Chapter 507

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The near-shore waves rose and fell, like an old blacksmith's hammer strikes.

Occasionally a fish would swim past the sea surface, always casting a disdainful and smug glance upward. The vulgar sky had neither seaweed nor salt water — a truly boring place; the poor birds could only frantically scurry to find a morsel of food, such a fast-paced life must be miserable to behold.

On the sea surface, destroyers and frigates arrogantly revealed their silver-white metal superstructures, rising and falling with the waves.

Helicopters took off and landed at the stern of the largest Luyang-class destroyer; hurried sailors in short-sleeved shirts carried heavy crates down.

Today's sea wind was not weak. The 3,000-ton destroyers and even smaller frigates had long since been submerged in the enveloping water vapor, like children who had crawled into a giant bathhouse — not crying out, either because they were scared stiff or because the bodies opposite them were too strange…

The 6,000-ton destroyers were the PLAN's largest capital ships; only two of them hid in the middle of the fleet, and if you weren't careful you'd mistake them for the supply ship's little brothers. The 100mm automatic naval guns had completely lost the bearing of big-gun battleships, thin as a pair of electrified black hairs.

Ever since Americans began controlling world maritime power, the man-made maritime aesthetics since WWI have vanished, leaving clusters of anti-air/anti-missile naval guns and anti-ship missiles, turning the pursuit of "bigger is beautiful" into the pursuit of firepower… Actually, endurance and burst fire are equally important.

Yin Senpi stared intoxicated at the East Sea Fleet warships, fantasizing: "If I had a cruise ship this big, I could go to the South China Sea to fish for sea beasts."

"Can you handle it?" Yin Sen Sheng patted the waves, laughing: "Don't throw up again; a boat this small might not have enough capacity for your vomit — I think a big cruise liner would suit you better."

"I have the Divine Art 'Balance'." After saying so much, Yin Senpi's main purpose was to show off his new Divine Art.

If he hadn't chosen "Balance" that day, he would have long since puked his guts out.

Just like many people who get psychologically carsick, Yin Senpi used to be unable to help embellishing at the sight of seawater, dumping all sorts of semi-fresh nutrients until empty, wishing he could improve the marine environment thereby… This style is basically equivalent to donating to the Red Cross Society of China — aside from improving the abundance of food for "fish" in coastal waters, the change to the ocean is negligible.

Yin Senyong let out another soft "shh." Actually it was far from necessary; sonar's main job is detecting ship propeller noise, directed tens of meters below the sea surface. Their speaking voices were both below the background noise and outside the detection range.

Yin Sen Guan made a hand gesture, pointing at the sky, meaning it was getting late.

"Wait a bit more." Chen Yi floated on the water, eyes half-narrowed.

The key this time was secrecy; if discovered, whether we fight or not, it would be troublesome to handle.

Yin Sen Guan simply floated up as well. He was half-believing, half-doubting the missiles' power, but always harbored a thread of dread.

Actually, West Continent people and Earthlings have different understandings of force.

On the West Continent, the core determining armed strength is field battle. But on Earth since the nuclear era, the value of field battle strength has gradually weakened. If 1970s Vietnam could still win with spirit, after the 1980s Falklands War the role of spirit was greatly weakened — one Exocet missile hit, and no matter how elite the British sailors on HMS Sheffield were, it meant nothing. By the invention of decapitation warfare — if an army and regime's leadership are eliminated, what use are the soldiers' no matter how fierce spirit and physique?

Therefore, in Chen Yi's view, his dozen-odd Divine Art Knights are practically synonymous with invincibility; boarding a ship like this, even if discovered, the worst outcome is just having to run. Were it not for the Light Curtain's restriction, he wouldn't even dare bring West Continent people to Earth, feeling they could destroy the whole world.

From a certain perspective, these natives' evolution seems more advanced and perfect.

But in the eyes of West Continent people who have never experienced WWII and nuclear war, absolute force is forever paramount, just as Divine Art Knights always play a role on the battlefield. They don't understand terrorism, nor what guerrillas and rear bases are; in their war concept, killing until fields are filled and cities are filled is perfectly normal.

No matter what terrorists or guerrillas, only by hiding under the cover of ordinary people can they exert their huge destructive power — just like Chen Yi envisioned Divine Art Knights hiding among ordinary Earthlings.

But if it's a West Continent war, the victorious side can completely push flat from one place, killing everyone they see, whether men, women, old, young, knights or commoners, kill them all, threat eliminated! Slightly kinder ones have long since learned to build concentration camps and slave camps, kill the resisters, threat eliminated!

Under this war model, Yin Sen Guan believes that when the fleet before them suffers Divine Art Knights' attack, they might just "fire all rounds," blowing his group to smithereens. Even escaping back to Jiangning would seemingly only mean burying a few hundred thousand people with them.

To kill a Divine Art Knight, what does sacrificing a few hundred thousand civilians' lives matter?

Despite being two completely different mindsets, Chen Yi and Yin Sen Guan are consistent in their thinking on hiding themselves.

Facing the nearly all-out East Sea Fleet, the Divine Art Knights showed tremendous respect and patience — not at all like the arrogant, unruly knights Chen Yi is familiar with.

At 22:25, Chen Yi waved in the darkness, took a deep breath, and submerged to 3 meters underwater.

Not more, not less, exactly three meters.

This way, underwater sonar couldn't detect them, radar even less so, and the most threatening visual surveillance by human eyes also couldn't function.

Seven people mimicking dolphin or seal movements — hips up, kicking legs — slowly approached the largest destroyer.

This was a Luyang-class destroyer launched less than three years ago, brand new in a complete mess, precisely the "Golden Ship" the intelligence spoke of. It carried 16 ship-to-ship missiles with 120km range, 2 CIWS systems with 5,000+ rounds per minute fire rate, a 100mm automatic main gun firing 90 rounds per minute, 2 anti-submarine torpedo tubes and 6 deep-water bomb launchers — any one hitting a Divine Art Knight would be unpleasant.

But the Southeast Fleet had zero data on Divine Art Knights. They hadn't stationed observers on the flanks, hadn't added anti-infiltration security measures, and wouldn't pay attention to human-sized objects.

Perhaps someone thought of theft, but in fact gold is truly a very difficult thing to steal.

1 ton of gold is truly 1 ton heavy; carrying it makes alert movement impossible.

In the fleet commander's view, aside from normal protection, what he needs to watch forever is other ships, other fleets.

Chen Yi led the climb up the side; Yin Senjin stepped on "Air Walk" and flew up; Yin Senyong followed close behind.

The remaining four Divine Art Knights clung to the ship's side, waiting for the signal to move in.

Yin Sen Guan said dissatisfied: "We've completely become decorations?"

"Being decorations is not bad." Yin Senpi quite enjoyed lying against the ship's side, but he truly didn't want to go aboard. That is a vomiting-manufacturing machine countless times more terrifying than a carriage.

Chen Yi's group slipped below like skating meteors.

Yin Senyong listened intently to sounds, used Shenjia to focus into the other two's ears, and said: "How about using Phase Door now?"

As early as before swimming from shore, he had wanted to use the Divine Art "Phase Door," but the target location was unclear.

Chen Yi still refused, saying: "We must use normal people's methods, cannot appear too supernatural."

"Seven people infiltrating an army — that's not something normal people do either." Yin Senjin looked around wildly. He became a Divine Art user and spent the vast majority of his time on Earth, so he wasn't sufficiently "Divine Art Knight."

Of course, Divine Art Knights usually don't use infiltration either. Once discovered, the danger is too great. A war often ends because a Divine Art Knight falls, so why deliver the winning card into the enemy's arms?

The three chatted and laughed into the hold, found the treasury — dense metal easily conducts Shenjia, very easy to locate.

"All release Shenjia." Chen Yi said a sentence, began surging large amounts of Shenjia.

"Energy Spring! What a waste."

"Let the Shenjia run chaotic, generate magnetic fields as much as possible."

At roughly the same time, the ship's surveillance cameras failed.

"Beep-beep" alarms instantly sounded.

Chen Yi casually tossed a few defensive grenades, blowing up the stairs, then began placing C4.

He had purchased plenty of arms, not only could they be stored in Space Storage Rings, putting them in the pocket-sized Magic Subway was also no problem.

A thunderous explosion shook the entire hull.

A 6000-ton destroyer was roughly on par with the world's top thousand cruise liners, carrying over a hundred sailors. A platoon of special forces—over forty men—aboard the "Golden Ship" ran out of the cabins like madmen; before they could see Chen Yi, they were blasted back by the impact of shenjia.

Three seconds later, C4 "prised open" the final layer of steel plate.

Through the smoke, golden bricks could be seen, shining as if they could gleam even in dust.

Monitors, motion sensors, and various high-tech products seen only in movies were installed inside, guarding against thieves.

Chen Yi was still using bombs.

Two grenades were thrown in, rendering all equipment useless.

Chen Yi checked the time; twenty seconds remained until 10:30 PM.

Using the last moments to install five bombs, the Portable Magic Subway was activated. Chen Yi shoved the gold in wholesale.

Two minutes later, 1200 tons of gold and platinum vanished into the river of history.

Chen Yi laughed three times.

Yin Senyong cooperated by letting out an "awoo" wolf howl.

This was the signal that no other ships needed blasting. The four Divine Art Knights outside pressed their remotes indiscriminately, blowing countless holes in the destroyer's exterior with bombs.

Massive flooding wouldn't sink it, but it was enough to leave the fleet's officers scrambling.

Inside the flagship's bridge, amidst the busyness were countless nerves. 1200 tons of precious metal—enough to buy the entire fleet.

"Catch them, submarines, send submarines to find the gold, release the frogmen!" The Naval Staff Officer's voice was hoarse, his refined gentlemanly demeanor gone.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)