Avenger

Hearing the familiar light laugh, Xia Lun suddenly looked up and saw Captain Geliide amid the collapsed timbers.

At that moment, the bald female captain was leaning against the wall, her chest visibly caved in.

"Damn it, Xia Lun, you finally told a funny joke. Cough, cough, cough..." Geliide's voice was extremely hoarse, each word accompanied by wheezing like a broken bellows.

Hearing that seemingly leaking sound, Xia Lun immediately felt a bad premonition rise in his heart.

He stepped forward and examined her carefully, only to find that Geliide was gravely injured. Several of her ribs had snapped inward, stabbing into her lungs like sharp knives. Her abdomen was an indistinguishable mass of blood and flesh; beneath the enormous open wound lay clumps of internal organs crushed into pulp by immense pressure.

The bald captain coughed several times. Pink, bubbly blood foam dripped onto the ground, like a water balloon suddenly punctured, mixed with fragments of shattered organs.

—Under the current medical conditions, Geliide's wounds were fatal and incurable. She was only one step away from death and could die at any moment.

Watching yet another acquaintance face death, Xia Lun could not help feeling irritated. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried his best to quell the anger in his heart.

"Don't look so miserable. Smile more. In this line of work, dying is normal."

Geliide struggled to pull out her pipe and laboriously brought her mouth close to it. Then she took a hard drag, white smoke slowly pouring from her nostrils and her mangled chest.

"Listen, you need to leave this place quickly. Otherwise, once the ship sinks, it'll form a whirlpool, and then you won't be able to get away."

"Where's Monster?" Xia Lun asked in a low voice. "I came to kill him."

Geliide raised an eyebrow. Under the flickering firelight, the horrifying scar on her face seemed to come alive. "That beast is up ahead. He's badly hurt too. Listen, I have an idea."

She paused, then took another puff from her pipe.

"These injuries are beyond saving. And there happens to be an unexploded powder keg ahead. So instead of fighting Monster with blades and risking your life, why not wait until I finish this puff, then let me take the powder keg and perish together with that damned 'Commodore'? What do you think of that plan?"

Xia Lun shook his head. "No need."

"There is a need!" Geliide abruptly raised her head, her tone suddenly turning violent. "Don't play the hero here, Xia Lun. There's a blood feud between me and the Commodore, but not you—you have no reason to risk your life fighting Monster. Let me do it."

With that, she grabbed the timber before her, shoved it aside with all her strength, and sprang to her feet.

Her movements were incredibly swift, as though the potentially fatal injuries on her body did not exist at all.

Seeing this, Xia Lun immediately thought of the talent he had seen during his first dream—Nonhuman Toughness.

Without saying a word, Geliide walked over to the pile of wood. Her callused hand grabbed the powder keg, and with a slight lift, she tucked it under her arm like an office worker carrying a briefcase.

She coughed twice, then spat out the pipe in her mouth. It struck the ground with a bang before being crushed beneath her riding boot.

"Geliide, Monster has a book of secret arts on him. I'm determined to get that book," Xia Lun said in a low voice. "So I'm not playing hero. I have my own interests to consider."

Geliide froze. She seemed somewhat surprised by Xia Lun's honesty. But in the next instant, a rustling sound of flesh writhing suddenly came from the distance, rapidly drawing closer!

Monster had come to them!

Click. Xia Lun pushed back the hammer with his left thumb while gripping his short sword tightly in his right hand.

"Xia Lun, translate for Geliide." Monster's shriek slowly rang out. "The three of us should talk."

"What is there to talk about?" Xia Lun sneered. "What, after things have come this far, you still want to play some reconciliation trick?"

As he spoke, he looked up at Monster.

Behind the orange firelight, Monster's figure flickered in and out of view. Amid the flames, a striking milky-white gleam was clearly visible—the lower half of the Prayerbook of the Drowned was still safely lodged behind Monster's left side.

In an instant, a vague idea surfaced in Xia Lun's mind.

Monster waved his tentacles and repeated, "The three of us should talk."

"At a time like this, Monster still wants to talk to you?" Geliide asked with raised brows.

Xia Lun shook his head. "He said he wants to talk to both of us."

As he spoke, he quietly moved toward Monster's left side.

"He wants to talk to me? Can he understand what I'm saying?" Geliide almost laughed in anger.

"Understand..." Monster shrieked. "Understand."

"He says he understands," Xia Lun continued translating. By now, he was closer to Monster.

Geliide frowned slightly. She glanced at Xia Lun's position and saw that he was still within the blast radius, so she reluctantly lowered the flint in her hand. "Then let's talk. Commodore, what do you have to say?"

"Geliide, do you remember the White Whale? Do you remember Captain Haya?" Monster shrieked. "Ah, of course you don't. But now you will remember, because I have come to take revenge on you and your lackeys."

Xia Lun was stunned. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant.

He remembered the old man mentioning that "the captain of the whaling ship committed suicide," remembered what Dorrent, the sailor with the ruined face, had said about "being like the old captain," and remembered how Monster had not attacked the originally captured crewmen...

Monster's true identity was the original captain of the whaling ship!

Suppressing the shock in his heart, Xia Lun translated while continuing to slowly approach Monster from the side.

"Captain... Haya?" Geliide looked confused. "What Haya?"

The next second, Geliide seemed to realize something. Her chestnut pupils suddenly widened, her face instantly turned pale, and her lips were drained of all color. "You... you're not the Commodore?"

At that moment, the pirate leader, who had seemed utterly fearless even in the face of death, clearly showed fear. Her breathing suddenly grew heavy.

"Hahaha!" Monster shrieked in delighted triumph. Even without Xia Lun translating, Geliide could tell that Monster was laughing.

A few seconds later, Monster stopped laughing wildly. He suddenly leaned forward and began shrieking with dramatic rises and falls, like an actor reciting lines onstage.

"Geliide, perhaps you have forgotten me, but I will help you remember. Ten years ago, in the North Borland Sea, on a stormy day, you robbed my ship."

"You did not merely take the cargo. You killed for pleasure as well. Your gunner violated my daughter in front of me, then threw her into the sea. Your old man used my brother as target practice. And you, Geliide, were the chief culprit behind all of it!"

Xia Lun frowned deeply as he listened, but he still translated every word exactly as it was.

"You... I..." Geliide's lips trembled as though she wanted to say something. In the next moment, she seemed to realize something else, and her face became even paler. "You leaked the news that the Commodore had boarded this ship to me?! The Commodore never came here at all?!"

"That's right. I am that mysterious informant." Monster swayed his tentacles smugly. "You kept track of your enemies at all times, and so did I. After surviving by sheer luck, not a single day passed when I did not think of taking revenge on you. I knew everything about you."

Xia Lun continued translating. By then, he had come within ten paces of Monster, while Monster seemed so carried away by his triumph that he had not noticed Xia Lun's position at all.

"Who exactly are you?!" Geliide demanded in a trembling voice.

At that moment, she had realized that her death had been completely meaningless. The Commodore was not here at all.

"I am Captain Haya." Monster slowly wiped his tentacles. "Oh, right. I am also the captain of this whaling ship. To be honest, I gave you chances, but unfortunately, you refused to change your wicked ways and continued making a living through robbery and murder. So you walked into my trap yourselves."

While translating loudly, Xia Lun quietly threw out his grappling hook, silently hooking down the lower half of the Prayerbook of the Drowned.