Six-Armed Serpent Demon

Page 86

"Actually, what you said isn't entirely wrong, sister."

Steo said, "Some paladins who go too far will indeed be punished by the dragon lords, and quite a few will be stripped of their divine powers. This is common among the paladins of dragon lords in various places. However, they can simply pay a ransom to atone for their sins."

"Pay money to atone for your sins?"

"Hmm, how about the fifth-tier divine spell, Atonement? Paladins stripped of their divine power go to the temple and donate all their spoils as penance. Afterwards, the priest will preside over the atonement ceremony for them, casting spells to restore their divine power, so they can come out as energetic as ever and slaughter those elemental villages again, no problem. They will also regard this as a test from the gods, a spiritual baptism to strengthen their devout faith."

Medusa said, "As far as I know, those fanatical lunatics in the Northern Legion of the City of Flame always compete to see who can kill more heretics. They execute women, children, and the elderly alike, all in order to be stripped of their divine power so that they can return with a guilty conscience and donate to the Dragon God to atone for their sins... In the Northern Legion, if you haven't atoneed for your sins seven or eight times, you're embarrassed to even greet people."

Ivy Beatrice remained silent.

The image of Juan Gierello's still-childish face appeared before my eyes.

—Could it be that such a childlike and shy person also has a bloody side?

As they spoke, they walked onto a jungle path, gradually approaching the former fishing village, now Black Sail Town.

The six-armed serpent demon silently cast the "Thought Detection" spell.

—When you're about to deal with strangers, especially since they're not exactly friendly, it's best to figure out what they're thinking first.

Just then, Green Bubble stopped.

She stared intently at the familiar architecture of the fishing village ahead, her face pale, and pleaded softly, "I...I don't want to go in...Ivy, can I go back to the boat?"

Ivy Beatrice remained silent and patted Green Bubble's head. She noticed that Green Bubble was trembling slightly.

"What about you?" she asked Blue Bubble. "Don't force yourself."

Blue Bubble looked at the village of her people ahead, which had been completely annihilated and transformed. She also had a look of fear and tension, like someone returning home but also a sense of longing and nostalgia.

“I’ll go with you,” Blue Bubble said firmly.

Ivy-Bear nodded, picked up the bewildered bear cub from her feet, and stared into the bear cub's big, confused eyes.

"Escort Qingpaopao back to the ship, and then you can come find us yourself."

Ivy-Beate said there was no need to worry about Xiong Gu not understanding. The little guy was quite clever now, unlike his gluttonous brother.

"You were able to come here by yourself, right?"

"Gurgle, gurgle"

Ivy-Beate picked up Xiong Gu with emotion and gently kissed it on the forehead: "My sweet baby, mua, pat pat."

"Gurgle, gurgle"

At the same time, a childish voice entered her mind: [Foolish mount! Don't mess with my ears!]

Ivy Beatrice's smile froze.

To her utter surprise, after she cast her "Detect Thought" spell, the first thing she successfully detected was her own pet.

"Gurgle, gurgle"

Xiong Gu turned his big head from side to side and gently rubbed against her broad chest, causing her bouncing up and down.

—Ahhh, this way of acting cute is so adorable, fine, I'll let you off the hook.

As Ivy Beatrice was thinking, she heard a soft "coo-coo" from the bear nestled in her arms.

[This mount is so stupid! It completely fails to understand its master's intentions!] said a childish voice. [But! Considering how soft my seat is, I'll spare it!]

"... "

With a blank expression, Ivy-Beate took the baby owl out of her arms and handed it to Qingpaopao: "You guys go back now."

The Druid Bear was heartbroken to be separated from the super soft cushion.

"Gurgle, gurgle"

Let me endure this a little longer.

The childish voice sounded somewhat exasperated: "[She doesn't understand her master's requests! From now on, I'll definitely teach my mount more commands and tame her so I can command her to do things as soon as possible!]"

Ivy Beatrice's lips twitched, and all six of her fists hardened at once.

At the same time, two things became clear in my mind:

—First, we will never need to use "detection magic" to read the thoughts of baby owl bears again.

—Secondly, Xiong Gu, you're not getting dinner tonight!

Watching Qingpaopao and Xionggu walk away on the return path, the group headed back towards the fishing village, or rather, Black Sail Town.

They hadn't gone far when they saw a group of armed men rushing towards them from the front.

Raphael, the Devilclaw Monster, was always silent, only responding when Ivy Beatrice communicated with it telepathically. Seeing the menacing approach, it immediately stepped forward, blocking the front of the group.

The lizardman and Medusa also drew their weapons. Chasam carried a scimitar, a common weapon among sailors, while Steo held a crossbow. They cautiously observed the jungle on either side of the path.

Blue Bubble and Gu Xiong hid together next to Ivy-Beate, where she spread out her six arms and covered them with her six hands.

The group slowed down halfway through their run and gradually came to a stop.

Ivy Beatrice, with her six-armed snake demon standing at 2.7 meters tall, looked down at them.

There were about thirty of them in total. They were all disheveled and strangely shaped. Their faces and arms were dark, covered in sunburn marks. They looked three parts human, but the other seven parts were indistinguishable; perhaps goblins, perhaps of ogre descent. They were all raggedly dressed, like beggars; the original color of their clothes was unrecognizable, but their greasy collars gleamed like gleaming armor.

Their armor and weapons were also a motley collection.

Some people wore breastplates but carried daggers. Others had bare, tattooed arms but held wizard wands. And a few men were carrying heavy samurai swords, yet they wore expensive silk gowns over their clothes, which were not only stretched haphazardly but also filthy.

“This image is quite reminiscent of a Caribbean pirate,” Ivy Beatrice murmured to herself.

Perhaps because they saw Medusa among Ivy-Beate's group, they didn't dare to get too close, stopping at a distance to watch them cautiously.

Suddenly, a sharp-eyed person shouted, "Chasang?"

"it's me!"

Chasan, the lizardman, answered loudly, then turned to Ivy-Beate for instructions. "Your Highness, please leave the matter to me."

Ivy Beatrice telepathically sensed his voice: "Are they all pirates?"

We're all people who make a living at sea. The man who called my name is Gao Ke; when I first met him, his main occupation was smuggling.

Ivy Beatrice understood.

For most people at sea, piracy was not a stable profession.

There are no laws on the vast ocean. Today you may be a legitimate merchant or a smuggler, but tomorrow, upon encountering a vulnerable ship, you might find a different way to make your fortune. Load your goods into the hold, kill everyone on the other ship, and then arrive at the port laden with goods of dubious origin, and you'll be a reliable and honest businessman again.

Go ahead

With the hostess's nod of permission, the lizardman Chasan walked past the dinosaur Raphael and toward the group opposite him. He still held his scimitar in his hand.

“We don’t want to cause trouble,” Chasan the lizard man said. “We’ll rest in town for a few days, replenish our fresh water and food, and then leave once we’ve repaired the boat.”

The tallest man among the group spoke up.

"You can enter the town, lizardman."

The one wearing a silk dress over his sailor's clothes, a half-sea cannibal nearly two meters tall, spoke in a booming voice: "Your rabble of companions are not allowed in."

Chasang, the lizardman, shook his head: "No—"

Before he could finish speaking, a bright yellow object flew from behind him, streaked across the sky, and landed in front of the ragged seaman.

"Gold!"

Those who knew their stuff whispered greedily.

So, the thirty-odd people started talking all at once, creating a noisy cacophony.

Chasang, the lizardman, turned around in shock to look at Ivy Beatrice, who had casually tossed out the gold without batting an eye: "Honorable mistress?"

【Quiet】

The impatient six-armed serpent demon slowly swam past the lizardman Chasang and arrived at the center of the open space where the two sides were facing off.

The emerald green vertical pupils swept across the room quickly and imperceptibly, watching greed and tension alternate in the thirty-odd pairs of eyes opposite it, before it withdrew its gaze.

We entered the town.

The eerie, multi-layered voice resonated directly in everyone's minds, causing the thirty-odd people on the opposite side to tremble in shock, with several even dropping their weapons.

This is our pass.

Without her making any move, the gold nugget on the ground slowly floated up. Once it reached eye level with everyone, it began to rotate gently. Under the dazzling sunlight, it radiated an alluring golden luster, attracting everyone's attention like a magnet.

Suddenly, Ivy Beatrice released the "mind control".

The gold nugget crashed back to the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

This is also our pass.

The enormous six-armed serpent demon flipped its six hands simultaneously, and six greatswords appeared in its hands at the same time, the cold, chilling light on the blades equally dazzling.

Choose whichever one you'd like to take.

Chapter 101 The Person in the Communication Crystal Ball

Under the dim light of the lampstand, the gleaming gold bricks lay quietly at the head of the greasy stone table, next to a worn-out captain's hat.

Seated calmly at the head of the long table was a tall and burly bear goblin.

His excessively strong body was clad in an ill-fitting captain's uniform. His head, except for his eyes and the black holes that should have been his nose, was covered in matted, black hair. He reeked of years of unwashed body and the stench of sweat.

The bear goblin picked up the gold brick with two fingers, examined it closely, and then gently bit it with its fangs.

“Yes, it’s gold,” he said in a deep voice. “The real deal.”

The square shape indicated that it wasn't individually cast, but rather mass-produced. Only the extremely wealthy or royalty could do that. The goblin thought so too. He examined the gold brick and found that it seemed to have originally had a emblem, but someone had forcefully flattened it, leaving only a shallow pit and fine, blurry fingerprints.

A voice said, "So, they really found the shipwreck where the gold was hidden?"

"That's probably right."

The goblin threw the gold brick back onto the long stone table with a dull thud.

A murmur of whispers arose from the surrounding area.

The faces that appeared around the long stone table, flickering in the candlelight, all looked expectantly at the small, glittering rectangular block on the table.

The goblin asked in a muffled voice, "Have they settled in?"

“Old Gok settled Chasang and that multi-handed snake man at the west end of town,” the half-ogre in a silk dress said gruffly, sitting at the bottom of the long stone table. “That’s the very back of town, surrounded by our men on all sides. They can’t escape even if they wanted to.”

Laughter, both loud and soft, rippled around the long stone table.

“There are a few tough guys in that group,” said Old Gok, the one who spoke to the lizardman Chasang. “That big, armored vulture with a huge head, I don’t know what it is, but it looks tough; the snake-man swordsman with six arms, he must be the assassin they hired, we didn’t see him last time they came; and then there’s that treasure hunter Medusa, her petrifying gaze is a deadly weapon.”

“I hate that snake-woman bitch, she’s such a fool. She dares to flaunt her wealth here. She’s got a windfall and doesn’t know who she is anymore. She’ll be crying for her parents when she gets taken down,” a woman’s voice chuckled sinisterly. “With my poison and illusion magic, taking her down is a piece of cake. She’s pretty, I’m going to peel her face off.”

The half-ogre pounded his chest loudly: "Give me that vulture head."

Old Gouk asked, "Who will deal with that Medusa?"

“Leave it to me,” another calm voice said. “I’ve brought the Stoneblind Barbarian slaves from the mines in the mountains. They’re blind; staring attacks won’t work on them. We’ll just throw a dozen barbed fishing nets over her head and catch her red-handed. Then we’ll shove a sack over her head and do whatever we want.”

As the bear goblin listened to their enthusiastic discussion, he pulled a meerschaum pipe from his coat pocket.

The once snow-white meerschaum pipe, carved into the shape of a giant octopus entwined with a mermaid, had turned a yellowish-brown from years of smoking. The goblin carefully filled it with tobacco, sprinkled on magical spices, lit it, and slowly began to smoke.

“I remember you said, old Gok,” the bear goblin asked slowly, “that lizardman was just a boatswain, he served on the treasure ship… last time they came, what exactly happened? Tell me clearly?”

Everyone looked at Old Gao Ke.

Old Gao Ke shrugged.

"About seven or eight days ago, they came to repair the ship. The captain also came ashore, along with Medusa and more than forty sailors. At that time, you were all out at sea again, and I didn't have any manpower, so I just got some information out of them. Their captain is a young master from a city-state on the northern coast, a fool who fantasizes about finding a sunken ship containing hidden gold. I got him completely drunk, and he said they found the place but encountered a huge storm, so they had to wait until the ship was repaired before going to check it out."

"Then why are there only so many people this time?"

Old Gao Ke couldn't answer.

“It’s not just that the captain hasn’t shown up,” the goblin said slowly. “A three-masted sailing ship requires at least seventy or eighty men to set sail. Why haven’t we seen a single sailor come ashore this time?”

No one has answered this question.

Everyone stared blankly as the goblin puffed out smoke.

"The storm at sea yesterday was quite fierce. Those idiots probably encountered the storm after salvaging the gold, losing many sailors and damaging their ship. That's why they only sent a few people to buy supplies and negotiate timber for ship repairs... This is Blacksail Town, everyone knows what we do. You're only thinking about how to scheme against them, but don't you realize they're also on guard against us? Use your brains."

The bear goblin squinted, pipe in his mouth, looking smug and confident.

"What's the use of dealing with those few people in the village? The gold we salvaged is definitely all on the ship, and right now it's being guarded by the captain and the remaining few dozen sailors."