Chapter 59 - Retaliation

"What the hell happened here? Where's Garvin's head?" a pirate in a black trench coat and a giant black hat frowned.

"The body seems without injury. The only thing wrong with it is the two long cuts on the neck. Whoever cut off Garvin's head was not the killer. Such an uneven cut; Garvin would have had more injuries before his head was cut off. I don't detect any foreign substances, mana, or spirit energy within his body," another pirate captain frowned, their ships docked alongside the wrecked vessel.

"Captains, there are more bodies below deck. Sword wounds, claw marks, and bite marks are on all the bodies. Since more bodies were found near the window, I suspect people entered the ship from the commercial ship's window below deck. Spirit energy and massive damage were discovered on one of the mana cannons. Someone at the Meteor Vessel Stage of the Pangu Continent must have done it. No Elemental Adept can damage a mana cannon," a pirate reported.

"Most of the loot is gone too. Even some of the rum and wine are missing. There's also a corpse found in one of the prisoner cages, a hole the size of a watermelon in his chest," another pirate added.

"Captain, the silver and black chest is gone," a third pirate reported.

"Fuck. Whoever killed the prisoner managed to find out about the key. They must have been fooled into thinking he'd be released and showed the key as insurance. Whoever killed him was cold-blooded enough to kill him and take the key. Might be the same guy who killed Garvin. As for Johnson's corpse, it's evident this person is also at the Element Adept Stage. However, why are there no wounds on Garvin?" one of the pirate captains pondered aloud.

"Who gives a shit, Garret? The bastard killed Garvin and took the chest. We had to ambush that secret envoy with all three of our ships. Eldest brother was the weakest, but he was the most experienced. He would have checked the commercial ship to gauge the passenger and crew's cultivation, spirit energy, or mana. They killed our brother, slaughtered his men, and stole his loot. We need to hoist the sails, man the oars, and kill them all," the other pirate captain roared. "Get ready to release the sea wolves."

"Gary, have you gone mad?! Those things cost a fortune, and you want to waste them on a fucking merchant vessel?" Garret shouted. "The price of losing one..."

"Means nothing compared to avenging our brother. Big bro is dead. I'm the head captain of our fleet now. Some of the sailors should be dead or injured. Our goal is to slow them down enough for a pincer attack with the mana cannons. Once we sink the ship, we'll know the faces of the bastards who killed Garvin," Gary snarled.

"How do we know who killed him?" Garret asked.

Gary smiled maliciously and said, "They'll be the ones who survived and escaped to our ships. We kill the sailors, beat the men, rape the women, steal their stuff, and sell the good-looking passengers to the highest bidder at Pirate Cove."

"Now that is a pretty picture. The women we captured from the envoy have started to lose the life in their eyes. I so love resistance and breaking hope and minds," Garret grinned. "You better reimburse me for the sea wolves, little brother."

"I'll let you have first pick of the women and 55% of the treasure," Gary grinned, and the two pirate captains carefully and tenderly took their oldest brother's body and sunk the ship. Within a few minutes, they hoisted the sails and manned the oars, their killing intent focused solely on the merchant vessel.

[ Back on the Commercial Ship ]

"That reckless, merciless, narcissistic, psychotic, and dumb idiot," Mei cursed as she burst into her and Lingqi's cabin.

"You should calm down, Mei. It already happened. You're a cultivator. You should understand the unspoken rule between those with power and those with less of it," Lingqi soothed as she sat on her bed. "Yes, he killed people. However, a lot more people would be dead without his plan of sending us to attack the pirates below deck by surprise. A lot more sailors would have died."

"Because of necromancy, he treated that pirate captain like a test subject. I heard that scream. We all did. I remember the first time it happened. He played with souls again. This time, it was a lone soul's scream with an even more horrifying effect. He did not absorb traces of a soul. He did something to the pirate's complete soul. I can't say anything to him, though. I also killed many more people at once," Mei sighed as she sat on her own bed with her back against the wall.

"We all killed innocent and guilty people. It all depends on how you view it," Lingqi said. "The only thing you have to ask yourself is if it was necessary. Did Lance kill them out of joy or amusement? No. He killed the sailors on deck because they witnessed something that could have blown his alias. However, what he did was expected of the World Serpent. There were many stories of him in the past. Most of them made today's incident look as... tame... as a baby tossing its food at the wall."

"I did not know that stories of him existed outside of the Pangu Continent," Mei gasped, curious.

"Of course they did. It is not every century that a creature attempts to ascend to the Immortal Realm. The number of people who have are mostly human. Lance was the World Serpent, a magical beast snake considered the most powerful and the most dangerous in all of recorded history. It was also proof that any creature with hereditary memories has the possibility to ascend, making them more valuable to humans and demons alike. To most people, the World Serpent is a scourge of history and the creature reputed to kill the most humans on any one continent. To my people of the Eastern Continent, he was a living god and the embodiment of power, determination, and resolve."

"Tell me more," Mei asked, wonder in her heart.

"There is one story deemed credible as it came from an ancestor who originated in the Pangu Continent. Long ago, there was a giant golden snake with jade eyes and sand-colored feathers on the back of its head. It was feasting on the body of a dragon, the dragon's corpse crushed as the snake's body coiled around it. The dragon's head and body were already within its mouth," Lingqi began.

"A group of practitioners at the Earth Mortal Stage saw the dragon and snake, and greed crept into their hearts. They numbered forty-two strong and were members of the sect of the nearby city. The dragon's blood alone was worth tens of thousands of bone demon coins. To see such a creature being devoured by a snake of gold, how could greed not cloud their judgment and take hold of their hearts? They assumed a grand formation and attacked the snake as it finished feeding on its wings and began on the hind legs and tail. The dragon's lower body was destroyed, and a single scale of the snake cracked as fire, water, wind, and light crashed onto its head," Lingqi continued.

"The World Serpent roared in anger, its meal ruined. It destroyed the mountain and buried the practitioners in its wake. How could they stop a creature at the peak Sky Mortal Stage? Its anger still not sated, it turned its attention to the city. It roared and spoke in human tongue. It spoke of how humans were blinded by greed and that their arrogance had a price. The World Serpent said it would be their last and final lesson. Those outside the city watched with dread as the snake slithered to the city and created pillars of earth and boulders of water. The land shook and the sky cried rain without clouds. The World Serpent was the unquestioned sovereign of water and earth. It had no equal and destroyed eight more cities before it vanished without a trace. That, Mei, is true destruction. What Lance did today was necessary. What the World Serpent did was not," Lingqi said as she finished her tale.

"So my brother did all that. He told me of his younger days. What you said must be true. He was a golden snake with jade eyes and sand-colored feathers. He's different now. Whether that's good or bad, we need to make sure he doesn't become what he once was. Immortals should pursue power, but they must also value and respect life. He does not believe that," Mei sighed and gazed at the roof.

"You can change his heart, but his soul remains. If he truly is the World Serpent, he chose reincarnation instead of ascension. However, that does not mean his soul is human. Only half is, and I believe, in the last few days, those halves merged into one complete soul," Lingqi said. "Changes are evident, but there is no telling what changed and what didn't. Right now, we conserve our strength. Lance said he detected two ships with his spirit sense. That means they will come. If my thoughts are correct, these pirates might send sea wolves after us."