Shen Lan had been domineering for many years, never expecting that a casual stroll would suddenly gain him a father. He felt dizzy and his mind went blank, a bit dazed.

"Why are you poking me? Want me to chop off your hand?" Shen Lan slapped away Dennis's paw.

With his height of nearly 1.9 meters, anyone would be intimidated when he stood in front of them with a stern face. But now that he was dazed, he suddenly lost that "I'm not afraid of anything" aura.

The big guy actually shamelessly raised his hand and touched around, finding Xia Chuan's position, then grabbed his wrist and moved even closer to him, only stopping after squeezing together.

The others could only see a tall dark figure taking two steps and merging with another shadow. They couldn't react to what was happening, leaving them disoriented. Besides looking at each other blankly in the darkness, they didn't know how else to respond.

Fortunately, there was still one person among them who wasn't caught up in the chaos.

Dennis coughed and said somewhat cautiously, "I think these things can be dealt with later. Shouldn't you be considering your next move? After all... two have fainted."

After he spoke, probably feeling he might get hit for ruining the atmosphere, he immediately shrank back towards the wall.

Reminded by him, Xia Chuan and the others, who were used to staying calm, immediately regained their senses.

"Right, you said you originally planned to find a suitable opportunity to jump off the ship and leave..." Xia Chuan turned his gaze to Xia Liang and Xia Anyao beside him.

"Looking at it now, this power outage seems more likely to be man-made. I've never seen a well-equipped passenger ship unable to find even temporary lighting during a blackout. Either there's a problem with the ship itself, or those lighting items were deliberately hidden.

"The purpose of hiding them is now very clear - so that you can't escape, it's related to you. Ten to one they want to take advantage of the sudden darkness to do something to you. Two have already fainted, you should leave here as soon as possible, why not take advantage of the power outage?"

Xia Liang nodded, "I originally planned to wait another day. I've been paying attention to the ship's route and speed. If nothing unexpected happens, it will pass by a group of islands tomorrow night. I planned to leave the ship there, to get ashore earlier, in case their bodies can't take it. Now it seems we have to move it up."

"...Ah Liang." Anyao grabbed Xia Liang's arm, her voice full of worry. "This sounds quite different from what you told me before. It seems much more serious?"

Xia Chuan could guess how Xia Liang had explained it to Gardner and Anyao before. He must have toned down the content related to the experiments to avoid worrying his loved ones and friends too much. He only picked out some threats that would make them raise their guard, but not lose sleep over it. As long as he could convince them to board the ship and transfer them to a safe place, that would be enough.

"Forget it, no need to waste time explaining those things. Anyway, I'll listen to you." Anyao thought for a moment and added.

Gardner "hmmed" and said, "I knew with your personality, you couldn't possibly explain the situation to us clearly. Since we're not clear about the situation, we won't mess things up for you. However you tell us to run, we'll run that way. Everything is up to you, you make the call. The rest can wait until you're at ease."

Xia Liang patted him on the shoulder and said, "What Little Chuan said just now is the same as what I was thinking. Looking at the current situation, I'm more inclined to believe there's a problem with the entire ship, and thinking this way is also safer. Since that's the case, we'll have to take a roundabout route when we leave here."

"What roundabout route? Did you forget you're not alone?" Shen Lan subconsciously retorted, still unable to adapt to the seniority relationship.

Xia Liang paused, only then realizing that he was used to being alone while protecting the others who needed his protection. Even the routes he considered were the safest and most reliable, even if they took a bit more time.

But now he was obviously not alone. At least there was someone on par with him here too. He could afford to take a little more risk.

"The most important thing now is time. The sooner you leave the better. Forget the detour." Xia Chuan spoke up.

"If that's the case, that's the best. I'll carry Buddy and take the lead. Anyao, you carry Little... Little Chuan and take the lead." Xia Liang paused for a moment after saying the first sentence.

In order to distinguish between the young Xia Chuan and the adult Xia Chuan, he had no choice but to pause and add an extra "Little".

Shen Lan chuckled, "That's an interesting form of address."

Xia Chuan: "..."

Xia Liang glanced at him and Shen Lan, then turned his gaze back and continued, "Gardner, you carry little Amos and follow Anyao, then you guys..." As he spoke, he raised his hand and patted Xia Chuan.

"Dennis follows, then Shen Lan, I'll bring up the rear." Xia Chuan had just finished speaking when Shen Lan pinched his wrist in protest.

"I'll bring up the rear, you stay in front of me." Shen Lan said firmly.

Xia Chuan "tsk-ed" and before he could retort, he heard Shen Lan say righteously, "Your skills and reactions are not as good as mine, so without a doubt, I'm bringing up the rear. But I'm blind, so you stay in front of me and pull me a little."

Gardner instantly got into character and asked with concern, "What's going on? What do you mean you're blind?"

Shen Lan: "..."

Xia Liang rubbed his brow, then bent down and felt around in a corner under the bed, taking out a few items.

"This is..." Xia Chuan narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the shapes of those few items, until Xia Liang stuffed one of them into his hand.

A gun.

After experiencing so many incredible things, Xia Chuan felt like the last time he touched a gun was in his previous life. He retracted his fingers, nimbly flipped the gun in his hand, and gripped it tightly. Then he lowered his eyes and glanced at the other items in Xia Liang's hands.

"How many in total?" Xia Chuan asked.

"Four pistols, one short military knife." Xia Liang counted heads and distributed his hidden weapons. Gardner and Dennis each got one. When he handed one to Anyao, Xia Chuan subconsciously made a questioning sound.

"Don't underestimate your mom, her marksmanship is very good." Xia Liang replied very naturally.

Xia Anyao: "..."

Xia Chuan: "..."

"The short military knife is left?" Shen Lan suddenly spoke.

"You can see it clearly?" Xia Chuan turned his head in confusion.

Shen Lan raised his hand and pointed to his own ears: "I can hear it, and I can count. Give him that military knife too." He pointed at Xia Chuan and said to Xia Liang, "His knife skills are also very good."

Xia Liang: "..."

Gardner pondered for a moment beside them, feeling that the atmosphere was a bit off, but before he could figure it out, he saw that Xia Liang had already stuffed the military knife to Xia Chuan, and then straightforwardly bent down to carry the child that they couldn't see. He said "Let's go" and walked to the door first.

Seeing that he had already moved, everyone else no longer hesitated. They put away their guns one after another and followed behind him in the positions he had arranged. He raised his thin, pale fingers, gently "shushed" once, counted to three in a low voice, and then suddenly pulled the door open and flashed out.

Xia Chuan didn't know what this passenger ship looked like in the eyes of Xia Liang, Gardner and the others, whether it would also be as quiet and gloomy as what he saw, with no figures visible in the entire corridor. However, in this kind of dark environment, if one or two people were hiding in a slightly farther corner and didn't move, they would be very difficult to detect.

A few simple conversations came from the direction of the hall, sounding empty and a bit distant.

That short military knife was inserted at his waist, his right hand holding the gun, and his left hand pulling Shen Lan's wrist, leading him to closely follow the main group.

They groped along the wall, hidden in the darkness, and went down a floor along the stairs. There were slightly more human voices on this floor than the upper floor, making it no longer seem so ghostly. When Xia Liang led them around a corner towards the back, his footsteps suddenly stopped.

The people behind him bumped into him unexpectedly, but his feet seemed to have taken root, not moving at all. He wrapped his long arms around, pushing them behind him to stand against the corner, while he himself raised his hand to fiddle with the lock of a room door at the corner for a few times. With a soft "click", the door actually opened.

He flashed into the room, checked it out while sticking to the wall, and then turned sideways to let everyone follow in one by one. After Shen Lan also entered, he raised his hand and gently closed the door.

"Why did we come here?" Xia Chuan asked in a low voice, but the next second he understood Xia Liang's intention.

The structure of this floor was different from the upper floor. The rooms along the edge had round windows, and the faint moonlight outside shone in through a thin layer of curtains, illuminating the room so it wasn't so dark.

"Shortcut." Xia Liang pointed to the glass window with one hand.

"Much easier than I imagined, we hardly encountered anyone along the way." Shen Lan pinched his fingers, stood by the round window, raised his hand to gesture a few times, and said, "Smooth beyond belief."

"It's like the green light has been turned on for us to pass unimpeded." Denise echoed, and then worriedly said, "But the more it's like this, the more uneasy I feel. It seems too smooth, don't you think? There must be other arrangements, otherwise why bother with this power outage and knocking out two people? To play with us?"

"Who cares, we'll fight if we have to." Shen Lan said, and exchanged glances with Xia Liang who was also standing by the window, then they both raised their elbows to gesture a few times.

The round windows on the ship had an astonishingly high pressure resistance and were not easily broken. The two of them felt the edges of the glass and discussed in a low voice for a few more sentences.

After they finished speaking, Shen Lan very skillfully raised his hand to touch Xia Chuan's waist and pulled out the short military knife.

Xia Liang: "..."

"Why are you looking at me? Aren't we supposed to use the knife to cut a circle first?" Shen Lan said, then pressed one hand on the round window and held the knife with the other hand to cut along the edge of the round window. Xia Chuan, who was standing beside him, could see the tendons and bones on the back of his hand protruding, showing that he was using a great deal of force.

It was unknown whether it was because the angle of force he used was very ingenious or for some other reason, but the entire action looked smooth and did not make much noise. When he finished cutting a circle, Xia Chuan lowered his head and found that a layer of powder had already fallen under the window from the grinding.

The moment Shen Lan put away the knife, Xia Liang's left hand with five fingers spread out covered the window glass. Xia Chuan vaguely saw that something had appeared in his palm, but because the movement was too fast, it only flashed by and he didn't see it clearly. He only saw the blue veins on the back of Xia Liang's hand bulging, and his five fingers suddenly curled.

With a crisp "crack", the entire round glass was sucked down by the great force in his palm.

He casually threw the extremely heavy glass on the soft bed, raised his hand to beckon the dumbfounded crowd behind him, and said concisely with one word: "Jump."

Just as he grabbed the edge of the round window with one hand, about to be the first to jump into the sea, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open. A somewhat elderly voice said anxiously, "Wait!"

And at the same time as this voice, there was a gunshot under the round window. Xia Liang dodged upon hearing the sound, and the bullet "dinged" through the position where he originally stood by the window, hitting the ceiling straight on. As it embedded, it exploded, and a trace of viscous liquid dripped down from where the bullet entered...