Chapter 19 Warship

As soon as I issued the order, the warship surged forward, cleaving through the waves at several times its original speed.

The Yin soldiers and ghosts still engaged in fierce combat ahead had no idea that the dilapidated warship would come crushing from behind. By the time they realized the warship's shadow was looming overhead, it was too late to dodge.

The prow of the ship, pushing aside the river water, instantly crushed the entangled ghostly figures to the bottom of the river. The sound of water ghosts' claws scratching at the bottom of the boat echoed as I shouted again, "Full speed ahead!"

As the warship accelerated continuously, a series of creaking sounds emanated from its hull.

The warship was beginning to buckle under the river's resistance.

This warship was not a true ghost ship.

A ghost ship doesn't simply mean a ship with ghosts on it. If that were the case, almost any sizable vessel, aside from warships protected by military might, could be called a ghost ship.

A ghost ship refers to a sunken ship that has itself become a ghost entity, or is on the verge of becoming one, nourished by Yin energy.

Such a ship can naturally sail smoothly against the wind and waves.

The warship beneath my feet was being driven by a group of vengeful ghosts. They were eager for me to die, pushing the ship to its limits but without using Yin energy to protect it. How long could the warship last?

I didn't care. From the moment I spotted the warship and stood at the stern talking to Zhao Zhuang, I had sensed that I was standing on a group of imprisoned wronged souls.

At that time, I deliberately told Zhao Zhuang "he had been tricked" to test the origin of the wronged souls beneath my feet.

It was then that I deduced that the wronged souls beneath my feet were not the village's sorcerers.

The reason I dared entrust the ship to them was to make it go faster. As long as the warship reached my designated location, it wouldn't matter if it fell apart immediately.

As the warship sped forward, white waves rose behind it, and the wind howled and whistled on board. I could barely open my eyes against the wind, forced to shield them with my hand as I observed the movements on the river's surface.

The warship, hurtling like a sharp arrow, plunged into the designated waters, stirring up waves and shattering the calm.

Before the ship had even come to a complete stop, I shouted, "Go straight for half a li, then turn left immediately, and make it fast!"

After Zhao Zhuang relayed my order, he gripped the rope binding the ghost cauldron to his waist tightly—no one knew if the dilapidated warship could withstand the force of a sharp turn. Perhaps after one turn, we would all have to jump into the river to escape.

As the warship pushed aside the waves and advanced against the wind, I heard Lao Qu shout, "Mr. Li, there's a fish behind us, a fish is catching up!"

I straightened up and looked back, and a black fish spine several meters long was already visible above the water, rushing towards the stern like a curved blade. Between the waves pushed aside by the strange fish, I could vaguely see two dark yellow horns.

Was that the second dragon fish?

I only glanced back before shouting again, "Ignore it, tell the ghosts to go full speed ahead!"

As Lao Qu roared, the warship's forward speed increased even further, and the creaking sounds from beneath the deck grew louder and louder. This warship was like an old horse that had already exhausted its strength. Although it was running wildly under the owner's frantic urging, it could collapse and die at any moment.

As I looked towards the bow again, the warship suddenly made a sharp turn in the water. As the white waves, like splashed water, rose into the sky on one side of the hull, a loud crash, like the tearing of the ship's hull, came from below the deck.

Although I didn't know where the warship had suddenly cracked, I could feel that it had become precarious.

The sudden stop of the warship seemed to have triggered some kind of restriction. A whirlpool, originally calm on the river's surface, suddenly rose, being forced towards the bow of the ship as if by some kind of force.

At the same time, Lao Qu, who was guarding the stern, shouted urgently, "That fish is about to crash into us!"

I turned and shouted, "Zhao Zhuang, you take command. Continue sailing according to the distance between the seven trees of Fish Basket Village, and charge straight ahead no matter what happens in front of us."

After Zhao Zhuang and I quickly switched positions, I reached out and grabbed the water tank holding the dragon fish's corpse and strode towards the stern.

At this moment, the fish fins rising from the water became clearer and clearer. Most of the strange fish's spine had already emerged from the water. Just like Old Liu Tou said, it was a scaleless black fish.

I placed the water tank at the stern and slapped it three times in succession. As the dragon fish's aura drifted out along the cracks in the water tank, the strange fish in the water rushed towards the ship as if it had gone mad.

As I watched the strange fish's two horns approach the hull, a cold light suddenly burst out beside me—the cold light of a javelin passed by my side, striking between the strange fish's horns like a thunderbolt.

It was Old Liu Tou who had made the move!

No one in Fish Basket Village knew this fish better than him.

After a loud crash like the clashing of metal, the strange fish, over three meters long, broke out of the waves. The strange fish, standing upright in the air, finally revealed its full form.

It was clearly a black fish with horns, and it wasn't without scales either. When it turned its belly towards the hull, the snake-like transverse scales under its abdomen were clearly visible.

The strange fish's leap into the air was not because it was in pain from the heavy blow of the javelin, but because it was going to crash down on the warship from above, destroying the ship and killing the people in one strike.