It took Ling Chen more than ten seconds to finally reach the deck. By then, Song Ge and Shi Yong had already met up with Zhou Jun, waiting for his arrival.

"Ling Chen." Zhou Jun smiled and waved, pointing to the young man on the ground, saying, "This guy wanted to escape by helicopter, but I took care of him."

Eleven... Ten... Nine...

At this moment, Ling Chen had no time to bother with that young man; he was silently counting down the self-destruct program in his head. With less than ten seconds left, starting the helicopter to escape was an impossible task.

Five seconds!

Without time to think further, Ling Chen shouted urgently to the three people with Song Ge: "Run!"

Hearing his roar, Song Ge and the others were stunned, not understanding his intent. However, seeing the anxious look on Ling Chen’s face, they didn’t think twice. They immediately followed Ling Chen’s lead and ran quickly toward the side of the ship.

Boom!

With a thunderous explosion, the cargo ship’s hold burst into flames, and the powerful force of the explosion split the hull instantly. At that moment, under Ling Chen’s lead, the four men jumped from the ship into the pitch-black sea.

The icy seawater surged from all directions. Ling Chen held his breath, dived into the sea, frantically paddling with his arms, swimming away from the cargo ship in the opposite direction, trying to avoid the explosion’s reach as much as possible.

Though submerged underwater, the sounds of the sea surface’s successive explosions still reached his ears; flames nearly covered the surrounding water, and heavy objects fell into the sea.

After swimming dozens of meters, Ling Chen emerged from the water, gasping for air. His gaze pierced through the layers of flames, searching for the whereabouts of the others.

"Zhou Jun, Shi Yong, Song Ge!" Ling Chen shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I’m here." As Zhou Jun’s voice sounded, Song Ge and Shi Yong also called out in response. Seeing the three of them were all right, Ling Chen breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the slowly sinking cargo ship in the distance, Ling Chen couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

Great, now the cargo ship had been blown up, the helicopter on board had sunk to the bottom of the sea, and not even a motorboat had been left behind. In this vast sea, where could they seek rescue?

While pondering, Zhou Jun and the others swam over one after another, gathering around Ling Chen. Watching the cargo ship gradually being engulfed by the sea, all four of them wore somewhat difficult expressions.

"Ling Chen, what do we do now?" Zhou Jun asked.

Ling Chen gave a wry smile and shook his head. He carried a satellite phone on him, but when he jumped into the sea just now, the phone got waterlogged, and it was no longer usable. Seeing his helpless expression, Song Ge and the others fell into silence.

At this moment, several oil barrels and broken planks floated over from not far away. With the joint efforts of the four men, they cobbled together a raft from the oil barrels and planks, temporarily escaping the sea’s chill.

Sitting on the raft, Ling Chen spread open his palm, looking at the USB drive in his hand with a sigh. He had been worried that the USB drive would get waterlogged and be ruined, keeping it clenched in his fist. Unfortunately, even though they had successfully obtained the data, the four of them were now trapped in the vast sea with no escape.

Calling to heaven without answer, calling to earth without response—these two phrases appropriately described their current situation.

"Everyone, I’m sorry. I did not plan thoroughly, making all of us end up in this situation," Ling Chen said with a look of guilt.

Shi Yong said in a deep voice, "I chose to follow you of my own free will; this has nothing to do with you."

"Ling, don’t blame yourself for this; nobody expected those people to be so ruthless."

"Come on, let’s not act like we’re all doomed. Rather than wasting time here, we might as well pray to Buddha—maybe we’ll get lucky and have a plane appear out of nowhere." Even in such a dire situation, Zhou Jun’s easygoing nature didn’t change, as he joked.

However, no one was in the mood to joke with him. With less than two days left, if they couldn’t get back in time, it wouldn’t just be the few of them at risk.

...

On the luxury liner.

Zhou Qi stood in the pilot house on the top level, anxiously asking, "Haven’t made contact yet?"

"Elder Zhou, I’ve been calling all day, and they haven’t responded," the staff member replied.

"Keep calling." After saying that, Zhou Qi looked at the time; it was already past three o’clock in the afternoon. Since Zhou Jun and the others had secretly flown off in the helicopter last night, there had been no news. Zhou Jun’s parents died when he was young, and the two had relied on each other for many years; Zhou Qi certainly did not want any harm to come to his grandson.

"Elder Zhou."

At that moment, a staff member ran over in a hurry, barely containing his excitement as he spoke, "We just received news that Ms. Shi and the others are on their way back by helicopter. They will arrive in two hours."

"Good!" Zhou Qi’s tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly. After a tense day of waiting, there was finally some good news.

The return of Shi Su and her team at this time suggested they had found a way to crack the virus.

"Notify the medical team to be ready and stand by at all times."

"Yes, Elder Zhou."

In less than two hours, two helicopters flew in one after the other, appearing above the luxury liner. As the helicopters slowly landed, Zhou Qi, who had been waiting, immediately went to greet them with his team.

"Ms. Shi." Zhou Qi greeted her and asked eagerly, "How’s the situation?"

Shi Su smiled confidently, "Elder Zhou, rest assured, I have found the solution. Moreover, I’ve brought two boxes of serum that were rushed out, enough to treat everyone on the ship."

Zhou Qi lavishly praised, "Ms. Shi’s medical skills are truly unparalleled in the country."

"Elder Zhou is too kind. It’s not just my own merit; thanks to everyone’s strong support."

Hearing Shi Su’s words, the people behind her all smiled, visibly overjoyed. They all knew the real effort came from Shi Su and her disciples; they did little more than assist, mostly just watching from the sidelines and not helping much. However, Shi Su’s remark made everyone share in the glory, becoming saviors in everyone’s eyes.

Given the generosity of the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, a handsome reward was inevitable.

"Elder Zhou, we must not delay. Please arrange for the infected patients to be transferred to the deck immediately. I will arrange for my people to administer the serum," Shi Su instructed.

"No problem, everything’s prepared; I’ll have someone take care of it immediately."

While everyone was waiting for treatment, Ling Chen and his three companions were still floating at sea on a makeshift raft, being pushed forward by the waves.

Though they hadn’t eaten for a day, all four had good physical endurance and could survive several days without food or water. However, for them now, food and water weren’t the priorities—the key was hope.

Without the hope of survival, everything was empty talk; they could only quietly wait for death to come.