Chapter 279: Harvest

Aboard the Golden Dream, Rekton's figure swiftly materialized in his own room.

He did not take off the robe he wore, because once it lost his spirituality's maintenance or separated from his body, the robe would lose its miraculous effect, and that patch of shadow would directly engulf his entire room.

He quickly rummaged through his suitcase beside him and found a fresh set of clothes; since wearing the robe made it impossible to pull a sweater over it, he had to take a thicker jacket and put it on underneath.

After redressing properly, he raised his hand and grasped at the empty air, gently turning his wrist. A ripple of pale blue water spread out, and a "door" connecting to Captain Edwina's cabin was opened by him.

Rekton stepped through this "door," and his figure promptly appeared inside the captain's cabin.

Edwina set down the report she had been tallying on the casualties and losses of this battle's personnel, and turned her head to look over:

"Much faster than I expected."

"A few unexpected things happened."

Rekton offered a brief explanation but did not say what the unexpected things were. He turned and pushed open the captain's cabin door, saying casually:

"There isn't enough space here. Let's go to the deck."

"You looted the entire Flesh Tree?"

Edwina was taken aback at these words, then followed behind Rekton out of the captain's cabin.

If I weren't worried about leaving traces, I'd want to loot the entire Blood Pirate Crew.

On the deck, Rekton tugged at the black robe on his body. A mass of shadow abruptly writhed and twisted, sloughing down and covering the deck, spreading out into a large expanse of deep black.

This deep black continuously dripped downward as if it had substance, scattering in all directions, rapidly reverting into ordinary shadow—some merging with the surrounding shadows, others dissipating under the sunlight.

As this layer of deep black collapsed and scattered, all the items Rekton had tossed into the shadow were fully revealed.

Inside were banknotes and gold coins of varying denominations, including gold pounds, gold horns, ferkins, and even Fenepot's gold risots. There were also some gold bars and valuable collectibles.

What drew everyone's gaze the most were those objects encased in translucent amber. Under spiritual vision, they all radiated spirituality glows of varying shades—some shallow, some deep, in different colors.

This was especially obvious in the eyes of First Mate Bruce Walls, an Artisan, and Third Mate Yodson, who was on the Marauder pathway.

"You killed everyone aboard the Flesh Tree?"

Yodson swallowed, staring fixedly at Rekton with some disbelief as he spoke.

At the same time, he subconsciously took a step away from Rekton.

That was the flagship of the Admiral of Blood. Even though that Admiral of Blood had already been turned into characteristics by him, there was still a group of Sequence Six and Sequence Seven Beyondners aboard.

At this thought, he glanced again at those characteristics and mystical items sealed in translucent amber. This fellow was, in a certain sense, far more terrifying than the Admiral of Blood—when he struck, he didn't even leave a single copper penny behind.

Rekton looked at Yodson, whose expression kept shifting, raised an eyebrow, leaned in beside him, and said in a low voice:

"Is it possible that I can see through what you're thinking?"

Yodson's expression stiffened. He felt awkward for a moment, then forced out an utterly insincere smile and said:

"Is that so? How did you know I wanted to buy the Dream Thief's potion formula from you?"

The more he spoke, the more confident he became. The stiff smile on his face gradually smoothed out, and he began gushing:

"Hehe! With this haul, I even have the money to buy materials."

"If only life were always this wonderful!"

So he's the type who even fools himself when he goes all out? This fellow was probably a genius of the Marauder pathway. Glancing at Yodson, who looked as though nothing had happened at all, Rekton shifted his gaze to Edwina and asked:

"Where is the Golden Dream heading next?"

"The Rosad Islands. We won't be going near the White Whale Sea for a long time to come. The Storm Church will certainly be monitoring these waters closely."

Rekton nodded gently and was about to say something when his inspiration was triggered at that moment, and his gaze accordingly fell straight ahead above his own head.

A pale yellow sheet of paper with sunflower patterns drifted down from the Spirit World. Rekton reached out and caught it directly, glanced at it briefly—it was covered in many little rabbit figures, clearly a letter from Tu Ba Ge.

He casually crumpled the paper into a ball, stuffed it into his pocket, then pointed at the items looted from the Flesh Tree on the deck and said:

"Take inventory. Apart from the Beyonder characteristics and mystical items, the rest can be distributed directly."

"These characteristics and mystical items all carry significant corruption. They can't be used directly and need to be sent to the Church for processing."

Edwina looked in astonishment at that pile of items sealed in translucent amber. She had originally assumed that Rekton had placed seals on every item and characteristic merely to prevent these characteristics and mystical items from reacting with one another.

Then a faint fluorescence rose in her eyes, and her gaze passed through the layer of translucent amber to a grayish-white orb of light inside that resembled a miniature brain.

She saw auras of madness, destruction, ominousness, and disaster, and illusory, ethereal murmurs seemed to echo in her ears.

She promptly withdrew her gaze, severing her own connection to that Madman characteristic.

Her brows drew tightly together. Something beyond her expectations seemed to have occurred aboard the Admiral of Blood's Flesh Tree.

Bruce Walls, a machinery expert, widened his eyes, pointing at those mystical items sealed in translucent amber as he murmured, both stunned and regretful:

"All corrupted? Not a single clean one?"

Beside him, Yodson voiced what every crew member was thinking at this moment:

"What exactly did you do aboard the Flesh Tree?"

"Nothing much. The Flesh Tree suffered an evil god's descent, and I just happened to go over and pick up the spoils."

Rekton's explanation had zero persuasive power for the crew of the Golden Dream. Everyone wore an expression that said, "You're pulling my leg!"

Rekton shrugged and did not explain further. He turned to look at Edwina and said:

"I'm going to rest for a bit. Call me directly if anything comes up."

"No problem."

Edwina regarded Rekton with a gaze that was somewhat complicated, then nodded gently.

The next moment, Rekton's figure grew indistinct and transparent under everyone's watch, disappearing before their eyes.

Confirming that Rekton had left the deck, Yodson immediately stepped forward several paces and stopped in front of Edwina.

Only when a faint scent of perfume reached the tip of his nose did he stop, thoroughly satisfied, and ask in a voice full of solemnity:

"Captain, do you think what he said is true? Would an evil god really descend on the Flesh Tree, and then he just happened to go over and pick up the spoils—could something like that really happen?"

"That's right, Captain. I also think this matter is a bit too coincidental."

"Second Mate" Orfes, who had sculpted-stone features and a head of brilliant golden hair, squeezed Yodson aside without leaving a trace and appeared in Edwina's line of sight.

Jodson glanced with displeasure at Orfins, who had squeezed him aside and drawn the captain's gaze, pondering how to draw the captain's attention back to himself.

"Captain, how should we divide these things?"

Bruce Walls spoke up at just the right moment, seizing the topic.

Edwina pondered briefly before saying:

"First divide these things into two portions of equal value. One portion goes to Mr. Tynus, and the crew of the Golden Dream will divide the remaining portion according to the original distribution plan."

"Do the tally first, don't rush to distribute. I'll go consult Mr. Tynus's opinion first."

"As for those characteristics and mystical items, record them first. After they're sent to the Church of Knowledge for proper processing, we'll divide them then."

"Understood, Captain."

Bruce Walls nodded with a serious expression, then led a group of crew members in beginning the inventory and tally work.

Edwina turned her head back again, looking at Jodson and Orfins, and spoke after some deliberation:

"The Flesh Tree encountering a descent of an evil god is indeed quite a coincidence, but Mr. Tynus is a Favored of Knowledge, so his words carry a high degree of credibility. Look into news about the Flesh Tree later."

"A Favored?"

The surrounding crew members who heard Edwina's words all wore expressions of astonishment and disbelief.

In their understanding, only clergy at the level of a church's archbishop or even the Pope could possibly receive a deity's favor.

Jodson curled his lips and said in a somewhat complicated tone:

"He could become a Favored? In all these days I haven't heard him mention the God of Knowledge even once. It can't be just because he gets good exam results, or, because he likes reading books, right?"

The others on the ship deeply agreed with Jodson's words. Most of them didn't know much about the Church of Knowledge, having only learned about it after coming aboard the Golden Dream.

Their deepest impression of the Church of Knowledge was: they like reading, they like making others read, and they give exams.

At dusk, the White Agate docked at Bansi Harbor.

Daniz, who had just been unilaterally discussing some legends about Bansi Harbor with Gehrman Sparrow, suddenly suggested:

"There's a restaurant here called the Green Lemon that's very famous. The pig's blood is especially delicious. Do you want to—do you want to go try it?"

Please say yes, please say yes. If I don't get out for some fresh air, I'm going to be driven mad by your rabbit, Daniz prayed continuously in his heart, hoping that Gehrman Sparrow would agree to his suggestion.

(End of this chapter)