The Strange Blade

"Resell it?"

Yinsen turned his head to examine the man before him. He was a tall, slender young man who did not look much older than Yinsen, and his appearance was undeniably striking.

Yinsen did not know whether it was an illusion, but although this man was courteous and made an excellent first impression, he seemed faintly distant.

"Sorry, but we have no intention of selling it."

"What a pity. I really like small animals." The man extended his hand and shook Yinsen’s. "My name is Blade, captain of The Ripper."

"Yinsen, captain of the Goddess of Dawn."

After shaking Blade’s hand, Blade turned and returned to his crew. Yinsen noticed that after he went back, his gaze would occasionally flick toward Yinsen’s side.

"What was up with that guy?"

Blade’s behavior was far too strange. Wanting to buy a pet out of nowhere in an environment like this? Anyone with normal intelligence could tell something was wrong.

"Could he be up to something?"

But before this, they had never even met the man. They had never had any conflict with him, and had not even heard his name before.

After thinking it over, Yinsen’s gaze finally settled on Little Ou. The only plausible explanation was that Blade had set his sights on Little Ou, and the reason was definitely not because he liked small animals.

"Little Ou?"

This cat-like creature had lived aboard his ship for so long, yet it had never grown. It always looked like a tiny kitten, but the Magic Stones it ate could have fired a Magic Stone Cannon until it was scrapped.

After swallowing such enormous amounts of energy, Yinsen naturally did not believe the thing was truly just a kitten. Besides, even before Little Ou had been brought aboard, it had already displayed enough anomalies.

"Collecting Magic Stones? Or… that special kind of Magic Stone capable of restoring its own magic power?"

Yinsen once again recalled that nameless assassin from before. That man had tried to assassinate him because of Little Ou. He had come from the next sea region, so what exactly was Blade’s identity?

"We need to be more careful around this guy from now on."

He had roamed the seas for many years and experienced several worlds. He was no greenhorn fresh out of the gate. He could not possibly let down his guard just because Blade was supposedly his "teammate."

Once he discovered that someone had ulterior motives and that their target was in his hands, Yinsen tended to assume the worst. He would directly guard against them as if they were a sinister villain ready to launch a sneak attack at any moment.

"I know what to do."

Logan was highly experienced and could see it as well. He nodded at Yinsen, then adjusted his position within the group, always placing himself between their people and Blade’s group. If anything happened, Logan would be the first line of defense.

It was an excellent arrangement. Logan could slow the enemy’s advance and warn the others. On top of that, even if he was ambushed, he would not die. He was the most suitable person for the job.

Laura also had an Undying Body, but she was still a child, so she remained under everyone’s protection.

Come to think of it, quite some time had passed since Laura boarded the Goddess of Dawn. By now, she was almost thirteen. Girls naturally developed earlier, and she had already grown taller. Anyone who truly treated her as weak would definitely suffer for it.

At that moment, Brent began gathering everyone who had landed on shore. Once everyone had assembled, they began searching the landmass.

Because of how strange this place was, no one suggested splitting up. Even though the landmass was astonishingly vast and searching together would take more time, nobody raised such a proposal.

Compared to the groups brought by the other captains, Yinsen’s group was astonishingly small. From the start, they had been surrounded by the others, with Blade and his subordinates right beside them.

"Captain Yinsen, haven’t you recruited more crew members?"

Blade looked around several times and had long since figured out who belonged to Yinsen’s ship. Although everyone was moving together, each Small Group was clearly distinct, and it was easy to tell who belonged to which ship.

"I prefer adventuring with like-minded people." Ignoring the look Loki gave him, Yinsen casually made it up without even blushing. "I think only companions like that can truly unite and overcome all kinds of difficulties when facing a crisis."

Just as Yinsen was talking nonsense, screams suddenly rang out from the outermost edge of the group, followed by shouts and the sounds of blades striking.

"Enemies?"

Brent had gathered many captains this time. Though not many had responded in the end, several still joined the group and led a fleet of warships here.

Each ship had anywhere from dozens to hundreds of people. Aside from Yinsen’s unusual group, even the smallest ship could send dozens of people onto the island.

There were at least several hundred people altogether. It might not have been an army of thousands, but with several hundred people moving together, Yinsen, standing in the middle of the crowd, could not see what was happening at the perimeter.

Soon, however, he no longer needed to look. Enemies emerged from every direction. Yinsen and the others stood behind Brent, and they had already spotted the enemies ahead.

"Where did these things come from?"

Even the Detection Glasses Yinsen had never taken off gave no warning. These enemies seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

"They came up from underground."

"Underground?"

Loki had been idly wandering around, but he understood the situation around them better than anyone else because his overall abilities were the highest among everyone present.

"Your glasses were disrupted by the energy here, so they failed to detect those things."

Yinsen had thought of that as well. He had already realized that the enemies before them were Undead Creatures. Negative Energy saturated this place, while his Detection Glasses mainly relied on detecting energy to lock onto enemies. The current situation was like trying to find water in the sea, so naturally they could not provide any warning.

"Engage the enemy!"

Brent had already taken up his stance. Yinsen noticed that Brent wore a full suit of armor, all of which emitted magical fluctuations. It was clearly an entire set of Magic Stone Equipment.

This was Yinsen’s first time seeing Brent fully armed. He was very curious about how strong Brent’s Combat Power truly was. At the same time, he noticed that Brent held a Two-Handed Greatsword, which would nearly reach Yinsen’s height if stood upright.

Brent did not wait for the enemies to approach before passively counterattacking. After shouting for them to engage, he raised his greatsword and charged forward. With a simple horizontal sweep, he cleaved the foremost Undead into two.

Wherever the greatsword passed, blazing flames erupted, treating those bisected Undead Creatures like firewood and burning them relentlessly, as if the flames would not go out until not even ashes remained.

"As expected, he’s powerful."

Yinsen also took out the Combat Cross. Considering that their opponents were all Undead, he once again activated the weakened Holy Light power within the Combat Cross. Though it was not as powerful as the Holy Light he currently commanded, it was more than enough for enemies of this level.

Brent’s charge did not slow the Undead horde. Large numbers of Undead rushed into the crowd. Adventurers were not soldiers; they were not skilled at forming formations and fighting positional battles. Thus, the battle quickly became a chaotic melee where friend and foe were mixed together. Everyone had to guard against the creatures around them, unable to determine whether whoever appeared nearby was an enemy or an ally.

But this was normal for adventurers. They had long grown accustomed to chaotic battles like this.

Even Logan, despite his military background, preferred this kind of melee. He ignored the attacks the Undead Creatures launched at him and used an even more violent fighting style to tear apart the enemies before him one after another.

As Yinsen fought these creatures, he continued observing the situation around him. He noticed that these enemies came in all sorts of forms. Some resembled monsters, some looked human, and others resembled animals.

The only thing they had in common was that they were all Undead Creatures. Aside from being difficult to kill, they emitted an unbearable stench. He suspected the smell was also an attack launched by these creatures, one meant to destroy their Fighting Spirit on the Mental Plane.

"Captain Yinsen, your skills are quite impressive."

While Yinsen observed the surroundings, Blade observed Yinsen from nearby. He had already noticed that this young captain moved freely through the monster horde, and no matter what kind of monster it was, it was difficult for it to get close to Yinsen. Any that managed to approach were immediately cut down. Yinsen was even stronger than Blade had expected.

What concerned him even more was that after observing for a long time, he was surprised to discover that Yinsen did not seem to be wearing any Magic Stone Equipment. The only thing on him that came close was the weapon in his hand that could release an Energy Sword, but that alone could not enhance someone’s strength or speed. In other words, Yinsen could easily deal with these monsters through his own power alone, without relying on any equipment enhancement.

This discovery greatly surprised Blade, making him pay even closer attention to Yinsen.

Yinsen was also watching Blade out of the corner of his eye as the man kept hovering nearby. He found that Blade’s combat techniques were equally formidable. So far, he had killed every monster with a single strike, and nearly every attack brought down an Undead Creature.

These were Undead Creatures. Although they were not particularly strong individually and any normal healthy man could defeat one, defeating them and killing them were two different matters.

The greatest characteristic of Undead Creatures was that they were difficult to kill, yet in Blade’s hands, that did not seem to be a problem at all.

"This guy sent energy into their bodies at the instant of impact, detonating it internally and dispersing the Death Energy, thereby destroying these Undead Creatures."