If the pirates gave her just one more push, Bai Ya would experience a literal free fall into the ocean. At that same moment, the ropes binding her hands and feet would snap taut, pulling her slender body flush against the bottom of the ship. She would be dragged along the entire length of the vessel like a common rag.
The keel of the ship was far from smooth. On the contrary, it was covered in jagged barbs and barnacles. Just imagining being rubbed against it made Bai Ya certain she wouldn’t have a single breath left in her by the time she was hauled back up.
According to the records in her mind, keelhauling was a brutal form of execution. However, she wasn’t going to die here. There was no way she would just submissively accept such a punishment.
Yet, the pirates never gave her that final push to send her on her way. Instead, Bai Ya watched as two severed, blood-spraying arms fell into the sea, the resulting splashes vanishing in an instant.
As expected, screams and curses erupted in succession, followed by the clashing of blades. Bai Ya heard footsteps receding further and further away, realizing the pirates had all rushed off to deal with the sudden intruder.
‘What a pain. They could have at least untied my ropes,’ Bai Ya thought. She turned her head and saw the pirates gathered in one spot, swinging their blades at a single person.
That person was Shi Cang. In a sense, he was someone sharing the ‘same misfortune’ as her. He had listened to her words and moved to save her life at the critical moment.
He had no other choice. At this point, if he didn’t do as she said, he wouldn’t have even the slightest chance of survival. Even if her plan sounded absurd to the extreme, he had to grit his teeth and go through with it.
Bai Ya relaxed the muscles in her arms, squeezing out just enough space to move her wrists. She had prepared for this escape before she was even tied up. Taking advantage of the fact that the pirates’ attention was entirely on Shi Cang, Bai Ya struggled to free herself from the ropes.
When her efforts yielded no results for a while, Bai Ya considered that she really ought to put ‘learning rapid escape techniques’ on her to-do list. Having no other choice, she severed the mental connection with her right prosthetic arm.
The pirate who had been preparing to push her into the sea was now lying on the deck, twitching and struggling like a fish left out in the sun. Even so, blood continued to pour from his severed wrist. He cried out in agony for help, but his comrades were too busy fighting the intruder to pay him any mind.
In that desperate moment, he suddenly heard the sound of a heavy object hitting the deck, followed by the sound of something rolling closer and closer. When he looked toward the noise, a palm appeared in his field of vision.
“Just a reminder, this is my mechanical prosthetic. Your hand fell into the sea to feed the fish. That happened a few minutes ago, so I imagine you remember.”
The hand was picked up by the very person Chief Molly had ordered to be keelhauled. The suspicious girl was currently attaching the palm to the smooth stump of her right wrist. The mechanical creation, forged through high-level artificial alchemy, quickly merged perfectly with her limb, leaving no trace of a break.
“Do you want to live, or should I put you out of your misery?”
The pirate with the severed wrist thought Bai Ya would simply walk away after attaching her prosthetic, leaving him ignored until he died of blood loss. However, to his surprise, Bai Ya knelt down, brushed his hair aside, and touched his forehead while looking at him with total composure.
That calmness seemed to infect him. He wanted to open his mouth to beg for help, but she was a suspicious character! It was very likely that her companion was the one who caused his current state! However, that thought lasted only a moment before being shattered by Bai Ya’s words.
“If you want to live, then I’ll resolve this incident as soon as possible. You just need to hold on and stay alive until then. If you really can’t stand the pain and want to end it all, I can help you right now. I’ll just kick you into the sea — safe travels, I won’t be seeing you off.”
He had perhaps encountered a very strange person. The rescue method she proposed was incomprehensible. The pirate stopped harboring any expectations and waited for death in despair.
“If you don’t want to die, you have to stay alive first to make that happen,” Bai Ya said leisurely. She wasn’t about to waste this precious free time joining the fray. “Since you haven’t expressed an opinion, I’ll take it as you wanting to live.”
“Wait for me.”
Bai Ya pushed off her knees to stand up, raised her hands to stretch, and walked briskly toward the direction where Shi Cang was fighting while retreating.
—
Inside one of the ship’s cabins, the disheveled Shi Cang had managed to remain unscathed thanks to his superb swordsmanship. Six pirates already lay dead by his blade. He stood with his sword in one hand, gasping for breath, but his eyes were blood-red like those of a wild beast. He radiated a dangerous aura that momentarily cowed the other pirates into staying back.
A pirate hiding in the shadows took aim and fired a firearm at him. But the moment the bullet exploded, the edge of Shi Cang’s blade sliced through the shrapnel first. He then swung his arm back, unleashing a three-foot-tall wave of sword energy toward the origin of the shot. The attacker, unable to dodge in time, was sliced in two.
Parry and Counter — this was the sword talent Shi Cang was most proud of. His body would move to parry an incoming threat before his consciousness even registered it, absorbing the force to convert it into powerful sword energy to reflect back. If he were in his prime, he wouldn’t even fear the Gold-rank powerhouses on this pirate ship!
Shi Cang covered his abdomen with his free hand. The wound, which had been wrapped in bandages, had torn open, and his palm was already wet with blood. As expected, performing Parry and Counter while his heavy injuries hadn’t healed was causing damage to his body.
‘Bai Ya Yifeier Clorom is a complete bastard!’ He cursed her in his head. She had intentionally exposed his location to draw the pirates in, creating this terrible situation! She had forced him onto this sinking ship! If he couldn’t get out of this alive, he would drag her to hell with him before he died!
Shi Cang’s favorability toward Bai Ya had plummeted to near zero; he even wished he could kill her to satisfy his spite. Of course, if Bai Ya couldn’t resolve this desperate situation, he truly would do just that.
‘I actually wanted to join up simply. I didn’t have any ulterior motives, but that loli pirate was just too short-tempered. I didn’t have a choice but to take this path.’ Seeing that Shi Cang was still alive and intimidating the pirates, Bai Ya internally praised the man for being quite capable.
By checking his panel, Bai Ya knew that Shi Cang possessed a sword talent called Parry and Counter. It was essentially the same type of passive skill as her Mind’s Eye Sword. This was one of the reasons Bai Ya was willing to devise a plan that included him.
Why did he think she had been so kind as to give him food and drink for all those days? The purpose was to restore his vitality so he could contribute to her plan at the critical moment. There was no such thing as a free meal when it came to food she worked so hard to get!
For instance, right now, Shi Cang was drawing the attention of the majority of the pirates. Bai Ya knew that all she needed to do was wait.
Bai Ya had read the plot for the second chapter, and Shi Cang’s appearance was part of it. He was supposed to be hiding on the pirate ship to recover from his injuries. One day, he would be discovered by patrolling pirates while stealing food. Using the narrow space of the ship, he would hold off most of the pirate’s assault single-handedly, only to be killed eventually when two Diamond-rank experts stepped in.
Shi Cang’s original plot was the second reason Bai Ya had included him in her plan. Those two reasons were enough.
Shi Cang was a talent, so Bai Ya hid in the shadows, waiting for the commotion to grow louder. She was internally anticipating the arrival of Raymond and Pengpeng.
A moment later, the tall, thin man in sunglasses and the fat man with the full beard did not disappoint. They swung their arms and jogged past her hiding spot.
Bai Ya immediately moved, running in the opposite direction from where they were going. She was already familiar with the route. She knew she had to be fast, or Shi Cang would be dead!
Although the death of an Amidarian like Shi Cang wouldn’t affect her — and she should technically be happy about it — Bai Ya hated the feeling of failing to keep a promise. She had promised to let Shi Cang live, so she had to give it her all to avoid breaking her word!
Just as Shi Cang encountered Raymond and Pengpeng, Bai Ya burst into a familiar cabin and locked eyes with Molly.
When Molly saw that the intruder was Bai Ya — the suspicious person who had been grating on her nerves — she flew into a rage. Without hesitation, she curled her fingers, and the moisture in the air condensed into a water ball in her palm.
The high-ranking pirates who had been waiting for Pengpeng and Master Raymond to kill the intruder also pulled out their weapons. While they waited for Molly to strike, they analyzed their own attack patterns. This narrow cabin didn’t give them much room to move; it would be disastrous if they accidentally hit an ally.
Bai Ya had previously analyzed their panel information and knew they were at most Gold-rank in strength. Thus, she sprinted toward Molly at full speed without hesitation! With a loli as her target, she was firing on all cylinders!
Everyone present saw exactly how Bai Ya moved. She simply tilted her body slightly, and the water bullet — which surpassed a cannonball in both speed and power — grazed past her side. It smashed through the ship’s planks and shot out into the boundless sea!
They were stunned. They felt as if the water bullet had actively avoided Bai Ya. She had created that very illusion!
‘It’s not my style to not use my own advantages, hey!’
Sword Talent — Mind’s Eye Blade! It allowed her to see through the direction of the enemy’s attack and perceive their weaknesses. Bai Ya quite liked this passively acquired skill!
As for the matter of bloodline inheritance, Bai Ya didn’t understand it yet.
Bai Ya used the Mind’s Eye Blade talent to dodge the attacks. The offensive martial techniques launched at her by the quick-reacting pirates were all avoided. Of course, in the pirates’ eyes, it looked as if their own sword and blade energy were intentionally dodging her.
After missing several attacks, the pirates began to panic. Molly watched the scene with indifference. Even with Bai Ya right in front of her, she didn’t lose her composure.
Before such a clown, Molly was invincible! Molly knew Bai Ya’s strength and understood that killing her would be easy.
Just as Molly was about to activate her racial talent — Sea Royal Holy Beast — Bai Ya lunged forward and tackled her.
The space in the cabin was simply too narrow. At the very least, being close enough to Molly Cynthia was enough to satisfy Bai Ya!
“I — I’m so excited!”
Bai Ya excitedly tore at Molly’s clothes. Under the shocked gazes of the pirates, she stripped Molly bare in just two or three moves.
“Checkmate,” Bai Ya said, pointing her dagger at Molly’s throat. Her face was flushed with extreme excitement.
She had researched one of the character tropes for a slave girl quite thoroughly; she had been waiting for this exact moment.
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