Chapter 356 - Waves
The territorial waters of Linshui City stretched as far as the eyes could see. Gu Fei, as well as the two ladies, was onboard the dhow. With the guards swimming after them, their dhow sailed straight into the party of pirates in front of them. They might seem to be in a pinch, but these three were actually delighting at the prospect of colliding with the five boats.
The dhow was the true way to sail the winds and break the waves! There was no need to worry about those guards swimming after them; no matter how fast they swam, the dhow would always be out of their reach. As for the robbers in front of the three, their distance to them was getting closer with each passing moment.
When those players saw the dhow coming to receive them, each of them suspected that they were seeing things. The players from Linshui City were no stranger to this type of ship, as plenty of them were moored in the city piers. Players had no means of commandeering them, nor were there any quests that involved these dhows; simply put, they had never seen them in use before.
These players could not wrap their heads around why the dhow before them had left the harbor, much less why it had even travelled so far out here.
“Could we have stumbled on a hidden quest?” These bunch of players actually dreamed of such a serendipitous occasion happening to them.
Whatever the case might be, the ship was still heading on a crash course toward them. They simply could not afford to crash into it, so these five, small boats hurriedly rowed to scatter and give way to the dhow.
“They’ve scattered!” Vast Lushness announced this from the crow’s nest to Xi Xiaotian, who was steering the ship inside the cabin.
“Bearing!” Xi Xiaotian shouted.
“About ten degrees to the left!” Vast Lushness answered.
“Understood!” Xi Xiaotian shouted her acknowledgement.
Xi Xiaotian turned the ship accordingly. She was an amateur at this, though, so there was no way she could turn precisely ten degrees to the left. Similarly, Vast Lushness was not a professional navigator. Her shout of ‘ten degrees’ was a just rough estimation. This was why Vast Lushness immediately turned to shout, “Too much! You need to steer it back a little!”
Xi Xiaotian hurriedly turned the helm in the opposite direction in a hurry even as she asked, “How’s this?!”
Gu Fei, who was standing by the bow of the ship, witnessed these two ladies exchange words from above and below the ship. Their constant correction caused the ship to wobble from side to side as though it would split apart at any moment. When the bunch of players saw the dhow before them begin to shake left and right, they were unable to fathom what could be causing this. Some of them even went as far as to wonder what sort of super quest hint it was. Finally, a black-clothed Mage finally entered their line of sight.
“It’s that guy!” Almost everyone uttered this same cry at the same time.
Quickly, these men lost any good feeling about the dhow as they wondered how the Mage had managed to gain control of one of the dhows found in the harbor. These pirates had always been coveting those dhows. By the looks of things, this act had pretty much affirmed that it was possible for players could commandeer such vessels.
These pirates’ thoughts were focused on this matter despite the precarious situation they were in. Xi Xiaotian managed to steer the ship to imperiously rush toward these players. Although the dhow was unable to crash into some of the boats head on, with the gap between these two types of watercrafts being akin to an elephant and an ant, just brushing any of the little boats to the side would instantly capsize it.
“Beautifully done!” Vast Lushness gave Xi Xiaotian a thumbs-up.
The dhow would bring along waves as it cut through the water, and just these waves alone were enough to violently rock the little boats. Three players immediately found themselves falling into the water when they failed to steady themselves or grab a hold of anything in time.
Xi Xiaotian continued to steer the dhow, knocking boats and people alike. These pirates had always been capitalizing on their familiarity with this type of environment to bully those unfamiliar with it, but they had unwittingly met an even stronger foe today. They simply had no trick or plans up their sleeves to bully the dhow, let alone take it for their own. Vast Lushness acted as the lookout on the crow’s nest, while Xi Xiaotian blindly steered the ship. Everything was so chaotic that the pirates were unable to remain on their boats. The unlucky ones were able to cling on to the side of their boats after falling into the water, but the unlucky ones were swept away by the waves to who knew where.
The dauntless guards had also caught up to the dhow at this point, but they ended up being tossed about by the waves Xi Xiaotian had been making with her excessive steering.
The players that ended up in the water were all miserable, while the three up on the dhow were now feeling tired as well after all their exertion. Xi Xiaotian was really too much of a newbie at this. How could this watercraft change direction so frequently like this? The waves she had unintentionally created tossed the players about. Meanwhile, given the size of the dhow’s hull, its collision with the small boats left them damaged them beyond repair.
Although Gu Fei had spent many grueling years training up his lower body strength through kungfu, there was still a limit to how much could endure. His sense of balance had been thoroughly displaced that it only took a little fall to have him gliding around the deck with every movement. He would roll to the port side of the ship for a while before rolling to the starboard when the direction changed. He even found himself occasionally rolling up and down the deck laterally.
The situation with Xi Xiaotian in the cabin was somewhat different. She was tightly gripping the ship’s steering wheel at first, but she eventually lost her grip of it during one of the more violent turns, causing her to slam at every hard surface in the room that left her feeling dizzy afterward.
The one who had it the worst was still Vast Lushness. She was standing at a pretty high place on the dhow so, at one of the more violent lurches of it, she was instantly thrown off it. Thankfully, she reacted quickly and managed to grab a hold of the platform. Her body was currently swaying with the motion of the rocking dhow, suffering immensely as she tried to hold on.
What made this hellish, however, was that everything was not over yet.
After all, this boat was powered by some unknown source that kept it constantly sailing straight ahead. The three did not know which direction this dhow’s wheel ended up in, as it was simply turning around while the entire ship bobbed with the choppy waters rather intensely.
Gu Fei slid from the port side of the deck all the way to the starboard and from the bow of the ship all the way to the stern. If this were to continue, this sailboat would no longer be a sailboat but would likely become a failboat1, instead.
Right now, the most urgent matter for them was to steady the dhow’s wheel and steer it back to the proper position. On the crow’s nest, Vast Lushness was not in the state to give direction. It would actually be considered a success if she could hold on and prevent herself from being flung off.
When it came to controlling the ship’s wheel, this responsibility naturally landed on that lady Xi Xiaotian, who was still helpless bumping around the cabin like a bumper car.
Gu Fei continued to roll around the deck as he strove to look at the cabin’s direction, wondering if the lady had knocked herself out and considered what measures should he take if that actually happened!
He was about to call out to Xi Xiaotian when one of his tumbles brought him near the cabin door. Coincidentally, this was when Xi Xiaotian’s figure was hurtled out of the cabin and ended up colliding into him. Before either of them could say a word regarding this situation, the dhow once more violently lurched and they were tossed to two opposite directions.
Gu Fei could tell with a glance that it was useless to hope for Xi Xiaotian’s recovery, and he had to depend on himself in this current situation. Therefore, as he slid all around the deck, he seized the opportunity the next time he was rolling near the cabin entrance again. He then took that moment to cast Blink and materialized inside the cabin.
Nonetheless, even inside the cabin, he would still be tossed around. Gu Fei proved to be more dexterous than Xi Xiaotian, so he managed to reach out and grab a hold of the ship’s steering wheel. Extending his leg out as he stuck out his back, his legs were able to find purchase on the side wall and his body ran parallel to the ground.
“Bravo!” Gu Fei heard this cry at this very moment. He glanced outside the cabin entrance and saw Xi Xiaotian holding a thumbs-up at him; she coincidentally drifted past the cabin entrance.
With all the vigorous rocking the entire ship was currently undergoing, Gu Fei momentarily did not dare to do anything since he did not know which direction was the correct one. Still, he did manage to steady the ship’s wheel itself, so aside from bobbing with the motion of the waves, it finally stabilized in a certain heading direction. As long as he maintained this position, the situation should improve tremendously.
He leaped off the wall and back on to the floorboards as he kept his hands tightly on the ship’s steering wheel. After determining that the bow of the ship was constantly listing to the left, he began to turn the ship in the opposite direction bit by bit.
The dhow was finally drifting in a straight line, and it soon steered out of this area with all the churning waves. Slowly, the ensuing bumps and waves became smaller and smaller. Xi Xiaotian finally stopped sliding around the deck and gingerly climbed to her feet.
She had been slipping and sliding and banging and knocking all over the ship’s hard surface for such a long time. Though she was not dead from this, the entire experience had nevertheless left her lightheaded. Gu Fei did not dare to loosen his grip on the ship’s steering wheel. He spotted Xi Xiaotian getting up from the deck and swaying unsteadily toward the ship’s main mast. When she reached that part of the dhow, she climbed up, got herself on the crow’s nest, and pulled up the still dangling Vast Lushness.
The two ladies sat down on the crow’s nest as they sighed in relief. Neither had the strength say a word, so they just sent Gu Fei a message: “How are things?”
“Everything is fine. It’s all under control,” he answered. The ship was becoming steadier by the second.
“Where are the others?” he asked the two on the crow’s nest.
He saw Vast Lushness shakily get up, raise the spyglass to her eyes, and look around.
“I can’t see them anymore. Who knows where the waves have thrown them?!” Vast Lushness answered. She kept surveying the area around them with the spyglass until she spotted two rows of boats drifting about.
“Let’s seize this opportunity to get on shore. Where’s the land?” he asked.
“Forty degrees to the left!” she answered.
“I’ll steer!” Xi Xiaotian seemed to have developed a passion for steering the ship.
“Don’t. It's best you rest up for a while.” He still had a bit of lingering fear when he recalled the situation that they were in mere moments ago.
After Gu Fei successfully turned the ship around, they steadily made their way toward the harbor. Vast Lushness continued to carefully observe their surroundings before confidently saying, “I really can’t find anyone out there.”
“Forget about those guys. Those guards are sure to know our position; I reckon it won’t be long before they catch up to us,” Xi Xiaotian said.
“What do you mean catch up to us? They can’t possibly swim faster than a sailboat. We’ll only get further and further away from them,” Gu Fei refuted. He was rather amenable to the situation they were in, since it would give him more time to erase his troublesome PK points.
The dhow continued to sail toward land uneventfully.
Linshui City’s waterfront was filled with fine white sand like the one found in pristine beaches. The sun shone brightly as the unique aquatic monsters roamed about. This place looked to be an ideal spot for either level grinding or leisure gaming and it was considered as one of the places in Linshui City where players would often gather.
Although it was nearly the wee hours in the morning, everyone was staring wide-eyed as they saw the dhow sail closer and closer. Just like those water bandits, they believed that this watercraft was the same as those immobile ships moored in the pier.
“Is it some kind of a special quest?” People by the shore were excitedly crowding round the shore, watching that dhow sail into the harbor.
Back in the ship’s cabin, Gu Fei was scratching his head as he asked the two ladies, “Do any of you know how to stop this ship?”