Chapter 97: Battle

Lei Kedun narrowed his eyes slightly; beneath his glasses, his pupils were suffused with a layer of pale purple light. Under the gaze of the Clairvoyant Eye, many natural spirits swirled around the places where the cannonballs had strangely stalled.

"Vampires and spirit mediums? Aren't they not the path of the Bound?" Lei Kedun gazed at the smuggling ship ahead and murmured.

The smuggling ship ahead also realized it had been locked onto by the Future of the Star Supreme Commander; there was no escaping. It could only maintain distance from the other ship while firing all its cannons.

When the enemy's cannonballs approached the Future, they were blocked by a barrier made of starlight.

After a period of cannon fire exchange, the Future suffered little damage, but the enemy's ship had already been damaged.

"Get ready, boarding action." Jiadelia's voice rang out.

Lei Kedun saw that on the enemy ship, strange plants seemed to be constantly growing and spreading.

"Hey! Nina has already infiltrated the enemy ship; you'd better keep up." The voice of the Navigator, Aotuoluofu, came through.

A bridge of condensed starlight was forged between the two ships; the second mate, Wuxuezhe Xisi Daoer, led the pirates of the Future in an attack on the ship that Nina had infiltrated.

"Stay close to me!" Fulanke turned his head and reminded Lei Kedun.

Another smuggling ship, however, increased its attack intensity at this moment, firing cannonballs one after another; among these cannons were hidden some natural spirits, preparing to conceal themselves within the cannons and rush onto the Future.

Lei Kedun turned his head and glanced; Jiadelia, who was maintaining the starlight bridge, seemed unable to continue maintaining the previous starlight barrier that blocked the cannonfire.

Lei Kedun reached into his coat pocket and pinched the demon badge inside.

Three pale blue fireballs, emitting a strong sulfur smell, shot out from beside Lei Kedun. They directly struck the cannons in midair, triggering an explosion; the flames of the explosion had a poisonous effect, also affecting the natural spirits mixed among them.

Lei Kedun raised his right hand; pale blue flames ignited in his palm, and he used a Flame Cage to trap several approaching cannonballs in midair.

"Is this, the demon's power?"

Fulanke, who had not yet walked far, witnessed this and asked, somewhat surprised.

Several bolts of silver-white lightning flashed, destroying all the remaining cannonballs. Lei Kedun shrugged, realizing he had just underestimated a pirate general.

"Do we need to go over and take care of the people on that ship?"

Lei Kedun asked Jiadelia, who stood steadily before the captain's cabin.

"Are you confident?" Jiadelia countered.

Lei Kedun spoke without hesitation:

"If there's only one spirit medium, there's no problem."

"Fulanke, you and Aer go together." Jiadelia had no hesitation.

"All right, captain!"

Fulanke replied, then walked back to Lei Kedun's side.

Lei Kedun didn't wait for Fulanke to speak; he directly scattered a handful of silver powder, causing himself and Fulanke to float up and fly slowly. Beside them, Tu Ba Ge and Pas, seeing this, lunged onto the two and took off together.

In midair, Lei Kedun scattered iron-black material again, using an invisible giant hand to push the two forward rapidly.

The natural spirits and wandering souls hovering in midair spotted Fulanke and Lei Kedun in the air; under the spirit medium's control, they lunged at the two.

Lei Kedun took out a specially made dried fish snack for Fulanke from his pocket, infused it with spiritual energy, then attempted to coat it with black powder. The briefly animated dried fish snack became wrapped in strands of black aura, possessing a strong attraction to the undead.

Lei Kedun casually tossed the dried fish snack into the sea; the natural spirits and wandering souls immediately switched targets, chasing after the falling snack.

"Meow! My dried fish snack!"

Pas, perched on Fulanke's neck, let out a miserable cry.

"That's a dried fish snack Fulanke prepared for you, the kind that can come alive and jump into your mouth." Lei Kedun explained.

Pas instantly changed expression, even adding a line:

"Are there any left? I threw them all away; those things aren't dried fish snacks at all—dried fish snacks don't come alive!"

"Why? Isn't a dried fish snack that can come alive and jump into your mouth great? Weren't you just complaining to me that eating them bite by bite is a hassle?"

Fulanke never understood why, after heeding Pas's advice to improve the dried fish snack, the other party disliked it so much.

Lei Kedun really wanted to retort to Fulanke, but the enemy ship's cannons were firing at them, so he had to focus, controlling the invisible giant hand to push himself and Fulanke sideways.

As the enemy prepared a second barrage, Lei Kedun saw crystalline streams of light falling from the sky behind him onto the forward deck; soon, icicles hung one after another along the smuggling ship's rail.

"Is Jiadelia's casting range really this far?" Lei Kedun silently wondered to himself.

Then, taking the opportunity, he controlled the invisible giant hand to bring himself and Fulanke onto this ship.

Suddenly, several black, illusory flames exploded ahead, rapidly closing in on Lei Kedun and Fulanke.

Lei Kedun's eyes quickly became surrounded by blue-white light; a somewhat incomplete ring appeared behind him, its interior outlined by several twisted lines forming the image of an open book's pages, seemingly turning as if substantive.

Softly uttering the draconic word for "protect," he simultaneously scattered silver and iron-black powder from both hands; the powders quickly expanded, rotating and twisting in the air, wrapping himself and Fulanke in a barrier like fine sand, silver-black in color.

Then came a dense barrage of gunfire; many bullets struck the silver-black barrier, emitting a piercing metallic screech.

Strangely, those black flames did not actually burn toward them but clung tightly to the silver-black barrier Lei Kedun had built; they even melted some of the incoming bullets that followed.

"An otherworldly version of 'pain strike my teammate'?" Lei Kedun was somewhat puzzled by the operation of these black flames.

"Don't counterattack yet; this barrier also affects those of us inside it. When the enemy changes magazines, I will dispel this barrier, then we can act."

Lei Kedun spoke up to stop Fulanke, who wanted to retaliate.

"Ah? Then isn't your barrier just a living target?"

Fulanke asked, not quite understanding.

Lei Kedun felt embarrassed, then offered an explanation:

"My skill is limited; I can only set the barrier's effect like this to maximize its defensive capability. My thought at the time was that if it's truly unusable, throwing it onto the enemy to restrict their movements would also work."

"Haha! Really? Aer, your idea is genuinely good—too bad you're not an extraordinary cultivator of the Farmer's Path; otherwise we'd have plenty to talk about!"

Fulanke didn't at all think that the development of this spell was due to Lei Kedun's lack of skill; instead, he thought the idea was quite good.

Lei Kedun didn't respond; after the enemy's strafing barrage of bullets weakened considerably, he scattered a handful of semi-transparent powder, and a great wind arose out of nowhere, sweeping up the sand-like silver-black barrier and turning it into a storm that raged outward.

Lei Kedun then bent over, scooped up Tu Ba Ge clinging to his pant leg, and said to Fulanke, "Close your eyes."

Tu Ba Ge instantly understood, extending his tiny paw to touch the top hat on his head. His pupils dilated, and a burst of light erupted before him, turning the surroundings into a blinding white.

In an instant, Lei Kedun heard several miserable cries, including Fulanke's voice from beside him.

"Meow!" A dignified cat's cry echoed across the entire deck.

The dazzling white light had just passed, and a layer of mist rose again before Lei Kedun, then a gust of wind blew the mist toward the positions where the gunfire had been.

Lei Kedun opened his eyes and saw this scene, slightly surprised. He praised Tu Ba Ge: "Well done!"

He brought the Tu Ba Ge held in his arms to the side and set it down, then Lei Kedun took out the Demon Badge and wore it on his chest.

He uttered the demonic word "Depravity", full of corrupt and fallen meaning.

It caused the area ahead shrouded in mist to show a tendency toward becoming an abyss, and many screams came from within the mist.

Fu Lan Ke, who had not yet recovered from the flash produced by Tu Ba Ge, threw a handful of unknown seeds in the direction of the screams. These seeds rapidly grew and mutated in the air, and crimson thorns frenziedly attacked the surrounding creatures.

Lei Kedun's blue-white light faded from his eyes, replaced by a mysterious purple glow. Lei Kedun continually used the Eye of Secrets to scan the surroundings of the deck, trying to uncover the extraordinary individuals hidden among the crowd.

A wailing gust rose again, blowing away all the mist on the deck; the aura of the dead suddenly spread everywhere, counteracting the corrupt and fallen aura brought by the previous foul words.

The vines that the leaves thrown by Fu Lan Ke had turned into were quickly scorched by black flames, and meanwhile a layer of frost silently spread to his front.

From somewhere on this ship, a large horde of undead surged forth and began attacking Lei Kedun and Fu Lan Ke.

Lei Kedun scattered gray-black sunflower pollen, which burned in midair, emitting a vigorous yet non-irritating golden light that flowed like water to the surroundings; the undead that touched the golden light gave off green smoke from their "body" and finally evaporated, disappearing.

The undead surrounding Fu Lan Ke could not get close; his hair and beard, as if coming alive, directly attacked the undead. Carrying a deadly poison that terrified the undead, any of them that were touched would hiss and emit black smoke.

"Slow", "Depravity", two consecutive foul words.

The surrounding undead's movements stiffened slightly, then a thin layer of slightly viscous black liquid covered their bodies, which burst open, shattered, and turned into falling black mist.

"Wah~ These ghosts are so weak!" Tu Ba Ge exclaimed from the side.

Lei Kedun also felt doubtful; although there were many undead, their quality was low, as if they had been dragged out just to fill the numbers.

A sudden premonition from spiritual intuition struck, and Lei Kedun quickly retreated two steps following his intuition; several black flames exploded at the spot where he had been standing.

A bone-made sailor's knife surged out from a mass of undead gathering behind and stabbed straight at Lei Kedun's heart.

(End of Chapter)