Chapter 253: Racing the Storm (3.5k)
After boarding the ice warship, they soon left the Great Cuttlefish Sea Area, and all the students from Chuan Yu University were filled with joy at their narrow escape, the previous atmosphere of sorrow completely gone.
As the ship moved frantically, everyone looked with respect at the figure standing with hands behind his back at the bow, watching his long hair flutter in the wind, an indescribable feeling, as if an immortal had descended to earth. After all, such god-like shaping was a great shock to them.
“After we go back this time, I need to rest well. The sea is too terrifying… If one didn’t have Battle King level strength, they would be timid walking in the deep sea. I almost died this time.” Mentor Lu Shu sat down on the ice boat, feeling the constant cold wind, and shook his head with a wry smile.
“It’s a good thing we brought student Su Jiu with us this time, otherwise we might have really been buried at the bottom of the sea. With such shaping methods and hardness, student Su Jiu is probably not a simple Battle King, and very likely possesses Extraordinary Attributes. Otherwise, this ship could never have crossed the ocean…” Huang Wen glanced at her mentor, then retracted her gaze, looking at the bottom of the ship with lingering fear.
Hearing these voices of praise and admiration, Su Jiu smiled helplessly. She didn’t like this distant feeling of being admired by everyone…
As Su Jiu’s thoughts drifted, the sound of footsteps on the ice sounded, and Huang Wen walked over with a hint of respect in her smile. She took a bottle of energy drink from the supplies that had been moved, handed it over, and asked, “Student Su Jiu, where is our ship heading now? It feels like it’s heading north?”
“We can only head north…” Su Jiu smiled, took the energy drink, and replied.
“Emergency! Repeat! We have a sudden emergency! That typhoon is still accelerating! At your current speed, you will be caught up in about an hour!”
But soon her attention was drawn by the emergency call from her pocket. Su Jiu frowned, took out her communication device, and listened to the urgent voice from inside, quickly asking, “What happened? How did the typhoon suddenly accelerate?”
“I am the administrator of the North Sea Marine Meteorological Bureau. The person on the line before should have told you that this typhoon is actually some kind of demon, right? This kind of demon is called a Snow Cloud Shuttle. For some unknown summons, they are now rushing madly towards the Bear of the Snow. And… this group of Snow Cloud Shuttles has a unique characteristic: they get more excited the colder the place they contact!”
“They have already passed the area north of the Huai River. Because of the sudden drop in temperature, their speed is increasing crazily!”
Faint discussions kept coming from the operator’s end, as if there were many people there. After Su Jiu asked, a rather old voice replaced the operator, and it sounded heavy.
“Snow Cloud Shuttle?”
Hearing this, Su Jiu was slightly stunned. She glanced at Huang Wen, who was also stunned beside her, and then asked, “How far are we from the nearest land?”
“The closest port to you is the Jiu Yun port in Liaodong Province, but at your speed, it will take about three hours to arrive.”
As Su Jiu asked her question, keyboard typing sounds quickly followed, and the operator’s voice reappeared.
“Three hours? Please transfer us to this line immediately, and it must be the shortest route!”
Just as Su Jiu continued to ask the other party to provide a route, she suddenly heard faint sounds from behind her, the sounds were very distant, like wind exploding in the air. Su Jiu’s eyes narrowed, and she immediately looked back, only to see a black dot in the distance. She squinted and muttered, “Has it reached this side already?”
“Damn it! Those Snow Cloud Shuttles are even more excited! It seems they’ve encountered something like a cold current, and the typhoon’s movement speed has increased! It’s estimated that it will catch up to you in about twenty minutes, not even an hour, at this speed!”
The old voice from the other end sounded again, and the atmosphere instantly became serious. Then came the operator’s voice. The other party showed sufficient professional quality and gave Su Jiu the main general direction she could understand, but the other party was still very curious about how Su Jiu and the others managed to restart the ship.
“Keep heading due north. If possible, head west by about 20 degrees. There is the Jiu Yun port there, where there is a commercial port where you can dock – but how did you fix the ship?”
“No time to explain! Those schools of fish suddenly accelerated… We have to accelerate too! Otherwise, we will definitely be swallowed by the typhoon!”
Hearing their words, Su Jiu frowned slightly, clenched the energy line in her hand, stabilized the ship with External Qi, and quickly took out a low-level Magic Crystal from her pocket, throwing it forward.
As if sensing that delicious food had appeared, the three large monster fish in front suddenly leaped out of the water, opening their mouths full of serrations to swallow it. In the end, due to the difference in distance, it was eaten by the one on the far side, causing the other two to leap and accelerate even more desperately, trying to attract the attention of the great villain behind them.
“High-ranking Battle General level Rock Saw Sturgeon!? This thing often destroys fishing boats, devouring the caught fish along with the fishermen. It’s a ferocious beast.”
Huang Wen beside her was stunned. After seeing the large fish up close, she quickly discovered that the thin lines of crystal-like External Qi in Su Jiu’s hand were passing through the heads of the three fish, and the scales on the fish’s bodies seemed to be injured to varying degrees, with scarlet appearing…
This kind of ferocious beast was actually subdued?!
“Have someone communicate with the operator and confirm the direction for me! Those with Battle General level strength or above, follow me to protect the hull with External Qi, ensuring that the ship does not capsize. We need to accelerate!” Su Jiu handed the communication device to Bai Zhi beside her, and slightly turned her head, shouting to the people around her.
After speaking, she lightly stepped on her feet, and a stream of frost transformed into airflow enveloped the front half of the ship. The energy shield seemed to have frost flowers floating, making the ice ship look even more cold and beautiful under the sun, like a frost beauty.
There were seven people including the Battle Generals and Bai Zhi. Except for Bai Zhi, who was on the small railing, gently swinging her small fleshy legs, looking indifferent, the others were all facing a great enemy. Although they didn’t know how Su Jiu was accelerating, they still summoned their external Qi shields to protect the rear of the ship.
“No need for anyone else… I can do it myself.” Bai Zhi lightly tossed the communication device, tilted her head slightly, her green silk hair fluttering slightly. She leaned on the railing with one hand and said softly.
“Everyone get ready!”
Seeing that everyone had heard her words, Su Jiu immediately snapped her fingers. A mass of water vapor emerged from her hand, and as the water vapor condensed, a fishing rod nearly ten meters long appeared in her hand. Then Su Jiu used her external Qi to string a Magic Crystal and cast the rod out.
“Go!”
The three Rock Saw Sturgeons leaped repeatedly like sharks that had smelled blood. As they leaped, the ice ship was pulled frantically, but every time they were about to bite, Su Jiu’s right hand bulged with veins, and her left hand pulled the rod upward, making the three Rock Saw Sturgeons just shy of being able to eat it…
Su Jiu knew that these Rock Saw Sturgeons were not very intelligent, otherwise she wouldn’t have caught one before and let it carry her for so long.
“Whoosh—”
With such repeated operations, the entire ice ship accelerated rapidly. Although the surging giant waves outside were blocked by the energy shield, they could not feel the speed outside, but the seawater splashed up more than three meters high that kept slapping on the energy shield, making “pata pata” sounds, which indicated the terrifying speed.
“How could you accelerate so fast? Even a civilian warship in perfect condition couldn’t possibly have this speed! What happened!”
At this time, an exclamation came from Bai Zhi’s communication device. Inside the monitoring console, there was full of confusion, but soon, under an old reprimand, they stopped discussing.
“Stop talking! Immediately contact the staff on duty at our Meteorological Bureau at Jiu Yun port, and have them promptly notify the local Dragon Hunters to make preparations.”
“Yes!”
Following a few sparse replies, the other end immediately quieted down. The person in charge of the meteorological bureau stared intently at the red dot on the LCD screen, and a look of solemnity appeared in his cloudy old eyes. He muttered softly, “Still not enough… at this speed, you will be caught up by the typhoon about two kilometers away from Jiu Yun port.”
“Hello…”
After a moment of contemplation, he immediately made another call. The current situation required communication with his superiors. When a female voice answered the phone, he slowly said, “Can you dispatch the Lianyun, equipped with a War God grade defensive array, to Jiu Yun port? Our situation here is rather special, and we may need military support…”
Although such heavy warships could not go out to sea to rescue people, as they were used to deter foreign enemies, they could still be deployed on the fringes of their own country.
“Sorry, the Lianyun cannot be deployed. She has already been requisitioned for northern aid. The Snow Demons and many ice-attribute monsters are about to rush out of the Moke Mountain Range, and even the sea surface will become a battlefield.” The voice on the other end said helplessly after a brief silence.
“This… we can only pray they can protect themselves,” the voice of the old man from the meteorological bureau sighed and fell silent.
…
On the other end of the communication device, Su Jiu and the others could naturally hear the conversations of the people on the other side. When the students heard that they could not escape, their faces immediately showed despair. Some of them sat down on the ice deck, laughing and crying, looking up at the sky through the frost shield, hoping for a miracle to happen.
Mentor Lu Shu and the others wanted to scold them, but now they also needed to maintain the external Qi shield together, so they fell silent…
This was another trip from heaven to hell.
Ignoring the students’ wailing, Su Jiu was startled. She did not expect that the first major climax in the novel – “Northern Warfare Aid” – was already experiencing some fluctuations.
According to the time, it should be about two months later. She didn’t expect that the Dragon Country’s officialdom had already started preparing so early. However, it seemed that this disaster was caused by the racial conflict within Bai Ming’s new harem.
The Russians were really suffering for no reason.
“Now is not the time to consider that. Those fish are inexplicably agitated. Could it be that they are being deliberately manipulated by someone? After all, the Northern War involves some high-level races fighting for treasures.”
While she was lost in thought, she suddenly felt a somewhat cold hand poke her face. She turned her head to look.
It was Bai Zhi. She tilted her head, humming a random little tune. Seeing Su Jiu look over, she said very seriously, “Is there a possibility that the boat you’re rowing through the water brings coldness, and those cold-loving fish are chasing after you with some deviation?”
“Damn it, I forgot about this!”
Hearing Bai Zhi’s words, Su Jiu’s body stiffened slightly, and her eyes slowly widened. She was not a fool either, her mouth twitched instantly, and she understood the logic. So it was her fault that caused this! She immediately shouted to the people behind her, “Are there any fire-bloodline carriers!?”
Soon, more than a dozen students stood out. They looked at each other for a moment, then looked at Su Jiu with confusion. As a top university for fire attribute research, Chuan Yu University had everything else but would never lack students with fire attribute bloodlines.
“Go and heat up the water behind the boat! Don’t leave a single piece of floating ice!”
After speaking, Su Jiu’s gaze fell on Bai Zhi, who was only three heads away from her face, and then on her fair cheeks as white as frost. Her eyes held some gratitude. If Bai Zhi hadn’t reminded her, she probably wouldn’t have understood such a simple principle.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
Bai Zhi slightly turned her face. Her foxy little face revealed a trace of innocence. Seeing that Su Jiu didn’t speak, she blinked again as if she had thought of something. A blush rushed up her neck, and she vigilantly hugged her chest, whispering,
“You pervert, even if I need to eat, I won’t sell myself!”
Seeing her shy appearance, Su Jiu chuckled and didn’t mind Bai Zhi calling her names. She lightly hugged her like flying, her lips moved slightly up and down, and then she re-gripped the fishing rod, as if nothing had happened…
“You, hum… I… I was smart from the beginning! You don’t need to praise me…”
Feeling her body being hugged, Bai Zhi was about to blurt out “Flirt” but it got stuck halfway. She pouted, then secretly glanced at Su Jiu’s profile. The corners of her mouth inexplicably pursed slightly.
“Idiot! The position is off, move a little to the west!”
