162: Chapter 162 The Price of Greed

The high-frequency engine engaged in a frantic retrieval.

Lin Ye and Zhao Mengmeng's bodies were pulled away from the stone platform.

The Kangaroo Country brute's Bone Spear missed, scraping past the sole of Lin Ye's boot.

When he looked up, he only saw two figures crossing the black water and rushing into the fog.

Lin Ye held onto Zhao Mengmeng's belt, and the Wind-Chasing Claw fired simultaneously.

The three-pronged hook bit into the wooden beam on the side of the ship.

The two pulling forces intertwined, forcibly stabilizing their downward trajectory.

The black water surged beneath their feet.

Beneath the surface, several red shadows slid past, following them closely.

A Bone-Scaled Shark leaped halfway out, its ghastly white bony maw snapping toward the sole of Zhao Mengmeng's boot.

Zhao Mengmeng lifted her leg.

Her heel narrowly avoided that row of outwardly turned, barbed bony teeth.

"That almost gave me a pedicure!"

Lin Ye did not reply.

He stared intently at the stress point on the ship's mast.

The broken mast was bent by the anchor point, emitting a harsh creaking sound.

But the green feedback was stable.

It could hold.

The two of them slammed heavily onto the ship's deck.

The deck sank first, then suddenly sprang back up.

Zhao Mengmeng's shoulder hit the cabin frame, and she let out a muffled grunt, using the momentum to roll and steady herself.

Lin Ye knelt on one knee.

His left hand gripped a crack in the deck tightly, while his right arm decisively cut off the Nano-wire retraction.

The ship swayed violently.

Waves crashed against the ship's bottom, producing a dull, hollow sound.

Inside the cabin lay half of a rotten wooden table, and a black fishing net was piled in the corner.

There were no red light activity points.

Temporarily safe.

Zhao Mengmeng stood up, her gaze immediately sweeping toward the stone platform.

The Kangaroo Country brute and the two France Challengers were still on the shore.

Their expressions were ugly to the extreme.

Just moments ago, they were using Bone Spears to threaten them and snatch equipment.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Ye had flown away with her.

No negotiations.

No nonsense.

He didn't even spare them a glance.

The Great Xia Live Stream barrage went wild.

[Beautiful! Let them stay on the shore and slowly eat exhaust.]

[Threatening Mengmeng? Brother Eye just took off, not even taking them along!]

[Standard physical face-slapping; these brainless foreign guests don't deserve a ride.]

The overseas France livestream room.

[Why didn't he take them? This is a common challenge for humanity!]

[Because your people were trying to snatch equipment and push the Great Xia Challenger into the water just now.]

[Stop posting barrages; you're embarrassing us globally.]

The three people on the stone platform could not see the barrage.

They only knew that from within the Frost Gate behind them, the sound of ice armor rubbing could be faintly heard.

The awakened statues of the Sixth Floor had been drawn to the entrance by their footsteps.

The Kangaroo Country brute's face twitched violently.

They couldn't wait.

The nearest ship was the ornate pleasure boat on the right.

It was less than ten meters from the stone platform.

The hull was wide, the railings were still intact, and the carved deck looked quite complete.

The two France Challengers hesitated.

The man with the missing left ear shouted: "Don't jump! The Great Xia person didn't choose that one!"

The Kangaroo Country brute roared: "He just wants to shake us off!"

The Kangaroo Country brute didn't believe it.

His physical fitness was strong, and his explosive jump was sufficient.

As long as he jumped onto the pleasure boat and pushed forward along the fleet of ships, he wouldn't necessarily be slower than the Great Xia person.

Besides, staying on the shore longer, these two from France might turn on him.

He stepped back a few paces.

He took a running start.

The two France Challengers dodged backward, fearing they would be knocked into the black water by him.

"Don't!"

The man with the missing left ear only managed to shout half a sentence.

The Kangaroo Country brute had already rushed off the edge of the stone platform, his massive body cutting through the black fog in mid-air.

His landing point was precisely the front deck of the pleasure boat.

Lin Ye stood on his ship, watching with cold eyes.

There was no need to open his Left Eye again.

He had already scanned it just now.

That pleasure boat looked complete on the outside, but the bottom was completely rotten.

The upper deck relied entirely on a few waterlogged beams for support.

A man weighing over two hundred jin, plus his backpack and Bone Spear, slamming down.

This weight was enough to make the deck collapse.

Bang!

His feet slammed heavily onto the pleasure boat's deck.

The first sound was the wooden planks cracking under pressure.

The second sound was the beams snapping.

The third sound was the entire deck collapsing in a row.

Crack!

The seemingly intact carved deck immediately shattered, revealing a large hole.

The ferocity on the Kangaroo Country brute's face hadn't yet dissipated as he plummeted straight down.

He grabbed wildly with both hands, the Bone Spear lying horizontally on the deck, barely catching his upper body.

His legs had already passed through the bottom of the ship, soaking in the pitch-black river water.

The water surface suddenly churned.

"Save me!"

He roared in English, his voice cracking.

The two France Challengers slumped on the edge of the stone platform, pale, neither daring to move.

Immediately after, a white shadow exploded from beneath the water.

A Bone-Scaled Shark smashed through the side panel of the pleasure boat, its ghastly white maw clamping down on the Kangaroo Country brute's left leg.

The barbed bony teeth pierced straight through his leather leggings.

Blood immediately sprayed into the black water.

The Kangaroo Country brute screamed, raising his Bone Spear and stabbing wildly downward.

The Bone Spear struck the Bone-Scaled Shark's back, only scraping a string of white marks on its bony scales.

More red shadows had arrived.

A second Bone-Scaled Shark broke the water, its barbs gouging into the back of his right knee.

A third one emerged from the hole in the bottom of the ship, tearing open the flesh on his side with a single bite.

All three directions applied force simultaneously.

Pulling relentlessly.

The Kangaroo Country brute gripped the broken planks of the pleasure boat with both hands, wooden splinters piercing under his fingernails.

The muscles in his arms bulged, and a shrill, wheezing scream squeezed out of his throat.

The pleasure boat was already rotten.

The broken planks couldn't withstand this terrifying pulling force.

Crack.

The wooden plank in his hand snapped in response.

He was dragged down halfway.

Blood churned, and barbed, wide maws emerged from the water one after another.

Zhao Mengmeng stood on the ship, feeling a chill run down her spine as she watched.

Lin Ye made no move.

This person had just approached with a Bone Spear, tried to snatch equipment, and threatened his companions.

Falling into the water.

Was the path he chose himself.

The water surface exploded suddenly.

The three Bone-Scaled Sharks submerged simultaneously.

The Kangaroo Country brute's body was forcibly dragged into the depths of the black water.

The sound came to an abrupt halt.

Only half a blood-stained Bone Spear floated on the surface, which was quickly bitten to pieces by a white bony maw.

The two France Challengers slumped on the stone platform.

The man with the missing left ear's lips trembled violently; he didn't even have the strength to curse anymore.

The Great Xia Live Stream was briefly silent, followed by a deluge of barrage comments.

[Satisfying! Let you snatch! Let you threaten!]

[Brother Eye had long seen through that the ship was a paper-thin blind box.]

[Ornate Pleasure Boat: Thanks to the Kangaroo brute for providing the high-altitude fall test.]

Someone in the Kangaroo Country livestream room began accusing the Great Xia person of failing to save a life.

But it was quickly drowned out by global barrage comments.

[He was just about to snatch the Great Xia person's equipment, save him?]

[He jumped to his own death; the Great Xia person didn't touch a single hair on him.]

[This is fairness.]

Lin Ye had no leisure time to watch the breakdown of the two people on the shore.

The Kangaroo Country brute's blood had completely dispersed.

The smell of blood permeated the black water.

Real trouble had arrived.

The red dots underwater became exceptionally agitated.

The Bone-Scaled Sharks, which had previously only circled locally, began to swarm in from afar.

They no longer focused solely on targets that had fallen into the water.

They started ramming the ships.

The first ship to be rammed apart was the wreckage of the pleasure boat.

The wreckage tilted, colliding with two small boats nearby.

The iron chains tightened.

A dozen broken ships nearby all started to sway.

Their ship was also implicated.

The bow suddenly veered, colliding with a piece of driftwood floating from the left.

Zhao Mengmeng grabbed the edge of the cabin, her feet slipping, and she was nearly thrown out.

Lin Ye raised his hand to press down on her backpack.

His other hand gripped the remaining stump of the mast tightly.

The first impact came from the bottom of the ship.

Thud!

The entire ship was lifted half an inch off the water.

Zhao Mengmeng's expression changed: "They're ramming us!"

The second hit was harder.

Thud!

Beneath the surface, ghastly white bony scales grazed past the bottom of the ship.

The third hit struck the stern.

Crack.

The wooden planks at the stern cracked.

Lin Ye lowered his head.

Although the ship glowed green and could bear weight, it couldn't withstand the continuous dismantling by the piranha school.

"Where do we jump next?" Zhao Mengmeng gripped the Wind-Chasing Claw and stared at the fleet of ships rising and falling in the fog.

Lin Ye instantly opened his Left Eye.

Fog, waves, ship shadows, schools of fish.

All were pressed into his retina.

The red dots were so dense they almost blocked the entire river channel.

Ships collided and shifted one after another; the original path to survival was being violently torn apart by the school of fish.

A merchant ship with a broken mast in the distance briefly glowed green, but it was being dragged by iron chains toward a pile of dark red ships on the right.

The raft wreckage to the front left had heavy grey spots and would definitely fall apart if stepped on.

He forced his gaze deeper into the fog.

An extremely faint golden luster flickered.

The location was very far away.

It was obscured by water vapor and layers of fog, making it blurry.

Just as Lin Ye wanted to continue looking deeper.

The nerves in his Left Eye suddenly contracted, and a sharp pain struck him instantly.

He quickly closed his eyes.

Lin Ye gripped the mast stump tightly.

The Dark Weaver engine on his right arm emitted a dry, grating noise.

"Steady yourself first."

Before he could finish speaking.

A harsh gnawing sound came from the deck beneath their feet.

Crack... crack... crack...

Beneath the black water, ghastly white bony scales churned and intertwined.

The school of fish had already surrounded the ship completely.