The Empress as a Tagalong and an Excuse
Qin Chuan walked to the water's edge. Eight blue single-person kayaks were moored on the water, with double-paddled oars placed beside them.
"Everyone pick a boat and get on, one race track per person," Qin Chuan said, pointing to the red and white buoys in the water.
Xiao Wu was the first to jump onto a kayak. The boat rocked slightly, so she quickly settled in and picked up the paddle.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo each chose a boat and awkwardly stepped inside to sit down.
They've spent their whole lives flying in the sky or running on the ground, and they've never rowed a small boat like this before.
Da Ming and Er Ming walked to the water's edge.
Da Ming looked at the narrow kayak, somewhat troubled.
Although it transformed into a two-meter-tall Minotaur, it retained its original weight.
It carefully stepped one foot into the boat. The kayak suddenly sank, and the bow of the boat rose up.
"Hey, hey, be gentle! Don't capsize the boat!" Xiao Wu shouted from the side.
Da Ming quickly lowered his center of gravity and hurriedly sat down in the cabin.
Er Ming also climbed onto a boat and got ready.
Qin Chuan boarded a kayak in the middle.
The Empress immediately walked to the racetrack next to Qin Chuan and boarded a ship. She sat very upright, her red dress spread out in the cabin.
Everyone was ready. The kayaks were lined up on the lake.
Qin Chuan sat in the boat and raised his voice to explain the rules.
"The course is three kilometers long, stretching all the way to the red line on the other side of the lake. The first to cross the red line is the winner."
"Along this track, at intervals, there will be glowing wooden crates floating on the water. When you row, you'll bump into those crates."
"Smashing the boxes will randomly grant you an item effect. It could be a speed boost, takeoff, or even a bomb or freeze. It all depends on luck." Qin Chuan pointed to several small boxes shimmering on the water in the distance.
"Eat the box? That looks fun." Xiao Wu waved the oar in her hand.
Da Ming and Er Ming understood and nodded.
Qin Chuan raised his right hand.
"Prepare."
Everyone gripped their oars tightly. The atmosphere on the water grew tense.
"Begin." Qin Chuan abruptly lowered his hand.
The moment the starting signal was given, the water surface instantly turned into chaos.
Xiao Wu reacted the fastest. She exerted force with her waist, gripped the oars with both hands, and forcefully paddled with her left hand in the water, followed by a paddle with her right hand. Water splashed everywhere.
The kayak shot off like an arrow, quickly gaining a half-body length lead over everyone else.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo did not have such a smooth journey.
Chrysanthemum Douluo gripped the oars with both hands. He was used to fighting with his powerful Soul Power and had no control over the strength of rowing.
He shouted and pulled back forcefully with both arms.
A crisp "snap" was heard.
He broke the plastic double-headed oar in half.
"Ugh. What a flimsy piece of juggling. It's so weak." Chrysanthemum Douluo looked at the two broken pieces of the oar in his hand, his face full of black lines.
Ghost Douluo's situation wasn't much better.
He paddled too deep, and the kayak spun halfway in place, its bow pointing towards the adjacent lane.
Qin Chuan, who was standing nearby, saw this and loudly reminded them.
"Don't use your Soul Power. Use pure physical strength to paddle. Find your balance."
Qin Chuan sat on the boat, his movements perfectly executed. His left hand pressed the water, while his right hand pulled it. The kayak moved steadily in a straight line along the course.
The Empress is on the track next to Qin Chuan.
She completely ignored what others were doing, her eyes fixed on Qin Chuan.
For every meter Qin Chuan's boat moved forward, her boat moved forward one meter as well. Her rowing movements were very elegant, but her strength was surprisingly great.
The paddle blades sliced through the water without splashing a drop, yet their speed was in no way inferior.
"Master, you row so well! Your posture is so captivating!" The Empress praised without reservation as she rowed.
Qin Chuan coughed and quickened his pace.
Da Ming and Er Ming were working entirely by brute force.
Er Ming held the oar and rowed sharply to the left, causing the boat to veer to the right.
With a sudden swerve to the right, the boat veered to the left.
It simply threw away the oars, lay down on the edge of the boat, and stretched its two large, black-haired hands into the water, paddling wildly like a dog.
Seeing this, Da Ming followed suit. He threw down his oars and used his two ox hooves to paddle in the water. The two boats wobbled and lurched forward on the water.
The race had gone over 100 meters when the first batch of prop boxes appeared ahead.
Several red and white wooden boxes, gleaming faintly, floated on the water.
Xiao Wu was always at the forefront. She focused on a box directly in front of her, adjusted the bow of the boat, and rammed it straight into it.
Bang.
The wooden crate shattered, turning into a beam of blue light that entered Xiao Wu's boat.
The next second, two jet nozzles suddenly extended from the stern of Xiao Wu's kayak.
With a "boom", two blue flames shot out.
The ship jolted violently, its speed instantly tripling.
The kayak skipped across the water, heading straight ahead.
"Wow! This is an accelerator! It's amazing!" Xiao Wu shouted excitedly on the boat. The wind straightened her hair.
Seeing that Xiao Wu could accelerate after eating the box, Ghost Douluo quickly adjusted his direction as well.
He saw a red box floating in front of his track.
He paddled wildly in the water with both hands, and finally managed to get the bow of the boat to hit the red box.
Bang.
The box is broken. There's no blue light, and no accelerator.
A dark, iron cannon barrel jumped out of the box and was placed directly on the bow of Ghost Douluo's ship.
Ghost Douluo still didn't understand what this was.
The cannon barrel suddenly spun around on its own, its muzzle pointing at Da Ming on the adjacent track.
A loud "bang" was heard.
A black cannonball flew out of the cannon barrel, drew an arc in the air, and landed accurately on the Da Ming's kayak.
Boom!
The cannonball exploded, and a huge cloud of black smoke enveloped the Da Ming.
As the smoke cleared, Da Ming's kayak spun in place, nearly capsizing.
The oxen of the Da Ming had their faces covered in black ash, and even the smoke coming out of their nostrils was black.
"Old Ghost, why did you hit me?" Da Ming wiped the soot off his face and roared angrily.
Ghost Douluo raised his hands with an innocent expression.
"I didn't do it. The ship fired its own cannon," Ghost Douluo explained.
"Hahaha. Serves you right for getting hit by the bomb item." Xiao Wu turned around and saw this scene, laughing so hard she couldn't stand up straight.
Just then, a green box appeared in front of the Da Ming track.
Da Ming was furious. It frantically paddled in the water with both hands, then rushed over and smashed the green box to pieces.
The box shattered. A freezing launcher appeared on the bow of the Da Ming ship.
The launcher emitted a white, cold blast of air that swept across the lake in front of it.
Click click click.
The lake froze instantly. A ten-meter-long ice track stretched across the middle of the racecourse.
Xiao Wu, who was at the front, didn't react in time, and the kayak went straight onto the ice.
With the friction at the bottom gone, the kayak slipped on the ice, spun three times in place, and came to a stop in the middle of the ice track.
The accelerator's flame also went out.
"Da Ming, you've gone too far!" Xiao Wu stomped her feet in anger.
She frantically poked at the ice with the oar, but the boat wouldn't move. She could only wait for the ice to slowly melt.