"Eh, where's Son of Pirates?"
Just as the middle-aged man prepared to take aim, he discovered that Hawkins was no longer aboard the Black Knife. He hurriedly searched the surroundings, but found no trace of Hawkins.
"Damn it, he hid again like those cheap bastards!"
The middle-aged man expelled the compressed air from his mouth, inwardly cursing in frustration.
After every three attacks, he had to rest for ten minutes. Otherwise, his mouth would rupture from compressing too much air.
Because of that three-minute gap, he had lost the chance to kill Mark and the others. And now, because his mind had wandered, Hawkins had vanished too.
Something was wrong!
He had clearly kept Hawkins locked on the whole time. When had he disappeared?
He frowned and thought it over, yet he had no idea when his attention had drifted or when he had lost his target.
At that moment, behind the middle-aged man, Hawkins climbed onto the rooftop like a nimble cat. He slowly drew a blade from the Sea Chart and silently approached his target.
Normally, items in Eternal Space could not be taken out. But just as Asmodeus could leave Eternal Space, as long as Hawkins was willing to pay Curse Power, he could take them out as well. The moment he cut off the supply of Curse Power, however, the item would automatically return to Eternal Space.
He had seen far too many people with invisibility abilities before.
Whether it was optical invisibility or blending into objects, as long as they launched an attack, he could pinpoint their location.
It was not difficult. With a little calculation of angles and speed, he could make a basic judgment.
Hawkins stopped behind the middle-aged man and raised his blade. In an instant, the man sensed danger and rolled away from Hawkins's strike. But before he could turn around, the second slash was already upon him.
This time, the middle-aged man failed to evade. Hawkins raised his hand and brought the blade down, severing both his legs. Blood gushed out, and he naturally could no longer maintain his invisibility.
"Spare me, my lord, spare me!"
The middle-aged man revealed himself, his whole face scrunched up in pain as he wailed.
As an assassin, he had always ambushed targets from afar, catching them off guard and killing them directly. His tolerance for pain was extremely low. In a face-to-face fight, he might not even beat a child like Arthur.
Hawkins withdrew his Curse Power, and the blade in his hand immediately turned into countless motes of light that flew back into his body. He crouched down before the middle-aged man, whose face was covered in snot and tears, and smiled with narrowed eyes. "Could you tell me who exactly sent you to cause trouble for us?"
In the past, he had always been the one taking other people's lives. Watching the survivors panic, he had sneered inwardly at their cowardice.
But when it happened to him, he discovered just how terrifying it was to have one's life snatched away at any moment. Hawkins merely stood before him, yet his whole body trembled. His mind kept screaming at him to beg for mercy, to kneel, to survive no matter what.
Hawkins casually picked out a splinter of wood and poked it into the middle-aged man's wound, smiling. "Then hurry up and talk."
"Argh... y-yes. Someone put a bounty on the lives of everyone aboard the Black Knife in the Black Market. One head can be exchanged for 10 Gold Coins!" The middle-aged man said through convulsions, his head drenched in sweat.
The Black Market?
Hawkins thought carefully. There really was such a place.
The Black Market was an isolated island located between Yazhong Island, Blackwood Island, and Hard Biscuit Island. It only opened at certain times.
Hawkins had gone to the Black Market to sell stolen goods before, but he knew little about its core business.
At the end of the day, although Hawkins bore the title Son of Pirates, he was merely a pirate who could not be brought into the light.
The Black Market's true customers were nobles and people with special identities, such as assassins who possessed Cursed Relics, merchants secretly funding the resistance army, and so on.
Under the threat of death, the middle-aged man did not dare hide anything and truthfully recounted the Black Market's situation.
Hawkins stroked his chin after listening, muttering, "So you accepted the Black Market's bounty, which is why you came looking for trouble with me?"
"Yes, yes. I'll abandon the mission when I get back. My lord, spare me. We have no grudge against each other," the middle-aged man said, nodding frantically.
Holding the wood splinter, Hawkins lowered his head and drew in the blood flowing from the middle-aged man. As he drew, he said blandly, "Your strength is so weak, and I didn't expect your memory to be so bad either. Rather than being an assassin, you should go home and grow sweet potatoes. You killed three of my people, and now you're telling me we have no grudge? Or should I cooperate and pretend I've lost my memory?"
The middle-aged man's face flushed red. Realizing Hawkins would never spare him, his eyes immediately reddened as he grabbed his blowpipe.
But just as he was about to fire an air cannon, he discovered that Hawkins was no longer in front of him. Then his body abruptly stiffened, and his eyes shifted backward.
Hawkins crouched behind him and said flatly, "Your courage is commendable, but as an assassin, I can only give you a zero. Goodbye!"
The Sea Chart opened before him, and a blade thrust out from it. The middle-aged man's chest was pierced through, and his entire body began shaking violently. His face twisted into a knot as tears, snot, and saliva mixed with sweat and ran into his clothes. The stench beneath his crotch was even more unbearable.
In the end, the middle-aged man died. Blood flooded back into his lungs, and he suffocated to death.
It was undoubtedly an agonizing way to die.
Although he did not want to die, Hawkins had deliberately stabbed him in the chest so that he would die in the greatest possible pain. Otherwise, Hawkins could have stabbed a vital point and killed him instantly, sparing him this suffering.
The problem was that Hawkins had no desire to show mercy to someone who would not even spare children.
After killing the middle-aged man, Hawkins held the blowpipe in one hand and dragged the corpse with the other as he jumped downstairs. He slowly headed toward where Mark and the others were hiding.
Inside the storage room, Mark suddenly looked at Jennie and asked, "If you fall asleep, can you lock onto the killer's location?"
"Y-yes. As long as I fall asleep, I'll definitely dream of Qiao Si and the killer who murdered Qiao Si." Jennie froze for a moment, then hurriedly nodded.
Mark clenched his fist and continued, "Then if I forcibly knock you out, will you dream?"
"Ah, are you going to hit me?" Jennie went pale with fright.
Mark looked at Jennie seriously and asked, "Don't you want to avenge Qiao Si?"
Aww, so sweet I could die!
As Mark looked at Jennie's delicate face, he suddenly felt as if his heart had skipped a beat.
He had actually seen quite a few women. There had even been a period after he became a Curse Caster when he had been particularly reckless. Yet none of those women had ever made his heart stir.
But at this moment, his heart had stirred.
To be honest, even he did not know why. But the instant Jennie raised her head to look at him, he felt as though lightning had struck his heart.
"Damn it, I can't bring myself to do it. What now?"
Mark raised his hand, originally intending to knock Jennie out with one punch. But as he watched Jennie close her eyes, tears still clinging to the corners of them, he realized he could not strike hard.
At that moment, the storage room door was pushed open. Mark immediately turned around, ready to attack, only to see Hawkins walk in.
"What are you doing?" Hawkins glanced at Jennie, who had raised her head and closed her eyes, then at Mark, whose fist was raised, looking somewhat confused.
Mark froze, then stammered, "C-Captain, y-you... why are you back?"
"Were you hoping I wouldn't make it back?" Hawkins asked.
Mark hurriedly shook his head and smiled ingratiatingly. "Actually, we were all worried about you, Captain. And... where's that little girl?"
"Ai Miye is fine. You lot, on the other hand, were driven into hiding in this godforsaken place by a single assassin. How embarrassing." Hawkins looked around the storage room and teased them.
The moment Hawkins entered the storage room, he deliberately shut off his sense of smell. Otherwise, he would definitely have fled three paces back.
"Captain, if it were just me, I definitely wouldn't be afraid of an assassin. But I had to take care of them, so there was really no way... w-way..." Mark hurriedly defended himself, but before he could finish, Hawkins turned sideways, dragged the assassin's corpse in behind him, and tossed it into the room. The smell of blood made the already unbearably foul storage room even more rancid.
But Mark's attention was entirely fixed on the assassin's corpse. He looked up in shock and asked, "Captain, you found that assassin?"
"If I hadn't found him, how would I know he was an assassin?" Hawkins replied irritably.
With that, he turned and left. Mark hurriedly helped up the groaning Arthur and told the others, "All right, come out. It's safe now."
"Captain, who sent this assassin? Hasn't Jabus already gone mad?" Mark followed Hawkins and asked.
As they walked, Hawkins recounted the Black Market's situation to Mark. After hearing it, Mark was left speechless. He could not help muttering inwardly that Hawkins truly had countless enemies. How many acts that enraged both Heaven and man had he committed to attract so much trouble?
Of course, Mark absolutely did not dare say that to Hawkins's face. After all, he still wanted to live.
After returning to the Black Knife, Hawkins had Mark gather the corpses of Qiao Si and the other two. Then he had everyone move the supplies onto the deck.
"Captain, are you planning to abandon the Black Knife? But that really is a wise choice. As long as we abandon the Black Knife, those assassins definitely won't be able to find us so easily." Mark carried a chest of Gold Coins onto the deck, set it down, wiped away his sweat, and spoke to Hawkins.
Hawkins glanced at Mark and smiled. "Excessive hormone secretion makes a person unconsciously talk more, show off more, and love being in the spotlight. Let me guess, who have you taken a liking to?"
"W-Wait, Captain, leave me a little dignity." Mark secretly glanced at Jennie, who was sitting on a wine barrel, and quickly pleaded.
Hawkins said with amusement, "Then hurry up and get to work."
"Right away, right away!" Mark hurriedly jogged toward the storage room.
Hawkins smiled, then opened the Sea Chart and stored the moved supplies inside Eternal Space.