Japanese swordsman garb, they all looked on with disdain. Nearby stood several mysterious figures, each masked, saying nothing but nodding at the spectacle.
......
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the sea, several small warships were anchored together, closely watching Ryan’s boat. Gabriel Xue stood among them, gripping his binoculars, looking grim.
"Commander, this Blood Shark Formation is fiercer than ever. The Chen and Zheng groups are already done for. I don’t think Ryan’s crew can hold out on their own!"
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"Exactly. Ryan might be great in land battles, but we checked—he’s got zero experience at sea. Facing hundreds of blood sharks at once, he’s probably in over his head!"
"Should we go rescue them? If something happens to the Chen or Zheng heirs, our Special Ops team will be in deep trouble later!"
......
Several aides reported to Gabriel Xue one after another.
Gabriel Xue’s face grew darker and darker. He couldn’t help cursing, "My biggest mistake was letting Stanley Chen send those two useless brats to challenge the Water-Breaker Sect. Total disaster! If it’d been someone else, maybe they’d have actually helped!"
"Commander, should I go ahead and rescue them?" another aide asked urgently.
"Wait a moment!" Gabriel steadied himself. "Look at Ryan—he’s not scared at all. He’s no ordinary kid; he must have a plan. Let’s watch and see."
"But Commander, he’s just a high-schooler. Against blood sharks at this level, even—" The aide was still worried.
"Enough! I trust him!" Gabriel barked. No one dared say another word, but inside, everyone was bracing for failure.
......
"Master, what do we do?" Jason Lin and the others might be grandmasters, but against this many blood sharks, they couldn’t hold them off.
"Don’t panic. All of you keep the boat steady—I’ll handle the sharks!" Ryan clenched his fists and unleashed the full power of the first realm of the Purgatory Soul-Suppressing Art. Instead of charging in one direction, he split his gang-qi into hundreds of fine threads, whipping them out toward every blood shark at once.
"What’s he trying to do? His grandmaster gang-qi can split into hundreds of strands—how’s that possible? Even the strongest violet-realm grandmasters can’t do that!"
"Is he insane? One guy against a hundred sharks—who does he think he is, some kind of super-grandmaster?"
"Wait, his gang-qi isn’t like a normal grandmaster’s. What is that aura? I’ve never seen anything like it—and he’s actually binding all the blood sharks!"
At that moment, the Water-Breaker swordsmen on the reef were stunned, and behind them, Gabriel Xue was just as shaken—his hands trembling around the binoculars in excitement...