Chapter 588: Section 376: Misunderstanding
Just ten minutes earlier.
Lan Zao had successfully reached the Rocket Assault Boat, and was about to use his dagger to hack at the black long chest, when a group of people rushed to the vicinity.
The leader was a Black Iron Level fighter, who threatened Lan Zao loudly, “Don’t move, this is our spoils of war!”
Lan Zao was only at the Bronze Level, and this group that arrived had nearly ten people, not only outnumbering him, but their leader was also Black Iron Level.
If it had been the Lan Zao of the past, at this moment he would have been considering how to retreat.
But now, Lan Zao, mistakenly thinking he was about to die, saw the Black Iron fighter’s warning as an “invitation.”
An invitation for him to give a performance that blossomed with the flower of life before death arrived.
Especially when Lan Zao saw the long-handled square hammer in the hands of the Black Iron fighter, he began to formulate a plan in his mind.
Plop.
The next moment, Lan Zao dove headfirst into the water.
The Black Iron fighter thought his threat had been effective, since the other was just a Bronze Level after all.
Soon after, a gleaming dagger tip pierced through the bottom of the small boat, quickly retracting, leaving behind a gap.
Sea water began gurgling into the boat through the gap.
Before the people on the boat could react, the dagger tip appeared again at another location.
This time, the dagger tip directly stabbed through the foot of an unlucky fellow.
The dagger was pulled back, and the unlucky fellow immediately let out a painful scream, clutching his injured foot as he fell backwards.
This group had boarded a small boat; it was low, with thin planks and cramped space, barely adequate for sea fishing.
Instantly realizing the situation, the Black Iron fighter, furious, bellowed and violently smashed his square hammer onto the deck.
Good grief!
His hammer smashed right through the planking, creating a hole far larger than what Lan Zao had made.
Where previously the two small gaps had been gently letting in water, this time, the large breach allowed it to rush in fiercely.
The small boat started to sink at a visibly fast rate.
Lan Zao had already sensed the danger in time and had dodged the hammerhead.
The Black Iron fighter hadn’t hit Lan Zao, took a deep breath, and also jumped into the sea.
Clearly, he wasn’t about to let Lan Zao get away easily.
Realizing his enemy had entered the water and was approaching, Lan Zao immediately dove deeper.
The Black Iron fighter pursued for a while but not only failed to close the distance, it grew even further.
He saw Lan Zao’s figure moving through the water with uncharacteristic agility and, filled with both anger and hatred, had to give up the chase.
The Black Iron fighter surfaced and swam with all his might toward the Rocket Assault Boat.
This scenario was within Lan Zao’s expectations.
The moment he saw the Black Iron fighter, he knew this Human Race individual was definitely not someone who made a living at sea.
If the enemy advances, I retreat; if the enemy retreats, I advance.
Lan Zao swam back again.
The Black Iron fighter, midway through, heard a series of screams from behind him.
The Human Race warrior turned his head and saw a mixture of shock and rage.
He hadn’t pursued Lan Zao to the death and had already let him go, only to find that Lan Zao had dared to come back!
That small boat had almost completely submerged, the rest of the people on board were swimming too, headed for the same destination—the Rocket Assault Boat.
Their strength was weak, and their aquatic ability was no match for Lan Zao, who easily took them down.
One by one, they became corpses floating on the sea’s surface.
The Black Iron Fighter hesitated for a moment, deciding not to go back to support his comrades, but instead continued towards the Rocket Assault Boat.
They were guards from the same guild—merely colleagues without the bonds forged in life-or-death struggles.
Lan Zao quickly disposed of all the others, leaving only the Black Iron Fighter.
“Your physical condition is better than I thought.”
He was already running a high fever, body burning hot, but the cool seawater brought waves of comfort.
To his own surprise, he exclaimed, “It seems I’m quite skilled in underwater combat?”
Before, he had only served as a ship’s sailor; although he had engaged in naval battles, they were never as exhilarating as this.
His bloodline had been purified to be 100% Fish Bladder Bloodline. The various “symptoms” were merely manifestations of his body undergoing drastic changes stimulated by the bloodline.
The resulting changes from the bloodline began to appear.
Soon, Lan Zao caught up to the Black Iron Fighter again.
The latter, in the end, did not manage to board the Rocket Assault Boat.
Forced to engage Lan Zao in the water, they fought amidst the churning waves, astonishingly holding their own against each other.
The Black Iron Fighter was not adept at underwater combat, his weapon—a Bronze Level square hammer with a long handle—was cumbersome to use in the water and very awkward.
Lan Zao, however, moved with ease like a fish in water, avoiding direct confrontation and constantly skirmishing around.
A few minutes later.
His opponent was still one level higher than him, and even with Lan Zao fighting with all his might, the fighter managed to climb onto the Rocket Assault Boat.
“Come on, watch me smash you to death with one blow!” the Black Iron Fighter, dripping wet all over, stood on the boat, shouting without bothering to wipe the water from his eyes.
Lan Zao’s head was just visible above the sea, his eyes bloodshot, quietly staring at the Black Iron Fighter.
The gaze made the Black Iron Fighter somewhat uneasy.
From their previous exchange, he realized, “This Bronze Level is no ordinary fighter; he’s tough!”
But in the next moment, Lan Zao submerged his head and slipped away.
The Black Iron Fighter remained on guard, waiting for over a minute without seeing Lan Zao resurface. He finally relaxed a bit and began to consider the possibilities of the black chest.
However, Lan Zao had not given up.
He moved his arms and legs, swimming faster and faster, approaching a floating corpse.
Reaching out his hands, he searched the corpse and quickly found an Alchemy Crossbow.
He continued searching, pulling out several crossbow bolts as well.
Moving away from the corpse, Lan Zao continued scouring the battlefield.
Among the wreckage and underwater bodies, he found more bolts, several Firearms, and bullets.
Many of the Firearms were waterlogged and unusable, but one had waterproofing.
The reason he could find these things so precisely was entirely thanks to Zi Di’s guidance.
Zi Di, with her true body sitting at the helm of the Deep Sea Monster Fish, meticulously scouted the battlefield, informing Lan Zao of the exact locations of these ranged weapons through an alchemy device.
There were Alchemy Puppets on the Deep Sea Monster Fish, but considering the Mage Tower was monitoring the entire dock battle, they could not be carelessly deployed.
Lan Zao soon returned to the vicinity of the Rocket Assault Boat and began shooting at the Black Iron Fighter with the Alchemy Crossbow and the Firearms.
The Black Iron Fighter had tried several times without managing to break the black chest but was instead greeted with Lan Zao’s assault.
Lacking a Shield and with no cover on the Rocket Assault Boat, he was in a dire situation.
He wanted to hide in the cabin, but the cabin was still occupied by a black long cabinet.
The Black Iron Fighter could only barely use the long-handled warhammer to fend off arrows and bullets.
The effect was poor.
Soon, he was hit by numerous attacks.
He had no choice but to use Defensive Fighting Skills, barely holding on.
But quickly, his Fighting Energy dropped to a dangerous level.
The Black Iron Fighter felt things were going south and, having no other choice, he jumped into the water to escape.
Lan Zao didn’t let him go, relentlessly pursuing and continuously shooting at him from behind.
If the Black Iron Fighter had taken control of the Rocket Assault Boat and stubbornly resisted, he could have held out for a longer time.
But in his panic, he took to the water voluntarily, trying to swim away, which was simply courting death.
“Spare me, spare my life, I won’t dare to do it again!”
“Quick, look back, a group of people have boarded the boat, they’re going to steal your stuff!”
The Black Iron Fighter kept begging for mercy until his death.
Lan Zao’s face was cold as he turned the Black Iron Fighter into a porcupine, not showing the slightest mercy.
After killing the man, he hurried back to the Rocket Assault Boat.
While he was chasing the Black Iron Fighter, another group had boarded the boat.
They were well-coordinated, some standing guard, while a few others were inside, seemingly trying to figure out how to get the black long cabinet out or just break it open.
“Friend, don’t be rash, anything that comes out, we’ll give you a share,” the leader of the group called out to Lan Zao as he saw him swim over, his face suddenly changing, shouting loudly.
“Get lost, these are mine.” Lan Zao was not polite.
The leader’s face soured as he sneered, “You killed a Black Iron, that must have cost you dearly, right? You’re just at the Bronze Level, but we have three at the Bronze Level here.”
“Being polite to you isn’t an invitation for you to overstep.”
“There’s no need for us to fight to the death, those Saber Gang remnants fleeing have bounties on their heads.”
“Of course, if you want to fight us to the death, we’re not afraid either, we can just…”
Whoosh.
Before the leader could finish, he was interrupted by an arrow shot from Lan Zao.
“Hmph, I’d like to see if you can attack us,” the leader said angrily, but he didn’t rashly get into the water to fight Lan Zao head-on.
Just now, he had witnessed Lan Zao’s pursuit of the Black Iron Fighter, realizing Lan Zao’s exceptional ability in water combat, and the leader did not have that confidence.
He retreated to the inner circle.
The outer circle was guarded by five or six ordinary people.
Together with the leader’s three at the Bronze Level, they were all in the inner circle.
This posed a dilemma for Lan Zao.
Charging forward was not difficult, nor was killing one or two ordinary guards. But after that, he would face the joint attack of three fighters at the same level.
A slight misstep could result in a battle to the death.
Zi Di noticed Lan Zao’s peril.
This time it was different from before.
Before, although there were risks in Lan Zao’s confrontation with the Black Iron Fighter, Lan Zao had always been in control.
Now, attacking would be too dangerous for Lan Zao.
Zi Di advised Lan Zao to back off, “If it’s impossible, then let it be.”
“We can’t just let it be, how will we know if we don’t try?” Lan Zao replied.
He dived back into the sea and, peering through the surface, circled the Rocket Assault Boat, trying to find a weakness in their defenses.
Zi Di was surprised, “Why has Lan Zao become so fierce and warlike?”
All she could do was to caution Lan Zao to be careful and not to act recklessly, then her attention was drawn away by the Dragon-man youth.
Over there, the Dragon-man youth was closing in on another Rocket Assault Boat.
And on that boat were Xiong Ju, Ice Eagle and four other high-ranking members of the Saber Gang.
Just as the Dragon-man youth was about to board the boat, Ice Eagle made his move.
The Rocket Assault Boat burst into blinding light.
After the light disappeared, Ice Eagle and his companions had vanished.
Lan Zao, in search of their defensive weak point, suddenly saw the Rocket Assault Boat explode in bright light.
After the light rapidly dissipated, Ice Eagle and the others were teleported over.
That group was not members of the Saber Gang and never expected such a development.
In the scramble, they fought hand-to-hand with Ice Eagle and his group.
Both parties engaged in chaotic combat on the Rocket Assault Boat.
Lan Zao saw Ice Eagle and the others appear, thought about retreating, but then saw both groups were in a deadlock, the fight turning into a stalemate.
Ice Eagle and his companions might be at a higher level, but they were in poor condition.
Not only was their physical state dismal, but they had also been left without equipment, practically empty-handed.
Xiong Ju was the worst off, virtually unable to fight.
“Opportunity!” Lan Zao spotted the opening and grew excited.
“Kill these men, clear the danger behind for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps!”
“Perhaps this is the greatest contribution I can make for the master.”
With this thought, Lan Zao launched into the fray.
Ice Eagle and the others were too preoccupied with their own survival.
They had been forcefully teleported, so when Lan Zao attacked, they couldn’t retaliate.
Lan Zao swung his sword, aiming for Ice Eagle, but slipped and instead cut into the Bronze Level leader.
Ice Eagle was startled.
Lan Zao took a deep breath and swung his sword again.
But another at the Bronze Level interfered, stabbing a dagger into his leg.
Lan Zao suppressed the excruciating pain and continued swinging his sword, his determination to kill Ice Eagle was unyielding.
But just then, he was struck by dizziness, his vision went dark, and he almost passed out on the spot.
When his vision cleared, he saw his sword had flown out and the Bronze Level fighter was bleeding profusely from a chest wound, glaring furiously at Lan Zao.
“Die,” the Bronze Level leader exclaimed in anger, abandoning Ice Eagle and instead attacking Lan Zao.
That’s when Ice Eagle finally saw his chance, drew his firearm, and blasted the Bronze Level leader.
Bang, bang, bang.
Several more shots rang out, killing several men.
The rest scattered, each jumping into the water to escape.
Ice Eagle didn’t pursue but instead helped Lan Zao to his feet and said to Xiong Ju and the others, “Quick, get ready; we’re about to teleport again.”