At the mont the Dawood ramd into the rooftop, Gita was jolted and thrown away. Fortunately, a hand reached out from the side to steady her. The owner of the hand was none other than Xiangzi. The boy's hat had long been blown away, and now his black hair danced in the wind, with a silver mask occasionally visible beneath.
He gripped the cord tying the airbag with one hand and stood firmly on the deck. Amidst the raging wind, his cloak fluttered behind him like a black flag, with a sword and staff at his waist. Yet his gaze was not looking in this direction, but beyond the airship.
Gita, shaken up, looked at this scene with initial bewildernt in her eyes but soon regained clarity, suddenly whispering urgently: "The captain is still down below!"
Luo Hao crouched on the railing to look down, seeing nothing but endless yellow sand. Even Bain Fortress quickly faded into a hazy shadow, with no sign of the captain anywhere. He turned back and said to the two: "The captain won't make it up; our urgent task is to escape this place and find others—ideally Princess's people to rescue him."
Xiangzi turned his head to look at him, with an expression likely aning: Why are you telling this?
Gita, however, understood clearly and quickly asked: "What should we do?"
"We must first find a way to safeguard this ship, even if it's difficult, we must try." Luo Hao replied, "You take Miss Affia below. This ship is too large; Luo Yu alone, as Chief Mage, can't control the Guy Generator."
The two glanced at Miss Arcanist whom Luo Hao had brought along, who was still bewildered, clearly caught off guard by the sudden upheaval.
Seeing everyone looking over, Affia quickly waved her hand: "Don't worry about ; I'll go with you, I won't be a burden."
Although puzzled by her identity and actions, others guessed it was due to Fang Hong. Luo Hao gave the lady a glance and didn't pursue the matter further, simply nodding.
Xiangzi nodded in agreent with Luo Hao's proposal. He didn't analyze situations; he just needed soone to tell him what to do and where the enemy was, fitting his cold-blooded assassin persona.
The two then disembarked from the deck.
In the distance, Wu Xiaopang was sprawled at the bow, seemingly seeing sothing that terrified him, abruptly straightening and shouting back in panic:
"We're going to crash!"
His voice distorted in the wind.
Luo Hao looked towards the direction, his gaze tightening, and the next mont, his expression drastically changed as well. A massive shadow suddenly parted the expansive sandstorm, appearing before everyone — Bain City is built atop an enormous rock platform, and these towering rock mountains now lay directly in the Dawood's path, clearly posing a deadly threat.
The airship was only hundreds of ters away from the shadow, and with the current harsh weather, they were closing rapidly; it would crash in the blink of an eye.
Luo Hao looked around and decisively shouted: "Raise the left auxiliary sail."
Dawood is a large ship with fifteen pairs of auxiliary sails, located either on one side of the hull or at the bottom. They couldn't reach the bottom, but the sails on the side were controlled by forty-eight steering wheels on the deck, two wheels per sail. They weren't enough to operate such a large vessel, yet given the fierce storm outside, even without sails it could propel the Dawood forward; everything could resort to improvisation under such weather.
Raising sails on one side could allow the violent storm to push the Dawood to turn, enabling it to avoid obstacles.
Several Practitioners had gone down to the core control cabin below, but there were still other mbers of the Shield of Lufu on deck. Including himself, there were five people, and in his mind, with each controlling one steering wheel, all the auxiliary sails could be opened in three rounds. Luo Hao shouted and sprinted to the nearest wheel, only to find it wasn't that simple —
The steering chanism of Dawood turned out to be far simpler than imagined, akin to a real sailboat, using rigging to raise and lower sails. Arm-thick ropes passed through tal rings at the sail top, there were three of them, all controlled by two winches to direct them. The main body of the winches was located below the ship's hull, with only one wheel exposed on the deck.
However, when Luo Hao dashed over and pushed with all his might, he found it didn't budge. Others were evidently facing similar dilemmas, and everyone looked up and exchanged glances, seeing the fear in each other's eyes. A giant shadow lood ahead in the wind-swept sand, approaching, engulfing the Dawood.
ZXC glanced at the nacing shadow, perhaps driven by survival instinct, and shouted:
"Everyone, gather together!"
Before finishing, he rushed to Luo Hao's side, placing his hand on the wheel's handle. Even with two of them exerting force, the wheel barely moved, but released slightly and bounced back. Seeing this, others reacted and rushed to assist. When the fourth person arrived, the wheel finally emitted a teeth-grating creak, then suddenly loosened — and the wheel spun wildly by itself.
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