Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

10:45 PM.

The brief calm at the eye of the storm is being broken, and the edge of the sky is once again being swallowed up by rolling dark clouds.

Beneath the surface of the sea, a force powerful enough to overturn everything is re-forming.

The silhouette of the destroyer "Sea Eagle" became increasingly clear on the distant horizon, approaching silently with a chilling sense of oppression.

Drop...drop...drop...

On the terminal screen in the cockpit, the red dot representing the Sea Eagle was less than three nautical miles away from the green dot representing Su Ming.

Xiao Qi's voice came through the satellite phone, her tone more serious than ever: "Scholar, they've locked onto you! Their speed is recovering, and they're expected to arrive in seven minutes! Your engines…"

"I know."

Su Ming interrupted her, his voice hoarse but unusually calm.

He struggled to his feet from the deck, his chest aching terribly, each breath feeling like swallowing shards of glass.

But he didn't have time to deal with these things.

"Cough...cough cough..." He coughed violently a few times, exhaling a mouthful of black smoke with a salty and fishy smell, which was the exhaust gas he had inhaled when the engine struggled.

Su Ming rushed into the narrow cabin and headed straight for the diesel engine that had completely stopped working.

He did not attempt to repair it.

The internal structural damage caused by violent dragging is irreversible; permanent deformation has occurred between the piston and the cylinder wall.

What he needs to do is—get a heart transplant!

Next to the engine lay another identical spare engine. This was a piece of junk that Lao Hua had sold off halfway when he was modifying the "Breaking Waves". It was also old, but Su Ming had spent a day thoroughly inspecting and maintaining it before setting sail.

"You're crazy! You want to change the engine now? By the time you've finished, their shells will have blown you to pieces!" Xiao Qi almost shouted on the other end of the phone.

"Who said I wanted to change?"

Su Ming sneered, tossed aside the phone, and picked up his toolbox.

He showed no sign of panic, focusing intently on fiddling with the parts.

Disassemble!

The wrench swung rapidly in his hand, and he unscrewed the bolts securing the main engine one by one with sheer force.

Cut!

He grabbed a small cutting machine and, amidst sparks, severed the drive shaft connecting the main engine and the gearbox!

What would normally require hours of meticulous work, he crudely completed in less than three minutes.

"What is he doing?!"

On the bridge of the "Sea Eagle," Yu Kawaguchi, through a high-powered telescope, saw sparks flying across the deck of the wrecked ship, as if a madman was dismantling the ship and committing suicide.

"Captain, the target heat source signal has not moved, but the internal structure temperature is changing rapidly."

"Maintain speed, get close to it, crush it!" Kawaguchi Yu gave the final order.

On the "Breaking Waves"

Su Ming dragged the spare engine next to the main engine, and the two behemoths stood side by side.

The words his grandfather had taught him years ago resurfaced in his mind.

"Xiaoming, remember this: all machines in this world are, in essence, energy conversions. As long as you can control the flow of energy, you can make it into anything you want it to be."

Connect!

He wanted to force the power of the two engines to be combined!

This would be a pipe dream to any mechanical engineer. Forcing a connection between machines with different speeds and torques would only cause them to tear apart and explode instantly.

But Su Ming is different.

He quickly rummaged through his toolbox and pulled out a bunch of gears and chains that he had salvaged from a scrapped farm tractor.

He didn't use sophisticated instruments to measure; he simply ran his hand over the output shafts of the two engines, feeling the subtle differences in their materials. Then, he began to quickly construct a simple yet strangely logical transmission structure between the two engines.

Using his woodworking skills, he carved several hardwood wedges with unique textures and forcefully inserted them into the gaps between the gears. These wooden wedges would elastically deform under the enormous torque, perfectly offsetting the fraction of a second difference in engine speed at the moment the two engines started!

This is a "flexible connection" that only exists in theory and in the imagination of madmen!

"Buzz—"

The backup engine was activated.

"Buzz—"

The main engine, with its drive shaft cut off and only power output remaining, was also forcibly ignited.

The two steel behemoths roared simultaneously, and the entire hull of the "Breaking Waves" trembled violently, as if it would fall apart at any moment.

Su Ming took a deep breath and abruptly closed the enormous clutch lever that he had welded himself!

"Crunch—creak, creak, creak!"

An extremely piercing metallic scraping sound rang out!

Countless sparks burst forth from the transmission structure, instantly crushing the wooden wedges into sawdust. But just before they were pulverized, the two violent forces were successfully synchronized!

At the stern, the propeller's rotation speed instantly soared to a terrifying level never before seen!

"boom!"

The stern of the "Breaking Waves" suddenly dipped downwards, and a huge white wave exploded out!

The entire ship suddenly lurched forward, its bow rising high, speeding forward almost skimming the surface of the sea!

"What?!"

On the bridge of the "Sea Eagle", Yu Kawaguchi's eyes widened.

In the telescope's field of view, the rusty, dilapidated ship, dragging the huge metal lump behind it, was actually traveling at speeds that only coastal speedboats could achieve!

"Speed! How fast is it?!" he roared in a hoarse voice.

"Captain, preliminary calculations...exceed...exceed 35 knots!"

"Impossible! A wrecked ship, absolutely not!"

Kawaguchi felt that his understanding had been completely overturned.

On the "Breaking Waves" ship, Su Ming gripped the helm tightly, the gale whipping his hair back to reveal a pair of piercing eyes.

He succeeded.

But this is only the beginning.

The ship was groaning, every joint creaking as if it were about to break. This old ship, having been forced to exert all its potential, could only maintain this extreme state for a maximum of ten minutes.

Behind them, the true heavy weapon of a great power had already adjusted its cannons.

"Fire!"

With a roar from Kawaguchi Yu, blinding flames lit up the bow of the "Sea Eagle".