Chapter 16: Summoned
After re-equipping the Black King Bracer, Su Xiao didn’t feel any change brought by the Black Crow Ring, nor could he control the crows on Dim Light Island. It seemed the adaptation period hadn’t passed yet.
The adaptation period ranged from 1 to 60 days, depending on one’s soul strength. Being eroded by the Demon Sea Curse could accelerate this process. Even if his soul strength wasn’t very high, he could control over ten thousand Black Curse Crows in about five days at most.
The current situation on Dim Light Island had been explored. Su Xiao didn’t plan to stay here any longer. He had just obtained a crucial piece of information from the Old Hag: some organization was researching what exactly a Cursed Person was.
This organization wasn’t a mysterious mastermind behind the scenes. It was founded by a “witch” many years ago. That witch had spent some time on the Doom Number and had a romantic relationship with its fifth captain.
The fifth captain used some method to let the witch leave the Doom Number. After returning to land, she began researching Cursed People, the Demon Sea Curse, and so on.
It was hard to make progress alone, so the witch established a small organization, inviting other witches to join in studying the Demon Sea’s curse.
Times changed, and the witch who founded the organization had long since died of old age, but her knowledge was passed down, accumulating through generations to the present day.
It was said that the organization had completely declined, and its focus had shifted. Instead of how to lift the curse on Cursed People, it now aimed to harness the Demon Sea’s curse power for personal use.
By now, only one person remained in the organization, but fortunately, most of the inherited knowledge hadn’t been lost.
This was normal. The Doom Number had existed for so long that many wanted to claim its power and that of the Cursed People for themselves.
The Empire and the four major pirate forces were definitely secretly exploring the Doom Number and the Cursed People. Getting information about the curse power from them was difficult.
That dying secret organization was a better choice. Su Xiao traded a small vial of Ancient God blood for a name from the Old Hag: Winnie Wanda.
The Ancient God blood Su Xiao offered was safe. Its source had been killed by him, so it was unlikely to attract other Ancient Gods to this world. Or rather, Ancient Gods of the same rank wouldn’t come to the Demon Sea either—this world wasn’t easy to suck dry.
Winnie Wanda was a witch, a third-rate one. Her power was limited to making flammable things burn and using smoke to tell fortunes with “remarkably high accuracy.” This wasn’t due to talent but her skill in reading people.
Winnie Wanda herself wasn’t the focus. The knowledge she had inherited but hadn’t yet mastered was what mattered.
“Winnie, Wanda.”
In the darkness, Su Xiao’s eyes opened. The oil lamp’s flame flared up with a *whoosh*, and the dark red candlelight emitted a bloody aura when burning.
The lantern was hung on the bow of the Doom Number, which gradually sank into a vortex formed by black mist, leaving Dim Light Island behind.
……
On Nini Man Island, inside a two-story inn.
Early morning, sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains. Under this beam of light, fine dust particles could be seen drifting.
Noisy sounds came from outside the door. The soft blanket vaguely outlined a curvaceous body, with golden hair spread across the pillow.
Disturbed by the commotion outside, the woman lying sideways on the bed slowly sat up, the soft blanket sliding off her.
“Mm~”
Winnie Wanda stretched lazily, her still-dazed eyes scanning the room’s furnishings as she began her three self-questions.
“Has Captain Burke set sail yet? I’ll stay on his ship for a while.”
Yawning, Winnie Wanda dressed neatly. As a “mysterious” witch, she was quite popular among various pirate crews. Despite her outstanding looks, she didn’t worry about the stinking pirates being disrespectful.
Pirates feared the mysterious. Even if lustful, they wouldn’t lay hands on a witch. Legends said that having relations with a witch brought misfortune, ending in a tragic death.
As a witch, Winnie Wanda suspected this rumor was unreliable, but she wouldn’t explain it to others. Compared to being targeted by pirates, the trouble of staying single was nothing.
She had a secret that forced her to wander. Every two months or so on a pirate ship, she would switch to another. Once, she talked in her sleep, and a passing pirate outside the cabin heard her. That nearly turned her into goods to be sent to the Twin Towers: Empress.
The aroma of food in the air awakened Winnie Wanda’s stomach, urging her to find something to eat soon.
Soon, Winnie Wanda sat at the bar on the first floor of the inn, leisurely eating a smoked meat softcake.
“Winnie, how’s that thing I asked you to do?”
A tall, thin man sat down beside Winnie Wanda.
“It’s done, Captain. As long as you carry this, you won’t be troubled by insomnia anymore.”
Winnie Wanda handed over a small cloth pouch. For her, this was a simple task.
“Good.”
The thin man, called Captain Burke, stood up. Before leaving, he stared at Winnie Wanda for a moment.
This made Winnie uncomfortable. His gaze was like a cold knife, lightly scraping across her skin. It wasn’t lust but probing.
Winnie Wanda longed to live in a peaceful village, but she couldn’t. If she stayed on land too long, she would have nightmares—dreams of a large ship in black mist, with an oil lamp hanging from its bow and dark shadows underwater.
Every time she had such dreams, Winnie Wanda would wake up drenched in sweat. The bedding beneath her would be soaked by seawater from nowhere, and sometimes shells or seaweed would appear by her pillow.
“Sigh~”
Winnie Wanda sighed. She had a lot of knowledge in her mind that could be called fantastical, like a ship named the Doom Number and curse power.
Although Winnie Wanda possessed some supernatural power, she still felt those knowledge were somewhat exaggerated. It was precisely because she understood the supernatural that she was sure of this. A curse that could trap someone for hundreds or even thousands of years? How could such a thing exist? Even the most powerful witch’s abilities were less than one ten-thousandth of that. It was because it was so powerful that Winnie Wanda found it dreamlike.
“My head hurts.”
Winnie Wanda rubbed her forehead. An hour later, she followed a group of pirates to the dock, boarded the pirate ship, and set sail.
Watching the gradually receding Nini Man Island, Winnie Wanda’s eyes showed reluctance, but she knew she had to leave. Her dreams last night had already become abnormal—she dreamed of many crows.
As the morning coolness faded, the sea’s humidity under the scorching sun created a stuffy heat. Winnie Wanda stood by the railing, her arm resting on it, gazing at the endless horizon. The gloom from last night’s nightmare gradually dissipated.
“Winnie, the captain wants to see you.”
“Coming right away.”
Winnie Wanda’s expression remained normal. The surrounding pirates didn’t notice a wisp of white sand slipping through her fingers, leaving a faint white line on the deck.
Entering the captain’s cabin, Winnie Wanda sat down. Across from her was Captain Burke, his feet propped on the wooden table.
“You’ve been on my ship for a month now, Winnie.”
Burke spoke, his tone cold.
“Has it been a month? Time flies.”
“I’m a pirate. Since my grandfather’s time, my family has plundered at sea. Generation after generation, we’re like hyenas on the ocean—if there’s even a hint of ‘blood,’ we can smell it.”
“Captain, what are you trying to say?”
“What’s your relationship with that legendary cursed ship, the Doom Number?”
“Wha… what? The Doom Number? Captain, do you really believe that thing exists? It’s completely…”
“Shut up. Two months ago, the Empire lost 24 ships in the Ghost Soul Sea. Their opponent was the Doom Number. Except for small fry like you, any pirate with a reputation knows about this.”
Burke smiled. He spoke skillfully, belittling Winnie while elevating his own status.
“Lying to me comes at a price.”
Burke opened the drawer beside him, took out a small, stained shell, and continued:
“This was found on you this morning, stuck to the back of your clothes. The ominous aura inside it—it’s from that ship, no mistake. I once got a piece of its wreckage. This shell feels just like that plank.”
Burke placed the shell on the table. The next instant, a crow landed. The cabin door was closed, the windows intact, yet the crow flew in, dripping seawater.
The crow landed on the wooden table, picked up the fingernail-sized shell, and crunched it, eating.
Winnie Wanda and Burke were both stunned. Moments later, a few more crows landed in various spots in the cabin.
Drip, drip~
Seawater dripped from the ceiling. Large patches of marine organisms appeared on the cabin walls. The dozen or so crows in the room all turned their gazes to Winnie Wanda, staring fixedly at her.
Under these crows’ stares, Winnie felt a bone-deep chill. It was a cold that penetrated to the marrow, like being thrown naked into the sea, sinking into the pitch-black depths—cold, suffocating, lonely, despairing.
“Captain Burke.”
Winnie looked at Burke, hoping this bloodthirsty pirate would show his usual ferocity.
The moment she saw Burke’s expression, her heart tightened. Burke’s fists were clenched, his jaw muscles bulging, and a ‘clack-clack-clack’ sound came from his mouth, like teeth chattering. This usually fierce pirate captain was trembling.
Boom!
A thunderclap sounded overhead. Unbeknownst to them, the sky was already covered with dark clouds. The previously clear weather turned pitch black, and the sea wind howled like wailing.
The Doom Number was coming.
.