CHAPTER 109: CHAPTER 109: ESCAPE FROM THE JAWS OF THE SHARK

An Yan furrowed her brows. She didn’t know much about Liang Chen, and using the Divination Technique to calculate his exact position was exceedingly difficult.

"Do you have anything that belongs to Liang Chen?"

"I do, I do." Su Siming took off his watch. "This is his. See if you can use it!"

An Yan focused her mind and began the divination. A few minutes later, she pointed in a direction. "Over there."

Once again, the ship strove through the tumultuous waves.

Half an hour later, they finally found Liang Chen. He and Ya Zhuo had somehow secured a piece of driftwood, each holding onto one end. Seeing a boat approaching, both men grew excited.

However, what they hadn’t expected was that the boat started leaking after they got on board.

Everyone hurriedly grabbed tools to bail water out of the boat.

Just then, An Yan suddenly jumped into the water and pushed the boat forward!

"Are you crazy? Get back on the boat!" An Duxuan was scared out of his wits by her actions. "If we need to lighten the load, I, being the heaviest, should be the one to get off, not you! What are you messing about for?"

"Second Brother, I’m an Ancient Martial Cultivator; this level of danger cannot harm me. Focus on piloting the boat!"

An Duxuan understood that every minute wasted meant another minute of danger, so he decisively ended the argument and steered the boat toward the island.

The storm grew fiercer. Initially, An Yan managed to keep up with the boat by clinging to a lifeboat, but soon the wind and waves tossed her away.

The lifeboat was slammed into the sea by a wave.

An Yan struggled to get her head above water, only to find a shark passing by!

An Yan held her breath and remained still underwater.

But the shark, acting strangely, also remained motionless. It only moved if she made the slightest stir.

It was as if it had already added her to its menu, determined not to leave until it had a taste.

An Yan quickly checked herself. She remembered getting some of Ling Xiao’s blood on her when she helped him aboard and checked his arm!

But that didn’t make sense. Ling Xiao’s profusely bleeding arm hadn’t attracted any sharks, so why was this one targeting her for just a faint scent of blood?

Luckily, she had brought her knife!

An Yan held her knife ready and charged menacingly at the shark. She couldn’t stay underwater indefinitely and had to make the first move!

Unexpectedly, the shark possessed considerable Spiritual Wisdom, accurately dodging her attacks every time.

The water resistance made movement challenging for An Yan; she wasn’t used to it. Every move felt like something was dragging her, making her actions incredibly sluggish.

After grappling for an unknown amount of time, her strength began to wane, yet the shark remained full of vigor!

"Master, Miss is running out of strength!" Inside the submarine, Lu Feng warned.

Li Tianyao handed the controls to Lu Feng and swam out of the submarine.

Just as An Yan was running out of breath and had to risk surfacing, the shark opened its massive jaws at her.

Just when she thought she was about to be bitten, a tall figure shielded her from the shark!

In an instant, An Yan surfaced, took a few deep breaths, then held her breath and dived again.

Li Tianyao was entangled with the shark. It seemed his leg had been bitten while shielding her, as the surrounding water was stained red with blood. But he didn’t retreat, constantly engaging the shark to prevent it from turning its attention to her.

The shark, enraged by the struggle, seized an opportunity when he was distracted and lunged for his other leg!

An Yan was startled and quickly rushed over.

Her black-gold knife unceremoniously pierced the shark’s body, again and again, until the creature was immobilized. Only then did she realize her strength was completely spent.

Her body went limp, and she fell into a familiar embrace, fainting with relief.

Some time passed before An Yan regained consciousness.

All she saw around her was military green.

As she wondered where she was, a handsome but somewhat haggard face appeared in her line of sight.

"Awake?"

An Yan hummed in response, her gaze fixed on Li Tianyao’s face. "Where is this? Were Ling Xiao and the others rescued? And my Second Brother?"

The man’s expression darkened slightly. "Do you only care about him?"

An Yan was speechless.

Suddenly, she remembered this man’s figure appearing before her, shielding her from the shark just as she was about to be killed. "How are you? I saw the shark bite you."

The man’s thin lips pressed into a line, his handsome face darkening.

An Yan reproached herself. He had saved her, yet her first thoughts upon waking weren’t about his well-being. For someone as possessive as him, that must have been hard to accept.

She propped herself up on her arms against the bedboard, struggling to sit up. "Your leg, let me see it."

"It’s not fatal!" The man averted his gaze toward the door. "Lin Ling!"

Immediately, a sturdy doctor in a white lab coat rushed in. Seeing An Yan awake, he exclaimed joyfully, "Miss is awake? That’s wonderful! It means the Ninth Master’s round-the-clock care for the past three days wasn’t in vain."

Three days? She had actually been unconscious for three days, and Li Tianyao had been taking care of her all that time?

As Lin Ling spoke, he took out his stethoscope to examine An Yan, but she shook her head. "Tell me first, how is his leg? I can’t see it."

Lin Ling glanced at Li Tianyao’s leg and said carefully, "The Ninth Master’s leg injury is very severe!"

"Ah?" An Yan was startled and struggled to sit up again.

Li Tianyao shot Lin Ling a cold glance.

Lin Ling hurriedly added, "But rest assured, Miss. The Master’s own recovery ability is remarkably good; it’s already healed."

"Healed?" An Yan furrowed her brows. Three days? Even a scrape shouldn’t heal that quickly, right?

"Mhm, the Master said he’s not in pain anymore. The wound has healed very well! It’s already scabbed over!"

An Yan was at a loss for words. Is it normal for a doctor to be so overly dramatic with his explanations?

Lin Ling bowed his head and quickly examined her. "Miss An Yan has recovered very well! The Ninth Master can rest assured!"

With that, he gathered his things and left.

The atmosphere in the tent was too strange; he feared becoming collateral damage if he stayed any longer.

After he left, the tent fell quiet.

An Yan turned her head to look at Li Tianyao. "I’m sorry. I do care about you. It’s just that I came here to save Ling Xiao, and my mind was preoccupied with whether that mission was accomplished."

Li Tianyao still ignored her.

An Yan reached out and caught his sleeve. "Li Tianyao, I didn’t mean to hide it from you. I just thought you didn’t like Ling Xiao, so I didn’t mention it. Actually, seeing you rush over to save me made me very happy!"

"How happy?" the man asked, his gaze fixed on her.

An Yan paused for a moment, then said, "Just... when I saw you arrive, I knew I would be okay."

Li Tianyao sighed deeply. He reached out to caress her somewhat pale cheek, then bent down and hugged her gently, as if he were afraid of crushing her.

An Yan was stunned for a few seconds before slowly raising her arms to circle his neck—