868 Plague

"Cough cough…"

Blackbeard spat out some seawater. He was in bad shape. The explosion had completely destroyed a number of defensive magic tools that he had on him. Now that he was on Specter Ship's deck, its cold aura penetrated his body, causing even more damage to his wounds.

After seeing several undead creatures close in on him, especially the Ghoul Tyrant in the lead, Blackbeard chuckled wryly and gave up any attempt at resistance.

However, after he was brought before the captain of Specter Ship, his jaw dropped in surprise. "Why are you here?!"

In horror, Blackbeard saw that Specter Ship's captain, who was surrounded by various undead creatures, was the pirate who he had hunted down and had let escape into the Golden Ocean, Arcane Trickster Roche!

In less than a month, he had transformed from an outcast to the captain of Specter Ship. The change was so fast that Blackbeard did not even know how to react.

"We meet again, Governor Blackbeard!"

Fang Yuan looked handsome and fashionable, even donning a Death cloak. He looked condescendingly at the pirate governor that had once hunted him down.

After he had endured the tests on that day, he had automatically obtained the authority to become the captain of Specter Ship.

All the undead creatures on the ship, including the Ghoul Tyrant and the Demigod Lich, were bound to his orders under the contract's power.

With them under his command, he had more than enough to escape from the wrath of the Raging Thunder God, who was not yet fully unsealed.

After all, the opponent had not yet attained complete freedom either. In fact, he was unable to pursue Feng Yuan after he had left the Hell of Lightning

However, even though he had obtained Specter Ship and the ability to travel across realms, Fang Yuan's original body was unable to exist in the real world immediately. On top of that, he had to start fulfilling the captain's responsibility—guiding all kinds of shipwrecked souls to the afterlife.

Otherwise, even with his intrinsic quality, he would not be able to bear all the grudges of Specter Ship for too long.

According to the agreement, the two Demigods will only obey my orders for three years. After that, I will return their freedom to them. Furthermore, Specter Ship is responsible for guiding souls to the afterlife at all times. While it can be summoned occasionally into battle, it doesn't really work as a flagship… The average pirate won't be able to live on Specter Ship either.

Every living man on Specter Ship could very well turn undead after spending too much time on it, and even Fang Yuan would not be able to reverse the process.

Therefore, I need to obtain another legendary pirate ship. Blackbeard will be useful in that regard… Fang Yuan thought as he looked at his prisoner.

Not only did Blackbeard have the last fragment of the treasure map, but there were the riches of the entire Blackbeard Pirates as well.

They could very well have more than one extraordinary ship on top of that.

Even if there wasn't, just a portion of their riches would be enough to start building a first-class extraordinary ship.

This was why Fang Yuan had saved Blackbeard's life.

"Fire!"

"Even Specter Ship must succumb to the great Ettoman flag!"

Victory had excited the entire royal fleet, and it decided to attack even after finding out that it was facing Specter Ship.

"Spiritualize!" Fang Yuan commanded at the same time as the cannons fired.

The entire Specter Ship instantly turned phantasmal. The huge cannonballs flew right through the ship and eventually exploded on the surface of the sea.

"Pure physical attacks, while powerful, do have their flaws. For example… the Spiritualize ability of Specter Ship renders all physical attacks ineffective!"

It was a peculiarity of Specter Ship, but it was limited to only pure physical attacks.

If the cannonballs had been Monster's Annihilation, the only thing Fang Yuan could have done was to run away.

All things had their strengths and weaknesses.

"Lich! It appears that these sailors have taken our kindness for weakness. They've even forgotten to fear Specter Ship!" Fang Yuan said to the Demigod Lich as he sneered.

"Captain, as long as you command it, I can remind them of the terror of Specter Ship!" replied the Demigod Lich with a weird laugh.

"Okay, go ahead!" Fang Yuan waved his hand. Immediately, a dark green mist surrounded the Lich and carried it into midair. "Death Cloud!"

A giant dark green cloud appeared and enveloped the surrounding ironclads.

The poison was accompanied by the sound of erosion.

Undead monsters released freaky screams as they floated about, killing the sailors who had drifted apart from their crew.

"All right!" Fang Yuan no longer paid any attention to the battlefield and looked straight at Blackbeard. "Shall we begin our negotiations?"

"Heh… are you lusting after the riches I've accumulated over the years?" Blackbeard laughed weirdly, removed the seaweed on himself, and slowly rose. "That's right… As the Nightmare Ocean's governor for so many years, I have indeed accumulated a huge amount of riches. Unfortunately, they were all left on those islands. Lucky Ettoman!"

"Those are only the treasures from your public treasury. I don't believe that you, as the leader, didn't keep any personal treasures." Fang Yuan laughed mischievously. "Or would you rather I ask you after turning you into a specter?"

As the captain of Specter Ship, he had even more ways to deal with specters than live people.

Blackbeard's expression changed immediately.

Currently, his situation was not much better than dying at sea.

The high-level undead creatures would not fear his magic. Furthermore, his greatest fear was exactly the situation that Fang Yuan had described.

Blackbeard finally decided to spill the beans after staring at Fang Yuan for a long time. "Fine! I do have a secret stash. I've hidden priceless treasures there. If you let me go, I'll give you the map!"

"We'll discuss that later! I need that treasure map fragment first!"

A light flashed on Fang Yuan's hand, and a treasure map with a section missing appeared. "Don't tell me that you don't know what this is!"

"The Soro Pirates' treasure map… My god, you managed to collect three pieces of it?"

Blackbeard looked shocked.

"Pfft… your slave trader subordinate had done many deeds behind your back." Fang Yuan laughed mockingly. "So how about it? You have to first present that fragment to me as a token of your sincerity!"

Blackbeard's face twitched as he reached into his shirt and tore his clothes apart.

A treasure map fragment that emanated a curious radiation appeared on his hand.

Fang Yuan grabbed it without missing a beat and put the two pieces together.

A light flashed, and the two pieces slowly fused together. The lines on the map seemed alive as they moved about. Finally, they marked out the treasure's location and a route leading to it.

At the spot where the treasure was marked, an additional symbol that represented a ship also appeared.

"According to the rumors… the Soro Pirates left their treasures and an excellent legendary ship in the depths of where they hid it. That's why I valued the treasure map so much…"

Blackbeard could feel his heart bleeding.

His fragment was crucial since it marked the treasure's location. After collecting information, he had a good idea of what exactly the treasure contained.

But now, someone else had claimed all the fruits of his labor.

He was furious at the thought.

"Plague!"

The Demigod Lich was cleaning up the battlefield.

After trapping the enemy inside the Death Cloud, it immediately used the Plague spell that struck terror into the hearts of pirates.

In fact, in terms of pure combat ability, the Demigod Lich was leagues above Blackbeard.

With the incantation's sound, the royal fleet's marines instantly started to foam at the mouth, falling onto the deck and coughing relentlessly.

The more unfortunate ones even saw black spots appear all over their bodies and two egg-sized cysts appear under their armpits.

"It's the Death Sickle!!!"

All the sailors started to scream in terror and back away at this sight. Some even chose to plunge into the sea and swim toward allied ships.

It was obvious that the Demigod Lich's Plague reminded the Ettoman marines of something extremely unpleasant, as they now looked at the Lich in fear.

A massive translucent specter army also marched out from Specter Ship, killing marines at will.

They were completely immune to physical attacks. Only attacks imbued with extraordinary attributes were able to damage them and make them disappear temporarily. Some of the specters were even able to suck the life out of the living.

The ships immediately start to flee. An ironclad even hung up a white shirt as a sign of surrender.

"It seems that… I've taken things a bit too far!"

Fang Yuan rubbed his forehead. He suddenly felt that it was a mistake to promise these guys freedom after a mere three years.

It was not a matter of not having enough underlings but the possibility of them turning the world into a living hell.

"Time to go!"

He clapped.

"Let's go!"

Like a receding tide, the white specters returned to Specter Ship.

Under a thick cloud of smoke, Specter Ship slowly left the battlefield.

"Investigate!

"Why did Specter Ship appear here? Investigate everything!"

After returning to Fearless, Norton saw Philip in a rage.

Specter Ship was indeed unaccounted for, but it's merely a single ship. It can't possibly change anything… Norton thought to himself. He immediately suggested to Admiral Philip, "Our primary course of action should be to take over Blackbeard Island and seize the treasures… We need to remember to seize everything! Then we need to win over one or two pirate governors to our side using this victory. They don't necessarily need to produce any results. Just a slight uncertainty on their part in critical moments would go a long way."