Hell Aboard Ship (Please Bookmark and Recommend)

The one pressing down Doug's revolver was Sifa.

This action, along with Doug's words, made the twenty-odd Black Tie members around them close in with hostile expressions.

Aside from a few trusted aides who often followed Doug and wore cheap formal suits, the others were dressed in all sorts of clothes. But no matter what they wore, they all had a black bow tie at their collars.

That made them look both mismatched and somewhat bizarre.

Faced with Doug's questioning, Sifa did not answer directly. "Time is running short. I don't want any complications, and I don't want the mission to go wrong—or even be ruined."

"If anyone damages my reputation, I won't let them off."

Doug raised his rather sparse eyebrows, his smile unchanged. "Oh? Including me?"

Behind the Black-Iron Mask, Sifa's gaze did not change. "Including you."

At once, the Black Tie members around them drew long knives or revolvers and pointed them at Sifa.

Feeling the heavy pressure on his revolver, Doug's eyes darted about before he shouted, "What are you doing? Put those things away!"

Hearing that, Sifa released his hand. Doug then kicked the "traitor." "Get lost, now! Don't let me see you in Enqi Town again!"

The injured man scrambled away, passing through the Black Tie members. Doug snorted, then put on a smile again as he said to Sifa, "Come on, let's collect the goods."

Sifa had just turned around when he suddenly heard a gunshot. He whirled back and saw Doug raising his hand.

Smoke drifted from the muzzle of his gun.

The running man on the distant beach fell straight down and did not get back up.

Doug called out, "Hurry up and bury him."

He put away his revolver and smiled at Sifa. "See? Killing a traitor doesn't take much time. It won't cause any complications, much less affect your reputation."

Sifa said nothing. He did not look at the man lying on the beach, merely giving Doug a flat glance. "You've already wasted ten seconds."

Doug burst into laughter and strode past Sifa, taking the lead.

They headed southwest along the beach. The coastline gradually narrowed, but after rounding a bend, their view suddenly opened up again.

In the bay ahead, beneath the crimson moonlight, a multi-masted sailing ship lay quietly anchored not far from shore.

A rowboat glided across the water toward the sailing ship.

Doug snorted. "That bastard Banjie is still doing these shady little deals at a time like this."

He glanced at Sifa and explained, "Banjie is that ship's captain. Sometimes, while delivering goods, he also takes people who can't get tickets through normal channels overseas."

Sifa narrowed his eyes slightly. By the moonlight, he saw two people in the rowboat.

One of them was Bridge, the man who had tried to hire him as a temporary bodyguard a few days ago.

The ship Bridge had originally planned to board was this very one tonight.

Just as Bridge and his bodyguard began boarding, Doug called over the bearded man Sifa had beaten up that day. "Hurry up and signal that bastard Banjie. It's getting late. Tell him to hand over the goods early so I can get back to sleep!"

Holding a horse lamp, the bearded man raised it high and occasionally covered the lampshade with his hand. He was using the flickering light to transmit a message.

But after he signaled several times, there was no response from the ship. Then, suddenly, gunshots rang out aboard it!

Doug's expression changed. He instinctively ran toward the shore. During that time, three more shots rang out from the multi-masted sailing ship.

Then came an eerie silence.

Behind the iron mask, Sifa frowned slightly and stepped forward. "I suggest we don't board the ship, but I imagine you won't agree."

The muscles in Doug's face twitched. "Isn't that obvious? The cargo on that ship is very important to me. Nothing can happen to them! Otherwise, it'll be hard for me to answer to that adult!"

That adult?

Sifa thought of the carriage Doug had gotten out of earlier. The Black Tie leader had bowed toward someone inside it. That "adult" should have been in the carriage at the time.

Realizing he had misspoken, Doug immediately covered his mouth, then shouted, "Get the boats out here! We're going aboard to take a look!"

The Black Tie members ran to the shore, flipped over several rowboats lying upside down on the beach, and pushed them into the sea.

Sifa and Doug shared a boat while the bearded man and two other bodyguards in formal suits rowed. Moments later, they boarded the deck of the multi-masted sailing ship.

There was not a soul on deck, nor were there any lights. The door leading into the cabin stood wide open, with only darkness inside.

Doug walked to the doorway and shouted inside, "Banjie, are you down there? Damn it, answer me!"

Sifa patted his shoulder and shook his head. "Calm down. Impulsiveness and anger won't solve anything."

"I don't need you teaching me!" Doug slapped away Sifa's hand and shouted at his men behind him, "Light the lamps. We're going down!"

Soon, horse lamps and torches illuminated the stairs leading down into the ship's hold.

Sifa followed Doug down. The moment he entered the hold, he smelled a foul odor. A Hunter's sense of smell quickly identified strong liquor, urine, sweat, and a thick stench of blood within it.

He reached into his coat and drew the Golden Revolver. Seeing this, Doug drew his own gun as well.

Creak—

It was the sound of feet stepping on wooden boards. The Black Tie members spread out, and the lights illuminated the hold.

The moment Sifa entered the hold, he clearly felt that the temperature here was at least five degrees Celsius lower than on deck.

Even before seeing anything, he could sense the overwhelming aura of death here.

From time to time, a cold wind of unknown origin swept past his ears with a howl, like the murmurs of resentful spirits.

At the foot of the stairs, Sifa saw Bridge. He lay face down on the ground, seemingly crushed by something heavy, leaving his entire back caved in.

Poor Bridge...

As for his bodyguard, an unfamiliar Hunter, he had suffered an even worse fate—he had been dismembered.

It seemed they had been attacked not long after entering the hold.

Sifa shook his head and passed by the two corpses.

Suddenly, a cry of alarm sounded ahead, followed by someone shouting, "There are dead people! So many dead people!"

Doug's expression changed when he heard that. He shoved aside the subordinate blocking his way and hurried over.

Sifa followed him deeper into the hold and immediately saw that the wooden floor had been stained dark red with blood. Corpses seemed to "float" amid that glaring red.

There were sailors with distinctly Loen features, as well as bronze-skinned Balamese. They lay scattered about in their own blood.

"It's simply a vision of hell," Sifa murmured beneath his mask.

Then he discovered that the corpses' faces did not bear expressions of pain. Instead, they wore satisfied expressions, as though they were enjoying pleasure.

It was as if, right up until death came, they had still been indulging in carnal pleasures.

It was far too strange!

As for their cause of death, the wounds in their abdomens made it obvious.

Every corpse had a fist-sized hole in its abdomen. The blood staining the floor of the hold had flowed from those wounds.

Sifa took a horse lamp, crouched beside a corpse, picked up a stick nearby, and propped open the wound. As the light shone into it, Sifa saw that the dead man's abdomen was empty.

He sucked in a cold breath behind his mask. He believed that if he cut open the corpse's chest now, he probably would not find any organs in its chest cavity either.

The organs and intestines inside these corpses had all been pulled out!

As he stood up, he inadvertently caught sight of a statue placed among the corpses, one that blended the concepts of "tree" and "woman."

Sifa had seen the same thing in old Mrs. Paris's basement!