The Ultimate Evolution

Chapter 550: Saved

Observing the aged ‘ninety year old’ Taitish in her dying state, Sheyan took off her veil and covered his eyes with great anguish. Then, he stripped off his pants and pounced forth.

Sighing, he lamented. “Forget it, saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda. Let this old one inject her what a dosage of milky white nourishment cardiac stimulant!”

A candle flame flickered and was finally blown out. Half an hour later, Taitish stood up with reinvigorated spirits.

Oh no, why did I release the unabridged edition!

(Author’s note: This paragraph is purely for entertainment, for readers to bang their head against the wall for 10 seconds. Haha, this chapter will be 3,300 words, forget about this nonsense, it isn’t counted, hoho.)

(ED: Dude, what. What.)

Actual chapter begins here:

At present, Taitish’s vitality was on the brink of dissipating, leading her to transform into such a sickly and aged state. However, at this crucial moment, Sheyan suddenly recalled something Taitish mentioned previously –

“I’m not even forty years of age, but look at how ghostly I’ve become. It is all because Jiejie has been constantly feeding her two totemic sacrificial beast with our life essence.”

Sheyan felt a stirring in his heart as he immediately checked his party storage, locating that dull but gentle glow amidst the myriads of items.

This item was originally a shattered toe of the totemic demon beast, but was reduced into a glowing residue after being stored within his interspatial storage.

After retrieving that tiny glow, Sheyan pondered a little before deciding to treat a ‘dead horse just like a live one’, and pressed it against Taitish’s bosom.

Just like that, Taitish’s body absorbed a portion of the glow like a sponge, and Sheyan stored back the remaining portion.

Suddenly, her body suddenly spasmed like a prawn out of the water, as though she had been electrocuted, before sprawling back to the ground and coughing violently. Black blood oozed out from her nostrils, and even trickles of blood could be seen leaking from her ears and eyes; permeating out a fishy odour.

Normally, such a scene wasn’t comforting at all. It was as though Taitish was being tortured for the last time before she died.

Instead, a miracle happened.

Her violent coughing soon ceased, while her skin slowly regained its glossy luster. Her wrinkles rapidly eased out, and her hair turned from white to grey and finally to black. Even her countenance beneath a veil was experiencing a transformation.

A couple of seconds before, everyone could vividly see an unconscious Taitish. Yet the present Taitish still remained unconscious, but the disparity between the two was tremendous. It was practically a complete contrast.

As compared to her dying withering state, the current Taitish essentially appeared as though she was merely in a slumber.

At present, the onlooking pirates were all admiring Sheyan with elevated reverence.

Without a doubt, their dictionary added another description to the mysterious veil of Sheyan, that he could deprive one’s vitality to replenish another!

Naturally, they all desired to become more youthful and weren’t willing to turn into the unlucky brat whose vitality would be deprived.

Actually, such a phenomenal was totally unforeseen by Sheyan before he acted. Nevertheless, he remained calm as he commanded his pirates.

“Let her rest a little. When she awakes, bring her to see me. Now take me to the depths of the ship, I believe the source materials necessary for my mighty deprivation should be prepared.”

Hearing Sheyan addressing the corpses as source materials so casually, the pirates could feel their hair standing on end. They all yearned to gain terrifying might. Such was a pirate’s logic; as long as one holds power, regardless if that power is righteous or evil, it would receive the same level of respect and adoration.

At this moment, all of them were simultaneously yearning to receive a strength bestowal from Sheyan.

This time, most of the pirates who wished to acquire new prowess were thinking that they would be satisfied. This ship was nonetheless the flagship of the queen of a gypsy clan, and a couple of defenders were equipped with standardized equipments of the armour of gypsy knights.

As for weapons, they were also aplenty. Thus, they believed their captain’s deprivation plundering would surely be an abundant harvest.

After contemplating a little, Sheyan stalled himself from engaging in plundering. Instead, he planned to wait till his title was upgraded to ‘Pirate Captain (advanced)’ before committing, believing that his plundering ability would substantially improve by then.

As they sailed, Sheyan then seeked out the carpenter Spike. He then produced that deadly harpoon gun, ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ he procured back at the auction, and that dark-gold ship building material acquired by The April’s Bloom. Then, he discussed the prospect of commencing a reconstruction.

When Spike examined the two items, his face revealed a troubled expression. As it turns out, his expertise laid in repairs, while assembling such components would frequently require a higher qualified craftsman to supervise; like an ‘engineer’ or something.

To Spike, the difficulty of this request was akin to asking a western doctor to conduct acupuncture; a seemingly helpless state of crossing one’s boundary.

When Sheyan heard Spike’s explanation, he could only shrug his shoulders. Still, he wasn’t that anxious as of now, and decided to first converge with the Hill Maiden first.

The ship continued sailing with unsurpassed stability, that the pirates aboard would seemingly feel that the ship wasn’t moving. Even though the pirates were making an all-out effort without slacking and were exceedingly accustomed to taskings on deck, its velocity remained its flaw; reckoning that it could only rival a fully loaded merchant ship.

Approximately half an hour into their voyage, one of the pirates reported to Sheyan.

“Cap’n, the maiden has awoken and requests an audience.”

Sheyan asked in surprise.

“What maiden?”

The reporting pirate shrugged his shoulders and replied.

“It be the one named Taitish.”

“Oh!” Sheyan suddenly recalled. Because he had personally seen the aged and sickly countenance of the gypsy diviner beneath her veil, his heart had assumed Taitish’s image to be an old granny.

Hence, he unexpectedly had some troubles connecting her to a normal term of a youthful ‘maiden’.

“Let her in.” Sheyan replied indifferently. When Taitish stepped into his ship cabin, Sheyan instantly got a huge fright in the darkness; because the image in his imagination was a stark contrast to what he was seeing.

The former Taitish had chicken skin and crane-like hair, while being crooked and aged. Instead, it was clearly a thirty years old maiden that was standing before Sheyan now. Her skin revealed the unique and sexy suntanned skin of a latin american woman, brimming with a lively luster and rich in elasticity.

Even the white gown of the gypsy diviner failed to conceal her define curves as he twin peaks threatened to split apart her gown. Ruffled and languid blond locks dangled down onto her shoulders, while her lips exuberated an alluring thickness reminiscent of Angelina Jolie. Her slightly raised red phoenix eyes contained snippets of craftiness that appeared to have accumulated over the years.

The first impression this maiden released was that of sexiness and allurement, a completely different person as compared to the previous Taitish.

Although she only absorbed a tiny glowing toe of that elephant head sculpture, that glow was the youthfulness of a hundred females congealing into a vitality source. Therefore, its shining radiance not only instantly restored her youth, her powers were greatly bolstered and even her current countenance froze perpetually; not deteriorating with age until she perishes.

When Sheyan sized up Taitish, he was aware that regardless of her allurement, she buried deep ambitions behind her appeal; one that was difficult to discover.

Nevertheless to Sheyan, the sickly aged features of the gypsy diviner had long engraved deep within his heart. Hence, he could immediately fathom the intrinsic quality of the present Taitish.

“You’re awake?” Sheyan offered enthusiastically. “How are you feeling?”

Sheyan had long prepared a countermeasure to this incredibly astute woman. He knew it was seemingly impossible for this woman to develop unswerving allegiance to him! Despite so, to Taitish who had experienced the various institutions of the secular world, employing cruel facts would still possess the greatest deterrence against her.

Taitish greeted him with a profound tone.

“I express my utmost gratitude for Mr Yan’s assistance.”

When Sheyan heard her addressing him as ‘Mr Yan’, he understood her intentions.

Don’t talk about her respectful conduct, when she addressed him as ‘Mr Yan’, it meant a particular difference. It was clear she planned to leave. Otherwise, she should be addressing him as ‘Sir’ or ‘Captain’.

This maiden was adept in the gypsy arts of diving and occult magic. At present, she had regained her youth and her prowess had enhanced tremendously. Naturally, she no longer placed Sheyan as her master in her eyes.

Towards Taitish’s words, Sheyan was disinclined to beat around the bush with her. He indifferent declared.

“Your gratitude isn’t necessary. Saving you today may not necessarily be beneficial to you.”

Why didn’t Taitish straightforwardly leave after her powers had enhanced greatly? Why would she still head here to take orders from Sheyan? Obviously, it was because she was utterly clueless on the method Sheyan had employed to save her!

For fear of a hidden danger placed within her, her heart tightened with a sliver of fear upon hearing Sheyan’s words. No matter how powerful someone’s might or authority becomes, they would still revere a domain of which they were incapable of understanding or setting foot in.

“This, what do you mean?”

Sheyan calmly replied.

“I train in mysterious arts of the east, one that can absorb the attributes of all living things under heaven! I can draw a portion of the enemy’s killing might to bestow on my underlings, but you are an exception. You should know it yourself, your youthfulness and energy had been drained away by mysterious occult magic! Am I not wrong?”

Taitish silently nodded.

Sheyan lifted up the coffee mug in his hand, drinking a mouthful before continuing.

“At the scene of those gypsies refining the Baladine Bloodsail, I fought in a death battle with a gypsy diviner with incomparably dreadful prowess. She could actually demonize herself, but still fell short in the end. Yet at that instance, that female diviner could actually unleash an incessant stream of 5 black spades, activating and beckoning for that elephant-head-man-body sculpture beside Jiejie to deal with me!”

Taitish belonged to the ‘Scarlet Faction’ of the gypsies, therefore all her usable poker cards were all reds. However, she relatively understood the other faction as well.

When she heard Sheyan’s description, she instantly understood this matter was absolutely not fabricated.

A gypsy diviner that could demonize and unleash out a spades straight flush sounded rather far-fetch, but there was truly such an individual. That individual was Trish, publicly acknowledged as most suitable to inherit the Jiejie title!

If Taitish wasn’t also a high tier member, she wouldn’t be aware of such inside information.

Chapter 551: Real usage of the Bloodsail

Sheya scoffed in his heart as he observed Taitish’s unconcealable fright. Instead, he projected an unconcerned expression and continued.

“That elephant sculpture is hailed as a sacrificial beast totem by the gypsies right? It is truly extremely terrifying and deadly. I was incapable of rivalling it, but for it to kill me would absolutely not be a simple feat. Before its period of descent onto this world concluded, I managed to sever one of its toes.”

Sheyan paused as he spoke till here and stared at Taitish.

“For your sacrificial beast totem to materialize, it had to absorb the youth and vitality essence of countless females. With my mystical arts from the east, I managed to severe off an essence residue from the soul of that sacrificial beast totem. In view that you had contributed greatly to the commandeering of this ship, I restored you with a residue of that essence.”

Pulses of ominous sensations was already flooding through Taitish’s heart. Then, she heard Sheyan continuing.

“Therefore, truthfully speaking, it was that severed strength of the gypsies’ sacrificial beast totem that enhanced your prowess. As for the soul residue that ruled over that essence, it has been suppressed by my eastern arts of mystery. Since your prowess is greatly boosted now, then you can suppress that soul residue yourself. It takes me strenuous efforts to suppress this item.”

While speaking, Sheyan produced soul residue that had already been condensed into the size of a mung bean. Within a split second, Taitish suddenly issued an unexplainably miserable screech!

She had no clue why she released such an incomparably frightened and wild screech. However, when her gaze interacted with that soul residue, her blood boiled as she sensed an intensified sensation as though her strength was about to be evaporated away!!

Sheyan unfurled his hand. Then, that mung-bean sized soul residue shot towards Taitish with an instinctive magnetism. By now, Taitish had already slumped to the floor limpidly, while her throat gurgled preventing her from speaking a single word. Her eyeballs were protruding out of its eye sockets, and a visible moistness flowed out beneath her. She had actually lost control of her bowels!

Witnessing this scene, Sheyan was undoubtedly pleased. His lips curled upwards before he seized back that soul residue, locking it back within his palm; before he stored it back into the party shared storage.

Once that soul residue disappeared, Taitish immediately regained her breath as she knelt while gasping arduously. Her entire body was soaked in perspiration. At present, she looked at Sheyan with a gaze of multiplied fear! Facing such a situation, Sheyan indifferently announced.

“It seems that you aren’t capable of suppressing that soul residue.”

Taitish could already perceive that she had just committed a massive error. She immediately crawled along the ground and pleaded.

“Master, please forgive my audacity!”

Sheyan replied insipidly.

“To suppress this soul residue and prevent it from seeking you, would require me to expend a great deal of my energy. Won’t you give me a reason I should continue doing so?”

Taitish instantly answered.

“I am your eternal slave, master! I can do anything. Your will is the abiding jurisdiction of my life!”

Sheyan smirked.

“No, no, no. Perhaps your anxiousness is unnecessary! I can generously suppress this residue for another three days. Flee as far as you can, perhaps it won’t be able to find you.”

Taitish smiled wryly.

“That is impossible. The strength flowing inside my body has already been purified by the sacrificial beast totem’s strength. This is a connection that cannot be severed. Even if I run to the ends of the world, it will track me down for all eternity. Once Jiejie locates that soul residue, my fate will become worse than death.”

“Oh.” Sheyan lazily replied. “However, my crew doesn’t seem to be lacking eh? With my illustrious reputation, recruiting other pirates would be a matter of quantity.”

Sheyan’s current words were rather hypocritical. Though Taitish understood that clearly, she could only offer a complementing smile.

“Indeed, master can definitely do without my meagre strength. Still, I can at least become an exemplary figure of one renouncing the dark and seeking the light for you.”

Sheyan scrutinized Taitish suspiciously for a brief while.

“Despite your former impudence of intending to murder me, I forgave you and offered you a chance! Didn’t you feel indebted to me then? Following that, you bravely led the front and opened the doorways of this ship. Yet, that is an inevitable obedience a loyal subordinate would do, an obligation you ought to fulfill as my subordinate! Am I not right?”

Taitish replied with a trembling voice.

“Yes.”

Sheyan then continued indifferently.

“Despite being on the brink of death from your grave injuries in battle, I bestowed the strength I obtained from your sacrificial beast totem. Once again, you are indebted to me! Yet after restoring your life, you actually planned to repay me with traitorous intent. Do not deny for such a conduct would merely insult my intelligence. You must receive punishment!”

Taitish knelt to the ground in trembles.

“Yes.”

Sheyan coldly declared.

“We can speak about your punishment later. But now, tell me all the information you know regarding this!”

As he spoke, Sheyan retrieved a long black rod from behind him. This rod was completely pitch black, as though been charred by smoke and baking fire; appearing utterly ordinary and mediocre.

Yet when he retrieved that rod, the candle flames within the captain’s cabin flickered; seemingly on the verge of extinguishing. One could clearly fathom that though the captain’s cabin was presently occupied with only Sheyan and Taitish, human figures were incessantly shadowing about along the walls; swaying, flickering and apparently wailing in anguish.

“This is……” Taitish started with her stupefied widened eyes. “Isn’t that the Baladine Bloodsail?!!”

Sheyan earnestly nodded.

“Indeed. When I first set my eyes on it, it had the shape of a sail. Yet, it has directly transformed into a rod now. I am ultimately lacking in my comprehension of occult magic, and I hope you can provide me with an answer.”

Taitish pondered a little before responding.

“The gypsies’ flaw has always pertained to our influence out at sea. Three centuries ago, the influence of us gypsies, who are adept in divining the future, had expanded to an extraordinarily powerful state. Even several members of european royalty were being manipulated by Jiejie in the shadows. At that point in time, our foes identified this weakness and started operating out a sea. As a result, five consecutive Jiejies fell at sea, and the gypsy clan deteriorated from then.”

“Following that, the gypsies reflected on our painful history. Then we heard the legends about a bizarre wood from Siberia of the extreme north, that one could build an unsinkable warship from it. After nearly a century, we used ironwood to build such a grand magnificent warship for Jiejie. Henceforth, we no longer needed to worry about our safety at sea. Regrettably, the gypsies’ influence had already spiralled down rapidly like a mountain cart, weakening to an extent worse than a tenth of our golden era.”

When Sheyan heard these insider details from Taitish, his heart welled up with a perilous sensation; never did he expect such a hidden secret behind this. Then, he heard Taitish continuing.

“In recent few decades, the sayings of ‘ruling the seas is equivalent to ruling the world’ became deeply engraved in the hearts of man. Therefore, when the current Jiejie realized she could use loads of harvested sea eggs, to bring about the materialization of our ancient inherited sacrificial beast totems, she started searching for the blueprints required to craft a Baladine Bloodsail. The Bloodsail will make up for the deficiency of our flagship, the greatest flaw of this ship which you name as The Dingyuan!”

“Therefore, you are implying that the Baladine Bloodsail can substantially enhance the sailing speed of this ship?” Sheyan asked.

Taitish shook her head.

“Strictly speaking, this manner of thinking is wrong. Precisely speaking, the Baladine Bloodsail is completely incapable of generating wind power. It cannot increase the speed of a ship. Its only usage is to counteract the enormous deadweight of this ship. Putting this principle bluntly is actually rather simple – using the pulling forces of the vengeful spirits shackled by the Baladine Bloodsail to alleviate the deadweight of this ship.”

Sheyan nodded and asked.

“Therefore, I need you to tell me now. How can I use this Baladine Bloodsail to ease the deadweight of this ship?”

Taitish responded apologetically.

“That is impossible, because the Baladine Bloodsail requires a commanding soul to quell the vengeful spirits within the bloodsail. That is something Jiejie’s two sacrificial beast totem can execute easily, but….”

“So it is like that.” Sheyan contemplated a little. “I understand.”

At this moment, Taitish became afraid that Sheyan would treat her as useless. She immediately added.

“Although there is nothing I can do with regards to the Baladine Bloodsail, there isn’t a problem pertaining to other aspects. For example that ‘Greenland Lethal Weapon’ you acquired at the auction. I can guide its installation onto this ship to display its full potential. Likewise for other precious ship components, I can direct their arrangements and optimize their efficiency.”

Sheyan was moved by her words. Spike was totally clueless about occult magic. Therefore, he had advised Sheyan that even by dismantling the components on the Hill Maiden, it would be impossible to install them onto this ship. Right now, Taitish could make up for this gap.

Proceeding that, Sheyan produced that dark-gold grade material to inquire of Taitish.

Instead, she was utterly clueless about it. When she was contesting for it with Sheyan back at the auction, it was due to the outcome from her divination; suggesting it was best she acquired that object.

Nevertheless, Sheyan wasn’t very surprised by her answer. The Baladine Bloodsail and the mysterious material were both dark-gold grade objects. Wouldn’t it be simply too ridiculous if he could easily employ them?

Chapter 552: Raising a large crew

Sheyan naturally remembered that the foremost quality of a leader was abiding by his words.

Even though Taitish was exceedingly cooperative, Sheyan ultimately did not forget to implement her punishment.

Her punishment was to strip naked before all the pirates and be hung on the mast, before flogging her viciously for five times with a whip made with shark’s skin!

To any woman, stripping naked and being hung would be a terribly dishonorable humiliation. Furthermore, her youthful and alluring bare body would have to suffer five lashes. One must understand, a whip made with shark’s skin would rip off a huge chunk of flesh when whipping a human’s body. The resultant anguish and pain would naturally be carved deep into her heart.

This was a lesson for every single pirate. Besides, commendations and condemnations were the best tool to protect one’s governance. Fortunately, Taitish’s body was like a fountainhead of vitality, where her wounds would swiftly heal without any scar.

Furthermore, she was definitely not a young virgin. Being a gypsy, what wouldn’t she have seen before? To her who had already become an old granny previously, this degree of humiliation and punishment was inferior to other scary judgements.

Hence, she could still accept this and grimaced while acknowledging her ill luck. Anyway, no matter how humiliating it was, it would still be better than carrying a grandmother’s face while being 18 years of age.

Sheyan very quickly converged with the members on board the Hill Maiden. After concluding Taitish’s punishment, he ordered all hands to climb aboard the new ship. When those pirates that were left to safeguard the Hill Maiden saw such an indomitable 5-masted quasi-legendary warship, their morale naturally soared.

While Sheyan wanted his pirate crew to familiarize with operating on a large ship, he also urgently seeked to recruit more crewmates to accomplish his ‘Pirate Captain (advance)’ milestone. After inquiring with Ol’Seadog, they sailed towards a temporal pirate port not too far away, known as Trihorn Island.

At the same time, they would offload the vikings here. To compensate for their losses in battle, Sheyan had gifted to them his other 3-masted ship used for logistics.

That ship could obviously transport the commodities that supplied the vikings with, as well as other miscellaneous; allowing the vikings to save on ‘freight fees’. Sheyan’s other 3-masted ship was already remodelled as a transportation ship, and thus it wouldn’t be a problem for those vikings to return home with their goods.

The vikings were extremely satisfied with Sheyan’s generosity, and agreed to cooperate if they had the opportunity in the future.

Throughout their voyage, the Dingyuan offered immense stability to the crew; unmovable and unperturbed by the oncoming waves.

Sheyan had even experimented with a mug of water on his table. The outcome was that even when the waves soared as high as four metres, not a single drop of water was splashed out of the filled mug. Such was its firm stability!

As the pirate port, Trihorn Island, was only a day’s voyage from Port Royal, it was vastly inferior to places like Tortuga. Trihorn Island didn’t imply that the island was shaped like a triangle with three horns. Instead, it comprised of three islands shaped together in a ‘品’ character.

If the prosperity of Tortuga could be described as the provincial capital or a city, then Trihorn Island would be analogous to just a mere town. Furthermore, it was the rather deserted kind.

Buildings were built by the island workers with random kinds of rocks.

Back when Port Royal had not successfully quelled its smuggling activities, this island was essentially a forsaken deserted island. Even if one climbed ashore, the only activity possible would be to push down a random stone hut. However, ever since Port Royal had been eased of such smuggling activities, this island was revamped into a criminal paradise.

Sheyan rushing for Trihorn island was not without reason. He had received a report that after Norrington defeated Chevalle’s fleet, Trihorn island was merely a few hundred nautical miles from from their battlefield. If one’s travel was smooth, it would take a matter of hours to arrive here.

More critically, if the defeated pirates didn’t withdraw to Trihorn island, then they would minimally have to travel to Gainhorn, several thousand nautical miles from here, to replenish drinking water. That was not very realistic. Therefore, if there weren’t any incidents, Trihorn island should now be like a massive marketplace, filled with pirates who desired to sell their loots or themselves after their defeat. It would be the most suitable location for Sheyan to recruit crew members.

Although The Dingyuan had already become Sheyan’s flagship, he didn’t discard the semi-scrap Hill Maiden but hauled it behind. If his luck was good, it could still be treated as a fishing ship and sold off for several hundreds or thousands of guineas.

Upon reaching several nautical miles from Trihorn island, he dispatched several pirates originally from Chevalle’s fleet, to ride a single-masted ship out to survey the grounds.

Their main objective was to scout if Chevalle was present on the island. If he was, then it wouldn’t be good to seduce pirates away from his subsidiary fleets.

Besides, Sheyan’s ‘Worshipped’ reputation would still be incapable of rivalling the prestige of a Pirate Lord.

Secondly, it was to obtain first hand information, to understand the overview of the situation aftermath of the great naval warfare.

After a long while, the scouting pirates returned. Puffing and huffing, they rolled and scrambled into the captain’s cabin.

“Cap, cap’n!!! Might we be hasten. Chevalle’s been severely wounded and unconscious, his eldest son apprehended by Norrington. Dissent has ignited fierily amongst his pirate fleet, and the entire situation be chaotic to incomparable extents. This be the time to recruit scallywags.”

Although Sheyan could roughly confirm Chevalle wouldn’t be on the island, he was still exceedingly elated upon hearing that report; thus immediately calling for a full speed ahead.

One had to admit; when Sheyan’s newly commandeered Dingyuan gently sailed into Trihorn Island, its uniquely lofty shape and the dragon jolly roger fluttering atop the mast released a thrusting impression to all onlookers.

Trihorn Island was truly a picture of disorder. Although the Chevalle pirate fleet was humongous, its organization composition was rather incohesive. In victory, it would be like a loose coalition without strong cohesiveness, relying greatly on the combined might of two of Chevalle’s 7-masted ships and eight 5-masted ships. When that core group loses its momentum, the entire fleet would unavoidably sink into a predicament of rats leaving a sinking ship.

When The Dingyuan anchored by the shore, it immediately attracted the attention of many others. Sheyan continued to hide himself behind the curtains, while he dispatched his underlings that were originally under Chevalle’s pirate fleet to survey for information; obtaining the prices of goods, and many other first hand reports. Only then, would he make a move.

Sheyan believed that once he showed himself, there would be multitudes that would wish to join his pirate crew.

Sheyan sternly instructed his pirates that they could speak of whatever father, mother wife tales they wished to. However, they were prohibited from speaking of a single matter about the internal affairs of the ship! Otherwise, they would face the consequence!

At present, the pirates on board practically deified Sheyan’s words. Naturally, they didn’t dare to spout any information in front of others. Yet on the contrary, this manner further piqued the interest of other pirates. After his scouting pirates gathered and summarized the information, Sheyan was amazed to discover that those incomparably advanced high-angle cannons mentioned before were actually sold in this place as well.

In reality, although these presently advanced weapons were difficult to obtain, money was all powerful and it wasn’t hard to imagine 1-2 being sold of in black markets. Nevertheless, to bulk purchase and install them onto a large fleet would be a relatively tedious task.

Many pirates that were residing on Trihorn island were those who felt their future was bleak.

Due to Norrington’s representation of the might of the Royal British Navy, notions of abandoning their lives of an outlaw welled up in the hearts of many pirates. Furthermore, the fate of their captain was unknown. Hence, those ununited pirates desired to sell of their items and share the booty.

As such, a total of 38 elite high-angled cannons were being sold off on this island. Numerous units of them were being sold off by over ten parties, and with the urgency of their situation, most of these cannons were assigned valuations that were much cheaper than the ones sold off at the auction.

When Sheyan got wind of this report, he ordered to purchase without hesitation. The current Dingyuan was now an abnormally shaped ship, and he even heard his pirates hailing it as an ‘unsinkable floating island’. Therefore, it would definitely occupy massive advantages in broadside cannon battles. As they saying goes, the future belonged to stable ships with devastating cannons!

Moreover, their current circumstances presented them the impossibility of contesting the speed supremacy of the Black Pearl. Therefore, the other perspective would be to consider lowering the speed of the enemy; employing cannon balls to assault the Black Pearl’s masts and sails in order to lower their speed. Furthermore, a solution must be devised to prevent them from mounting a naval boarding skirmish. This could still be considered as an acceptable approach. Except now, the requirements pertaining to artillery gunners would be immense.

After depleting roughly 30,000 guineas, Sheyan acquired 17 high-angled cannons. After a series of deliberations, Sheyan then decided to group them into four different rows. Following that, he discussed the principle and prospects of having a ‘draw sliding system’ with the carpenter Spike. If no unexpected variance occurs, the 17 high-angled cannons could bombard different directions simultaneously.

Even though the addition of new weapons was a cause for joy, it revealed newer problems as well. Though the threat of these high-angled cannons were tremendous, the manpower required to operate them was incredibly taxing.

Sheyan had formerly inclined with heavy emphasis on naval boarding battles, and his crew had been tempered towards that aspect. Therefore, he had a current deficiency of outstanding gunners.

This was totally different from sailing operators. An excellent gunner could only be moulded through experience. Adjusting the positions of the cannons during intense battles, and firing from afar without the usage of computerized correcting, could be described by the saying – a slight centimeter would be akin to a deviation of a thousand miles. Even if two cannons were positioned together, the shooting parameter and reloading of cannonballs would differ. In this current era, a good gunner could at most command 2-3 cannons at one go. Therefore, the more of such talents, the better.

Chapter 553: Black-Iron title: Pirate Captain

Although this widescale recruiting or seducing pirates from other ships would very possibly incur the antipathy of pirates loyal to Chevalle’s fleet, this issue didn’t bother Sheyan much.

He had already pondered over this matter before he arrived at Trihorn Island, and was well versed in marketing tactics from the present world.

Thus, he immediately ordered to mark out an area on the pier, and placed a banner written with the words – Free enjoyment of Golden rum.

To the defeated pirates who craved the comfort of alcohol fervently but were penniless, they had never seen the words written on that banner before. Therefore, it undoubtedly hooked the deep curiosity and gluttony in their bellies.

One must credit the hard work of the gypsies as well. When Sheyan’s crew commandeered the Dingyuan, they discovered supplies within the warehouse storage of the ship’s hold.

Food supplies capable of feeding a thousand mouths for half a year, and several hundred barrels of rum and others. Thus, Sheyan’s recruited party could be credited to the squandering of Queen Jiejie’s hidden goods.

Once the rum barrels were unlid, the heavily scented fragrance of rum wafted into the atmosphere as a splendid announcement.

Whenever a pirate joined this recruiting fare, he would first receive a large mug of ordinary rum. Soon later, he would realize the plentiful opportunity of receiving more drinks on the premise of themselves displaying personal capabilities; be it in terms of close combat or artillery.

Of course, the recruitment of close combat individuals was exceedingly demanding, where one needed to satisfy the harsh standards of Philip and Blacksail.

For any pirate whose demonstrated capability warranted him a qualification, he would then receive a mug of Golden Rum. Following that, if he still held interest, then he would have to compete with others. The eventual candidates would receive a hundred guineas and an invitation to join the crew.

Under such a eliminatory system, Sheyan easily recruited sufficient and excellent gunners. To his surprise, even that Redbeard, who had previously been stripped and hung suspended on the mast, surfaced and successfully passed the evaluation.

His ship had unfortunately been sunk after it became the target of attention due to its precise accuracy when firing cannons. Following that, his subordinates and confidants had been slain. Faced with such hopelessness, he could only thicken his skin and request to join Sheyan’s crew.

Sheyan had personally tested him and realized that Redbeard was truly gifted when it came to artillery gun fire. Moreover, through the data statistics of his probing, Redbeard actually possessed the ‘Grandmaster Gunning Art’ ability, which raised the gunning abilities of all his commanding gunners by one level. Without a doubt, such a group buff ability was immensely rare, and it wasn’t merely in name alone that he could become a pirate captain under Chevalle’s pirate fleet.

After Sheyan comforted Redbeard, he swapped a dark-blue grade cutlass he obtained from his ‘Pirate Captain’ plundering for the ‘Magnetite Ring’ he gifted Philip previously. Then, he bestowed the ring to Redbeard.

Apart from that, Ol’Seadog recommended an extraordinary talent to Sheyan. That person was named Nanuke, a rarely seen Inuit.

He was roughly forty years of age, with well developed arm muscles. His face hosted a deep and irregular scar, and his tattoos on his arm amplified his ruthless appearance; upon careful inspection, it was the tattoo of an enormous blue whale.

Nanuke was an expert in crossing with legendary creatures of the sea. He understood the habits of many legendary creatures, and even had attempted hunting for some before. Although his operation mostly resulted in failure, trying to plot against legendary creatures and live was still an incredibly daunting feat.

In the minds of the pirates, Nanuke had a rather awe-inspiring name known as Myth’s Nightmare!

After considering much, Sheyan realized that Nanuke was second to none when it came to operating the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’. Under his operation, the effective range of that deadly harpoon even surpassed a kilometer. Without a doubt, it had already neared the effective range of an ordinary cannon.

Estimatedly an hour or so later, Sheyan received notifications.

[ Your reputation amongst the pirates has attained ‘Worshipped’ levels ]

[ You possess a ship with a displacement over 7 kilotons ]

[ Your pirate crew of storyline pirates exceeds 300 members ]

[ Milestone: Pirate Captain (advanced) accomplished ]

[ You receive a Black-Iron title: Pirate Captain! ]

[ Your received title: Pirate Captain – The awe of ordinary pirates towards you is raised by 200%. The awe of ordinary pirates towards officers of your crew is raised by 100%. You can breath underwater for an extended 15 minutes ]

[ When out at sea, you can effectively raise the offense/ defense / movement speed of allies within a kilometre radius by 25%! (Inclusive of ships. This effect cannot be stacked with other pirate captains) ]

[ You receive a passive ability: Letter of Marque – After successfully commandeering/ destroying other enemies or ships, there is a fixed chance of acquiring the special abilities of precious unique components/materials/equipments relevant to the battle. ]

[ Details: Your success rate of discovering plunder authorization is raised by 33%. The grade of discovered objects is raised by 33% ]

[ Details: You can upgrade this ability by contributing wealth to the Queen of Britain, promoting it to ‘British Royal Letter of Marque’. ]

[ Details: After possessing (note, possessing not equipping) this title, your thriving ambitions have now manifested and joining other pirate factions would now be difficult ]

Though the Dingyuan was merely a 5-masted ship, its unique shape and enormous frame already vastly surpassed other 5-masted ships. Therefore, even after meeting the requirements of 300 sailors, it still had space for at least 200 more.

Despite so, Sheyan wasn’t planning on maximizing the 500 crew quota. Instead, he placed a restriction on recruiting only 50 more. Nevertheless, these 50 must be talents or warriors of different functions. For example, there was an old pirate who was completely blind but could rely on his nose to accurately pinpoint the existence of legendary creatures like mermaids a few nautical miles away.

One pirate had a beastly build, with bristles of hair covering his face. He was adept in utilizing needles….oh, please do not misunderstand, his needles pertained to his expertise in sewing and mending sails. Not only were his weaving skills rapid, the end product would be seemingly identical to its former state.

Yet another pirate was extremely skinny and frail, that even the breeze could blow him down. Instead, he was an expert in fishing and rearing fishes. With his rearing livestock on the ship, meticulously planning his fishing and replenishing of food supplies, he raised the period of long distance voyage by at least 30%.

Excluding the gunners Sheyan recruited, he also placed heavy emphasis on recruiting strong and long armed paddlers. These paddlers could not only increase the velocity of the ship, they could hurl out spears or short hatches in the face of an imminent naval boarding.

Sheyan’s hypothesis was that towards the undying crew of the Black Pearl, even if they shattered their skeletons, those undying pirates could still swiftly recover and continue engaging in battle.

To battle with such monsters, one would naturally have to prevent crossing swords with them; even stabbing them ten times would be futile, and only leads to a loss in willpower to do battle.

Hence, the primary concern had shifted from fleeing, to retaliating in long range skirmishes.

Fortunately, quite a handful of elites of Chevalle’s pirate fleet had fled to Trihorn Island! Moreover, Sheyan was selecting the quintessence of the elites. One could only imagine the quality of his pirate crew.

After his crew was adequately expanded, Sheyan then ordered to sail off a couple dozen miles into the sea. Then, he summoned all his pirates on deck, before commanding his subordinates to finally retrieve the corpses of those gypsy guardians they had massacred.

Under the watchful gazes of the audience, he started to engage in plundering!

At this point, Sheyan’s new ‘Letter of Marque’ ability granted him a substantial boost in the quality of his plunders. Even the outer demeanor of his actions had added flare. Pressing his hand onto the corpse, the original prowess of the corpse was distinctly seen being drawn out with flourishing glows, before congregating into a particular equipment; an act of transforming something rotten into something magical.

Viewing such a scene, older pirates lifted their brows in delight. They understood that though following this Seaman Yan of the east was dangerous and treacherous, his commendations and punishments were impartial. Furthermore, it seemed like guineas were constantly clinking around.

Their eyes beheld the scene of strength bestowal once again. Names were individually called up, as they each stood forward to receive a bestowal of might from Sheyan. Some were incredibly elated as they couldn’t refrain from chuckling jovially.

When the new pirates spectated this scene, hopes naturally confounded within them. They were exceedingly clear about the nature of those older pirates following Sheyan.

As such, they couldn’t help but ponder – “The meagre capabilities of those scallywags be sufficient to receive such bountiful booty, wouldn’t me strivins’ receive more?”

Thus, they became hell-bent on serving him.

As Sheyan distributed the plundered equipments to reward the old-timers for their merit in those bitter fights, he was firstly attempting to mediate the disparity between them and the newly recruited pirates. Secondly, it was naturally to aggregate their emotions, allowing the new pirates to perceive the benefits of striving in death raids.

Furthermore, the Dingyuan was formerly Jiejie’s flagship. It stored numerous excellent equipments within. Thus, the old-timers all received a huge boost in their prowess after equipping, and most could now be comparable to those gypsy guardians of before.

At this period, Reef was deliberating over the tacky possibility of Ammand coming here to recruit manpower as well, which would spiral into a massive battle. Instead, Sheyan rejected that possibility, because the subordinates of Ammand were all arabian pirates of religious belief.

Although they were undoubtedly united and cohesive in battles, the purity of their faith would definitely disallow them from fighting alongside other apostates. Moreover, Ammand couldn’t effectively exploit the vikings previously as well. Therefore, everything had their pros and cons. This fact severed the possibility of Ammand recruiting pirates of other faith to his crew.

Chapter 554: Reunion a decade later

Afterwards, no other unique talents showed up. Yet noteworthily, Sheyan chanced upon an intoxicated drunkard on the island, who could unexpectedly perform a simple maintenance for his ‘+7 West’ saber; barely restoring 30% of its durability.

Hence, Sheyan was spared from deposing of his weapon. Furthermore, that drunkard seemed to be rather proficient in cannon maintenance as well, and was similarly recruited as a talent.

After a two day stint on Trihorn Island, Sheyan then sold off some of the rum and supplies carried on the Dingyuan for high prices. Those were all goods stolen from the gypsies, which provided him with only benefits and zero costs. At present, Trihorn Island was filled with dispirited pirates who drank their sorrows away. Thus, Sheyan managed to fill his basins once again.

On this day, while Sheyan was organizing his rowdy new pirates, a fully loaded merchant ship swayed and anchored by the port. Pirate ships with their suspended black flags appeared like foul houseflies buzzing around it. Still, none dared to make a move, because they all recognized the merchant ship’s flag.

This merchant ship was delivering an abundance of cheap rum, meat and gambling tools after hearing of the exuberant vigor of Trihorn Island. Very naturally, the merchant ship became extremely popularized, and all its goods were swept cleanly.

Strictly speaking, Sheyan recognized the owner of this merchant ship. It was indeed Governor Swann’s representative – Mister McKinney. Facing the indomitable Norrington, Governor Swann wanted to earn for the last time before his return.

Wasn’t there a saying that described this? Five fold profits would suffice for capitalists to brave all treacherous of the gibbet.

After some considerations, Sheyan decided to visit Mr McKinnery by borrowing their prior friendship. He then obtained certain reliable information.

Captain Norrington would be officially assuming the post of Commodore the following day. Governor Swann would be representing the english government to award this honor with a sword. Right now, a stern regimental state of ceremonial preparations was declared in Port Royal. Moreover, to avoid any vengeful reprisals from the pirates, Norrington’s fleets had been distributed to encompass the sea territory around Port Royal; carrying out rigorous checks on any 3-masted or above ships.

Of course, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to inspect single-masted ships. However, those ships were normally fishing boats, and the work required to inspect would be too laborious and may incur the popular grievance of the public. Even for individuals who harbored an errant, a single-masted couldn’t conjure out any storm. Therefore, they shutted one eye to them.

Sheyan wasn’t surprise to hear such a report. After several contemplation, he stuffed several hundreds of guineas to Mister Mckinney and requested to ride his merchant ship back to Port Royal; claiming that he had a certain urgent business that required his prompt return.

McKinney was obviously not convinced and even scoffed disdainfully at Sheyan’s words.

Nevertheless, he didn’t believe that Sheyan and some few followers would dare to cause a ruckus unaccompanied at the inauguration of Captain Norrington. Hence, he accorded to Sheyan’s requested, and stored those several hundred guineas into his private stash.

Then, he left behind several helpers that would continue business here, before raising the sails and setting sail. As the chief trusted aide of Governor Swann, he definitely had to be present for Captain Norrington’s inauguration.

On this day, mild clouds loomed over the vast horizon. The sky and the sea was separated by a single line. Words were spoken amongst the public that even the skies were pleased with the promotion of Captain Norrington.

At present, Sheyan had reunited with Joshamee Gibbs back at Port Royal, and was chatting with him and two other pirates in a tavern.

Recently, Sheyan hadn’t raised and requested for Joshamee. As such, Joshamee indulged in muddled enjoyment. Besides, Sheyan would cover all his expenses in the bars.

Under Sheyan’s request, they headed towards an external fishing spot at the outskirts of Port Royal. This place was a rugged shoal filled with standing rocks.

Several hundred nautical metres away was droopy reef. with three swaying skeletons hanging suspended from it. Occasionally, the skeletons released fracturing crackles, seemingly about to break off the noose. Perhaps, the skeletons would be chop down, or perhaps it would simply fall into the sea overtime; never to be found again. Beside the skeletons, was a warning signboard.

Pirates Ye be warned.

Truthfully speaking, Joshamee was rather displeased with Sheyan’s arrangement. He reckoned the bosom and buttocks of wenches and rum was much more interesting than fishing underneath the blazing sun.

In spite of that, Sheyan was adamant that a supremely precious and rare fish could be fished at this particular area, and at this particular time. The free loading Joshamee could only grumble as he followed suit.

Sheyan had his gaze fixated on something. Far into the distant sea, there were several tiny white sails. Though they were all single-masted ships, they were evidently awaiting something.

In truth, this was no season to fish. Joshamee was extremely perplex by that irregular sighting, and thus believed in the false words of this so called ‘precious fish’.

Without a doubt, only Sheyan knew that those individuals were contestants. They definitely were all aware that Jack Sparrow would show up here.

Hence, they intended to test their luck to solicit this legend of inexhaustible charm whose elegance danced lightly around. At the very least, they could make themselves seem familiar.

After nearly half an hour when the sun was at the peak of its might, none was able to fish up any precious fish. Instead, fishes like silvery pomfret and so on were repetitively taking bait.

At this very moment, a tattered sail suddenly appeared in the distant ocean. It was truly a tattered sail. Sheyan squinted his eyes, but continued to angle his rod nonchalantly. In the distant, those white sails immediately congregated over, and even mutual arguments and curses could be heard between them; their contentions in full swing.

Nevertheless at this moment, Jack Sparrow had no desires to be tangled with these group of individuals.

Although the former captain of the Black Pearl was idolized for speed, he had to resort to bailing water out from his shabby little boat every now and then. However, one could notice his boat abruptly sailing faster. Like a slippery loach, it shuttled through the encompassment of those white sails in a flash.

Then, it gently sailed straight for this promontory. Its goal was clear, it was Port Royal.

Instead, Sheyan maintained his nonchalant self of fishing. Yet at this moment, Joshamee could roughly identify the distant sailing boat. His eyes popped widely as his fishing rod dropped into the water.

When the terribly shabby little boat started to nimbly navigate in, the initially absent-minded Joshamee had already took note of the faraway scene. As he awaited Jack Sparrow to sail in, he had already began shouting emotionally.

“Jaccccccccc~~~~Jack!!!!”

Then, he started waving his hands excessively as he raced towards the promontory. Probably due to the spirit connection between the two, Jack Sparrow similarly glanced towards here. As he neared the port, he displayed a rather exaggerated reaction on his face, before revealing a surprised and delightful countenance.

“Gibbs!! What’s an old seadog like you doing here?”

(Author’s note: seadog means loyal and veteran in pirate terms, this is a positive connotation. Like a classic phrase in WOW Karazhan, where veteran players definitely remember clearly. Nielas Aran’s personal bellow is: this beaten dog still has some teeth!)

Joshamee laughed mischievously with widened mouth.

“Cap’n, why can’t I be here. It’s wonderful you’re alright. Those bunch of bilge-suckin’ scoundrels be cursed to feed the fishes in Davy Jone’s locker.”

Jack Sparrow shrugged his shoulders and pushed him aside.

“Ho, I would be fine even if the world succumbs to destruction. Could it be the salty sea breeze has blown jitterish in my eyes. Why do I find this mister rather familiar?”

Sheyan smiled humbly.

“Mister Sparrow, we met before years ago back in a tavern of Turtuga. During then, we engaged in deep discussions over the bodily contours of a female”

Jack Sparrow became briefly distracted, before he spoke with widened mouth.

“Oh, so you are that scallywag! Seaman Yan from the east! I heard you became the Third Mate of Davy Jones?”

“Beloved Captain Sparrow, not long after we parted, I returned to the east after suffering the curse of the Flying Dutchman. I only returned recently.” Sheyan first expressed his current position.

He was aware that Jack Sparrow had sworn an oath with Davy Jones. Davy Jones would lend a hand to salvage the sunken Black Pearl with help of kraken Paul, but Jack Sparrow would have to service the Flying Dutchman for a hundred years ten years later.

According to Sheyan’s knowledge, Jack Sparrow wasn’t intending to abide with his oath. Or perhaps in a more straightforward tone, he planned to renege his debt. Nevertheless, Sheyan wasn’t slightly inclined to interfere with messy scene developing between those two major figures.

Sheyan then fished out two mugs of rum and tossed them to Jack and Joshamee.

“Honestly speaking Mister Sparrow, I was specially awaiting you here.”

Jack Sparrow joyously gulped down several large mouthfuls before releasing his breath and inquired curiously.

“Awaiting me? You knew I’d be arriving here?”

Sheyan nodded.

“Aye.”

Captain Jack was even more intrigued.

“How did you know?”

Sheyan raised his hand as the veil masqueraded Taitish strolled out with humble noddings.

“This is a powerful diviner of a gypsy clan. It was she who divined this after expending great efforts and price.”

On Sheyan’s orders, Taitish gracefully bowed and greeted.

“Mr Jack Sparrow. It wasn’t a simple affair to look into the near paths of your fate. I paid an immense cost.”

Jack stroked his beard and replied.

“That sounds rather reasonable. So, what be ye seeking me for?”

Chapter 555: An unforeseen ceremony mishap

Sheyan nodded earnestly and answered.

“Aye, I’ve already revealed my intentions to Mr Gibbs. It will be better for him to explain to you.”

“Gibbs?” Jack Sparrow glanced towards his old mate, who was presently dealing with a mug of golden rum. Brimming with displeasure, Captain Jack snatched the mug from Joshamee’s hand and gulped down several mouthfuls.

Then, he earnestly inquired.

“You ought to distance yourself from rum. Thus, it is mine now. Joshamee, it is time for you to inform me of Seaman Yan’s intentions.”

Hiccupping from the rum, Joshamee glared angrily and chided.

“Return the rum to me! Aye alright, just leave a sliver for me. Seaman’s story goes like this. That time when he got cursed….”

After Joshamee concluded his long-winded story, Jack Sparrow chuckled gently.

“So this means you wish to deal with my beloved, the Black Pearl.”

Sheyan replied insipidly.

“Speaking in current context, it is already a beloved who is moaning mellowly on another’s bed.”

Jack curled his lips and responded.

“The world is always filled with surprises and betrayals. She will be mine again. Aye Seaman Yan, you know there be no free lunch in this world. Show me some substance that can move me heart.”

Sheyan raised a finger.

“Ten thousand guineas.”

Jack shrugged his shoulders.

“Carry on.”

Sheyan raised his second finger.

“An amazing beauty, who even served in the British Royal Navy not too long ago. Mister Gibbs here can testify.”

Joshamee glanced at Sheyan and replied.

“If ye be talking about the Hill Maiden, that truly is one splendid ship.” The poor Joshamee Gibbs, who had all along been coping himself inside taverns, had no clue of the devastating damages dealt to the Hill Maiden by Ammand. Right now, Jack Sparrow appeared to be slightly moved. Sheyan then added another straw that would possibly collapse the camel’s back.

“Excluding those; in view of our friendship Mister Sparrow, I will gift twenty british marine forged equipments to you. These goods would be worth 20,000 guineas in Tortuga.”

Actually, Sheyan wasn’t lying to Captain Jack. However, he had omitted the different changes of the Hill Maiden, and the fact that those twenty sets of british marine equipments were actually washed out goods; equipments he purchased back at the auction for several hundreds of guineas.

Sheyan didn’t allow Jinkuang to show himself for this transaction. The reason for this was simple. Jack Sparrow’s charm wasn’t to be trifled with, and could possibly easily terminate Jinkuang’s charm effects.

“Fine then, we have a deal.” Captain Jack Sparrow reached out his hand with suave. After accomplishing their deal, he then explained to Sheyan.

“You’re a captain now. Therefore, I believe you can understand the emotions a captain feels for his ship, even a ship that belonged to him previously. As such, I am unable to directly divulge the intrinsic nature of my beloved to you, just like how you wouldn’t reveal your wife’s curves to others. Yet I can only provide you with a name. Whatever you desire can be found through his mouth, because the Black Pearl was built by his forefather!” Sheyan squinted his eyes and replied.

“But, I don’t trust that he will reveal what I desire to me.”

“He will, assuredly he will.” Jack Sparrow sincerely urged. Then, he stuck his fingers into his mouth and pulled forcefully, finally extracting out a golden tooth still dripping with saliva.

“Bring this keepsake with you, and look for emporium master Shawen at Port Royal, the 10th shop of Nathan street.”

Sheyan nodded.

“Your reputation ranks supremely amongst men, Mister Jack. If I was a lass, I would surely guard against being gullible with you. Wait wait, the 10th shop of Nathan street? Where did I hear of that damned location before?!! Right, my respected Mister Sparrow, when did you last visit your source?”

Jack Sparrow hesitated a little before answering.

“Eight years ago, I borrowed 200 guineas from his shop.”

“Afterwards, you neither met him again nor returned his money aye?” Sheyan speechlessly questioned.

“Mister Sparrow, it isn’t my intent to pressure you to sell out your beloved. Yet the cruel reality remains that as of now, the 10th shop of Nathan street was owned by a brat named Chris. To my knowledge, he has utterly no relations with Shawen. Right now, the custody of the shop has been seized by the governor or perhaps is now the private property of a judge.”

Hearing this variation, Jack Sparrow was reacted blankly. Then, he sighed regretfully.

“Then I truly apologize for I didn’t know things would change to this state. Let us cancel the deal then.”

At present, Sheyan truly had no other alternatives but to shrug his shoulders and sigh.

“Alright fine, blame this on our companionship aye? There’s a phrase in the east, words spoken weigh heavier than nine bowls of rice. Pass your golden tooth to me, I’ll look for the whereabouts of Mister Shawen myself.”

Jack and Joshamee then gazed at Sheyan with a faint shred of gratitude. Truthfully speaking, the current Jack Sparrow was experiencing an impoverished state. In the movie, his first harvest was when he joined forces with Will Turner to commandeer a navy ship.

Under normal circumstances, it goes without saying the risk involved with commandeering a navy ship. One just needed to reflect on the consequence of stealing a sedan in any public security bureau. If he had other alternatives, why would Jack Sparrow risk his life to walk such a treacherous path? Hence, this aid provided by Sheyan to him now was truly sending charcoal in a snowy weather.

After receiving information he required from Jack, Sheyan didn’t bother to speak superfluous words of recruitment. He knew that with his current state, it was impossible to recruit Jack. After tasting their mugs of rum, they parted ways.

In this manner, Sheyan also avoided a confrontation with the other contestants. Undoubtedly, it remained difficult for two fists to overcome four enemies. Conspiring to ‘dominate’ Jack Sparrow would certainly incur the public’s fury.

Sheyan had already demonstrated his capabilities previously, but too unyielding a spirit may result in an object snapping. Therefore, after accomplishing his goal, he cordially separated from Jack Sparrow. Anyway, Sheyan’s wings was already abundantly developed, and within his plans, the assistance of Jack Sparrow wasn’t a necessity.

The congregated white sails were initially despairing. Yet after noticing Sheyan and his group departing from Jack Sparrow, with even Joshamee following Jack, the contestants instantly flocked over jovially. They would definitely be able to reap certain benefits from those two major storyline characters, or perhaps, at least they could commit actions in accordance to the storyline progression!

This was indeed what Sheyan desired to observe; to cast all attention back towards Jack Sparrow. In this manner, his own operations would be given less attention.

When the group returned to Port Royal, Captain Norrington’s promotion ceremony had just commenced. This promotion ceremony was held at the entrance of the governor’s mansion.

Not only were many spectating, a thousand red and white striped marines were standing orderly and in attention; hoisting up long cutlassess and Mauser rifles in neat rows. One could describe this scene of swords and rifles as akin to a forest of exuberant power and influence!

Norrington and Governor Swann were standing on the ceremonial podium ahead, receiving the protection of weapons and the admirations of everyone.

By the left of the podium sat several local noblemen, while maidens dressed in Victorian corset gowns and wide hats sat on the right. They would shade their cheeks with circular fans, and the governor’s daughter, Elizabeth Swann, sat within the core of the maidens.

At present, Norrington and Swann both wore blue buttoned coats, coats that would be differentiated as swallow-tailed coats in the generations to come. Over it, they wore a white fleece vest that appeared rather cordial. In this era, males wore full stockings. Different from the present era was that those stockings would barely overshoot the knees, and fully portray the curve of their calfs.

Norrington stood to the left of Swann, while Governor Swann gifted Norrington with a sword; a symbol of authority that he had meticulously ordered to forge. Henceforth, this expression indicated his smooth promotion to Commodore.

Those marine guards of honor unanimously released fire; demonstrating the procession etiquette of declaring Norrington’s official promotion to Commodore, where his men could now hold authority of organizing their own fleets. The marines under his command would rise with him.

After the ceremony concluded, the masses started dispersing. Meanwhile, the debutantes remained shading their mouths as they giggled with each other. Then, they lifted their gowns as they prepared to board their carriages.

Port Royal was a harbour constructed on mountainous terrain, where the buildings constructed appeared in irregular arrangement but with charming effect. The port regions, merchant districts and residential areas were all comprised of short and low buildings.

At present, there were several banners of buildings standing ahead of the governor’s mansion. Some appeared splendorous and majestic, while others had lost their luster over the years. Nevertheless, they appeared with a solemn historic significance built up throughout years of caressing by the sea breeze, beneath the white clouds and the blue sky.

Therefore, not a single person noticed.

On the roof of a rather shabby and worn out building, three individuals were laying in ambush. Those three had disguised themselves with random furniture junk, thus successfully concealing their bodies.

Right now, only rifle barrels and scopes were extending out. It was difficult to attract the attention of others.

Suddenly, the rifles spat out glaring fiery tongues!

Those three had opened fire simultaneously. They were actually all marksmen of the same kind! Though only three rifles had concurrently fired, they unleashed a terrifying momentous as though a hurricane was sweeping through!

The rifles they employed had all been specially modified, where its blueprints were based on the Counter strike rifle, Sauer SG-552 Commando (B32). Its effective range and bullets had undergone special enhancing, and the bullets were installed with explosive warheads!

Chapter 556: Surprise attack of a werewolf

Nobody anticipated such a deadly sneak attack.

Even though Sheyan’s perceptive sense was substantial, he was unable to foresee anything as the rifles weren’t aiming at him at all.

After a string of gunfire, three marines standing by a carriage suddenly turned vacantly sluggish.

A red dot bloomed between their brows.

While others were still puzzled, the heads of those marines suddenly exploded with a boom!

This sneak offense was savagely brutal. Its principle laid in penetrating the opponent’s defence with a physically sharp object, before unleashing a violent explosion within the opponent’s body!

The only flaw was that those bullets had an effective range only slightly further than ordinary rifles, and were totally incapable of competing with a genuine sniper rifle.

The image of three heads simultaneously exploding was probably a sight many hadn’t seen before, even in their nightmares! Miserable flesh and blood splattered everywhere, landing around a ten metre radius. In no time, the air was dyed with a faint, bright and cruel red.

The carriage horse lifted its hooves into the air as it released a frightened neigh, before proceeding to gallop in panic as it hauled along the carriage haphazardly.

About to board that carriage, a dumbstruck noble maiden stood lifelessly. Only after ten seconds, did she realized her face was smeared with warm dregs of flesh and blood. As she gazed down onto her bloodied hands, she immediately released a shrilling scream of horror!

Within a split second, the entire ceremonial ground was thrown into an uproar.

A complete barrenness loomed above the necks of the three victims. Dangling by their shoulders, one could see a mangled face. The deathly white spinal column could be faintly seen through the neck, looking additionally tragic. At this moment, excessive loads of blood was squirting 5-6 metres out of their necks and trickling down; rapidly sprinkling melancholy bitterness over the entire field like a sprinkler truck.

Meanwhile, back when that gunfire sounded, Mogensha was about to dive away to cover.

Instead, Sheyan pulled and halted him.

“Don’t.”

Sheyan’s fists were clenched, assuming a posture that would react with contingencies anytime.

“To marksmen and snipers, they would definitely aim to assassinate the most desired target. However, it is hard to explain the deep hatred they have for ordinary marines; lowering themselves to the point of assassinating three marines. Therefore, I can infer their intention is absolutely not mere assassination!”

The stunned Mogensha finally regained his composure.

“What you’re implying is that they are trying to create chaos?”

Sheyan squinted his eyes and replied.

“Perhaps it isn’t limited to just that. If I haven’t guessed wrongly, this is just the beginning. We’ll remain standing here without moving. With me and Reef guarding you, you don’t have to panic. Let us quietly observe for variations.”

Closely following, the second wave of assaults poured in like a torrential rain. Yet another two individuals were struck, exploded and died miserably!

The final gunshot was unleashed by a marksman wearing black shades, while proning atop the roof. The crosshair of his scope was locked onto the head of another marine, a marine that was presently calling to maintain order. That was a scene these operating contestants weren’t willing to see.

Hence, that contestant sneered while pressing the trigger; his heart already imagining the tragic scene of a head exploding like a watermelon.

Instead, the head, that was locked on by his scope, suddenly changed to a meticulously decorated carriage curtain. Instead, that marine had unknowingly been kicked flying!

A whirling bullet instantly pierced into the carriage, before exploding after lodging within the carriage.

However, the degree of explosions only sufficed to faintly shake the carriage, before dust puffed out from the few cracks that emerged on the carriage.

In the face of the large frame of the carriage, that 3.7 Akama explosive warhead could only offer a tiny rippling threat. It wasn’t sufficient to cause the carriage to explode.

Shockingly, the one who kicked the marine flying was Norrington. As an outstanding and indomitable Commodore now, he obviously possessed an incredibly astute perception.

Therefore, even though those contestants weren’t targeting him, he could still rely on his superb perceptive sense to determine the opponent’s target. Roaring furiously, he pointed his sword towards the ambushing site.

At present, all of the marines had seeked out shielding covers while scouting for the source of this ambush. Following Norrington’s direction, they seized the opportunity to strike back!

A sub-lieutenant swiftly knelt and raised his rifle to aim towards the distant hostiles. Yet another sub-lieutenant hacked down onto the hinges of a wooden door, before racing towards the first sub-lieutenant. Then, he raised that half-wooden door as a shield for his comrade in arms.

This exact scene repeated itself in every corner of the battlefield.

Within a couple of seconds, all of the marines were successfully hiding behind cover, before they ferociously returned compliments to their opponents with their mauser rifles.

The place where the three marksmen were, was instantly bombarded crazily with lead bullets. Within a short span of time, the furnitures, utilized as cover atop the roof of that shabby building, were obliterated into crumbling splinters.

After they had been exposed, the three marksmen had immediately crept backwards. In spite of that, the pouring of bullets mercilessly invaded in.

A bullet drilled into the chin of one of the marksmen, causing him to be struck flying into the air. While in the air, he was turned into a sieve by the incomparably dense mass of bullets; tearing him asunder! Blood splashed everywhere on the ground!

The forces personally commanded by Norrington himself, were able to react in unrivalled and crushing fashion within an instant. It was as though they were a program precisely programmed to strike back within the shortest time possible! It was no wonder such a formidable force could cause the collapse of Chevalle’s pirate fleet!

His eyes narrowing, Sheyan offered indifferently.

“The one who devised this ploy is extremely powerful.”

After Sheyan’s words faded, tremendous violent explosions abruptly erupted in several ‘points’ of the entire battlefield!

The flashing explosions blinded the eyes of everyone temporarily, as the devastation of these tremendous explosions were incredibly horrific! Such a scene projected an impression as though the nexus of these explosions had collapsed into the ground, before triggering another wave of violent explosions!

Moreover, right where those explosions happened, was unexpectedly the area with the most marines taking cover!

As the thunderous explosions resounded, at least 3-4 sunken pits appeared at those areas, with black fog spirally 60-70 metres up high. One could observe 20 plus marines being blown away from the tremendous shockwave of the explosion, before they were shredded apart.

Only the shuddering buzz and humming could be heard in one’s ears in the wake of such intensified explosions. Gradually, the tragic cries and wails of victims could also be heard.

As it turns out, those assaulting marksmen were actually luring the elite trained marines to quickly search for cover, and congregate together in multitudes. Within this entire field, only several areas provided objects of cover.

Hence, the outcome was this – the congregated marines spontaneously leaned towards areas of which the explosives had already been laid beforehand. As such, they had practically delivered their own lives to the enemy!

Interlocked stratagems!

If Sheyan’s group had followed suit to take cover, their skins would’ve been fried even if they didn’t die!

The smuky fumes assailed their nose and lingered without dispersing. A residential building by the side swayed and finally crumbled clamorously.

Suddenly, a large brute stooped his body and charged out. While charging forward, his back stooped so low that eventually, he was stampeding in with both hands and feet.

Before entering battle, his mouth suddenly protruded forward while his ears elongated out. Then, his teeth turned yellow and expanded incisively. His clothes bursts from the swelling muscles into fabric waste as it wafted into the air like butterflies. Long greyish fur fluttered along the air.

In that instant, he had metamorphosed into a massive werewolf, as he unleashed an unprecedented forlorn howl.

The howl of that werewolf was identical to Reef’s ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’, as it unleashed a ripple which swept through; sending the surrounding people staggering.

The werewolf’s agility was impressively terrifying. With a leap, its massive frame bounced up and landed onto the roof of the besiding building. Instantly, that building crumbled beneath the mighty stomp of the werewolf, as the werewolf borrowed the force to tear straight for Governor Swann!

The werewolf’s pounce was unstoppable with matchless agility, as its massive frame offered an inexhaustible daunting impression. Its greyish fur rose up like fluff on its skin! Dull yellowish bone claws glittered like frost and snow, as they cleaved down with lethal incisiveness!

Nevertheless, Governor Swann was being protected by several marines. Though the marines were witnessing such a monster, they didn’t cower but raised their rifles up high to block!

The wolf claws very bluntly cleaved down, as it tore out unexplainable sparks against those mauser rifles. The few marines stumbled backwards from impact, as their backs heavily slammed against the wall behind. Then, they coughed out a mouthful of blood.

At the moment the werewolf was obstructed, an unknown individual was already rushing towards Governor Swann.

Knocking against Governor Swann, he then grabbed him in mid air and dove 2-3 metres away, causing the werewolf’s follow up strike to land against the air. Within a second, gunfire rumbles resounded like beans frying.

Chi! Chi! Chi! The relentless sounds echoed out, as 7-8 bullets blazed into the back of the werewolf. Within a flash, its greyish long fur was soaked with fresh blood.

But at this moment, the eyes of the injured werewolf turned blood red, and in turn pounced forth with greater insanity. Aiming towards Governor Swann, it wildly and repeatedly clawed down. Even though the werewolf had landed itself in the middle of sieging navy forces, its tyrannical bearing indicated the upper hand with its stunning show of strength!

Instead, that individual who rescued Governor Swann displayed greater nimbility. Rolling on the ground after landing, he picked up a marine leather shield to block Governor Swann’s front.

Chapter 557: The true objective of the interlocked stratagems

Though the fury swipe of the werewolf was swift, the one holding that leather shield was swifter.

Psst! Three deep lacerations were ripped through the leather shield as it trembled incessantly; tough leather was ripped apart, but ultimately, the shield managed to withstand the blow.

When the massive werewolf realized its claws couldn’t sink deeper into the leather shield, it immediately switched to execute a somersault in the air. Then, swiping down its right leg down from mid air, it carved a deadly beheading arc in the air! Following that, its hairy tail whipped horizontally towards the eyes of that individual wielding the shield.

One could vividly see that before its feet smashed against the shield, three yellowish razor-sharp claws poked out of its footpad and cleaved against the leather shield.

Though the leather shield was laced with an extremely thick leather hide, its internal structure was metal. When the incomparably sharp bone claws cleaved in, sparks instantly scattered out!

The interior metal was completely distorted and finally snapped. The leather shield could no longer withstand such a monumental impact, as it burst into four fragments.

However, the individual behind the leather shield had already kicked Governor Swann back into the protection of several marines.

Probably, this individual had picked up a weapon before retrieving the leather shield, and right now, the individual rolled backwards before fencing forth with a cutlass!

With one thrust, the individual stabbed into the werewolf’s chest!

That one stab appeared simple and unadorned, but executed with electrifying fieriness like an extinguishing brilliance. The tenaciously tough skin of the werewolf was easily punctured through like tofu, as the tip of the cutlass thrusted out of the werewolf’s back.

Meanwhile, Sheyan, who was observing from far, abruptly murmured.

“Since the picture is foiled, naturally it is time for the dagger to appear.”

While Sheyan concluded his statement, the werewolf was howling in anguish and bitterness as blood spewed out from the corner of its lips. It continued waving its claws viciously at the opponent ahead. Instead, that individual darted to the side with unmatched nimbleness.

That individual boasted of delicate and pretty features, and his lips appeared tightly pursed. Indeed, he was Will Turner, the one whom the governor had brought up since young; the childhood sweetheart of the governor’s daughter, the picture she used to imagine when easing herself.

Will Turner was an impartial individual and thus would obviously step forward bravely in such circumstances.

Yet more crucially, he possessed formidable sword arts that were not inferior to the main lead, Jack Sparrow, at all!

Although it was just an ordinary cutlass, it seemed as nimble as a snake in Will Turner’s hand.

The werewolf slashed forward with its claws, prompting Will Turner to respond with a thrusting cutlass; stabbing deep into the werewolf’s armpit. When he drew back his cutlass, a trail of blood followed its tip and curved nearly 2 metres away.

Once again, the werewolf released an anguished and bitter howl! Its eyes brimming with fear and agony.

“Monster, confess your crimes.” Will Turner coldly admonished.

Yet at that moment, a feeble shriek echoed out amidst the churning fumes of the battlefield.

The battlefield was presently drowned in a state of chaotic upheaval. After the explosion, everyone’s ears were still buzzing, coupled with the blood-curdling screams, wails, and shoutings of commands. Hence, if one didn’t carefully take notice of that feeble shriek, one would miss out on it easily.

Yet when the shriek pierced out, the countenance of three individuals fell. Out of those three males, two held influential statuses while the last one would become an important character in this world.

Their names were – Norrington, Governor Swann and Will Turner!

There was only one factor that could cause their countenance to change unanimously.

That was the maiden whom the three males loved deeply! Lady Elizabeth Swann!!!

It was evident, the contestant who devised this ploy was exceedingly meticulous.

First, create an upheaval with random shootings to bait the marines to take cover, at the areas where explosives had already been buried beforehand; resulting in gravely disastrous damages and insinuating further chaos.

Next, the arrival of the werewolf would attract the attention of foes who could still contain their composure to the aforementioned variations. Finally, laying hands on the true target through the masquerade of chaos and smoke – Elizabeth Swann.

Interlocked stratagems of several ploys. Every step hinged on the expected reactions of individuals. If Elizabeth Swann didn’t release a shriek, they would probably only discover the grievous news of her disappearance after the battle concluded.

When he heard Elizabeth’s cry, Will Turner’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

Shua Shua Shua! He thrusted his cutlass thrice consecutively. However, the werewolf also understood his formidability, as it endured two stabs before turning to flee backwards.

Its speed wasn’t slow at all. Several pounce was all it took to dive into the regiments of smoke, before finally escaping away. Even though the werewolf had a freakishly massive body, it could return to its human form anytime. Naturally, it successfully concealed itself within the chaos and fled.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had already been captured and placed into a carriage when she issued her shriek. Yet at this moment, Will Turner and Norrington were both frantically pursuing over.

Especially Commodore Norrington, who gracefully infiltrated into the opponent’s territory, and approached the carriage in a blink of an eye.

Although he was ten plus metres from the carriage, one could notice a white glow congealing at the tip of his sword. When he thrusted forth with his sword, a white globe spinned forth and clashed towards the direction of the carriage.

Through the holy sensation and luster of that white globe, one could judge that Norrington was probably a devout catholic. That shining globe appeared identical to holy light of cathedrals.

Yet in this moment, a figure shuttled out from the besiding building!

Similar to the appearance of the werewolf previously, this surfacing figure offered not a single trace of sound nor aura. It was just like a phantom!

Norrington’s white globe was intercepted midway by a palm concealed with a scarlet red glove! As that divine light ball struck against the palm, the palm exerted strength and deemphasized the ball; causing the ball to transformed into outburst of radiance before dispersing away. Nevertheless, Sheyan noticed threads of cyan fumes wafting up from the palm.

He was a tall figure dressed in a black gown. His outer appearance was that of a mediocre middle aged male with disheveled hair. Although his features didn’t appear old, the excessive wrinkles on his face dawned an impression of aging.

Facing Norrington who was sprinting in, the left sleeve of that tall and skinny figure was originally long and fluttering. Instead, it ripped apart in a flash, coupled with the rumbling ignition of a motorcycle sound. Then, he revealed his signature weapon – an electric saw!

The sawtooth of this electric saw were dyed in scarlet, and contaminated with dull red rust over its surface. As he abruptly hacked towards the sprinting Norrington, it felt like if the electric saw landed, it would undoubtedly saw a person into two from head to bottom!

The electric saw whirled speedily as it released a piercing sharp sound in the air; as though carrying an invincibly alluring strength that one could never evade.

Though Sheyan and buddies were several tens of metres away, they could observe light miscellaneous objects being sucked up. Objects like paper, bags and so on were all drawn into the terrifying glow of the sawing electric saw, only to be grinded and discharged out as powder!

Norrington expressionlessly raised his sword to block when facing such a scene. The chafing friction of metal pierced into the air, as sparks sprayed 2-3 metres high! At the instance sword and electric saw crossed paths, a horrifying violent shudder impacted out; threatening to forcefully blow the sword away.

Meanwhile, the distant Sheyan realized that operating such a powerful electric saw was absolutely not an easy feat. He could notice the violent trembling of that tall and skinny male, as though his strength had scarcely met the threshold of his weapon. Hence, he was expending a great deal of energy, and most of his strength was ushered towards maintaining the stability of the electric saw.

Yet at this very moment, Norrington suddenly released grip of his sword! Instantaneously, his sword was struck high into the sky, while the freed electric saw descended down onto Norrington. Instead, Norrington slightly tilted his body, as he fiercely stomped against the kneecap of that tall male with his right feet.

Evidently, that individual was presently concentrating his energies into the stability of controlling the electric saw! Thus, he would be caught off guard pertaining to other factors. This was a simple logic. Still, Sheyan had only realized this from a composed view of a spectator. Instead, Norrington was analyzing his opponent while engaged in gruelling battle!

Fighting judgement between the two!

This was also the reason why Norrington was already a Commodore at such a tender young age. He could frequently determine the weakness of his opponents, and directly combat the root of the problem with a spurt of energy; thus triumphing over his opponents!

That contestant groaned miserably, as his knee joint was forcefully stomped into an obtuse angle by Norrington. Evidently, his stomp was executed with full might, and the anxious Norrington couldn’t be bothered with any gentlemanly demeanor. He no longer spared any chance.

Even a contestant wouldn’t be able to withstand a severe blow to one’s knee joint. That contestant directly lost balance and fell to the ground. His electric saw drilled against the ground; drilling out a piercing and clamorous ruckus, as dust pervaded up and sandy sediments splattered 7-8 metres afar! A deep crevice had been sawed out on the glossy and solid slab of this honor plaza.

Norrington’s move appeared rather effortless. Witnessing that, Sheyan and others frowned. Norrington’s entire move of abandoning his sword and stomping..……how he seized the time, the strength displayed and his execution had truly been brought to the point of perfection!

One could fathom that the combat prowess of this newly promoted Commodore was absolutely not discountable. Even on dry land, he was similarly an existence that could contest an official Growth-hunter. With mere gestures, he could beat to death or cripple any ordinary contestant!

Chapter 558: Virulent Rabies

Facing Norrington’s advancing assault, the electric saw wielder didn’t react slowly at all. Once he lost balance, he immediately executed a back roll as he attempted to pull away from Norrington. Norrington wasn’t fazed by his action but lunged forward relentlessly; his lips curling into a disdainful belittling sneer.

When that tall and skinny male finally scrambled back up, Norrington had already descended forward as he executed an upper kick before a deadly volley! Painting a scene that resembled a soccer player kicking up a ball before volleying it towards the goal! Abruptly, a chilling beam flashed past the ground.

As it turns out, Norrington had kicked up and volleyed a chipped broadsword that was on the ground.

The broadsword jolted in like an unstoppable thunderbolt before it stabbed deep into the skinny male’s belly; its unrelenting impetus dragged the male viciously and nailed him onto the wooden door of a neighboring building! Blood dripped down from the broadsword shaft as it trembled faintly.

Observing their old maestro in action, several ranked marines immediately pounced forward to leverage on this opportunity. However, the individual behind this entire set up had already factored in for such contingencies.

As the few marines approached the skinny electric saw wielder nailed to the door, they were instantly locked on by the two aforementioned marksmen.

Three of the marines had sensed danger and frantically darted aside! Nevertheless, the bodies of two marines exploded violently after being locked on by a red dot! Blood and gore scattered everywhere, as it painted a gruesome bitterness!

Noteworthily, the two marine victims were veterans under Norrington. Although they weren’t wearing their main equipments for today’s ceremony, their personal quality capabilities ensured they were only injured but not dead.

Instead, for those marines that had their brains exploded previously, they were either novices or rookies that recently entered the navy, or gravely injured members from the battle with Chevalle’s pirates.

In addition to that, the two marksmen followed up with with a tear-gas grenade. Intense coughing instantly resounded as the gas pervaded into the air.

Soon after, another round of sonorous explosion erupted out; a sound Mogensha deciphered to be as the launching of rifle grenades. Two overlapping large pits were created on the ground, while several old buildings nearby collapsed; evidently shakened by the shockwave of the explosions.

In the midst of booming collapse, dust and sediments churned upwards and enveloped part of the streets. Soil and rubble dispersed like rain, as they were impacted to the sky before splattering down; smearing the faces of surrounding individuals with dust.

Tightly following, a figure raced out from the churning dust fumes, before carrying that skinny male up and fleeing. His speed was unbelievably fast, that he released an impression of hauling along a hazy afterimage.

Meanwhile, Norrington, who returned to pursue the carriage, couldn’t help but halt his footsteps, as several figures were once again charging towards him from the carriage while roaring crazily.

Those few figures were adorned in the dressing of ordinary fishermen, with rolled up eyeballs exposing a deathly whiteness in their eyes. Long threads of saliva dangled from their mouths, as the facial muscles twitched and spasmed. It was as though they had reached the pinnacle of agonoy. One could imagine them ludicrously sinking their teeth or fingernails when obstructed by any object! It was either them tearing any obstruction asunder, or being shredded apart instead.

Norrington suddenly pulled his broadsword up. Coupling it with his own sword, the swords appeared like two streaks of current; a blade current instantly hacked away the arms of an individual, while the other fatally mutilating the head of another as flesh and blood spurted out!

Then, Norrington hastily pursued the carriage while casually kicking another deranged individual flying. Finally, he dodged the incoming assaults from several other hostiles, thus leaving them behind for his marines to deal with.

Yet who knew, that ‘fisherman’ whose arm was severed couldn’t feel pain at all but instead, unleashed an indescribable snarl before pouncing towards Norrington from behind.

Norrington dodged to the side as the severed arm fisherman missed.

Yet at this moment, the fisherman’s belly suddenly swelled with uneven churning within. Then, his mouth widened to its maximum, as moss colored fluids frothed up incessantly from within. Finally, he released a regurgitating spray at Norrington.

Unless Norrington paused his attempt to pursue the carriage, it would be difficult for him to evade the vomit. As such, he was instantly drenched in vomit. It was as though sulfuric acid had been poured onto the bodily areas that contacted the vomit. Black fumes spiralled up, as his muscles convulsed slightly, Instead, he refused to stop but continued advancing.

Meanwhile, the marines chasing behind were now squaring off with those incoming deranged ‘fishermen’. Actually, these deranged individuals were ordinary folk in the port, and their faces were rather familiar to some of the marines.

A marine urgently yelled up.

“Hoi Uncle William, refrain from hindering with our marine duties!”

“Fenham, move aside at once. My bullets do not have eyes!”

“Oh, heavens Gloria, are you an accomplice too? The world is growing nuts!”

"..."

“…”

Spectating such a bizarre happening, a flicker flashed in Sheyan’s eyes as he started to probe out those 4-5 deranged individuals ahead.

Then, a list of information was displayed out.

[ Infected with third degree rabies (acute) ]

[ An ordinary storyline character that has transformed into a puppet after being infected with rabies. This character will feel no pain and fear. Personal defensive mechanisms will be lost in exchange for additional offensive strength. Additional offensive strength is calculated by – loss of defence x 5 ]

[ Storyline characters assaulted by a rabies puppet or contaminated by their blood or vomit, may be rapidly infected as well. This process will not exceed a minute, and odds of storyline characters being infected will rapidly scale according to how weak their personal capability is. (Storyline characters like Norrington would normally not be infected, but still affected by the negative effects) ]

[ The ‘Third-degree Rabies’ is ineffective against contestants, but will still carry a negative effect once contaminated – lowering strength/ agility by 13% and duration of 60 minutes. As the rabies virus intensifies, additional resultant effects will surface – whenever contaminated contestant consumes MP to cast abilities, they would consume 50% additional MP. ]

[ Details: The surviving period for this ‘Third-degree Rabies’ virus lasts for 60 minutes. After this period, the virus would die and the infected storyline character will perish along with it ]

Alas, the marines were clueless about these rabies puppets. Hence, they initially only wished to capture those ‘poisoned’ civilian folk.

Yet during this process, it was unavoidable that some would be infected, causing those kind marines to suffer the same deranged transformation of becoming a rabies puppet.

As such, the reproduction of those rabies puppets experienced a gradually expediting process. Following the gradually worsening state, the fresh bodies of merciful marines had become the best feeding ground to breed for this terrifying virulent virus.

As the aspect broke into a panic-stricken state, other marines could only yell in tears as they staggered backwards; unwillingly to lay hands against their former comrades.

At this moment, Sheyan suddenly called out.

“Let’s help them. After this matter breaks out, Port Royal will inevitably experience a frantic investigation and stringent purging. Before we locate Mister Shawen, we still want to remain in this place legally.”

Mogensha nodded slightly before he pulled out his rifle and triggered it! Blazing bullets started piercing into the heads of those unsavable infected puppets!

A lieutenant-commander that was about to be bitten was abruptly pulled away by Sheyan, as he personally witnessed the head of his former comrade exploding into meat paste!

“You!!” The lieutenant-commander’s eye sockets were seemingly about to split. Instead, Sheyan clutched his uniform collar and rebuked.

“Honestly speaking, you should be thanking me for saving your life mister. Because I just pulled your fate back from the overhanging cliff of transforming into those freaks. Inspect them carefully, notice the consequences of getting damaged by those fiends of the underworld. Hasten up and give the command to annihilate them! Any infected individual is no longer your friend nor your comrade. There is no longer superior or subordinate, they are all now dangerous foes to mankind!”

That lieutenant-commander swallowed his saliva before he shook his head in anguish.

“I can’t. No, absolutely not!”

Sheyan chided coldly.

“Do you wish for Port Royal to turn into hell?”

That lieutenant-commander shut his eyes in anguish.

“Fine, you’re right!”

After exclaiming, the lieutenant-commander mustered his courage and called out to the other marines.

“Eradicate these demons. Don’t bloody tarry any longer unless you wish to become one of them.”

As he spoke, the lieutenant-commander raised his pistol and returned fire. In this instant, his eyes were welling with tears because the one whose brains had just exploded, was someone he personally addressed as brother ten minutes ago!

By now, Sheyan and Reef had already charged forward. As they fended off those rabies puppet, they similarly braved immense danger to snatch away folks that were on the verge of being hurt by the infected puppets.

Nevertheless, Sheyan had ordered for his pirate subordinates to merely cheer them on from afar, because the probability of them getting infected was still extremely high. The conduct of Sheyan and his buddies were naturally witnessed by the marines, and they were terribly moved.

Even though they managed to adapt themselves to such changes in the nick of time, the originally vibrant plaza had already descended with horrifying treacheries!

Blood curdling screams and shrieks echoed through the air.

Countless of deranged individuals stampeded across the streets, insatiably chomping on any movable objects. Brimming with destruction, yet they perished quickly as well. Turbid blood oozed out from their nostrils and ears, as vomit spewed and polluted everywhere.

Furthermore, Norrington was currently chasing to rescue Elizabeth Swann. As such, the marines similarly plunged into a chaotic upheaval in this instance.

Chapter 559: Proactive contact after a great purge

Fortunately, the trio had stepped forward with loud rallying commands, as they coordinated with bustling navy officers to provide guidance.

Only after a good long while, did they barely managed to contain the chaotic commotion. Otherwise, if such a hellish situation were to persist, a horrifying catastrophe may have befallen the entire city; causing the entire Port Royal to turn into a ghost city before the virus dies out.

The reorganized marines finally sealed up several crucial roads, before they located for flammable objects. Then, they raised several massive bonfires to intercept the infected puppets. Eventually, they managed to regain control of the upheaval.

Of course, this was an optimal opportunity for the trio to meet leading characters face to face. As such, they didn’t spare Governor Swann who presently didn’t even have the strength to truss a chicken. The trio escorted him to a safe district. Although no unfortunate mishaps befell him, the trio at least allowed their faces to be familiarized with him. Then, they allowed him to calm his own emotions.

Half an hour later, an ashen face Norrington returned. He appeared filthy and pathetic, and permeated out an unexplainably foul stench.

Evidently, his chase had failed. Even his gentlemanly elegance had vanished where he probably received the short end of the stick. Instead, Will Turner was nowhere in sight, where Sheyan reckoned that love sick fool hadn’t given up but continued his pursuit.

Approximately five minutes after Norrington’s return, those fanatically roaring and deranged infected puppets turned stiff before slumping to the ground consecutively. Their skin simultaneously blackened and withered like dried up wood, as though a blowing wind would change them into a dried corpse of ashes. It was clear, the existential period of the virus had concluded.

The frightened and on-edged civilians and the marines strict in formation remained dumbstruck for a moment, before they unanimously staggered to the ground and lamented mournfully. Amidst the chaos, the majority of casualties were their kins, comrades and friends.

Without awaiting for Norrington’s order, a massive purge was implemented throughout Port Royal with great indignation and hatred.

Thanks to Sheyan’s earlier foresight, though the trio was still awkwardly branded as criminals due to their questionable identities, they managed to come out unscathed from the purge.

Moreover, Governor Swann naturally approved and vouched for them. Hence, they obviously had no cause for worry.

Furthermore, most of the marines had personally witnessed the actions of the trio storming the frontlines to resist the infected puppets, while roughly 20 civilians had been rescued from imminent crisis by them. Therefore, under the protection of those ‘protective talismans’, there wasn’t a single misgiving channeled towards the trio during the purge.

Very evidently, the contestants who devised this fearsome ambush had prepared long beforehand. Even before the start, they had washed away all sorts of traces. Thus, not being able to find a single clue was pretty reasonable.

Despite so, ten random pirates, who had been hiding in Port Royal, became the scapegoats to face the wrath of the public. After their limbs were broken, they were hung on gibbets by the reefs at the outskirts of the port.

One also had to mention. Captain Jack Sparrow and Joshamee Gibbs was extremely ‘fortunate’ to have suffered a calamity as well, due to them being different fishes in the same pond.

Due to their inability to provide any verification, they were treated as suspects and thrown into the prison. As such, the history storyline and this present storyline astonishingly converged. Sadly, the revered Captain Sparrow was still thrown into the prisons of Port Royal after all.

Furthermore, he didn’t even get the chance to declare the words ‘Gentlemen, my lady, you will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow.’ Of course, an additional Joshamee would now accompany him in this storyline.

Quickly and peacefully, the evening sky elapsed from blue to black.

The air was mixed with the whistling sea breeze and black smoke from the burning corpses.

This originally vibrant port now carried a rich ambience of bereavement.

As he gazed at the ashen clouds looming across the horizon, Sheyan frowned while standing by a tavern entrance.

“I’m afraid there’ll be a hurricane tonight.”

Ol’Seadog squinted his eyes to observe before replying.

“Might that be a true possibility. The nefarious color of those clouds terrifies me! Meeting such clouds out at sea, even lowering the sails wouldn’t work except for choppin’ the masts off!”

At this moment, the boss presiding over this tavern overheard the conversation between Sheyan and Ol’Seadog. He immediately scolded his mates, ordering them to make preparations for the hurricane; pressing stones over the roof, keeping the clothes and nailing the windows shut. The boss then went out to procure food at higher prices.

This boss understood the terrifying foresight of those pirates who toiled at sea, and straightforwardly held faith in their words without doubting; because, if the foresight of those pirates weren’t accurate, they would’ve died out at sea.

At this moment, the scout that Sheyan dispatched out to scour for information returned.

According to what Jack Sparrow mentioned, that person named Shawen was a must to be located. As the saying goes, know thyself and thy enemy to come unscathed through a hundred battles. If not, attempting to steal the Aztec gold from the tiger jaws of the Black Pearl would truly be an unaccomplishable mission!

Of course, it wasn’t appropriate for Sheyan’s subordinates to carry out a manhunt during this period. Furthermore, it was a manhunt for a civilian who resided in Port Royal previously.

Nevertheless, they had already established a rather cordial and cooperative relationship with the underground illegal networks after that entire affair with Chris. Thus, Sheyan had directly ordered his pirate subordinate to carry a loaded purse of guineas to seek out Mr Wilson, who gladfully agreed to another round of effortless and delightful partnership.

When that pirate messenger whispered several peculiar words into Sheyan’s ear, Sheyan cried out involuntarily.

“What?! He was thrown into prison? And a prison for important criminals?”

Both Reef and Mogensha couldn’t help but exchanged glances. They had just established a cordial relationship with rulers of Port Royal today, could it be now they had to commit a prison break?

This piece of information was truly out of Sheyan’s expectations, but could only console himself. After all, bad news was still better than no news. However, he had to adjust his plans and responses subsequently.

“It seems like Shawen is truly a pivotal character, where the underlying difficulty arrangement of the realm isn’t small at all pertaining to seeking out his help.”

“We cannot rush this matter.” Sheyan calmly issued. “Let us carefully consider this.”

The others similarly understood there wasn’t a need to turn anxious. As the saying goes, speed may not bring one to the destination. Hence, they retired into the tavern to contemplate while drinking.

By now, the gales had gradually turned fiercer, causing the windows to begin whistling. After the tavern master nailed the remaining windows shut, he started to deliver dinner to the trio.

Probably because of the hurricane, their dinner meal was rather simple. A large basin of pulped onion cabbage stew and a large plate of roasted meat, served with black bread. Although the bread had turned hard from the cold, the vegetable broth was boiled and the vegetables pulpy, providing a wondrous chew when soaking black bread into the broth; a truly distinctive flavor.

The roasted meat was rather fatty but pretty dry as well, emitting dried crunches when being chewed in one’s mouth. The delicious fat overflowed in their mouths, blending delightfully with a mouthful of irrigating rum.

After their meal, the gales outside remained raging tempestuously. One could even sense the main structures of the house being pressurized and emitting creaking sounds from shouldering the immense wind force.

Fortunately, this tavern was built rather firmly, appearing as though it could withstand the long test of this hurricane. Therefore, the boss was without worry and retired to his slumber long ago.

Yet at this moment, a knocking sound drifted it from outside.

“Gong gong gong, gong gong gong.”

The beat was gentle and rhythmic, not a sliver of panic could be fathomed. Still, it was extremely firm as though it would obstinately persist in knocking as long as the door remained closed.

Ol’Seadog frowned and scolded.

“What be tis’ weather but there be scoundrels seekin’ a drink? Even for accommodations, it be rather late.”

Sheyan’s eyes flickered and replied.

“Speaking of this, they should be seeking us out.”

Following that, Reef proceeded to open the door, where the howling winds and rainwater flooded in from the door gap. Fortunately, they had prepared and place the candles and other items at unreachable areas. Except, a single gale of the wind still caused the dust in the tavern to swirl messily. The remaining food on the table could no longer be eaten.

But at this moment, everyone’s attention was congregated onto the individual at the entrance.

This individual was handicapped and had to crawl across the ground to advance. Looking at the glossy black shine of his tattered clothes, one could decipher he was a commonly seen beggar one could find in every city.

A filthy, back and smelly crippled beggar.

After the door opened, he strenuously crawled into the tavern with a face devoid of emotions.

They watched as the drenched beggar braced up his body with both arms. His revealed festering skin was oozing with blood from the grinding gravels of the ground, where his eerie white bones could even be seen in certain areas. His wounds were muddled with mashed sludge.

In spite of all these, he remained unfeeling. His perfect right arm was tightly strung across the pit of his stomach, as though not permitting a certain precious object from knocking anything!

That beggar strained himself to squeeze out the words.

“Who, is, Sea, Man?”

Sheyan replied indifferently

“I am.”

The beggar stared vacantly at Sheyan. Then, he stooped his head down, and passed away!!

The surrounding individuals instantly felt incomparably perplexed. Ol’Seadog furrowed his brows and warned.

“Cap’n, careful the witchcraft of the Voodoo Cult.”

Sheyan waved his hand away.

“Don’t worry, I know what’s happening. Strictly speaking, I am the only one that can help them at present.”

All of a sudden, a ringing drifted out from the beggar’s corpse. A ringing totally foreign to the pirates yet exceedingly familiar to the trio.

“Toot~toot~toot~~hellomoto.”

Chapter 560: Mutual deception

Following the source of the handphone ringing, Sheyan reached his hand towards the right arm of the beggar. After exerting some strength to pry it open, he located the source of the ringing.

A brilliant object that shouldn’t have appeared in this world at all. It was astoundingly a Motorola RAZR XT910 smartphone!

Obviously, Sheyan wouldn’t place the phone he dug out from the filthy beggar by his ear. Instead, he directly pressed to answer with the handsfree button.

“Hello, I am Seaman. You are an hour late according to my expectation. Let me guess, could it be the hurricane has foiled your plans?”

The opposite voice remained silent, inevitably not anticipating Sheyan would answer so spontaneously! For negotiations, this was a rather unfavourable outcome. Especially, when the ones on the other side required Sheyan’s assistance.

“How did you know we would contact you?”

The opposing voice asked suspiciously.

Sheyan replied unenthusiastically.

“But of course. After creating a rabies outbreak in Port Royal and kidnapping Elizabeth, there shouldn’t be any storyline characters in the port that dares to ferry you out to sea. Sometimes, money isn’t all encompassing. You probably can’t set sail with the ship you prepared beforehand in such a hurricane. Thus, you can only implement solutions with regards to contestants. While amongst the contestants, I’m probably the only one with a ship.”

“You’re wrong, Seaman. There are at least three factions that possess ships capable of navigating through the open seas.” The voice coldly announced.

Sheyan smirked gently.

“Then you definitely aren’t aware that of the ships that possess, at least two were commandeered from the British Royal Navy by me. Secondhand goods that I sold off to merchant profiteers back in Tortuga before they were sold off to them.”

The voice paused briefly before abruptly asking.

“What do you want?”

Sheyan chuckled in response.

“I feel, it’s best you refrain from letting me begin negotiations, because I am a person that loves calculating the benefits of others. If Elizabeth Swann was in my hands…..primarily, I will be able to acquire a splendid weapon from Will Turner. After all, he is a terrific blacksmith.”

“Next, I’m guessing the wealthy Governor Swann wouldn’t remain stingy over his daughter, and would be willing to fork out 500,000 guineas. As for Commodore Norrington, though he is a man with principles, for the sake of love, one can always violate one’s conscience and principals. You should be able to receive a new 3-masted ship from his hands right. My esteemed sir, if you desire for me to name a price, then the profits of your operation this time……or perhaps, maybe just a third of your profits which is roughly 200,000 guineas in worth…of course, you can complete the deal with 200,000 utility points as well. Well toss in the weapon from Will Turner as well. If I truly wish for it, then it must be mine.”

“You’re a lunatic!” The voice became noticeably enraged.

Sheyan laughed heartily as he replied.

“Didn’t I say so. Therefore, how about you name a price. Right, how should I address you?”

The voice hesitated a little before answering.

“Call me Nick. We have discussed and we feel 10,000 utility points would be a suitable valuation. However, you must bring us safely out of Port Royal and we would only pay half the sum when we reach our destination.”

Nick? Sheyan immediately reminisced about something. Back in this world the previous time, Chris had divulged about his party called Triple-K whose party leader was named Nick! Sheyan didn’t encounter him in the previous world, yet was it fated for him to collide with him in this world?

“Hey, mister. Your cold joke isn’t one bit humorous at all.” Without waiting for Sheyan to reply, Brother Black interrupted with a spiteful tone.

“I’ve never been one to make jokes. Seaman, do you accept?” Nick coldly urged.

Sheyan smirked and replied.

“Mister, your condition is truly too magnificent and sincere. My business is merely a tiny street stall. In truth, it is impossible to deal with huge merchants like you. Don’t the other contestant factions have ships as well? I feel this opportunity will suit them much better.”

The voice paused for a moment, then it was swapped with a female voice.

“State your terms, Seaman.”

Sheyan pondered as his eyes flickered with a sly glint. Fortunately, he was on call and the opposing party couldn’t view his expression.

“20,000 utility points.”

That female fumed out.

“That’s too absurd. You just need to transport us but wish to plunder such an excessive amount of utility points from us?”

Sheyan wasn’t one to concede.

“Then you can always find others.”

That female hesitated before replying.

“Fine, but I know your current influence is tremendous. It is hard for us to guarantee our personal safety once on board your ship, we will inevitably become the weaker party. To prevent villainous acts of falling out after receiving money, we will only pay after ensuring our safety. Hence, payment will be deferred, but we can come to a real contract to guarantee you will definitely receive your remunerations.”

Sheyan agreed.

“If the contract utility points fee is paid by you, then there wouldn’t be a problem. Fine then! When shall we set off?”

That woman bluntly answered.

“When we wish to depart, we will inform you.”

After concluding, she hung up. Sheyan then gazed pensively at the smartphone.

At present, Mogensha was casting a doubtful glance towards Sheyan.

“Boss, 20,000 utility points to escort them out of the port. Aren’t we taking too huge a risk?”

Sheyan suddenly scoffed.

“Those brats are truly daring. They actually have designs to plot against me? Truly courting death!”

Reef muttered deeply.

“I too feel their suggestion to defer payment is merely a ploy.”

Sheyan curled his fingers as he lightly tapped against the table.

“This is far from a ploy! Right from the start, they hadn’t uttered a single truth. If they truly desired to obtain a mere ransom from this kidnapping…..….their hostage is already in their hands for nearly half a day, and they have escaped the pursuit and menace of the marines. With the safe state they are in, then logically speaking, it is high time for them to request for ransom. Instead, they remain aloof. Neither the governor’s mansion nor the navy camps have received any extortion threat. This can only signify one thing. The most crucial thing! Their real goal is to bring Elizabeth Swann away!”

“The only dreadful force in the seas that thirsts for Elizabeth Swann, or I should say her golden medallion, is the Black Pearl! Their scheme to request to defer payment is exceedingly sinister. Not only do they seek to depart from Port Royal, they also wish to converge with the Black Pearl. When that time comes, they not only venomously desire for those undying freaks to eliminate us, but can also spare themselves from the expenditure of hiring us. Truly, they are deserving of being the ambitious ones who had schemed to destroy Port Royal with the rabies outbreak.”

After Sheyan’s painstaking contemplation and analysis, the others finally attained a panoramic understanding.

Brother Black suddenly laughed out.

“So your answer was merely a half-hearted one?”

Sheyan snorted.

“That bunch revealed quite a handful of tiny traces. Yet more importantly, they are too greedy. So much so that they even plot to drag me into their schemes. What they believe to be flawlessly concealed, in reality, it is only sufficient to deceive storyline characters. It is actually rather easy to find them out.”

Reef then uttered.

“It will be a golden opportunity if we can locate them.”

Brother Black squinted his eyes and asked.

“Are you referring to that Aztec gold they acquired from Elizabeth Swann? That is a shortcut indeed.”

Sheyan gently shook his head and replied.

“I’ve deliberated about this before. Perhaps you guys haven’t noticed, but the Aztec gold isn’t vital at all! The vital part resides in the sequence of events that will be triggered after acquiring the Aztec gold! Honestly, we can eliminate the speed supremacy of the Black Pearl if we obtain the Aztec gold now, and force those damned pirates to seek us out on dry land.”

“However, the enemies we will face will be multiplied as well. The robbed Elizabeth Swann would definitely seek to retrieve her gold medallion and detest us. This indicates that her two devoted ‘dogs’, Norrington and Will Turner, will relentless pursue us. We need to carefully ponder. If we were to hastily dive into this, do we have the ability to deal with a combined assault from three major powers?”

Mogensha and Reef plunged into silence after listening to Sheyan’s detailed analysis. Sheyan then coughed gently and continued.

“Therefore, I will follow accordingly to our original plan. First, find Mr Shawen and see if we can construct a ship that can resist the Black Pearl out at sea.”

“However, Mr Shawen is locked in a heavily guarded prison.” Mogensha frowned.

Furthermore, he was also hinting at unspoken words at play – “Even Jack Sparrow could only dwell within obediently. Trying to fish up someone is virtually impossible.”

Sheyan’s eyes flashed with an ominous glimmer. He callously declared.

“Therefore, the already deviated storyline must return to its rightful track!”

Reef muttered.

“Could it be you are implying?”

Sheyan replied sternly.

“Strictly speaking, there isn’t much disparity between the current and original storyline. Though Jack Sparrow is now accompanied by Joshamee, they are still confined in prison. As long as the Lady Elizabeth can continue dwelling in the governor’s mansion, then the Black Pearl’s group of undying pirates would eventually sense the Aztec gold and raid Port Royal. When they kidnap the Lady Elizabeth, then the heavily guarded prison, no, every single defence in Port Royal could even be neglected. Don’t talk about rescuing a single Shawen, even freeing half of the criminals wouldn’t be an issue!”

Chapter 561: Hitting the hare while gathering straw

Towards Sheyan’s explanation, Reef pondered before earnestly sharing.

“Putting it that way, it sounds rather proper. Still, those guys are rather crafty and we still don’t know where they are hiding. Furthermore, the island Port Royal is residing in is like an entire continent, there is simply innumerable amount of places they can hide. How are we supposed to rescue the Lady Elizabeth and deliver her back to the governor’s mansion?”

Sheyan pointed out his finger and replied.

“The greatest weapon of Elizabeth Swan is her bewitching beauty. Sadly, that wouldn’t work on us contestants. Therefore logically speaking, the threat she poses to contestants is akin to sharpened fingernails or non harmful cursing. Nevertheless, she remains as an incredibly important storyline character. Yes, she is even the female lead. Hence, haven’t you considered, attempting to kidnap her would absolutely not be an easy feat! Accurately phrasing, the difficulty of that would at least not be lower than kidnapping Will Turner!”

“In view of her physically frail prowess, the difficulty of kidnapping Elizabeth Swann resides in other areas! If one could simply flee to a deserted district after kidnapping the Lady Elizabeth, then this entire affair is simply like leisure sightseeing. Yet factoring in the value of Lady Elizabeth as the female lead, the realm definitely wouldn’t allow that to happen. Therefore, there is a huge possibility of them being unable to transport her out of Port Royal within this limited timeframe! Otherwise, the realm would definitely execute a triggering consequence! That will be how it complements the difficulty of capturing the female lead.”

“So Elizabeth Swann is actually within Port Royal itself?” Reef questioned doubtfully. “But under such stringent patrolling, where can they hide?”

Sheyan stretched out another finger and continued.

“If I assume my hypothesis is accurate, there aren’t much places in Port Royal that those brats can hide. The most suspicious place should be the protective umbrella of my lovely Chris behind the scenes – the residence of lord Ben Fleming. As the most influential candidate to substitute the governor, he would have the prerogative to be exempt from inspections. Also, he is definitely unwilling to see the newly promoted Norrington and Governor Swann being joined with marriage. Because with such a powerful cooperation would imply he would never have the chance to ascend to the position of governor! Hence, there is reasonable motive for him. Of course, excluding him, there are still several other suspicious residences. Nonetheless, I have the greatest misgivings about Lord Ben Fleming!”

“But how did that manage to sneak themselves into the residence of the respectful nobility, Lord Ben Fleming? Norrington was previously tight on their heels.”

“For them to successfully shrug off Norrington’s pursuit and escape, they surely didn’t rely on their own capabilities but employed some other method.”

“Those brats probably have no restraints in their dealings. Therefore, though there isn’t much they can employ to threaten Norrington, there are still certain flaws to exploit. Of course, the most effective would be to directly threaten the life of their hostage, the beautiful Lady Elizabeth. For example, carving out a cross on her face. If Norrington is a typical english nobility, the only thing left for him to do is submit in distress.”

Sheyan’s deduction was merely based on considering the most possible verdict that could happen. After pondering a little, he added.

“Devising to kidnap Elizabeth Swann, that Nick is truly a deliberate schemer and his methods are ruthless. His capabilities shouldn’t be inferior to us as well. Such an individual wouldn’t place his hopes of survival solely on a single path. Since he dares to plot against me, then naturally I will have to return his compliments. Either refrain from provoking such an individual, or utterly beat him to death with a club. Otherwise, it would become exceedingly troublesome to constantly be concerned about him. Therefore, we must wipe his Triple-K party out from this world. Anyway, I still seem to be lacking some blood keys for the party mission!”

The hurricane continued billowing throughout Port Royal.

Walking through this raging storm would issue a sense of weightlessness in one’s body, occasionally feeling as though one was on the verge of being blown away. The rain continued pouring down vehemently, as the whistling of wind and rain screamed into one’s ears.

Only hand gestures and signals could be used for communication, as a widened mouth would only receive a thriving irrigation of rain water!

Under the harsh weather, one could vividly observe the distant sea practically appearing like an inexhaustible colossal beast rummaging turbulently. Towering waves that surpassed 5-6 metres would crash down as layers from the sky, slapping and splashing against the reefs of the shore. The splashes soared to heights of ten metres.

Despite all these, there was still multitudes of people pacing through Port Royal, where most of which were marines. Though their bodies were drenched, their postures remained upright like a cocky rooster, surveying around with widened eyes for any suspicious characters attempting to flee. Individuals who tried in vain to avoid the punishment of the law.

All these was happening because of three sealed reports.

The contents of those three anonymous letters weren’t lengthy. However, it provided an exceptionally rational and detailed analysis of the reason for Lady Elizabeth Swann’s kidnap.

Contained within them, were obscure hints of certain individuals who were reluctant for Commodore Norrington, one who displayed boundless prospects, to marry such a gorgeous wife and subsequently changing his address of Governor Swann to father-in-law. Conveniently, several suspicious names were also cited out.

Those three sealed letters had been delivered to Norrington, Governor Swann and the most crucial person – Mister Will Turner.

Perhaps the former two would hold reservations due to their noble demeanor of having to uphold the law of the Queen of Britain. Instead, the latter was a love sick fool who would kill and burn for Elizabeth Swann. Most importantly, that love sick fool was tremendously powerful.

Therefore, like ants on a hot plate or an oestrus bull that sighted a naked cow, Will Turner fiercely rushed out even before he finished reading the contents. The most fearful thing was the ordeal of waiting desperately when in love, but not being capable of doing a single thing. After Will Turner finally saw a glimmer of hope, the pent up vigor within his heart was fully unleashed.

Evidently, those three sealed letters were the handiwork of Sheyan. His objective was obviously to beat around the grass to alert the snakes. Will Turner was perfectly delighted to be used by Sheyan, as he successfully played the persona of being the rash poop stirrer.

Ultimately, the facts verified that Sheyan was no immortal. Lord Ben Fleming, whom he identified as the greatest suspect, was actually clean and no incriminating evidence could be found against him.

Nevertheless, Sheyan’s conjecture was still spot on. Lady Elizabeth Swann was indeed kept in one of the residences on Sheyan’s name list. Will Turner had managed to obtain the truth after seizing the neck of a servant with lower mental fortitude. Then, he and Norrington mounted an explosive attempt and successfully rescued their beloved maiden.

Of course, Lady Swann wasn’t raped or killed, as those two conducts would undoubtedly incur the wrath of two nemesis while having no benefits at all.

The family harbouring those offenders were executed. Instead, the mastermind and kidnappers had successfully escaped.

Unbeknownst when, they had dug out a huge tunnel from the courtyard of that family all the way to the outskirts of Port Royal. Of course, when the winds of justice came blowing, those contestants had already made their getaway.

At present, the trio was seated on a hill west of Port Royal as thei strained their eyes to scan around. The raging storm seemingly couldn’t hamper them, and the trio appeared like three stone statues. Sheyan gazed towards the distant shady dark clouds and muttered.

“I reckon this rain will continue until the next morning.”

Mogensha suddenly asked.

“Boss. Say, do you think Nick and his gang would resort to directly returning to the realm?”

Sheyan replied.

“That is a possibility. Still, a direct return to the realm would frequently cost one a devastating penalty, and they would probably have to relinquish everything they gained in this world. If I were Nick, I would definitely not resort to such means unless necessary.”

Actually, the trio had been waiting here for nearly two hours.

Through observation, the manhunt back in Port Royal should be intensifying greatly like the howling wind and torrential rain. The search should be at its high tide now. Yet from this bird’s-eye-view, nothing strange was happening.

A proverb speaks wonderfully of hitting the hare while gathering the straw. However, now that the straw was nearly gathered full, why hasn’t the hare surfaced?

At this point, the topographical shape of the island Port Royal was on, had to be mentioned.

This island appeared like a gourd, while Port Royal was situated on the mouth tip of the gourd. For any who desired to escape from Port Royal and deeper into the island, it was imperative to pass through the long and narrow land which was the ‘neck’ of the gourd.

At present, the trio had situated themselves on a hill near that ‘neck’ of this gourd shaped island, where the long and narrow path was plainly visible.

“Here!” Mogensha abruptly alerted.

One could vividly observe a brilliance flashing at a certain area amidst the heavy downpour. In that plain area, the mud started rolling away while the speckles of brilliance didn’t disperse even in the downpour. Then, the speckles repeatedly congealed and flashed, gradually forming into an extremely clear and tiny teleportation array.

Following that, a human could be seen trudging out from the teleportation array. If one were to examine close up, the features of some of those humans could be tallied with those aggressors back at the ceremonial plaza.

“So it is actually a short distance teleportation. The tricks of this Nick aren’t small at all.” Mogensha announced with amazement.

“That short distance teleportation arrangement is a specialty of the Star Wars world and can only be employed once. In non combat state, it can directly transport a fixed amount of individuals to a fixed destination five kilometres away. Although it is a one time use product, it is exceptionally useful for both defending or attacking, and is extraordinarily valuable.”

(TL: Title of this chapter is a Chinese idiom, means conveniently settling something while executing another task, or reaping an accidental harvest)

Chapter 562: Utterly foiled by wisdom!

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5.” Sheyan counted out five humans who strolled out. His gaze sharpened as he pronounced.

“That brat Nick is a must kill. Since we plan to take action, then we absolutely cannot leave behind any loose strands of danger. That werewolf moves with unparalleled agility while his regeneration is incredibly stunning. He will be able to restrain AK. Reef, you must guard AK for a while. When AK’s viperwolf spirits emerge, then you can relax a little.”

Wind and rain darkened the sky.

The momentous hurricane offered no signs of dissipating. It was truly a weather suitable for committing a sneak homicide.

Relying on his impressive perceptive sense and high agility, Sheyan brazenly laid low by the road side. A wave of excitement subconsciously welled up in his heart.

When was the first time he laid silently for his prey while drawing his bow fully? It was back before entering the nightmare realm! That time, wasn’t it waiting for Xide while outside the door*? It was exactly the same icy-cold downpour and the unbridled whistling of wind! Except that year, he was a youth who braved death as he contended against fate with his flesh and life. Right now, he had matured to a stage where his every gesture could break off a measly human’s life.

(TL: *this happened during vol 1, the prologue)

He watched on as those five humans approached just shy of several metres from the casting range of his ‘Horn-Rage’ ability.

All of a sudden, an unfathomable dazzling brilliance flashed up and overwhelmed the entire sky; as though a thousand lightnings ha flared through the horizon simultaneously.

Such a phenomenon instantly blinded Sheyan’s eyes, instantly throwing them into a state of semi-blindness.

Soon after, incomparably frantic explosions and gunfire rumbles reverberated out! The sounds were unexpectedly heading straight towards the hiding spot of Sheyan.

From afar, when the similarly blinded Mogensha regained his vision, he astoundingly realized the shrub disguising Sheyan had completely vanished. At that same spot, was now a 7-8 square metres pit that was as deep as 2-3 metres; appearing as though a large calibre artillery strike had happened here.

The air pervaded with a rich gunpowder smell, as crow black fumes were wafting out from the bottom of the pit. Soon, it was swiftly extinguished by the rainwater.

“Hahahaha~~~~” Amongst the five humans, a male dressed in camouflage color uniform and wearing sunglasses laughed wildly.

Hoisted up in his hand, was shockingly a rotary autocannon that one could find installed on planes; fumes were currently spiralling out from the cannon mouth, while only a portion of the chained ammunition coiled around his arm remained. Within that short span of seconds, he had at least poured out ‘thousands’ of bullets in torrents.

“I just knew there was an underlying conspiracy. How would those marines suddenly become clever? Hmph hmph. Indeed, someone has played the informant!” That sunglass male clenched his teeth and sneered.

“As expected, it was the damned bastard Seaman who played tricks behind. Trying to ambush us with such a feeble effort? Courting death!”

A female adorned in skintight pants casually flung away the grenade ring in her hand before she calmly spoke.

“Yanglie Leier, you haven’t received the information to kill right? You ought to be more cautious. Apart from that, although we have only discovered a single ambushing scum, it is hard to say if boss Nick has managed to probe out other foes in the vicinity.”

Yanglie Leier pursed his lips and scoffed.

“Wesleyan, you are overly cautious. With the four of us acting together, even if that brat was made of steel he would still be obliterated! What more, a trifling contestant? Those guys exaggerating the formidability of Seaman, I guess he must have possessed a certain unique ability suitable for naval combat. Yet ashore, he is merely trash. Hahaha, under the divine might of our boss Nick, he still wishes to ambush us? Just thinking of that bloody idiot makes me feel like dying of laughter.”

While Yanglie Leier was engrossed in his wild laughters, a hand surprisingly reached out from the depths of that bomb crater. A hand that was charred black with fumes but clenched into a fist instantaneously.

When one observed that tightly clenched fist, one would receive an impression of a crazy, emphatic, crude and overbearing sensation; wanting to directly clash with the screaming hurricane that was wreaking havoc around.

Within a second, the depths of the bomb crater erupted, before a figure vehemently stampeded forward like an ox. With every step he trampled on the earth, it emanated a shocking tremor to the surrounding humans.

Caught by surprise, the members of Triple-K unleashed their assaults successively.

Nevertheless, they failed to stall the rampaging momentum of Sheyan.

His fist slammed straight into Yanglie Leier’s stomach, knocking him into a stunned state. Concurrently, the concealed Mogensha from afar grasped this opportunity as he demonstrated the extreme longe range of the ‘SN-9 Wasp’!

Bear this in mind, for such a valiant gunner like Mogensha, if he wasn’t required to contemplate the reactionary dodging or movements of his opposing target, then he could wholly focus on his damage output!

Three maliciously new special expanding bullets whizzed in, of which their trajectory tail was combusting with a vestige of MP. Then, they drilled straight between the brows of Yanglie Leier!

Probably due to him focusing onto a vital spot and his concentrated explosiveness, Mogensha’s three special bullets were able to unleash explosive strikes!

Moreover, Yanglie Leier had also suffered from the damage of Sheyan’s collision. Yet more crucially, he belonged to the model of heavy firepower suppression where his personal attributes revolved around strength and agility. Normally, he would rely on a buff ability analogous to Reef’s ‘Faith-guard’ to strengthen his personal survivability. Yet because he was caught off guard, he was directly struck into near-death state!!!

“Indeed I’ve miscalculated. My plan is utterly foiled.”

Sheyan gripped his neck as he coldly stared into his despairing eyes and announced.

“Even though your assaults can melt steel…..nevertheless! How can trifling steel compare to me?”

As he spoke, Sheyan unyieldingly withstood the aggro of the other Triple-K members as he proceeded to mercilessly snap Yanglie Leier’s neck!

Regrettably, he didn’t drop a single key.

Under the 40% realm restriction, Sheyan’s innate ability ‘Stronghold’ was able to exhibit astonishing results when it came to damage reduction. In theory, a contestant could surpass the 40 points damage reduction of ‘Stronghold’, only if his principal damage could exceed approximately 140 points!

Furthermore, Sheyan himself possessed effects that could suppress the explosive strike rate of his opponents. Furthermore, after Sheyan had acquired the ‘Sacred Cow-horn Cup’ accessory, a single ‘Gloryheal’ could restore 75% of his HP! With such impressive healing abilities, he could naturally forcibly withstand the combined assaults of contestants who weren’t even reserve-duty Growth-hunters!

Presently, Nick had probably released an order to his party. The werewolf speedily lunged forward as he completed his shapeshift before Sheyan.

Instead, the remaining three contestants hastily enveloped towards Mogensha. As they sprinted towards him, they advanced in an S shape. Evidently, Mogensha’s previous burst shot that could instantly strike one into a devastating state, had shocked and impacted them greatly!

Sheyan then shifted his attention to the werewolf before him.

Saliva leaked from its jaws, as it puffed crudely with crimson eyes. Houseflies buzzed around its body incessantly, but its pair of crimson eyes was glaring deadly onto Sheyan. If Sheyan didn’t act, then it wouldn’t bulge as well!

Sheyan then casually strode forward, as the werewolf responded with a penetrating long ‘Aowuuuuu’. Amidst the howl, it pounced towards Sheyan.

Sheyan strained his eyes within the rain. He didn’t dodge or evade, but his face exuberated a flourishing killing intent. As he stomped forward, he firmly received a claw from the werewolf. However, that claw felt essentially like drizzles to Sheyan.

Instead, Sheyan frowned because of the nightmare imprint notification transmitted.

[ You received an attack from contestant ??? (This information is blocked by a special ability, your perceptive sense is suppressed) ]

[ You receive 17 points of actual damage ]

[ Your wound is infected, movement speed declines by 33% ]

Browsing through the notifications, Sheyan revealed a sneer on his face.

“So this is Nick’s plan. You guys must think that I’m a tanker. No wonder he dispatched a werewolf to constrict me with your infectious speed impairing ability, while the others ran off to deal with my gunner. This is truly a f***ing good idea.”

The werewolf bared its teeth while its crimson eyes exposed a mocking intent.

“You self-conceited moron. You couldn’t have expect your meticulously prepared trap had turned out to be a joke eh! Boss Nick is a well-known detective in the present world. You wanting to compete in sophisticated plotting with him, you are truly overestimating yourself!”

Sheyan dropped his head down faintly as he stood firmly with his limbs in a martial posture*. The impression he released was that of nothing could shift his physique. The werewolf couldn’t see his expression clearly, but could suddenly feel the brewing wind turning slightly stronger and the rain turning icy colder.

(TN:*(不丁不八) this is actually a martial arts posture)

Sheyan slowly pulled out a long saber glittering with blue brilliance from his back. Though this long saber appeared terribly damaged, it still emanated an unexpected surge of deadliness.

Sheyan abruptly laughed as he revealed his blood stained teeth.

“You’re correct. My plan is indeed foiled by Nick, but so what? Didn’t a comrade of yours got killed instead when you counter plotted against me?”

The werewolf immediately felt as though a rock was forced into his mouth, and he couldn’t find the words to refute. Sheyan then pointed his ‘+7 West’ towards him.

“Nick’s plan is probably counting on you to minimally hold me off for a period of more than 300 seconds, because he would be able to eliminate my comrades by then. Actually, to slay some trash like you, I would say just one minute is enough. Sometimes, even the most astutely devised plan can be shredded apart by brute strength!”

As Sheyan’s voice faded, a flask of lime gene-mix crashed onto the ground. Then, a moss colored poison fog dispersed out.

In a split second, that incomparably deadly dark-blue damaged long saber in his hand, was already hacking down for the werewolf’s head!

Chapter 563: Crushing rivals with brute strength

Sheyan’s phrase of ‘just one minute is enough’ deeply hurt the werewolf’s heart, as its eyes flashed with fury and humiliation!

Howling to the sky, the werewolf raised its flexed furry arms up as it unyieldingly received the incoming blade slash, before following up with a swipe of its dull-yellowish claws towards the opponent’s throat!

He wanted to enlighten this damned foe on the term known as boasting shamelessly!!!

Blood splashed but none belonged to the werewolf. Instead, it was a chunk of Sheyan’s chest that got ripped apart as blood spurted profusely.

His saber had surprisingly slashed against this werewolf to no avail!

A great astonishment welled up in Sheyan’s heart because it felt as though his inevitable slash, had struck against an incomparably tough padding that shielded the werewolf. Slashing but not cutting, stabbing but not penetrating, the momentum of his saber was heavily obstructed.

At this instance, a crisp shattering pierced into the air. Paying close attention, the sound came out from the werewolf’s body. Paying closer attention, one would notice that an extremely clear crack had emerged on the wolf-fang necklace that slung across its neck.

Encountering such a scenario, the werewolf’s beastly face abruptly twitched while its eyes brimmed with shock and horror!

A single blade!!!

A single blade had sufficed to break his protection talisman!

One must understand, the silver storyline grade protection talisman provided tremendous fortification, and wasn’t the least bit inferior to Sheyan’s ‘+5 Monstrous Fighting Spirit’. In every interval of ten minutes, it could additionally supply 4 points of absolute defence.

Absolute defence meant that most attacks would be forcibly reduced to merely a single point of damage. As such, the werewolf possessing its protection talisman could guard against four times of its opponent’s attack. However, Sheyan’s single blade had overwhelmed its effect.

“What kind of freak am I facing?!”

“Could it be every strike of his darned saber would f***ing unleash four different counts of attack?” A shuddering notion flashed past the werewolf’s heart.

“How the heck did we provoke such a pervert?”

A second later, the werewolf’s sharp claws tore against Sheyan’s skull as it ripped out few streaks of blood. Sheyan reacted by bluntly swiping his long saber horizontally through the werewolf’s waist.

Following his slashing saber, the werewolf instantly released an anguished howl as its passionate willpower vanished into oblivion.

“Holy shit…..an ordinary attack plus crushing damages, additional saber property damages, and true damages…..this is simply a weapon more terrifying than hell! Ah shit, have we provoked someone we shouldn’t have?!”

Pondering with that thought, the werewolf no longer dared to retaliate to Sheyan’s neck slashing saber. Instead, it rolled away wretchedly and fled while glancing at Sheyan with eyes filled with dread.

Having his movement speed impeded, Sheyan couldn’t pursue it. Besides, the werewolf retained its nimble agility.

“Not fighting anymore?” Sheyan insipidly scoffed. “Then I’ll go ahead and reinforce eh.”

The werewolf’s facial muscles twitched, understanding the deadly consequences of letting Sheyan off. However, that single blade had been sufficient to engraved a deep lesson onto his heart! It became like a nightmare that relentlessly tormented him.

Still, the werewolf attempted to stride forward. Yet when Sheyan glanced back at it, it subconsciously retreated two steps backwards.

Sheyan stared at the werewolf and indifferently advised.

“To live is a blessing, I hope you will not squander your life away needlessly. Even if you stake in your life, how could can you hinder me? Ten seconds, twenty? When I finally am free to aid my comrades, your death would be in vain!”

After concluding, Sheyan headed off without glancing back.

“Grr…zhi…grr….zhi” The werewolf’s teeth chattered as its fur drenched with sweat while shivering repeatedly. It no longer had the guts to pounce forth a single step, because it could sense a powerful murderous aura from Sheyan! If it persisted in pursuit, death would be the only reprisal!

Naturally, Nick had no clue the werewolf couldn’t even stall Sheyan for twenty seconds. Nevertheless, he still possessed his own trump card.

Never forget, he was the boss of the demolition expert, Chris. Nick had unexpectedly carried along a massive load of explosives created by Chris himself.

Following that, the female Wesleyan managed to trap Sheyan with a peculiar ability.

To his surprise, she proceeded to carry the explosives Chris had created, and rushed towards Sheyan for an outcome of mutual destruction.

A kamikaze!!

One could note that Nick was truly a frightening individual who could manipulate one’s heart. He actually managed to convince his own member to perish willingly for himself!! In this aspect, he wasn’t inferior to Sheyan at all!

The might of the kamikaze explosion was astronomically devastating, where it directly killed off Wesleyan.

Fortunately, Sheyan was merely fried into a near-death state, where the miraculous silver coating of ‘Life-link’ preserved his life. Nick’s plan had once again failed.

The only favourable news was, that black gunner had been forced into a dead end….

Yet right at this moment, Reef dazzled into the scene.

Although Nick was aware that another was hiding in ambush, he only realized that Reef was the true MT of his enemy’s party after crossing hands with him!!!

He actually managed to forcefully withstand the terrifying onslaught of the electric saw. Another MT that didn’t spare a single effort to shield his comrade!!!

When the remaining members of the Triple-K party received such a scary blow, they truly lost their fighting spirit. Even any feelings of cursing or retaliation had dissipated. The only word that pierced their dull minds was:

“Absurd!”

Nick continued unleashing successions of fantastic abilities, which could be described as superficially impressive.

Looking in perspective, Nick’s plans and strategy occupied the greater superiority. However, the battle prowess of both parties were truly akin to a wide chasm. This chasm was seemingly impassable and hard to level. Hence, the Triple-K party could only perish while nursing this grievance.

As compared to Sheyan, Nick actually exhibited a more detailed micro-planning towards this particular scenario, so much so that he could be considered the convincing victor of this battle. Sadly, his macro vision towards the big picture of affairs was ultimately eclipsed by Sheyan in respects to the realm.

Therefore, although both parties had each triumphed in their individual battlegrounds over the course of their adventures in the realm and had earned great profits…..in the end, their combat prowess was separated by a vast gulf.

This was akin giving 10,000 dollars to two individuals at the same time. One would directly employ this 10,000 dollars to engage in illicit smuggling, where he wouldn’t be shy of dishing out tens of dollars. Instead, the other employed the 10,000 dollars to start up a tiny grocery store, meticulously calculating all the minute details to prevent himself from losing profits. In this manner, he would receive a steady flow of income from the store eventually. In contrast, the smuggler may face heavy repercussions. Yet in the long run, the smuggler would merely require one big opportunity for him to soar through the heavens, utterly tearing up a massive disparity between the two!

After killing off Nick and company, Sheyan had no intentions of eradicating the werewolf who had fled far away. Nevertheless, sufficient blood keys had been gathered for his military mission.

Although the blood keys of the two contestants couldn’t be discussed in the same league as a reserve-duty Growth-hunter’s one, there wasn’t any other alternative. To the trio, only a minute few contestants could really contend against them. Furthermore, they truly did their utmost to obtain the two blood keys.

Time trickled by. Port Royal gradually recovered from the trauma of that terrifying ‘epidemic’. People died, but the living still had to maintain their livelihood. Work continued as usual, and the state of affairs returned bustling as before.

Noteworthily, Commodore Norrington was no longer as strict as before in Port Royal. He was a pragmatic man after all.

During this period of time, Norrington begun adopting several appeasing policies, closing one eye to certain underground activities that didn’t push the limits of his principles.

For example, he started loosening his grip on the inspection of smuggled goods. Still, he retained the utmost severity toward smuggled arms and goods in the same category. Towards other merchant commodities, he merely shut one eye while opening the other.

Of course, the prerequisites would be offering additional commissions to his marines for those smugglers. This conduct led to many merchants despising Norrington, labelling him as being a different broth but still the same type of medicine; appearing righteous but inwardly having no difference to those greedy officers. Furthermore, his subordinates were even more vicious.

However, they didn’t know that although Norrington similarly pocketed money like supervisors of other ports, the funds he pocketed didn’t actually go into his own pockets as compared to the other supervisors.

Instead, Norrington continued living a simple personal life as he resided in his navy camp, eating and living with his fellow marines. Furthermore, he channelled the excess of funds he earned towards fortifying his own navy fleet!

One could vaguely notice, the exhausted vigor of the marines who fought against Chevalle’s pirate fleet, was gradually rejuvenating.

Days after Norrington had assumed full command over Port Royal’s initially slackened defence, even the damaged city walls were renovated. In addition, four indomitable forts had reached its junior phase of construction.

Noteworthily, Sheyan was definitely not someone who would not claim credit on his meritorious deeds. Through several ingenious methods, he allowed certain insider characters realize that he was the main mastermind in rescuing the beautiful Lady Elizabeth. Lastly, he even hinted that his group was personally responsible for the execution of those bold pirates who dared to disrupt the peace of Port Royal.

Therefore, Sheyan not only established close ties with the governor, he was even integrated into the category as an ‘esteemed guest’.

Even Will Turner became willing to forgo his haughty posture and granted audience with the trio. Don’t forget, Will Turner was still a blacksmith by profession, an outstanding blacksmith who could forge a silver storyline grade weapon!

Therefore, Sheyan managed get Will Turner to mend his ‘+7 West’ after forking out 2,000 guineas. Furthermore, Sheyan received a pleasant surprise as its basic attack was even permanently boosted by 8%.

Chapter 564: The Black Pearl’s raid

Strictly speaking, some of the storyline characters weren’t fools. Including Norrington, some definitely heard of Sheyan’s illustrious reputation as a pirate captain before. As for the reason they closed an eye towards his operations in Port Royal, there were two.

Firstly, they acknowledged that this Seaman had indeed contributed meritoriously to Port Royal and didn’t harm the port. The second reason was due to present time ideologies.

Even the Queen accepted contributions from pirates, and allowed armed merchant ships to become privateers. People who conducted businesses fairly and honestly in this current era was as rare as a phoenix feather or unicorn horn. Even a lawful armed merchant ship could be granted the authority to become privateers. Thus, why couldn’t a pirate renounce his evil ways and become a privateer ship for the government instead?

Following that, Sheyan managed to seek out an alchemist within Port Royal. Regrettably, the services provided by that alchemist wasn’t as thorough as compared to the one in Turtuga.

The main reason wasn’t because the standard of both alchemists varied. Instead, it was due to the blooming state of witchcraft throughout the world. Even materials required for alchemy magic that were common ten years ago, had now became preciously scarce. As for those previously exceptionally precious alchemy materials, they were long extinct.

Thus, the trio only managed to upgrade the attack of their weapons by 1%, and their damage absorption defence capability by 1%. Even after that measly upgrade, it still caused Sheyan’s capital to shrink once again.

Of course excluding those, Sheyan continued to carry out investigations pertaining to Mr Shawen; ferociously tossing out his guineas to gather loads of intelligence.

Although some of those intelligence contained excessive overstatements and some were even phony, there remained a handful of pleasant and exploitable discoveries.

Finally, Sheyan expended much and managed to procure a sacrament from a roman merchant – Holy water, that was said to have been blessed by the Pope personally. Of course, that roman merchant managed to acquire a antique china porcelain from the Governor’s mansion. Thus, it was a win win situation.

The moon shone fully in the night sky once again.

Presently, it was approximately ten in the night. The entire Port Royal was submerged in darkness and tranquility, a state not different from other nights.

All of a sudden, the port was quietly enshrouded by mist; masking away the reflection of the moonlight from the sea.

The billowing of winds crescendoed, where the port buildings were seemingly incapable of blocking them off. The winds carried a recklessness as it bluntly extinguished countless of flickering candles by the windows.

A scrawny black cat exposed its bony ribs as it slowly wagged its tail while strutting across the broad streets. Its pur resonated with the beckoning of souls.

Still hard at work at this moment, Will Turner seemed to be sensing something. He halted his laborious smithing activities, before pushing open his windows to scour around. Yet, there was nothing worthy of attention.

Meanwhile, by the bedside of Elizabeth Swann, where her Aztec gold medallion had slipped within her cleavage, the candle flames flickered before extinguishing. Lady Swann peeped outside her window suspiciously before going back to bed.

“They’re here.” The trio led a group of battle adept subordinates as they laid low by a hillside outside of Port Royal.

They were presently witnessing…….under the shade of the hazy mist, an enormous and graceful black warship slowly gliding in from afar, releasing an impression of ruling over the winds and the seas. Even the rippling correlation around it was obediently gentle.

Yet the most terrifying part was, the ship sailed in a seemingly slow and leisure fashion, yet in reality, they had traversed hundreds of metres nearer within a flash!

Such was their velocity!!

A terrifying speed that could unexpectedly remove the feeling of ‘fast’ from people’s senses!

It was still fine before they actually managed to catch a glimpse of it in close proximity. Yet right now, the thought of engaging in battle with that ship on the sea truly caused Sheyan to feel a tremendously insurmountable pressure.

When his gaze fixated onto the black sails of the ship, it emanated a chilling and compelling shudder that swept through his entire body.

Just by merely witnessing……the pressure emitted from the Black Pearl was already so astronomical!

Sheyan paused for a while before he deeply exhaled, and ordered unhurriedly.

“Let’s proceed with our original plan.”

All of a sudden, a thunderous cannon boom resounded within the distant Port Royal, seemingly as a footnote to Sheyan’s recent command!!

Soon after, a glaring blaze was ignited within the tranquil serenity of Port Royal! A splendid scenery of smoke and fire erupted, burning with berserking intent to destroy and engulf all life!

Struck with a surprise raid, the marines under Norrington was thrown into panic.

Coincidentally that night, Norrington was current discussing the topic of marriage with Governor Swann. Norrington himself, had already solemnly asked for the gorgeous maiden’s hand in marriage.

Therefore, this commanding officer fearlessly organized his forces to retaliate at first notice. Furthermore, he harshly ordered for Governor Swann to rush down the city walls.

Although new forts remained under construction, a dozen plus 7-pounder cannons had already been installed. The marines rapidly unleashed their counter bombarding against the Black Pearl that had anchored by the port.

The sonorous rumbling of cannons shook incessantly, as both parties engaged in a devastatingly intensive artillery war.

Meanwhile, a professional was currently displaying his expertise.

Sheyan had fully perceived that this night, would be the best opportunity to acquire first hand information pertaining to the Black Pearl. As such, he specifically mustered the artillery expert, Redbeard. After observing the artillery bombardments of both sides, Redbeard hastily offered Sheyan his deduction.

“The shootin’ range of ze Black Pearl’s cannon isn’t far, but their gunning frequency be swifter by several notches; which be related to their incredibly skilled gunners. Instead, those scurvy marine gunners be rookies, whose accuracy and shootin’ frequency pale in comparison.”

“That is to be expected.” Sheyan deeply sighed.

“The members of the Black Pearl are undying. Even if they are pig minded, I reckon the countless experience of firing cannons over the years would definitely perfect their proficiency. Instead, Norrington’s marines had already suffered severe casualties against the bloody contention with Chevalle’s fleet. Although training could solve some problems, new rookies will remain as rookies without experiencing the suffocating trials of smoke and death. Truthfully, it will be hard for them to mature.”

Very quickly, the firepower of the navy started to become stifled in accordance to Sheyan’s predictions.

A semi-completed fort crumbled, as cannons repetively blasted against the marines on the other forts. The already shaky morale of the marines collapsed while the casualties multiplied gravely. More and more marines became fearful of surfacing out from cover.

Of course cannons struck the Black Pearl during this period as well. In spite of that, their defences remained observantly impressive. Yet more crucially, the pirates on board demonstrated an abnormally rapid speed of repairing their ship.

The holes that had been blasted through their ship was presently being mended with astonishing pace. It was as though the Black Pearl was a colossus that possessed its own vitality, and blessed with an defiantly impregnable regeneration ability.

In this present era, whenever the casualty rate of a party scaled beyond 30%, it would be extremely easy to observe a state of waning morale. Eventually, a violent explosion erupted from the final standing fort as flames and smoke engulfed it. Four marines were blasted out by the powerful shockwave and flames.

At present, Port Royal resembled a pretty maiden that had her skirt ripped apart; utterly losing its resistance as its legs were spread apart.

Splash! Splash! Several tens of jolly boats descended from the Black Pearl, fully loaded with crude pirates that were yelling rampantly. They brandished hatchets, torches and broadswords as they pedalled towards the prosperous Port Royal.

Stirring the hazy mist as they passed, those pirates appeared like demons of the mist, as they frenetically trampled and ravaged through the fertile island.

Houses were being lit on fire, while the common folk shrieked in fear of losing their heads. What remained of the port was now unquenchable chaos and infernos that soared towards the sky.

The marines commanded by Norrington continued to organize themselves, as they mounted a bare resistance. However, the Black Pearl continued to offer its pirates long distance firepower support. Hence, the marines could only rigidly safeguard their navy camps, and were incapable of retaliating against those pirates running amok in the streets.

Fortunately, those navy camps offered seemingly no enticement to the pirates.

What they loved was gold, silk and other valuable goods. As the Black Pearl incessantly bombarded the different areas of Port Royal in haphazard fashion, the gunners shied away from the plundering districts of their fellow pirates; purposefully suppressing and intimidating the few resistance still in existence.

Meanwhile, Sheyan observed the rapid proliferation of chaos and pillaging breaking out throughout the island.

The rumbling cannons was now sufficient to mask away the sound of movements. Thus, he led his group of combat-adept subordinates as they rushed towards the prison cells of Port Royal.

Of course, they didn’t forget to mask their faces to prevent awkward scenarios of encountering familiar faces, whereby the reputation they painstakingly earned in Port Royal would be washed down the drain.

As it turns out, the initially heavily guarded prison cells of Port Royal was now seemingly devoid of a single individual.

Not a single marine remained dedicated to their obligations of supervising the prisoners; the scourges of society – swindlers, bandits, thieves and pirates. Of course, not forgetting the main lead, Jack Sparrow.

Peculiarly, the iron gates of the prison was opened widely. A solitary chain bolt had been pried open, with its semi broken lock swaying in mid air.

Two marines who couldn’t escape the prison in time had sprawled to the ground with their arms stretched out. The mauser rifles by their side depicted traces of being recently fired. Houseflies were currently circulating around their bodies, before finally perching onto their round eyeballs. Two trails of bloodied footprints could be traced from their bodies, directly into the prison.

Big beard Davies trudged forward, as he dipped his finger into the viscous blood before twirling it. Then, he muttered.

“15 minutes might not have passed since the two marines died. Blimey, what be the pirates o’ the Black Pearl be runnin’ to the prison for? I haven’t heard of any Black Pearl Pirates being locked in Port Royal, aye?”

Chapter 565: Crossing hands for the first time

Sheyan could only laugh in response to Davies’s inquiry as he was aware of the storyline.

“Perhaps they noticed this building is tightly guarded and thought it was an armoury.”

Blacksail exclaimed doubtfully.

“Sink me! Might the Black Pearl truly have such ignorant pirates?”

When Blacksail just concluded his exclamation, a thick nasal voice filled with rage drifted out from within the prison.

“Showin’ off ye son of a biscuit eater? Bilge-suckin’ idiot thinking ye be impressive for differentiatin’ an amoury or a prison? Let me inform ye scum of what me knows, tis’ day the next year shall be yer death anniversary!”

The one who spoke was a black man with a rather unique physique. The back portion of his hair was bundled into a pigtail, while the front portion was tied into two ponytails; parting ways and dangling to the left and right. He had thick brows and large eyes, while his tattered and ragged suit was his unique distinction. The two tiny beards sticking up from his chin enhanced his main personality. As he spoke, a set of crooked and rotten teeth became exposed.

That black man fumed while pulling out a pistol from his waist before aiming over. By his side, was a middle aged arabic male with curvy sideburns and wore a tiny Xinjiang* style circular hat. When they surfaced, it felt like the mist started swirling around them.

(TN:*Xinjiang is a province in china.)

Sheyan and Mogensha simultaneously probed them and quickly obtained a joint primary information.

[ ‘Rotten Shawl’ Tiggs ]

[ Junior pirate of the Black Pearl ]

[ Height: 5 feet 4 inches. ]

[ Weight: 71 kg ]

[ Strength: ?? ]

[ Agility: ?? ]

[ Physique: ?? ]

[ Perceptive sense: 38 points ]

[ Charm: 10 points ]

[ Intelligence: 8 points ]

[ Spirit: 14 points ]

[ Abilities: ‘Basic Close Combat lvl 7’ , ‘Basic Endurance lvl 7’, ‘Basic Long Range Combat lvl 7’ ]

[ Black Pearl Pirate special ability: Swifty – Wherever the breeze of the caribbean sea blows, the movement and attack speed of the Black Pearl pirates would be boosted by 33% ]

[ Black Pearl Pirate special ability: Assimilation – Chances of discovering a Black Pearl pirate reduced by 50% within any area where the horn sounds of the Black Pearl can be heard ]

[ Pirate special ability: Team lvl 3 – For fighters accustomed to group collectivism, their combat capabilities would substantially be bolstered with their allies beside them. For every one additional ally beside, individual attributes would be raised by 20%. Effect can be stacked for maximally 200% ]

[ Aztec Curse (pester): The vengeful wrath and sinister spirits of a former empire lingers on this body, bringing it between the borders of life and death. This body will feel desires and pains, but be unable to satisfy them; possessing a thirst unquenchable by water, a hunger that can only be satiated by death. Yet death is not a possibility ]

[ Special ability: No attacks can cause him to die. A shattered body will reform itself after a period. Even the ashes of an incinerated body will be reinstituted after a period. The soul of every pirate accursed will be confined within the Black Pearl. Once they depart from the Black Pearl for a period of time, no matter where their bodies may be, it will be forcefully summoned back to the Black Pearl ]

Boom! A loud rumble resounded. That pigtail blackman triggered off while targeting Blacksail.

Instead, Reef had launched forward as he blocked the gunshot with his shield. Under the gloomy moonlight, a distorted bullet rolled down from Reef’s shield as spiralling fumes dispersed from it.

“55 points.” Reef reported into the party channel.

Coming from a pirate of the Black Pearl, one of the three legendary pirate ships, such a figure was indeed rather shameful. However, one must factor in their unique property of being undying!

Moreover, his attack damage was definitely not low. If 2-3 more pirates of the same calibre were added, they could easily slay Mogensha.

Furthermore, one must consider the presence of the powerful ‘Swifty’ ability in all Black Pearl pirates. Once one encounters a flock of Black Pearl pirates, there would truly be no way of escape. Even if they couldn’t kill someone straight up, they would eventually exhaust him to death!

“Fine then.” Sheyan shrugged his shoulders and announced. “Gentlemen, I shall have to conduct an experiment on you lonely lads.”

At this moment, the pigtail blackman furiously roared out his comrade’s name.

“Tiggs, attack with me. I shall carve out yer hearts!”

‘Rotten Shawl’ Tiggs pulled out his broadsword and scoffed.

“These scurvy masked scoundrels be pirates, me smells the distinct stench of a pirate from them! Jerry, it be time to let these slacked jaw idiots understand the rankin’ of us pirates, that the honour of a legendary pirate ship might not be sullied!”

Tiggs then dashed forward while thrusting forth his broadsword with breakneck speed, stabbing straight into Sheyan’s chest!

Instead, Sheyan gripped the thrusting blade as blood dripped down through the gaps of his fingers. This stab was merely a superficial wound to Sheyan.

Piank! Sheyan exerted his strength as he snapped the ordinary broadsword, which was uncursed by the Aztec curse, into two. The enraged Tiggs cursed the damned blacksmith who forged his broadsword, as he furiously raised his fist.

Yet within a flash, blue glitters sparkled out from Sheyan’s body as he retrieved his ‘+7 West’ long saber!

A melancholic blade ray flashed out!

Instantaneously, half of Tiggs’s arm was chopped off as it landed 2-3 metres away. Despite that, tiggs returned a hysterical laugh without displaying a single hint of agony. Furthermore, one could vividly observe his arm crawling back to its owner as if it had sentience.

Tiggs then scooped up his own arm and attached the decapitated ends together. After a slight twitch, it was restored back to its former state.

“Truly an exceptionally formidable regeneration.” Sheyan muttered expressionlessly.

Sheyan continued to unleash a few more strikes. Instead, he discovered that even though he targeted the vital spots of these pirates, they seemingly harbored no fear even towards explosive strikes or severe mutilations. The only difference was that the regeneration speed for those vital spots would be slightly slower.

As they fought, the clouds in the sky dispersed aside, as the atmospheric mist timidly whirled around the cascading moonlight.

Instantaneously, the two pirates transformed into eerie white skeletons without warning, where only their tattered attire covered them. Still, they advanced with crazed assaults against their foes.

Finally, Sheyan’s pirates joined the attack, as they reduced the Black Pearl pirates into a pile of bones. Then, Big beard Davies utilize his ‘Iceshard Cruelty’ greatsword to freeze the pile of bones, before Taitish followed up with her occult magic to transport the frozen bones 5 kilometres away from this place; thereby finally managing to unwrap themselves from these parasite like hindrances.

After broadening his horizons on the capabilities of merely the lowest tier pirates of the Black Pearl, Sheyan’s heart sank heavily.

At present, he could already eliminate the option of having a direct confrontation with the pirates of the Black Pearl. Even official Growth-hunters would be slowly withered away by such dreadful prowess and astoundingly terrifying regeneration capabilities!

However, Sheyan understood that he absolutely must not reveal his worrying emotions to his subordinates. Thus, he merely acted with full confidence as he sauntered into the prison.

One must admit that the prison cells of Port Royal had rather humane living conditions. Though the cells were rough, simple and filthy, it remained dry. Moreover, straws were placed in each prison cell which could minimally free its inhabitant from the torture of rheumatism and arthritis.

After approaching the second layer of prison cells, they could hear the charming naggings and urgings of Captain Jack Sparrow from afar.

“Common dearie, xu xu xu, hurry common, good boy, taste this delicious bone.”

Beside him, Joshamee was similarly chiming urgently.

“A delicacy that be unimaginable, aye. The most sumptuous bone of your life aye, hurry come on, just a lil’ closer. Reach out your tongue for heaven’s sake, please open your eyes.”

Both of them were attempting to lure an unremarkable looking grey pekingese dog, the treasured darling of the jail wardens. None could fathom what the warden chief was thinking when he allowed this dog, to hold the crucial prison cell keys across its mouth.

Very evidently, every single criminal here was obsessed with luring this dog to approach their jail cell, before they would seize it and obtain those keys smeared with dog saliva. Though it was filthy, it was their adorable and only path to freedom

Unfortunately for them, this tiny dog had been specially trained to stop just a sliver shy of outstretched hands of prisoners from within the iron bars. Moreover, its inarticulate nature towards the prisoners repeatedly fuelled their hysterical disappointment, which became the unparalleled source of entertainment for those jail wardens.

Yet sadly, that warden with this weird fetish was unfortunately implicated by a stray cannon, and had since returned to the embrace of his god. Nevertheless, this miserable little dog still remained loyal to its responsibilities, making a fool out of the grand Captain Jack Sparrow and Joshamee as it strived to please its master; who had degraded into an icy cold corpse by now.

At present, the keys were three centimetres away from Jack Sparrow’s fingers. However, that little dog had already planned to conclude this dangerous game it was playing.

Instead, Redbeard came trudging in with large strides, as he boorishly captured this little dog. Then, he looted the set of keys that some were anxiously awaiting for. Without paying attention to the yells and berates of Jack and Joshamee shouting themselves hoarse, Redbeard turned and left.

“Now isn’t the time to release them yet. Still, I don’t plan to have Jack Sparrow bear this grudge against me, so I can only allow the recently recruited Redbeard to commit this act.”

Sheyan explained to his buddies from a distance away.

Although his subordinates expressed their puzzlement towards their captain’s conduct, they unanimously displayed compliance.

Chapter 566: Making threats and promises

Ever since the infamous reputation of the trio had been propagated by the werewolf who fled from the destruction of his Triple-K party, other contestants now accorded adequate respect to the trio’s might. Of course, they were similarly attaching sufficient value to their own lives.

Therefore presently, other contestants had already departed from Port Royal.

In lieu of such favourable circumstances, Sheyan had no intentions to rescue Jack Sparrow; because his digilent plans revolved around the movie storyline proceeding in the right track – track of having the lady Elizabeth Swann kidnapped; the track of Will Turner overhearing that Jack Sparrow was exceedingly familiar with the Black Pearl, which compelled him to forcibly release the Black Pearl’s former captain for the sake of his beautiful maiden. Henceforth from there, his profession as a blacksmith would be changed to a pirate.

One could anticipate that the freed Captain Jack Sparrow would definitely still be hopelessly tangled up with the Black Pearl. Moreover this time, he would be aided by the financial benefits he gained from Sheyan previously. Him and Will Turner would definitely win over precious time for Sheyan’s following operations.

Yet, releasing Captain Jack Sparrow would result in Will Turner becoming a marginalized character, which would be an unacceptable result to Sheyan.

Proceeding from there, the group of pirates started scouring the entire prison meticulously.

Sheyan had previously contemplated over this issue beforehand. Since even the tremendously crucial and learned businessman, Mr Shawen, was imprisoned here, wouldn’t it be possible to discover other talents here as well?

As such, the scouring process wasn’t carried out hastily.

Occasionally, prisoners could be heard rattling against the iron bars as they loudly demanded to be released. In response, Sheyan’s pirate subordinates would act like honored guests at an audition, while the prisoner would try their utmost to display their talents. Nevertheless, the outcome mostly ended with ‘a pity you couldn’t make the cut’.

In spite of that, Sheyan still managed to discover two talents.

One of which was a lad named Carter. He had excessively bulging muscles as though he could easily bend the iron bars of the prison. Thus, the wardens had simply adopted countermeasures as they bolted his wrists with thick chains, while only providing him with a single meal per day.

Carter was extremely lecherous, and attempted to molest Taitish even after he was just released. Undoubtedly, he was quickly restrained by her powerful occult magic, and one could tell he would make an excellent paddler.

The other talent was unexpectedly a female, known as Redrose Chile. Although her long term as a prisoner had tortured her healthy demeanor, it had served to provide greater clarity to her mind.

When she noticed that Carter was released, she straightforwardly yelled out, “I know where the treasure is!” However, she soon realized these masked men weren’t particularly interested in her treasures. Thus, she immediately responded by exhibiting her own worth. Accurately putting, her superpower.

She could shut her eyes and sense the topography within a few kilometres radius. One could describe her as a human radar. Redrose Chile was able to sense anything with a volume of 3x3x3 cubic metres within a ten square kilometres radius of herself.

Of course, her ability wasn’t infinite and she could only utilize it three times daily.

Sheyan searched this enormous prison over and over again. In his general impression, the one with the greatest worth would frequently be held inside the deepest depths of the prison. For example, Senior Ren Woxin who was an expert in the Star Sucking Great Technique*. For example, Zhuge Wolong of the show A chinese ghost story. For example, the Evil Deity of the Fire Cloud (火雲邪神) in Kungfu Hustle. However, after roughly an hour of overturning the prison cells, their search remained futile.

(TL:*this reference pertains to the wuxia novel, The smiling proud wanderer (笑傲江湖))

When Sheyan was about to lose patience, the recently recruited Redrose Chile abruptly offered a clue after learning about their manhunt.

“I haven’t heard of Shawen before but previously, I shared a prison cell with an old salt called Tom, who endlessly chatters about ships. It seemed like he was rather well versed in ships.”

Sheyan immediately turned towards her with a penetrative gaze.

“Then can you tell me where is he currently located?”

Redrose Chile was rather shaken by Sheyan’s penetrative gaze as she answered.

“His prison term ended the first month of this year, and the wardens freed him because they were unwilling to let him continue freeloading here.”

After listening, Sheyan could immediately feel his vision darkening. Fortunately, Redrose Chile continued bashfully.

“However, that old salt persisted in dwelling here shamelessly after mentioning he had nowhere else to go. Normally, he would be in charge of various dirty jobs like cleaning. He resides in the firewood shed beside the kitchen. According to that old salt, the aroma of chopped wood allows him to sleep peacefully.”

Tom was an exceedingly common name and would oftentimes be used as a pseudonym. When he heard about that, Sheyan could immediately determine, that was the man he was seeking. Thus, he hurriedly led his subordinates on a hundred metre dash before stomping open the doors of the firewood shed.

Kacha! Cracks emerged on the doors as it swung backwards and smashed against the wall in splinters.

Borrowing the moonlight, Sheyan could see a makeshift bed of tattered cotton waddings and logs behind a heap of firewood.

An old man was sitting uprightly in astoundment as he kneaded his eyes. His face filled with wrinkles blown out over the years by the sea breeze.

At the tip of that makeshift bed, Sheyan noticed several delicate blocks of wood like toy building blocks; recognizing them as possible tiny components of boats.

The old man sitting atop the bed had a stooped body, with an appearance of skin and bones analogous to a bamboo. He cowered back in his quilt blanket while issuing a shivering voice.

“Misters, there aren’t booties here. This is not the prison! Just take anything you see fit over here!”

Sheyan coldly declared.

“Mister Shawen, what I see fit is you. Precisely speaking, the knowledge you have. So make preparations to depart with me.”

When he heard the name ‘Shawen’, the gaze in that old man’s eyes turned wild, feverish and ablaze in an instance. His facial muscles twitched slightly but he replied with a hoarse voice.

“What are you talking about?”

Sheyan glared at him as he enunciated his words.

“I’ve obtained an Ironwood crafted ship and even a perfectly refined Baladine Bloodsail of the gypsies. All these requires your expertise to proceed. Apart from that, I also need detailed information about the Black Pearl.”

After hearing Sheyan’s plea, that old man’s eyes flickered brilliantly as he sat back up authoritatively while still wrapped in his quilt. This time, it was as though his temperament had undergone an abrupt fluctuation. The impression he emanated was unique, like that of a brutally savage aged wild beast lazily resting within its own lair!

“Leave, I won’t entertain you.”

Sheyan then produced a golden tooth.

“Perhaps you can treat this as a request from Jack Sparrow.”

Shawn snorted disdainfully.

“That scoundrel vied over women with me and owes me a thousand guineas, his request can count as fart!”

“Oh, our beloved Jack wasn’t earnest with me.” Sheyan shrugged his shoulders.

“My only consolation is that I hadn’t treated him with full sincerity as well (referring to the damaged Hill Maiden). Nevertheless, Mister Shawen, you are neglecting my determination.”

Sheyan then earnestly continued.

“You know that I’ve risked being hung on the gibbet to break in just to find you. Do you think I’ll grant you freedom now?”

Shawen mocked.

“Aye, you can bring me away now, but might I have the liberties to remodel your ship to sink!”

Sheyan revealed a disdain in his glance as he replied indifferently.

“You wouldn’t do that, mister. Everyone possesses their own secrets including you. Although you have neither spouse nor children this entire life, but your brother does have a blissful family. It seems the kids of what’s his name, Moriarty, really resembles you.”

“What nonsense are you spouting, you scum?!!” The initially composed Shawen suddenly became enraged as he bellowed. It was hard to imagine his wizened and degenerating body could emit such a sonorous roar.

Instead, Sheyan didn’t care as his lips curled into a sneer. He wasn’t afraid of infuriating Shawen was was merely afraid he could not stir up this obstinate old fart! Hence, Sheyan immediately glanced at Taitish, who retrieved her crystal ball cusped it before her well developed bosom.

Ripples undulated along the surface of the crystal ball. Eventually, the image of a youth was projected. One could fathom this soundly asleep youth had brows and eyes that reflected Shawen. Meanwhile, this obsolete old man had started trembling violently. Brother Black then clicked his tongue by the side.

“Mister Shawen, don’t you feel like you’re staring into the mirror? Just look at this youth, really. Look at the back of his hands, it is exactly identical to yours. His mother experienced innumerable hardships just to give birth to this child, and even suffered abuse from her husband. Things have finally gotten better recently but the child hasn’t experienced a father’s love. What a pity. So I believe you can perceive, who we will seek out to vent our indignation or make reprisals, if anything goes wrong with the restructuring of the ship. Of course, it will also end up with rewards, so don’t fret about having goals!”

Reef evidently didn’t advocate this sense of making threats and promises, and moodily headed out for some fresh air.

Faced with such blatant threats, Shawen’s eyes turned vacant as he slapped against his wooden bed! His dispirited eyes abruptly widened as it shone with an unexplainable might. It ushered a sensation of ashen clouds inclining downwards to quell the sea surface, forewarning the impending arrival of a storm.

“You!!!”

Chapter 567: Ocean’s Merriment

Sheyan snapped his fingers as he naturally beckoned for Jinkuang to surface. He then advised dimly.

“This is my most devoted servant, he will be the one servicing you. You can relay all your requests to him. Do you wish for your family lineage to be terminated or put in a measly few months of labour to earn a fortune for the rest of your life…..everything is determined by your choice. Escort Mister Shawen out!”

Shawen’s teeth chattered clamorously yet he offered zero resistance.

Along their journey of escorting Shawen, Sheyan and company brushed shoulders with several undead Black Pearl pirates who were still engaging in widespread pillaging.

Fortunately, their main objectives were now directed towards the navy armories and camp, as well as the governor’s mansion. Although some pirate scums posed a little trouble, they weren’t delayed for that long.

Soon, the few Dingyuan pirates finally ascended back up their ship.

From a distance, Port Royal remained like a boiling bowl of porridge, bubbling with fiery chaos.

Following that, Jinkuang didn’t take much effort to finally convince Shawen, because Shawen’s stubborn spirit had been utterly diluted after realizing he actually had a son. Never did he expect that his single clandestine love affair with his sister-in-law, had unexpectedly been fruitful!

Throughout the journey, Shawen’s ears had been echoing with Mogensha’s words – ‘the child hasn’t experienced a father’s love’, causing waves of indescribable guilt to overwhelm his stiff heart.

Hence, after receiving the guarantee of large amounts of remuneration, Shawen finally released a sigh and lowered his haughty chin. Then, he came before Sheyan and expressed his willingness to serve.

Sheyan then hastily produced the two items he was dying to have convert to battle capabilities.

The first item was indeed the Baladine Bloodsail that had strangely transformed into an iron rod.

The second item was the dark-gold grade material Sheyan had procured back at the auction.

Even though Shawen had been infuriated with ships all his life, he couldn’t help receiving a huge shock after witnessing the two items Sheyan produced.

Although the method of refining a Baladine Bloodsail wasn’t really a classified secret, it required the prerequisites of an extravagant amount of vengeful spirits. Afterwards, pouring those vengeful spirits in was absolutely not something an individual could accomplish. A domineering and imposing force comparable to a nation, must be present to accomplish this massive feat!

In the past, the gypsy clan was only able to discretely defy the dark ages of catholicism rule due to the establishment of this Baladine Bloodsail. The gypsies of this era were merely reprocessing and enhancing this invincible treasure of their predecessors.

After carefully examining the Baladine Bloodsail, Shawen then accessed the dark-gold grade material.

Shawen didn’t rely on his eyes to examine it, but instead caressed it gently with his hands. His fingers slid through the vein lines of this material, and after a good long while, the trio finally received a notification.

[ Your purchased mysterious material has finally been appraised ]

[ Deep Sea Giant Tendons ]

[ Grade: Dark-gold ]

[ Description: Deep Sea Giants are fabled creatures who can upsurge tiny scale tsunamis, with a casual swipe of their humongous iron anchors. It is said they are the protectors of the tranquility and cleanliness of the ocean. When this 18 feet, 10,000 pounds giant appears before you, please seize the pressing time to start your prayers. Because to date, it is said that only Davy Jones had survived from an encounter with them. Other rumours includes him being related to these sea giants by blood ]

[ Description: An aged old Sea GIant loved to bask in the warmth of the sun. One day, while basking comfortably beneath the sun on the island he usually frequently, Hades gently claimed his life through his nightmare ]

[ Description: Usually, a sea giant’s corpse would disintegrate into bubbles and evaporate. However, due to its human like dietary customs and ailments, its ligaments were preserved for unknown reasons. No doubt, its tendons were employed as exceptionally incredible ship building materials. Yet, it suffices to say there is no ship builder with the experience of utilizing such a rare material. Therefore, only a bold and creative shipbuilder can assist this incomparably precious material to exhibit its hundred percent potential ]

After inspecting these ‘Deep Sea Giant Tendons’, Shawen repeatedly poured rum into his mouth. Instead, his muddled old eyes started to become increasingly clear.

Without warning, he fetched a random sailor hatchet on the ship and heftily hack down against the wooden deck!

Although Shawen wasn’t a meek and kindly individual, he probably didn’t commit heinous crimes of murder and arson ever since young. Though he hacked with great strength, it merely left a distinct white trace on the deck where he had no choice but to concede defeat to the toughness of ironwood.

Observing this state, Shawen thought pensively before he hurriedly propped up his crutches, and hobbled towards the bottommost area of the ship.

Seeing this, Sheyan understood that Shawen was definitely headed to scrutinize the ship’s keel.

Actually, the trio had inspected the keel of this ship long ago.

Due to the impossibility of finding such a gigantic iron wood stump, the keel was an assembly of ten over different iron wood stumps linked together through a special method; before being sealed up with occult magic. A keel of the highest quality. Although this method was inferior to a completely intact wood stump, it was still operating with exceptional performance.

After inspecting a round of the entire ship, Shawen stoned for quite some time.

All of a sudden, he fumed angrily and immediately commanded for the ship to be brought nearer to the shore. Then, with the assistance of Taitish, he ordered the other pirates to get down from the ship.

As Sheyan held the blackmailing card of Shawen’s illegitimate child in his hands, he could sit at ease in a fishing boat despite the storms*; thus, rendering Shawen free reign to torture his ship.

(TN:*chinese idiom, it means staying cool headed even in a crisis)

Half an hour later, nothing happened on board.

Yet soon after, the trio could suddenly sense a pressing pulse of chilling energy! One must understand, the temperature of the caribbean sea was roughly above twenty degrees at night, yet hoar frost had appeared by the shore!

Very quickly, epic multitudes of fishes started to encircle this ship. Upon touching the ship’s hull, those fishes would rupture where its blood and flesh would be dissolved in.

Following closely, an awe-inspiring dark-golden glitter glowed from the ship’s bow. With that glittering glow as its nucleus, the glitters gradually extended out as three meandering lines. Not long after those lines spreaded out, it branched out like the veins and arteries of a tree; filling up every nook and corner of the ship.

Spectating this scene, Reef spoke with a shock.

“Could it be, Shawen is actually trying to dissolve the ‘Deep Sea Giant Tendons’ into the entire hull of the ship? If we consider the ironwood frame as a human’s skeleton, then at this moment, the vascular system of the human have been formed. Isn’t that considered as the ligaments, arteries, and meridians of our ship?”

This mystical phenomenon persisted for close to an hour before gradually dissipating.

After this restructuring, the Dingyuan’s surface was no longer smooth and glossy. Instead, meandering protrusions and distortions tarnished several areas on the ship. It was as if they were swollen bruises on a human’s body.

If one were to carefully prance about, one would perceive that the ship was still as hard as before, but now contained a pliable toughness seen in that of living organisms.

Instantaneously, Sheyan received the notification.

[ The ‘Deep Sea Giant Tendons’ have been integrated into the hull of your flagship, The Dingyuan ]

[ Quasi-legendary ability: Transcended Steel (Passive) – After an upgrade, the durability of this ship is raised by 50% and its damage absorption capabilities is raised by 33%. The speed decline of this ship is reduced from 35% to 30% ]

[ Rank A ability: Nature’s Prevailment (passive) – After an upgrade, the Dingyuan’s hull can now absorb essence from the surrounding sea creatures. No blood rite will be needed anymore. Furthermore, the self mending speed of the ship is increased by 33% ]

[ Received new ability: Ocean’s Merriment – This ability can only be activated when the captain is steering the ship. Other forcible activation will result in sharply weakened effects ]

[ Details: Summon the soul of Deep Sea Giant, Bababo, to incite an ocean merriment. A tempestuous tsunami would be incited within a designated region. Within this tsunami region, the Dingyuan’s sailing speed would be raised by 100% while other creatures/ships would have their speed reduced by 50% ]

[ Details: Casting this ability requires the blood rite of three lives. Within an hour after activation, the soul of the Deep Sea Giant, Bababo, would no longer respond to your summoning ]

[ Ocean’s Merriment lasts for 200 – 500 seconds. This figure is determined by the souls of your blood rite. The stronger the souls sacrificed, the longer duration the soul of Deep Sea Giant Babasa can linger ]

At present, the pirates were all swarming forward as they excitedly cried and toured their ‘new’ ship. Instead, Shawen and Taitish both appeared extremely exhausted, as they limpidly rested on chairs without budging.

Shawen then glanced to Sheyan and panted.

“Seaman Yan, 10,000 guineas!”

Sheayn accepted his demand.

“Not an issue! What about the Baladine Bloodsail?”

Shawen drank down several mouthfuls of rum, before he paused briefly and slowly asked.

“Do you know what a magnet is?”

Sheyan nodded. Shawen then produced two magnet rocks. Allowing them to oppose each other, he naturally created a repelling magnetic force. Shawen then coughed violently and continued.

“This is the concept of the Baladine Bloodsail. At present, the quantities of vengeful spirits accumulated in the Bloodsail is more than adequate. However, there is an absence of master spirits to control them. Thus, master spirits are required to act as a base to provide a dynamic lift in contention against the weight of those vengeful spirits. I will attempt to undo the master spirit enchantment lock with Taitish, but you will need to start hunting down various kinds of sea creatures!”

“Every time you slaughter a legendary sea creature, its spirit would be absorbed into the Baladine Bloodsail to be used as a master spirit. The stronger the spirits absorbed, the larger the dynamic lifting effect of those vengeful spirits will be.”

Chapter 568: Valiant assembling

The audience was finally enlightened after listening to Shawen’s explanation of the Baladine Bloodsail.

Sheyan nodded earnestly and uttered.

“I get it. Therefore, must we fold up the Baladine Bloodsail whenever we encounter vile weather conditions like a hurricane? Thus, increasing the ship’s deadweight to combat the storms?”

Shawen impatiently waved his hands and yelled.

“That is of course! Scram now all of you, let me take a rest. Hurry and get lost. Oh right, I need a mug of tea understood? Brewed with eastern tea leaves, with salt and lemon. Right, I’m also famished, I’d like a meal of medium steak. You know I still have loads of tasks to accomplish after waking.”

“The ship is filled with pretty outstanding components that are absurdly and recklessly installed in its wrong positions….and that Greenland Lethal weapon! Which idiot took their own liberties to install it as a harpoon gun?!! An unlearned fool should keep to his own jurisdiction eh? Finally, I must propose a slight amendment with regards to the shape dynamics of this ship. There are absolutely areas to improve the speed of this ship.”

In this era, Shawen definitely had no clue on what wind drag coefficient was. Yet he was still able draw identical conclusions as modern day scientists. One could tell his reputation was indeed deserving.

Facing the overbearing blusters of Shawen, Sheyan could only shrug his shoulders and ‘scram’.

There was nothing he could do about this. Often times, individuals with great talent would possess rather eccentric personalities.

Sheyan then retired to his captain’s cabin to rest. Following that, Ol’Seadog asked for instructions pertaining to their next voyage destination. Without thinking much, Sheyan casually replied.

“Obviously we shall head for the gulf of Satmos.”

Beside Ol’Seadog, Nanuke abruptly interrupted.

“Might cap’n be interested in the fiendish Chupacabra? Of the fiendish existence of the fables, the mermaids be ranked the foremost. The hardenin’ of her tears into pearls can be exchanged for ten ounces of gold. Even the bombastic british gentlemen would fork out gold for the tusks of leviathans, but the Chupacabra be destitute devils that only some alchemists hold value to. There be no booty fer us to hunt it.”

Sheyan obviously wasn’t planning to explain his reason for selecting the gulf of Satmos; which was because time was tight, and its destination was the closest here. Hence, he merely ignored Nanuke’s opinion.

“There’s always a first for everything. Set sail! Nanuke, some commend that you’re the mightiest user of the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ while others condemn you be the worst. I believe you will show me your response with actions, aye?”

Nanuke clenched his fist tightly, as the black tattoo on his large arm trembled along his swelling muscles.

“Ye shall see wit’ your own eyes, sir. Might I not be one who loves chatterin’ wit’ me mouth.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Sheyan replied unenthusiastically.

“Full larboard!!!”

“Lower the three sails.”

“Heave ho, ye paddlers!”

“Aye, once more, once more till you overtake those scums!”

""

“…..”

A symphony of sea breeze, billowing waves, shoutings and toiling chants enveloped this very deck.

Pirates shuttled around the ship like robots, each to their own taskings; but in unison, they exhibited a glorious efficiency.

The depths of sea currents pressed against the bottom of the ship, as raging gales incessantly whistled along its impregnable hull.

Sheyan was presently standing on The Dingyuan’s bow.

By his side, was that archaic ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’. It appeared like the vanguard of the ship. Eliminating the witchcraft and glows it emitted, its current position truly resembled the cruise missiles of destroyer batteries of the latter generations. It was truly a treacherous concealed weapon of the highest quality.

Under the guidance of the maestro Shawen, the current ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ was no longer an ordinary harpoon gun. Instead, the launching harpoon was replaced by a curved rib of a great whale tempered and refined by Daitish’s occult magic!

Now known as the ‘Whalerib Harpoon’, it would launch out whirling with astonishing speed before piercing deep into the body of its prey.

Without its own distinct flare, how would the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ manage to assassinate the former captain of the Queen’s Anne Revenge, one of the three legendary pirate ships?

Naturally, the prerequisites in terms of aiming and loading would be taxing on its user. Nevertheless, Nanuke was gifted in this particular field and totally familiarized himself with the weapon within two days.

Presently, the greatest evidence of Nanuke’s capabilities were the pair of Chupacabra skeletons suspended atop the second mast; one large and one small.

Vividly seen from his bare body, Nanuke’s rugged muscles were drenched in shimmering oily perspiration. His usually fierce countenance was now replaced with a savage one, and his eyes were strangely shut. However, one could tell from his shivering eyelids, that his eyeballs were still twitching violently. The pirates were even worried his eyeballs would suddenly rupture at any moment.

All of a sudden, the harpoon of the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ exuberated with black radiance, as the front of the harpoon swivelled with astonishing speed before a white beam shot out. Leaving behind a trajectory of strands of black fumes, as it stabbed into the abyss of the ocean!

Seconds later, an abundance of bubbles popped out from the azure sea water, before a nearby portion of the sea begun churning.

It was as though a monstrosity was being stirred from the depths of the sea, before large diffusion of maroonish blood could be seen; contaminating the portion of the sea before them! In contrast to scenic jade seawaters, the sunlight, blue skies and white clouds, this image was additionally sorrowful and truly peculiar.

Closely following, a tremendous shadow surfaced from the depths of the seawaters 50 metres ahead of the Dingyuan.

It resembled a massive dark cloud hiding beneath the water surface as it drifted in leisurely, but dragged along a dense fumigation of red behind it. An epic sized dorsal fin of matchless incisiveness poked out from the sea surface like a beheading blade, as it glimmered under the glaring sunlight.

Then, it tore towards The Dingyuan with rapid pace!

This monster had already executed this exact manner of collision against many ships! Currently, it was anticipating the moment it enlarged its razor sharp jaws in preparing to devour the capsized humans rapaciously. Their flesh and blood would nourish its wounds.

Instead, this scene was no longer foreign to the pirates who had already hunted down two other Chupacabras. They were all holding onto firm objects around them while unanimously whistling for this fiendish monster.

“O lil’darlin’, common here boy.”

“Ye shall realize yer deadliest fin be as frail as antique china, but not as valuable.”

“Ahoy~~~~I’m itchin’ for impact!”

An intense collision broke out within an instance, as the solid bone fin struck against the bottom of the Dingyuan. White foamy turbulence of waves soared, as it unyieldingly scraped out a sequest of sparks for close to a metre!

Yet under the majestic hardness of the Dingyuan…….Kacha! Its bony great fin caved in from the pressure and snapped! Instead, only a streak of white scar remained at the scraped portion of the ship!

Towering at 3 metres of height and as broad as 6 metres, the giant fin was snapped into three. Two fragments scraping out sparks for 20-30 metres towards the left and right of the ship, before crashing into the sea. Then, they drifted along the currents of the sea mournfully.

The Chupacabra’s original intent was to directly slice the ship’s bow in two, before exploiting its monstrous strength to flip it. However, a deviation occurred in its plan, a dangerously massive deviation!!

Not only did its back fin fail to carve the ship’s bow open, it had instead snapped from the recoil!

The indescribably substantial weight of the ship then crushed down against it like a mountain range.

As the Chupacabra’s flesh contacted against the hull of the Dingyuan, its veiny ashen colored body spasmed against and adhered tightly against the hull. Though it snarled with great infuriation, its skin was torn asunder by the ship’s hull as white foam splashed out and dissolved into the sea!

Although this Chupacabra was equivalent to a third of the Dingyuan’s size and its brute strength was exceedingly frightening, a collisson of this magnitude still failed to break the stability of the Dingyuan; the ship merely tremored slightly. Don’t speak of such impregnable stability to ordinary ships, even legendary warships couldn’t surpass it!

The disadvantaged Chupacabra was still an intelligent creature. Without lingering for further words, it dove towards the abyss of the sea.

This was the greatest difficulty pertaining to hunting legendary sea creatures. While if one could triumph over a legendary creatures on land, it would be easier to pursue and finally exhaust the creature.

Yet even if one suppressed these herculean legendary sea creatures with might, these crafty brats could still escape towards the depths of the ocean where it would be impossible to pursue. Unless, one managed to locate and stifle its nest or perhaps capture its offspring.

Of course, one couldn’t discount impulsive lads who lusted after the skin, flesh, bones, penis, intestines, testicles and other bodily components; intending greedily to convert them into cash. Knowing their painstakingly blood-soaked arrangement was becoming a wasted effort, those men would dive into the water rashly in pursuit. However, everyone could naturally guess the outcome of that.

The injured sea creatures were natural predators with great deadliness in the sea, while the water would impair the strength of humans. Thus, pursuing hunters would oftentimes fail to surface back up.

Nevertheless, Nanuke was already mentioned to be an expert hunter of legendary creatures. Along with the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’, he was long prepared for this scenario.

Such an individual who had gone through the testing of time, was the real lethal weapon tempered through the vicissitudes of battles. He was truly the bane of all legendary sea creatures.

Chapter 569: Deformed Thickshell

Everyone was aware that in deeper waters, water pressure would increasingly multiply. Nanuke had smeared a secret medicine concocted with occult magic onto the ‘Whalerib Harpoon’.

That secret medicine was incredibly venomous. Once it assimilates into the bloodstream of an organism, nothing would happen around the water surface to prevent it from inadvertently alarming the enemy. However, once the water pressure multiplied greatly underwater, the toxin would cause internal rupture and squeeze blood out of the victim’s body. The stronger the water pressure, the swifter the speed of blood expulsion!

If the legendary creature wanted to preserve its life, it had to float back up the water surface. Otherwise, it would bleed out even without fighting against its foe.

Watching as the Chupacabra submerged into the abyss, the blind old man was finally summoned. His brandy reddened nose throbbed before he quickly pointed towards the west.

In the field of sensing legendary creatures, this old man could claim the highest authority. Even the likes of Nanuke and Shawen had to play second fiddle! Especially for legendary creatures that were injured, they practically propelled the accuracy of the blind old man’s ‘sonar orientation’ by ten folds.

(TN: The old blind man joined in ch 553 or v8ch77)

“150 metres west, nine knots at a depth of 130 metres.”

After the blind old man reported his statistics, he returned to his cabin and hugged a bottle of rum as he fell into a drunken slumber.

At present, the Dingyuan’s bow was faced to the east. One could tell how crafty this Chupacabra was; when it submerged back into the sea, it clearly slithered towards the east. Instead, after evading the watchful gazes of the pirates, it slyly swam back to the Dingyuan and under it before escaping towards the west. Thus, it planned to avoid Sheyan’s pirate crew by going beneath their own asses!

Actually, this tactic didn’t differ much from some human tactics.

Upon receiving the blind man’s instructions, Philip released a list of commands. Then, the Dingyuan carved an extremely stable crescent arc along the surface. Such a stable sensation was essentially comparable to a farmer towing deep into the soul with a hoe. When the ship’s bow was finally steered towards the correct direction, the onlooker above immediately yelled out.

“Argghhh, I see blood floatin’ ahead!”

“Coordinates of xxx, xxx.”

By now, Redbeard was waving a red flag which signalled silent orders. Four immensely destructive high-angled cannons spat out fiery flames, as four cannonballs resulted in three splashing pillars. Without a doubt, they final cannonball had successfully struck the target.

Even a legendary creature with thick skin would succumb to the direct bombardment of heavy cannons that could even sink ships. Blood dyed the surrounding seawaters as the Chupacabra suffered yet another severe blow. It couldn’t retreat into the depths of the deep sea, and could only consign to its fate of fleeing along the sea surface. Despite that, it would still eventually bleed out.

Furthermore, the inexhaustible Dingyuan was hot on its heel; an artificial monstrosity whose resistance could surmount 3,000 nautical miles!

Thus, the outcome was naturally needless to elaborate.

The Dingyuan unhurriedly pestered it and finally delivered a final ‘Whale rib Harpoon’ to obliterate its brains after the Chupacabra almost bled out. In the end, thirty plus pirates jumped overboard, exclaiming loudly as they slowly utilized ropes to haul this unfortunate gigantic beast out from the water.

Next, Sheyan produced that Baladine Bloodsail in its black iron rod form, and drilled it into the Chupacabra’s convulsing head. Only after a long while, did he retract it.

Although the sunlight was scorching, the surrounding pirates could all feel the chilling energies seeping out from that iron rod; causing them to stagger backwards reflexively.

Vividly seen now, at the bottom of the initially pure black iron rod, a fingernail sized queer bloodstain had emerged.

According to Shawen, once the bloodstains extended towards the center of the Iron rod, it would signify that the human vengeful spirits and the legendary creature spirits were in equilibrium. Thus, it would create a dynamic lift that could utterly exterminate the deadweight of the Dingyuan!

Presently, Sheyan had slain three legendary creatures and had already obtained definite results. When placing the Baladine Bloodsail atop the keel, Sheyan realized that the speed decline of 30% had waned to 28%.

Nevertheless, Shawen had informed Sheyan the consumption legendary creature spirits could increase at the latter stages. For example, though three Chupacabras could alleviate the speed decline from 30% to 28%, the same amount absolutely couldn’t cause the speed decline to change from 28% to 26%.

This was akin to compressing a spring. At the initial stages, compressing it would be a breeze. However, when nearing the limitations, one would have to expend tremendous strength to press even a centimetre further.

The corpse of the dead Chupacabra was first placed onto the ship’s deck. After the ‘Deep Sea Giant Tendons’ had assimilated into the Dingyuan, the ship could now automatically absorb the flesh and spirit energies of deceased sea creatures; utilizing them to replenish the regeneration capabilities of the ship. The black vasculars on the ship squirmed incessantly as the legendary creature was rapidly reduced into an eerie white skeleton.

Following that, Sheyan’s crew continued hunting for legendary creatures around this sea territory.

However, they quickly encountered a sticky predicament – though they now possessed the adequate prowess to hunt these creatures, they couldn’t find sufficient amounts of legendary creatures to slay.

Bear this in mind, the population of legendary creatures like the Chupacabra was not aplenty.

The other legendary creatures were like lions. Apart from mating season, they would look for a conducive location to dwell in solitary; not permitting other legendary creatures to exist near them.

Therefore, after hunting down a ginormous Elegant Hawksbill Turtle and another ferocious Straight-tooth Killer Whale, Nanuke and the blind old man could only express their apologies; they had already hunted down all the legendary creatures within this several thousand miles radius.

Frankly speaking, it was said the closest sighting of legendary creatures here was the mermaids along with an old monstrosity who lived for over a century. However, Sheyan’s current battle strength was definitely not sufficient to go against them.

Although the mermaids weren’t physically formidable, their lullabies were any sailor’s nightmare. Without a priest who could cast mental immunity techniques, it wouldn’t be wise to even hunt for ordinary mermaids. Don’t even mention those of the legendary tiers.

Nonetheless, the trio had reaped quite a handful of benefits from this hunt.

Firstly, the trio obtained the title ‘Fearless’ – [ Equipping that title would provide an additional 5% HP bonus ].

Secondly, those five legendary creatures had yielded two silver storyline grade equipments, a horcrux and three black grade equipments; which could somewhat count as a worthy value.

Of the two silver storyline grade equipments, one was a non-combat usage glove. Its property was peculiar which was to increase 5 points of forging capability pertaining to the HP properties. That equipment would be exceedingly useful for Reef and was given to him.

The other silver storyline grade equipment was given to Sheyan. Its attributes were as follows:

[ Deformed Thickshell (Gloves) ]

[ Origin: Any world with the Earth and ocean ]

[ Equipment rarity: Silver Storyline grade ]

[ Durability: 80/80 ]

[ Equipment position: Hands ]

[ Materials: Chitin, spirit energy from the ocean ]

[ Addons: Gem slot ]

[ Optimal environment: Ocean ]

[ Weakest environment: Any desolated dryland ]

[ Weight: 111 g ]

[ Equipment usage requirements: Strength / Agility / Physique 20 points ]

[ Durability enhanced property: Swimming speed in water increased by 15% ]

[ Ability: Tidal Shock (passive) – During close combat with an enemy, there is a chance of drawing in moisture in the air to unleash an attack. Damage (50 – 130 points) dealt varies between different environment. Consecutively, an air bubble will form around the enemy, suffocating and reducing the enemy’s movement speed by 80% until the air bubble breaks. Air bubble HP equals to the damage dealt by ‘Tidal Shock’ ]

[ Glove passive ability: Deft lvl 4 – In combat state, chances of a perfect block (resisting opponent’s damage without dropping HP) will increase overtime. Every second results in a 1% increase chance of a perfect block, can be stacked till 50% ]

[ Details: After executing a perfect block, the increased percentage of executing will disappear and the counter will be reset ]

[ Details: After executing a perfect block, the durability of the glove will drop substantially ]

[ Property: Movement speed declines by 4% ]

[ Property: When wielder is inside water, explosive strike rate is increased by 4%. When user is in other environments, explosive strike rate decreases by 2% ]

[ Description: These shell fragments have been hardening for over a century on the Hawksbill Turtle. When contesting for prey, the Hawksbill Turtle is fond of employing its shell to welcome the enemy’s attack. This explains the deformed state of the shell fragments. There is no cause for doubt with regards to its firmness, and would still exhibit incredibly powerful usefulness even after being extracted from its tremendous frame ]

As for the other three black grade equipments, they either belonged to mage categories or held no usefulness to the trio. Hence, they straightforwardly offered it as sacrifice to Odin, in hopes they could evolve the evaluation of their ‘Flesh Explosion’ ability to S rank. However, the utility and potential points expenditure had also left them stupefied.

In the end, only Sheyan managed to raise his ‘Flesh Explosion’ to level 2; raising the additional true damages range from 5-15 to 7-18. Unfortunately for Brother Black and Reef, theirs didn’t succeed. Yet their only consolation was the utility points and potential points would remain in effect, and they merely had to sacrifice an additional equipment for another try.

To satisfy Shawen’s request, Sheyan could only make a trip back to Tortuga. After all, that place was still considered as the pirates’ capital. Even though the defeat of Chevalle’s pirate fleet had caused Tortuga’s economy to slump a little, the shipyards here remained second to none.

Chapter 570: Directions from Dead Sea scroll

Upon arrival at Tortuga, Shawen directed the ship towards the most reputable shipyard, before starting to conduct a restructuring for The Dingyuan.

Sheyan wasn’t stingy with his wealth and continued to invest heartily; improving the ship’s speed once again. After the frame of the ship was altered slightly, the ultimate outcome was that the negative speed decline effect had fallen to 20%.

At this point, they encountered a hurdle. They could only continue decreasing the speed decline effect if the Baladine Bloodsail absorbed spirits of hunted tier-6 or higher legendary creatures. There would no longer be any quantitative alternatives.

At present, there was still a week plus to the deadline of their mission.

Frankly speaking, the fate of whether they could escape from the Black Pearl’s pursuit remained an unknown fact to Sheyan. Ultimately, the Black Pearl was still the symbol of the caribbean sea. Moreover, it was an accursed ship. He had to be cautious, he had no choice but to be cautious.

Following this, the trio attempted to search out side missions in hopes of prolonging their stay, but to no avail.

Under such helplessness, Sheyan could only retrieve the blood item he previously acquired from using the Ruby Card – the ‘Dead Sea Scroll’. Fiddling with it as he contemplated while hesitating, he wondered, “perhaps the mission it carries would offer us an additional sliver of time?”

(TN: He acquired this back in v7ch132)

Besides, it had a rarity of being the sole exclusive of its kind in any nightmare realm. An item that would only appear once at the same time! (ED:To clarify, there’s only one of this item in every nightmare realm)

After repeatedly pondering over and over again, Sheyan finally made his resolve.

Anyway, the current Dingyuan had matured to such an indomitable scope and was truly exceptionally close to becoming a legendary warship. Most importantly, it was considered as a portion of his battle capabilities. Regardless of hunting creatures or accomplishing the mission, his rewards wouldn’t be discounted due to his crew or ship. This was the wondrous treatment of the Pirates of the Caribbean world.

According to the description of the ‘Dead Sea Scroll’, the mission difficulty would rise in relation to the difficulty of the world they entered, while also factoring in changes of difficulty along the way. Right now, the present mission difficulty the trio was facing had been lifted to between ‘B+’ to ‘A’. Nevertheless, the world difficulty the trio entered with was relatively low.

Moreover, determining the mission difficulty was something that would change with the overall trend. If the trio could not even handle this mission in this world, even if their battle capabilities improves in the future, they would similarly be incapable of dealing with it.

Thinking in that perspective, Sheyan then produced the ‘Dead Sea Scroll’ resolutely in his hand.

Under the faint incandescent light of candlelights, this mystical scroll flickered with blood radiance. The texture of its papyrus material offered a satiny like sensation towards his fingertips, as though he was touching warm blood itself. A rusty old smell assailed his nostrils; a smell accumulated by the vestiges of time.

Sheyan hesitated once again before he finally activated it.

His nightmare imprint consecutively transmitted the notification.

[ Warning: This remnant page drafted with papyrus paper from the era of 4,000 BCE possesses an extremely furtive force. Once you activate this remnant page, you will encounter tremendous untold dangers! Do you wish to proceed? ]

Sheyan had already made his resolve. There was no longer a need for hesitation. The notifications then rolled out.

[ Warning: The rarity of the ultimate treasure will be randomized based on the circumstances of this world! Your profits may not be proportional to your invested effort! ]

Nonetheless, Sheyan prudently selected to activate.

Within a split second, this archaic remnant started to emit an atmospheric glow; traces of hazy speckles of water appeared on its surface, as though it was drawing in the energies of the ocean. Consecutively, the water droplets rapidly dried into dust, but the hidden blood radiance of the ‘Dead Sea Scroll’ flooded out in response; shooting straight towards the candle flames before Sheyan.

In that instance, the radiance suddenly diminished. The flames of the candle swiftly distorted as wax dripped onto the tabletop, as though the candle was crying.

Then, fiery tongues swiftly meandered around the table before its blaze formed into sentences.

[ An ultimate mystery, isolated from most, is concealed in this very world. This mystery can be described to be the starting point of other planar worlds! If you can uncover this, you will obtain an insanely terrifying power! As compared to other powers in the realm, this power is absolutely not inferior! ]

[ They key to unsealing this mystery lies in the master of the previous Turtuga port, within the body of the depraved Little Lord Fokke ]

[ Seek out this mystery from his body! You have a week to accomplish this deed. After this period, Little Lord Fokke will once again bury this mystery in a place only he knows ]

[ As the hidden object behind this mystery is too substantial, there will not be any penalty incurred ]

The ‘Dead Sea Scroll’ didn’t offer a single mission to Sheyan, but instead, it was merely a jumbled mess of information. Although it explicitly mentioned there would be no penalty, but because of that very reason, Sheyan could perceive it contained a grim and immense danger!

“Ah damned. Uncovering this mystery from Little Lord Fokke’s body, isn’t it akin to acquiring his dropped key? This level of difficulty…….”

Sheyan couldn’t refrain himself from smiling wryly. This was the first time he had utterly zero confidence in something. The only thing going for him now was that he was in possession of the ‘Diary of Morgan Fokke’. Prior to this, he had already devised certain plans on how to deal with that redoubtable Little Lord Fokke. Hence, he wasn’t totally caught unprepared.

“This time, I can only hope lady luck stands by us…”

After sitting in his captain’s cabin for half a night planning a list of arrangements, he then called for the core members of his ship. Drooping his head down slightly, his eyes was combusting with passionate fury.

“Make preparations for replenishments and prepare to set off. This time, we shall commit an extravagant deed! Are ye afraid?”

The pirates roared clamorously like a pack of crazy wolves. Some were urgently trying to exhibit themselves as they boomed loudly.

“Cap’n, me fears the task be too puny!”

Four days later. Sheyan and his crew were gliding through a greyish plain of sea.

Indeed, a greyish plain of sea.

They were enshrouded in hazy grey mist. The skies were grey, casting a grey shade onto the seas. Waves were smashed into splashes as they crashed into the unrivalled solidity of the ship. The froth of bubbles carried a trace of grey within. Even the eyeballs of the pirates were filled with a dense but light layer of grey mist.

In such an environment, an irascible depression subconsciously formed in their hearts.

Indeed, this was the Isla de Muerta of the Black Pearl pirates! Hailed as the phantom sea isle.

It is said that the phantom sea isle was an island that moved on its own, and was also known as the Island of the Dead. This also implied the island was the gathering of the deceased, where only dead sailors would come ashore here.

In spite of that, it held another accolation – A treasure island!

The reserves of hidden treasures and those stored by the accursed pirates of the Black Pearl were beyond imaginations. The quantities could equate to forging an island of gold and silver.

The proximity of the phantom sea isles was permeated with vile weather conditions, submerged reefs, maelstroms, and diabolical creatures. All malevolent abominations that voyaging sailors were absolutely unwilling to encounter!

It is said that to navigate to the phantom sea isles, the most reliable tool was Jack Sparrow’s compass that would never point north. That compass would never point north, but would point towards the direction of this treasure island.

Of course, for the present Captain Barbossa of the Black Pearl, the navigating pathway within this hazy world was already engraved through his plentiful experience here. With his undying body, every nook and corner of this place was clear to him; because if he couldn’t return to his own island, it would be as far fetched as a person who couldn’t find his own home.

Right now, yet another individual was daring enough to challenge this territory.

That was the captain of the Dingyuan, Sheyan.

Previously through dealing with the gypsy’s Jiejie with the Ocean eggs, he managed to acquire the coordinates of the Isla de Muerta through her laborious divination. The coordinates alone was more than sufficient for Sheyan!

Even though science and technology were seemingly non-existent in this primitive world. Magic and his personal knowledge from later generations could be integrated together. Therefore, Sheyan still possessed the means to navigate and challenge this deadly island!

“Submerged reefs right ahead!! Hurry lower the sails, bring a spring upon’er!”

A pirate who had just assumed his post shouted urgently. He invested so much in this flustered shout, that even the jam bread in his mouth dropped out. Probable feeling the weight of emotions induced by the greyish mist, that lookout was brandishing his arms as though his buttocks were on fire.

Still, several resting pirates remained composed as they swung their heads and calmly asked.

“Ho? Submerged reefs?”

That pirate immediately grabbed their collars and sleeves as his eyes bulged with ferocity. Then, he shook them and admonished urgently.

“I’m talkin’ bout rocks beneath! Submerged rocks!!! That be a cluster of wolf fang rocks! Are yer bunch of shark’s bait not havin’ ears?”

His so called cluster of wolf fang rocks, was actually narrow but incredibly acute black reefs. Tougher than a chain of coral reefs, they were labelled with the term ‘wolf fangs’. Such submerged reefs would submerged 1-2 metres beneath the sea surface, and were exceedingly hard to discover even in a sunny and cloudless weather. What more the current low visibility of the phantom sea isles?

Once a ship fails to discover these and subsequently fails to evade, even the collision of a 7-masted massive ship would be in danger! Those submerged reefs could easily rip open an unmendable gash at the bottom of the ship. It was no wonder that pirate was exuberating such abnormal panic.

Chapter 571: Surpassing the raging gales of stormy seas with a wandering idleness

Despite listening to the warning from that pirate, the other pirates yawned lazily.

Following that, a tired Philip with bloodshot eyes strolled out to assume his post and issued a command.

“Full speed ahead then.”

The eyes of that pirate bulged with horror, thinking that he had misheard Philip’s command.

However, the other pirates dove into action as they sounded the horns and raised the two sails! The enthusiastic paddlers jabbed their long and broad paddles deep into the seawater, before pushing it backwards. Splashes and white foam continued beating against the ship’s bow.

“Yer’ll are nuts!! Blimey tis’ world be rottin’ me mind!”

That pirate shrugged off the comrade he was grabbing as he pounced towards a besiding mast in fear; before tightly hugging against it. During the fifteen years of his pirate career, he had seen at least eight unfortunate buckos falling overboard due to violent collisions; only two of them had survived. He was absolutely unwilling to become the ninth.

All of sudden, the entire ship tremored slightly.

The situation could be described in this manner – if a mug was fully filled to the brim with rum and placed on the table, only some droplets would spill out from the tip.

Still tightly hugging the mast, that pirate became stunned momentarily. Then, he scanned his surroundings with an enlightened gaze. However, he immediately noticed the warped and laughing countenance of his comrades, the unbridled piercing laughters echoing in his ears.

“Arggh ahaha, yet another one.”

“Look at his miserable state.”

“Hornswaggers, he be our matey. Stop bloody laughin’ at others, you weren’t any better last night when we collided yer idiot.”

""

“….”

Listening to the commotion of others around, that pirate gradually loosened his grip. His face was still filled with amazement and delay.

“This….the collision ended just like that?”

A confidant of his strolled over and yawned widely. This confidant appeared rather fatigue and was probably a member who took the night shift last night.

“Aye.”

“But, might that wolf fang reef just vanished?” That pirate inquired curiously.

“Of course it broke!” The other pirate nonchalantly replied. “From two the last night, we be sailin’ through this sea of reefs. The collision yer just experienced been goin’ on for dozens of times since last night. Yer didn’t sense the bumps aye, yer lazy swine? This signifies those reefs aren’t a match for the hull of our old matey.”

“The hardness of those reefs be inferior to the hull of our old matey!” Another pirate raised his brows as he reiterated the words.

“Aye, me loves that phrase. Let me tell ye, me bucko. Our ship wouldn’t sink even if it sails to the underworld! It be said a tamed devil lives within our ship. I believe it won’t be long before the three legendary pirate ships becomes the four legendary pirate ships!”

By now, Philips was already engaging in his taskings with Blacksail. Concurrently, Sheyan was eavesdropping by the side.

“Our current navigation is actually a straight route towards the coordinates of the treasure island. Since last night, we’ve already entered the treacherous rocky region of the phantom sea isles. Fortunately, these submerged reefs that are like predators and heavenly moats to other ships, are utterly useless against us.”

“You cannot say it that way, actually.” Spike suddenly trudged out with a serious tone. “I’ve just made checks at the ship’s bow. Our ship does sustain damages from those reefs, except, the Dingyuan possessed its own formidable mending capabilities. Hence, any real damage hasn’t manifested yet.”

“But this state will not persist for long. Because to sustain its mending regeneration speed, the Dingyuan has already exhausted half of the flesh essence absorbed from the legendary creatures. Once those fleshy essence are fully drained, the bottom of our ship will similarly sustain grave damages when crashing against 2-3 clusters of Wolf Fang Reefs. More crucially, there hasn’t been a sighting of any sea creature in this ghastly place, I reckon it would be hard to replenish the mending speed of the Dingyuan.”

After Sheyan heard Spike’s analysis, he glanced towards Taitish who was by his side. Taitish then nodded in taciturn approval of Spike’s explanation.

Sheyan then muttered.

“Let me revise the statement regarding the devoid of creatures here in the phantom sea isles. It isn’t that there are no creatures, but the majority of them have been hunted down. No doubt, if we wish to advance deeper into the phantom sea isles, there is no need for us to play the predator. Those insatiable and famished damnable beasts would naturally hunt us down.”

“From now onwards, Davies, you shall be in charge of supervising our blind old man, he is not permitted to have more drinks. Garlic and other spices would also impair his sense of smell. If he is hungry, give him butter, water and bread. Make sure he is more mindful of movements in our surroundings! Right now, the maximum limit of what we can deal with, is a tier-6 legendary creature. Tier-7 and above may deal us devastatingly fatal losses. Therefore, it is essential for us to have the first move, so that I can chase them off without unnecessary casualties.”

The pirates on scene were all aware of the relationship between Sheyan and the Kraken Paul. Hence, they held no doubts towards his ability to chase away legendary creatures.

Davies was presently the most zealous and loyal follower of Sheyan. With him supervising the old blind man, Sheyan could guarantee there wouldn’t be a slip-up. Nevertheless, the old man would have to bear with this torment for a day or two.

Yet at this moment, a rumble abruptly boomed from the skies. The impression it emanated felt like a gigantuous heavyweight mining roller slowly rolling along the sky, unceasing for all eternity. The sky quickly turned dark as though sun masked by the overcast clouds and mist, had suddenly extinguished.

Next came the violent gales and the imminent outpouring of a torrential rain. “Pitter platter deng da deng!”

Instantaneously, blunt sounds of frying beans could be heard on the deck.

Hailstones were shockingly raining down at this moment!

In a flash, everyone’s expression sank drastically. Instead, Sheyan immediately issued his orders.

“All hands retract from the deck!”

“Loose the dual anchors!”

“Immediately retrieve the Baladine Bloodsail, let the dead weight of the ship return!”

“Taitish, prepare to activate the strength of the ‘Deep Sea Giant Tendons’!”

Sheyan’s order descended profoundly like an electric switch, as it speedily obtained the most effective implementations.

Black light shone from Taitish’s hands as she chanted while holding onto her new crystal ball. Then, a black shine could be seen as those enormous vasculars that winded around the ship’s surface–the tendons of the Sea Giant–started rapidly squirming. The sails across the Dingyuan were swiftly folded up while the vasculars experienced contractions.

In a twinkling of an eye, the entire ship had seemingly transformed into a gigantic, sleek and sealed coffin; five lonely masts stood erected atop the ship, like five disdainful middle fingers mocking the electrifying skies.

The sea billowed furiously, but the Dingyuan remained like a nail that was steadily hammered onto the sea surface.

Within the ship’s hold, laughters of the pirates could be heard mixing with the whistling wind. Some had started drinking in their merriment and gambling. They currently possessed a deep seated belief that an outrageously powerful diabolical devil was residing in their ship, a devil that had been convinced by their captain to obediently protect them.

Several bold pirates even tied hawsers to their bare bodies as they balanced at the ship’s bow, waving their fists and blustering loudly towards the sea; ridiculing the damnable storm. They resembled primitive barbaric races like the vikings. Once they could curb the phobia in their heart, they would naturally gain confidence to prevail and their battle powers would be enhanced greatly.

This tempestuous storm raged on for more than an hour. However, it failed to deter the impregnable Dingyuan and helplessly receded.

Once again, the phantom sea isles returned to its greyish hazy state. Sheyan then commanded an inspection of the ship before they continued advancing into the depths of the phantom sea isles.

During the following twenty-four hour period, the Dingyuan constantly met with various problems. One of which was those giant sargassum they previously encountered. If Sheyan’s flagship was still the Hill Maiden, then that would’ve been a thorny problem because the area of giant sargassum was much greater this time.

Sadly, the occult magic of the Dingyuan automatically went into full motion, effortlessly decomposing the vegetation and extracting its life essence. Although the decomposing rate to extract the sargassum essence wasn’t as rapid as fleshy essence, it was still sufficient for the ship to decompose a pathway to continue navigating.

After channeling through the sea of sargassum, they suffered a campaign by a legendary sea creature – the assault of an incredibly savage Flag Swordfish.

Even the speed of an average swordfish could reach close to a hundred kilometres per hour, could one imagine the horrifying momentous of a Flag Swordfish? A legendary creature whose upper jaw was as long and sharp as a stunning cutlass. Ordinary ships couldn’t even avoid the treacherous submerged reefs, yet those reefs provided additional cover for the swordfishes.

When dealing with the swordfishes, Sheyan’s pirate crew finally felt the strain. Fortunately, the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ once again unleashed its might as it fatally injured two swordfishes.

Following that, Sheyan produced his ultimate weapon and tossed ‘Ambition’ into the sea after bundling it with a rope.

Within an instant, the aura of the hegemon of all legendary sea creatures, Kraken Paul, permeated towards all directions. Even a tier-7 Flag Swordfish stagnated where it was and eventually retreated resentfully.

The prestige of an overlord of the ocean was definitely not one they could trifle with.

Chapter 572: Hidden treasure trove

After chasing away the school of swordfishes, the Dingyuan valiantly sailed forward while utterly ignoring all submerged reefs; if gods were blocking the way then it would run down gods, if buddha blocks the way then it would run down buddha.

On this very night, after voyaging for five days; a pitch-black island silhouette finally emerged within the spyglass horizon of the lookout.

In a flash, this report was transmitted throughout the entire ship.

Cheers erupted from the pirates alongside avaricious expressions.

A treasure island was right ahead!

The treasures of the legendary Black Pearl pirates! Abundance of gold like the sand, silver like the dust. Riches that appeared like unvaluable pebbles. Yet most importantly, their captain was an exceptionally generous man!

After selecting twenty agile pirates adept at close range combat, Sheyan climbed ashore with his buddies. Obviously, the few cores like Taitish, Blacksail and Bigbeard Davies also went along, while Philip and Ol’Seadog remained to safeguard the ship.

The other pirates weren’t afraid of the venturing party embezzling all the booty, because the ship was the only way out of this island.

The movie painted a scene of easy access to the Black Pearl’s treasure trove. However, that was because Jack Sparrow and Barbossa were exceedingly familiar with the route. Instead, Jiejie divining out the coordinates of the island itself was already an arduous accomplishment. It was impossible for occult magic to act with satellite radar precision after all.

Prior to this, Sheyan was reflecting back on the time he interacted with Jack Sparrow. It wasn’t that Sheyan didn’t plan to draw his blood. Instead, it was because Captain Jack Sparrow was constantly on the alert, probably because he had been betrayed previously.

Moreover, many curses in this world of witchcraft were related to blood. He didn’t wish to enrage Jack and to deceive him for his blood, he reckoned only an enchanting maiden like Elizabeth Swann could accomplish it.

When the pirates first sighted the Isla De Muerta, they weren’t in a rush for the Dingyuan to approach the shore. Instead, they steered the Dingyuan round the island while surveying it carefully first.

Through that, they realized that this island was approximately 6-7 square kilometers large. In another perspective, the island couldn’t compare to large scale residential areas in the present world. Despite so, its terrain appeared relatively complex.

Naturally, they also investigated for traces of the Black Pearl. According to the movie storyline, if the Black Pearl had successfully abducted Lady Elizabeth Swann, they would’ve been through here already; before realizing that though the Aztec gold on her was real, she wasn’t the true inheritor of it. Therefore, her blood failed to revoke the curse, and thus prompted them to begin a new manhunt.

To Sheyan’s knowledge, this present period should be when the Black Pearl was pursuing Elizabeth Swann and the true Aztec gold inheritor, Will Turner.

In his contemplation, if the Black Pearl realized their lair had been raided during the course of pursuit, they would inevitably fall into an impasse. Nevertheless, thinking in Barbossa’s perspective, Sheyan believed he would definitely swiftly deal with the closer issue first.

Still, the pursuit of speed may not bring one to one’s destination. Although Jack Sparrow should be presently imprisoned in the Black Pearl, the other ship still had Will Turner, Joshamee and the witty Elizabeth Swann. Thus, they should suffice to win extra time for the trio! This was the current plan in Sheyan’s heart.

This island wasn’t an island formed over time like a coral reef island or a volcanic island. Instead, it was a mountain island.

To explain it, if the seawater surrounding dries up, one would discover that this island was actually the summit of an underwater mountain range standing along the seabed. It was extremely stable. If one were to explore this treasure island, it shouldn’t need an excessive amount of time to do so theoretically.

After the flock of humans ascended onto the treasure island, they realized the abundance of flora species present. After jumping off the springboard, they immediately felt a soft texture beneath their feet. Upon glancing down, they realized algae that appeared like those hair of the deceased, were intertwined along the shore.

Faint green shrubs could be seen growing within the greyish mist, at the region freed from the seawater. Shrubs covered their vision to the left and the right. As it turns out, these nameless shrubs had leaves that were withered by the greysih environment, but refused to shed even after withering.

Under such circumstances, the pirates traversed in winding fashion as they made their way around the disorderly arrangement of trees, venturing through greenish foamy puddles and muddy mires. Travelling on such a terrain, it was inevitable the movement speed of the pirates were affected.

“It seems like this place experiences frequent rain.” Taitish suddenly blurted out. “The stench of rot is dense here.”

The terrain before them was analogous to a marsh.

Everyone’s feet were lodged within luxuriant reeds, dead succulent greens and slimy water plants. Every step would trigger spurts of decomposition odour, where the rich muddy stench assailed their noses.

After advancing for close to a hundred metres, mushy decaying black sludge crept up to their calves, as though icy cold hands were pinching their feet. Gradually, their pinches became tighter and firmer. As compared to flat ground, one had to expand ten folds of energy here.

Blacksail suddenly uttered.

“We can’t proceed further. Mayhaps the swamp ahead be impassible.”

Blacksail had travelled extensively to many places, his words did much to convince others.

After pondering a little, Sheyan decided to split the team into three people groups before scouring around the region.

However, that was to no avail where the deadly swamp could even devour the lives of some pirates. If not for the emphasis of bringing ropes beforehand, there would surely be some crippled pirates by now.

Facing such an awkward scenario, a feeling of ‘entering the treasure mountain but leaving bare handed’ welled up within the crew. While the pirates were feeling at a loss, Taitish suddenly suggested.

“Wait a moment, why do I constantly feel uneasy at a certain area. The disruption of my occult magic here seems rather excessive.”

Back at the shore, Taitish stood for a brief while before calling for men to pull the shore algae towards her. After carefully inspecting them, she ordered for shrubs to be chopped before setting them on fire.

Speaking of this, it was rather mysterious. The shrubs appeared rather dry but igniting them was still relatively challenging. Fortunately, the pirates were individuals of arson and murder, preparing necessary lethal tools like gunpowder and oil. Those vegetation finally combusted after supplementing oil and gunpowder onto them. At this instance, they finally realized a abnormality.

Within the phantom isles sea, visibility was greatly impaired due to the constant fumigation of mist and fog. The trio was aware that the greatest rival of mist was wind. As such, the wind here was rather stale.

Instead, as the shrubs combusted with spiralling thick black fumes, those black fumes appeared as if a strong wind was blowing against it. The fumes surged parallel to the ground, quickly and violently, it drifted towards a particular direction

“Indeed!” Taitish declared joyously. She immediately led the pirates in chase of the wafting black fumes. Every time the black fumes dissipated away, the same process of chopping shrubs and igniting them would occur.

As the followed the trail of the black fumes, they finally arrived at a location. Over here, the black fumes no longer diverged but surged straight up towards the sky!

Taitish stood still with a solemn expression. With the assistance of Blacksail, she stood holding onto the crystal bought in Tortuga. Then, she shut her eyes and started chanting an incantation. Her chanting speed was extremely fast and her pronunciation clear. Only, no one could fathom what she was chanting. Except, they could sense a humming in her voice as though it was resonating with their innards!

All of a sudden, a glow flickered within the crystal ball. Like a convex lens, it was concentrated into a deep red beam as it shone straight upwards the combusting shrubs. Within a split second, the flames turned richly dark before frying with a million glitters within an instance. It was as if the entire the ashes within the flames had experienced a soundless explosion!

As the glitters swiftly condensed in midair, it interweaved incessantly before forming into a densely packed net. Every grid of the net was flickering with ember like glows, where the glitters would gradually condensed upwards.

Taitish reached out her hand and seized the condensing glitters as though she was grabbing a doorknob. Then, she exerted great force to pull. Although Blacksail wanted to assist her, Taitish refused his aid.

At this moment, the whistling of wind could be heard blowing in from an unknown far distance.

The initial strands of the blowing wind felt almost non-existent. However, as the winds started blowing in unison, they started to revolve in a circle. Furthermore, their momentum was slowly building up.

Not only that, the pirates felt the ground tremoring continuously, as if an unceasing team of furious horses were galloping unhindered across the solid earth. This wasn’t the feeling of an earthquake. This queer surreptitious experience was rapidly corroding away the mental fortitude of the pirates on scene.

As the winds raged stronger, its whistling also turned stranger. As though 5-6 magnificent black tornadoes had formed around the surroundings, greedily and ferociously sucking in air. Such uncontrollable vehement sucking, released an impression of threatening to extract one’s soul as well!

Taitish suddenly executed a fierce pulling action before she released her grip, and staggered several steps to the ground.

Panting with huge gasps, she quickly drew some of her personally concocted drink to regain some energy. Nevertheless, her countenance appeared rather unpleasant, as though she had gorged herself with food even after vomiting several times.

Chapter 573: Strange lights

Evidently. Taitish’s hard work wasn’t in vain. An intense ripple suddenly appeared in the space above.

At this moment, none of the pirates dared to proceed.

Soon after, a spatial illusion shattered.

The area that was originally rocks transformed into a sandy shore, while the seawater and beach suddenly transformed into multitudes of reefs standing in great numbers. That incomparably intensive ripple ushered a great sense of crisis to the pirates.

Within a short span of time, a cavern entrance of deep abstrusity emerged before everyone’s eyes.

The cave was a plain of pitch-darkness where its contents couldn’t be fathomed. It caused them to involuntarily recall the deep throat and digestive tract of a massive wild beast, as though proceeding would mean their fates being devoured. Their flesh and bones would then be digested, and not a single trace of them would remain in this world.

Taitish spoke with a beaten tone.

“I employed extreme methods to uncover this entrance, shielded by witchcraft. It would probably remain only for a short period of time. If we wish to enter, we must be quick.”

Sheyan fixated on her eyes as he earnestly asked.

“How long will this temporal spatial door last? I hope you can give an accurate estimation, because If we lose our escape route, this will truly become a huge fiasco. I believe you don’t wish to be trapped here as well.”

Taitish pondered a little before confirming.

“It will absolutely not last less than two hours. Anything more than that, I can’t say for sure.”

Sheyan nodded before whispering several words to Reef. From there, Reef led two other pirates as they strutted towards the black cavern entrance.

Firstly, Reef had all along possessed his ace of awakening anything. Secondly, never forget, the trio had managed to acquire that miraculous item, the ‘Unmodeled Amnio-tank’ back in the Avatar World. Thus, his life couldn’t really be considered to be threatened. That was why Sheyan was willing to allow Reef to proceed at the front courageously.

The cave was deep and ghastly, as sounds of dripping water reverberated through their ears.

When they entered the cave, natural vestiges of erosion could be distinctly seen. Yet several hundreds of metres deeper, when other cavern channels converged, relatively clear marks of hatchet chiselling could be noticed. This was probably the deed of those accursed, tireless and undying Black Pearl pirates.

This discovery similarly boosted the morale of the pirates around Sheyan. At least, they knew they were on the correct path. The greedy nature of the pirates fuelled them with motivation to face any impending danger.

Throughout their journey deeper in the cave, they took stern precautions, but unexpectedly met with no mishaps. Could it be the installed mechanisms of those Black Pearl brats had failed?

After rounding a corner, the pirates could distinctively behold a cavern hall that could hold roughly a hundred individuals.

Numerous stalactite pillars were erected through this cavern hall as they blocked off the vision of the pirates. The place was brimming with a primitive nature style. Two enormous stone water jars were placed by both sides of this cavern hall.

The jars were engraved with an image of a freak with a large head but tiny body, who was lifting his head while wailing in anguish. The huge widened mouth of that freak was the tip of the water jar. Floating in the jars, lamp wicks the size of a kid’s arm were ignited. The bright embers illuminated the cavern hall with a delicate grandeur. A sudden lighted area in contrast to the narrow and sinister shade, immediately diluted the pressure on everyone’s heart; offering a relaxing sensation to them.

The water jars were filled with a viscous oily liquid that appeared as limpid as water. An unexplainable aura permeated through the atmosphere. A simple whiff suggested a slight fragrance, yet contained a stale insipid fishy smell after careful reflecting.

Blacksail crept forward as he sniffed cautiously before revealing a doubtful expression. After thinking a little, he reached out his finger for a dip before sampling.

“This seems like the boiled fats of a mermaid. A jar of fat might roughly allow the candles to burn for twenty years or longer.”

He could nonetheless be considered as an alchemy apprentice once. Thus, his deduction was acknowledged. After passing through this cavern hall, their eyes became even brighter because they could see another large cavern hall right ahead; where four enormous fat jars had been arranged.

Most crucially, a rich layer of radiance mixed with the ember glows was casted into everyone’s eyes. As for that radiance, it was the glorious shine of an innumerable amount of treasures!

As the saying goes, the brilliance of gems emanates life. Precious gems would shine with greater gentleness and brilliance.

Through the myriads of years where the crazed pirates of the Black Pearl searched for the Aztec gold, they naturally wouldn’t spare the riches they encountered along the way. The reserves of gold, silver and gems were truly beyond imaginable.

A shocking wealth was casually piled up here, where a single piece would suffice to provide one with the basic necessities of life for the future. Yet, the trio had this strange sensation – the casually tossed treasures here felt like debris, as though it was a messy garbage field……

Of course, only contestants like the trio would look upon these riches with such nonchalant attitude. The pirates beside them were absolutely in contrast. Pirates were ultimately pirates. Gulping a mouthful of gluttonous saliva, a pirate flung aside his cumbersome makeshift shield as he squawked with matchless delight; racing straight for the treasure trove.

Instead, Sheyan’s eyeballs faintly contracted while Blacksail called out.

“Careful!”

However, an abrupt flash of beams projected straight after Blacksail’s words faded. The pirates who followed Sheyan here definitely possessed outstanding skills. He reflexively rolled to the side, while raising his weapon to block. Instead, it was as though a sense of emptiness enveloped in. At the instance of shedded blood, the weapon held by that greedy pirate was split into two!

Such was the swiftness of this one attack. Even the one with the best eyesight failed to differentiate it. The only they could perceive, was that a seemingly gigantic suspended hatchet had swerved out from the cavern wall. Within a blink of an eye, it beheaded that invader into two!

After the initial numbing phase of being hacked into two, that pirate abruptly issued a fanatical and shrilling shriek from the agonizing torment. Big beard Davies then fished out a pistol and blasted the brains of that unlucky brat; ultimately ending his torment.

Although he was dead, his corpse remained. Under the flickering illumination of embers, the plain sight of a corpse flushing out with mangled pulps and blood was witnessed by all. In this moment, the pirates sank into an unfortunate predicament of having no room to retreat or advance.

While they were anxiously thinking of a way, a sudden queer sound echoed into their ears.

Shockingly, it sounded like a human humming a minor key, like a man’s voice trying to mimic a girl’s singing tone; just like the archipela of Beijing soap opera.

As the pirates carefully listened, they realized the humming belonged to a familiar hymn – Dead men tell no tales!

As the hymn eerily harmonized with the current ambience, it undoubtedly tightened the nerves of everyone present. Sheyan then chided with austerity.

“Blacksail, I didn’t say a thing to you sneaking behind that stalactite, because I wanted to see what you were up to. You’ve finally revealed your disguise eh?”

The others immediately glanced towards where Sheyan was looking at. Indeed, Blacksail was now hiding behind a stalactite, while they could observe him crooking his back as though doing something. Moreover, that deliberately sharp humming was drifting out from his location

Big Beard Davies then cautiously pressed his greatsword as he inched towards him, before prudently inquiring.

“Blacksail, Blacksail?”

But after Davies approached nearer, Blacksail suddenly spun round. The pupils of his eyes had strangely vanished, replaced by utter whiteness. Two long dregs of turbid saliva leaked from his mouth.

Within an instance, he appeared like he recalled something, where his complexion drastically changed as though he saw a ghost. Then, he cried out in fright towards his surroundings.

“They’re here, they’re here!! The apparitions slain by the Black Pearl are here to guard this place!”

While he cried, he speared towards Davies and seized his ‘Iceshard Cruelty’ greatsword. Then, he pressed it against his throat spontaneously and urged crazily.

“Don’t wait any longer, kill me now. Kill me now!”

Within his flustered pleading state, his eyes brimmed profound despair. What sort of crushing dreadfulness could cause a man filled with conviction to suddenly plead for death?

At this moment, Sheyan hastily swung a kick towards Blacksail before stomping down on him to restrict his movements. Then, he unhurriedly declared with a hammering tone.

“There’s something wrong with his mind, he must’ve consumed a substance that has distorted his mind; leaving him in a hallucinatory state. Seeing that none of us are affected temporarily, it should be the mermaid fats he tasted previously. Davies, knock him out cold and let that dumbwit taste your piss!”

“Also, the fragrance of the mermaid fats may hamper our senses as well. Merely, the effects of it taking place are faint. Everyone, rip off and wet your clothes with the ground water, use it to mask away the poisonous air from your nose.”

“Let him taste my pee?” Davies hesitated doubtfully. “Cap’n, yer sure? I swear on me life, If I do that, Blacksail be seekin’ me life when he wakes.”

Chapter 574: Laying hands

Hearing their conversation, the pirates around couldn’t refrain from giggling. They were completely surprised by such a treatment method. Instead, Sheyan maintained his expression and gently assured.

“I can assure you, just do it, my subordinate. On the contrary, Blacksail will treat you to a drink after awaking. I believe that after this lesson, he wouldn’t stick his tongue into things as he pleases.”

Actually in chaotic situations, the most important was having a mainstay. After Sheyan explained his observations clearly, the pirates felt as though a huge burden had been lifted off their chest. To things they knew, they could boldly rush forth; even against tier-7 or 8 legendary creatures. However, they couldn’t refrain a restraining fear from forming towards the things unknown.

In reality, this peeing therapy was a folk remedy that Sheyan had heard of back in the real world. When he suggested it, he actually didn’t hold confidence that Blacksail would recover.

Nevertheless, such a mischievous tactic would cause the pirates to laugh inwardly, and ingeniously lighten this torturous atmosphere.

Davies had all along been deifying Sheyan’s words. Hence, he fished out his uncultured item and fired off towards Blacksail’s mouth with alacrity!

“Psshhsshshsshh” The steaming foul smelling urine poured out, soaking the unlucky Blacksail’s face.

In his deranged state where anything goes, Blacksail even drank down a mouthful. But very quickly, Blacksail’s stomach started rumbling. Instantly, he retched and a repulsively turbid viscous liquid was regurgitated out. Following that, Blacksail finally woke up after an intensive bout of retching; utterly oblivious of everything that had happened.

The pirates observed the contents of his vomit. Unexpectedly, the sludgy sediments formed into a sticky fish scale chip, which appeared exceedingly bewildering. Yet to their amazement, some of the food residues then congealed into tadpole like shapes. Evidently, if Sheyan didn’t suggest such a vile method, Blacksail would probably be impregnated.

Meanwhile, seizing this delay, Taitish had begun seeking for the trigger of that gigantic hatchet. After displaying a series of occult magic, she discovered a hidden mechanism. After destroying the underlying links, she successfully crippled the entire booby trap.

Suddenly, sonorous rumbling resounded from the wall behind, accompanied by the piercing friction of metal clanking; resembling enormous and rusty gears clashing in high speed motion.

Following that, a black glow flashed out from the stone wall to the left, before a massive 6 metre wide pendulum axe fell out and smashed to the ground with a loud bang. Dust and sediments puffed out as it jammed by the wall.

Instantly following, a stretch of cavern wall started crumbling. Everything appeared like a chained domino effect, where the supporting pillar had been knocked down. Fortunately, the crumbling didn’t affect the whole cave but was limited to a particular region. Hence, the pirates didn’t fly into an irrevocable panic.

After a long long while, the crumbling ruckus finally ceased.

Although some of booty digging pirates were buried by the overspill of crumbling rocks, they were definitely not weak individuals who couldn’t stand up against the wind, and drilled their way out from the rubble successively. Apart from the shock and lacerations, there wasn’t a single casualty.

Due to both Sheyan and Reef protecting their subordinates, they were also buried rather deeply.

In spite of that, their strength were amplified that of the pirates. With some assistance from the pirate subordinates, their heads were finally heaved out quickly and efficiently. At the very least, they had escaped the crisis of being suffocated beneath.

All of a sudden, an unfathomable sensation swept through Sheyan’s body. Because he was semi-buried underground, he was extraordinarily sensitive to tremors on the ground. It was as though after this collapse, a steady trembling had been invoked somewhere quite a distance away.

Initially, it felt as if a creation myth, the giants, were strolling here. Yet right now, it was as though every granule of sediment was trembling evenly, like being sieved into fine sand. Such a sensation felt as though it was filtering through all unstable objects!

Sheyan finally caught whiff of a familiar fishy seawater odour, where a spark of insight jolted through his mind. Immediately, he perceived the precautionary means the Black Pearl pirates had established!

This treasure cave should shockingly be located beneath sea level. Once they wrecked any hidden mechanism, it would activate a magic trap established beforehand. The rampart covering the cavern hole would then be removed, thus allowing seawater to flood in and utterly submerged the place!

“Hurry and flee!” After Sheyan had hastily explained his conjecture, the rumbling of rushing seawater was already crescendoing explosively. Even the winds were rushing excitedly against their faces; the sign of air being rapidly flushed out from this place.

Nevertheless, most of the individuals here were pirates who grew up by the sea! They were exceedingly confident in their swimming ability, each exclaiming they wanted to plunder some treasures before swimming out.

At this moment, Sheyan’s face became sullen as he coldly declared.

“Do you think Barbossa’s intelligence is minute? Does he expect mere seawater to prevent robbers from lusting after his wealth on this island of the dead? The flooding of water is merely the first deadly snare! Schemes after schemes like fine threads, don’t you understand why those pirates only arranged snares at places where treasures can be seen? It is to cloud your judgements with those mountain heaps of treasures! Alluring you into a reluctance to depart. I don’t have the time for this trash talk, all of you can stay if you wish to die. For those that don’t, leave at once and fend for yourselves!”

After his berate, the majority of the pirates hastily retreated with Mogensha and Reef.

Nevertheless, a few brats hoodwinked by greed still stayed behind. Sheyan glanced at those three pirates with a forced smile. They were former members of Chevalle’s pirate fleet.

“Since you’ve decided your own fate, there is nothing else I can say. Follow me and be careful.”

Three minutes later, another terrifying and weird sound echoed through the cavern channel. A sound hinting of a starving great beast hissing with for a devouring. Actually, that was the whistling of the wind after being pressured out by the pressing rush of water. Gradually, weird sounds continued to multiply within their ears.

As the crashing sounds approached, an overflowing dash of torrent could be seen behind as it battered in with turbulent destructiveness.

Sheyan tightly hugged around a stalactite beside him. If he was incapable of stabilizing himself, his only outcome would definitely to be flushed by the water and collide repetively against the solid cavern walls. He would be like the ball of an intensive table tennis match, being struck incessantly before dying without having his corpse spared.

Meanwhile, the three ‘blinded by greed’ pirates were similarly impressive. Although it could be said that every second of diving into the water would result in exceptional riches, they only started swimming towards the treasure trove after waiting for the maelstrom in the water to turn mild.

By now, the entire cavern hall had been irrigated by seawater. The floating embers inside the jars of mermaid fat had all been extinguished. Fortunately, the distant treasures still emanated their bright splendor, sparing them from searching in the darkness.

At present, the realm allowed for Sheyan to breathe for close to half an hour underwater. Thus, he leisurely and prudently swam towards the treasure trove.

Yet unbeknownst why, he would frequently dive with weird trajectory; circling around in large loops as though he was avoiding something. No one could fathom his true objective.

Blinded by greed, the three pirates behind had long tossed out Sheyan’s warning, after beholding the treasures ahead and perceiving there were no dangers around, why would they even remember to follow behind his back? Instead, they straight up dove towards the treasures, picking up articles before fleeing.

Towards the conduct of those three pirates, Sheyan neither obstructed nor praised them; allowing them to reap with wild joy before fleeing frantically. He observed the treasure trove as he gaze gradually inclined upwards. Finally, his gaze stopped on an elevated rock.

Gold and silver were mindlessly heaped along this elevated ground. A golden cross was exuberating an alluring brilliance underwater. Like the smooth skin of a beauty, an exquisite antique china laid askewed by the side.

At the center of these invaluable treasures, was a chest crafted with stone. The periphery of the chest was carved with the pattern of a smiling sun and a weeping moon, decorated by a peculiar nefarious serpent with long wings surrounding them. Although the engraving of this nefarious serpent was probably done in a few strokes, it was vivid and lifelike. Its wings seemingly indicated it could soar into the horizon.

“This is it.”

Wherever Sheyan passed through, he naturally didn’t forget to attempt picking up pirate treasures. Instead, he would receive a notification, informing him that though these treasures could be acquired, they hold a malicious curse that could only be purged by the blood of Black Pearl pirates. Moreover, they couldn’t be stored into his personal storage but had to be manually carried.

Sheyan obviously wouldn’t waste his precious time and energy for treasures that could only be exchanged for guineas.

He directly dove towards that ancient stone chest. Exerting great might, he pushed open the lid. Instantaneously, a dazzling golden of deep malevolence emitted out from within!

Momentarily, that golden brilliance refracted through the engulfing seawater and against the cavern walls!

881 pieces of Aztec accursed gold coins laid peacefully in the chest. They were merely missing their final compatriot for the entire family of accursed coins to have a reunion of merriment.

The cursed treasure of Cortéz!!!

Reaching this stage, Sheyan ought to be beaming with delight.

Instead, his eyes remained greatly conflicted as he observed this treasure. It was as if he was hesitating about something. Or perhaps he was awaiting something. Or perhaps he was afraid of something.

Chapter 575: Clean out

(v9ch99)

After hesitating briefly, Sheyan finally slowly stretched his hand into the mysterious cursed chest of Cortéz….

A minute later, prepared to react anytime while waiting nervously outside, Brother Black and Reef simultaneously received a notification.

[ Hidden main mission: ‘Curse’ officially activated ]

[ Mission description: You have acquired the mysteriously cursed Aztec Gold. Barbossa and his savage crew have already caught wind of this. At anytime, they can lock onto your position ]

[ Details: From now onwards, you must possess the Aztec Gold for three days. Each additional day after three days will enhance your mission evaluation, for a limit of one week ]

[ Details: Each one of your member must carry at least one Aztec Gold. That Aztec Gold cannot leave your body perimeter of 30 centimetres. Otherwise, mission will be deemed as failure ]

[ Mission completion deadline: Currently left with 81 hours 9 minutes and 7 seconds. Upon mission deadline, you can extend mission deadline by 10,000 utility points per day. Maximum prolonging deadline of 7 days, after 7 days, the mission will be announced as failed ]

[ Mission failure penalty: You will be pursued by the Black Pearl pirates for one week, and your benefits gained in this world will be deducted ]

[ Warning: There is a possibility for this mission to conflict with the missions of other contestants ]

Amidst the tranquility of the cave, only the swishing of seawater and a fishy smell remained.

Sheyan was currently pulling through the seawater.

The image of him advancing with a neutral pace, appeared with an unprecedented carefreeness. It was as if he was a hundred year old fish that would live on for another century.

He stuck his tongue out abruptly as his tastebuds rapidly feedbacked a clear message. Excluding the usual fishiness of the sea, there was an added unriped taste analogous to rust.

That was the taste of blood.

A distance away, the seawater appeared muddy; rolling with seabed sediments that was endlessly churning.

Accompanied by the swishing of the vast ocean, not too far ahead, Sheyan could feel a vast and mighty force accumulating within the currents.

That force was invisible and hidden amidst the water, ushering a sensation of being impossible to defy it.

In the face of such a force, Sheyan felt as though he was an archaic lone boat, floating and drifting through the boundless sea. A danger of being capsized by anything and anytime!

Many black shadows lurked at the end of the flooding channel, staring towards his direction with ill intent.

In the midst of those black shadows, three mutilated human remains lingered around; brains and limbs torn asunder, while wounds paled by the cleansing seawater.

A depiction of ghastly bitterness. Their clothes were a shredded mess, leaving behind few strands of cloth.

As those black shadows wafted around, they would occasionally chew from the dilapidated mangled remains. This scene resembled bandits of the present world who were sharing a big bowl of wine. The big bowl would be shared around amongst the different members. Such was this frenzied activity, radiating out with bromance!

As those black shadows shuttled speedily through the water, they quickly gathered towards those weird stone sculptures. As it turns out, those were the stone jars that were placed within the cavern halls. Those black shadows continued to sniff about unceasingly.

The contents of those stone jars were fatty oil extracted and boiled from mermaids. When the seawater flooded through, the embers within were naturally extinguished. Instead, those fatty oil had dissolved into the seawater, floating quickly from the seawater’s volatility as it attracted those black shadows.

These were the chain reactions that Sheyan spoke about previously. In order to safeguard their wealth, the Black Pearl pirates naturally displayed utmost wisdom as they employed whatever means available to them.

As for the current Sheyan, he was already in possession of the Aztec gold of the Black Pearl crew. In his perspective, a single second wasted in escaping could very well influence the mission; be it success or failure.

As such, Sheyan obstinately showed himself plainly even when those peculiar black shadows hadn’t discovered him. Laboriously hauling along the entire stone chest of Aztec gold, he swam towards the exit to the sea.

Only after those shadows approached, did he discover that those black shadows resembled dugongs of the sea.

The dugongs’ physique had some areas that resembled a woman. They had atrophied forelimbs, while a pair of ample breasts grew beside these pectoral fins; looking rather similarly to a human. Therefore, whenever it occasionally flipped upwards and revealed its bare body out of the sea surface, it appeared really like a woman from afar. Hence, it was also frequently mistaken to be mermaids.

However, when Sheyan observed these dugongs, he noticed their backs were covered with a black shimmering shell. Moreover, their limbs were host to rather sharp claws, and appeared extremely menacing.

Those three pirates beforehand had been devoured cruelly by these dugongs, even their corpses weren’t spared.

Nevertheless, their only consolation was that they managed to inflict some hurt to these dugongs while struggling against them. Sparkling and twinkling indigo fluids could be seen streaming out of the gashes and cracks of their shells, densely diffusing into the seawater.

Nevertheless, Sheyan didn’t have the luxury of time to deal with these savage beasts. Hence, he directly pulled out ‘Ambition’.

Instantly, the inky aura of Kraken Octopus Paul shrouded around his body. The aura of the sea hegemon revolved around Sheyan’s perimeter, projecting a domineering illusion of a translucent but colossal octopus making threatening gestures.

Still, these dugongs were similarly highly intelligent creatures. Moreover, their strength was multiplied through their community.

Although they could sense the domineering Paul, they merely cowered bake in fear; releasing vicious squeaks from their mouths. They swam boldly in teams of 3-5 as they circled around Sheyan, exhibiting that they weren’t like Chupacabras that would flee at the mere sight of danger.

Such a situation was actually rather common in the present world, like leopards making strategic withdrawals against tigers. Or when a pack of wolves gather, the one fleeing would often be the lion.

As it turns out, Sheyan had scarcely foresaw such a scenario unfolding. However previously, he had reckoned the creatures attracted would be the mermaids and not dugongs. Therefore, he didn’t want anyone to remain for the fear of needless casualties.

After all, even though Kraken Paul was a first-rate hegemony of the caribbean sea, frightening off all creatures would probably still be beyond reach. Nevertheless, it should suffice to protect a single individual like Sheyan.

In the face of the encircling dugongs, Sheyan himself displayed a vicious expression. He clutched his weapon and strained his features; revealing his teeth as a demonstration. All the while carrying the stone chest of Aztec gold as he swam out. Still, those dugongs were unwilling to see prey escaping, as they continued gathering; obviously still deterred by Paul’s aura. Despite so, their eyes shone with a clear deadliness.

While carrying Cortéz’s stone chest with one hand, he pulled out his saber with the other! A deep-blue blade ray sliced through the seawater, carrying an profound craftiness as it slashed against a dugong who had encroached in!

Probably enhanced by the impression of Paul in the water, the blade had surged out without without a sound nor aura. Only after leaving a mournful and deep laceration did it utterly disappear.

That probing dugong extended its mouth widely, releasing a line of bubbles as it appeared in extreme pain. Waving its tail with all its might, it quickly retreated away!

A mild spurting sound had emitted out from its shell, while its left arm hung down powerlessly. Then, one could observe a distinct crack on its shell, before indigo blood came streaming out.

This blade of ‘killing the chicken to scare the monkeys’ instantly intimidated the other eager dugongs.

Sheyan maintained a thick-skinned demeanor as he raised his long saber to guard his front. With him as the nucleus, a translucent colossal octopus guided him through the water while bearing threatening gestures. He then toiled with his might as he continued swimming towards the exit.

Truthfully speaking, this stone chest wasn’t light at all. If not for Sheyan’s above 40 points strength as a contestant, it would be impossible to tug along such a stupendous burden.

The dugongs spectated as Sheyan swam away, their eyes beaming with an ominous glint as they drew in from the distance again.

At present, the corpses of the three pirates had been devoured cleanly by those savage beasts, while the reeking blood had fully aroused their murderous nature; intending to satisfy it with a mouth of Sheyan.

Instead, Sheyan couldn’t be compared to those humans they just encountered. How could they lust for such a person? He maintained exceptional composure without revealing any flaws.

After finally swimming out of the flooded cave, the Dingyuan had long been awaiting him ahead. Instantly, the ‘Greenland Lethal weapon’ provided a glimpse to those greedy dugongs, the consequence of being overly avaricious and insatiable.

Brother Black gripped Sheyan’s drenched hand and pulled him up a jollyboat. Reef then strenuously pulled the stone chest of Aztec gold up, causing the jollyboat to sink 2-3 inches down.

Then, Reef casually opened the delicately engraved stone chest, causing his face to glitter with a captivating glorious shine.

“Hoh, boss, you actually cleaned out their entire lifeline?”

Presently, for some unknown reason, Sheyan appeared rather stiff and stupefied as he replied.

“Plundering a single gold coin or the entire chest of gold has the same meaning. Anyway, both will be equal to an unquenchable grievance to the Black Pearl pirates, sending them stamping in fury in hopes of dismembering our bodies into a thousand pieces. Have you prepared the things I asked of you guys?”