Chapter 252: Frost Battleship (3.5k)
As the voice sounded, everyone’s expressions changed slightly. Mentor Lu Shu cupped his hands towards Bai Zhi and said respectfully, “Please reveal the flower wall, Miss. I need to inspect the hull.”
Strength is always the quickest way to gain respect. The teachers and students of Chuan Yu University now have immense respect for Bai Zhi and Su Jiu.
Hearing him, Bai Zhi glanced at him. Seeing that the black mist around them had dissipated, she waved her small hand. With a “whoosh—”, the flower wall dispersed, turning into petals that fluttered away in the wind, vanishing into the distance in the snow.
Seeing the flower wall disappear, everyone could finally clearly see the scene outside. It was indeed a kingdom of ice and snow, with sunlight refracting through the ice, creating sparkling crystals.
As if nothing had happened, Su Jiu walked around the ice, collecting all the fallen magic crystals. He then smiled at Bai Zhi, who was dangling her feet, and lightly tiptoed. With a “crack!” of breaking ice, his figure turned into several afterimages, lightly landing on the railing beside Bai Zhi. He scratched the back of her head and chuckled, “Well done.”
“Don’t scratch like that! I’m not a child anymore.”
Slightly lowering her head to dodge, Bai Zhi glanced speechlessly at Su Jiu. She leaned on the railing and began to sort her hair, carefully stroking her green silk. After a moment of silence, she suddenly looked up at Su Jiu’s face, lowered her gaze, and said,
“After you reach Battle King level, will you need to find new beast pets?”
“Beast pets? No need to look anymore, I’ve already contracted a very powerful Blood Clan member in advance.”
Seeing Bai Zhi’s seriousness, Su Jiu answered subconsciously. Then, seeing her dejected little face after he said he didn’t need one, he couldn’t help but pinch her cheek playfully and tease, “What’s wrong? Do you want me to contract you? With my mental strength reaching Battle King level, it’s not impossible to contract you.”
“Get lost… Who wants a pervert like you to contract them, I meant…”
Hearing Su Jiu’s words, Bai Zhi’s mouth twitched, and she heavily slapped his hand away. She did have that thought for a brief moment, but quickly dispelled it. Then, with a cold face and rolling her eyes, she said,
“I mean, if we’re going to follow these people to Chuan Yu, I can take you to a mountain range with powerful beast pets, in exchange for you buying me fifty buckets of the noodles I ate before.”
“You’ve been to Chuan Yu, girl? Beast pets are not necessary. After arriving in Chuan Yu province, I will go to a place called Luoyun Mountain in Yunpu City, where I need something.”
“Besides, fifty buckets of instant noodles… I can’t buy that many, only ten buckets at most.”
Hearing Bai Zhi’s words, Su Jiu was stunned for a moment, then looked at her with a slight smile and said softly.
She hadn’t expected Bai Zhi to want to trade for instant noodles before leaving. However, her current plan was to go to Yunpu City in the Chuan Yu region to get the Flame Phoenix Sparrow’s feather, so she could fully break through to Intermediate Battle General.
Once she reached Intermediate Battle General, she would also have the initial strength of a Peerless Battle General, so she wouldn’t need to use Elegy immediately when facing some Half-Kings or Peerless Battle Generals. Elegy would be saved as a trump card to face Intermediate Battle King level enemies directly.
“Isn’t that convenient? We’re going the same way. I’ll show you the way then, ten buckets it is…”
While Su Jiu was thinking, Bai Zhi’s voice suddenly sounded. She held Su Jiu’s hand, her eyes, filled with little flowers, blinked gently, as if Su Jiu wouldn’t agree, she would refuse to leave.
“Uh…”
With her hand held, Su Jiu’s forehead darkened into a single line. Ten buckets of instant noodles were a million yuan. Her money to win over everyone at the school had basically been spent on buying herbs for Bairnis. She wanted a million yuan just for showing the way?
“The ship’s hull has started taking on water! This ship is completely unusable! The communication equipment in the control room has also been affected and cannot be used.”
Just as he was about to refuse, a voice suddenly sounded. Lu Shu came out of the cabin again, fear in his eyes. He spoke to the Red Glasses Female Teacher who was treating the injured students, his face very pale,
“Is our alchemical communication device still usable? I remember this is what you are responsible for managing – can we ask nearby ships for help? The typhoon is moving north and will pass through here soon!”
“Let me see…”
Hearing Lu Shu’s voice, the female teacher quite seriously took out a black and white object from her pocket, resembling a reduced walkie-talkie. After dialing a string of numbers, she quietly waited under all the gazes. After about half a minute, a receptionist-like voice came from the other end of the phone:
“Hello, this is the North Sea Flight Studio. We are happy to serve you—please press one to buy tickets, press two for complaints…”
“Our ship was sunk in the Great Cuttlefish Sea Area. We request nearby ships to provide support and assistance!”
The female teacher’s face immediately showed a smile, and she quickly replied. The students watching her also breathed a sigh of relief. In their eyes, once they could contact the authorities, they would surely be easily rescued.
“Sunk? You are in the Great Oil Sea Area? But isn’t that near the coast? You should be able to contact fishermen for assistance easily!” The operator quickly responded, seemingly not understanding why someone in a coastal area would use an alchemical communication device to report a problem.
Hearing the other party’s words, the female teacher was stunned for a moment, then understood that the other party had misunderstood. She quickly explained:
“Not that Great Oil, but the ‘you’ in squid! Our ship was sunk by a Battle King level Four-Patterned Giant Cuttlefish. We are now requesting support… coordinates, my communication device should be able to provide them directly.”
“Battle King level Four-Patterned Giant Cuttlefish?! Great Cuttlefish Sea Area? What is your current situation, are there any casualties? I will immediately contact the dock management office and my superiors.” The operator exclaimed, his voice filled with surprise. But he quickly realized that since the other party could ask for help like this, it meant they might have been attacked, but no one had died.
“No casualties… We were saved by passing students… But the hull was completely sunk by that Giant Cuttlefish.” The female teacher paused before saying very seriously. She originally meant to say “seniors,” but then thought of Su Jiu’s identity and directly said “students.”
On the other end of the phone, after a brief silence, the operator began to process the location information and continued to ask, somewhat confused about the current situation, “Students? Are you sure you were attacked by a Battle King level Four-Patterned Giant Cuttlefish?”
The Red Glasses Female Teacher glanced at Su Jiu, who was also looking over. After a moment of thought, she quickly changed the subject: “Comrade operator, the most important thing now is to quickly send ships to meet us. Before we were attacked, we had already received news about a super typhoon moving north.”
Seemingly hearing about the typhoon moving north, the other party paused slightly.
“Super typhoon… Wait! We’ve discovered that massive typhoon is accelerating north, seemingly heading towards the Northern Bears Country – and! The typhoon will pass through your location in less than three hours!” The operator exclaimed, as if operating a computer and mouse. Half a minute later, a shout came from the other end of the phone.
Before the female teacher could reply, the operator’s next exclamation dragged everyone on the ship from the peak of hope back to the abyss. Even Mentor Lu Shu’s face turned pale.
“What?! Because the northward movement of the typhoon is related to some kind of fish monster, the Dragon Hunters Alliance has formed a protection zone and banned going out to sea… Is official ships also not allowed? But we received a distress signal from the Great Cuttlefish Sea Area.” The operator seemed to be communicating with someone from the authorities, sounding helpless.
After chatting for a while longer, there were some crackling sounds from the other end of the phone, like the howling of the wind. He replied with an apologetic tone: “Sorry, we cannot provide ship assistance. However, we have requested Battle King level expert support from the Dragon Hunters Alliance and the government’s Law Enforcement Hall. After the rescue, you will each likely need to pay a service fee of 500,000 yuan.”
“Can’t dispatch ships? Money is not a problem, but if Battle King level experts are sent for rescue, there are about fifty of us here, and there’s no way to transport everyone!”
Just as the female teacher was unwilling to give up and was about to ask for specific details, Su Jiu lightly landed on the deck. He strode forward and smiled at the female teacher, saying, “Teacher, could you give me this communication device so I can ask him some questions?”
“This… alright.”
The female teacher was slightly stunned. She was about to refuse, as this was related to their rescue. However, thinking of Su Jiu’s previous performance, she nodded and handed it over.
“Hello… excuse me, can you provide directions from your end? I can lead everyone out, as long as you provide the direction.” Su Jiu’s voice was faint, but it was like a thunderclap to the students. Their faces showed an expression of wanting to be surprised but not daring to be.
“Student Su Jiu… You can lead all of us out? But even if you are Battle King level, wouldn’t that be too difficult?” Mentor Lu Shu, who had been dejected, suddenly raised his head. After a moment of stunned disbelief, a glimmer of hope erupted in his eyes as he looked at Su Jiu.
“Shh, everyone, don’t rush. Wait for this operator to finish speaking.”
With a faint smile, Su Jiu raised a finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture to the onlookers. With Dean Yan’s Ice Shaping and Control Art, she could easily create a frost battleship capable of crossing the ocean.
“It’s possible… but it’s not very useful. It would be better to wait for rescue here.” The operator seemed unable to understand Su Jiu’s intention and spoke with confusion.
“Wait for rescue? That’s too dangerous, and there are too many of us here… In five minutes, if you see any changes here, you can start guiding.”
Su Jiu smiled, then put the communication device into his pocket. He lowered his head and looked beneath the ice layer, his eyes filled with surging blue frost. He murmured softly,
“A few big guys are coming. Did they sense the fall of a monster here and come to freeload? That suits me just fine.”
Then, under everyone’s gaze, he darted through the ice layer and disappeared into the seabed as a blue streak of light, seemingly in a hurry to chase something.
“That student ran off with the communication device, what do we do now?”
The atmosphere on the scene suddenly turned cold. Then, someone nervously asked, this was their only means of calling for help.
“She wouldn’t have taken the communication device and left alone, would she? After all, with her strength, it would be easy to get out if she had directions.”
As the first person asked, soon another person half-jokingly raised the second question. With this voice, fear began to spread among the crowd.
Even Mentor Lu Shu looked grim. He could feel the ship slowly sinking. If it weren’t for the surrounding ice layer supporting them, they would have sunk long ago.
About three minutes passed, and faint murmurs began to appear, all thinking Su Jiu had fled. Hearing these voices, Bai Zhi’s beautiful eyebrows slightly raised, and she snorted. With a wave of her slightly long sleeves, she said coldly, “You humans are truly ungrateful. If she wanted to leave, why would she go to the seabed?”
As if to verify Bai Zhi’s words, the ice layer not far away shook violently, and then several cracks appeared. The cracks spread out from the center like a spider web, finally emitting a “boom!” sound.
Something like a sail pushed open the ice layer, and then three large monster fish, comparable in size to those Battle General level Four-Patterned Giant Cuttlefish, “bang!” leaped out of the water, with white lines attached to each of them.
“Did she cause this commotion? Does she want the monster fish to drag us along? But our ship is already taking on water…”
Just as their attention was on the surprised monster fish, suddenly with a “boom!” sound, an ice ship larger than theirs broke through the ice layer. Frost surged outwards, and splashes of water and ice shards scattered with the frost. Everyone could only vaguely make out the silhouette of a warship, and that warship seemed to show signs of swimming…
“Stop right there!”
As a clear and cold female voice sounded, the ship seemed to be firmly settled under the sunlight, its frost-covered hull appearing somewhat translucent.
