Resurrection

Eternal Space, as the name implied, was a space that remained eternal and unchanged.

Hawkins walked through House Town and kicked straight through the front door of a house. Before he had taken more than a few steps inside, the splintered wood that had been blasted away swiftly returned, and the door restored itself.

But it was not entirely unchanging.

When Hawkins tried to crush a bowl with Curse Power, the bowl did not recover afterward.

After looking at the shattered bowl and confirming that it would not restore itself, Hawkins injected Curse Power into it again. This time, he wanted to turn the broken bowl into a cup.

Under the effects of Curse Power, the porcelain fragments rapidly reassembled like soft clay, eventually becoming an exquisite white porcelain cup adorned with gilding.

Hawkins smiled and rose from his chair. The next moment, surging Curse Power poured from his body and swiftly covered House Town. The old, shabby wooden houses rapidly warped and reassembled into beautiful homes.

All the furniture inside the houses was renewed as well. Only then did Hawkins sit down again in satisfaction.

After resting for a moment, he took a deep breath. At last, it was time to test the most important ability.

Resurrection!

He had too many regrets in his memories, too many people he wanted to see.

He wanted to see his parents. He wanted to see his wife once more. He wanted to see those lovely children again, those comrades to whom he could entrust his back, those soldiers loyal to him.

But first, he had to confirm whether the Eternal Sea Chart's resurrection ability was true resurrection, rather than a false imitation.

He reached out and lightly brushed his hand through the air. A translucent sea chart appeared before him, gently rippling like waves.

Closing his eyes, his thoughts returned to the distant past...

"Resurrection of the Dead—Pei Jin!"

The image of a comrade drawing his blade and charging forward surfaced in Hawkins's mind as he spoke.

In an instant, the Curse Power within his body flooded into the sea chart like released floodwaters. He could sense a spatial vortex forming within the chart.

The passage within that spatial vortex led directly into endless void, yet it abruptly stopped before reaching its end.

Hawkins collapsed into his chair. The Curse Power inside him had already been completely exhausted, and that was why the resurrection had failed.

Hawkins carefully recalled the sensations from moments ago and reached a conclusion.

But he was exhausted now. The next experiment would have to wait until his Curse Power recovered.

Elsewhere, Ai Miye woke from her unconsciousness.

When she discovered that she was aboard the Black Knife, yet found herself to be the only person on it, she began to panic.

Fortunately, she soon sensed Hawkins's presence.

Hawkins was powerful. That feeling of power could not be replicated.

She immediately got up from the reclining chair, disembarked, and jogged toward House Town.

In truth, she did not recognize House Town at all, because it had completely changed. She had never seen such beautiful, clean houses before; she even felt as if she had fallen into a dream.

Following that sensation, she arrived at the house where Hawkins was. Then she carefully pushed open the door and called softly, hesitantly, "Hawkins?"

"I'm here!" Hawkins sat in his chair, opened his eyes, and answered with a smile.

Only then did Ai Miye let out a breath of relief. She entered from outside, and the moment she saw Hawkins, she excitedly threw herself into his arms.

"What's wrong?" Hawkins asked gently.

Ai Miye shook her head. After a long while, she finally said, "Thank you."

When her ancestor had seized her body, her consciousness had seemed to fall into a boundless black swamp. She had instinctively resisted and struggled, only to sink ever deeper into the darkness.

She did not know what that meant, but she was still deeply grateful to Hawkins. She knew he must have been helping her.

"No need to thank me, my little apprentice!"

Hawkins smiled faintly and gently patted Ai Miye's back.

If anyone should be giving thanks, it should have been him thanking Ai Miye.

If Ai Miye had not brought him to that so-called place of inheritance, who knew how long it would have taken for the Eternal Sea Chart to mature.

The energy provided by the Devil's Horn was roughly equivalent to a hundred Meteor Hammers.

In other words, without the Devil's Horn that had devoured Ai Miye's ancestor, the Eternal Sea Chart would have needed to devour at least a hundred Cursed Relics on the same level as the Meteor Hammer before it could mature.

The Seven Seas were vast, but whether there were even a hundred Cursed Relics was hard to say.

Thus, from beginning to end, Hawkins was the one who had benefited, while Ai Miye had borne most of the risk without gaining anything at all.

Of course, Hawkins would definitely compensate her.

"Hawkins, where is this place?" Ai Miye asked at that moment.

Some of Hawkins's Curse Power had recovered. He injected it into the chair, and it swiftly transformed into a rocking chair. He gently rocked it and smiled. "From now on, this will be our home."

"We'll live here?" Ai Miye asked in delighted surprise.

She had thought that the Black Knife was only stopping here temporarily, and that once the others returned, it would raise sail and set off again.

"Then we won't be pirates anymore?" Ai Miye sat up from Hawkins's arms and looked at him.

Hawkins smiled. "We can moonlight as pirates now and then?"

"All right... then what about Arthur and the others?" Ai Miye rested her head against Hawkins's chest and conceded.

Hawkins could not help laughing. "Of course they're aboard the Black Knife."

"Wait, Hawkins, they aren't aboard the Black Knife. I'm sure of it." Ai Miye suddenly rose, speaking with complete certainty.

Hawkins burst out laughing, while Ai Miye looked at him in confusion.

After laughing for a while, he said, "Ai Miye, where do you think we are right now?"

"Where? Am I dreaming?" Ai Miye asked uncertainly.

Hawkins got up, took Ai Miye by the hand, and led her out of the house. Smiling, he said, "This is House Town!"

"House Town?" Ai Miye spun around in shock, her voice full of disbelief.

Hawkins nodded. "Yes, this is House Town, but it isn't House Town either."

"Then where are Arthur and the others?" Ai Miye turned back and asked Hawkins.

Hawkins smiled. "They aren't in this world. They're outside, aboard the Black Knife."

"But just now, there was no one aboard the Black Knife except me." Ai Miye frowned.

This ability was limited to within Eternal Space.

Ai Miye exclaimed in shock, "Hawkins, we're flying? We're flying!"

"That's right. We're flying." Hawkins smiled.

In the real world, flying was not difficult for him either. Whether he grew himself a pair of wings or manipulated magnetic fields, he could take to the air.

At that moment, he stopped high in the sky. Ai Miye clung tightly to him, looking down at the ground with both excitement and fear.

"Oh my god, this really is House Town! I know that rock!" Ai Miye pointed excitedly at a huge boulder outside House Town.

But immediately afterward, she noticed that this was not House Town either. All the animals were gone, and upon closer inspection, many details differed from the House Town she remembered.

"Hawkins, what exactly is this place?" Ai Miye looked at Hawkins and asked.

Hawkins injected Curse Power into a cloud, placed Ai Miye upon it, then sat beside her and opened the sea chart. "We're inside this sea chart right now."

"We're inside a painting?" Ai Miye asked in astonishment.

Hawkins nodded. "Yes. This is a sea chart of the Seven Seas, and our current location happens to be House Town."

"Can we leave?" Ai Miye asked worriedly.

Hawkins smiled. "Of course we can."

In truth, he was not sure what the situation outside was now. Ai Miye's ancestor was already dead. If that space had collapsed, where would they appear next?

Hawkins carefully explained the current situation to Ai Miye. After listening, she fell silent for a moment, then asked, "So you're going to leave me here later?"

"Yes. It may be dangerous outside, so I hope you can stay here and wait for me. Once I reach a safe place, I'll come in and take you out." Hawkins nodded.

Ai Miye was not the sort of willful child who threw tantrums. She fell silent for a moment, clutched Hawkins's clothes, and said softly, "Then come back soon. There's no one here at all. I'll be scared."

"All right. Even if I haven't reached a safe place, I'll come back once every half hour and tell you what's happening outside." Hawkins nodded in agreement.

Next, Hawkins brought Ai Miye back to House Town and spent several more hours restoring his Curse Power.

Once his Curse Power had fully recovered, Hawkins began considering whom to resurrect.

Resurrection did not come without conditions.

First, the resurrected person had to be someone Hawkins knew, someone whose image he at least possessed in his mind. Second, he had to know the exact time of that person's death.

There were not many people he knew in this world. Who would be suitable to resurrect?

Huo Blackblade?

No!

Hawkins did not want to suddenly gain a "father."

Jon?

Hawkins had absolutely no desire to resurrect that guy.

After racking his brains, he still could not think of anyone suitable. So he looked at Ai Miye and asked, "Ai Miye, is there anyone you especially want to resurrect?"

"Resurrect?" Ai Miye asked in surprise.

But then she began thinking and listed a string of names. They were all children who had once lived with her, but none had endured the hunger and bitter cold. In the end, they had died of illness.

"Ah, and big brother Asmodeus too. He's incredibly capable—he'd definitely make a good sailor." Ai Miye added one final name.

Hawkins nodded. "Then let's resurrect Asmodeus."

He had examined Ai Miye's consciousness, so he knew Asmodeus's appearance and the time of his death.

Compared with resurrecting those children, resurrecting Asmodeus was undoubtedly more cost-effective for now.