Chapter 875: John Cadillus

Zhang Yi took Zhou Ke'er back to the cabin.

However, he instructed Old Tian that every single person on board must be brought to witness the fate of the traitors with their own eyes.

Everyone, including those from the lower deck cabins, was brought to the deck.

Zhu Yunque and Su Nuanxi were no exception.

No excuses were allowed—they had to personally witness the execution of the traitors.

But because the scene was too brutal, Zhang Yi, being kind-hearted, couldn't bear to watch and thus left with Zhou Ke'er.

Soon, agonized screams tore through the air outside.

Old Tian had Xie Changming take charge of the executions, as the cook was skilled with knives.

Following the standards of skewered hotpot, each traitor endured at least several hundred cuts.

They were then impaled on sharpened wooden stakes or iron rods and displayed at the ship's bow.

This punishment left an indelible mark on everyone aboard, showcasing Zhang Yi's mercilessness toward betrayers.

Even if they closed their eyes in horror, the heart-wrenching wails still pierced their ears.

Lu Dahai, however, watched the executions with indifference, a mocking smile playing on his lips.

"I always knew you scum couldn't be trusted!"

Li Zongyu, Zhang Weiwei, and Ma Wenzheng felt nothing but relief.

They had correctly assessed the situation and avoided making the wrong decision.

At the same time, they were deeply awed by Zhang Yi's power.

Even as fellow superhumans, Li Zongyu seemed pathetically weak in comparison.

Any rebellious thoughts were thoroughly extinguished from their minds.

Zhu Yunque and Su Nuanxi couldn't stomach the spectacle, vomiting repeatedly until only stomach acid remained.

Tears streaming down their faces, they cursed Zhang Yi's inhuman cruelty.

The executions alone were bad enough, but forcing everyone to watch the entire process was psychological torture.

Yet despite their complaints, few pitied the traitors.

They had been on the verge of reaching safe harbor and stable lives.

Now, they were adrift at sea indefinitely, with the constant threat of Colombian missiles sinking them.

All because of these few hundred selfish skewers!

Zhang Yi had carried out the most brutal punishment possible on Che Haicheng and the other traitors—anything less wouldn't have quelled his fury.

But with this matter settled, the voyage had to continue.

To avoid detection by the Colombian Navy, he had to shut down all communication equipment, including sonar and radar.

Every personal communication device was confiscated.

Military-grade shielding equipment was activated aboard the ship.

This meant they would now be sailing blind, relying solely on the sailors' instincts.

Yet Zhang Yi knew full well the magnitude of trouble the leaked Divine Source intel would bring.

The next steps depended on how Zhu Zheng handled the situation.

...

Ropefly Island.

Colombian Ocean Fleet Headquarters.

Before the blizzard hit, the larger vessels had been moved to deeper waters.

Only smaller boats remained frozen near the harbor, forming picturesque scenery along the coastline.

Beyond the ice, however, hundreds of warships encircled the Ropefly Island naval base like stars around the moon.

The steel-gray battleships stood tall like an impregnable wall.

Their massive main guns, extending over ten meters, could easily obliterate thousand-ton vessels.

Deeper in the ocean, the fleet's core—the monstrous aircraft carriers capable of launching dozens of fighters—lay dormant.

In this ice age, supercarriers had become increasingly impractical.

Their enormous, cumbersome frames required exponentially more energy to operate.

And transporting fuel itself had become a monumental challenge.

Even shipping oil from Colombia's abundant reserves incurred multiple times the usual consumption.

By any measure, aircraft carriers' cost-effectiveness had plummeted.

Their massive profiles also made them prime targets for deep-sea predators.

The extreme cold severely compromised aircraft functionality.

Thus, carriers were gradually being replaced by smaller vessels in this glacial era.

Yet even without carriers, the Colombian Ocean Fleet remained one of Colombia's most powerful naval forces, capable of dominating entire sea regions.

The naval base operated with military precision, its soldiers bundled in specialized cold-weather gear.

Armed naval personnel maintained vigilant patrols.

Suddenly, a deep rumbling echoed from the distance.

The sound drew the sailors' attention.

Looking seaward, they saw a towering white wave—composed of seawater and ice chunks—rising over ten meters above the surface and racing toward shore.

The roar grew louder, reverberating across the entire Ropefly Island base.

From his office window, Five-Star Admiral Douglas puffed on his pipe and remarked calmly, "Cadillus is back. Bring him to me."

Naval Captain Ponca Bolcato saluted and exited, his expression dark.

"That bastard Cadillus grows more arrogant by the day!"

The spectacular maritime display drew increasing crowds.

The entire base was abuzz.

"Looks like Lieutenant Colonel Cadillus is returning!"

"He always makes such a grand entrance!"

"But he's earned it. If I had powers like his, I'd be even more ostentatious!"

"Hey, you're not suggesting you should be admiral instead, are you?"

"Wouldn't rule it out."

The sailors bantered lightly, their gazes toward the sea filled with envy.

Only when the massive white wave approached within two kilometers of the base did its composition become clear.

A school of fish—an enormous school!

Dozens of whale-sized mutated leviathans led the charge, surrounded by every manner of transformed sea creature storming toward Ropefly Island!

The teeming mass of mutated organisms represented what seemed like the entire oceanic food chain.

And standing atop the largest whale—a 200-meter-long behemoth—was a man in blue-and-white combat gear, his face obscured save for the jawline beneath a sea-blue helmet.

The Colombian naval base's most powerful superhuman, one of its ultimate trump cards, a strategic deterrent on par with nuclear submarines—their strongest individual combatant: [Lord of the Ocean] John Cadillus.

Author's Note