The torpedo boat she was driving had a very fast speed, easily exceeding fifty knots.
In this way, this more than 30-meter-long metal ship ran straight across the vast blue ocean at an exaggerated speed that was almost as fast as a highway. The water splashes behind it soared into the sky, forming a misty water vapor.
From Jielian Island to the South Continent... the straight-line distance is about 1,500 kilometers. At the current speed, it will take about fifteen hours, about half a day.
Considering the common navigation technology of this era, this is already an astonishing level of efficiency!
You should know that generally speaking, the average speed of a normal sailing ship is only about ten knots, and it is impossible for it to go in a completely straight line. It is also necessary to combine the actual situation and flexibly adjust the route according to factors such as ocean currents, sea breezes, weather and even the status of the crew.
As a result, the actual sailing distance is often several times the straight-line distance, or even farther.
Even for a steam ironclad ship that is not restricted by wind direction, its cruising speed would not exceed eighteen knots. Moreover, due to the limitations of power and energy reserves, it is difficult to carry out long-distance ocean voyages of such distance.
Ships like speedboats, which can easily travel at speeds of dozens of knots, appear to be flying to sailors in this world!
"That means we have to wait all night... that's a bit slow."
Putting down the nautical chart which was only for reference, Qi Ji curled his lips slightly in dissatisfaction.
If she wanted, she could fly there by herself, or use long-distance movement skills such as "Secret Walk" to save time. In this way, it would only take a few seconds to cross one or two thousand kilometers.
But...if she guessed correctly, the ocean now faces the threat of "underwater disasters" and huge numbers of sea monsters, and those ocean-going ships that have not yet returned to shore...will most likely choose to take refuge to the south.
The reason was similar to what she had analyzed with Meili and others before. The Southern Continent was one of the best places to take refuge under the current circumstances.
There is also Jielian Island, but it is now barren and it is difficult for people to survive self-sufficiently for a long time. Generally speaking, the southern continent with a complete ecology is better.
In other words, theoretically there should be quite a few ship routes near you.
As long as she keeps on the current route, she will most likely meet other refugees at sea. In this way...will the story become more dramatic soon?
Strictly speaking, it was just half a day of waiting. In order to save half a day, I missed a lot of possible fun. After comprehensive consideration, Qi Ji still felt that it was not worth it.
After all, according to her standards, while maintaining certain bottom lines, "having fun" is the highest priority rule of conduct!
Time flies, and soon it is afternoon and the sky is getting dark.
The lower edge of the sun gradually touched the western horizon and slowly sank into the sea in a magnificent blood-red glow.
Night falls.
Qi Ji sat cross-legged on the deck, holding a thick hardcover storybook in his hands, flipping through the pages at a normal pace to pass the time.
When the giant round moon rises in the starry sky, it sprinkles its bright and cold moonlight on the dark sea, coating it with a layer of silver-white coat, making it seem like a dream.
The torpedo boat sailing between the sea and sky feels like being in the clouds, poetic and unreal.
The moonlight gently covers the beautiful girl who is holding a book and reading with her head down, giving her a timeless and sacred atmosphere, as if she has been solidified into a flawless statue.
"……Um?"
After an unknown amount of time, Qi Ji, who was acting like a literary girl, suddenly paused, raised her head, and looked in a certain direction to the side.
"Sure enough, someone is coming..."
At the end of the direction she was looking, a faint shadow of a ship was slowly approaching.
With the help of the pale moonlight, one could vaguely make out that it was a wooden sailing ship with three masts, more than 30 meters in length, with two towers above the deck, each with three to five floors.
A three-masted sailing ship is considered a relatively luxurious configuration among wooden ships. Generally, only nobles, wealthy people, and great navigators have the capital to own one. This shows that the status of the owner of this ship should be not low.
But the strange thing is that a three-masted ship usually does not go to sea alone. It is often equipped with several other smaller ships to form a formation before setting sail - just like an aircraft carrier will act together with an aircraft carrier formation or an aircraft carrier battle group.
Apparently, something was…wrong with that ship.
"It seems like they haven't seen me yet... That's right, most people's observation skills are not as good as mine."
Qi Ji looked out for a few seconds, then suddenly put the storybook into the subspace and spread his hands:
"Let's go and take a look."
Without any hesitation, she directly turned the torpedo boat around and headed towards the three-masted sailing ship.
As the distance increases, more details gradually appear in the field of vision.
Judging from the height of the waterline, the ship seemed to be carrying quite a lot of contents, which made the draft of the whole ship very low, and the speed became quite slow as a result.
Even though the sails were fully raised and deployed and were almost bursting due to the sea breeze, they were still basically moving at a very slow pace. If they wanted to go to the southern continent, it would take them an unknown amount of time.
Because the moonlight was bright, the lighting conditions above the sea were quite good, and the people on the opposite side seemed to have discovered Qi Ji's torpedo boat.
Then, several blurry figures quickly trotted out from the ship's tower and cabin, holding several oil lamps, standing on the deck and waving them vigorously at the torpedo boat, obviously trying to attract Qi Ji's attention with the lights.
They... look like they are asking for help?
Chapter 537: What era is it still using traditional naval guns
Even relying solely on his naked eye vision, Qi Ji could easily see the situation on the deck of the large ship.
There were only three or five people on board, pacing around anxiously. After discovering the torpedo boat, they became extremely excited and rushed into the cabin shouting and yelling.
Within a few seconds, more than a dozen people poured out from the cabins and towers and crowded onto the deck, making the rather spacious space somewhat crowded.
Several crew members holding oil lamps raised the light sources in their hands and waved them vigorously towards the torpedo boat. The incandescent flames were particularly eye-catching under the night sky.
While waving his hands, he shouted something loudly.
With his hearing ability far superior to that of ordinary people, Qi Ji clearly heard what those people were shouting:
"Hey! Here! Here! Help us!"
...no meaningful content.
Most of the people on the boat didn't expect the other party to hear their shouts, so they were just yelling.
However, Qi Ji knew exactly what kind of predicament they were facing. After all, with her perception, even if the people on the boat didn't say anything, she could catch it instantly...
A violent and brutal spiritual wave was approaching the three-masted ship at a slow but incomparably determined speed.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!..."
Suddenly, there were sporadic explosions and wisps of thick, dirty smoke rose from several locations on the ship.
It was gunfire; they were firing astern.
"Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!..."
Nearly ten seconds later, the faint sound of splashing water could be heard, but apart from the sound of solid bullets hitting the sea, there was no sign of any hits on any real objects. It was obvious that all the shells had missed their target.
"Hmm...it seems that the aura of the 'Will of Natural Disaster' on Jie Lian Island is not without effect on the surrounding marine life."
After casually investigating the spiritual fluctuations of the unknown existence that was tightly attached to the back of the ship not far away, Qi Ji concluded that it was a deformed creature similar to the ocean.
However, its size, aggressiveness and destructive power are much greater than those of ordinary ocean creatures. It is a special monster formed after close contact with the pollution of "Natural Disaster Will". The culprit for its birth is the pollution remaining on Jielian Island.
Ordinary sirens can be killed by conventional artillery, but that thing would probably just be tickled by a direct attack from an 18-pound artillery piece.
Not to mention a sailing wooden ship, even a steam ironclad ship would most likely die in the sea if there were no high-level extraordinary people on board!
Its speed of movement in the sea was not fast, but the three-masted ship was even slower, so it was only a matter of time before it was caught up.
If the situation had developed according to normal circumstances, this three-masted sailing ship carrying at least seventy or eighty people would definitely have been lost.
"Fortunately, it met me."
After a few boastful laughs, Qi Ji controlled the torpedo boat to increase its speed, breaking through the sea surface like an arrow and heading straight to the sea on the right side of the three-masted sailing ship.
The speed of today's torpedo boats is so fast that it even exceeds that of modern speedboats on Earth. The splashes of water that are stirred up are atomized into a large diffuse white mass, covering both sides of the more than 30-meter-long ship, making it seem as if it is surrounded by clouds and mist.
The bow of the ship was raised high, and the streamlined hull rose and fell violently under the huge resistance of the sea water, up and down with a huge amplitude. When it reached the highest point, the bottom of the ship almost bounced off the water.
In less than a minute, the torpedo boat sailed close to the three-masted sailing ship and passed by the right side of the large ship at a very thrilling distance.
The waves caused the wooden boat, which was much larger than the ship, to sway from side to side, and the people on the deck were tossed to and fro and almost lost their balance.
"God of War! What kind of ship is this? Why is it so fast?!"
Someone screamed in disbelief.
"Why doesn't this thing have a sail? Ah, it looks like it's made of iron! It's an ironclad ship!"
"You must be kidding! I've seen real ironclad ships, and even they weren't this fast!"
"Maybe it's a new model from some big country, and there are probably high-level extraordinary people on it!"
"We are saved!"
Amid a series of exclamations and shouts, the torpedo boat passed the three-masted sailing ship and headed straight for a shadow in the sea not far behind it.
It was a vast expanse of black, deeper than the pitch-black sea and filled with an unsettling atmosphere.
"laugh!"
Suddenly, a short, powerful, and harsh sound of air leaking out came from the two hollow cylinders above the waterline at the bow of the torpedo boat! It was like the whistle of a steam boiler releasing pressure.
Large clouds of white steam gushed out of the cylinder, and the next moment, a slender black column broke through the steam and plunged into the sea with a "plop".
The sharp sound of the steam burst quickly subsided, and the white mist quickly sank and dissipated. Everything seemed to return to peace and nothing had happened.
"What did it... do?"
"Just a burst of steam? And then what?"
"what happened?"
The crew on the three-masted sailing ship had been looking forward to it, craning their necks to pay attention to everything about this mysterious metal ship, but now they were all confused.
From their perspective, this strange metal sailless ship neither fired any cannons nor activated any ritual array to cast any spells. It just inexplicably emitted a large cloud of steam, and then there was no response.
In short, this strange and menacing ironclad ship did not display any attack methods that they knew of.
If it hadn't been still breaking through the waves at a speed far beyond common sense and its momentum hadn't slowed down at all, they would have even thought that this thing had some malfunction and had broken down.
Everyone stared blankly at the strange-looking ironclad ship rushing towards the direction of the "monster". They didn't know what to say or what was going to happen.
Could it be that it was rammed directly into the ship? The speed was indeed very fast, and the collision would surely cause great destructive force, but the ship didn't seem to have a ramming horn?
Besides, the "monster" is underwater, how can it hit the boat? At most, it will scrape the bottom of the boat. How much damage can it do?
Just when the atmosphere was at its peak,
"Boom, boom, boom!!!"
All they heard was an unprecedented explosion!
A thick column of water shot up into the sky from the sea that was darker than the blackest black. The turbid sea water mixed with countless dirty and filthy tissue fragments splashed in all directions.
The unbearable stench exploded, just like a thousand extremely rotten coffins and graves bursting at the same time! Even though they were several hundred meters away, it still stifled a large number of crew members.
"It stinks!"
"I can't take it anymore!"
"Ugh, vomit, vomit..."
All the crew members covered their noses and frowned, and some even bent over and vomited on the spot, feeling that this must be the most unbearable smell they had ever smelled in their lives!
At the same time, they also felt that the texture of the air became extremely sticky and slippery in a very short time, as if countless soft and slippery jellyfish were piled up in the space.
That slippery body touches one's skin without any scruples, which makes people feel sick!
"Crash..."
Water columns dozens of meters high fell heavily, and the waves spread in all directions. Circles of ripples were mixed with a large number of strange and disgusting flocs and block-like soft tissues, which rose and fell on the sea surface under the action of the waves.
Groups of indescribable corpses gradually floated up from beneath the water. The surrounding seawater was stained with rich, complex, and dirty colors, polluting the water into a paste like meat porridge that had been spoiled and rotted for several days.
The triple impact of vision, smell and touch made the scene extremely horrifying, like a scene from a nightmare.
Chapter 538 Southern Continent
On the rear deck of the three-masted sailing ship, dozens of crew members crowded in a corner of the stern, but did not create any noisy atmosphere.
Instead, they all fell into extreme quietness and silence at the same time.
No one spoke, even though they all had their mouths open and their eyes wide open.
But apart from the increasingly disordered breathing and heartbeats on the deck, and the sound of waves slowly washing over in the distance, there was no other sound.
"That thing...is dead?"
After a long time, a man who was obviously dressed more decently and elegantly than the others exclaimed in amazement.
No one answered him. In the heavy silence, only the roar of the boiler of the strange ironclad ship echoed in the vast black sea.
