Chapter 330: The Sailor's Duel

Having prepared their spellcasting materials in advance, Xia De and Miss Difa continued forward.

As the terrifying, sickly green light became increasingly clear, the end of the staircase finally appeared below. There were no rooms in the next deck; the entire level had been largely opened up, likely the area where this ship originally stored cargo and held entertainment.

Rotten wooden crates and burlap sacks were piled around, revealing the goldware and jewelry inside. Pearls, human bones, and gemstones of various colors were scattered across the floor, gorgeous yet evil. Skulls hanging from the deck above swayed back and forth with the ship's motion, the green ghostly light within the skulls illuminating the space, while human skeletons clad in ornate armor stood by the walls.

The air on this deck was even more humid. In the center of the cabin, covered in jewelry and silt, sat a long table entwined with seaweed.

The ghostly pirate undead were gathered around the table, either playing cards or drinking and rowdiness. Even though they had turned into undead, the deformities of their bodies remained. Although most appeared human, various strange marine creature features seemed to have been forcibly stitched onto their limbs, most of which were fish-like traits.

In contrast to this terrifying scene, the tableware on the table actually contained food acceptable to normal humans. Fragrant roasted chicken was placed whole on a platter, surrounded by green vegetables; purple grapes were arranged in bunches in a silver basin, reflecting eerie luster under the firelight of the skulls; thick, fragrant fish soup sprinkled with spices steamed, the fish head protruding from a pure gold soup bowl, its fish eyes seemingly watching Xia De and Miss Difa as they appeared at the stairwell.

The moment their figures were illuminated by the firelight in the skulls hanging above, all the sailor undead in the cabin turned to look at him. Perhaps not expecting the eerie phenomenon of cracks appearing everywhere on a human, Xia De clearly felt the surprise of the souls.

Yet they did not swarm over in a crowd to try and tear Xia De and Miss Difa apart; instead, they maintained an eerie calmness.

Silence descended, the swaying skull lamps causing strange light and shadows to flicker alternately at the stairwell. Only the sound of the fish tail in the soup bowl occasionally appeared. The fishy smell, the ocean's dampness, the stench of corpses, and the moldy smell of wood mixed together and rushed toward Xia De, but instead, it made him swallow a mouthful of saliva, and then he became even hungrier.

He did not smell the deliciousness of the food on the long table, but just by looking at it, his already vigorous appetite was magnified once again.

Thump, thump, thump~

Breaking this silence was the sound of fingers tapping on the table. Xia De looked up and discovered the only person among the evil spirits watching him who seemed to still be alive.

It was a middle-aged man with a big beard, around forty years old, wearing an ornate dark blue dress suit, with over a dozen medals of different styles hanging on his chest. His sleeves were rolled up, his two hands placed on the table, but his right hand seemed to be missing a little finger; other than that, his nine fingers were covered in gold rings. On his head, he wore a black tricorn hat, with a skull embroidered in white thread in the center.

He clearly had the face of a human male, but that face displayed an ugly posture Xia De had never seen before. The entire upper body wearing clothes looked like it was wrapped in a layer of mucous membrane, but it also looked like a layer of transparent scales.

This was likely the captain of this 【Fish Bone Pirate Ship】. He squinted his eyes, looking at Xia De, his fingers deliberately tapping the table with unusual force. If the first three taps were to make everything here notice him, then the subsequent dozen or so forceful taps were definitely intended to intimidate Xia De.

It was just that Xia De, who was so hungry he wished he could gain a sense of satiety from the air, didn't care at all why the other party was tapping the table. The hollow feeling in his stomach made him feel that even if a steamed elephant were placed in front of him now, he could definitely eat it.

He just felt that the middle-aged man tapping the table, although fierce-looking, was truly ridiculous. Trying to use such means for intimidation was just a laughable expression of primitive people's worship of raw power.

"Actually two people coming together? You are the seventh and eighth people to come before me in the last hundred years."

He finally spoke, his turbid but exceptionally spirited eyes looking like protruding fish eyes, sizing up Xia De by the sickly green light, and then his ring-bearing fingers tapped the table fiercely once more:

"Man, are you willing to board the ship?"

"Not willing."

Xia De shook his head immediately. He blocked in front of Miss Difa, his eyes carefully sizing up the evil spirits in the cabin. Just as he had expected, after arriving at the lowest deck, the female sorceress's power was indeed weakened to a greater extent due to the existence of the evil god's power.

"Not willing? Good, the rules of the sea: if you want to stay here and talk to me, beat one person. You can go together; whoever wins can do it."

The hoarse voice was exceptionally fierce, a cruel expression appearing on the captain's face. After speaking, he reached out and pointed to his left.

A tall, one-eyed pirate, who had one leg on a stool and was arm-wrestling with a companion, stood up. The evil spirit's height was about the same as Xia De's, but its arm was as thick as Xia De's thigh.

"Pah~"

It spat unceremoniously to the side, its right hand reaching toward its waist, and then it pulled out a scimitar embedded with rubies from somewhere.

That was not an appendage of a soul, but a scimitar that truly existed. With the appearance of the weapon, the soul that had barely managed to retain its sanity completely turned into an evil spirit. The sickly green light around its body bloomed, making it pounce toward Xia De like a ball of light.

The appearance of the evil spirit not only brought mental pressure and a cold wind that seemed to pierce the soul, but Xia De, who was sensitive to souls, saw more things in that ball of green light—he saw countless mermaid-like creatures the size of ants swimming inside that riddled soul.

"Silver Moon!"

His finger pointed forward, but this power, which almost had absolute suppression over evil spirits, only bloomed with light the size of a grain of rice this time.

"Bad, the cabin is suppressing Silver Moon."

Too late to think more, Xia De, who had already fallen behind, swung his right hand, which was held in a void, forward. A holy silver two-handed sword appeared in his hand, and the scimitar in the sailor evil spirit's hand also slashed over.

Clang~

The two collided, the blade in Xia De's hand shattered immediately, and he himself retreated two steps, being supported by Miss Difa standing at the cabin entrance, so he didn't fall directly onto the last step.

"The opponent's strength is much greater than mine, but it doesn't have an absolute advantage!"

Sweeping with cold wind, the evil spirit roared and rushed toward Xia De again, but at this moment, in the void in front of him, a moonlight greatsword appeared again.

"Blade of Disordered Time!"

At the same time, Xia De disappeared from his original spot and appeared behind the evil spirit. While the opponent was swinging its scimitar to shatter the greatsword in front of it, Xia De behind it thrust out with both hands holding the sword, precisely piercing the evil spirit's body from the rear.

Stirring forcefully, the greatsword emitting holy silver radiance stirred a large hole in the evil spirit's body. But the evil spirit did not dissipate; on the contrary, the ant-like mermaid group swimming in that sickly green light quickly repaired the wounds on its body.

"This is not a simple evil spirit!"

The scimitar swung backward, and Xia De was forced to abandon his weapon and retreat. But this time, that brutal sailor did not continue to pursue; the damage Xia De caused was not without effect.

Boos came from the watching sailor evil spirits, the rowdy sound making Xia De's fight with the sailor seem like a game pleasing them.

Xia De's feet stepped firmly on the floor, squinting his eyes to look at his opponent. Although he had little experience in fighting alone, he could roughly estimate that this opponent could basically be equated to a Third-Ring or Fourth-Ring sorcerer holding a relic.

Of course, if it weren't for his immunity to the mental influence of this special evil spirit, the opponent could even be regarded as a mid-level sorcerer around the Seventh Ring.

【What are you prepared to do?】

She whispered in his ear.

"Very simple, that Princess is acting very much like it."

Ding, ding, ding~

The captain tapped the table forcefully with his fingers again, urging the two not to stop.

The continuous sound had the effect of stimulating violent emotions; the nine rings the captain wore on his hands were not just for show.

Hearing the captain's urging, the evil spirit holding the scimitar, in that ball of sickly green light, skillfully performed a sword flourish with the scimitar, and then slashed at Xia De in front of it again.

Xia De squinted his eyes, facing the incoming slash without swinging his sword to block again, because the next moment, an arrow with natural colors pierced through its head from behind the evil spirit sailor.

The archer beside Miss Difa, who hadn't participated in the battle at all just now, slowly disappeared. The evil spirit with a large hole in its head turned around and was about to pounce on the young girl, but Xia De had already pounced up, his fingers piercing into the crack in the evil spirit's head.

Spiritual bodies were originally impossible to touch directly, but because of the 【Soul Echo】 wonder, his hand touched the inside of the evil spirit's head. Subsequently, a weak moonlight, only the size of a grain of rice, lit up at his fingertips. Just this weak light actually melted the sailor evil spirit's head, playing a greater role than the sword strike just now.

Because the evil spirit's skull melted, Xia De's hand went on to grab its body. But at this time, the pirate captain sitting by the long table suddenly spoke:

"Wait!"

He squinted his eyes and looked at Xia De. Xia De hesitated for a moment, glimpsing Miss Difa shaking her head slightly, so he asked:

"Does it count as my victory?"

"You won."

"Good."

He let go of his hand, and the sailor, left with only a body, immediately dissipated into cold black mist. As the black mist exploded, it appeared by the table again, the head on its shoulders slowly recovering. When the mouth appeared, it spat to the side immediately, clearly very unwilling to accept its own failure.

Seeing the two weak humans win by such "despicable" means, the sailors by the table became vaguely restless.

But Xia De didn't care; the captain was restraining those evil spirits, and this ship also had to follow rules. It hunted souls for the evil god, but the evil god was constrained by the True Gods, and no existence could act recklessly in the material world; even hunting had to follow rules. ===== CHAPTER 331 =====