Seeing that Lan Hao Tian's response had nothing to do with what he was talking about, the young man said:
"I'm astonished by your strength, not thanking you."
Hearing this, Lan Hao Tian stood frozen for a few seconds before replying:
"Then go ahead and thank me."
"Thank you."
"Haha, it's a small matter. No need to thank me."
The young man widened his eyes in astonishment, saying:
"You just repeated what you said earlier."
"Am I not allowed to repeat myself?"
"I... I..."
The young man was at a loss for words. Indeed, no one could stop Lan Hao Tian from repeating his words.
At this moment, Lan Hao Tian was staring intently at the young man. Though the latter had been submerged in water for a while, his body still had a certain muscular build.
"Hey, do you know how to row a boat?"
"I do. But why are you asking?"
Upon hearing that the young man could row, Lan Hao Tian's face lit up with joy.
"That's great! Do you want to become my crew member?"
The sudden invitation left the young man stunned. He didn't understand why Lan Hao Tian was so excited all of a sudden.
"Why do you want to invite me to join your crew? And who exactly are you? We haven't even exchanged names yet."
Lan Hao Tian, hearing this, stood in front of the young man and pounded his chest with a grand declaration:
"I am Lan Hao Tian. I will become the greatest pirate of all time."
The young man was left speechless upon hearing this. He didn't know when he had boarded a pirate ship.
But, no matter what, the other person had "saved" him. He replied:
"I am Wu Xian. Although I never planned on becoming a pirate, since you helped me, I'll go along with it."
Upon hearing Wu Xian's agreement, Lan Hao Tian was overjoyed. He laughed heartily:
"Haha, good, very good. Now, you start rowing the boat. We'll head in this direction."
As soon as he finished speaking, he struck a pose and pointed in a random direction, trusting his gut feeling that it was the right way.
After going on and on, Lan Hao Tian's stance looked quite stylish. One could say the scene was humble, but the man himself exuded elegance.
Wu Xian's expression darkened. He now understood why Lan Hao Tian had been so eager to recruit him. It seemed he just wanted someone to do the work while he showed off and posed.
Although Wu Xian felt that the captain was completely unreliable, he had already agreed, so he had to follow through. He took the two oars and said:
"At your command, Captain."
With that, both of them began rowing the boat in the direction Lan Hao Tian had pointed to.
A few hours later, the sky began to darken, and by this time, both of them were very hungry.
Wu Xian looked around the boat and, seeing nothing to eat, asked:
"Lan Hao Tian, why is there no food on the boat?"
Upon hearing this, Lan Hao Tian curled his lip in disdain and replied:
"How can you be so useless? We're in the middle of the ocean, and you're worried about food?"
"What do you mean by that?" Wu Xian asked.
As he spoke, Wu Xian continued looking around for something edible, but all he could find were some wood and seawater.
Seeing that Wu Xian looked confused, Lan Hao Tian decided to teach his crew member a lesson.
"You're really naive. The ocean's full of sea creatures. Especially in the deep waters, there are large fish that are delicious when eaten raw."
Wu Xian, half-believing and half-doubting, looked at him and asked:
"Are you serious?"
Seeing that the other person clearly didn't trust him, Lan Hao Tian decided to use the most convincing method - proof.
"Wait here for a moment."
"What are you going to do..."
Before Wu Xian could finish speaking, Lan Hao Tian had already jumped straight into the sea.
"What the—? Are you crazy? Why would you jump into the ocean like that?"
Wu Xian was astonished, though deep down, he was curious to see what Lan Hao Tian would bring back.
Not long after, his doubts were answered as a large shadow quickly surfaced in the water.
The large shadow was revealed to be a tuna, three meters long, with Lan Hao Tian smiling beside it.
"Haha, what do you think? Isn't this fish huge?"
"Yeah... it's huge."
"See? I told you, out here in the ocean, we'll never have to worry about starving. There's so much delicious food. If prepared the right way, it'd taste even better. I really need to find a chef."
At this point, Lan Hao Tian wasn't just lacking a chef; he was lacking everything. He didn't even have a decent ship, so naturally, he lacked everything else as well.
The two of them quickly ate their fill, and any leftover meat was returned to the ocean to serve as bait for other creatures.
"Lan Hao Tian, where are we heading next?"
"Go with the flow. Just follow the direction my finger's pointing, and we'll be fine."
Although Wu Xian knew that this captain was anything but normal, he still hadn't gotten used to his behavior.
"Alright, I'll row then."
Wu Xian had no choice but to rely on luck and row in whatever direction he thought was best. After all, it was incredibly difficult to navigate the vast ocean without knowing a destination, and without a compass or any direction markers.
...
By now, the sky had revealed its stars. Lan Hao Tian looked up at the sky for a while and suddenly realized an important issue – he had no idea where his destination was.
He knew a little about the positions of the stars, but he had no idea where he was heading.
"Hey, do you know where the nearest island is?"
Hearing this, Wu Xian rolled his eyes. He replied:
"Who am I following here? Who told me to just randomly go in whatever direction they pointed? Now, I don't even know where we are, so how would I know where the nearest island is?"
Wu Xian scratched his head awkwardly, realizing it was his fault for not being better prepared.
Suddenly, he had a bad feeling...
Crack! Crack!
The spot where he was standing suddenly broke, and a large hole appeared in the boat. Water quickly began to pour into it.
"Aaa! You idiot, what are you doing?!"
Wu Xian cursed. He was beginning to lose faith in this pirate captain more and more.
But Lan Hao Tian calmly reassured him:
"Don't worry, don't worry. I can temporarily stop the problem for quite a while."
This only confused Wu Xian further. He asked:
"What do you mean by 'temporarily stopping the problem'?"
"Haha, watch me perform."
With that, Lan Hao Tian moved his hands, and the seawater, as if under some magical control, stopped pouring into the boat.
The water that had previously entered the boat suddenly flew back out and returned to the ocean.