But if he went out now, a torrential downpour was still raging outside.

He grit his teeth. ’Screw it, I’ll just stay here for now.’

The downpour outside lasted for a full half-hour, during which the water level rose to nearly thirty centimeters.

Fortunately, Fang Chenyi had a rocking chair in his woven bag. He took it out, set it up in the tent, and lay back, watching the rainwater at his feet and listening to the RUSHING sound outside. For a moment, it had a certain charm.

Half an hour passed, and the heavy rain finally stopped.

Wearing only a pair of underwear, he had just crawled out of the tent when he was blinded by the bright sunlight.

Squinting at the clear, cloudless sky, Fang Chenyi truly understood just how quickly the weather could change here.

If not for the puddles on the ground, it would be hard to believe that just a moment ago, the area had been in the middle of a torrential downpour.

「Meanwhile, aboard the Ocean Harmony.」

Fang Jinjin and the others had already boarded the cruise ship. Instead of resting, Fang Jinjin changed into a clean set of clothes and then waited anxiously in the ship’s control room for news of her brother. Not far from her, Liu Yishou was issuing a series of commands.

As for Qi Xiaotian, he was not on the cruise ship at the moment.

After safely seeing Fang Jinjin onto the cruise ship, he had taken two men and piloted a yacht back to the area of the sea where they had jumped from the plane.

He wasn’t alone. Three other speedboats from the cruise ship were also searching, having split up to cover different directions.

As he followed the plane’s original flight path, Qi Xiaotian’s heart grew tighter and tighter.

Logically, the explosion had occurred just over a minute after he himself had jumped. This meant that if Brother Fang had also jumped, he couldn’t have gotten very far.

However, he had already expanded the search radius by several dozen nautical miles, yet there was still no sign of Brother Fang.

Not only was Brother Fang missing, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of his parachute either.

But Qi Xiaotian refused to believe the worst-case scenario. He was convinced that Brother Fang had definitely jumped from the plane; they just hadn’t found him yet.

Yet, he knew in his heart that when he had parachuted down earlier, he could clearly feel the weather had been quite good. The wind over the sea wasn’t strong, and aside from it being dark, it was perfect weather for a jump.

As time went on, Qi Xiaotian returned to the Ocean Harmony once to refuel and swap out his two men.

He didn’t take a break, however, insisting on staying on the boat to search for Brother Fang.

But it was all in vain. In the blink of an eye, it was noon. Seeing the dark clouds that had suddenly gathered on the horizon, Qi Xiaotian knew a torrential downpour was imminent.

That itself wasn’t the main problem. The real fear was the hurricane-force winds that might accompany the rain. The speedboat he was on would never be able to withstand them.

Helpless, the four speedboats had no choice but to return to the boat bay beneath the Ocean Harmony.

Just as they docked the speedboats in the bay, the sound of large raindrops RAT-A-TAT-TAT-ing against the sea surface erupted outside.

He led his men to the internal elevator and went straight to the control room. Pushing the door open, he saw Liu Yishou staring at the radar screen, still searching.

Seeing Qi Xiaotian and the others walk in, Fang Jinjin immediately shot to her feet. She jogged over to him and asked nervously:

"Brother... Brother Xiaotian, did you find my brother?"

Qi Xiaotian was already feeling terrible, and hearing Fang Jinjin’s words filled him with even more self-reproach.

He shook his head, at a loss for how to comfort her.

"Captain, the radar isn’t picking anything up. We still have a helicopter on the cruise ship. Why don’t the two of us expand the search area after the rain passes?"

Liu Yishou let go of the radar controls, turned his head, and spoke to Qi Xiaotian with a serious expression.

But Qi Xiaotian just shook his head. "No, you should stay on the cruise ship. It can’t be without a commander. I’ll take two men and go search. Besides, these high winds won’t affect the Ocean Harmony much. Start the ship moving in this direction immediately, and arrange for people to be on deck with binoculars, looking for any sign of Brother Fang."

After speaking, he turned and walked out of the control room.

The wind was too strong for the helicopter to take off, but Qi Xiaotian went straight to it anyway. He knew that thunderstorms at sea came and went quickly; it was normal to have three to five rain showers in a single day.

He had to wait. The moment the storm passed, he would take off in the helicopter to search.

The speedboats were limited in both speed and search range. To cover a greater distance, Qi Xiaotian had to use the helicopter.

Just as Qi Xiaotian had predicted, the thunderstorm vanished after little more than ten minutes.

Without hesitation, Qi Xiaotian immediately piloted the helicopter into the air.

While the helicopter performed a grid search close to the sea’s surface, the four speedboats were also deployed.

Fortunately, this area of the sea was in international waters, otherwise, they would have surely caused unnecessary trouble.

The search radius was gradually expanded outward. By dusk, the helicopter had reached its maximum flight range.

But the result was disheartening. It was the same as before. Aside from the occasional piece of plane wreckage, there was absolutely no sign of Fang Chenyi.

Of course, considering the storm, it was clear that Fang Chenyi’s current location was more than just a short distance away.

Even the storm front had been a half-day’s journey away. Forget the helicopter’s maximum radius; even ten times that distance wouldn’t be enough.

「Back with Fang Chenyi.」 After experiencing that morning’s storm, he knew he couldn’t just keep waiting.

He had to save himself. He had to send a signal to the outside world!

He didn’t have a phone or any other communication device, but he did have a gun!

If he fired his gun here, the sound would surely travel a long way.

No sooner said than done. Fang Chenyi reached into the woven bag and pulled out an assault rifle.

Looking at the muzzle compensator, Fang Chenyi thought for a moment and then twisted it off. ’What I need right now is noise, not accuracy!’

Once that was done, he quickly pulled the bolt, flicked off the safety, and fired a shot into the sky. BANG!

Without a muzzle compensator or suppressor, the shot made Fang Chenyi’s ears ring painfully.

Not only that, but the gunshot echoed through the forest in front of him. Instantly, flocks of birds took flight from the island, wings FLAPPING.

At the same time, a series of ROAR-ROAR-ROARING sounds rose and fell, echoing in his ears.

"What the fuck? What is that sound? Are there really wild beasts here?"

He muttered to himself, rubbing his aching ear with one hand.

The continuous roars made Fang Chenyi’s heart pound. It didn’t sound like a lion or a tiger, but it was definitely not a sound a small animal could make.

’Holy crap, don’t tell me there are dinosaurs living here...’

’If there really are dinosaurs, this gun in my hand is probably no better than a fire poker.’

Of course, that was just a fleeting thought. He knew dinosaurs were impossible. After all, if there really were dinosaurs, they would surely make more noise than this.

BANG!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Fang Chenyi fired a shot into the sky every five or six seconds, and with each shot, a chorus of roars would answer.

After a while, Fang Chenyi grew used to it. The sounds still seemed very distant, likely on the other side of the island.

Of course, the main reason Fang Chenyi wasn’t too afraid was the weapon he was holding. With a gun in his hand, he had nothing to fear.

Even if a lion or tiger actually showed up, he wouldn’t be concerned in the slightest.

But as time went on, Fang Chenyi emptied two full magazines without getting any response.

The roaring, on the other hand, seemed to be getting closer and closer.