Ye Tianfan shook his head gently and walked toward the steering cabin on the second floor of the cargo ship.

However, as soon as Ye Tianfan reached the second floor, he suddenly smelled a pungent scent of blood, causing his heart to sink sharply. With a swift step, he dashed into the steering cabin, only to find the room dyed in crimson red, with the captain, crew, and fifteen sailors all lying in pools of blood.

Their bodies were no exception, all with blackened lips and a noticeable penetrating wound on their chests. The blood that had flowed turned jet black, and within the faint scent of blood, there was a wave of stench.

Ye Tianfan frowned. No wonder neither he nor Ren Ningyue noticed the bloody scent. Firstly, due to the strong sea winds displacing the scent from the cabin on the second floor from reaching the deck, and secondly, because the deceased captain and crew were poisoned, causing the blood's scent to be replaced by the stench.

"Damn it, Yama Hall!"

Ye Tianfan frowned again. To silently kill all these people, it had to be the old man from Yama Hall who appeared on the deck earlier!

Moreover, judging from the bodies, they all died from poison darts!

A chill crept into Ye Tianfan's heart. He quickly walked to the front end of the cabin and looked down at the navigation map. The ship had seriously deviated from its original course and was heading toward a huge triangular forbidden sea zone marked on the map.

In the vast ocean, if the cargo ship were to enter the forbidden sea zone, the consequences would be unimaginable. Rumor has it that any ship or plane that enters the sea zone loses function of all electronic devices, radar, communication, and engines, as if in an enclosed space, cutting off all external communication.

A cold gleam flickered in Ye Tianfan's eyes, realizing the old man's true intention was to buy time!

The longer it took for him to discover the situation in the steering cabin, the more advantage it posed to the old man, who apparently boarding the ship with no intent to return alive!

He wanted to bury this cargo ship in the sea!

Seeing the situation, Ye Tianfan hurried out of the steering cabin and rushed to the lounge.

"Mr. Ye, you can't go in!" Qin Hu hastily blocked Ye Tianfan outside the lounge.

"Get out of the way!" With the urgent situation, Ye Tianfan could not care much more and pushed Qin Hu aside, promptly breaking into the lounge.

"Bang…"

Ye Tianfan stepped into the lounge, and before he could speak, he saw Ren Ningyue treating her own wound, utterly exposed without a shred of clothing, appearing before him in her natural state.

"Ye Tianfan!"

After a brief moment of shock, Ren Ningyue's roar filled the air. Her demon blade unsheathed, a cold gleam swiftly slashing towards Ye Tianfan, making his pupils constrict rapidly.

"Clang…"

Almost instinctively, Ye Tianfan wielded the Ye Family's willow leaf saber, blocking the cold glow from striking his neck at the very last moment, and hastily backed out of the lounge.

Ye Tianfan's forehead was drenched in cold sweat at this time.

He felt that Ren Ningyue had truly intended to kill him just now!

If it weren't for the timely block with his willow leaf saber, he might have lost his head, being kicked around like a ball.

"Ren Ningyue, I'm sorry, it wasn't intentional."

Ye Tianfan hurried to explain, but the killing intent remained intense in the lounge.

"The captain is dead, the crew is dead, and the cargo ship has deviated from the original course; we must…"

Before Ye Tianfan could finish his words, Ren Ningyue walked out of the lounge fully dressed, making Ye Tianfan's heart thump. However, the anger on her face had dissipated, and the killing intent had vanished.

"Deviated from the original course?" Ren Ningyue frowned tightly.

"Yes, it's heading toward the forbidden sea zone."

"Forbidden sea zone?"

Ren Ningyue's face changed drastically, clearly aware of the sea zone's reputation.

"Let's go, hurry to the steering cabin."

Ren Ningyue, looking anxious, ran swiftly toward the cargo ship's steering cabin. But upon seeing the situation inside, she couldn't help but have her pupils constrict suddenly, throwing the captain's body from the helm, her face suddenly darkened.

"Well? Do you know how to steer the cargo ship? Hurry up and get it back on course."

Ye Tianfan placed all his hopes on Ren Ningyue. Operating a cargo ship was not within Ye Tianfan's expertise, but as a core member of the Celestial Punishment Team, Ren Ningyue surely received training, and she surely knew how.

"Even if I know how to steer a cargo ship, it's useless now." Ren Ningyue shook her head, face full of cold.

"Why?" Ye Tianfan quickly asked.

"Because the fuel tank is empty, and the engine has stopped. How am I supposed to drive it?" Ren Ningyue pointed anxiously at a panel of instruments in front of her.

Ye Tianfan didn't understand these instruments, but if Ren Ningyue said the fuel tank was empty, she wouldn't be wrong. It seemed the old man from Yama Hall not only killed the captain and crew but also sabotaged the cargo ship's fuel tank.

"If the cargo ship can't be driven, why is it still moving toward the sea zone? Shouldn't it be drifting?"

Ren Ningyue shook her head, explaining, "It's indeed drifting, but the ocean currents are all pushing towards the sea zone. If nothing unpredictable happens, we'll soon enter the range of the sea zone."

Ren Ningyue pointed to the marked spot on the map, showing that the cargo ship's current location was right at the edge of the large triangular shape on the navigation map.

"Contact the Celestial Punishment Team immediately, have them send help." Ye Tianfan quickly said, pulling out his phone, intending to send his location to Qin Ruomeng and Long Yuqing simultaneously.

But at this moment, Ye Tianfan discovered there wasn't any signal on his phone at all.

Not only that, but the radar system on the cargo ship was also silent, seeming to spin in circles but utterly non-functional.

Ren Ningyue shrugged, saying, "It's too late; we've entered the sea zone."

Before Ren Ningyue's voice even faded, the ship suddenly began to shake violently, and Ye Tianfan peered through the steering cabin's glass, gasping instantly.

"Watch out, a giant wave!"

Just entering the sea zone, the cargo ship encountered giant waves, soaring tens of meters high and blanketing the sky as they surged towards the ship. All Ye Tianfan and Ren Ningyue could do was hug their heads, ducking and seeking any kind of cover in the steering cabin to shield against the monstrous waves.

In this moment, whether mighty Ancient Martial Arts experts or elite members of the Celestial Punishment Team, all seemed so minuscule confronting nature's mighty tempest.

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