茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Underwater, Xiang Kun also used the “Super-connected Objects” to “activate” the environment for “Electric Mastery Flight,” which in turn gave him a more extensive range of perception and more control over the water.

In the storm that he triggered, the waves were as if Xiang Kun was stirring water in his own washbasin at home, giving him a great deal of control. He could make the waves rise or grow big at will.

The sky and the earth seemed to be linked by the storm because of the rainwater and enough water vapor. This allowed his strong perception of water under the “Oxygen-saving Mode” to spread from the seawater, enveloping everywhere the storm went.

Under such circumstances, the storm he initiated did not consume energy as quickly as during the “Electric Mastery Flight”. It lasted longer and moved quickly in a certain direction under his guidance, like his personal “territory” or “BUFF”. He could also greatly increase his speed underwater with it.

The storm that Brother Kui and others saw from a distance was the one Xiang Kun had initiated.

Upon discovering Brother Kui’s boat and preliminarily judging that he had found his target, Xiang Kun actively and quickly harnessed the energy from the storm, which is why when Brother Kui and his people saw the storm, it was full of thunder and lightning, appearing as if a terrifying violent storm was about to strike.

After expelling the remaining energy in a short time, the storm subsided, and Xiang Kun arrived underneath Brother Kui’s boat.

Xiang Kun did not immediately board the boat to eliminate everyone by force and rescue Xia Tianhuo.

He was fully capable of doing so, but if he had, there would be many unspeakable things afterward. After Xia Tianhuo returned, he might face many investigations and might get himself into trouble.

So the method Xiang Kun used was to treat this boat as a whole and set up dozens of “Super-connected Objects” spheres to guide the fear projection of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving” to affect the people on the boat, letting them “judge” themselves.

Xiang Kun was now very clear about how the fear projection works. It’s itself just a spark or a primer. Each person’s individual mental state, what they fear, and their attitude towards fear are the fuel.

How big the fire can eventually become and how it burns, or even whether it would explode, depends on the type and amount of fuel.

From his past experiences of deploying emotional projections, Xiang Kun knew that if he wanted the fear emotion to have a greater effect, he could generate the same type of emotion on the boat before the emotional projection.

So he first used his control over water to restrict the boat’s movement on the water surface. Then, using the influence of the “Super-connected Objects,” he turned off the boat’s engine, stopped the electricity, and made it fall into a bizarre state of stillness to first create a sense of fear of the unknown and strange among the people on the boat.

Next came the arrival of the fear projection from the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving.”

The more a person has done wrong, the more deceptive they are and the more secrets they’re hiding, the bigger the impact of the fear projection.

Even some people who make ruthless decisions and show no guilt or unease about their wrongdoings, building a theory and an excuse to convince themselves, still have fear inside them, even if they don’t know it themselves.

Under the influence of the fear projection from the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving”, the fear from deep within that comes to light is greater if it’s usually buried deeper. The shock when it’s triggered is greater, and all the reasons and understandings they use to convince themselves instantly crumble, forcing them to face feelings they usually refuse to acknowledge.

The massive “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster” illusion they see is the “battering ram” that breaks down their psychological defenses.

The most powerful aspect of emotional projection lies in its continuous emotional impact. Once the “fuel” is ignited, it continues to “burn”.

Of all the people, Brother Kui was obviously the most affected.

Being a relatively selfish and suspicious person, the current environment and the situation they encountered heightened his emotions.

Combined with the actions of others under the influence of emotional projection, this further reinforced his surprise, stimulated his emotions, and led to more aggressive behavior from him.

Then Xiang Kun opportunistically used the “Super-connected Objects” to give some guidance, such as discreetly turning on the radio.

As a result, the emotions of everyone on the boat, like a chemical booster, exploded entirely.

If Xiang Kun only wanted to deal with the people on this boat, he wouldn’t even have to board. He could continue to manipulate the situation through the “Super-connected Objects” orbs he placed on the boat until they finish “judging” themselves.

But his main purpose this time was to rescue Xia Tianhuo. Therefore, he had to board the boat to ensure that the people “ignited” by the “fear projection” wouldn’t harm Xia Tianhuo while acting impulsively.

He didn’t need to stand guard in the cabin where Xia Tianhuo was. As long as he was on the boat, he was confident he could prevent any threatening actions from others.

Just like in the scrapyard in Myitkyina, Xiang Kun was now again treating the situation like playing a complete map in a 2D game, except this time the map was on a ship.

What everyone is doing, their condition, their possible behavior trends, as well as the overall situation’s direction, are all within his perception and calculation.

…

After twenty minutes, Brother Kui, who had expended all the ammunition in his revolver, was crawling towards the stern of the ship, clutching his abdomen and dripping with cold sweat. A long trail of blood followed his path.

He had been stabbed a dozen times, bleeding continuously like a punctured water bag.

All these stab wounds were inflicted by the tall slim young man, Xiao Wu, who was now entangled with Scar face, their condition unknown.

Actually, in terms of skill, ruthlessness, and combat technique, Scar face was much superior to Xiao Wu. Even with Xiao Wu holding a knife, once entangled, Scar face would still have a chance to counterattack.

However, the issue was…

Scar face was shot once — and it was Brother Kui who fired the gun.

When the Burmese on the ship began to “rebel”, the remaining kidnapper on deck was quickly injured by three Burmese crew members. Brother Kui arrived gun in hand, a melee broke out, and he managed to kill the three Burmese with four shots. However, his shoulder was also grazed by a fire axe.

While checking on the Burmese, Brother Kui suddenly noticed Scar face making strange movements and lunging towards him. Subconsciously thinking that Scar face, a long-time subordinate, was trying to off him, flashes of past conflict with Scar face flooded his mind. Remembering Scar face’s sinister and fierce expressions, he raised his hand and shot at Scar face.

Once Scar face was shot, Brother Kui felt a numbness in his waist, and then realized he had been stabbed.

Xiao Wu, who had just been cursed and had his head bashed in the cockpit by Brother Kui, was holding a knife and furiously stabbing him in his stomach with a monstrous expression and in a state of madness.

He just then realized that Scar face was trying to stop Xiao Wu’s attack, not harm him.

However, the revolver only held five bullets which were all fired, so for a moment Brother Kui could only let Xiao Wu stab him while he screamed and struggled.

In the end, it was Scar face, even after being shot, who came over to engage Xiao Wu, allowing him the opportunity to escape.

Brother Kui, lying on the ground, was well aware that with the severity of his wounds, even with immediate medical attention and a rush to the ICU, his fate was sealed. Survival seemed impossible, especially considering their current circumstances at sea.

He was crawling, he was struggling, but it was only natural instinct to want to escape, to put more distance between himself and Xiao Wu, who wanted him dead.

In fact, he didn’t know where he was trying to crawl to.

Brother Kui was getting colder and weaker, the pain slowly subsiding, yet the revolver in his hand, devoid of bullets, remained tightly gripped.

Knowing that he was about to die, the fear, tension, and chaos in Brother Kui’s heart slowly dissipated, replaced by a replay of past memories in his mind.

These were not significant events. It wasn’t of the crimes he committed, the money he made, the people who flattered and complimented him, the number of subordinates who were loyal to him, the number of people he scared and terrified, but rather inconspicuous moments he wouldn’t have given a second thought to in the past.

Eating mixed noodles by the roadside in his hometown early in the morning, listening to the chatter of the neighbouring old man and woman, watching the hustle and bustle of commuters on their way to work or school;

Sitting in the backseat of a car driving along the Winding Mountain Road, opening the car window, and feeling the cool mountain breeze;

Punching the sandbag for more than ten minutes, panting like a bull, gulping down cooled boiled water;

Past three in the morning, exiting the door with a few brothers after a late-night snack, looking up at the stars and moon in the sky.

He used to think that if his life wasn’t full of vigor or feats of heroism, if he wasn’t driving the most luxurious cars, sleeping with the most beautiful women – then life meant nothing, it had no meaning. The world only valued results, not the means of achieving them.

But now he suddenly found that his past thoughts were just a joke. He had never truly discovered what he truly wanted.

Having slowly crawled towards the stern, something in his heart moved him to lift his head. At the spot he and Scar face had earlier searched, the location from which the eight-armed and eight-eyed sea monster illusion had boarded the ship, sat a bald man wearing only a pair of shorts. He looked at Brother Kui indifferently from his perch on the gunwale.

So…is this the one who’s come to collect my soul?

After this last thought flashed through his mind, his pupils gradually widened, his heart stopped beating, and he fell silent.

Half a minute later, the staggering footsteps sounded. A tall and thin young man with a bloody army knife came hobbling over, supporting himself on the wall of the ship’s body with one hand while clutching his belly with the other, it was “Xiao Wu” who had stabbed “Brother Kui” dozens of times.

Obviously, he had emerged as the ultimate winner in the struggle against Scar face.

Yet, even with a knife in his possession and Scar face shot, he was injured by Scar face before he died. The fresh blood constantly oozing out from the cracks of his hand, which was pressing against his stomach, showed that his injury was not a slight one.

Without a word, he walked over and began to stab at the chest of “Brother Kui” lying on the ground. Only after a few stabs did he realize that the other party was already dead, as there was no reaction.

He sat down helplessly on the ground and then noticed that there seemed to be a smile on “Brother Kui”‘s face, and his wide-open eyes were staring at the side of the ship’s stern.

He also looked up, but there was nothing special in that direction.

“Xiao Wu” took a brief rest, clutching his abdominal wound, and with a painful effort, stood up. First, he went to the cockpit to stop the ship, then descended and entered the cabin, and walked over to where Xia Tianhuo was being held.

What he did not know was that as he was walking down the cabin corridor, a figure was silently following him not far behind, barefoot, without making a sound.

…

Although Xia Tianhuo in the cabin wasn’t hooded like he was at the scrap recycling station, his eyes were still covered with a piece of cloth. Fortunately, his mouth was not gagged, allowing him to breathe more freely.

Since being kidnapped, he had only eaten a few pieces of dried meat and had barely drunk any water. His body was now incredibly weak.

It wasn’t just the lack of food and drink; the most important problem was that even for urinating, it had become extremely difficult. Especially after getting on the ship, the kidnappers deliberately refused to let him urinate, forcing him to wet his pants when he couldn’t hold it anymore. As a result, the cabin where he was being held smelled of urine mixed with various other odors, all of which were extremely foul-smelling.

Under the impact of this humiliation, coupled with his suspicion that his ransom might not come through, causing the kidnappers to harm him, Xia Tianhuo was always ready to fight.

Just now when something unusual happened on the ship and it suddenly stopped, he in the cabin also felt it.

At first, he thought the ship had stopped and was anxiously waiting for someone to take him up, ready to seize any opportunity to resist.

But soon he realized that something was not right. Even when moored, the ship should not be this quiet. It seemed to have transformed from a vessel floating on the water to a stationary object on land. All around, there was an eerie silence. The sound of the waves had disappeared, the engine of the ship also went silent. He could faintly hear shouting and running on the deck above which added to a strange unreality.

Then, the noises became more chaotic, which left him wondering about what was happening above. But vaguely, he seemed to hear something gnawing at the ship and an unknown beast growling.

For some reason, he was reminded of a childhood incident when he was playing with friends on the rooftop and one of them accidentally pushed him. He almost fell off the building.

If he hadn’t grabbed onto the railing, and if his friend hadn’t shouted for an adult who then pulled him back, he might have died then and there.

Right now, listening to the various shouts from the outside, he mysteriously envisioned that the kidnappers would throw him into the sea, and his body would keep sinking. Waiting for him at the bottom of the sea would be a monstrous creature with a wide gaping mouth, so vast that he couldn’t see its entirety.

It was a gunshot that finally woke him from his reverie.

As the gunshots continued, he didn’t know what was happening to the kidnappers, and wondered if the authorities back home had been notified and arranged for a special rescue operation.

With a mix of anticipation and anxiety, he finally heard the footsteps approaching.

He could feel the other party panting heavily, walking into the cabin clumsily and then cutting the ropes binding his hands and feet, followed by collapsing on the floor.

Freeing his hands and feet, Xia Tianhuo took off the blindfold himself, and saw a tall, thin young man lying on the ground with a knife in one hand, pressing his stomach with the other, bloodied and sweating, and weakly looking at him.

“What…what is happening to you?” For a moment, Xia Tianhuo was a bit flustered. He checked the outside of the door and found no other people. He returned and squatted next to the young man and asked, “How did you board the ship? Where are the kidnappers? How many of you are there?”

Understandably, he assumed that this severely wounded, tall, thin young man had come to rescue him. Even though he didn’t quite match up to his imagined image of a “warrior” from the special forces, this man had actually saved him.

“I…I want to go back to my country.” The tall young man “Xiao Wu” panted, struggling to speak: “When…when you return, help me…help me beg for mercy…I want to surrender…I…I have made merits, I want to reduce my sentence…I want to go home…”

Upon hearing this heavily accented Mandarin from the Gui Hai region, Xia Tianhuo immediately recognized him as one of the previous kidnappers.

This inevitably plunged him into a state of bewilderment and shock. Was there infighting among the kidnappers?

Xia Tianhuo hurriedly asked, “Where are the others? The ones with guns? What happened upstairs?”

“Xiao Wu” was evidently growing increasingly disoriented, his words a murmur: “They’re dead…all of them are dead…I made merits…I reduced my sentence…There…there was a sea monster…No…it’s an illusion…No, it’s not…not an illusion…it’s real…it’s real…it’s huge…so many eyes…so many hands…it’s real…”

As his voice faded, and his eyelids grew heavy, “Xiao Wu” went silent.

After checking “Xiao Wu”‘s pulse and breathing and confirming he was still alive, Xia Tianhuo gently laid him down, checked the wound on his abdomen, removed his own jacket to tie around the wound to stop the bleeding, then, clutching the young man’s military knife, he left the cabin.

Once on deck, seeing blood smeared everywhere and bodies displaying horrific traces of violent deaths, even the mentally prepared Xia Tianhuo was stunned for a while before retrieving his senses.

He first inspected the entire ship, confirming that there were a total of eight people onboard. Six of them were already dead, leaving only him and the badly wounded young man.

Of course, he didn’t realise that there weren’t eight people on the ship, but nine. Xiang Kun stayed not far from him all along, maintaining a discreet distance.

Xia Tianhuo entered the cockpit and quickly dialled a known contact with the satellite phone. After quickly briefing them on the situation, he followed instructions and began operating the equipment in the cockpit. Once the ship’s course was altered, Xiang Kun grew relieved.

Xiang Kun had known that Xia Tianhuo had experience working on ocean freighters and would have some basic understanding of the onboard equipment. Given the current circumstances where all crew members were incapacitated, at least Xia Tianhuo wouldn’t be stranded on the ship.

Xiang Kun had noticed that Xia Tianhuo seemed to be affected by the fearful emotional projection of the “Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving”, which was somewhat surprising.

Based on Xiang Kun’s past experience, emotional projections typically directly influence through sensory stimuli, with vision having the most significant impact.

With Xia Tianhuo locked in the ship’s cabin below, normally, he would almost not be affected, or only affected minimally.

Clearly, along with the constant enhancement of Xiang Kun’s various abilities and continuous upgrades of the “Super sensory Item System”, the impact of emotional projection was also strengthening in all aspects.

Fortunately, Xia Tianhuo’s straightforward nature meant he was minimally affected.

After Xia Tianhuo fetched a first-aid kit from the cockpit and returned to the cabin to help “Xiao Wu”, Xiang Kun returned to the water, planning to swim back alone.

According to Xia Tianhuo’s communication, he would first reach the nearest coast in Burma, where someone would pick him up, and then he should be safe and could quickly return to his country. Meanwhile, at this point, the person he was in contact with should have informed the Xia Family.

Of course, to be on the safe side, Xiang Kun controlled a “Super-connected Objects” bead to stay in Xia Tianhuo’s pocket before leaving.

Guided by the directional location of the “Super-connected Objects” placed next to his mobile phone, Xiang Kun returned to the point where he entered the sea just as the sun was setting. After coming ashore and finding his hidden clothes and mobile phone, he dressed and hailed a cab to Myitkyina.

This rescue operation could be said to be incredibly efficient. The majority of the time was spent on investigation and travel, with the actual “rescue” process taking less than an hour. Plus, he didn’t expose himself. If he were to score his own performance, Xiang Kun felt that he deserved an eight out of ten.

Of course, two points should be credited to Alice. Without her help, he might not have found the target so quickly.

After completing the rescue operation, Xiang Kun planned to sneak back to his country the same way he came, purchase an air ticket from the city he arrived from. This would ensure his travel record appeared normal. Plus, he was familiar with the route because he had travelled through it, reducing the chances of unforeseen complications.

Normally, his Blood-drinking Period should come around midnight, around eleven or twelve o’clock.

Given his abilities, he could hold on for an additional twenty or so hours, or one day upon inducing Old Xia’s extreme calm and rational emotions through an “Emotion Infused Objects”. This should be fairly secure.

Late at night, Xiang Kun reached Myitkyina. The driver was incredibly tired and wanted to rest. Xiang Kun didn’t plan on hiring another car either. He decided to run towards the border overnight.

However, to his surprise, before he even left Myitkyina, a massive riot broke out in the city.