Chapter 4786 — A More Terrible Presence

"So what you two are saying is, even if we activate the Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation and manage to shake off these five Mountain-Opening sea beasts, we still won't shake off whatever is behind them?" The first mate's sharp intake of breath crackled through the transmission array, and every gaze swung toward Wei Zhao and Oda Ba. This was the very question burning in all their minds.

"I've never seen the Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation in action, so I won't venture an opinion on it," Wei Zhao said with a shake of his head, then went on to analyze: "But if the other side dares to set its sights on our warship, then they must be confident of pulling it off. Sea beasts at that level are hardly fools."

"I don't know. If I had to trust my gut, I'd call it three to seven." Oda Ba pinched the bridge of his nose with a pained expression and added: "Three for us, seven for them."

A heavy silence fell over them all. What he meant was that even with the Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation, they had only a thirty percent chance of escaping cleanly; and if they were caught in the remaining seventy percent, the outcome needed no spelling out. No spiritual energy meant no formation, and an ancient warship stripped of its formation's protection was nothing but a heap of scrap metal—it couldn't even hope to hold off the lowliest Nascent Soul sea beast.

"In that case, there's no point agonizing over it. Only a thirty percent chance, and you'd gamble your lives on it—are you still willing? Even if we stay and fight with everything we've got, our odds of surviving are better than that, aren't they?" Wei Zhao said, his tone flat and light.

That single sentence snuffed out any thought of flight. If running was more dangerous than staying, then what the hell were they running for?

These crewmen were hardened veterans who had weathered battle after battle. Once driven into a corner with their backs to the wall, the morale and ferocity they unleashed far surpassed that of ordinary men. Just look at them now—every last one of them was like a rooster pumped full of blood, itching to charge out and grapple bare-handed with the sea beasts outside. No one so much as breathed the words "Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation" anymore.

"Good! If they're dead set on playing, then today we'll give these ugly bastards a proper game!" Oda Ba suddenly roared, then without a moment's hesitation bellowed his orders: "On my command—activate the Starfall Formation!"

"Aye!" Every crewman answered as one thunderous voice. Even Wei Zhao was startled by this sudden spike of feverish zeal, and couldn't resist tugging at Huo Yudie's sleeve to ask in a low voice: "What in the world is the Starfall Formation?"

"That... I don't know either..." Huo Yudie shook her head. Like the Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation, it had to be one of the warship's core secrets. She wasn't one of the crew—just a temporary passenger. How could she possibly know about such things?

"It's this ship's most powerful offensive formation. Like the Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation, it's a last resort that burns through every last reserve of spiritual energy—except the Ten-Thousand-Mile Formation is meant for escape, while the Starfall Formation is meant for attack," Oda Ba explained in a spare moment, then lifted his head to look at the sky full of stars. His voice carried a note of relief: "Thank heavens the weather's fine tonight—that buys us another twenty percent chance of victory!"

Wei Zhao was somewhat bewildered by this, though he could roughly guess that the Starfall Formation had much to do with the weather. Taking the name at face value—could it be that it meant to harness that sky full of stars?

Oda Ba had no time for further explanation and issued his orders straight into the transmission array: "All squads to your stations! We have only three hours. When those three hours are up, our spiritual energy will be spent and we'll be able to do nothing at all. So before dawn breaks, we must grind every last piece of trash to dust. When day breaks, I, your captain, will toast every single one of you and commend your deeds!"

"Aye!" The crew's voices carried a killing resolve that brooked no retreat, as though warriors marching to war—either to return in triumph, or to die on the field.

Even as he spoke, a monstrous shockwave of unprecedented force came surging outward from the ancient warship, that vast leviathan, as its point of origin. Without the slightest warning, it heaved up towering waves hundreds of feet high. Those weaker Nascent Soul sea beasts were instantly blasted away by the shockwave—when it came down to real business, they weren't even fit to serve as cannon fodder.

Wei Zhao stared in shock at the scene before him. Whether it was an illusion or not, he could have sworn every star in the heavens had suddenly grown much brighter—before, they had been mere scattered pinpricks; now they shone like lanterns, clear and distinct.

At the same moment, what left Wei Zhao even more dumbstruck was the table before Oda Ba. It had been utterly bare, and now a dreamlike astral chart of light and shadow had appeared upon it. A closer look revealed that this luminous chart matched the starry heavens with absolute fidelity, not the slightest discrepancy anywhere.

"Let's begin. They're using the Mountain-Seat Whale as a meat shield, are they? Then we'll smash that meat shield of theirs to pieces—call it our opening greeting!" A savage grin spread across Oda Ba's face as he issued his command with icy resolve: "Lock onto the Mountain-Seat Whale. Starfall Formation—fire!"

As the words fell, his finger moved lightly across the astral chart, and the star point he touched blazed with sudden, blinding radiance. Before Wei Zhao could look closely, a thunderous boom shook the heavens outside—a colossal pillar of light came crashing down from the sky, and the darkness-shrouded night was in an instant turned bright as day. Everything in sight was drowning in searing white light.

In the blink of an eye, the heaven-shaking white light faded. Wei Zhao looked upon the scene and could not suppress a sharp gasp—that mountain-like Mountain-Seat Whale had been blasted apart, torn into countless pieces by that single beam of white light. As far as the eye could see, the waters were strewn with chunks of flesh the size of hills.

Wei Zhao couldn't help but swallow hard. A sea overlord mighty enough to stand at the Mountain-Opening stage, gone in a single strike—this was the ultimate killing move of an ancient warship: the Starfall Formation!

Oda Ba and the crew were unmoved by this awe-inspiring spectacle, but the sea beasts outside were utterly stunned. Not only were the Xuan-Sheng sea beasts trembling, but even the four Mountain-Opening beasts—the Abyssal Berserker Shark, the Netherworld Ghost Mother, the Soul-Hooking Monstrous Fish, and the Thousand-Legged Overlord Crab—involuntarily fell back several li.

Had they been on their own, having witnessed this display of killing the chicken to warn the monkey, they might well have known better than to press on. The Mountain-Seat Whale was the thickest-skinned and most heavily armored of them all, and even it had met such an end—if any of the four were struck by that white light, their fates would only be worse.

Yet after retreating only a few li, they suddenly stopped as one, as if by common accord, each emitting a shrill, bone-chilling shriek. After a desperate struggle, they charged back in—every one of them with eyes blood-red as though stripped of all reason, radiating an aura of terrifying madness. Any Xuan-Sheng sea beast that came too close was instantly torn to shreds; they no longer seemed able to tell friend from foe.