Chapter 484: Death Notice

In the cabin of the Future, Lei Kedun, who had been lying quietly on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes; before any thoughts rose, he reached forward and pulled a peaceful, silent night veil through the air.

The scarlet moonlight in the room instantly dimmed, the ever‑present sound of waves and the howl of the gale quickly faded, and silence became the room's dominant melody.

After all that, Lei Kedun deliberately rose from the bed, took his coat from the nearby coat rack and put it on, then changed into shoes suited for movement.

Having done that, he finally got up, stood by the window and stared at the hazy sea, looking lost in thought.

Beiernadai surely also sensed the approach of the Death Notice; she is already an angel and should be able to conceal her malice, so once the Death Notice gets within a certain range, it has no chance to escape.

In the adjoining room, Ke Lai En, who maintains the image of Ge Erman Si Paruo, had just lain down to rest when a sudden unease rose in his spirit.

He quickly got up, redressed his coat, stood at the room's window and gazed at the sea for a moment, soon spotting the massive figure that had emerged in the storm.

Wooo!

A deep horn blared suddenly, echoing throughout the Future, followed by the thudding sounds of running everywhere.

Ke Lai En equipped himself with all the magical items and talismans he kept outside, and followed the ship's sailors out of the room.

Inside the Future's captain's cabin, Jia De Li Ya sounded a brown‑yellow horn.

The sailors who had been resting in the cabin instantly snapped to attention, forgoing clothing, grabbed close‑range weapons and rushed to the deck, gunports, and hull, instantly entering combat mode.

Jia De Li Ya still wore her black, classic wizard robe; she no longer wore the heavy glasses, her dark‑purple eyes appearing deep and mysterious as she stood by the captain's cabin window, gazing toward the Death Notice.

The Future and the Death Notice, which had emerged from the storm, drew ever closer, so near that Ke Lai En felt he could almost smell a pungent sulfur stench.

At the instant the Future was about to make contact with the Death Notice, a crisp sound like a chess piece dropping rang out.

In the next moment, the rolling sea froze; the spray suspended in midair lingered, the howling sea wind calmed, and the Death Notice, together with the surrounding sea, became a still tableau.

Brilliant starlight suddenly burst forth, dense and layered, bathing the sea; the two massive sailing ships seemed to sail across a river of stars.

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha!"

A harsh, hoarse, chaotic laughter erupted on the Death Notice, like delirium from the abyss, full of filth and decay; merely hearing it caused the Future's sailors to collapse one after another, wailing in agony on the deck as negative emotions festered, making them want to tear themselves apart.

The Future's hull suddenly became transparent, ethereal, turning into a mass of bubbles.

Bathed in the brilliant starlight, the bubbles reflected dreamlike colors, scattering and fluttering in the air before vanishing in an instant.

In the next instant, the Future leapt past the Death Notice, appearing thousands of meters ahead.

The sailors on the Future's deck had specks of black ooze on their skin that quickly dissipated into the air, leaving only a faint, acrid sulfur smell.

"Queen?" Jia De Li Ya's figure suddenly appeared outside the captain's cabin; her eyes scanned the Future hurriedly, yet she could not find the longing silhouette.

On the Future's deck, Ke Lai En, Fu Lan Ke, and Xi Si stood together, watching the suddenly shifting sea, still unable to react.

Fu Lan Ke whispered in disbelief:

"The upgraded Future is that powerful? It can teleport an entire ship thousands of meters instantly?"

"There are high‑rank exceptional beings aboard; one just restrained the Death Notice, the other pulled the Future away."

Ke Lai En shook his head slightly, offering a more plausible explanation.

He stared solemnly at the sea behind the Future; the area where the Death Notice lay seemed to have entered a weightless environment, causing the Death Notice and the surrounding water to float upward.

Relying on his considerable insight, Ke Lai En vaguely saw the space of that sea region becoming chaotic, shrouded by some invisible force, isolated from the outside, turning into a still picture.

On the Death Notice floating in midair, the weightless crew could not effectively steer the ship or its cannons; they strained to keep themselves from drifting out of the Death Notice into the cold sea below.

The Death Notice's black coating suddenly dripped like melting wax, the illusory, viscous black liquid formed from various emotions and desires spreading outward rapidly.

Lei Kedun was just about to wield the power of the Solar Domain to cleanse the entire Death Notice when Beiernadai's calm voice sounded in his ear:

"Don't open your eyes."

Lei Kedun froze for a moment, then realized what she intended; he promptly closed his eyes as sparkling starlight around him solidified, tightly enveloping his body.

In the next instant, an invisible beam surged into the Death Notice; the tangled knowledge did not reconstitute Beiernadai's body but instead formed a black mass sprouting countless eyes.

A frenzy of crazy, cold, sacred, and alien aura instantly spread over the surrounding sea; the Death Notice's crew's eyes bulged with blood, their heads exploded one after another like burst watermelons, red and white spilling everywhere, floating silently in the weightless void.

The torn flesh kept writhing, sprouting one cold, indifferent eye after another; even the Death Notice's hull developed cracks of various sizes, revealing deep black inside, from which eyes emerged.

Black smoke with a pungent sulfur smell seeped from every fissure of the Death Notice, while surrounding emotions and desires swelled rapidly, echoing with indescribably eerie mutterings.

Those eyes that grew from the writhing flesh and the Death Notice's cracks were cold and indifferent, showing no emotional fluctuation, utterly unaffected by the Death Notice, spreading recklessly across it.

On the Death Notice, the black mass covered with countless eyes contracted repeatedly, soon solidifying back into Beiernadai's form.

She calmly surveyed the surroundings, slightly extended her right hand forward, and summoned a dark, ancient horn imbued with a weighty, powerful resonance.

This was the Horn of Destruction; when sounded it emitted a low hum, and the overlapping soundwaves could shatter foes and space.

Beiernadai pressed the horn to her lips and blew forcefully; the Death Notice, already mired in madness and chaos, could mount no effective resistance.

Under the destructive soundwaves, the Death Notice's deck shattered layer by layer, the raised bow and stern repeatedly broke apart, and the sail bearing a black tombstone on the mast swiftly turned into black dust that dispersed into the air.

The Death Notice could not endure more than half a minute under those devastating soundwaves, leaving only scattered broken planks and splintered wood floating nearby.

Rust‑red and deep‑black specks of light seeped from the surrounding Death Notice debris, quickly coalescing into a slowly gathering dark‑red sea.

Surrounded by layers of starlight, Lei Kedun opened his eyes, glanced around briefly, and after confirming that the Death Notice and all its crew had been dealt with by Beiernadai, he tugged at the air; the surrounding brilliant starlight flickered a few times, then twisted rapidly, collapsing inward into a richly colored oil painting.

The translucent crystal sphere he held in his right hand grew hazy and dim, as if a veil of mist had seeped from within.

The surrounding weightless environment instantly normalized; seawater swept the Death Notice's wreckage like a waterfall into the sea, leaving only rust‑red and deep‑black specks of light continuously gathering in the air.

On the Future, Ke Lai En saw the sea area where the Death Notice had been, resembling a canvas torn open, revealing the true scene hidden behind it.

The massive, oppressive Death Notice had vanished, leaving only a slowly pulsating dark‑red glow and two indistinct silhouettes too far to see clearly.

Indeed, what we saw was an illusion; the real battlefield was pulled into another dimension? Those high‑rank seekers of occult knowledge, wielding enough mystic lore, are not only powerful but also sufficiently omnipotent.

He sighed inwardly, then turned his head toward Jia De Li Ya standing before the captain's cabin; from the Star Admiral's gaze he read complex emotions.

Jia De Li Ya sensed Ke Lai En's stare, glanced back, and then said:

"Rest for a while; we'll wait here for a moment."

The ritual magic set up on the Future carried her voice to every ear aboard the ship.

Amid the dark‑red glow, Beiernadai moved lightly through the air; with each step, a thick teal vine sprouted beneath her foot.

As she approached, layers of greenish vines drooped down, covering the surrounding area like a violent rainstorm, quickly forming a forest.

Bernadette's gaze lingered on the blurry crystal ball in Rekton's hand and that oil painting for a moment, then she spoke in an admonishing tone:

"They all carry hidden and extremely high-level pollution, especially that crystal ball, which seems to have been constantly trying to establish a connection with the starry sky."

Rekton nodded slightly, his gaze calm as he watched those dark red points of light gathering with suddenly accelerating speed, and he spoke with a hint of lament:

"It's a pity that the wealth plundered by the Undead King disappeared together with the Deathknell; otherwise this voyage could have been considered quite fruitful."

"Pirates who indulge in pleasure are not as wealthy as you imagine; they have no concept of saving money in their lives."

Bernadette replied offhandedly, then fell silent, quietly waiting for the aggregation of the extraordinary traits left behind on the Deathknell.

This process did not last long; the points of light floating in midair gathered ever faster, quickly forming a dark-colored mask resembling a goat's skull, its pair of curved horns covered with countless strange, twisted patterns—just looking at it made one feel uneasy, emotions surging.

Deep blue‑near‑purple radiance flowed in Rekton's pupils; his gaze fixed straight on the skull mask, the mask's originally dim gaze instantly turned into a pool of deep blackness, full of depravity and filth, brimming with desires and emotions almost solidified.

The demonic words from the abyss, full of impurity and depravity, echoed incoherently in Rekton's mind, carrying the stench of impurity, depravity, and curse.

(End of chapter)