Chapter 2248

Blood dripped from the tip of the Zhan Long Shan. At this moment, Su Xiao was holding half a corpse in his hand—this was a pirate who had tried to ambush him.

"Cough, cough~"

The pirate captain with the headscarf leaned against the mast. One of his arms had been severed, and a slash wound extended from his chin to his chest.

Su Xiao's strength was certainly not invincible in the Viking Sea, but dealing with this second-rate—no, third-rate pirate crew was very easy. He basically hadn't even made much of a move.

As for first-rate pirate crews, they generally had over a thousand people and many pirates who possessed extraordinary abilities. Dealing with such a crew alone, it wouldn't be wise to confront them head-on. After all, they were at sea, and it was highly doubtful whether the current Doom could withstand it.

As for those three legendary pirate crews, their numbers were all over 5,000, and the captains' strengths were all in the top tier of the sixth stage.

And these legendary pirate crews all had captains with large-scale buff abilities, and their confidants were all sixth-stage boss-level in strength.

A legendary pirate crew was a sixth-stage big boss (captain) + several sixth-stage small bosses (captain's confidants, such as the first mate, second mate, etc.) + numerous sixth-stage elites. Moreover, they had even more elite cannon fodder.

It was precisely because of this that Su Xiao needed to let the Doom grow into a five-masted ship. Once that happened, he would have the capital to confront those three legendary pirate crews head-on.

As the location for the third round of the Strongest Contest, the pirates in the Viking Sea were certainly not to be trifled with; otherwise, the 15-day time limit to reach Luoshi Island wouldn't have been given.

Su Xiao flicked the blood off his long blade and sheathed it. He walked to the front of the pirate captain.

"I ask, you answer."

"You, go to hell, don't even think..."

"Kill him."

As soon as Su Xiao finished speaking, Amu, holding a frost warhammer, smashed it down.

Boom!

Wood chips flew. The pirate captain, who was already severely injured, died instantly. No treasure chest dropped.

Su Xiao's gaze turned to the next pirate. This pirate with rotten teeth knelt on the ground, his eyes darting around, clearly looking for a chance to escape.

"Where is the nearest island to this sea area?"

"It's, it's to the southeast. Barren Island is over there. Only... I can read nautical charts."

Clearly, this pirate's will to survive was very strong. In his panic, he had almost blurted out, "Only the captain can read nautical charts," but he immediately changed his words, lying that he could read them too.

"Give me the chart."

"It was burned by Little Fenke, but I remember all the squiggles and circles on it. Believe me, I can lead you to Barren Island!"

Given the cultural literacy of pirates, being able to describe a map as "squiggles and circles" was actually quite good.

"Hmm, then thank you."

Hearing this, the pirate kneeling on the ground was overjoyed. In reality, this was a change in expression he had deliberately revealed, intending to deceive Su Xiao.

"It's nothing, my lord... thank you for your appreciation. I will definitely offer my loyalty. I am..."

"Kill them all."

Su Xiao walked toward the captain's cabin. Baja swooped down from above and instantly killed the pirate kneeling on the deck.

Read charts? My lord? Loyalty? A pirate's promise was not worth believing.

Compared to the pirates in the Viking Sea, most pirate crews in the Pirate World were practically law-abiding citizens.

Burning, killing, looting, treacherous, cruel, and vicious, with an average number of recognized digits below 5, yet exceptionally cunning—that was a pirate.

The sounds of killing soon subsided, and the pirates on the ghost ship were wiped out.

Inside the captain's cabin, Su Xiao looked at the nautical chart on the table. After studying it for a while, he concluded that he basically couldn't understand it.

If it were a standard nautical chart from a kingdom, even if Su Xiao couldn't understand it completely, he could generally distinguish the direction. But this thing was drawn by pirates; it was a piece of dirty fabric, and by the looks of it, it had been inherited from generations of pirates.

Besides this chart, Su Xiao also found a somewhat crude compass and a small bag of dark yellow gold coins. These coins were about the size of a thumbprint, the gold quality wasn't pure, and there were seven or eight different seals on them.

These were gold coins from different kingdoms. Although the seals were different, the weight and specifications were basically the same and could be used interchangeably. There were 37 of them in total.

Judging from the number of gold coins, either the purchasing power of these coins was astonishing, or this pirate crew was poor.

Taking these items, Su Xiao returned to the Doom and controlled the Doom's sails to make the entire ship back up.

The wooden planks creaked and cracked. The Doom pressed down on the sea surface with a 'boom' and stabilized after reaching a certain depth.

Amu tied the cables, and the Doom set sail, dragging the ghost ship behind it. Although this ship looked dilapidated, it was artificially aged. One could only say this was the wisdom of pirates.

This ship could be sold. Having this world's currency would make things much more convenient.

Inside the Doom's captain's cabin, Su Xiao, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang, Baja, and Benny sat around the wooden table, looking at the nautical chart.

"Meow?"

Benny pointed its claw at a circle on the chart, meaning: "Based on my experience with connect-the-dots, this is Barren Island."

"Woof."

Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang expressed opposition; it felt that the big 'X' was Barren Island.

"This thing is probably an ancestral diaper."

Baja started talking nonsense again.

"Judging from the direction, it seems to be here."

Su Xiao pointed to the upper diagonal of the chart. He had acquired the language ability of this world, but unfortunately, there wasn't a single word on the chart; it was all markings.

After roughly determining the direction, the Doom accelerated. It had to be said that although mastering this living ship had risks, the benefit of it being alive was that it could sail on its own.

It didn't reach the level of 'automatic navigation,' but sailing in the same direction was no problem.

At 9:00 PM that night, Benny, who was on night watch at the bow, discovered the situation. Su Xiao had guessed correctly before: the distorted circle on the chart was indeed Barren Island.

On the pitch-black sea, a firelight appeared in the distance, like a lighthouse.

Seeing this firelight, Su Xiao thought: Barren Island was not the territory of any kingdom. It was already 9:00 PM; normal ships would have returned to port long ago and wouldn't need this kind of navigation beacon.

Only pirate ships dared to sail at night. They even dared to hunt large sea beasts, so sailing at night was naturally a piece of cake.

Arriving in the shallow water area, Su Xiao saw a row of large ships. Under the illumination of the navigation beacon, they were all black-sailed pirate ships.

Dropping the anchor, Su Xiao jumped onto the ice surface frozen by Amu and soon reached the beach by the island. The beach was full of messy footprints and many dirty wine bottles.

He had arrived at Barren Island. This was a pirate island. Most of the area was in a primitive state, overgrown with vegetation. At the front of the island, there were stone or wooden houses, with a scale about the size of a village—deformedly developed, at least by the standards of this world.

Over 70% of these buildings were a combination of taverns, inns, restaurants, and brothels. As for the remaining houses, they either sold cold weapons and firearms or sold goods related to ships.

Small as it was, it had everything. As a pirate island, Barren Island presented a chaotic and free scene.

Because it had just rained, the roads between the houses were full of mud. Faint snoring could be heard from the mud—these were pirates who had been thrown out of taverns after getting drunk and having no money.

A small portion of pirates were indeed well-off and possessed extraordinary abilities, but over 90% of pirates lived a life of "here today, gone tomorrow." Even if they had just finished a bloody battle with other pirates and had an arm or leg chopped off, after a rough bandage, as long as they had a bottle of rum, they could laugh out loud.

Walking on the muddy road, Su Xiao was just about to pass a tavern when he stopped.

A man wearing a black and gold robe, a hood, and a lazy expression walked out of the tavern. Without even needing to perceive, Su Xiao judged that this was a spellcaster—a spellcaster from the Arcane Eternal Star.

"Uh~ this is awkward."

The person who came also saw Su Xiao. His expression was lazy and vaguely helpless.

"How about we just pretend we never saw each other?"

The spellcaster Hugh, who let everything take its course, sighed. He was not hostile toward Law-Breakers; in fact, he even agreed with the Law-Breakers' view that elemental balance should not be broken.

"Hugh, what are you..."

A female voice came. Dilin, with short hair and ears full of studs, walked out of the tavern.

Following Hugh's gaze, Dilin shifted her line of sight and saw Su Xiao, who was a dozen meters away.

"Hugh, let's join forces to get rid of him."

As soon as Dilin finished speaking, golden elemental ripples emerged behind her.

"I refuse."

"Why? Which nerve of yours is wrong again!"

"Dilin, answer me two questions, and I'll join forces with you."

Hugh yawned, looking like he was ready to go back to sleep.

"Speak."

Dilin was somewhat gritting her teeth.

"Question one: Before this, have I ever seen him? Question two: Do I have a grudge against him?"

"This..."

Dilin was speechless. What Hugh said seemed to have no problems at all.

PS: (Originally planned to update at 12:00. After waking up at 5:00 AM, I wanted to be lazy for a while, then I closed my eyes and opened them—it was 5:15. Smile, peace of mind, close eyes, continue sleeping, open eyes again—it's 11:00! Damn it!)