茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Therefore, when the jade pendant man was worried about being left behind by Brother Kui, his fear was not being intentionally abandoned but being left behind when Brother Kui had to run due to uncontrollable circumstances and didn’t have time to take them along.

So in the dream, Old Xia amplified the jade pendant man’s concerns, intensifying his fear of the imminent danger. This induced a sense of urgency and fear of being skinned alive if they didn’t escape. When he woke up, he immediately contacted Brother Kui.

Clearly, Brother Kui also lacked channels to understand the current situation in Mengtamira City. To him, the two men staying at the scrap buying station had become his most trusted sources of information.

After listening to the jade pendant man’s distorted and exaggerated description of the situation in Mengtamira, especially his speculation about Wu Lun’s potential actions, Brother Kui allowed him and his long-haired companion to leave. They were to wait in another city where someone would meet them and wait to board the ship the next night.

Xiang Kun did not wait until dawn to follow the jade pendant man to another city and wait for the ship. Because time was pressing, he set off directly.

Through the conversation between the jade pendant man and Brother Kui, a lot of information was revealed. While no explicit details about the location or coordinates of the ship were given, it provided enough clues for Xiang Kun to make judgment.

He had a general idea of the approximate area and also shared this information with Alice, who used the related big data information about the fishing boats in the southern part of Burma and sea charts to make a more detailed inference.

Of course, he didn’t put all his hopes on Alice.

A new ability he had developed back in Star City, the “Anoxic Mode,” which greatly adapted to underwater conditions. If he were in the sea, with the aid of more “water,” it should also help him collect sensory information to the fullest extent possible.

Even though only two Blood-drinking Periods had passed since the ability was developed and there hadn’t been much targeted training leading to limited development, given the experiments in the river back in Star City, finding a ship in a large body of water, determining the status of the ship, and influencing the course of the ship should not be a problem.

The only issue was the amount of time this would take.

After all, it’s a vast ocean, and Brother Kui’s ship may not necessarily be within his estimated area. It might not be found within such a short time.

But even if he couldn’t find it directly, by the next night, he would locate the ship through the jade pendant man and the long-haired man. Before leaving the scrap recycling station, he had placed a “Super-connected Object” in the box carrying the satellite phone, a thing they would certainly take with them.

Xiang Kun left Mengtamira at night and reached the chosen sea entrance by taxi. However, he suddenly received a location plot from Alice.

The map Alice sent didn’t mark the high-probability area for a ship as Xiang Kun had hoped to help narrow his search area, but…

It marked the exact location of the opposition at a point in time.

This was clearly not a judgment made from the information he had provided.

Xiang Kun immediately thought of two possibilities: one was that Alice had identified the specific number of the ship Brother Kui and others were on by combining the information he provided with other online information, then invaded the relevant maritime authorities of Burma, and obtained the corresponding location information. He knew that domestic fishing boats or other operating vessels were required to install GPS for positioning, contact, and rescue purposes when they went to sea legally.

Considering this was Burma, and the activities of Brother Kui and others, there was also a good chance that it might be an “illegal vessel”.

So, another possibility was that Alice had tracked them by using Brother Kui’s satellite phone for location.

Among the information he provided to Alice, there were indeed the model and code of the jade pendant man’s satellite phone – which was noted in passing when he placed the “Super-connected Object”.

However, he never considered asking Alice to locate them via satellite phone previously, because he himself did not understand much about satellite phones, and there was not much time for extensive research due to the urgency of the situation.

However, the labels on the second location information Alice sent allowed Xiang Kun to confirm the latter guess. Alice had indeed located them via the satellite phone by infiltrating the network control center of the service provider of Brother Kui’s satellite phone.

How did Alice manage to do this in such a short time?

Even though Xiang Kun was Alice’s creator, and knew that she had been “expanding” and “evolving” rapidly ever since she was granted higher privileges, he was still somewhat surprised at this moment.

This rate of “evolution” seemed a bit too fast.

However, he was not worried, because Alice was his “partner”, his “superior assistant”. The stronger she was, the more she could assist him, like now, she could help him save a lot of time.

The most pressing matter now was to find Xia Tianhuo and rescue him. Therefore, he didn’t rush to ask Alice how she did it.

Upon arriving at the seaside, the day was already bright. Xiang Kun did not rush into the sea but avoided local people. He observed the surroundings for a while and found an abandoned ruin building that had not been occupied for a long time by tracking traces. He hid his clothes, shoes, socks, phone, and cash in a backpack. Wearing only his underwear, according to the route he observed earlier, he jumped into water from a location that would not capture much attention.

All he took with him into the sea were several dozen “Super-connected Object” beads.

A well-prepared Xiang Kun dived in and immediately entered the “Oxygen-saving Mode”. The beads dispersed quickly in the water forming a “protective circle” around him, helping him sense and integrate with the surrounding seawater.

Submerging himself, Xiang Kun moved faster and faster like a torpedo taking off, reaching its highest speed.

While underwater with no phone, Xiang Kun’s judgment of his bearings was still accurate.

He determined his distance from the shore, the direction of his movement, and his location by sensing the “Super-connected Objects” that had been left by his clothes and phone. He built a mental map and moved towards the direction Alice had provided before.

During this time, Brother Kui’s ship might have moved and was no longer at the previous location Alice had located. But as long as he knew its previous location, Xiang Kun believed he could find it.

By noon, Xiang Kun surfaced, floating on the water.

At this moment, besides the infinite sea, there was nothing else visible around him. There were no ships, islands, or land. It seemed as if he was the only one between heaven and the sea.

Of course, Xiang Kun didn’t come up to sightsee. Even though his speed underwater was already superhuman, he was not quite satisfied with it — still feeling that it was not fast enough.

And now, a new idea came to him.

Looking at the accumulating clouds over his head, Xiang Kun quickly assessed the conditions for “Electric Mastery Flight”.

However, he didn’t intend to use the “Electric Mastery Flight”. The speed of flying would undoubtedly be much faster than his current underwater speed. But the “Electric Mastery Flight” had a significant limitation: it needed to rely on an atmospheric electric potential gradient under strong convective weather. If Xiang Kun initiated a thunderstorm ahead of time, triggering a rapid surge of energy in too small an area, the outbreak would be too powerful and the speed too swift, making it impossible to support long-distance flights.

Previously in Star City, he had contemplated this and discussed it with Old Xia. What he accomplished underwater, under the “Oxygen-saving Mode”, was fundamentally identical to the “Electric Mastery Flight”.

So, Xiang Kun had always been seeking ways to either “borrow” from each of these abilities or to “integrate” and “utilize” them together.

And now, he thought of a method and planned to give it a try.

…

“Brother Kui” stood by the crane at the bow of the ship, in spite of the hot sun above him, staring thoughtfully into the distance.

If Teng Li hadn’t died and had been successfully kidnapped by them, according to the original plan, they should be in Thailand by now.

But as of now, their plan was utterly derailed. Teng Li died directly in a minor car accident. They improvised and kidnapped Xia Tianhuo instead. Now the question was where to go and how to survive after leaving Burma.

The reason they couldn’t sneak to Thailand as originally planned was that their contact in Thailand was associated with the big boss, Wu Lun.

But at present, “Brother Kui” wasn’t sure what attitude Wu Lun might have towards them- whether he would turn them over directly to the big boss or the Burmese officials to shift the blame, or secretly eliminate them all to avoid implicating himself.

At dawn, their accomplices left behind in Myitkyina urgently called via satellite phone, reporting that the situation in Myitkyina had become tense. The police, Wu Lun, and some other forces had all sprung into action, and it seemed Wu Lun’s men were looking for them, which eventually led “Brother Kui” to make up his mind.

Early this morning, he made contact with a connection in Indonesia, planning to use Indonesia as their next sanctuary.

While lost in thought, a young man with a flat-topped haircut and a scar on his cheek approached him, whispering, “Brother Kui, are we…really going to Indonesia?”

If Xiang Kun or Old Xia were present, upon hearing this voice, they would immediately identify it as the kidnapper’s voice from the recorded phone call.

“If not Indonesia, then where?” “Brother Kui” sighed.

“But those people in Indonesia…” Scar face leaned against the ship’s side, worriedly asking, “Can they be trusted?”

“Let’s see how it goes, we can’t count on them keeping their loyalty. They’re all just mercenary opportunists. At that time, we’ll paint them a colorful picture, letting them see the prospect of making a fortune and string them along,” “Brother Kui” replied.

The reason he hesitated until receiving the satellite call from Myitkyina was that the connections in Indonesia weren’t very stable – there were too many variables, and he wouldn’t choose Indonesia except as a last resort.

“Should we… notify the Xia family to prepare the ransom in Indonesia?” Scar face inquired.

“Brother Kui” pondered for a few seconds, then shook his head, “No, let’s wait a bit longer until things become more stable. We must find a safe way to accept the ransom.”

“Then… should we go back first and pick up the two ‘pork rind boys’?” Scar face asked.

“Of course, were we supposed to abandon them?”

“But…” Scar face hesitated, “Do you think they might’ve been caught by Wu Lun?”

“You mean Wu Lun is using them to lure us over?” Brother Kui mused, “No, the ‘pork rind kid’ has been with me since he was thirteen. Although he is lazy, despicable and slick, he would never be a traitor. Besides, if he felt guilty, I would’ve detected it in his voice. However, your concern is valid… Even if they didn’t cooperate with Wu Lun, they might have been followed anyway. We’ll observe the situation before meeting up, prior to sending people ashore to collect them.”

Scar face let out a sigh of relief and put his worries aside. Just as he was about to say something, a crew member from the second-floor cockpit ran out yelling something in Burmese while pointing at the sea ahead.

“Brother Kui” and Scar face instinctively turned to look in the direction the man was pointing, only to see a black storm engulfing the horizon at a distance.

It was sunny on their side, a stark contrast to the storm, as if they were in two different worlds.

“What the hell!”

“Brother Kui” and Scar face instinctively cursed. Not only them, but other people on the ship too, besides Xia Tianhuo who was locked in the cargo hold, had all rushed onto the deck to stare terrified at the storm that had appeared out of nowhere and was hurtling towards them.

“Damn! They didn’t say anything about a storm in this region! Fuck!” “Brother Kui” hurriedly rushed to the cockpit and barked a mix of Burmese and Mandarin at a Burmese crewman, “Can we avoid it?”

“There’s no time, we need to prepare!” The Burmese crewman shouted back.

Everyone onboard the ship began to hustle and bustle, getting ready to face the storm.

In the storm ahead, there seemed to be a violent thunderstorm raging, with constant flashes of the Electric Dragon crisscrossing. It was a terrifying sight.

Witnessing such a scene only amplified their fright, given that most of them, including “Brother Kui”, weren’t individuals who made their living at sea.

But just as they had braced themselves to confront the storm, the black storm in front suddenly dissipated quickly. Before long, everything became peaceful. The sky and sea ahead were tranquil, as if the two “worlds” had suddenly merged together, with the bright sunshine on their end encompassing everything.

As if the horrific storm that had almost scared them shitless hadn’t occurred at all.

“What just happened? Was that… a mirage?” Scar face stared blankly ahead, puzzled.

Before they could heave a sigh of relief, they noticed another anomaly-their boat had stopped moving!

Although the engine of the boat was still running, and they could clearly hear the sound, they could see from the seawater splashing beside them that the boat was literally static!

A few seconds later, the sound of the engine also disappeared, and the whole boat lost power, silently floating on the water.

But the strange occurrences didn’t end there. Those standing by the ship’s side were alarmed to find that the ship’s body had become utterly still, not even feeling the sensation of floating!