Pirate Kingship-Chapter 557 - 410 How the Scroll Kings Were Trained
The deep darkness of night enveloped the land. A crescent Blood Moon hung in the sky like a blood-stained scythe of the Death God, casting an ominous, murky red light across the entire Hundred Beasts Paradise.
On the vast and wild continent, mountains undulated. The forests, many times larger than those in other places, rustled in the wind. Every blade of grass, every flower, and every stone gained life under the Blood Moon.
In the shadows baring their fangs and claws, fiendish creatures roamed, spirits wailed, and the empty forbidden secret realms suddenly teemed with a cacophony of human voices.
"All Things Have Spirit," which might be nothing more than a fanciful respect for nature among common folk elsewhere, was evidently the true state here.
On this wilderness, far larger than the Humanized World, various horrors dwelled.
There were Bizarre Thousand-legged Centipedes, with bodies like ironclad locomotives, human faces, and thousands of their numerous legs replaced by human feet.
Demon Monster·Sky Pit Worms lurked deep underground, capable of creating colossal sinkholes with a single opening of their mouths—large enough to instantly swallow an entire small human tribe.
Rotting corpses, contaminated by the Blood Moon, clawed their way out of graves, roaming in search of any hint of fresh flesh.
And then there were the Evil Spirit·Fire Ghosts, who had perished miserably in widespread forest fires. They traveled in groups through the forests, spreading the vile seeds of conflagration to swath after swath of woodland, intent on making all other creatures just like them.
At this time every day, even the boldest of natives could only shut their doors tight and seek protection from their tribal Guardian Spirits.
But even so, each night saw some small tribes overwhelmed by Evil Spirits and other Bizarre entities.
Men, women, old, and young all perished, leaving not a single survivor.
This was evident from the Book of the Beast Kinship (Volume Two), tailor-made for Nature Spirits.
Perhaps humans were never the rulers of this continent, just one of the many struggling creatures vying for survival.
The Sun Empire, living in seclusion under the protection of the Sun God Inti, was just an exception.
Under the Blood Moon, a sound pierced the sky. WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Two large Ravens, their claws clutching freshly plucked rubber tree branches with leaves, vibrated their expansive wings and streaked across the clouds at high speed.
Flying faster and faster, their bodies transformed into fleeting phantasms, now under the clouds of the Material World, now crashing through the waves of the Sea of Origin Matter, now piercing the bone-chilling winds at the Edge of the World.
They seemed to roam freely across the three layers of the world, unimpeded and unrestrained, even navigating through the peril-ridden Hundred Beasts Paradise with ease.
At the very least, entities of the Middle Sequence did not even have the right to catch a glimpse of their figures.
During one of their crossings at the Edge of the World, their eyes suddenly swiveled, and reflected in their golden pupils was the shadow of a massive Ghost Ship.
At the bow was mounted a Figurehead of the Blue Dragon King. The ship was filled with semi-transparent Dead Souls missing limbs, and a long string of Ship Coffins trailed behind it, tethered with ropes.
The sails billowed, steering a course between the Chasm Trench and the collective subconscious sea of the Bayfolk.
Numerous Ghost Battleships with unfurled battle flags and blazing ghost fires accompanied it, their might in no way inferior to the notorious Evil Spirits and Bizarre entities of the Hundred Beasts Paradise.
"If others have a hundred souls on their ship, we’ll carry a thousand on ours! If they make one voyage a week, our Blue Dragon King will make one a day! If others run a single service, we’ll organize a fleet of ferries in the Underworld! We are set on claiming the title of this year’s champion in soul-ferrying performance at the Edge of the World."
A few days ago, in the colonial war, not only did the Dragonhead Ship summon a large number of Ship Coffins and Heroic Spirits from Valhalla of Heroes to fight, but they also remained afterward.
The Colonial Fleet that arrived from afar also suffered tremendous losses.
These Dead Souls needed the assistance of the Ghost Ships to return to their homelands, to merge back into the collective subconscious sea of some place.
The money earned from ferry tickets was of no consequence to them. However, the treasures, bank account passwords, and other valuables that the Dead Souls were supposed to bring into the Underworld were an unexpected windfall, even for the Lancasters.
Moreover, while serving on the Ghost Ships, they would also receive a spiritual gift from the human collective subconscious.
Particularly, Prince Sorrenberg, having obtained the Theseus Ship Spirit Ritual, made rapid progress in elevating his Life Essence with the substantial foundation of a Fourth Order Transcendent.
The task of transporting Dead Souls in itself was a shortcut for him to swiftly enhance his power—the more he transported, the quicker his strength increased.
Just like now, Prince Sorrenberg and his Blue Dragon King were racing down the path of the "King of the Undying."
And they were more intense than any of their peers.
"Let’s set a modest goal first: to capture this year’s championship in soul-ferrying and make an appearance before the human collective subconscious."
All these changes began when Byron officially introduced Violet to his parents after confirming their relationship.
Seeing the Bay Citizen Princess, the heiress of Iron Anchor Bay, who was well-matched with his son, Edmund Lancaster’s face lit up with joy.
Suddenly, he felt his life had hope, his body brimming with energy.
In contrast to the prince’s usual luxurious lifestyle, he adopted a hardworking life of "eating less than pigs, working harder than cattle, sleeping later than dogs, and rising earlier than chickens." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
Some believe in letting the children and grandchildren forge their own fortune while they enjoy theirs.
Others adhere to the principle: better to push yourself than your offspring. Efforts by three generations can start with me, at least so my grandchildren will not have to spend ten years in arduous study to compete with the family legacies of others.
