131: Goodbye Abyss Eater

Lin Keke had been performing aerial spins in the air, wanting to showcase the performance of her new skin.

But when she followed Chen Du's gaze and looked down.

Her entire body instantly stiffened, the auntie-like smile on her face freezing solid behind her mask.

By the faint, fragmented moonlight.

The earth below seemed to be trembling.

The Meat Processing Plant, the ruined streets... were now completely submerged by a foul-smelling mudslide.

Countless mutated creatures!

Whether it was the Pig-headed Men from earlier, mutated cattle and sheep, or crawling species, they were all now crammed together.

They were madly trampling and tearing at each other, just to run even a single meter faster than the creatures beside them.

Was this really a beast tide attack? This was clearly a frantic scramble to escape!

All the monsters were fleeing with their tails between their legs, surging westward.

A massive Gluttonous Pig-Headed Man tripped and was instantly trampled into paste by the countless hooves and claws surging from behind.

No predation, no fighting.

This collective flight, violating their biological instincts, could only mean one thing—in the direction they were fleeing from, there existed a terrifying master that made even these bloodthirsty monsters tremble.

"C-Captain..."

Lin Keke's voice trembled slightly, her previous bravado completely gone.

"Why are these monsters acting like they've seen a ghost? They're running towards the Dock!"

Chen Du's face was so dark it seemed water could drip from it.

No wonder something felt off earlier in the warehouse.

No wonder they didn't dare touch all that fresh meat, no wonder that Three-headed Dog just took one look and ran.

In the face of true death, hunger was utterly insignificant!

"The Dock..."

Chen Du abruptly looked up, his gaze fixed dead ahead.

That was the seaside.

It was also where ferry no. 0819 was moored.

A thick fog rose from the sea, dense as a quilt, obscuring the view.

But even so.

Chen Du still saw it.

Deep within the churning white mist, a towering silhouette of dark red faintly pierced the sky!

And also... several twisted, terrifyingly massive shadowy outlines.

Those shadows soared into the clouds, like tentacles reaching up from the ocean floor.

Even from several kilometers away, Chen Du seemed to hear that dull, mournful sound, akin to a dying whale's lament.

"Damn! Something's wrong!"

The shock in Chen Du's eyes was replaced by a surge of violent killing intent.

That was the Dock.

It was his escape route, it was the ferry no. 0819 carrying all his worldly possessions!

Without any hesitation.

He sharply lowered his posture!

The cyan Wind-wings on his back, as if sensing their master's fury, erupted with a piercing sonic boom!

BOOM——!

The air exploded in a ring of white mist.

Chen Du charged recklessly towards that death-shrouded, foggy harbor.

"No matter what it is..."

"If you dare touch my ship, I'll Sacrifice you to king yama!"

...At this moment, the Bottom Hold of ferry no. 0819.

The atmosphere here was a hundred times more oppressive than above.

No windows.

Only the sickly green light of the emergency lamps illuminated ten faces paler than corpses.

Although silent mode was engaged, the low-frequency vibration of the engine still churned their stomachs violently.

"Wah..."

In a corner, the psychological defenses of a petite girl finally collapsed.

A sob had just begun to rise in her throat.

A powerful hand swiftly covered her mouth, the force so great it nearly loosened her canine teeth!

The girl's eyes widened in terror, tears streaming down the back of the hand.

Tang Ran's eyes were fierce as a mother wolf's. Pressed against the girl's ear, her voice squeezed through gritted teeth:

"Hold it back."

"If you want to die, don't drag everyone down with you!"

The girl forced the sob back down her throat, suppressing it until she hiccuped, tears covering her face.

Everyone huddled together like sardines in a can, sharing body heat.

Because they heard it.

Right above them.

Separated only by that thin sheet of steel plating.

Click... click... That was the sound of sharp claws tapping on the deck.

Once, twice... The sound grew near and far, making their scalps tingle and goosebumps rise all over.

One girl clutched her collar so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Everyone prayed frantically in their hearts: Don't make a sound, absolutely don't make a sound, pretend I'm air, I'm a mushroom... This feeling of waiting for death was utterly torturous.

Time seemed stretched infinitely, every second unbearably tense.

Finally.

The scraping sound above stopped.

Immediately followed by a fluttering sound of wings—the thing had flown away.

Gone?

Everyone remained frozen, not daring to move.

Until the slightly weary, yet clear and cold voice of Xia Mo came through the walkie-talkie:

"The main force of the beast tide has passed."

Whew——!

A collective sigh of relief quickly echoed through the Bottom Hold.

Several girls slumped to the floor, soaked through, as if just fished out of water.

"Oh my god... scared me to death..."

"I'd already thought about what to write in my will..."

Tang Ran also plopped down on a crate of crossbow bolts, wiping the sweat from her forehead—her hand came away sticky.

Looking at the shivering girls around her, she forced a smile uglier than crying:

"Alright, enough of this half-dead look."

"As long as we don't do anything stupid, they won't find us."

"Just wait. When the Captain returns, he'll turn all this trash into specimens and hang them on the bow!"

Her words were tough, but Tang Ran's hands were still shaking.

That was a beast tide, after all.

Could the Captain... really hold out?

On the Dock.

As the main force of the beast tide moved away.

The coastline, once as noisy as a marketplace, suddenly fell into an eerie, deathly silence.

Xia Mo stood at the bow, [sword name] gripped tightly in her hand.

She did not relax.

Her intuition as a top-tier assassin told her this wasn't over.

The beast tide had passed, but that didn't mean safety.

In the container area.

In the direction where those survivors who tried to forcibly board the ship had fled, only scattered limbs and severed limbs remained on the ground.

"All dead?"

"Something's wrong."

The veins on the back of Xia Mo's hand bulged, her gaze sharp.

The air was too quiet.

It wasn't the calm after the beast tide; it was... the clearing of the field before a top predator's arrival!

Splash——!

A sudden tremendous roar from behind, as if the entire sea had begun to boil!

Xia Mo whirled around, the [sword name] in her hand emitting a hum.

This was the divine weapon's instinctive warning in the face of an extreme threat.

In that instant, the body of this S-rank female assassin stiffened like iron.

She stared fixedly at the sea surface.

That tremor from the depths of her soul made even her fingers gripping the sword turn white.

"This aura..."

In the Sea of Despair not far from the Dock, the thick mist was violently torn apart by some immense force!

A suffocatingly massive black shadow was slowly rising from its center.

It wasn't a ship, nor a tsunami.

It was a... colossal tentacle massive enough to blot out the moonlight!

Its rough surface was covered in tons of silt and barnacles, dark purple mucus cascading down like a waterfall!

Every drop that fell into the sea stirred up huge waves!

"Abyssal... Devourer?!"

Xia Mo's mind went blank with a buzzing sound.

This rule-level deep-sea leviathan was simply not something human power could contend with.

In front of this thing, ferry no. 0819 was as fragile as a potato chip.

It's over.

All over.

BOOM——!!

Without any warning.

That sky-piercing tentacle, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, came crashing down!

The terrifying wind pressure first blew so hard Xia Mo couldn't keep her eyes open.

"Aaaaaah!!"

"Help! No! I don't want to die!!"

Piercing screams suddenly tore through the night sky, the cries of men and women mingling together, utterly desperate.

Wait?

Xia Mo snapped her eyes open.

These screams... weren't coming from her ship?

She focused her gaze.

She saw that the terrifying tentacle wasn't smashing towards ferry no. 0819.

Instead, it slammed fiercely into the depths of the mist, a kilometer away from the Dock!