Huayu97: Starting with Wu Song Fighting the Tiger

Seeing that the caps of the gasoline cans held by the two arsonist pirates were already mostly unscrewed, and the pungent smell of gasoline was choking people and making them dizzy, Liu Xiang did not dare to hesitate for a moment. She suddenly gathered her strength in her dantian and poured all her strength into her arm. The steel pipe, with a sharp whistling sound, hit the left pirate's wrist holding the can with perfect accuracy.

With a crisp "crack" of bone breaking, accompanied by the pirate's heart-wrenching scream, the hand holding the gasoline can instantly dropped, and the gasoline can slammed heavily onto the hard concrete floor of the fuel tank, spilling only a few drops of oil. Fortunately, it did not cause a catastrophic disaster.

The pirate on the right trembled with fear and dared not linger in the fight. He turned and tried to escape into the depths of the cabin, but Liu Xiang reacted quickly. She kicked him like a solid sandbag and delivered a swift side kick to his buttocks. The pirate fell face-first into the mud with a "plop," his face smearing the oil stains left on the ground.

The greasy texture made him feel uncomfortable all over. He mumbled incomprehensible dialect, pleading for mercy, completely losing the arrogance of the bandit he had shown before.

"Dare to mess with the fuel tank? Do you want to die too quickly?" Liu Xiang stepped forward, looking down at the two men on the ground. The steel pipe pressed lightly against the necks of the two pirates, the force was so precise that it made them gasp for breath but not suffocate them. It could subdue them but leave them alive.

He glanced down at the two men. One was so thin that his ribs were clearly visible, as if a gust of wind could blow him over. The other was so short that he barely reached his waist. His tattered clothes made him look like a beggar. Rather than being pirates who had committed arson, murder, and robbery, they were more like two vagrants trying to make a living at sea. They didn't have a trace of the ferocity of the bandits who had boarded the ship earlier.

At this moment, Huang Kun rushed over with several sailors and martial arts instructors, carrying fire axes. They had obviously rushed to provide assistance after receiving the news. Seeing that only a few drops of oil had spilled from the gasoline cans on the ground, his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, instantly settled down. However, he was already covered in a cold sweat. If the fuel tank had really caught fire, the entire cruise ship would have been turned into a sea of ​​fire, and the thousands of people on board would have had nowhere to escape.

"Quickly, find some thick hemp rope and tie these two bastards up tightly!" Huang Kun ordered sternly. Two strong sailors immediately responded and went to find some. They pulled out a bundle of thick hemp rope used to secure cargo from the warehouse next door and quickly tied the two pirates up like dumplings. They then grabbed two greasy rags from the kitchen and stuffed them into the pirates' mouths, silencing their noisy pleas for mercy. The scene instantly became quiet.

Liu Xiang put the steel pipe back and breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, he remembered that when he was chatting in the cabin, an old crew member had mentioned that this area was the boundary between the nearshore and deep sea. Sharks often appeared at night, and sharks had an extremely sensitive sense of smell. They could accurately detect even the slightest smell of blood. It was a well-known shark-active area. He silently made a mental note of this.

He turned his head and looked sharply at the dark sea, with a vague premonition that the pirates would not give up and would definitely come back again.

Sure enough, just as this premonition arose, urgent shouts came from the deck, accompanied by chaotic footsteps. Huang Kun's walkie-talkie exploded with activity, and a trembling voice came from the duty sailor: "Captain Huang! Mr. Liu! Something terrible has happened! A large group of pirates has surged onto the sea again, looking like a hundred or so, and they're busy building the boarding ladder; they'll be climbing aboard soon!"

His expression instantly darkened, his nerves, which had just relaxed, tensed up again. He gritted his teeth and cursed, "These bastards are really persistent; they're determined to take over our ship! Mr. Liu is in critical condition; we need to get back to deck and hold it for our lives!"

After Liu Xiang nodded, she picked up the steel pipe and strode forward at an astonishing speed.

The two rushed back to the deck one after the other. As soon as they stepped onto the deck, they looked up at the sea and froze on the spot. There were three or four sizable fishing boats floating on the dark sea, and a dense crowd of people were desperately climbing up the dozen or so makeshift boarding ladders onto the cruise ship. But upon closer inspection, they realized that all the people climbing the ladders were the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled.

In the distance, the pirates with guns remained on the fishing boat, too afraid to approach.

"Are they out of manpower? They're actually using the old, weak, sick, and disabled as cannon fodder, just to wear us down!" Huang Kun cursed angrily, his face turning ashen. The Hung Kuen master from the Hong Kong and Kowloon martial arts school next to him frowned and nodded in agreement, his tone full of disdain: "These guys aren't even capable of fighting with knives; they're just here to make up the numbers. Their tactic is too underhanded!"

Liu Xiang knew exactly what was going on. The previous rounds of boarding attempts had failed, and they had lost a lot of manpower. They must be reluctant to give up the many wealthy merchants and goods on the cruise ship, so they came up with this dirty trick: sending these old, weak, sick and disabled people as cannon fodder to wear down their physical strength and attention. When they were exhausted and relaxed their vigilance, they would send in their real elites to catch them off guard.

"We must guard the boarding gate and not let these people climb up and cause trouble," Huang Kun ordered in a deep voice.

Liu Xiang used the steel pipe to strike the numb spots on their arms and legs with perfect precision. The pirates who were hit instantly let out screams of agony, their limbs went weak, and they fell off the ladder like dumplings into the cold sea. They thrashed around for a moment before being pulled back by the people on the fishing boat. They never had a chance to climb back up.

In less than half an hour, the hundred or so pirates on the sea were all dealt with. Some had fallen into the sea and been pulled back to the fishing boat, while others cowered in the cabin, never daring to show their faces again. Liu Xiang stretched her slightly sore arm and was about to take a breather after hoisting the steel pipe onto her shoulder when a series of ear-piercing gunshots suddenly rang out from the sea. "Whoosh, whoosh," bullets flew past and struck the deck railings hard.

Everyone on deck immediately scrambled for cover, clinging tightly to the cold deck, barely daring to breathe, lest they be hit by bullets. "Damn it! It's those armed pirates! Everyone be careful!" Huang Kun hissed in a low voice, his tone heavy with urgency, and his walkie-talkie crackled with urgent orders.

Liu Xiang cautiously peeked out from behind the cover and looked out to sea. He saw that from several fishing boats in the distance, more than a dozen speedboats sped out at high speed. Each speedboat carried three skilled pirates. These men were completely different from the old, weak, sick and disabled men from before. They all had fierce faces, sinister and deep eyes, and agile and nimble figures. They were clearly ferocious men who had been fighting and dying at sea for many years.

Moreover, some of the pirates were carrying gleaming rifles, their muzzles pointed directly at the cruise ship's deck, displaying extreme arrogance.

Liu Xiang's heart sank. He looked down at the galvanized steel pipe in his hand. This thing was good for dealing with unarmed pirates.