Chapter 201: Chapter 201: Listening Wave Positioning Shows Its Might

After Qian Qinghong had explained the next day’s plan in detail, she didn’t linger and rose to take her leave.

Once the cabin door closed, the gentle expression on Su Yu’s face slowly faded, replaced by a somber look. He walked to the table and pulled a slightly worn sheepskin map from within his clothes.

This map was the very same spoils he had collected when he wiped out one of the Water Snake Gang’s outer strongholds.

By the flickering candlelight, Su Yu’s gaze fixed on a spot deep within the map, heavily circled in red. His thoughts churned.

’The reef-filled waters marked by this red circle actually overlap with Qinghong’s destination... Is it a coincidence?’

He didn’t suspect Qian Qinghong. Instead, he inferred a more troublesome possibility: the Water Snake Gang most likely knew about this area too and may have even been keeping an eye on it.

The Water Snake Gang of today was a far cry from the small gang it once was. Lately, their actions had grown increasingly brazen, and they had absorbed seven or eight smaller gangs with ruthless efficiency.

It was even rumored they had found a patron in a certain Commander from the Public Security Bureau, and thus weren’t subject to much of its oversight.

’Looks like this trip won’t be so easy!’

Su Yu suppressed his thoughts and went out onto the deck.

The night was deep, and a hazy white mist rose from the river’s surface.

"SKREEE—"

A cyan streak of lightning swooped down from the night sky, landing with pinpoint precision and perfect tameness on Su Yu’s shoulder. It was his contracted Cyan-Scaled Sea-Exploring Swallow.

Su Yu affectionately stroked the little creature’s hard, smooth feathers and pulled a handful of millet from his pocket to feed it. The Sea-Exploring Swallow cheerfully pecked it all up, then nuzzled its little head against Su Yu’s cheek.

’Go...’

Su Yu issued the command in his mind. With a raise of his arm, the Sea-Exploring Swallow instantly took flight, melting into the boundless night.

...

「The next day, late in the morning.」

The treasure ship finally reached the core area of its journey.

The river was no longer wide and calm here. Instead, towering cliffs flanked both sides, the current was turbulent, and a persistent, sinister chill hung over the water’s surface.

But the most terrifying sight lay ahead in the middle of the river: a massive whirlpool, dozens of yards in diameter!

The raging current was like the maw of an abyssal beast, mercilessly devouring everything around it and emitting a deafening roar.

The treasure ship struggled to come to a stop in a relatively calm patch of water at the whirlpool’s edge.

"Drop anchor! Everyone, prepare to trap the treasure fish!"

Qian Qinghong stood at the prow, her expression grim. Her sharp command cut through the roar of the current.

Captain Qian Xin immediately directed the sailors to cast the heavy iron anchor.

Immediately after, a dozen burly crewmen came grunting and straining from the lower hold, carrying large, square wooden crates. The crates were several feet high, and the moment one was opened, a fiercely pungent stench of rot assaulted the senses. They were filled with decaying animal flesh and crushed bones.

Qian Qinghong’s expression turned deadly serious.

She casually tore off the white fox-fur cloak she wore against the cold and tossed it aside, revealing a tight, black, one-piece diving suit beneath.

Su Yu’s sharp gaze swept over her. He noticed that her normally impressive and prominent assets seemed to be bound tightly today, clearly to ensure nothing would hinder her movements in the coming fight.

Qian Qinghong’s senses were incredibly sharp. Noticing Su Yu’s gaze, she turned her head and gave him a slight smile. "Brother Su, come stand beside me."

Without a change in expression, Su Yu walked nonchalantly to her side and picked up a specially crafted, heavy-duty Iron Wire Net.

Qian Qinghong raised a hand, pulled off a ribbon, and tied her long black hair into a high, practical ponytail. A series of pops, like crackling beans, echoed from her bones as she raised her Qi and Blood to their peak.

Elsewhere on the ship, the others also readied their gear.

Tributor Pan Guanyue stripped off his shirt, revealing a torso corded with muscle like stacked stones. His right arm, which gripped a barbed steel Fish Spear, was particularly massive, with knotted muscles that made it thicker than an average woman’s waist.

He shot a sidelong glance at the net in Su Yu’s hands and sneered inwardly.

’A net? That thing might be fine for catching common treasure fish. But against the legendary Floating Light Silver Dragon Shuttle, which is as fast as lightning? The fish would be long gone before the net even unfurled!’

’This kid really is just an amateur with an undeserved reputation!’

While inspecting the gunwale, Qian Xin passed Su Yu, then stopped to jab at him coldly, "Treasure fish only surface for an instant. A slow, clumsy thing like a net is useless! It’s one thing to make a fool of yourself, but don’t you dare jeopardize the Second Miss’s important mission."

’The more he saw of Su Yu, the less he liked him. Why should a mere Skin Tempering Realm brat get so much attention from the Second Miss? And a full share of a treasure ship’s profits, no less?’

’He, Qian Xin, had slaved away for the Qian Family for most of his life and had never even gotten his own treasure ship!’

"That’s enough! Less talk! Drop the bait!" Qian Qinghong snapped.

Everyone immediately fell silent and got to work.

"SPLASH! SPLASH!"

The crew members heaved the heavy wooden crates into the river.

The moment the crates hit the water, they were torn apart by the whirlpool’s terrifying suction. Thousands of pounds of rotten flesh and crushed bone were instantly dragged into the murky depths, staining a large patch of water dark red.

All the rotted meat and splintered bone thus fell into the river, disappearing below.

In the suffocating silence, time ticked by, second by agonizing second.

Aside from the white froth and thundering roar of the whirlpool, the water’s surface remained deathly still.

Su Yu stood silently at the very edge of the prow, his eyes lightly closed. He had pushed his Listening Wave Positioning Trait to its absolute limit.

In the next instant, Su Yu’s eyes snapped open, a sharp glint flashing within them. He barked, "Ready yourselves! It’s here! Near me!"

His words made everyone freeze.

’Aside from the roiling, bloody foam, there wasn’t so much as a ripple. What treasure fish?’

"Shut your mouth, kid!" Qian Xin roared. "Even an expert on the water like Tributor Pan hasn’t said a word. What makes you so sure the treasure fish is here? Stop spreading false alarms!"

Hearing this, a flicker of doubt crossed Qian Qinghong’s eyes. But out of her trust in Su Yu, she tightened her grip on her spear.

Pan Guanyue chuckled, putting on the air of a seasoned veteran. "With a deadly whirlpool like this, the undercurrents are a tangled mess. It’s impossible to predict the fish’s location from the flow of the water. Everyone hold your positions. We still don’t know where it will surface!"

Yet, before the words had even fully left Pan Guanyue’s mouth...

"BOOM—"

The water’s surface, no more than twenty feet from Su Yu, erupted as if blasted by dynamite, a massive column of water shooting skyward!

A long, slender, and perfectly streamlined silver shadow shot out. Like a bolt of silver lightning tearing through the water, it violently broke free from the whirlpool’s pull and leaped into the air!

In the sunlight, the silver light glinting off its scales was breathtakingly beautiful!

"The Floating Light Silver Dragon Shuttle!"

Everyone’s faces fell in shock, and they scrambled to attack.

"WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!"

Over a dozen steel Fish Spears sliced through the air, descending upon it like a shower of black rain.

Two of the attacks were the fastest and most powerful!

One was the barbed Fish Spear thrown by Pan Guanyue. Empowered by the potent Qi and Blood of his mid-stage Flesh Refining Realm cultivation, and at such close range, the spear created a sonic boom. Its power was no less than that of a military-grade heavy siege crossbow!

The other was a steel longspear thrown by Qian Qinghong!

Su Yu’s senses were sharp. He spotted something unusual at a glance and was inwardly startled.

An extremely faint, ghostly cyan aura was coiled around the tip of Qian Qinghong’s spear. Empowered by that strange energy, the spear’s speed seemed to break through the limits of the Flesh Refining Realm, becoming unbelievably fast!

’That cyan energy... it’s something special,’ Su Yu thought, slightly surprised.

However, even when faced with such a dense and terrifying web of attacks, the Floating Light Silver Dragon Shuttle displayed a maneuverability that drove everyone to despair.

Its long body twisted impossibly in midair, and a silver tendon along its spine lit up. In the sunlight, its body seemed to split into seven or eight illusory afterimages!

"PFFT! PFFT!"

Pan Guanyue’s sure-hit spear only pierced through a misty illusion before plunging into the whirlpool.

Qian Qinghong’s deadly strike, wreathed in cyan energy, merely grazed the splash from the Silver Dragon Shuttle’s tailfin before stabbing deep into the riverbed.

As for the other sailors’ Fish Spears, they missed completely, not even touching a single scale.

"How is that possible? It’s too fast!"

Someone couldn’t help but cry out.

A deep sense of powerlessness washed over everyone.

This wasn’t something that could be caught by human hands! Even with everyone prepared, even ambushing it the moment it surfaced, they couldn’t even lay a finger on it!

Pan Guanyue’s face was ashen, veins bulging on the back of the hand gripping his spear’s rope. He and the Second Miss, two Flesh Refining Realm masters, had attacked simultaneously and still missed. ’Can this thing even be caught?’

Qian Qinghong’s face was deathly pale. She bit her lower lip, her eyes filled with frustration and despair.

’The Silver Dragon Shuttle surfaced in the exact spot Su Yu had predicted. If everyone had just listened to him and grouped together from the start, we might have formed a denser net of fire!’

’And my spear might have hit it!’

’But now, it’s too late!’

’The Floating Light Silver Dragon Shuttle is incredibly cunning by nature. It only leaps from the water for a moment after it has eaten its fill. Now that it’s been spooked, it will dive into that bottomless whirlpool, and luring it out again will be next to impossible!’

’Big Brother, my breakthrough is hopeless now...’ Qian Qinghong’s heart went cold.

Just as everyone was about to sink into despair...

Su Yu, who had remained as still as a statue, suddenly had a tangible glint of light explode from his eyes.

’A perfect chance!’

With a sharp flick of his right hand, the heavy Iron Wire Net shot out, spinning with a powerful spiral of energy!

He had been waiting, planning for this exact moment!

He had locked onto the Silver Dragon Shuttle’s true form with his Listening Wave Positioning long ago. The reason he hadn’t acted at the first moment was because he was waiting.

Waiting for Pan Guanyue, for Qian Qinghong, for all their spears to seal off eighty percent of the fish’s escape routes!

Then, he would cast his net!

After all, while Listening Wave Positioning could make precise predictions, it couldn’t guarantee a hit.

Especially against something as fast as the Floating Light Silver Dragon Shuttle; a hasty move would likely allow it to escape at the last second.

But now, having performed an extreme aerial maneuver to dodge the rain of spears, it was caught in a vulnerable moment. Its momentum was spent, and it had yet to build more. It had only one escape path left—a dead end!

And that dead end was exactly where Su Yu’s net was descending!

"RATTLE!"

The great net unfurled like a black iron lotus blooming in midair.

The Floating Light Silver Dragon Shuttle, having just evaded certain death, was now falling back toward the water. At that very instant, it seemed to deliver itself right to Su Yu, plunging headfirst into the center of the net!

"BANG!"

Its head slammed hard against the edge of the mesh. If Su Yu had cast the net even a tenth of a second slower, it would have scraped past the edge and escaped.

But there were no "ifs."

The tendons in Su Yu’s arms coiled like great dragons as he yanked back with all his might!

"Close!"

The mouth of the net snapped shut, trapping the priceless, Profound Tier treasure fish!

"Caught it!!!"