Walking on the deck, Ling Chen looked at the silent Song Ge beside him and asked with a smile, "Song, you told me to come out because you had something to tell me. Why haven’t you said anything for so long?"
Song Ge stopped walking, opened his mouth and said, "The decision you made just now was wrong."
"What?" Ling Chen didn’t grasp what was said at first.
"You shouldn’t have agreed to Han Yu’s challenge."
"Song, isn’t it too late to say that now?"
Song Ge sighed helplessly, "I thought you would refuse, so I didn’t remind you at the meeting. I didn’t expect you to accept his request."
Ling Chen shrugged it off with a smile: "Song, there’s no need to worry about me. Although I’m not confident I will definitely beat Han Yu, he’ll have to pay a price to defeat me."
"You’re thinking too simply," Song Ge shook his head, looking at the gradually darkening sky and said, "Han Yu is by no means as easy to handle as you imagine. I know him too well. You may not know that our Song Family and Han Family are both Martial Arts clans with a hundred years of feud. Even now, the underground and open battles never stopped. Ten years ago, I fought with Han Yu and lost, and over the following years, I’ve lost to him every single time."
"But two years ago, I finally beat him once. Since then, every time we sparred, he lost to me." Having said this, Song Ge looked at Ling Chen, "You might think my improvement was greater than his, but that’s not actually the case. I’ve said, I know Han Yu very well. It’s hard not to, after being old rivals for so many years. He is very calculating and never easily reveals his inner thoughts. But this time, you forced him to show his true face. More precisely, you pressured him into it."
"The Han Family cares a lot about their reputation. Because of you, not only has the Han Family’s face been lost, but their reputation has been damaged. With Han Yu’s personality, he will not let you go. Actually, Zhou Jun and I are involved in this matter too. However, with the Song Family’s background and being lifelong enemies with the Han Family, it’s not so easy for Han Yu to touch me. Zhou Jun is from the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, and Han Yu wouldn’t dare to move against him either. Therefore, you became the only option for Han Yu’s revenge."
Ling Chen frowned and said, "Even if he kills me, isn’t he afraid of retaliation from the eight eccentrics?"
"I don’t deny the strength of the eight eccentrics, but as long as Han Yu successfully joins the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, with the Pavilion backing the Han Family, do you think he would be scared?"
"Song, is it possible that you’re overestimating Han Yu? Maybe he really isn’t as good as you."
Song Ge smiled bitterly, "I hope that’s the case. You might not know, but Han Yu has lost to me seven times, each time on the thirtieth move without exception. You should understand what that means."
Hearing this, Ling Chen’s face changed color.
Clearly, Han Yu intentionally lost to Song Ge.
"Why would he do that?" Ling Chen asked, puzzled.
"These days, being number one isn’t necessarily a good thing. A wise person who is good at hiding will position himself neither too high nor too low, ready to advance or retreat. That is the best choice."
Ling Chen nodded in strong agreement.
"Song, how strong is Han Yu really?"
"I’m not sure, but definitely no weaker than me. My strength is probably around the sixth place on the Dragon List, like Yi Shuiyan and Qu Jinxian, their strength is between the eighth and ninth on the Dragon List. You know, after entering the Dragon List, each rank difference corresponds to a significant difference in strength. Especially those who enter the top five, these masters have reached another realm in Martial Arts. Of course, I hope it’s just my guess, maybe Han Yu hasn’t reached that level yet. In any case, you must be extremely careful when you face him, don’t be reckless."
After a pause, Song Ge continued, "Given Han Yu’s temperament, if you lose, he will definitely not accept your surrender, so you have to prepare in advance."
"The crisis on this ship earned you a lot of merit, and the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion is immensely grateful to you. I suggest you seek out Elder Zhou; if something goes wrong during the duel, have him intervene at a critical moment to prevent Han Yu from killing you."
Hearing Song Ge’s suggestion, Ling Chen seemed distressed, "Your words make me afraid to even go on stage."
Song Ge’s expression became grave, "I’m not joking, this concerns your life, you better take it seriously."
"Alright, I understand."
Song Ge sharing so much was out of kindness; Ling Chen appreciated his concern. However, the thought of tomorrow’s life-and-death battle gave Ling Chen a headache. If only he had known, he wouldn’t have casually agreed to Han Yu’s request; wasn’t this jumping into a pit of fire?
Returning to his room, Ling Chen lay sloppily on the couch, propping his head with one hand, and then pulled out a satellite phone from the drawer of the tea table and dialed Nanrong Wanqing’s number.
Having been away from East Sea City for so long, Ling Chen missed Nanrong Wanqing and hoped to finish the Heavenly Mechanism Great Ceremony soon and return to meet her.
After the usual half-hour long phone call, Ling Chen reluctantly hung up. This was all thanks to Hu Fei, who secretly hacked the luxury cruise ship’s blocking equipment, allowing him to contact people outside anytime, anywhere.
"Ling Chen, open the door quickly."
At this moment, Hu Fei’s voice came from outside the door.
Ling Chen got up to open the door and looked at Hu Fei who came in holding a laptop, joked, "I thought you were having a great time with Zhou Jun, how come you have time to come and find me?"
"Come on, do you think I came to see you willingly? I’ve encountered a problem."
Hu Fei opened his laptop, tapping on the keyboard as he spoke, "Didn’t I hack the ship’s firewall? Today, I was bored and checking the system when I discovered a problem. Apart from me, someone else has invaded the ship’s system. Fortunately, they haven’t tampered with anything, but they’ve stealthily left a backdoor in the system."
Hearing this, Ling Chen trusted Hu Fei’s computer skills implicitly and asked, "Do you know who did it?"
"How would I know that? There are so many people on the ship; I can’t possibly check every one of them. The only thing certain is that the person is on this ship. To access the ship’s control system, one must go through the ship’s network, otherwise it’s impossible to do so. However, I’ve written a program in the system, so as soon as that person logs into the system again, I will get a notification here. Once we lock onto that person’s signal, we can pinpoint their location."
"Have you told Zhou Jun about this?"
"Not yet. We haven’t found the person, so there’s no point in saying anything. We’ll tell him when we have results."