Chapter 937: Danger

Chapter 937: Danger

Within the frigid depths, Li Huowang kicked his fins, gripping a combat knife in one hand and Yang Na’s hand in the other, trailing behind Ling’er.

Glancing downward at the desert floor below, Li Huowang felt a strange, unsettling sensation, as if he were not swimming through water, but drifting through the empty sky.

"Could their Si Ming truly reside in a place like this? Last time, the Si Ming’s projection was a factory; what could it possibly be this time?"

Li Huowang scanned the surroundings intently, searching for anything that might serve as a projection for the deity.

But the place was barren, visible from end to end; aside from the occasional passing fish and vast, undulating dunes of sand, there was nothing—hardly enough substance to anchor a Si Ming’s manifestation.

If it were a projection, it should at least show signs of life, or pose a threat to them.

Just like the illicit drug factory from before; if Li Huowang’s judgment held, those drug lords were merely the limbs of that Si Ming.

At that moment, he felt a tug on his arm and turned to see Yang Na.

Wearing an oxygen mask, she could not speak, but she pointed urgently toward the surface.

Li Huowang squinted, noticing ripples beginning to spread across the inverted mirror of the sea surface. "It’s raining outside."

"Attention! Everyone, return to the ship immediately! A typhoon is closing in. I repeat, return to base at once!" Zhao Shuangdian’s anxious voice crackled in his ear.

Hearing this, the group abandoned their search, turning instantly to swim toward the surface.

The ocean’s temperament was fickle; the typhoon had arrived with terrifying speed.

Breaking the surface, Li Huowang tore off his mask, stunned to see dark clouds looming like a collapsing sky, pressing down upon them.

Watching the lightning roar within the gloom, Li Huowang swallowed hard, his complexion turning deathly pale.

"What is happening? Could this entire storm be the Si Ming’s projection? Why is this one so powerful?"

He was a Si Ming himself, yet if a projection could be a mere human, what kind of entity was this terrifying force?

"Get to the ship! We’ve been discovered; this is an ambush!" Li Huowang screamed into the gale.

Clearly, after the success of their last strike, the Si Ming within the other elephant did not intend to let them repeat their tactics.

Whatever this was, they had been waiting in ambush all along.

Driving rain lashed their faces, but they pushed forward, straining every muscle toward the tossing cruise ship in the distance.

Amidst the chaos, Li Huowang felt the light above vanish, and as he looked up, a suffocating dread seized his heart.

The cruise ship, caught in the vortex, had been tossed into the air and was now descending directly toward him, shrouded in sheets of rain.

A piercing shriek filled his ears; his body moved on instinct, and he dove desperately into the depths.

Before he could swim far, a massive shockwave slammed into him, hurling his body through the water.

Fortunately, there were no solid obstacles; he crashed into a submerged sand dune, the ringing in his ears replaced by a deafening roar.

Summoning his last ounce of strength, he clawed his way out of the sand, only to find himself face-to-face with the severed head of Ba Chengqing.

He seemed to be alive; as he looked at Li Huowang, his tattooed eyelids flickered. "Is the... Gu God... dead?"

Li Huowang’s heart skipped a beat as he frantically searched for Yang Na.

The ship had been torn asunder, its wreckage sinking into the underwater desert like the carcass of a fallen whale.

He scanned the water in panic until he saw movement in the upper left, but as he turned, he realized it was Ba Nanxu, her body crushed and mangled.

She must have been struck by the falling debris.

Her oxygen mask was gone, yet she swam with desperate intensity, seemingly searching the wreckage for someone.

Though she moved, Li Huowang knew her injuries were fatal; the two Si Mings who governed pain were already dead.

He then spotted Qing Wanglai, alive and uninjured, dragging Zhao Lei toward a patch of water clear of falling debris.

Seeing Chen Hongyu’s bloated body tumbling nearby, Li Huowang kicked toward her.

But as he reached out to steady her, he saw a jagged iron plate driven straight through her face. Fulan was dead too.

"Yang Na! Yang Na!" Li Huowang cried out, his heart burning with desperation, but she was nowhere to be found.

Just then, a pale, slender hand rested on his shoulder. His heart leaped with hope, but as he turned, he saw a "mermaid."

It was Yang Na, but only her upper torso remained; in the chaos, her lower half had been severed by some unseen force.

Entrails and organs spilled from the wound, bleeding into the water, trailing behind her like the crimson tail of a mermaid.

She was long dead; blood loss had turned her skin a ghostly, translucent white, a morbid beauty like a withered rose.

Carried by the deep-sea currents, the corpse of Yang Na drifted in a circle around him, her tail swaying in the dark.