Attack at Sea (Continued)

At the time, Si Ming and others judged that this was a request from the Heaven-Defying Society cooperate with the Demon Race, in order to restrain the Nation of Valor military power and create an opportunity to cut down the Divine Pillar —although it was later proven that this was also just a decoy, and the other party's real target was the Divine Pillar of the Southern Continent —now it seems that the Military God also had a plan in this, which can be described as killing three birds with one stone.

After Nation of Valor was thrown into chaos by the Demon Beast army, the Military God escaped and returned, leading his troops to wipe out the monsters, reclaim lost territory, restore order, and save the people. In the process, he won the hearts of the people and gained fame, while the God of War God's reputation Qianzhang.

In fact, anyone knowledgeable in military affairs could see that the stark contrast here is not because the military genius's abilities far surpass War God of the Military God, but because the times are changing and generalizations cannot be made.

The War God faced a counterattack launched by the Demon Race with their last remaining strength. The enemy was making a desperate gamble and was at their most powerful. But as the saying goes, "The first burst of energy is followed by a second, and then a third, it is exhausted." After the Military God took the stage, he faced a scattered Demon Beast army whose morale had been completely shattered and whose hopes had been dashed. They were just getting by day by day. Even if a second-rate commander had taken the stage, he could have easily won the victory.

However, those who understand military affairs are ultimately a minority in the world. In the eyes of the vast majority of ordinary people, War God Military God reversed the offensive and defensive situation as soon as he took power, conquering territory all the way and advancing triumphantly. With such a comparison, it is obvious who is superior and who is inferior. As for whether the premise of the comparison is unfair, they will not consider it.

Even if wise people offered different opinions and calmly analyzed the war to try to stop the rumors, it was like throwing a stone into the sea in the face of overwhelming public opinion, which was meaningless. In particular, the civilians who lost their families in the war cursed the War God's incompetence and were grateful to the Military God for avenging them.

From then on, no one could stop the Military God's power. Even though the King of England saw that he had disloyal intentions, he was helpless against him. Military School are not like Confucian School, who believe in "if the ruler commands the subject to die, the subject must die." Instead, they believe that "the Military God was also of royal lineage. Even if he were to seize the throne through a coup, in the eyes of the common people, it would only be a power struggle within the royal family, a fratricidal conflict. It would be the same whichever side they supported.

Before the Military God openly betrayed his cause, the Emperor, constrained by public opinion, could not openly take action against him. As for sending assassins, the Military God was a Spirit Transformation Grandmaster himself, and ordinary assassins would be useless against him. Moreover, as the commander-in-chief of an army, he was protected by elite troops. Even if Spirit Transformation expert were to go, there was a high chance that he would not return. Therefore, the only thing the Emperor could do was to strengthen defenses and wait for the other party to make a mistake.

The situation remained deadlocked, like a powder keg. Everyone knew it was going to explode sooner or later, but they pretended not to know, and even worried that they would become the fuse.

However, two years ago, some people believed that the Military God had gathered enough power to seize power, but he remained inactive and endured it until everyone wondered if they had misunderstood him. In fact, he did not want to seize Military God, but only wanted to protect himself with his army.

Just a few days ago, news suddenly broke that "a Military God was assassinated, narrowly escaped death, and was tortured into revealing that the mastermind was the King of England," and spread throughout the country within three days, thus beginning the annual drama.

"Intrigue, power struggles, deceit, and the difficulty of distinguishing truth from falsehood—I'm clearly not good at these things."

If Si Ming were merely a weak scholar, he wouldn't just be feeling a headache, but also a chill down his spine. He thought to himself that if he were any of the parties involved, he would probably have been forced to fight his way out by force.

Even the seemingly mediocre and incompetent King of England has not been idle in the past three years. However, his methods have all been neutralized by the Military God and have failed to achieve their goals. Even so, he still left himself a backup plan. Otherwise, he would not have been able to hold out until the War God intervened. He might have been taken down in one fell swoop when the Military God suddenly launched his attack.

Xia Guanxue asked, "What do you plan to do?"

He had participated in the Martial King Cup and had heard of Si Ming's amazing skills in the competition. The contestants at the time called Si Ming "the cunning and World-Ending Mad Demon," fearing his martial prowess and respecting his wisdom. Therefore, although he had his own opinions on this mission, he still felt that he should respect Si Ming's ideas, after all, Si Ming was the one in charge of this trip.

Si Ming clenched his fist, rested his chin on his hand, and thought for a moment before slowly saying, "I don't have any plans."

"What does that mean?" Xia Guanxue asked, puzzled, pondering its deeper meaning.

"Literally speaking, we are, in essence, guests here to help. There's no need for us to overstep our bounds. Besides, our position is very sensitive. You know the relationship between the Mohist School and the Military School. If we make a big splash and attract attention, it will be like giving them a handle against us. Furthermore, as outsiders, we can only gather information from books. How can that compare to the firsthand experience of those involved? Rushing into it would be detrimental to our cooperation."

"... I originally wanted to tell you that Ba Shenhuang is a domineering person who doesn't like others telling him what to do, and that for the sake of cooperation, we should make some concessions. I didn't expect you to consider things more comprehensively than I did."

If an unknown person had said the same thing, Xia Guanxue would have thought that the person had never thought about the question and was just making up an excuse to avoid trouble. But Si Ming is already famous. His background, strength and achievements are all outstanding. He is showing signs of becoming the number one in the new generation. How could such a person think about the issue so superficially!

No one would believe this if it were told to others, Xia Guanxue didn't believe it either. He never thought that Yan Jinghong's disciple would be a reckless and impulsive person.

"I've had contact with Ba Shenhuang. In my opinion, he's a reasonable person, although he acts domineeringly, but also..."

Just then, the passenger ship suddenly shook violently, and a lot of furniture fell over. Fortunately, both of them were martial arts masters, and their feet were as if nailed to the floor. Even though the ship tilted at a 45-degree angle, it remained as stable as a rock.

"What's going on? Did we hit an iceberg? Quickly, check if there are any adulterous couples on this ship."

Whenever there's a maritime accident, Si Ming immediately thinks of that unfortunate big ship.

Xia Guanxue said, "Even if there were no icebergs here, and we did encounter one, the commotion shouldn't be this loud."

Without saying a word, the two quickly ran to the deck, where they saw things resembling octopus tentacles binding the hull and pulling violently, trying to capsize the ship. Ying Zhou was desperately severing the tentacles with his Demon Blade of Conquest Demon Saber.

"What the heck, a giant octopus from Red Alert?"

Si Ming ran to the railing, leaned out and looked into the water. Sure enough, he saw a gigantic black shadow, almost the size of a cruiser.

"With a body this big, how many Little Wanzi could I make if I caught it?"

Ying Zhou said anxiously, "Is this the time to think about food? Hurry up and start, or the ship will capsize!"

As he spoke, he swiftly slashed out with his sword. When it struck the tentacle, he felt a slippery force that seemed to deflect his power. Fortunately, he was no longer the same as before. He concentrated his energy, focused his strength on one point, and used the sharpness of the Conquest Demon Saber to finally sever the tentacle, which was thicker than a person.

However, when Ying Zhou's blade strike hit the next tentacle, it only left a bloody mark before being deflected to the side.

"Be careful, this giant octopus's body is extremely slippery; ordinary attacks are completely ineffective against it!"

Unfortunately, he was a step too late in giving the warning. Si Ming leaped off the deck and plunged into the sea, throwing a punch right at the giant octopus. Instantly, unparalleled power erupted, sending a water column tens of meters high into the air. The giant octopus, bearing the brunt of the attack, was knocked down to the seabed and forced to release its tentacles.

The passenger ship was temporarily safe, but Si Ming knew that the giant octopus wasn't seriously injured; it had simply used the force of the current to retreat. Water is not a suitable environment for exerting strength, and the surrounding currents acted as a buffer to weaken the impact.

Sure enough, after the giant octopus sank more than ten meters down, it absorbed the force of the impact and then launched a counterattack. Its tentacles wrapped around Si Ming, and their strength was enormous. Given enough time, it could break the passenger ship that Si Ming was on in two.

However, this force was still insufficient to deal with Si Ming, whose body was much harder than a steel ship.

"Great, I was thinking about how to catch you, but you've come to me on your own initiative."

Si Ming seemed oblivious to the tightening force around his waist. He reached out and grabbed the slippery tentacles, his fingers digging into them. Then, lightning flashed in his Palm Thunder, crackling and surging.

"Thunderous Lightning Hell!"

If martial arts don't work, then Technique Method. Although using Thunder Method in seawater might injure himself, Si Ming doesn't mind getting electrotherapy, especially since most of the force will be directed into the octopus's body in close contact.

The next moment, the octopus monster writhed in agony, opening its mouth full of sharp teeth. Although it didn't roar, a series of large bubbles rose to the surface, and it used the momentum to fling Si Ming away, trying to get away from this terrifying human.

"You think you can just get rid of someone after doing bondage? There's no such thing as a free lunch!"

Si Ming was thrown out of the sea, but he remained calm and pointed at the dark shadow in the water. His Soul Essence surged, and two streams of lightning, one yin and one yang, emerged from his fingertip, intertwining and transforming into a knotted monstrous form.

"Tribulation-Transcending Extreme Lightning!"

The previous lightning bolts had all given the impression of a net-like chain, spreading out in all directions. But the lightning bolt that Si Ming unleashed felt like a "chopping" strike. With a single blow, the sea surface cracked open, like a mountain range splitting open, revealing a giant octopus beneath. After being struck by the Tribulation-Transcending Extreme Lightning, the giant octopus trembled slightly, and then its head, as if struck by an axe, burst open to both sides, gushing out blood-red liquid.

"Ha, Laozi noble mage, fighting with my fists is far too crude."

Just as they were feeling triumphant, a series of dark shadows suddenly swarmed from beneath the sea, pounced on the giant octopus's corpse like locusts, and tore and chewed it up, devouring it completely in no time.