Qi-Suppressing Stone!
It was exceedingly rare in this world. Mark had not expected to encounter a Qi-Suppressing Stone so soon.
He looked at Hawkins, hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Captain, do you want to become a Curse Caster?"
There were already five Cursed Relics aboard this wooden sailing ship. No one knew how many Hawkins himself possessed, and now they even had a Qi-Suppressing Stone. Hawkins already fulfilled every condition needed to become a Curse Caster.
Mark's thoughts were actually very complicated. Though he had shown no madness and put on no lofty airs, he had never truly considered Hawkins to be one of his kind.
That was like how a person would never regard apes and monkeys as their own kind.
Mark had even planned Hawkins's ending for him. Once he grew tired of pirate life, he would silence Hawkins forever. That way, naturally, no one would know he had once been a pirate.
Though he did not consider himself some nobleman, pirates were a group despised and cursed in every sea. Playing at piracy once in a while was fine, but truly being a pirate was too humiliating for him.
But what had happened just now had made him recognize his own shortcomings anew, and he had also seen how unfathomable Hawkins was.
That was precisely why he had asked.
It meant he had truly begun to see Hawkins as one of his own kind.
Hawkins shook his head. "Now isn't the time. Let's deal with these corpses first."
Though he was curious about Curse Casters, he was even more curious about the Dream Realm behind them. The various abilities of Curse Casters were secondary. After all, unless it was a true "God," it probably could not give him what he truly wanted.
After dealing with the corpses, the two returned to the Black Knife with their spoils, and the surviving naval soldiers raised sail once more.
Inside the ship, Hawkins and Mark sat facing each other at a desk. The five men's Cursed Relics were stored in a wooden chest, while Mark had been invited to appraise the Magic Sea Chart.
Now that he knew Mark could identify the effects and approximate grades of Cursed Relics, Hawkins naturally intended to make full use of him.
Mark carefully examined the Sea Chart. After a long while, he said uncertainly, "This Sea Chart is indeed a Cursed Relic, but its grade is difficult to determine..."
"Difficult to determine?" Hawkins was somewhat surprised.
Mark nodded. "This Cursed Relic's ability should be just as you said, Captain—it marks all kinds of hidden treasures. But I cannot determine the grade of its curse. It may be Good Grade, it may be Dangerous Grade, or it may even be Fierce Grade."
"There's no way to judge it right now... because the curse is rather unusual?" Hawkins asked Mark thoughtfully.
"For example... after you trigger the location of a treasure, Captain, you may need to obtain that treasure within a specified time. If you fail to do so within the allotted time, the curse will activate."
"Mm. That sounds like a time bomb," Hawkins said in realization.
In truth, after hearing Mark's explanation, he accepted it, because he had already gotten the answer he needed.
The Magic Sea Chart's curse was indeed a trigger-type curse. In Hawkins's memories, there had been several times when he had nearly died, and the Sea Chart's curse was very likely the reason.
The Magic Sea Chart's curse was extremely similar to that of the Black Knife, so Hawkins had not noticed anything unusual in the data before. But after Mark's reminder, he still found traces within the ocean of memories.
If the Black Knife's curse was possibly bad luck, then the Magic Sea Chart's curse should be misfortune!
In fact, both Huo Blackblade and Hawkins had most likely died beneath the Magic Sea Chart's curse. Because misfortune had descended upon them, powerful enemies had been drawn in; because misfortune had descended upon them, the original Hawkins had been replaced.
Hawkins looked at the Sea Chart, pondered for a moment, then removed the Black Knife from his waist. Looking up at Mark, he smiled. "This knife should also be a Cursed Relic, but I don't know what abilities it has. Take a look."
"This knife too?"
Mark froze for a moment, but still accepted the Black Knife.
Yet after a while, he shook his head. "I don't know. This knife seems to have no special abilities."
"..."
Hawkins was somewhat speechless. Even Mark could not make sense of this Black Knife's abilities.
But Mark continued, "Captain, I've heard before that some Cursed Relics have no abilities. The curses on such Cursed Relics are also very weak. If that Meteor Hammer is among the very best of Fierce-Tier Relics, then this knife may be among the very worst of Fine-grade Relics."
Though Hawkins did not agree with Mark, he did not refute him.
He had personally tested the Black Knife's hardness, so he knew very well that it was absolutely not among the bottom tier of Fine-grade Relics.
Hardness itself was actually an extremely terrifying ability.
Hawkins faintly felt that the Black Knife might not be Fine-grade at all, but a higher-tier Cursed Relic. It simply had not been truly developed—or perhaps it lacked something.
"Captain, you should have two curses on you already. You only need to add one more curse, then consume Qi-Suppressing Stone powder to become a Curse Caster. Would you like to try?" Mark asked as he put down the Black Knife.
Hawkins gave Mark a meaningful look and asked in return, "You really want me to become a Curse Caster?"
"Captain, you saved me twice. I merely hope that you become as strong as possible. I absolutely have no other intentions. If you still do not trust me, then you can wait until after I leave the ship before becoming a Curse Caster," Mark immediately answered solemnly.
Hawkins took out the Qi-Suppressing Stone from the wooden box and gently turned it beside the oil lamp. "I trust you. Better to act today than wait for another day. Let's do it now."
"Then which Cursed Relic will you choose as your third evil curse, Captain?" Mark hurriedly asked, eager to please.
Hawkins looked at the wooden chest beside them. After thinking for a moment, he took out the eyeball and smiled. "This one."
"Captain, the condition for wearing this false eye..." Mark's face showed surprise. He had explained it clearly before—one had to gouge out one of their own eyes to wear this Cursed Relic.
At that moment, Hawkins's left eyeball bulged slightly. Then the nerves within automatically severed, and he removed his own eyeball. With a faint smile, he said, "That isn't much of a problem."
"..."
Mark's mouth fell slightly open, and he froze entirely.
Curse Casters were accustomed to viewing every mysterious and miraculous event as the effect of a Cursed Relic. But now Mark clearly understood that Hawkins's ability was absolutely not caused by a Cursed Relic, leaving his thoughts in even greater disarray.
One who never left home never knew how vast heaven and earth truly were.
As Mark watched Hawkins install the false eye, he could not help swallowing. "Captain, how did you do that?"
"It's complicated to explain. I'll explain it to you properly when I have time." Hawkins installed the false eye and discovered that it actually provided vision.
But through the false eye's vision, many things inside the captain's cabin were glowing.
Mark's entire body gave off green light, while the Sea Chart emitted orange light. The Cursed Relics in the wooden chest also radiated different colors, with the Meteor Hammer's red glow being the most blazing of all.
"Interesting."
Hawkins looked at the Black Knife. It remained plain and unadorned, with only a thin layer of black mist covering its blade.
As the false eye's ability took effect, foreign information continuously flooded into his consciousness. He intercepted all of it, then thought for a moment and wrote a program within his mind. He fed the incoming information into the program he had written, and moments later, a frame appeared before his eye.
He looked at the Black Knife, and text immediately appeared within the frame:
[Ancient Black Knife] Ability: Eternal Fixation. Curse: The wearer's bad luck is suppressed by the Black Knife and released at a fixed time each month.
Hawkins's eyes slowly widened, as though he had seen something inconceivable.
As everyone knew, the universe was always in a state of increasing entropy. Even occasional decreases in entropy could not alter the ultimate outcome: the heat death of the universe.
Hawkins had escaped from a universe that had already entered heat death, so he understood the universe's ultimate fate better than anyone.
He had once believed this universe would be no different, but the Black Knife's ability gave rise to a string of doubts.
Eternal Fixation—just two words. Yet when he considered that the Black Knife neither absorbed nor released heat, did not conduct electricity, and could not be damaged, Hawkins thought of the essence behind those properties.
And since an eternally fixed Black Knife existed, could there also be an eternally fixed white sword, or even an eternally fixed world?
"Cursed Relics... are even more miraculous than I imagined."
"It seems very necessary to visit the Dream Realm and see what exactly that world is."
"If... if there is even a one-in-ten-thousand chance, then no matter what, I have to gamble on it..."
Hawkins quickly calmed down, and his brain entered Overclock State. Though he had lived countless ages, he was not without desire or longing.
As long as one was human, one would ultimately leave behind many regrets. In the past, he could only comfort himself with thoughts like, "As long as we're alive, we'll meet again someday," or, "They must be living well in a parallel world."
But now, he saw a new hope, though he could not be certain whether Cursed Relics could fulfill his wish.
He looked at Mark and asked, "I'm ready. How much Qi-Suppressing Stone powder do I need to take?"
"The three Cursed Relics you possess are not especially powerful, Captain, so only a small amount of powder should be needed. Of course, the more powder you take, the longer you can remain in the Dream Realm, and the more benefits you can gain. But it will also be more dangerous," Mark immediately answered.
Hawkins did not know the situation in the Dream Realm, so to be cautious, he still chose a normal dose.