"You, you, you were also..." Duannian was so surprised that he couldn’t articulate his words, but soon his expression became even more exaggerated, "No way, I saw you go into the water before, but you didn’t have a fishtail."

Jiang Yichun didn’t pay attention to his question and instead observed how he was able to speak freely underwater.

Quickly, he found the trick, which was to separate the water from his mouth and nose while speaking. As for breathing, he was quite comfortable underwater.

"It’s all thanks to you," Jiang Yichun said.

"Huh?" Duannian was even more confused.

"Alright, the urgent task is to stop the ship from sinking. We’ll talk about these things later, and don’t let anyone else know," Jiang Yichun said.

Duannian nodded, a bit dumbfounded, and responded.

The two swam toward the bottom of the boat and quickly discovered a hole there, with seawater incessantly rushing inside.

"What should we do?" Duannian was a bit anxious and simply used his body to block the hole.

"Go get some planks and nails; I’ll hold it here, we’ll cooperate to fix the hole later," Jiang Yichun said.

Duannian guessed that he didn’t want others to see the fishtail and hurriedly swam upward.

Soon, Duannian shouted to the people on the boat, and immediately someone prepared the items and delivered them to his hands.

Jiang Yichun then examined the damaged area under the boat; it wasn’t from a rock collision because the cut was too neat, and in one section there was a protruding area, resembling marks left by the slash of a dagger with a blood groove.

Generally, killers or ninjas like to use daggers with blood grooves so they can bleed their targets quickly with one strike, facilitating assassination.

At this time, Duannian arrived with the planks, "It’s ready."

"I’ll block the seawater, you handle the repairs, is that okay?" Jiang Yichun asked.

"No problem, I’m good at this," Duannian said, patting his chest confidently.

Jiang Yichun stretched out his hands, concentrating fully to control the surrounding seawater.

The seawater no longer fiercely rushed in through the hole, and Duannian found it easier to repair, quickly nailing the planks in place.

This kind of repair can only be temporary; once the ship finds a place to dock, a professional ship worker will still be needed for a proper fix.

Duannian dared not be careless, afraid the repairs weren’t done well and would leak, so he nailed each nail especially carefully. Jiang Yichun found controlling the seawater somewhat strenuous, but he didn’t urge him.

As the repairs were nearly completed, suddenly a shuriken charged with inner strength shot toward Jiang Yichun; he was concentrating on controlling the seawater, not noticing anything. By the time he reacted, the shuriken was already close!

Seeing the shuriken about to pierce his throat, Jiang Yichun tilted his neck a bit, the tip scraped his skin, but it luckily spared his life.

"Brother Jiang, are you okay?" Duannian exclaimed in shock.

"I’m fine, keep repairing, I’ll go catch that person," Jiang Yichun said as he chased in the direction the shuriken came from. The repair was almost done, and he didn’t need to keep controlling the seawater.

Duannian felt a bit worried but knew the repair work couldn’t be delayed, so he quickened his pace immediately.

Jiang Yichun flicked his fishtail, swiftly swimming over, but saw no sign of anyone, did the person flee right after failing the strike?

This speed is incredible!

Suddenly, he felt darkness set in as his body sank sharply downward.

He understood now why the person fled immediately; the shuriken was poisoned, the attacker knew even if they couldn’t kill him, they could at least poison him.

Unfortunately, he was indeed careless.

Regret filled Jiang Yichun, but his consciousness was gradually slipping away, he closed his eyes as he sank to the seabed.

A dark figure appeared, chasing after him, but unexpectedly, a whirlpool emerged on the seabed, forcing the shadow to quickly evade, only to find Jiang Yichun’s figure had vanished.

The shadow fixated on the pitch-black seabottom for an instant, eventually turning away and departing.

Over there, Duannian had completed the repairs, immediately went to find Jiang Yichun, yet saw no sign of him, guessing perhaps Jiang Yichun had gone up to the boat to treat his wounds, then surfaced.

"It’s all fixed!" he shouted to the people on the boat, "Did Brother Jiang return?"

Bai Ruozhu felt a pang in her heart, "No, wasn’t he with you?"

Duannian’s face turned a bit pale, "He was attacked just now, he told me to continue repairing while he went after the attacker, I thought he’d already caught someone and returned."

Bai Ruozhu’s expression turned uncertain, worried, "Achun, haven’t run into trouble, have you?"

"Who attacked you, did you get a clear look?" she asked urgently.

Duannian shook his head, "No, we were both completely focused on repairing the damaged area at that time." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He thought for a moment, not mentioning Jiang Yichun’s control over the seawater, considering there were many people above with loose tongues.

"By the way, Brother Jiang’s neck got grazed a bit by the hidden weapon, but it’s not deep," Duannian added.

Bai Ruozhu felt another jolt and hurriedly said, "Assign some people to come underwater with me, spread out to search."

Gao Zhou immediately stripped off his outer clothing and jumped directly into the sea, and Teng Liu quickly arranged for several adept ship workers to dive and assist in the search.

Bai Ruozhu also jumped into the water, she took a pearl out from space, which the Emperor secretly gave her before setting off, saying it was a Waterproof Pearl from the Fusang Royal Family, thinking it might be useful on the perilous voyage.

The Waterproof Pearl doesn’t completely keep water off, but when held in the mouth, it allows someone to breathe underwater, though it doesn’t last very long.

She swam toward the depths of the ocean, now worried that Achun had really fallen into the enemy’s trap.

Who could that attacker be?

In the depths of the sea, inside a pitch-black space, someone grunted, opened his eyes slightly, but it was too dark to see anything.

He laboriously retrieved a porcelain bottle from his bosom and took a pill from it into his mouth.

Suddenly, his face changed slightly because he realized there was no seawater here; he wasn’t soaking in the water anymore!

Jiang Yichun quickly began to think, could he have been captured and imprisoned somewhere?

No, he vaguely remembered being swept into a whirlpool on the sea floor before losing consciousness. Then it seemed he fell into some place.

How could there be a place without seawater at the bottom of the sea? Breathing here was very smooth, just the air felt a bit damp.

He was drenched, couldn’t expect to light a fire. Feeling around, the surroundings seemed like soil, cold and damp.

It seemed to be a strange place, but he had no desire to explore; he just wanted to leave quickly. Ruozhu must be terribly worried.

At this moment in the sea, Bai Ruozhu was on the verge of tears; the time for the Waterproof Pearl was nearly up, her breathing already laboring.

What should she do? There was no signal from above, meaning they hadn’t found Achun. Could Achun have been captured?

In space, Quanxin suddenly jumped up, constantly communicating with Bai Ruozhu through Divine Sense, but Bai Ruozhu had no mind to pay attention to it.