Chapter 4424 — Swift Elimination

Yet once they were truly and fully into the unfamiliar new sea route, the gap between them all at once stood out starkly.

Beneath the shroud of sea fog that filled the sky, visibility had imperceptibly dropped to under twenty meters; among the thirty-two ships, each could still hear the others cleaving wind and wave, but their outlines could no longer be made out—some had even lost all shape.

Visibility is the single most critical and important factor for every seafarer. Once it falls, it means there is no way to observe the environment ahead and avert danger. When the eyes cease to serve—especially on so utterly strange and new a sea route—the deadliness of it needs no elaboration: whether one lives or dies comes down entirely to luck.

Even the most seasoned old hand, rich as his experience might be, would quail at heart in such a situation. Yet Wei Zhao—this fellow who plainly had little experience, whose knowledge of sailing was limited to the most basic handling of a ship, who could not even handle that with ease—wore a face of utter certainty and confidence.

Bang! A tremendous crash erupted from not far off to one side, and on its heels came the sound of seawater raging into a hull, accompanied by hoarse, desperate shouts for help—only for that voice to be swallowed in an instant by the towering waves.

Beyond question, the ship not far to one side had struck a hidden reef, meeting the fate of a wrecked vessel and a lost crew. But there was nothing to be done about it—at such visibility one could not even make out a ship twenty meters away, let alone the reefs hidden beneath the surface.

The noise on this side had scarcely faded when suddenly, from the other side, came another resounding bang—the outcome identical to this one. Another reef.

They had barely set out, and in the blink of an eye the ships to left and right had both gone under, one after the other. As for the farther reaches, many more had likely met the same end—only drowned out by the surrounding wind and waves, beyond Wei Zhao's hearing.

Faced with all this, any normal person would tremble with fear, tread as though on thin ice, and might even be unable to keep from entertaining thoughts of flight. Especially in Wei Zhao's position—Qi Wenmo had said long ago that so long as he returned safely, even turning back halfway would be fine. Anyone else would by now have turned the ship around without a second thought.

But Wei Zhao had not the slightest notion of doing so. Even though he too could not make out what lay ahead, whether he would at any moment follow the other ships into a reef and a wrecked hull with all hands lost, he remained utterly composed—one might even say abnormally certain.

There was no other reason: Wei Zhao possessed absolute assurance. His own senses alone could not fully judge the situation ahead, but he must not forget the jade pendant on his person, which by its very nature carried a warning function. One hundred percent accurate!

This occasion, this predicament, was precisely the moment to bring the jade pendant's warning function to its fullest use.

Not knowing where the reefs were—no matter. Not knowing whether whirlpools lay ahead—no matter. Not knowing where the fixed-position pirates lurked—no matter. So long as the jade pendant sounded its warning, he would promptly alter course and adjust to a heading that triggered no warning; then all would naturally be well, and he could lightly and easily evade every imperceptible risk.

This warning ability of the jade pendant was as though tailored to the present environment. With so extraordinary and heaven-defying a cheat assisting him, Wei Zhao sailed with genuine ease and delight.

If one looked down from midair through layer upon layer of sea fog, one would at this moment behold a most bizarre spectacle: over the vast, boundless sea, wreckage littered the rear in every direction, while on the waters ahead, Sailboat Number Five kept tracing all manner of strange courses—now zigzagging, now serpentining; in short, never deigning to travel in a straight line, twisting in whatever way it could.

And yet it was precisely this bizarre, contorted course that made it seem to have grown a heavenly eye, so deftly avoiding every reef, passing even the great whirlpools that kept welling up close along their edges. The scene looked perilous indeed, thrilling to the extreme—yet Wei Zhao, the one steering the ship, was steady at heart.

This round of the contest had indeed unfolded exactly as everyone had anticipated: before even the halfway mark, the thirty-two escort agencies were all but wiped out entirely. Everywhere Wei Zhao passed, wreckage appeared from time to time, together with carnivorous monstrosities churning in the waters—and as for the escorts themselves, not even their corpses could be found; thoroughly and utterly, not a bone remained.

Without the jade pendant's warning, Wei Zhao himself would likely have followed in everyone's wake, filling the bellies of those fierce, bloodthirsty carnivorous fish. Of course, there is no such thing as "if" in this world—and truly, without the jade pendant to rely on, Wei Zhao would never have rashly stepped forward to take the field.

"Twenty-one ships." Wei Zhao silently reckoned in his heart. That was the number of wrecks he had seen along the way, meaning that in this round of perilous-domain sailing, at least twenty-one escort agencies had already been eliminated. And that was counting only what he had actually laid eyes on; add in those he had not seen, and the total had likely drawn close to thirty!

Such a towering elimination rate was truly outrageous. What was more, Wei Zhao noticed that among the wrecks were no few high-ranking numbers—Number Two, for instance—which meant that even a traditional powerhouse like the Divine Wind Escort Agency had gone down in defeat along with the rest.

"A contest this dangerous—normally no one should be able to finish it. I wonder who designed it," Wei Zhao could not help saying, somewhat puzzled.

On this point he felt it most keenly—not only because of the wrecks he had seen along the way, but above all because of the route he himself had taken, which, on recollection, looked strange however he considered it. The complexity and peril of this sea route far exceeded anything the ordinary mind could imagine.

Without the aid of a cheat like the jade pendant's warning, forget about a contest—even slow, painstaking exploration a little at a time would have taken at least a month or more to barely eke out a single passage. Otherwise, however many came, all would die. In short, this was simply no place to hold a contest.

Wei Zhao was muttering inwardly when, all at once, after a turn, from not far ahead came a sound unlike the ordinary wind and waves. Listening closely, it was unmistakably a ship speeding along ahead!

Wei Zhao started in surprise. Just who might it be ahead—some master who could genuinely race across such a sea route? And judging by the speed, it was not slow in the least!

Because the sea fog obscured his view, Wei Zhao could not make out the number of the ship ahead; even his spiritual sense was blocked. But at least one thing could be judged: it was certainly a contest vessel, for who else would be so idle as to come sailing in such a perilous place?

While Wei Zhao pondered at the rear, on the sailboat ahead, a middle-aged man at the helm likewise sensed Wei Zhao's presence! (A pie-from-heaven event—cool phones waiting for you to claim! Follow Qi~Dian / the official account (WeChat: Add Contacts - Add Official Account - enter dd), and join at once! Everyone wins—follow the dd WeChat official account right now!)(To be continued..)