Chapter 151: The Prodigal

Boom! Rumble... Out on the open sea, the sturdy, gigantic vessel suddenly and inconceivably snapped right down the middle! Terrifying fissures rapidly spread upward from the bottom of the ship! Within a single breath, the entire hull had split into two halves!
Both ends tilted high into the air as a vast number of crew members tumbled into the water.
The hull sank rapidly.
The accident happened so swiftly and so suddenly that nobody even had time to lower the backup escape boats. They could only watch helplessly as the two fractured ends of the vessel kicked up massive waves, slowly dragging everything on board down into the sea.
Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!
Over a hundred dark figures flew into the air from every corner of the ship.
Staring at the completely ruined wreckage of the vessel and the countless crew members struggling for survival on the sea, their faces were all ashen, yet filled with a mixture of shock, anger, and awe.
For the Fish-Arrow Mercenary Corps to roam the seas for decades and build such a formidable reputation, this colossal warship had contributed immensely. Having weathered countless battles, the structural integrity and impact resistance of every part of it were exceptionally high!
Even an Eight-Star powerhouse would find it difficult to silently severely damage and destroy the vessel in a short span of time... let alone with so many Eight-Star powerhouses standing guard aboard.
The veteran captain shook his purple-gold smoking pipe, rings of purple battle qi enveloping his entire body as he hovered mid-air, barking rapid orders to those around him:
"You few, take people down to salvage the ship and hurry up to rescue our drowning brothers."
"Everyone else, search!"
"I want to see who dared to destroy my ship!"
"Understood!"
The others acknowledged the orders in succession, darting off in all directions. Their spiritual perception fully unleashed, they overlapped their searches across the surrounding area... Everyone else was also meticulously scanning every face bobbing in the water.
After the hundred-odd people dispersed to carry out their respective tasks, Xu Wen, Old Xie, and Wang Xiaoshuai, standing atop the back of the Dark Wind Condor, suddenly stood out clearly!
The moment the disaster struck, Old Xie had protected the two of them and flown away from the sinking vessel using airborne movement.
Hovering directly above the three of them was a gloomy, dark silhouette that went completely unnoticed by anyone else. Yet, its chilling and immense aura, combined with the biting cold breeze sweeping past, was something no one dared to underestimate.
Budong had not anticipated that, having just learned about the three major pirate groups and before even having time to make preparations, the situation would escalate to this current state.
Regardless of who the attacker targeting the Fish-Arrow Mercenary Corps' vessel was... successfully destroying the ship had instantly reduced the corps' strength by thirty percent. Under such circumstances, if they were to encounter a pirate group now, the consequences would be unimaginable!
The fact that the opponent could instantly destroy the vessel right under his protection clearly established their identity as a Nine-Star powerhouse.
In this situation, even he lacked absolute confidence in his ability to keep everyone safe.
"Master!"
Two calls came from below, as Ku'er and Bi'er, both dressed in dark robes, arrived together.
Glancing at Bi'er's disheveled hair and clothes that were soaked through by nearly half, one could easily imagine how flustered and panicked she must have been when facing such a sudden emergency.
However, his attention only lingered on Bi'er for a fraction of a second before quickly shifting to the other female.
The androgynous, mysterious dark-robed figure had her black robes soaked through, clinging tightly to her body. The graceful, exquisite curves thus exposed made Xu Wen's heart skip a beat, and for some reason, he was overcome with a breathtaking sense of accidental exposure, prompting him to take a few extra glances.
Noticing Xu Wen's burning gaze, Ku'er let out a cold hum.
Swirls of black mist shrouded her, instantly blurring her stunning curves.
"Master, what happened?"
Bi'er was in no mood to pick a fight with Xu Wen right now.
With the ship destroyed, the remainder of this journey was going to be agonizingly difficult, not to mention that she still had no clear idea of their team's current predicament.
Unfortunately, the incident had happened too abruptly and the situation was too urgent. Budong had neither the mood nor the time to explain to his two disciples. The moment Bi'er spoke, his gaze suddenly shifted toward a specific spot on the sea.
With a wave of his large sleeve:
"Stay here."
Before his voice even faded, a flash cut through the air, and he vanished from his original spot.
The next second, Budong appeared before Xu Wen's group.
Gazing intently at the patch of ocean where the sunken ship had broken into two, Budong materialized a pitch-black staff out of thin air. There was no chanting, nor any overwhelming fluctuation of magical power.
Dense volleys of black light arrows emerged endlessly, resembling tongues of fire spewing from a six-barreled Gatling gun, slamming into the sea with astonishing momentum!
Xu Wen's gaze narrowed:
Found them?
Without any incantation, this instantly-released magic was vastly inferior in momentum to the Emperor-Breaking Golden Flame Arrow, but the offensive power of every single dark arrow was several times that of the golden flame arrows.
Faced with such a dense and aggressive barrage of attacks, even a Nine-Star powerhouse would likely find it hard to fend off!
The sea surface strafed by the dark arrows instantly began to boil! Water splashed wildly and densely!
Splash!
The surface of the sea suddenly burst open from below, and a glowing blue light rapidly rose into the air, revealing itself to everyone.
Frequent and dense whistling sounds rang through the air as the Eight-Star experts of the Fish-Arrow Mercenary Corps emerged from all directions, forming a tight circle that penned the figure right in the middle!
The veteran captain's face was ashen as he stared fixedly at the hazy, blurred figure within the water barrier. Suppressing the rage and killing intent raging in his chest, he demanded through gritted teeth:
"What grievance do our brothers have with Your Excellency? How could you be so vicious as to destroy our livelihood! Today, you had better give us an explanation!"
Since the opponent could calmly slip away from Budong's hands, their Nine-Star strength was beyond doubt. Even if they intended to kill him, it was best to remain vigilant and cautious.
The adversary floated arrogantly in mid-air, completely disregarding the people surrounding him on all sides. He locked his gaze directly on Budong in the distance, a trace of a mocking, cold smirk playing on his lips:
"In the boundless sea, you protect ships and I rob them. It is an inherent conflict, as natural as water and fire! So, spare me your high-sounding, pompous bullshit... Saying so much, aren't you just trying to figure out my identity? I am a Water-elemental mage; that shouldn't be too hard to guess, right?"
The veteran captain's pupils contracted, and his heart instantly sank!
The opponent's words clearly amounted to an admission of his identity as a pirate!
However, among the three major pirate groups, there was only one Water-elemental mage—the leader of the "Heavenly King," commonly known as the Divine Dragon of the Sea. He specialized in ambushing tough nuts that ordinary pirate groups found hard to crack, and was the pirate chieftain that countless top mercenary groups prayed to the gods and Buddhas never to cross. Approaching silently from beneath the water and launching a surprise attack was his signature specialty.
Against other Nine-Star powerhouses, they still stood a chance; but against someone like this, escaping alive from this boundless ocean was simply out of the question.
"Your Excellency is the leader of the 'Heavenly King' pirate group... the 'Wanderer'?" The veteran captain's tone softened considerably. Though he still put up an exceptionally tough front on the surface, anyone could tell he was merely bluffing.
"Since you already know who I am, I'll give you two choices!"
Extending two fingers, the Wanderer's full-of-confidence voice clearly reached the ears of everyone within a radius of one kilometer:
"Either bind yourselves right here, surrender, and follow me to Heavenly King Island to become my subordinates; or be executed on the spot and tossed into the sea to feed the sharks. Choose for yourselves."
"..."
A tone symbolizing a death sentence, heard by the members of the party, left them breaking out in cold sweat.
Taking a deep breath, the veteran captain pondered carefully for a moment before responding:
"Leader Wanderer, the Heavenly King Mercenary Corps normally only plunders valuables and women. For you to suddenly demand that we be taken back to your esteemed island is going rather too far. How about this: I guarantee not to pursue the matter of our destroyed vessel, and I will additionally offer up fifty thousand gold coins. Could you please show some leniency?"
For the leader of the Fish-Arrow Mercenary Corps to utter such words—swallowing his pride and biting down his teeth—was more than enough to illustrate the sheer weight of the names "Wanderer" and "Heavenly King."
"That was the going rate in times of peace, but market conditions have changed recently! Everything on you belongs to me. Anyone passing through here, no matter who they are, either comes back to the island with me or dies. Choose for yourself." The Wanderer's tone shifted, and he swiftly locked his gaze onto the only opponent in the distance who posed a threat to him.
Hearing the overbearing tone of the assailant, Budong finally could not hold back any longer!
"We have made our stance this clear, yet Your Excellency still insists on driving people into a dead end. Isn't that going a bit too far?"
"Too far?"
The Wanderer sneered: "Whether I, the Wanderer, go too far is not for someone from the Dark Empire like you to preach about, nor do you have the qualification. We pirates merely bring disaster to a region, whereas you people of the Dark Empire aim to destroy the entire Soul Continent. Compared to you, I am far, far more merciful!"
"..."
Budong's expression turned even gloomier as his tone shifted:
"In that case, does Your Excellency insist on forcing us to make a move?"
"Make a move? It seems you intend to choose the second option after all." The Wanderer let out a humpph: "So be it!"
"I'll come and test your First-Tier Nine-Star Dark Magic. In the Dark Empire's necromancy market, the corpses of cultivators up to the Ninth Star are all clearly priced. Unfortunately, the corpses of Ninth Star cultivators have always had a market price without any actual supply. Taking you back to sell you off should fetch a pretty penny, I believe."
Those words were venomous indeed.
However, Budong was not one to willingly swallow a loss either:
"Whose corpse ends up on the market is still hard to say."
Indeed, it was hard to say... Although the Wanderer had advanced to the Ninth Star a bit earlier, his cultivation surpassed Budong's, and he had the ocean to aid him, giving him the advantage of time and terrain, how could Budong lack a trump card of his own?
A Dark Mage's demonic transformation forbidden technique could mold him in a short time into a magic swordsman possessing the physical strength of a Ninth Star warrior and the mental power of a intermediate Ninth Star.
Furthermore, there were the veteran captain and a host of other Eight-Star experts.
Yet Xu Wen could not find a hint of optimism in his own eyes... Standing quietly atop the Dark Wind Condor, having reinforced his body with multiple layers of barrier spells, he felt only slightly more at ease—a Dark Mage's transformation technique was no secret, so the opponent surely had preparations against it, and would hardly have come alone.
"Buy me some time."
Budong's voice echoed in the minds of the veteran captain and the others.
Xu Wen's trio also received Budong's warning.
Their hearts skipped a beat, but they immediately dismissed that thought... Trying to escape at a time like this was clearly irrational.
Without an "Elemental Turbulence Pill" in hand, regardless of whether Budong succeeded in his transformation, catching up to them would be effortless. Rather than escaping unsuccessfully and provoking Budong's killing intent, it was better to stay put.
Boom!
With a dull, thunderous roar, the weather abruptly turned gloomy and oppressive!
An astonishing dark aura overflowed from Budong's body, raging and filling the space within a radius of a hundred meters... The Wanderer's expression shifted. Having just realized the intent behind Budong's action, before he could act, the surrounding air grew heavy and sluggish—the veteran captain and dozens of other Eight-Star powerhouses had already burst into action together. Grouping themselves into teams, they threw their full strength into launching their most powerful attacks against him simultaneously!
(To be continued)