He reached for the key hanging on the wall, unlocked the heavy padlock, then gave his wrist a quick flex and shoved the iron door open.

Instantly, a foul stench wafted out from within.

However, Qi Xiaotian paid the foul odor no mind, striding inside in his heavy leather boots.

WHOOSH~

A dull thud echoed from beside the door behind him. With a simple turn of his body, Qi Xiaotian dodged a sneak attack kick from behind.

His right hand, hanging at his side, shot out and snatched the leg as it brushed past him.

Using the momentum of the kick, he violently flung the man forward, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Just then, a loud cry came from his other side: "AHH!"

A black man lunged forward, aiming a straight kick at Qi Xiaotian’s stomach.

But how could these amateurs possibly be a match for Qi Xiaotian? With a slight twist of his body, he let the kick fly harmlessly past him.

The moment the man’s knee was in front of him, Qi Xiaotian’s left hand clenched into a fist and smashed down hard onto it.

A sickening CRACK was heard. The man’s knee was clearly shattered.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Of course, it wasn’t over. Those two were just the beginning.

After all, a total of seventeen people were locked in this small room. Although their hands were bound by iron chains, their feet were free.

This allowed them to move around. Of course, there was no need to lock their feet; after all, they were trapped in this iron room and couldn’t get out. Plus, crew members were standing guard outside, watching them like hawks.

But that wasn’t the main reason. More importantly, back when they hadn’t found Fang Chenyi, Demo Did would periodically drag one or two of them out for a round of brutal torture.

Last night, however, had been an exception. Because Fang Chenyi had been found, no one had come to bother them. It was this that had given them a chance to catch their breath.

After Qi Xiaotian easily dispatched the first two, more than a dozen men suddenly rushed him from all sides.

It was clear their target wasn’t Qi Xiaotian, but the iron door behind him.

He took a quick step back, and with a loud CLANG, Qi Xiaotian kicked the iron door shut from the inside.

Stunned by the suddenly closed door, the men all froze for a moment. Then, their fierce gazes landed on Qi Xiaotian.

Over the past few days, they had learned that this man was one of the minor leaders on the cruise ship. ’If we capture him and use him as a hostage,’ they thought, ’we might actually have a chance to escape.’

With this in mind, the leader—a large black man covered in dried blood—barked something to the others in a language Qi Xiaotian didn’t understand.

Upon hearing his words, a glimmer of hope appeared in the eyes of the other men.

Qi Xiaotian didn’t try to stop them. He simply flexed his wrists, and with a flick of his hand, a finger-length black dagger appeared in his palm.

At the same time, a bloodthirsty glint appeared in his eyes.

’Never mind that these people nearly cost Brother Fang his life. I was on that plane too,’ he thought. ’These bastards almost killed me.’

’Every man for himself. When it comes to enemies who want you dead, you can’t show an ounce of mercy. Otherwise, you’re just being cruel to yourself.’

On top of that, all the days spent at sea searching for Brother Fang had left Qi Xiaotian with a simmering rage that he had yet to unleash. Now, he finally had an outlet.

When the leader saw the dagger suddenly appear in Qi Xiaotian’s hand, he yelled at his men, shouting things like "Don’t be afraid! He’s just one person! Get him!"

Perhaps because they knew death was their only other fate, the men actually charged forward all at once.

SQUELCH! SLICE! SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH!

Three minutes later, Qi Xiaotian crouched down and wiped his dagger clean on one of the men’s clothes. After one last cold glance at the bodies on the floor, he turned and walked out of the room, which now reeked of blood and filth.

Once outside the door, Qi Xiaotian finally let out a long breath. His gaze fell on the service elevator at the end of the corridor, and he strode toward it.

As he approached the elevator, the four crewmen from before snapped to attention. Qi Xiaotian waved a dismissive hand and gave an order:

"Leave. No one is to come down here without my permission."

After watching the four men depart in the elevator, Qi Xiaotian pulled a walkie-talkie from his pocket and keyed the channel for Liu Yishou.

"Yishou, clear all personnel from my current location all the way to the aft-side deck on the main level. Oh, and don’t let anyone else use elevator 0271 for the time being."

Liu Yishou’s reply came back immediately. "Roger that, Great Sage. You’ll need to hurry. We’ll be leaving international waters in a little over two hours."

...

After calling the elevator down again, Qi Xiaotian went back into the room. He hoisted up a body with one arm and started carrying them toward the elevator.

In no time at all, every last one of the seventeen men had been thrown into the service elevator.

He pressed the button for the main level, standing amongst them...

「Half an hour later.」

Dressed in a fresh set of clean clothes, a perfectly calm Qi Xiaotian walked into the captain’s cabin.

He nodded to Fang Chenyi and asked with a cheerful smile:

"Brother Fang, we don’t have much to do right now. What do you say we go fishing after we eat?"

Fang Chenyi knew Qi Xiaotian was deliberately changing the subject because he was worried about him, so he simply nodded and agreed with a smile.

When he returned to his room, he found Bai Menghan awake but still in bed. He knew he must have overdone it last night.

With a sheepish smile, he brought her breakfast. After they ate together, Bai Menghan went back to sleep.

He took their bowls and chopsticks to the dining hall. Everyone else had already finished eating. He scanned the room but didn’t see Vajra anywhere. Confused, Fang Chenyi couldn’t help but ask Qi Xiaotian:

"Hey, Xiaotian, where’s Vajra? I haven’t seen him around."

He had barely finished speaking when he heard a couple of grunts from behind him. He turned in surprise and saw that at a nearby table, a burly man who’d had his back to him was now turning around.

Fang Chenyi burst out laughing at the sight. Well, I’ll be. He had no idea whose idea it was, but they’d managed to get Vajra into a full camouflage uniform.