Chapter 155: Sea Change

When the entire small island started to shake, Jiang Qing in the underground dock already felt something was wrong.

Watching the falling rocks from the cave ceiling and the increasingly cracking mountain, she thought to herself, “An earthquake?”

Although it was risky to go outside, facing what seemed like a worsening earthquake, Jiang Qing finally chose to climb out through the ventilation shaft.

By then, the Pirate Base had already begun experiencing widespread building collapses. Most of the Ghouls that had been taken in died untimely deaths. Along the way, Jiang Qing encountered a few Ghouls, but the remaining ones were mostly not very strong, with Physique Strength only at pink level, and she quickly finished them off.

Jiang Qing’s strength didn’t seem very high, but it depended on whom she was compared to. With Purple Innate Qi now at about 15%, she was indeed weak in front of Zuo Zhicheng. But she was strong enough to fight ordinary Martial Artists or slightly stronger Ghouls.

‘Hide in the Shadow. Stay calm, stay calm, be careful.’

Reciting the advice Zuo Zhicheng had taught her along the way, Jiang Qing lay beside a pile of ruins. ‘What’s going on? Did all the Ghouls run away because of the earthquake? What about A Zuo?’

‘No, he should be fine. With the strength he showed before, he must be fine.’

Just as Jiang Qing hesitated whether to leave the Pirate Base or stay and wait for Zuo Zhicheng, a stronger tremor came from beneath her.

Crack—crack—crack—crack, the sound of the earth continuously splitting echoed like muffled thunder from underground.

Then, as if the whole world was turning upside down, the ground beneath her feet cracked instantly. The western slope of the island broke into countless large and small rock masses like a shattered cake and fell toward the sea.

The human body instantly felt weightless. Coupled with the sight of the sky falling and the earth splitting, it was enough to make anyone freeze instantly.

Jiang Qing was no exception, because facing such a disaster-level scene, she had no ability to resist.

‘Am I going to die?’

At that moment, a figure kept leaping among the cracking rocks. Even standing on a falling rock, he could jump from one to another.

The figure moved very fast. The strong wind blew against his body, tightening his clothes and making them flutter loudly.

The one able to escape so quickly during such a disaster was naturally Zuo Zhicheng, who had just rushed out of the tower. He took a slight curve, passed by Jiang Qing, grabbed her in his arms, and continued rushing toward the eastern part of the island.

Amid the dust, loud noises, and winds so strong that Jiang Qing couldn’t open her eyes, the only thing she felt was that she was still being held, moving at high speed. Everything was a blur, and the world seemed to spin. She didn’t know how much time had passed before she realized she had been placed on the ground.

Turning her head, she saw a cliff just three meters behind her. Large clouds of dust had buried the former Pirate Base, making it impossible to see what had become of it. Only the heart-stopping crashes continued to sound, making people look down fearfully at the ground beneath their feet.

After calming her nerves, Jiang Qing looked at the man beside her. Due to his modifications and surgeries, Zuo Zhicheng had once shaved his head, but after the transformation, his hair grew back. His face had also changed somewhat because of the changes, making him look colder and stronger.

But compared to his appearance, the bigger change was in his aura or spirit.

If the old Zuo Zhicheng just seemed introverted and cold, the current Zuo Zhicheng felt not like a person at all, but like a ten-thousand-year-old iceberg. Getting close to him seemed as if one would freeze to death.

Jiang Qing stared blankly at Zuo Zhicheng and whispered,

“Are… are you Zuo Zhicheng?”

She keenly felt that the Zuo Zhicheng before her was no longer the same as before. It seemed like some earth-shaking change had happened to him.

Zuo Zhicheng glanced at her, giving off a chilling feeling. Jiang Qing felt as though he wasn’t looking at a person, but just a rock or a chair. “Let’s get ready to leave. We need to get away from here first.”

He had just observed from the edge of the cliff. The earth veins beneath were still shifting, and the large amount of information in the tower couldn’t be retrieved for now. The cave dock was also buried due to the hillside collapse.

In fact, the reason this place collapsed was probably because there were many caves hidden under the hillside, so during the earthquake activity, this area collapsed first.

‘But if these changes continue, the whole island might face destruction.’

Since the cave dock was unusable, Zuo Zhicheng and the others could only run toward the west coast of the island, where they could leave via Li Xunyi’s Island.

…

At the west coast, Li Xunyi and Liu Manwen, along with a dozen or so gathered remnants and Abel whom they met on the way, ran to the shore. They then boarded small boats left on the shore and rowed toward the large ship on the distant sea.

After everyone finally climbed onto the warship, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Liu Manwen gasped for breath, her original ladylike image long gone. Combined with her dusty, blood-stained clothes, she looked like a refugee who had just escaped. The other remnants looked much the same.

“We finally escaped.”

“Those damn things won’t chase us, will they?”

“If they dare, we’ll blast them with the ship’s cannons.”

At that moment, a sailor named Zhang Dazui stared in disbelief toward the other side of the island, the direction of the hillside.

“Sea… sea…”

“What’s wrong?”

The others turned to look and immediately turned pale with terror.

“It’s a tsunami!”

On the distant horizon, waves hundreds of meters high were surging forward. Judging by their momentum, it looked like they would completely swallow the whole island.

“Is it a tsunami caused by the earthquake?”

“What do we do!”

Liu Manwen screamed, “Hoist the sails! Set sail! Get away from here quickly!”

“Wait.” Li Xunyi stopped the crew members’ actions and pointed toward the beach. “Wait for him to board.”

On the shore, Zuo Zhicheng, carrying Jiang Qing on his back, leaped into the sea like a black meteor.

“But it’s too late. If we wait…”

Li Xunyi’s sword finger trembled, and his Flying Sword left its sheath with a soft hum. Though he still wore a faint smile, no one found it amusing. “He saved my life. I can’t just abandon him.”

As he spoke, white splashes rose on the sea’s surface. Zuo Zhicheng was swimming swiftly toward them like a torpedo.

“So fast!”

“He’s like a shark!”

In about twenty seconds, Zuo Zhicheng reached the warship. Li Xunyi threw down a rope and pulled Zuo Zhicheng and Jiang Qing aboard.