Gods and Gods

"What secrets... are the Seven Seas hiding?"

Hawkins spat out a fish bone and looked toward the distant horizon, anticipation stirring in his heart.

In truth, Dalton did not necessarily have to handle relocating the residents of Black Market Island. Vanessa would have achieved the same result, perhaps even done better. After all, the Black Sail Trading Company did not have to remain on Black Market Island; it could operate from White Market Island, Purple Market Island...

Yet Hawkins ultimately chose Dalton, because Dalton was rich enough!

Moreover, Dalton's most important assets were on Black Market Island. He was like a rat driven into a corner—he would definitely make some very interesting moves.

With Mother backing him and without Mother backing him, Hawkins's patterns of behavior were utterly different.

Without Mother, he would have killed Dalton, then found Vanessa and "commissioned" her in a friendly manner to relocate the island's residents. But with Mother behind him, Hawkins was more willing to give Dalton a chance and see just how big a splash he could make.

Meanwhile, after Dalton posted a bounty in Death Star Pavilion, a handsome man slowly opened his eyes within a nebula in the Dream Realm.

He did not look old, no more than thirty-five at most. His long hair fell over his shoulders, and he wore a small mustache.

Judging by his clothes, he should have been a noble. He wore quite a few gold ornaments, the most striking being the golden circlet on his forehead, which looked like a crown.

"How many years has it been? Nearly ten years, I suppose. What was my name? Right, my name is Trist!"

He looked somewhat lost, then seemed to instinctively touch his crown. The instant his hand touched it, he swiftly sorted out his identity, and the memories he had nearly forgotten rapidly resurfaced.

Trist was his name. He had already lived for five hundred years and was a genuine old monster of the Seven Seas.

To avoid being completely assimilated by the Dream Realm, he had left behind an ancient tower in the Seven Seas that had formed a contract with him. So long as someone produced enough gold coins, they could commission him to kill whoever they wished dead.

Gold coins were not especially useful to him. He merely needed an external force to awaken himself, and killing someone for the other party was no more difficult than lifting a hand.

He closed his eyes and followed the contract, his body swiftly returning to the altar in Death Star Pavilion.

Within the altar, a ray of light dispersed the darkness around him. His body gradually condensed from a phantom into solid form. Then Dalton's gold coins floated before him, along with a sheet of paper bearing Hawkins's name.

"Son of Pirates Hawkins? A pirate?"

Trist looked at the words on the paper and muttered to himself with a faint smile.

He had not returned to reality for a long time. The main reason was that the commission fee for Death Star Pavilion had been set only after careful consideration—it could be neither too expensive nor too cheap.

A starting price of one thousand gold coins was just right.

"All right, time for a stroll!"

After crushing the paper, Trist took one step forward and appeared over the sea in the next instant.

As a Curse Caster who had lived for over five hundred years, he possessed five Cursed Relics, and he had developed each relic's ability until he could wield them as easily as his own limbs.

Shoes capable of shrinking the earth into inches, a circlet that could store himself, a bracelet that could condense photons, a necklace possessing the power of constancy, and finally, a ring that could see through the depths of an enemy.

Combined, these abilities made him seem like a god.

In three minutes, he found the Black Knife.

He raised his right hand and smiled. "Poor little pirate, blame your bad luck for becoming my prey!"

In an instant, the surroundings darkened. Countless photons gathered in his hand and transformed into an enormous ball of light. He flung it directly at the Black Knife.

At that moment, ripples appeared behind the Black Knife. The massive ball of light passed through the ripples and vanished without a trace.

Hawkins stood at the stern, raised his head, and narrowed his eyes at Trist. Trist, too, was slightly surprised as he looked at Hawkins aboard the ship.

In the past, no enemy had ever been able to withstand one casual strike from him. After all, the power of that blow was already close to that of an atomic bomb.

"Interesting. But what about this?"

Trist smiled, then continuously condensed beams of light at his fingertips and fired them madly at Hawkins.

In fact, the photons condensed by Trist's attacks were also resources Hawkins needed. Since someone was so rarely willing to help, Hawkins was more than happy to let Trist keep firing for a while.

"So it's a spatial ability!"

Trist was not some brainless villain. After attacking for a while, he saw through the nature of the ripples and immediately shifted directions at tremendous speed.

The ripples could only protect one direction. As long as he changed direction quickly enough, Hawkins would be unable to defend against all his attacks.

And reality was exactly as he had expected. Once he kept changing directions as he attacked, Hawkins found it difficult to defend against every strike.

The Black Knife was riddled with holes, while Hawkins himself was struck by beams three times. His arm, lower abdomen, and thigh were all pierced through. However, the beams carried extremely high heat, so the wounds were cauterized by the temperature instead of bleeding continuously.

Suddenly, Trist felt a wave of dizziness and found it difficult to breathe.

"I've been poisoned?"

His heart jolted. In the next moment, he activated the power of constancy, and his condition swiftly returned to its peak.

So far, Hawkins had displayed two abilities. One was a miraculous spatial shield; perhaps the space behind the shield was connected to somewhere else and could receive all of Trist's attacks.

The other was an unknown deadly poison that could poison him in a short period of time.

Though his poisoning was also partly due to his excessive arrogance.

Unlike Mark, he did not use Curse Power to protect his entire body. Instead, he concentrated it around his head, hands, and legs.

Because he possessed the power of constancy, even if his heart were pierced through, he could recover in an instant. The only part that truly needed protection was his head, while his hands and feet were protected so he could use his abilities more effectively.

A thought suddenly occurred to Trist, and he looked at Hawkins as he spoke.

Under normal circumstances, he would not speak with his prey. He would simply kill it in one move and fulfill that inconsequential contract.

But now, he had become curious about Hawkins. Though Hawkins was far weaker than him, he was already qualified to speak with him.

Hawkins lowered his head and rubbed his eyes, then smiled. "Aren't you a Curse Caster?"

"Do I look like a Curse Caster to you?" Trist slowly descended and stood in midair as he asked.

Hawkins frowned slightly. "Let's talk properly, but can you come down first? My eyes can't take you flickering back and forth like that."

Trist silently landed on the edge of the ship, staring at Hawkins with a gloomy expression.

He did not possess the ability to fly. The reason he could seemingly remain in the air was actually because his shoes could shrink the earth into inches, allowing him to flicker about wildly within a short span of time.

Simply put, he moved from point A to point B, then from point B back to point A.

As long as he was fast enough, human eyes could be deceived, making him appear to be flying.

The problem was that Hawkins's eyes possessed extremely powerful dynamic vision. Every frame of Trist's movement was crystal clear to Hawkins, so Trist looked like an afterimage constantly flickering in front of him. In short, he looked a little ridiculous.

"Sorry. If you enjoy flickering around, you can keep flickering around," Hawkins said when he saw that Trist did not seem very happy.

Trist had no desire to continue that topic. Instead, he said coldly, "Over the past five hundred years, I've seen many Curse Casters. Your ability is quite special. If you hand over that spatial ability, I can consider sparing your life."

Trist frowned. "I don't know any Dalton. Answer my question, mortal!"

For an instant, Hawkins had a very strange feeling.

He suddenly remembered a long, long time ago, when he had pretended to be a god on some planet. Back then, a king had madly sacrificed the lives of several thousand of his own kind for the sole purpose of meeting him once.

When Hawkins appeared before that king, his opening words had been, "Mortal, what do you seek?"

Yet the king had not made a request. Instead, he knelt on the ground and endlessly praised Hawkins with florid language.

Hawkins had become impatient then, so he shouted, "Answer my question, mortal!"

Such familiar words. In fact, he had said those words at least several thousand times, because living beings possessed far too many joys, angers, sorrows, and delights—far too many prayers.

So in the end, he simply stopped appearing. He watched that planet prosper, and he watched that planet decline.

"I'm a mortal. Then what do you think you are?"

Hawkins sighed faintly and looked at Trist as he asked.

Suddenly, Trist appeared behind Hawkins and pressed one finger against Hawkins's neck. Proudly, he said, "Perhaps no one in the Seven Seas has heard of this, but above Curse Casters are gods—and I am a god!"

"What a coincidence. Many lives once considered me a god too, though in my view, that was only because they weren't very smart." Hawkins smiled faintly.

Trist thought Hawkins was talking about deceiving ignorant villagers in some remote backwater with lies, so he sneered. "The god I speak of is a true god, not some fantasy built from lies and deception like yours."

"No, I know what you mean. If you don't believe me, why don't we go meet... a god together? Then we can see whether your god is more genuine, or mine is." Hawkins smiled.

Ripples appeared beneath their feet. Caught off guard, both their feet sank into the ripples.

Naturally, Trist was unwilling to sit and await death, so he instantly condensed a beam of light on his fingertip and shot through Hawkins's neck. But his feet had already been swallowed by the ripples, and his body continued to sink rapidly into them.

"How is that possible? His ability is still active even after he's dead?"

Trist's expression changed. He wanted to activate the power of constancy, but his entire body had already passed through the ripples.

Eternal Space, Yazhong Island, a lawn of vivid green.

Hawkins's corpse and Trist fell onto the grass at the same time. Trist gave Hawkins a cold glance, then frowned slightly. His body stiffened as he sensed immense danger behind him. The light also seemed terribly wrong.

He swallowed. After steeling himself, he abruptly turned around to look behind him.

In the next instant, brilliant golden light reflected in his pupils. His teeth clattered as though fighting one another, and every cell in his body trembled madly.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH... AAAAAHHHH... AAAAAHHHH... AAAAAHHHH... AHH..."