Chapter 4: Lurking Danger
"Ah-choo~"
On the slave ship, Baha sneezed and said, "I wonder how Amu and Beini are doing. They're not drifting on the sea again, are they?"
"Woof."
Bubu Wang seemed to be laughing. Regarding Beini drifting at sea, it chose to mourn for a while, then after returning to Reincarnation Paradise, it would mercilessly mock her, and then get scratched.
"Amu has experience with this sort of thing. No problem."
Su Xiao picked up the Ouroboros Stone Tablet from the ground. His top priority now was to reach the "Wandering Soul Sea Area," which was shrouded in thick fog and had sunk countless ships.
Beneath the "Wandering Soul Sea Area" was a bottomless massive trench, and the Doom Number was at the bottom of that trench.
Although the Doom Number might betray its master, the best option for now was to reawaken it. Setting aside the Doom Number's combat power, Su Xiao wanted to lift the curse of the Demon Sea, and the Doom Number was one of the few clues.
Although the Demon Sea's curse hadn't shown any drawbacks yet, it was better to remove it. If it fully erupted, the situation would be very bad.
Su Xiao lit a cigarette. Although he knew of the existence of the "Wandering Soul Sea Area," he didn't know the specific location of that sea area.
[Announcement (Void Tree): Contractor 17**55 has successfully formed a pirate crew.]
Looking at the Ouroboros Stone Tablet in his hand, although he didn't want to use this thing frequently, it was the fastest method right now. Other contractors had already started developing rapidly within this world. If he couldn't keep up with the average development speed, whether he could even leave this world alive was unknown.
Su Xiao injected a small amount of mana into the Ouroboros Stone Tablet and asked, "Where is the Doom Number?"
Su Xiao was testing whether the Ouroboros Stone Tablet could provide information based on his request.
'At the bottom of the sea.'
The words on the Ouroboros Stone Tablet flashed and disappeared. It had to be said that, without triggering the 'Lie,' the information provided by the Ouroboros Stone Tablet had a 100% accuracy rate. In terms of practical significance, it was as useful as a fart.
"The location of the Wandering Soul Sea Area."
Su Xiao changed the question. He noticed a point: after the Ouroboros Stone Tablet gave information as useless as a fart, it didn't increase the recovery value.
'Feel it with your heart.'
"I'll fuck your sister! Bubu, don't stop me! I'm going to fight this fucking stone! I've held it in for too long!"
"Woof."
Bubu Wang took two steps back, looking at Baha with a bewildered expression, meaning: "I'm not stopping you, that stone tablet looks like trouble."
With Bubu Wang's look providing assistance, Baha flew forward, grabbed the Ouroboros Stone Tablet with his eagle claws, and slammed it onto the deck with a crack.
With a crackling sound, black electric arcs surged, enveloping Baha.
"Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah..."
Baha convulsed for a while, fell onto the deck, and spat out black smoke. His health dropped by 10 points. The experience was unforgettable.
'Stupid feathered creature.'
After the Ouroboros Stone Tablet displayed this sentence, its volume began to shrink, turning into a stone ring that clamped onto Baha's eagle claw.
"Bro, I was wrong. Pick someone else."
Baha frantically kicked his eagle claw and pecked at it with his beak for a long time, but couldn't pull the Ouroboros Ring off.
Just as Baha was trying to get rid of the Ouroboros Stone Ring, a sound of something tearing through the air came from diagonally above. Baha's gaze immediately sharpened.
Boom!
A heavy object crashed onto the deck. The entire ship began to tilt, and a wave surged from the side of the slave ship towards the distance.
The whole ship was as if hit by a meteorite, nearly folding in half. Amidst the broken planks, a figure with dragon wings on its back stood up straight. Its hands and arms were covered in gold-black scales, its pupils were golden vertical slits, and its muscular body was covered in various scars.
"Sorry for the intrusion. I damaged your ship. This is compensation."
The man, whose aura was like a scaled dragon, tossed out a Soul Crystal (Large) and slightly lowered his head as an apology.
"I am Alex, from Death Paradise. Same as you, responsible for eliminating violators. I state my name not because I'm famous, but because... the Death Wild Beast, Gask, is my younger brother. Have you... seen him?"
As Alex spoke, the planks around him shattered with crackling sounds.
"I have."
"Oh?"
Alex was somewhat surprised, then nodded.
"My brother died in the Canglong Continent. I found his remains on an ice field. It was done by a contractor from your Reincarnation Paradise. Do you know... anything related to this? 200 complete Soul Crystals, or 20,000 Soul Coins. If you know who did it, I can pay you right now."
"..."
Zheng!
Su Xiao drew his blade. His chances of winning against this man named Alex were not high. As for how the Death Wild Beast, Gask, died, he wasn't clear. There was no need to explain; it was meaningless.
"Don't know? Pity. See you around, Beheader of the Night. I heard you killed Feishi. Nice kill."
Alex grinned. He stomped on the deck planks, broke through the air, and shot straight into the sky. He needed to find the next contractor. He could lock onto any contractor within a radius of several dozen kilometers. This was the power of the dragon blood within him.
Alex was very strong, but he never took his anger out on others. That was something only weak-hearted people did. He had a blood connection with Gask. As long as not too much time had passed, when the person who killed his brother appeared before him, the blood in his body would resonate.
After a series of sonic booms echoed through the high sky, Alex of Death Paradise disappeared from sight.
"Although both brothers are technically enemies, their character is decent."
As Baha spoke, he remembered the Ouroboros Stone Ring on his leg and continued shaking it vigorously, while 'cursing' the Ouroboros Stone Ring's family tree.
Su Xiao leaped to the stern, slashed the ropes with a few strokes, and the small boat tied to the stern fell into the sea. The slave ship was completely ruined, and it couldn't sail anyway; the previous battle had severely damaged the main sail.
The small boat wasn't big, could carry 4-5 people. Bubu Wang and Baha were responsible for rowing the oars, while Su Xiao sat at the stern, thinking about subsequent countermeasures.
He felt that the Ouroboros Stone Tablet's earlier reminder to 'feel it with your heart' didn't seem like a perfunctory response or a lie. Thinking of this, he closed his eyes and meditated, making his perception sharper.
'Captain.'
'We are... waiting for you.'
'Wandering Soul Sea Area...'
Ethereal whispers reached Su Xiao's ears. He opened his eyes and looked towards the horizon on the side. He sensed that the Doom Number was in that direction.
"Row that way."
"Boss, it really was 'feel it with your heart'?"
Baha was a bit dumbfounded.
"Close to that meaning."
Su Xiao washed the Soul Crystal (Large) in his hand in the seawater, confirmed it had been certified by Reincarnation Paradise, and then bit off a large chunk with a crunch.
...
Five hours later, Shipwreck Island, Dock.
The dock built from planks was quite old. Laborers were busy loading cargo. This was the territory of the Great Pirate, Duke. Recently, a conflict had arisen between Duke and the West Sea King, making Shipwreck Island unstable.
On a two-masted sailboat, over a dozen wounded pirates disembarked along the planks. After they left, only three men remained on the deck.
"We have a ship, but those pirates are still a problem."
"Get some gold coins, and those pirates won't dare to disobey."
"You say it's simple. The gold coins in this world are very special. According to these pirates, the gold coins in this world contain the power of the Demon Sea. Gold has value, but not high. Gold coins that don't contain the power of the Demon Sea aren't universally accepted."
The three contractors were discussing. They had formed a temporary team, planning to share a ship. When they developed to a certain extent, these three would turn on each other.
Tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps reached the ears of the three. They looked towards the sound and saw a woman in a long black dress with a very high slit, wearing high heels, walking up the long plank onto the ship.
"A contractor from Holy Light Paradise... looks like... a healing type?"
The three glanced at each other with hostility and all smiled. A healing type from Holy Light Paradise coming to them meant either cooperation or delivering a Scarlet Card.
Among the three, a man wearing glasses stepped forward. He looked very refined. Inside his sleeve, an energy needle had already formed.
"Miss, if you're joining us as a healing type, you're welcome. If not..."
The glasses man didn't finish. The two behind him spread out to the left and right.
"Join you? I refuse."
The healing type from Holy Light Paradise stopped. A black and white intertwined healing-type staff appeared in her hand. This female contractor was named Guangmu. From her words and actions, she wasn't here to seek cooperation.
"Then I won't be polite..."
Before the glasses man could finish his sentence, he found a white energy thread connecting to his chest, with the other end on the enemy's healing staff.
[Prompt: You are receiving the 'Wild Growth' healing effect. Your health will recover 560 points per second. This effect will continue until the caster interrupts this ability.]
Seeing this prompt, the glasses man was somewhat stunned. The enemy had clearly come to cause trouble, yet the first thing she did was heal him? His condition was fine; he didn't need healing.
"Attack!"
The glasses man stopped caring about anything else. As long as they killed the enemy, there would be no problem.
Just as the glasses man was about to charge forward, he felt his legs become very heavy. He looked down and saw a pair of legs nearly half a meter thick.
"It's the Holy Light's Poison Milk, Guangmu!"
A muffled shout came from diagonally behind the glasses man. While using an item, he glanced with his peripheral vision. The scene made his heart clench.
At this moment, one of his teammates was like a balloon being inflated. Flesh and blood surged all over his body, constantly proliferating. His skin was stretched so thin it was almost transparent.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions occurred. Except for the glasses man, his two teammates exploded on the spot, scattering flesh and blood fragments everywhere.
This was the effect of excessive healing. Guangmu was called Poison Milk because of this ability. After receiving her treatment, once health reached 100% and exceeded 1.5 seconds, life force overflow would occur. Coupled with Guangmu's ability to guide it, the overflowing life force within the enemy would cause their flesh and blood to proliferate uncontrollably.
"You..."
The glasses man charged forward with heavy steps. After just two steps, he felt himself growing. The proliferating flesh on his torso nearly engulfed his head.
In just a few seconds, the glasses man turned into a large meatball with short, stubby limbs. His clothes were torn apart. He could only see the outside through a gap in front of his left eye.
"Spare... me."
"Bye-bye~"
Guangmu winked her left eye. With a boom, the glasses man, now a fleshy ball, exploded.
Guangmu gracefully walked forward, tapped her healing staff on a Scarlet Card, and stored it away.
On the distant horizon, a small boat slowly approached. Guangmu looked towards the approaching boat, and a smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
"Your target is here. You've been waiting for him in the Demon Sea for three world progressions? That's dedication. What did Arcane Eternal Star give you to make you go this far? And how are you so sure he would definitely come to the Demon Sea?"
Guangmu looked towards the dock. On a short wooden post on the dock sat a man clad in full armor.
"He became the captain of the Doom Number during the Strongest Warrior Tournament. After advancing to the Eighth Rank, his first world could only be the Demon Sea."
The man in full armor spoke, his voice having a metallic quality.
"I won't participate in your personal grudge."
Guangmu walked onto the dock and smiled as she walked away.
"You accepted my deposit, 3000 Soul Coins."
"What deposit? Is there? I don't think so."
"We just signed a contract..."
"Heh, contract? Read it carefully next time. I learned this from those old yinbis in Reincarnation Paradise."
Guangmu smiled and walked away. The moment she first saw him, she felt he seemed a bit... not very smart.