Fire and Punishment (II)

Was it raining?

In an instant, a hidden unease crept silently into his heart like vines spreading through the darkness, making his scalp tingle.

The next moment, as if confirming his suspicion, another raindrop landed on his face, followed by one after another!

The rain suddenly intensified, sheets of raindrops pouring straight down as though the sea had been turned upside down!

"Boom!"

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Amid the muffled thunder, the sea breeze, which had been still for a long time, returned as well. The blazing fire burned even fiercer in the wind, the waves of flame swaying aboard the ship like raging giants. Yet beneath the torrential downpour, the fire's momentum abruptly faltered.

The rain grew increasingly violent. In less than a few seconds, Xia Lun was soaked like a drowned rat. Icy rainwater covered the scorching flames, instantly turning into searing white steam beneath the extreme heat.

The scalding steam surged with the gale. In an instant, Xia Lun felt an agonizing pain like being flayed from every patch of exposed skin. He gritted his teeth without making a sound, but the fanatical pirate believers around him let out heart-wrenching screams.

Yet steam burns were ultimately only superficial wounds. Worse than those injuries was the terrifying sudden downpour—it had extinguished the fire.

—Without fire, Monster would not burn to death!

The plan had failed. Xia Lun's heart sank.

"By the Undying Sacred Flame, the fire's gone out!" the priest said blankly. His eyes were wide with panic. "The fire's out! The fire's out!"

In less than a minute, the people's screams had turned into quiet sobbing. Xia Lun could clearly feel that their fervor had been drenched away along with the flames.

Cowardice and fear seized their minds. The fanatical pirate believers' courage was like robin eggs in a rainstorm, slowly shattered bit by bit beneath the rain...

The situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse!

"How could this happen?" Even Xia Lun, steadfast as he was, could not help feeling helpless and absurd at this moment.

This sudden downpour was practically divine punishment!

Why was their luck so terrible?

Yet amid his shock and fury, a hidden insight that sent chills down his spine suddenly flashed through his mind like lightning. Then, he recalled detail after detail that became more terrifying the longer he considered them.

Geliide had forced her way into the storm zone and sunk the flagship; the strange storm Xia Lun had encountered when he entered the game; and now this sudden torrential rain...

"Monster can summon storms?! It created all this rain..." Xia Lun muttered involuntarily.

[Part of the story background has been deciphered! You have obtained 300 Memory Points.]

A line of cobalt-blue text swept past Xia Lun's vision. Though he had obtained a huge number of Memory Points, he could not feel happy in the slightest.

"Ah, how quickly the currents have changed." Monster's sinister screech came from behind the door. "Looks like luck is still on my side. What did I tell you? Leave others a way out. Don't push things so far."

"What use is that?" Xia Lun's voice was cold and calm. "The ship's about to sink. You'll die anyway—listen, I have a suggestion..."

"Shut up! Suggest my ass!" Monster flew into a rage. "Do you think I'll fall for that a second time? You shameless liar!"

"Bring out the Wax Book, and I'll help you find a way to survive."

"Dream on! Once the ship sinks, I'm doomed, but don't think you'll survive either!"

"Then we'll die together. At worst, we both lose; but if you hand it over, we can both win."

"Go to hell! Even if I eat the Evil Flesh Codex, I won't give it to you!"

Their words came faster and faster, their voices rising higher and higher. Every time Xia Lun spoke, Monster's screech grew louder; every time Monster slammed into the reinforced door, Xia Lun's grip on his gun shaft tightened.

Amid their back-and-forth standoff, the ship's angle of tilt grew ever steeper.

Beside Xia Lun, the priest's face grew paler and paler. Rain mixed with sweat ran down his eyebrows as his body began to sway slowly.

Ringing filled his ears, and his vision blurred...

At this moment, under unrelenting mental pressure, he could no longer distinguish the boundary between illusion and reality. The theological doctrines of his past collided and overlapped with the fear and torment of reality, battering at the limits of his will again and again amid the piercing tinnitus.

The string of reason was on the verge of snapping. The priest's mind had reached the steep edge of annihilation that was madness.

Then, from within Monster's terrifying screeches, he suddenly heard one human voice after another.

"Evil Flesh Codex... eat it... won't give it to you!"

The ringing in his ears abruptly intensified. The madness born of fear swelled at once, and his pupils slowly dilated...

The priest's faith was being tested—frenzy!

"I understand!" The priest's eyes suddenly lit up, and he cried out, "This is the Undying Sacred Flame's divine punishment for our heresy! This is divine punishment, divine punishment!"

"Divine punishment?" Through the distant ringing in his ears, the priest heard a devout believer ask.

"That's right, this is punishment for our mistakes. The Evil Flesh Codex—it's all my fault. I heard Monster singing." The priest spoke incoherently, threw down his weapon, and bolted backward like a crazed beast. "This is divine punishment! We're finished! Hide, quickly!"

The priest's incoherent, crazed words echoed through the sea wind. Xia Lun looked behind him in astonishment.

Within the deep, dark curtain of rain, the priest fled down the path crying and howling. The fanatical pirate believers all wore expressions of despair and terror as well. More and more of them threw down their weapons and ran away.

Monster's forceful impacts suddenly intensified. As the pirates fled, the balance was broken once again, and the reinforced wooden door instantly became precarious—the door was about to be smashed open!

Feudal superstition really did ruin people. Xia Lun could not help lamenting inwardly.

Even as he thought this, he continued to brace the gun shaft with all his strength. Terrifying pressure and impact surged through it into his body. At this moment, he felt his entire body creaking along with the shaft.

"Hold!" He gritted his teeth, doing everything he could to resist the agonizing pain coursing through his body.

However, the world was material after all. No matter how hard he tried, the final reinforced door continued to deform at a slow but steady pace—the door was about to break!

"Bang!"

At that critical moment, a gunshot suddenly rang out in the distance.

"Get back there!" Geliide shouted. "If Monster gets out, all our work will have been for nothing. No running—damn it, you bunch of cowards, come with me!"

"The door can't hold!" Xia Lun lowered his center of gravity with all his strength and roared behind him. "Use the backup plan!"

Before his words had even faded, the door abruptly shattered, and countless tentacles burst forth, wrapped around planks of wood.

Along with a blast of scorching air, Monster's enormous shadow suddenly surged out and covered Xia Lun's face. Blazing flames burned behind Monster, making it look like a king's colorful feathered cloak.

Monster had escaped!