109: Lu Sheng: You want to play tactics? Let me show you who the real butcher is!

The blazing flame cut into a patch of deathly silent waters.

The map was marked with a deep red warning—the heart of a giant sea beast nest, the deepest part of the old era's Hongze Lake.

Logically, this should be a slaughterhouse, a meat grinder.

But at this moment, the sea surface was as flat as a polished piece of obsidian; let alone a Level 6 Sea Beast, not even a mutated small fry had poked its head out.

The spirit source detection radar screen was stark white, with only that lonely scanning line spinning in vain, emitting a monotonous "beep... beep..." sound.

This eerie silence was more unsettling than the fierce battle just moments ago.

"Something's wrong."

Zhou Hai pressed his entire face against the blast-proof glass, distorting his cheeks, "Do these beasts know Little Lu is here, so they collectively bought tickets to go back to their hometowns for the New Year?"

Zhao Ze's hands, gripping the helm, were slick with sweat, his knuckles white: "Something's not right, it's too quiet."

Lu Sheng returned to the main control room and sat in the command chair, not responding.

He closed his eyes, his nostrils twitching slightly.

The stench in the air had not dissipated; instead, it had grown stronger, even becoming somewhat choking.

It was a scent mixed with rotting seaweed, aged silt, and... the lingering odor left behind by countless gathered sea beasts.

He suddenly opened his eyes.

A golden light flashed deep within his pupils, his gaze instantly piercing through the pitch-black seawater.

One hundred meters underwater, it was turbid and foul.

The silt had been churned up, with huge crawling tracks everywhere, and even fresh excrement suspended in the water.

A massive number of sea beasts had indeed been entrenched here just a moment ago.

But they had left.

Not only had they left, but they had left with discipline and organization.

"They haven't gone far."

Lu Sheng stood up and strode to the nautical chart, his fingertip drawing a heavy line behind their route, "They just avoided the sharp edge."

"Avoided the sharp edge?" Su Li frowned, the Asura Sequence blade in her hand vibrating slightly, "Sea beasts have that kind of intelligence?"

"Don't treat them as mere Floating Corpses that only know how to charge mindlessly."

Lu Sheng's voice was ice-cold, "Once they reach Level 4 or higher, they possess territorial awareness and hunting instincts. Faced with the tough bones of the blazing flame and the Zhenyuan Ship that would break their teeth, these beasts chose to..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

"Zzzzt—!!!"

A harsh crackle of electricity suddenly exploded in the communication channel, instantly tearing through the quiet inside the cabin.

Immediately following that, a heart-wrenching, despair-filled wail poured out from the public frequency.

"Help me!!!"

"Behind! They're behind!"

"The ship's bottom is leaking! So many... so many sea monsters! Ah—!"

Screams rose one after another, accompanied by the cracking sound of splintering wood and chaotic explosions.

Lu Sheng turned his head sharply, his gaze locking onto the stern.

At the edge of his vision, several kilometers away on the sea surface, flames soared into the sky, burning half the horizon red.

That was the rearguard echelon following at the very back of the fleet, composed mainly of civilian ships.

At this moment, it looked like a hornet's nest that had been poked.

The originally orderly fleet had descended into complete chaos; countless small boats were sinking amidst violent rocking, the sea surface densely packed with struggling heads, a dark mass like a handful of sesame seeds scattered about.

"They flanked us."

Su Li held her blade, her voice cold and bone-chilling.

As a possessor of the Asura Sequence, she was most sensitive to malice.

Beneath that sea area where flames soared, she sensed a greed so vast it was suffocating.

It was the killing intent gathered from hundreds, if not thousands, of predators.

"Circling around?"

Lu Sheng watched this scene, his eyes darkening slightly.

These beasts actually knew how to avoid the strong and strike the weak.

They let the toughest blazing flame and Zhenyuan Ship in the front pass, specifically going to gut the civilian ships in the back that had weak defenses and were loaded with the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

Just like a pack of wolves on the prairie, they specifically targeted the slowest ones in the flock.

"Zzzzt—Major Lu! The rear is encountering a large-scale sea beast attack! The number... the number is uncountable!"

Engineer Liu stared at the screen, where the edges of the radar suddenly exploded into a patch of red spots, his voice cracking, "They are driving the refugee fleet toward us! These beasts are herding their prey!"

On the sea surface, panic instantly exploded.

At this moment, human nature was stripped bare, leaving only the instinct to survive and the ugliest selfishness.

In order to survive, the survivor ships in the rear no longer maintained formation, but instead went full throttle like madmen, rushing forward, wanting only to get as far away as possible from that gaping maw behind them.

"Get out of the way! Don't block the path! I want to live!"

A slightly larger modified yacht directly increased its speed, its bow rearing high, and it slammed into and capsized a small fishing boat blocking its path.

The propeller shredded the limbs of those who fell into the water, yet the yacht did not slow down at all, instead, like a mad dog, it crushed the corpses and flesh of its own kind, rushing straight toward the location of the blazing flame and the Zhenyuan Ship.

Thousands of civilian ships, like a burst dam, carried despair and madness, forming a shockwave even more terrifying than the sea beasts.

"What's the reaction from Chen Yan's side?" Lu Sheng asked.

Chen Yan's angry roar came over the communicator, with the background sound full of dense gunfire and artillery.

He was ordering the rearguard destroyers to open fire and intercept the sea beasts, while simultaneously trying to maintain order using loudspeakers.

It was useless.

Once panic formed, it was like an avalanche; it simply couldn't be suppressed.

Whoever stopped would die.

A few out-of-control fishing boats, in their panic, even rammed directly into the side of the Zhenyuan Ship, emitting a dull "thud, thud" sound, shaking the massive ship several times.

"Major Lu! They're rushing over!"

Engineer Liu looked at the chaotic fleet getting closer and closer ahead, where he could even see the twisted faces of the people on the boats, and yelled anxiously, "If we let these out-of-control ships crash into us, the blazing flame's propellers will get jammed by the debris! We will be forced to a stop!"

Once forced to a stop and trapped in this chaotic quagmire, no matter how strong the blazing flame was, it would be overwhelmed by this endless sea of people and the sea of beasts following closely behind.

Zhou Hai watched this scene and couldn't help but curse: "These bastards, I never saw them run this fast usually, but when they're running for their lives, they're faster than rabbits! Isn't this just dragging us down to die with them?"

Lu Sheng watched those humans killing each other for the sake of survival, his eyes devoid of any ripples.

He didn't care how many people died.

Survival of the fittest; that was the rule he had set long ago.

However.

This bunch of idiots was blocking his path!

"Since they want to die, then fulfill their wish."

Lu Sheng's voice was not loud, but it caused the temperature in the main control room to drop to freezing.

He walked to the console, pushed aside the sweating Engineer Liu, and hovered his finger over the red weapon launch button.

"Lu Sheng, you..." Zhao Ze was startled, wanting to say something, but swallowed it back.

"Zhou Hai."

Lu Sheng's voice suddenly rang out, chillingly calm, yet permeated with an irrepressible violence.

"Here!"

"Turn around."

Lu Sheng turned around and strode toward the cabin door, his white coat snapping in the wind.

"Turn the ship sideways for me."

"Since they want to play tactics, wanting to herd people like pigs..."

A golden light flashed in Lu Sheng's hand, and the dragon devouring spear appeared out of thin air, its tip pointing at that seething sea of blood.

"Then I'll show them who the real butcher of this sea is!"

PS: Today's update (4/5)!