Chapter 2247

Seeing the Doom's Destructive Heavy Cannon ability, Su Xiao was very satisfied. This thing wasn't meant to bombard conventional enemies, but to bombard ships.

A ship of the same specification, after taking one shot from the Doom, would be basically scrapped even if it didn't sink; it would be impossible to continue sailing.

As for the abilities that hadn't been unsealed, one was diving into the seawater to sail; although the speed was fast, it couldn't sail for too long.

And the last one was the Doom's true power: awakening the cursed crew members. The Doom was judged as Su Xiao's summon, and Su Xiao could naturally control those Cursed Ones, though their combat power was still unknown.

Su Xiao basically understood the current situation, which led him to speculate that the third round of the Strongest Contest should be the longest of the five rounds.

Reaching Luoshi Island, or Terror Island, within 15 natural days—the danger level along the way was predictable.

However, Su Xiao already had a ship. With the Doom's sailing ability, the difficulty for Su Xiao to reach Luoshi Island was more than 70% lower than that of other participants.

In this way, he had more ample time. There was a high probability of an Old God's existence in the Viking Sea, so 'visiting' it on the way was a quite good choice.

There were three benefits to killing an Old God: he could obtain Living Bones and also improve the quality of the growth-type equipment 【God's Judgment】.

The current God's Judgment was Legendary grade, with the effect: every 1 point of Soul Strength increases Health by 80 points and Nerve Reflex Speed by 0.5% (already increased by 12,000 Health and 75% Nerve Reflex Speed).

If 【God's Judgment】 were upgraded to Epic or even Holy Spirit grade, the boost to Su Xiao would be quite exaggerated, as the current 【God's Judgment】 was only Legendary grade.

Besides upgrading 【God's Judgment】, killing an Old God could also yield Soul Coins, though the tier of the Soul Coins was unknown for now.

Not only the above gains, but if the ability was suitable, Su Xiao could also obtain soul memories through the Soul Eater talent, thereby improving himself.

Generally, to find an Old God, one had to start from myths and legends, and in the Viking Sea, one could narrow the scope to myths and legends at sea.

Whether it was reaching Luoshi Island or finding an Old God, Su Xiao needed to come into contact with the natives of this world.

The sea breeze blew against his face. Baja landed on the upper crossbar, acting as a lookout, while Amu was responsible for steering. If a battle broke out, Benny would take over.

As for Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, it was squatting in the premium seat at the bow, squinting its dog eyes and enjoying the sea breeze. What it didn't know, however, was that in most cases, the bow's ram was the easiest part to be hit by cannonballs.

Su Xiao had no clear sailing goal for now and could only sail as fate dictated. He urgently needed to find a pirate ship or an island; this was the most effective means of obtaining information.

Unfortunately, until the sky grew dark, he hadn't encountered any other ships, and as for islands, he hadn't even seen a shadow.

Night fell, and there was no moon in the sky tonight, leaving the sea pitch black.

Inside the captain's cabin, the candlelight was dim and yellow. Compared to the cold, damp deck, it was dry and comfortable.

Su Xiao sat on the wooden bed in the captain's cabin. Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, Amu, Baja, and Benny were all inside. Because they were so bored, the four of them had started playing rock-paper-scissors, with the loser getting slapped in the mouth.

Before long, a teary-eyed Benny jumped onto the wooden bed and curled up beside Su Xiao's leg. Its right cat-cheek was slightly swollen; just a moment ago, it had almost been slapped against the wall by a friendly big slap from Amu. It wasn't that it couldn't handle losing, but it was too painful. That blockhead Amu, after winning, had aimed and charged up its strength when slapping Benny's mouth. Benny had almost been slapped to tears, its head buzzing.

Su Xiao opened his eyes. For some reason, he felt the temperature in the captain's cabin getting lower and lower.

Wisps of cold mist appeared in the air, and the dim candlelight flickered as if it might go out at any moment.

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang merged into the environment and activated 【Holy Traveler】, passing through the wooden wall of the captain's cabin.

"Woof."

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang's slightly trembling bark came. Just as Su Xiao pushed open the door to the captain's cabin, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang darted behind him and hugged Su Xiao's leg, clearly frightened.

Creak—

A harsh sound of wooden planks rubbing appeared. A large ship was sailing head-on toward the Doom. In the darkness, this ship was like an evil spirit of the sea.

Mist spread along with this ship, and tattered sails fluttered in the wind.

Seeing this ship, Su Xiao immediately thought: it was a ghost ship.

"Finally encountered another ship."

Su Xiao's hand pressed against the wooden wall of the captain's cabin. The Doom's sails suddenly billowed, catching the wind to accelerate, as if it had discovered prey.

At the same time, on the ghost ship sailing head-on.

"How is it? Has that ship turned its helm? Prepare to fire."

"Captain, something's not right."

"What's not right?"

"That ship... is charging at us."

"?"

"Prepare for impact!"

Clang, clang, clang...

The sound of iron striking echoed. This ghost ship, which looked eerie, became lively. As for how it sailed with those tattered sails...

Indeed, the deck of the ghost ship was very quiet, and the surroundings were full of mist, creating an eerie atmosphere. But if one entered the cabin below the deck of the 'ghost ship,' one could see a large group of sweaty, shirtless pirates pushing large oars with all their might. The funny thing was that to maintain the eerie, quiet atmosphere of the ghost ship, their shouting was very low.

At this time, the deck of the ghost ship was in chaos. Pirates were running around, some pushing ship cannons, others roaring loudly.

"Quick! Hard to port!"

"Load the cannonballs, sink that ship!"

"It's, it's too late! Grab the gunwale!"

Amidst the roars, the Doom rammed in from the side.

Crack!

The Doom's ram directly cut through the side of the ghost ship, sending large pieces of wood flying. The ghost ship let out a creaking 'groan,' and the hull began to tilt.

The pirates on the ship exclaimed in shock. As for their thoughts, besides regret, there was nothing else.

The Doom was almost about to 'ride' on top of the ghost ship, with nearly half of its hull out of the water.

The two ships soon stabilized. The captain of the ghost ship led more than 50 pirates to stand on the deck, their eyes fixed on the Doom.

The scene that followed was one that this pirate captain and the crowd of pirates would never forget for the rest of their lives.

The wooden planks at the front of the Doom spread open like ribs, and the entire ship came alive.

"What... what kind of ghost ship is this?"

A pirate spoke with a trembling voice. One might ask, what is the most feared thing to encounter at sea? Sea beasts? Other pirates? A kingdom's fleet? None of those; the most feared thing to encounter at sea is a ship with extraordinary abilities.

Tap, tap, tap...

Gentle footsteps came from the high-raised Doom. Below, the pirate captain, who was wearing a black headscarf and holding a flintlock pistol, swallowed hard.

"Finally, found living people."

Hearing this, the pirate captain's eye twitched. This line sounded familiar—no, he often said this himself to intimidate enemies. But this time, they seemed to have encountered a real 'ghost ship.' Walk the night path too often, and you'll eventually meet a ghost.

A figure leaped down from above and stood on the deck of the ghost ship.

Just as Su Xiao stood on the deck, Amu landed behind him with a dull thud.

"Boss, what now?"

"Kill half first."

Su Xiao drew the Zhan Long Shan from his waist. These pirates were not coming with good intentions; they were clearly here to raid. He certainly wouldn't consider negotiations. To deal with these pirates, one had to use a method even more ruthless than theirs.

Choose to return evil with kindness? Don't joke. In the Viking Sea, returning evil with kindness would only lead to them becoming even more rampant.

Moreover, that was simply not Su Xiao's style. As long as the situation allowed, he never let a grudge go overnight. When encountering pirates, the way to go was to kill these guys until they trembled first.