Chapter 38 Let's Set Sail, ███! "It hurts a little, just bear with it..."
Xue Chao immediately thought of the "gold ring" that concealed a white light.
While he was dealing with the evil god, he kept an eye on the comments section, but the comments section was full of censored words, and all he could see was black. It was even more absurd than the players who turned off their consoles. He couldn't analyze a single word.
The evil god is indeed evil enough, as if His existence is superior and that mortals like Him are not worthy of even gazing upon Him.
Then we'll have to make use of it; let's hope He has real power. Xue Chao swallowed the other divine eye without any reverence.
While calculating the time in his mind, on the way back, Xue Chao suddenly heard singing. Ignoring the layers of obstacles of the cruise ship, it seemed to travel through time and space and suddenly poured into his ears. The wailing was one after another, the sound of monsters - Giant Port had entered the range of the underwater temple!
As soon as Xue Chao reached the deck, he saw the cruise ship in the distance, which was stuck in a huge whirlpool that spanned thousands of meters. The giant cruise ship instantly became a piece of duckweed, rising and falling with the wind and rain, helpless. The cruise ship was filled with wails. The nobles dressed in gold and silver were facing the fear of death, and the noise they made was no different from that of the prisoners who were used as human flesh bags.
They crowded around the lifeboat, but the whirlpool was filled with shimmering scales and monsters; going down would only mean certain death.
The sharp-eyed navigators spotted Giant Harbor slowly approaching and exclaimed excitedly. Soon, their cries joined together. They instantly abandoned any notions of faction or calculation, waving their hands vigorously and shouting for help from Giant Harbor.
The officer was still standing in that spot, waving back as if he had just run into an old friend on a trip, experiencing a joyful surprise, and greeting her warmly. Cries for help and wails lightly brushed past her ears, and the victor smiled.
She had no intention of retaliating; she simply adopted a condescending attitude from the start, using everyone.
"I heard that you took advantage of a lady's love for her son to trick the navigator and successfully seize the smuggled goods." She was still waving at Hai Huo, but chatted idly with Xue Chao behind her.
"This isn't exploitation, it's a transaction."
"You can make deals with anyone?"
"What, you want to give it a try?" Xue Chao leaned closer to him. "Aren't we already in the same boat?"
"Getting on a ship is one purpose; people live for many purposes."
"I think I'm a pretty simple person," Xue Chao chuckled casually. "Living is my only purpose, so don't get in my way."
The officer finally looked at him, took off the gold ring, and handed it to Xue Chao. The ring face was as white as snow on a mountain peak, so pale that it was hard to see the "gold" at all: "Do you think this ring can keep you alive?"
Xue Chao stopped laughing: "What do you mean?"
“I think it’s fine, but it depends on who you put it in.” The officer placed the ring in Xue Chao’s palm and helped him hold it tightly. “This treasure is something I obtained when I seized smuggled goods this year. Although it’s made of pure gold, it has the luster of snow. At first, I thought it was the work of a monster, but then I suddenly remembered that a year ago, a member of the investigation team wore a piece of jewelry, a piece of Hetian jade, which also had a white luster. When the light shone on it, it looked exactly like snow.”
"You mean, the treasure isn't gold or jade, but rather the 'snow' flowing within it?"
"It's alive. It swam from that jade to the monster's gold in the underwater temple. Nobody knew what it was until I took it to the interrogation room. You should have been there. That investigator was tough enough to keep quiet. He was locked up for two months and didn't say a word. Later, when he was able to speak, he seemed to have forgotten everything about the underwater world. He was in a daze and couldn't give any useful information. But when he saw this thing, he suddenly exploded. It was as if he remembered something and wanted to die."
In the past two months, he has probably been completely assimilated by the game and forgotten his identity as a player.
What did you get out of him?
"There was only one sentence, which roughly meant, 'This is the last thing he saw in the underwater temple in his consciousness,'" the officer said meaningfully. "And then he came back alive all by himself."
These words matched those of the evil god. But Xue Chao remained silent. The officer, noticing his wariness, said bluntly, "I suspect he returned to the port thanks to this ring—no, to this bit of 'snow'."
“He’s alive because of the Divine Eye, just like those ‘prisoners’ in the dungeon. He can’t die because you need him as a vessel for the Divine Eye, no different from those human flesh bags,” Xue Chao interrupted her.
“He came back with a head inside him; it wasn’t something we arranged separately,” the officer said. “You’re talking about what happened afterward, but I’m talking about what happened before. The turning point was when he escaped death from the underwater temple. Are you sure he’s still ‘human’ when he comes back? Sir, I believe you have your own judgment; you just don’t trust me. Now I’m handing this power over to you, and you can make the decision.”
The officer guessed that the investigator might have died in the temple long ago, and that he was "revived" by the power of "Snow" so that he could bring the Divine Eye back to the port.
After that, he became a vessel for the divine eye, just like the other prisoners, a mechanical doll that could only move when "batteries" were installed.
The evil god said that he could not grant immortality, but his possessions seemed to have the power to bring people back to life.
But the "life" is not complete; it is more like "living a life worse than death," which is pure torture.
Why give it to me?
"To gain your trust. It's alive. Once all five cruise ships are there, it becomes unusually active, most likely because its owner has arrived. That's one of the reasons I temporarily stayed away from the cruise ships—only by truly gaining your trust will you not hand it over, right? I told you, I admire you and don't want to be your enemy."
"Sounds tempting enough." Xue Chao tossed the ring, its strange luster shining even brighter, diluting the gold's classic and rich feel, making it colder and more unapproachable than the distant black clouds, raging sea, and human voices.
To be honest, he didn't trust the officer, but he trusted the evil god even less.
If someone truly has the ability to suppress the boss at the bottom of the sea, wouldn't they be unable to retrieve the treasure on their own?
As the two ships drew closer, the players on the Giant's deck spotted him. To avoid trouble, Xue Chao turned and left, saying, "Deal—uh!"
Suddenly, "snow" swam from the ring to his palm and melted into his trench coat. At the same time, the cane sword broke through the backlash of the trench coat and pierced his abdomen from behind. The movement was extremely fast and silent. The sword tip accurately pierced the Divine Eye. This feeling of no breath at all was that ghostly thing. Its target was the Divine Eye!
Xue Chao immediately grabbed the Divine Eye, intending to take it off and throw it into the sea. In an instant, the sword inside his body plunged to the bottom, the blade piercing his hand and the hilt hitting his back. This sword strike indeed triggered the "leakage debuff" that loved to kick someone when they're down, causing Xue Chao to shudder, lose his best chance to retaliate, and fall down.
The hand holding the sword coldly supported Xue Chao's waist as if to prevent him from falling. The "commander" moved closer, turning sideways to almost half-encircle him, while the other hand removed the Eye of Lamia from the blade.
The face was all smiles, and it was saying comforting words: "It hurts a little, just bear with it... Your heart is beating so fast, just like when I kiss you, are you excited too?"
Xue Chao got goosebumps from his insults. As soon as he finished speaking, he ignored the electric shock and the penetrating wound and retaliated fiercely.
As expected, the evil god retreated, sheathing his sword swiftly and decisively. With a ruthless turn, he gracefully withdrew from the other side. The intense pain caused Xue Chao's movements to stiffen for a moment, and the fake eyeball he had used to deceive Lin Feng was also pulled out, looking at Xue Chao with a mocking expression.
"You're so petty. All I did was play a trick on you." Xue Chao turned around and slammed against the railing, putting distance between himself and the ghostly thing.
The "commander," whose inhuman eyes had turned crimson at some point, was now filled with laughter. He spoke in that cold, gentle tone of an evil god: "Isn't it because you broke my heart? How could you betray me so easily?"
Xue Chao calmly said, "Lin Feng has already encountered his superiors. You've already gotten back what you wanted. Did you approach me from the beginning because of the Divine Eye?"
"That kid was polite; he shook hands when people wanted to, saving me the trouble. But as soon as I touched that ring, I 'flowed' into their body. After all, it was my own business, and I was too embarrassed to bother others. But he's too timid. If he wants to get the Divine Eye, he'll need someone like you... someone who's not afraid to die just to stay alive."
The "commander" brandished his sword, which had been hidden in his cane. It was thin and long, but now, smeared with the biting "snow," it looked like an old object covered with a mournful white cloth, cold and sharp. He held it lightly against Xue Chao's forehead and gave him a gentle push, sending half of Xue Chao's body out of the fence: "Any more questions?"
"You had no intention of stopping Lamia; you and she were always on the same side... You took the Divine Eye to awaken her?"
The evil god just chuckled reproachfully: "I told you, I have friends."
Then, with a thrust of his sword, Xue Chao fell into Giant Harbor before the sword could strike. By then, the rain had stopped, but the whirlpools on the sea seemed to be swirling up the clouds in the sky, and the churning waves were even more chaotic than the rain, threatening to engulf him in mid-air.
He let the feeling of weightlessness wash over him. The figure possessed by the evil god was no longer visible on the deck. As he approached the water, a miniature parachute popped out from the life jacket inside his trench coat, carrying him to the other side of the cruise ship. He coughed up blood and gave the middle finger in the direction he had just been.
That charlatan who keeps making up stories, surely he didn't think he was off guard?
He tugged at his trench coat; the tear on the back showed no signs of healing. "Snow" lingered around the tear, silently burning the trench coat like a cold flame.
...That damn thing, if you can't mess with it, you might as well avoid it.
The evil god seemed to know what he was thinking, and a gentle breeze sent a soft greeting: "I forgot to mention, you have quite a few enemies."
Xue Chao's intuition kicked in instantly. Sensing the wind was off, he turned to avoid it. Suddenly, a petite figure appeared out of thin air on a lifeboat hanging by the Giant Harbor cruise ship. She stepped onto a parachute, and fishing lines tangled around Xue Chao from all sides. The two of them fell directly into the water—Zhu Wen had used invisibility and had somehow already reached Giant Harbor!
"Little Black!" Zhu Wen shouted.
Upon hearing Zhu Wen's signal, Yan Bocheng immediately threw down a bloody, mangled object. The monsters swimming in the whirlpool suddenly became agitated and leaped out of the water to snatch it, but Zhu Wen, who was prepared, swept the fishing line and took it first!
It's another divine eye!
"I really want to kill you, but I need a target now, uncle, let's make the most of what we have left!" In front of the monster, Zhu Wen shoved the Divine Eye into Xue Chao's torn abdomen. After the fishing line went along and he casually sewed up his belly a few times to make sure the eye wouldn't fall out, Zhu Wen disappeared into the sea in the blink of an eye.
Xue Chao's hidden knife had already silently severed the fishing line. The moment Zhu Wenkai went invisible was the moment when he was most relaxed. Based on Zhu Wenkai's fighting habits, he predicted Zhu Wenkai's route of departure and accurately stabbed to the left. The blade pierced the water, but there was no sound of it piercing flesh. Xue Chao was stunned. Had he misjudged?
Suddenly, the knife was caught in the fishing line. Xue Chao looked in the direction of the line and saw Zhu Wen appear, climbing onto the bamboo raft that Yan Bocheng had thrown down.
The distance was exactly the route Xue Chao had predicted he would normally escape along, following the direction of the water flow, keeping him away from the surrounding monsters while getting closer to the confluence of Giant Harbor and the Giant Ship. He hadn't misjudged... So there was only one possibility: Zhu Wen's ability wasn't invisibility!
Invisibility only means disappearing from sight, but the person still exists. Breathing, footsteps, the sound of clothes rubbing together, and the airflow generated by movement should all leave traces. Even if Zhu Wen's concealment skills are quite excellent, if someone knows that Zhu Wen is right next to them and concentrates on sensing, they can still detect the clues.
For example, after being reminded by the evil god, Xue Chao immediately noticed a gust of wind coming down from the lifeboat above his head, so he naturally assumed that the superpower of "disappearing into thin air" was "invisibility"!
If it wasn't invisibility, the most likely explanation is that Zhu Wen "dispersed" into the surrounding environment. In other words, his ability was more like "assimilation." If the surrounding area was air, his "material" changed from flesh and blood to air; if the surrounding area was water, he also became water in human form.
Zhu Wen was indeed in the spot Xue Chao had predicted, but how could he have been injured by the water?
Therefore, Zhu Wenkai's supernatural ability is that there is no friction of clothes, no footsteps, and no breathing; only the sounds and airflow produced by his movements.
If he encountered someone as cunning as Xue Chao, he might be suspected after a long fight, so Zhu Wen never used his special abilities during the fight.
Xue Chao clicked his tongue. Just like how he had been intentionally avoiding other people's harm by touching the trench coat, and then using the backlash buff to turn the tables at the crucial moment, Zhu Wen was also misleading others in the same way, hiding his true superpower.
Moreover, this ability is too overpowered, so it must have limitations. It's very likely that there are limits on the number of uses, the duration of each use, or a cooldown period.
This was partly the reason why Zhu Wen didn't choose to play hide-and-seek inside the main hull when the Giant was about to leave port, but instead was thrown directly onto the forecastle deck.
As for why he appeared immediately after jumping off the boat, it wasn't simply because he was being a brat and wanted to give Xue Chao a "surprise." Rather, it was because the air entering the water changed the medium, which might affect his superpower.
Zhu Wen knew from the annoying guy's gloomy expression that he had guessed his true superpower. Instead of being nervous, the brat laughed boastfully, winked at him knowingly, and rode away on the bamboo raft, heading straight for Giant Port.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Xue Chao's original divine eye was taken away by an evil god who could conceal his aura. Lamiai was unaware of this beforehand and could only sense a vague feeling, unable to pinpoint Giant Port for the time being.
Just then, Zhu Wen handed another divine eye to him right in front of him, and all the Lamiai instantly locked onto Xue Chao, abandoned the Giant, and attacked him—he was the one who had to bear the blame for both divine eyes!
Xue Chao downed his breathing fluid, instantly submerged in the water, and tightened the tear in his trench coat.
The half-human, half-snake monster swam towards Xue Chao with lightning speed, stirring up rapids like arrows. The whirlpools in the distance slowed down considerably, and the Giant was relieved. However, it had been tossed around by the monster and was already halfway into the sea, roaring as it was about to sink.
Giant Harbor and Giant Ship happened to cross paths at this moment.
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