bookbashuk Chapter 26 Missing Women?
Chapter 26 Missing Women?
"I wonder who this is..."
"Where is Gong Chengyuan?" The middle-aged female cultivator's voice was calm, but her tone carried an unquestionable air.
"He's in the first cabin on the starboard side of the bow..."
A member of the Gong family said subconsciously, but the middle-aged female cultivator didn't say thank you and walked straight over.
"Hiss... Which clan does this female cultivator belong to? How come I've never seen her before?"
"Who cares? Anyway, she has our Gong family's token hanging on her waist. Since she's looking for her cousin Chengyuan, they must know her."
"Eat fish, eat fish! The grouper meat is tough and not tasty... Brother Chen, what are you looking at? Are you perhaps thinking about women on this boat?"
"Uh...no...no."
Chen Ye withdrew his gaze and smiled somewhat awkwardly. The middle-aged female cultivator had an ordinary appearance, and even if he wanted to be with a woman, he wouldn't want someone like her.
What puzzled Chen Ye was that, with the help of his innate inspiration, he had just sensed that although the female cultivator's aura was at the sixth level of the Spirit Gathering stage, the density of her spiritual power was more terrifying than anyone Chen Ye had ever seen in this life!
Furthermore, when the middle-aged female cultivator passed by him, her body exuded a faint fragrance, which Chen Ye would never have noticed if not for his innate intuition.
"This is a bit strange..." Chen Ye thought to himself.
The middle-aged female cultivator spoke with Gong Chengyuan for a good half hour before leaving the spirit ship.
However, as she passed the deck, she glared fiercely at Chen Ye, leaving him completely bewildered.
Could it be that the Gong family members were teasing him earlier, and this middle-aged female cultivator overheard them?
My apologies, he really didn't think of it that way...
However, not long after the female cultivator left, Gong Chengyuan came out of the cabin, gathered everyone in front of him, and said with a solemn expression.
"We've just received word that an unspecified number of bandits have appeared in the waters ahead. Everyone be on high alert for the next couple of days, and don't give these bandits a chance to get close to the fleet!"
On this vast and boundless sea, there are many dangers, such as rough sea conditions and powerful monsters.
However, for human cultivators, demonic beasts are not the most dangerous.
After all, most high-level monsters have their own activity ranges, and as long as you don't provoke them, they usually won't provoke you.
The real danger always comes from our own kind!
Unlike on land, raiders are more convenient to operate in the sea, and their numbers are also greater.
These guerrilla-cultivation organizations are usually formed by independent cultivators, outsiders, or even secretly supported by local forces, in order to seize a large amount of cultivation resources.
They navigated their nimble and convenient spirit boats, lingering near major shipping lanes. Once they spotted a merchant ship with weak defenses, they would swarm it, killing and robbing it.
In fact, the Qiling Sect has always maintained a tough stance against cultivators within its sphere of influence, but unfortunately, there are simply too many of them.
In addition, given the unique marine conditions of the Abyss Sea, these cultivators would fight if they could win, and scatter and flee if they couldn't, just like a kind of spiritual leek growing on the seabed, which could be cut down and then a new one would grow immediately!
Upon hearing what Gong Chengyuan said, everyone on the ship changed their expressions, including Chen Ye, though he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
In his view, dangers that can be detected in advance are not real dangers. If they are just a few minor cultivators, the Gong family's fleet can easily handle them. What he fears is that there are other cultivation forces involved behind the scenes...
really!
On the very night that Gong Chengyuan warned everyone to be on guard, a piercing and long conch shell sound suddenly rang out!
Inside the room, Chen Ye, who was meditating cross-legged, suddenly opened his eyes. He got up, went to the deck, circulated his spiritual energy to his eyes, and looked into the distance.
Cultivators have sharp ears and eyes; even in complete darkness, they can see very far with their eyesight alone.
About five hundred feet to the right of the fleet, three small spirit ships were approaching the fleet at an extremely fast speed.
"A cultivator who has been robbed?"
Chen Ye frowned slightly upon seeing this. Although he had anticipated an attack tonight, the scale of this attack was far too small.
Even if three small spirit boats were filled with people, how many cultivators could there be?
However, at that moment, a deep, aged voice came from the Giant Swamp.
"Fellow Daoist ahead, please do not approach my Gong family's fleet, or don't blame me for accidentally injuring you!"
Driven by spiritual power, the sound was like a thunderclap, rumbling and carrying far away. It was estimated that only the fourth elder of the Gong family in the entire fleet possessed such strength.
Chen Ye stared intently and immediately noticed the white-haired old man in a black robe standing alone at the bow of the towering ship.
"A cultivator at the late stage of the Spirit Gathering realm possesses such refined spiritual power!"
Chen Ye was surprised, but the image of the middle-aged female cultivator he had seen during the day suddenly flashed through his mind.
The fourth elder of the Gong family was indeed formidable, but compared to that female cultivator, he seemed somewhat inferior...
However, the small spirit ships seemed to ignore Gong Qingshi's warning and continued to sail towards the fleet at an extremely fast speed.
In just a few breaths, they were already a hundred feet away!
"Hmph, what nonsense! Do you really think I wouldn't dare to make a move?"
Seeing this, Gong Qingshi snorted coldly and didn't bother to continue talking nonsense.
He went straight to a large spirit crossbow at the bow of the ship, where members of the Gong family had already embedded more than a dozen spirit stones into the core of the crossbow's array.
As the formation was activated, the originally dark spirit crossbow suddenly began to flash with the light of the formation, and under Gong Qingshi's control, it was aimed at a spirit ship speeding towards them from afar!
"Buzz~~"
With a crisp clang, the giant arrow, as thick as an arm, instantly transformed into a streak of light and shot through the air, carrying a piercing whistling sound. The distance of four hundred feet was covered in an instant!
"boom!!"
The next moment, a deafening explosion resounded through the night sky. The small spirit ship in the middle was hit and immediately burst into flames. The hull was also blasted into pieces by the arrow!
The spirit crossbows deployed on the Giant Swamp were first-grade high-quality magic weapons, costing more than three times that of magic weapons of the same grade. When combined with the specially made Flame Burst Crossbow, their power was no less than the full-force attack of a cultivator at the ninth level of the Spirit Condensation Realm!
Under the firelight, several cultivators, their bodies charred black, screamed as they jumped into the sea.
However, the waters of the Abyss Sea contain a chilling aura, and the spiritual energy within a cultivator's body has not yet accumulated into liquid, making it impossible to completely isolate them from the outside world. Unless someone comes to their rescue, jumping in would be certain death.
The bandits on the other two ships, seeing their companion fall into the water, did not hesitate at all; they immediately turned their ships around and fled in a sorry state.
Didn't you see they're even using such powerful crossbows? Why aren't you running? Are you waiting to be sunk along with them?
As for the life or death of their companions, what does it matter to them? They are all rootless and adrift cultivators, why should they risk their lives for others!