"Shiyi, don't leave me stuck inside, I don't want to be in the dark about everything!"
A bitter smile appeared on Gu Shi Yi's face, but he said,
"Don't worry, this is just a precaution; it's not like I want your clay figure to get soaked and ruined. If anything really happens, I'll let you out!"
Once these people entered the water, they would die; Yanyan, being a ghost, could simply leave the clay figure and become a ghost again if things really got bad!
As they spoke, the Fish Kui Beast had already launched its attack,
"Boom..."
A massive collision sounded as the enormous Fish Kui Beast leapt high and slammed into the Light Shield formed by the Array above their heads. Gu Shi Yi and everyone else looked upward, seeing the whitish belly of the Fish Kui Beast clearly visible above them. Its sixteen human-like abdominal limbs clung tightly to the Light Shield, the sheer force of it turning everyone's faces pale!
The Fish Kui Beast was an oddity; despite its grown size, the sixteen pairs of limbs under its belly remained unchanged, like those of a juvenile, except in number. These Fish Kui hands seemed to possess some special ability—otherwise, why would both juvenile and adult Fish Kui hands cling so tightly to the hull of the ship, as if all their strength was concentrated in those hands?
First stunned, the people aboard soon felt a void beneath them and then found themselves leaping into the air,
"Bang, bang, bang..."
Before they could understand what had happened, they were thrown back onto the deck...
The enormous Fish Kui Beast had used its massive body to press their ship into the water, causing the ship to suddenly sink, and them to be suspended in the air. Then, with a sudden flash of white light so blinding that everyone cried out and covered their eyes, only Gu Shi Yi, who knew Taoist magic, could barely see. She noticed a white beam shooting into the sky from three layers above, striking the Fish Kui Beast in its belly—had someone from the Bishui Sect made a move?
A Fish Kui hand touched by the white light emitted an angry roar,
"Muu..."
The beast's huge body writhed and leapt away from the Light Shield,
"Crash..."
With a powerful dive back into the water, it caused a colossal wave, tossing the ship high like a leaf caught in a tempest. Everyone was once again lifted into the air. Gu Shi Yi, quick to react, hugged the ship's rail firmly, stabilizing herself. But then, she felt a sharp pain on her head, as something heavy crashed down on her, causing a burst of stars before her eyes and making her dizzy, almost fainting.
"What is that?"
After a while, as the waves calmed slightly, Gu Shi Yi, fighting back nausea, looked down and saw something resembling a human finger right in front of her. Dazed and blurry-eyed, she instinctively reached out to pick it up and examine it closely. Pale and slender with joints like a human middle finger, the appendage felt soft and squishy, with no blood coming from the severed end,
"How strange!"
As Gu Shi Yi was about to examine it closely, the Fish Kui Beast roared in anger as it returned,
"Muu!"
The sound thundering through the heavens seemed to carry a different kind of power within it. Everyone first felt a piercing pain in their ears, followed by nothingness, and then they heard nothing at all, their eardrums having shattered. Gu Shi Yi fared slightly better; her eardrums remained intact, but she heard nothing but a buzzing noise in her head. She collapsed on the deck, staring vacantly upwards, watching as the Fish Kui Beast once again heavily landed on the Light Shield,
"Boom..."
The massive shock made the entire ship shudder uncontrollably; all aboard could only frantically lie prostrate, trembling in fear like lambs amidst wolves, awaiting their seemingly inevitable fate.
Gu Shi Yi, staring blankly at the sky, began to feel the pangs of despair, when suddenly she noticed a figure contained within the white light above, appearing in her field of vision. The figure flew through mid-air towards the Fish Kui Beast on the Light Shield. Then a golden light appeared, and Gu Shi Yi could barely see the figure waving its arm as a ray of golden light shot straight through the Light Shield and into the Fish Kui Beast's belly,
"Muu..."
A tremendous scream rang out as the Fish Kui Beast writhed and slipped off the Light Shield, and the barrier itself was tinted with a layer of blood-red—its belly had been pierced open, and blood flowed down the Light Shield...
In agony, the Fish Kui Beast roared as it submerged into the water and disappeared...
The figure did not pursue, simply standing mid-air before slowly flying back into the cabin on the third layer,
"Damn impressive!"
Gu Shi Yi watched all of this with vacant eyes, murmured a comment, and then her vision darkened as she passed out...