CHAPTER 493: CHAPTER 449: SOUTHERN CONTINENT! GO KILL!

The last flicker of the sunset quietly slipped away, and the night once again ruled this sea.

Bang! Bang! Bang!...

On the deck of the "Venus," the firearms array continuously spat out scorching gunfire.

It dispersed one after another the azure "souls of drowning" that seemed to be made of mist or water, yet more souls surged in like tidal waves.

Splish splish splish...

Most of them maintained their appearance from life, including temple guards clad in armor with feathers in their helmets, as well as Nimansite pirates and adventurers wielding firearms and scimitars, all shouting in unison in their native language:

"Cusco! Hand it over!..."

But the "Venus" was no easy target.

Under the onslaught of countless souls, even if there were fish slipping through the net of the firepower, they would be immediately extinguished by Apsuya, Olivia, Milan, and other pirate officers on the ship who activated their wolf skin armor.

Apsuya served as the main force, having mastered the "Rose Swordsmanship" with the help of Olivia, who was already a step ahead of Milan and had grasped all the secret techniques of the Official Knight Tier. The souls at most being at apprentice level stood no chance against their organized defense.

Standing at the bow of the "Venus," Aiven stared at the opposing ship, with masses of azure souls of drowning swarming from the deck seams, masts, cabins. He felt he had been utterly outwitted today:

"So, have I been lured by an evil spirit today?"

The story began half an hour ago when they first discovered this deserted, dilapidated sailing ship.

The sailing ship abruptly appearing before the "Venus" seemed no different in structure from most modern merchant ships but appeared to have been adrift at sea for many years.

The severely weathered sails were tattered, even the planks slightly decayed, and the barnacles at the bottom had grown close to the waterline.

Aiven found it very peculiar.

However, after opening his "Spiritual Vision," he discovered nothing unusual. It was just an ordinary broken ship, with only a faint Extraordinary Spiritual Light of some treasure flickering inside the cabin.

Having seen many strange things, Aiven did not rashly send someone aboard but instead sent a seagull to explore the cabin, where he was surprised to find a large pile of magnificent and mysterious golden artifacts.

Most were richly styled sacrificial vessels from the Gashna Empire, carelessly piled in the cabin without even being stored in boxes.

As the seagull, under Aiven’s control, landed on the pile of treasures to inspect them, it seemed to trigger a hunter’s trap, and an invisible "snare" snapped shut with lightning speed!

Snap——

The broken sailing ship, which had shown no anomalies under "Spiritual Vision," suddenly awakened like a carnivorous plant, revealing its bloodthirsty carnivorous nature after a tempting bait.

A barrier mixed with blackness and bloodlight suddenly rose, followed by a corrosive blood-colored Spiritual Light washing over the entire ship. Even the seagull, at the Demonized Creature Level, was melted clean of its bones in an instant.

Seagull: In the end, I bore everything alone.

Perhaps realizing that this prey was extremely cautious, the scattered golden artifacts seemed conscious as they rolled out of the cabin, melting and merging on the deck to form a giant glowing human face.

Ching——

Suddenly, it opened a pair of blood-colored eyes, with a gaze of greed nearly solidifying as it locked onto Aiven from nearly a hundred meters away.

The pirates beside him, even catching the edge of that gaze, felt like they were being stared down by a terrifying evil ghost, shivering in every cell of their bodies with extreme fear.

The golden face opened its wide mouth and roared with a cold metallic voice in the Gashna Empire’s native language:

"Cusco! Hand it over!"

Subsequently, countless souls of drowning shouted the same slogan as they surged forward.

By now, the crew of the "Venus" realized what they had encountered.

It was an evil spirit, an undying and immortal evil spirit!

Ordinarily, evil spirits, as the pinnacle of the evil spiritual sequence, were powerful but had to kill according to certain rules. Even an unarmed ordinary person might survive in their presence without making any wrong choices.

But.

Evidently, the stronger the evil spirit, the fewer the limitations. This time, merely controlling a seabird to touch those treasures indirectly had already caught Aiven in its grasp.

Furthermore, considering the recognizable form and the name it uttered, Aiven realized it might indeed be targeting him specifically.

Because a while ago, the ’Treasure Hunter’ Dawn Jones discovered the Temple of the Sun God Inti, called "Cusco Temple," in the Cordillera Mountain Range of the New Continent’s southern part.

The gold face bore the insignia of the Sun God Inti.

Aiven happened to possess a treasure acquired from the Pirate King "Dead Bone" Rudolph, supposedly the supreme treasure of the "Cusco Temple" — the [Extraordinary Talisman: Eye of Inti].

"So, this evil spirit from who knows where is not only hunting for kills but also collecting various relics lost from the temple?

It’s just uncertain if Rudolph knew about this when he got it, whether he intended to pass the trouble to me during the initial transaction."

Understanding the nature of this entity, Aiven wasted no time ordering:

"Gunpowder Chief, load solid shots, sink that ship for me."

"At your command, sir!"

The crew dared not covet the golden vessels associated with the evil spirit any longer. The gun crews quickly sprang into action, appearing somewhat well-trained after the navy soldiers’ drills during this time.

"All gun crews, open fire!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...

With a broadsides salvo totalling 808 pounds from 14 thirty-two-pounder guns and 15 twenty-four-pounder guns on one side of the heavy cruiser, no ordinary merchant ship could withstand such a barrage at sea. Their fragile planks were nearly as flimsy as cardboard against that firepower.

Yet, this ship was clearly the exception.

When the smoke dissipated, it seemed to be a quasi-legendary battleship with [Self-Healing] abilities.

The broken wood rapidly regenerated as if time had reversed, and even the underwater damage was repaired before the seawater could flood in.

The sailing ship had evidently been transformed into the evil spirit’s lair and even a part of its host. As long as that glowing giant face remained intact, the ship would be unsinkable!

Splash——

After the failed move, Aiven’s cloak behind him sparked with electricity, transforming into two blue wings. With a gentle leap, he was already soaring into the sky, the partially activated beast hide armor proving far more agile than full activation.

Indeed.

After Aiven departed from the "Venus," the Evil Spirit’s target shifted accordingly, piloting a tattered merchant ship to make an unscientific U-turn and chase after him at great speed.

Aiven certainly had no intention of running away.

He watched the ragged sailing ship chasing in a straight line and the golden face hovering above the deck.

Crackle...

An immense blue electric field flickered continuously above Aiven’s head, flipping his hand to reveal a steel sphere the size of a lemon stored in the "Shadow Secret Vault: Modified," which now lay in his palm.

[Official Witchcraft: Demonized Weapon!]

He casually tossed it overhead, and the enchanted steel sphere immediately began to spin at high speed in a circular motion.

The spinning trajectory had already been crafted by him using Activated Spiritual Light, creating a circular Gauss accelerator with an internal vacuum, then utilizing the enormous electromagnetic force of [Divine Power] to accelerate it in multiple stages.

Half a minute later.

The steel sphere, electromagnetically heated to a bright orange-yellow, had accumulated power that could only be described as terrifying.

At this moment.

The blue wings behind Aiven flapped, forming a dazzling halo with the sphere’s track above his head. From afar, Aiven, bathed in lightning against the night sky, looked like an angel of thunder.

Feeling that he had reached the limits of his control, Aiven’s eyes sharpened, and the circular trajectory above him suddenly broke.

Sss—

In an instant, as if the night sky was split in half by an orange-yellow flash like lightning, it crossed the sky and sea, blasting the golden face into fragments before it even had a chance to react.

"Ku..."

Boom——!!!

Like ice melting and snow dissolving, the entire sailing ship and the Soul of Drowning vanished from the sea’s surface in an instant.

Having ascended to Tier 3 with powerful extraordinary energy, the power dynamics with spirit bodies had drastically reversed, no longer lacking as they did at Tier 2.

Thus, this move was not witchcraft but a new technique from [Desperate Thunder Swordsmanship], the Secret Technique: Coil Cannon, elegantly also known as [Angel Halo].

In Aiven’s hands, the application scope of swordsmanship had evidently been significantly expanded once again. Congratulations, congratulations!

"Long live the Captain!"

"Invincible! Invincible!"

The crew on the ship began to cheer loudly.

However, despite killing the Evil Spirit in one strike, there was no joy on Aiven’s face.

Although it was temporarily defeated, not only did it fail to provide additional spoils, but it also left a lingering mess.

Because Evil Spirits are undying and undestroyable; apart from having almost no conscious awareness, they are the ideal type for those seeking immortality. Rather than spirit creatures, they are more like natural phenomena of the extraordinary world.

Once revived in the future, they would come seeking him again.

Can you reason with a natural phenomenon when the time comes?

...

Sending the privateer fleet’s flagship "Venus" back to Hatrafa Port, Aiven, with Milan and the three others, returned to Far Sails Territory, a day and a half later.

Though the sunlight this morning was exceptionally bright, Aiven’s brows remained furrowed.

"What exactly is going on?"

It wasn’t about the Evil Spirit, which wouldn’t be revived for an unknown number of years, but about a strong, sudden premonition that struck him on his return journey yesterday evening.

As a powerful Tier 3 Transcendent, with physical strength comparable to a Demon, such an experience was unimaginable.

An ordinary person might disregard it, but as a powerful transcendent with the rank of Official Wizard, Aiven would not ignore it.

Much like the dream Angie had before, it must have some implication.

Upon returning to the temporary base of "Storm Horn" at Far Sails Territory.

In the reception room, he saw Major General Demong Brand, who had specially come from "Dierben Castle," and the expression on his face—apologetic, regretful, and...slightly sympathetic.

A shiver ran down Aiven’s spine, sensing extremely ominous premonitions.

Sure enough, after receiving the urgent message delivered through the Spirit Realm that he personally handed over.

"Yesterday afternoon, the Hilus Fleet launched a surprise attack... Colonel Gel fought fiercely against Tier 3 Steel Knight Kunang Tita, severely injured...dying!"

Aiven’s tall and robust figure involuntarily trembled, the blue captain’s cloak behind him fluttered furiously without wind, intermingled with countless sharp bird calls and rolling thunder from the clouds.

Crack!

The previously tightly restrained vast life magnetic field fluctuated unstably, as a sudden bolt of lightning seemed to descend upon the reception room.

Boom——

The walls cracked, and the fierce wind swept through, forcing even the Great Knight Demong to take a few steps back involuntarily.

"Aiven, don’t act impulsively, the letter from ’Tetadis Fortress’ is for you to see Colonel Gel one last time, you...."

By the time he collected his thoughts, Aiven had already dashed out with the fury of a storm of electric light.

"Storm Horn, assemble!!!"

A thunderous roar reverberated in the harbor for a long time.

Within a mere quarter of an hour, the entire crew of "Storm Horn" had assembled, including the recently returned Milan and Roddy.

First Mate Boris had never seen the captain so volcanic, hesitantly approached to inquire:

"Captain, where are we going?"

The expression on Aiven’s face was as frozen as ice, and a bone-chilling wind emanated through his gritted teeth, uttering each word:

"Launch the ’White Shark Patrol,’ Southern Continent, go! Kill! Them!"