"What happened?" Zhai Heng asked hurriedly. He glanced behind them and around their boat. However, he did not see anything. Frowning hard, he turned to look at Han Ruochen and asked, "What’s going on?"

Han Ruochen, however, did not respond. Her attention remained on the glowing system screen that was hovering before her eyes.

{Guardian Resonance Active.}

[Nearby Vessel Detection: Two unidentified speedboats are approaching rapidly.]

[Estimated Arrival: 5 minutes.]

[Threat Possibility: 90%]

Han Ruochen sucked in a breath. It seemed like they had been chasing after her for a long time; it was her lack of attention that caused such a tragedy to happen. She should have paid better attention to her surroundings. Now look at this: one small mistake and their lives were about to fall into danger.

Tong Zhaodi noticed that Han Ruochen looked quite worried and suddenly her heart could not help but jump to her throat. "What...what is it?"

"We have got company." Han Ruochen hurried to the steering wheel and turned the ignition on. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

The second she finished speaking, the sound of engines roaring through the darkness echoed and another second later, white lights burst through the fog in the distance. Han Ruochen cursed and turned the boat away; she did not want to deal with treasure hunters at that moment. She had wasted a lot of strength under the sea, and given that these people were used to stealing treasures, they might have weapons.

The chances of dealing with guns using a machete were close to none.

However, even though Han Ruochen was skilled in driving the motorboat, even if she tried her best, there was no way she could leave the two high-speed boats that were chasing after her. Gusts of wind flew past them as water rose high in the air. Two black speedboats that were enveloped in the darkness, sliced across the water at high speed. With their engines roaring loudly in the silence, the two of them started to circle their boats like they were predatory sharks.

Small whirlpool started to rise around their boat, making it jostle.

"Ouch!" Tong Zhaodi was knocked off her feet because of the rocking motion. She raised her head and looked at the two treasure hunters’ boats and gulped hard. "I should have checked the almanack before coming to the sea."

Zhai Heng cursed out loud. But he dared not to look away from the men who were armed with hooks, rifles and the diving gears. They all were looking at them while standing aboard their vessels. Their boats were larger and faster than Han Ruochen’s motorboat. They were painted matte black with no registration numbers on their boats.

Han Ruochen glanced at their boats and the lack of registration numbers and narrowed her eyes. Sure enough, she was right; these people were illegal treasure hunters. They had no right to hunt for fish or treasure, as they had no licence from the government. But that was not the worst thing. These people had no moral or bottom lines; they would kill, wreck or sink the boats of their competitors if they did not get what they wanted and there was no guarantee that they would let them go easily.

After all, people like them firmly believed that only the dead could keep a secret.

One of the hunters picked up the loudspeaker that was placed on his boat and spoke through it. "Cut the engine off and hand over your cargo if you don’t want to die."

As the man spoke, a beam of circular light fell on the cargo that Han Ruochen had collected with the help of the sea guardian, including the sea ginseng that she had collected at the risk of her life. Hearing his demand, Han Ruochen narrowed her eyes dangerously. Maybe the sea guardian could sense what was going on with her and its emotions were affected by the bond that the two of them had. It slowly rose over the surface, looking at the illegal treasure hunters.

Its eyes narrowing dangerously, as its emotions started to mirror Han Ruochen.

The leader of the illegal hunters sensed something looking over and turned to look at the beast. When he saw the glittering cold eyes, he stiffened. However, a second later, he looked away. He did not fear the thing because he knew that even if there was a sea creature lurking under the water, there was no way it was going to fight with them for these people. After all, how could a beast fight for a bunch of humans?

He turned to look at his men who were looking at the beast as well and barked, "What are you looking at? That thing is not going to harm us as long as we do not bother it. Snatch the cargo and focus on what is important."

The speedboats started to move toward them and Han Ruochen cursed inwardly.

"You step back!" Zhai Heng pulled Tong Zhaodi behind him and took out the gun that he always carried with him after getting attacked the last time. He pulled the trigger and attacked the man who was steering the speedboat toward them.

BANG!

"Ahhh!" the man screamed as the bullet grazed past his fingers. Grimacing slightly, he lowered his head and looked at the blood that was trickling down his fingers and cursed. "Damn it! That bastard." Behind him, another man took out a gun and aimed at Zhai Heng, who dodged in time causing the bullet to be embedded deep in the wall of the motorboat.

Tong Zhaodi, who pressed herself against the floor and stifled a scream. She looked like she was on the verge of tears as she tried to hold back her cries.

Han Ruochen gritted her teeth as she tried to find her way out of the trouble. These men seemed to be determined to cause trouble for her and the rest and she had no desire to hand over her cargo. But what was she supposed to do—

DING.