Chapter 331: Greed God’s Bone

On the calm sea surface, a faint gray-white glow suddenly flickered.

Massive magic fluctuations intensified the waves, causing the surrounding seawater to surge into towering waves.

A dense negative energy rapidly expanded outward in all directions.

Amidst the surging waves, the outline of a ship gradually emerged and solidified into a tangible form within mere seconds.

This was no ordinary vessel.

From its appearance alone, it was hard to believe such a dilapidated ship could still sail.

The ship's sails were covered with holes of various sizes, and the planks were like rotten wood that had been decaying for many years, covered with moss, shells, and other debris.

The ship was filled with a gloomy atmosphere, and from time to time, ghosts would float out and then dive back into the cabin.

This was a ghost ship, a gold level ghost ship.

The cabin door opened, and several necromancers filed out and walked onto the deck.

They were Jian Gui, Cang Xu, and the others.

“The Main world, we're finally back!” The little skeleton Xiao Wang Zi with a big head and small frame raised his arms and shouted.

The zombie ronin Ku Feng looked at the blue sky and sea and exhaled a cloud of smoke: “Now, we are finally safe.”

After Doctor Sui Shi left, they had originally planned to leave the Ghost World as soon as possible and return to the main world.

But unexpectedly, they encountered trouble on their way back.

The main channel of the Underworld River was teeming with powerful undead beings.

Jian Gui and the others struggled desperately and narrowly escaped with their lives from a life-threatening crisis.

Even now, thinking back on it, everyone still felt a chill run down their spines.

“Even a gold level ghost ship is not safe sailing on the Underworld River.” Cang Xu was deeply impressed by his first trip to the Ghost World.

He was no longer just a head.

He had a body again.

This silver level zombie body was a gift from Jian Gui.

After Cang Xu awoke, the first thing he did was remove the zombie's head and replace it with his own.

Jian Gui was the leader of these people. Upon returning to the main world, he immediately detected his location and the time in the main world. 

After hearing Cang Xu's reflections, he explained while casting spells: “This is why I don't often use the Ghost World Transversal spell.”

“Before, there was no choice but to risk fleeing to the Ghost World.” 

“Traveling the Underworld River is extremely dangerous; one must at least reach the saint level to truly qualify for exploration.” 

At this point, he paused. 

“Alright.” 

"Our current coordinates have been confirmed. The good news is we're less than five nautical miles from the nearest safe house." 

“The bad news is: eight days have passed in the main world since we last used the Ghost World Transversal.” 

“Eight days?” Cang Xu narrowed his eyes slightly. 

In his perception, it had only been three days.

The flow of time in the Ghost World was different from that in the main world.

Furthermore, when traveling between spatial planes, it was possible to encounter time disturbances, causing a portion of time to be lost for no apparent reason.

As a magician, Cang Xu was no stranger to this kind of knowledge, he just didn't have any relevant experience.

“Eight days have passed, I wonder how the mercenary group is doing.”

“They should have reached the Ice Sculpture Kingdom by now. I wonder if they've entered the capital city.”

Cang Xu silently thought about his companions.

His primary objective on this journey was to approach Jian Gui, gain his trust, and obtain higher level knowledge.

After experiencing battles in the Underworld River voyage, he had made some progress but had lost his body.

Only his head remained intact.

After a brief rest, the necromancers boarded the ghost ship and set sail for their next destination.

Necromancers usually set up multiple safe houses.

Their situation around the world was dire, as they were being hunted down by almost all forces.

Without two or three safe houses as a fallback, the necromancers would not feel at ease.

Jian Gui's safe house was established on an uninhabited small island.

According to his rough description: the island was very low-lying. During the evening high tide, it would be completely submerged. Only between midnight and 3 PM would the island be exposed.

However, as they neared their destination, an unexpected incident occurred.

A scene of relocation came into view through their magic surveillance.

“Lord Jian Gui, is this the safe house you mentioned?” Xiao Wang Zi asked in an odd tone.

Jian Gui was also at a loss for words.

At that moment, three pirate ships were already anchored on the island.

A group of pirates were loading items onto the ships.

It was clear that the supplies Jian Gui had hidden in the safe house had been discovered by the pirates for some reason.

Now the pirates were loading the supplies onto the ships.

Ku Feng and the others looked at Jian Gui, silently asking him what to do next.

Based on the current reconnaissance results, this group of pirates was weak, not even reaching the silver level, with only three iron level pirates.

But Jian Gui was in no hurry to take action.

He first used magic to raise a thick fog to hide the entire ghost ship.

Then he asked, “They shouldn't have discovered us yet. Do you know which pirate group this is?”

Jian Gui had a certain understanding and grasp of the pirate groups operating in the surrounding area.

But the origin of the group in front of him was beyond the scope of his intelligence.

The flags of the three pirate ships were all the same.

On the white background, a large number of black lines intertwined, weaving a pattern of crossed swords.

This was not the flag of any famous pirate group.

The necromancers shook their heads, indicating that they did not know.

Qing Xin pondered, "Once the Pirate Throne appeared, every day a large number of sailors became pirates. Even inlanders who aren't sailors are willing to sell everything they own to buy ships and set sail as pirates. These people are probably of that kind." 

Qing Xin did not participate in the battle of the Underworld River.

After the battle, Qing Xin awoke from her coma and learned of everything that had happened. 

As the only living person on the ghost ship, her situation was awkward, and she had been marginalized.

Speaking up now would increase her sense of presence.

Xiao Wang Zi said, "That's probably how it is. Let's act quickly and eliminate these pirates! They dare to take our supplies!"

He was already active along several merchant ship routes, focusing on protecting his country's ships and severely cracking down on pirates.

He had no sympathy for pirates.

Jian Gui nodded slightly: “Then let's do it together, and make sure not to let a single one get away.”

Cang Xu added: "First, let's sneak up on them and destroy their communication devices as much as possible. Try to keep a few alive to gather information. At the very least, we need to know how they were able to dig up the safe house."

Jian Gui looked at Cang Xu with appreciation and agreed: “That's right.”

Fog began to gather around the pirates.

“It's getting cold!” one pirate sneezed.

More people looked up at the sky, noticing the sunlight had grown much weaker, with mist rising constantly. They cursed, “This damn weather—could a storm be coming?”

The three captains, stationed on their respective pirate ships, sensed something was amiss and urged their men to hurry.

What they didn't know was that Ku Feng and Cang Xu had quietly broken through the bottom of the ship and sneaked into the cabin.

The ghosts controlled by Jian Gui took the lead in completing the reconnaissance.

Ku Feng and Cang Xu easily destroyed the ship's long-distance communication equipment according to the intelligence.

“Attack!” Seeing that everything was ready, Jian Gui immediately ordered the general attack.

Xiao Wang Zi was already prepared and cast a spell.

Hundreds of white bone spears appeared out of thin air, descending from midair and covering the densest area of pirates.

In an instant, the pirates were killed in large numbers by the bone spears.

“Enemy attack!”

“No, my first mate...”

"What is this thing?

"Damn it, they're necromancers!"

The pirates were caught off guard by the surprise attack and immediately fell into chaos.

Ku Feng swung a sharp slash from the lower deck, striking the pirate captain standing above in a single blow.

Cang Xu charged at the gunners.

His hands transformed into claws, powerful and heavy, each strike effortlessly sending pirates flying into the air.

The pirate gunners were all broken-boned and died on the spot.

Seeing the dire situation, a pirate captain hurriedly ordered, "Sail away, sail away! Escape from here quickly."

The next moment, several wind blades flew toward them, precisely cutting down the pirate ship's sails.

“No!” The pirate captain fell into despair.

Ku Feng jumped over from the ship next to him, stabbed several times into the pirates, and then killed the captain with one stab, showing his fierce fighter spirit.

The necromancers' surprise attack was successful, and they immediately took control of the battlefield.

The pirate captain was quickly killed, and the first mate and others also perished, unable to organize any decent resistance.

Soon after, the battle was over.

Only a few pirates remained, and they were deliberately left alive by the necromancers.

It was not difficult to interrogate the pirate captives.

These people were completely terrified.

They revealed their identities—they were members of the Rope Pirates.

As Qing Xin had guessed, the Rope Pirates were a pirate gang that had recently been formed.

Jian Gui was more concerned about why this pirate gang was able to find his safe house.

“It was the Greed God's Bone,” Jian Gui sighed.

These were the remains of the fourth generation pirate king, scattered all over the world.

As long as intelligent beings obtained these bone fragments, the greed divinity inside would take effect. These bone fragments will point to the location of the deepest desires within the user's heart. 

The deputy leader of the Rope Pirates possesses a fragment of the Greed God's Bone. When passing through this area, the bone fragment reacted, leading her to discover this safe house. 

The Rope Pirates' leader and deputy leader collaborated to breach the safe house's defenses, entered it, and took some supplies.

They were in a hurry to do other things, so they left three ships behind and ordered them to move all the supplies here, while they set off with the main force.

"Magician Huo Sheng and Archer Chuan Yun. The two of them joined forces to form the Rope Pirates." After learning the name of the leader, Jian Gui and Xiao Wang Zi both remembered.

They were two famous bounty hunters.

Previously, they made a living by accepting missions and hunting down criminals.

But recently, the two of them joined forces, gave up their former lives, and became pirates.

“The sea is becoming more and more chaotic,” Jian Gui sighed, "Hurry up and clean up the battlefield, we have to leave as soon as possible. It's no longer safe here."