Chapter 4426 — I'll Ram You to Death!

Yet in the very next instant, Wei Zhao's eyelid gave a sudden twitch. After he made the turn to starboard, the jade pendant's warning did not fade at all—instead it grew shorter and fiercer still!

Still not out of danger? Wei Zhao was startled, and instinctively checked the position of the ship ahead. It really was off to the right—no mistake about that.

Not daring to dally, he swung the bow around at once, turning hard to port and circling wide. Moments later, the jade pendant's warning finally fell silent.

"Could it be that the man ahead has finally slipped up too?" Wei Zhao wondered privately. Though this whole way he had been certain the man ahead must know a safe route—otherwise he could never have come this far—and in theory, so long as one followed closely, nothing should go wrong.

Still, when it came to a choice between the man ahead and his own jade pendant's warning, Wei Zhao did not hesitate for a moment to trust the pendant. After all, men make mistakes—but the jade pendant never did.

What Wei Zhao did not know was that shortly after he turned about, once the ship ahead had passed, a gigantic whirlpool suddenly appeared in the sea—so violent and surging that it could drag any sailing ship down into it, wrecking the vessel and killing all aboard as surely as night follows day. Only a leviathan of the seas on the order of the Treasure Ship could possibly pass through safely.

Had Wei Zhao not turned in time, but foolishly kept following the ship ahead, the outcome was easy to imagine: once his vessel was destroyed, there would be no one to hear his cries for help, no god to answer them. Even with Wei Zhao's strength, there would have been not the slightest chance of survival.

"Heh heh, now let's see how you die this time!" Listening to the surging roar of the whirlpool not far behind him, Wang Baitiao threw back his head and laughed like a madman aboard Ship One. There was no need even to look in such a case—anyone following behind, even the King of Heaven himself, was dead beyond a doubt.

Unlike hidden reefs, which at least have a definite existence, a whirlpool is a headache of quite another order for any seasoned seafarer. The reason lies in its unpredictability.

No one knows where or when it will appear—but once it does, it is a catastrophe of utter destruction. Any standard sailing ship dragged into a whirlpool meets the same miserable end.

As a local boss who knew every inch of his turf, Wang Baitiao had the whole of the Demon Cold Sea at his fingertips; the distribution of reefs everywhere was engraved on his heart. Yet even he could never calculate when or where a whirlpool would appear. This particular whirlpool, however, was the one exception.

For no other reason than this: it was no ordinary whirlpool, but a legendary lure vortex.

The notion of a lure vortex exists nowhere else. Only here in the South Continent Sea has it been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. At first hearing it sounds like pure fantasy, but in truth it arises from the dense reefs of these waters, combined with certain peculiar topographical features—nature-made, and a rare natural wonder in its own right.

They say that in ordinary times the lure vortex lies hidden beneath the surface, still as glass; the common eye can neither see it nor sense it. But once a ship passes over its location, the currents it stirs up act like bait dropped into the water, and the hidden, formless giant whirlpool appears on the instant, swallowing the ships that follow in the blink of an eye. This is the legendary lure vortex.

For the first ship to pass, the lure vortex is perfectly harmless; but for the ships following behind, it is a catastrophe of utter destruction. In the past, many an expedition fleet of the South Continent had safely weathered every other peril, only to die at the hands of a lure vortex.

There was no help for it: once roused, a lure vortex appears with incredible speed and utter suddenness. And the ships following behind tend to rely heavily, by sheer force of habit, upon the lead vessel—they cannot react in the first instant, and even if they do, it is already too late.

This lure vortex was the death trap Wang Baitiao had prepared for Wei Zhao. If the sole aim were to skirt the reef cluster ahead, turning left or right would have served equally well; and ordinarily, to avoid stirring a lure vortex, Wang Baitiao would turn left. Only this time, to deal with Wei Zhao, he had chosen to turn right.

"Now there's nothing to worry about. Of the thirty-two escort agencies, thirty-one went down with all hands, and I alone sail home safe. Surely Chief Escort Hai can't blame me now!" Wang Baitiao smirked smugly and began humming a little tune.

The Four Seas Escort Agency had always been foremost among the thirty-two agencies, and with the points from this second round of perilous-sea navigation added in, all the rest—including the other four great agencies—were now utterly left in the dust. Taking first place at the grand assembly would be as easy as reaching into a bag and pulling it out.

Yet Wang Baitiao had not even got halfway through his tune when, from not far off to his port bow, a sailing ship suddenly cut in at an angle. They were far too close—almost on the point of collision—and upon its sail a giant character "Five" came into Wang Baitiao's view, clear as day.

"Good heavens! Is that a ship of the Sky-Supporting Escort Agency?!" Wang Baitiao nearly jumped out of his skin. He staggered and fell flat onto the deck, his face a mask of sheer terror, as though he had seen a ghost: "What the hell—is this a ghost ship?"

Of course he could guess that this Ship Five of the Sky-Supporting Escort Agency must be the very vessel that had been following behind him just now. But the problem was—hadn't the thing been swallowed by the lure vortex? How had it come bursting out from the side, and somehow got ahead of him, no less?

He shook his head violently and dealt himself two hard slaps, barely managing to rouse himself from the shock. Getting back to his feet to take the helm, he glared through gritted teeth at Ship Five ahead: "Damn it all—what in blazes is this thing? It actually slipped through from the left! There's luck, and then there's this—could it be it knows the safe route too?"

On second thought, Wang Baitiao quickly dismissed the notion. This contest had been proposed by the Four Seas Escort Agency on the spot; no other agency could possibly have prepared for it. Besides, he alone had surveyed this sea route—the safe path existed only in his own head. Even Hai Wuliang did not know it, let alone anyone else.

After turning it over and over, Wang Baitiao finally arrived at an exasperating conclusion: this thing from the Sky-Supporting Escort Agency truly had enjoyed outrageous, heaven-defying luck. It had failed to keep up back there at the lure vortex, and by sheer blunder had escaped disaster, swinging around from the left...

"Whatever luck you've got, you dared to cut in ahead of me—so no more playing around. I'll just ram you to death!" Wang Baitiao turned vicious on the spot. Never forget—he was a pirate born and bred, and upon seeing another ship at sea, his first reaction was never a friendly greeting, but to find some way to send it to the bottom! (A pie-from-heaven promotion—cool phones for the taking! Follow the Qidian official account (WeChat: Add Contacts – Add Official Accounts – enter dd) and join right away! Everyone wins a prize—follow the dd WeChat official account now!) (To be continued..) R527

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