Su Ming’an left Ming’an in the cockpit, walked down the corridor, and faced a corridor full of corpses.
Each corpse bore a deep sword cut on the neck, the wounds fatally delivered in one strike.
These were the bodies of the elite crew mbers who had conspired in this plot. Along his way, they had planned to ambush him but had been utterly neutralized by him.
He had found many syringes and scalpels in their rooms, indicating that this plan had been long in the making.
Of course, there must have also been players among these crew mbers, but Su Ming’an killed them indiscriminately, regardless of who they were, to prevent his identity from being leaked.
He turned around, the dim lantern left aside, and a girl with red hair was squatting on the ground. Pink petals adorned her hair, casting a pale golden glow under the light of the fire.
She was processing the bodies, collecting the incriminating evidence from them.
Su Ming’an glanced at her, stepped over the sea of blood, and walked outside.
"Hey, Rin, where are you going?" Nailuo called out from behind.
"Going back to sleep, I’m tired," Su Ming’an didn’t even turn around.
"Wait, Rin, you still need to report this matter to the Grand Duke..." Nailuo imdiately followed him: "This is a great achievent, saving who knows how many passengers! You have exposed this conspiracy, the Grand Duke will surely grant you many rewards, and you could use these to rejuvenate your family..."
Su Ming’an glanced at her.
Nailuo, too, was covered in blood. The young lady, who was supposed to die tonight, had miraculously survived. Unaware that she had just escaped death, she now seed full of life.
"Report to the Grand Duke, are you seeking death?" he laughed: "Tell , Nailuo, before the Yate Vessel set sail, had you seen such a potion capable of forging corpses in the Empire?"
The once enthusiastic Nailuo, faced with his question, was stunned.
Her words spun in her mouth, and then she suddenly appeared to understand sothing. Even her initial excitent about exposing the conspiracy subsided.
"...No," she said.
"And before the Yate Vessel set sail, had you heard even a whisper of the Soul Clan being around?"
"...No," Nailuo replied.
She rembered that, at the ti the Yate Vessel had departed, the Soul Clan of the Yate Empire had almost been driven to extinction. The group of Soul Clan mbers, like underground rats, had been chased away and forced to cross the seas.
Therefore, she found it strange that there were traces of the Soul Clan on the tightly secured Yate Vessel.
"That’s right," Su Ming’an looked at her: "Such a big conspiracy, so many elite crew mbers united to overthrow the nobility’s rule, to take over this mariti gem... These people, all unified in purpose, prepared a potion previously unseen, executed their plan without any slip-ups... They fooled the nobility, fooled the Soul Hunters, fooled all the passengers... If I hadn’t co here tonight, nobody would have realized that this was just an artificial conspiracy."
At this point, he glanced at the dark, mysterious corridor beside him.
"Nailuo—do you think, such a large-scale operation was rely organized spontaneously by these crew mbers?"
"..."
Nailuo stopped talking.
Even though she wasn’t fond of thinking too deeply, she understood the implications of Su Ming’an’s words.
"What do you want to do?"
After a mont of silence, she suddenly asked.
"Rin, to voice such disrespectful suspicions, surely you must not hold much loyalty to the Empire either," she said, her expression unchanging: "So, what do you want to do? Ignore it and pretend nothing happened tonight, or do sothing more outrageous than those nobles, such as, preempt them, and overturn the Yate Vessel before they can?"
"..." Su Ming’an remained silent, just looking at her.
Nailuo suddenly felt a bit uneasy.
This Rin before her... was unsettlingly unfamiliar.
He always looked at her with a purposeful gaze, as if viewing a marker, as if regarding her as a commodity. As she spoke different words, his gaze seed to shift, weighing sothing.
She was naturally sensitive to people’s gazes, and Rin was no exception. The Rin before her, who had suddenly exhibited imnse combat power... now felt like a stranger, making her fearful.
It felt as though a lot of ti had passed, yet it seed only a mont had stayed when his gaze shifted away from her, and she heard his sudden voice:
"...You should go back."
He said:
"Pretend nothing happened tonight."
"What about you?" Nailuo couldn’t help but ask.
"Starting tomorrow, the lifeboats will be deployed one by one. With your status, getting on one shouldn’t be a problem. You can survive," Su Ming’an said, turning away.
"Hey, you..."
Nailuo’s sowhat anxious voice ca from behind.
Su Ming’an didn’t respond.
He waded through the river of blood on the ground, walked out of the dark corridor, and ascended the stairs leading to the upper floors, covered in blood.
Rain "pitter-pattered" against the glass outside, with dark clouds pressing down on the sky. Windows like black holes were embedded in the ship’s beige wallpapered walls.
Suddenly, a terrifyingly bright blaze burst forth from the clouds, thunder exploded, and a fierce white light illuminated Su Ming’an’s face. He turned his head and saw a thin bolt of lightning slashing down from the clouds like a sword.
...The rain kept getting heavier.
He glanced at the clock; it was nearing four in the morning.
This was the ti when passengers on the Yate Vessel were deeply asleep.
Spatial Vibration was ready in his left hand, and in his right, he carried a shining silver longsword.
As he turned the corner, ready to step onto the staircase to the sixth floor, he saw a middle-aged Soul Hunter in black uniform guarding there.
The Soul Hunter responsible for protecting the duke, Puler, also looked up, eting his gaze.
"The sixth floor is the residence of the duke, no unauthorized personnel may enter...hmm?"
Puler glanced at the youth moving at night and suddenly slled the blood on him.
His eyes imdiately turned cold. No matter who the other party was, anyone daring to ascend to this sixth floor with a sword had an obligation to be subdued.
...He couldn’t allow such a dangerous individual to get close to Grand Duke.
He reached out his hand, moving quickly, and as a streak of blood light appeared at his wrist, a strong gust of red light, intense as a windstorm, suddenly swept over.
"Whooosh—"
A sound like a wave crashing echoed, and the formidable red light wave swept across Su Ming’an’s body; he heard a system notification sound.
[Covered by Soul Burst Light Wave, judgnt in progress...]
[Judgnt successful, physique>40 points, strength>30 points, completely immune to the bursting effect.]
...
The red light wave flashed by, like a phantom light flickering on his body, then stilled.
Su Ming’an didn’t linger any longer and imdiately advanced, striking towards the Soul Hunter blocking the stairway with his sword.
From the recent judgnt, the Soul Hunter’s strength was quite formidable.
The total judgnt points exceeded seventy; it was a distributed judgnt, indicating a very high level of assessnt. The Soul Hunter’s strength might be the peak on this Yate Vessel’s small map, boss-like existence, likely similar to the original Flax.
The next mont, Su Ming’an found that his judgnt was correct.
The sword strike with a strength value of 69 points was blocked by the middle-aged man. Although the opponent had put up a Defensive Barrier, not a sword-to-sword collision, being able to resist this strike already proved the opponent’s strong capability.
However, the enemy’s strength value was clearly lower, their defensive actions sowhat collapsed, and the edges of their defensive barrier began to crack.
Su Ming’an directly increased his force, pressing his long sword downward.
With a crisp "crackling" sound,
like shattered blue glass, the defensive barrier burst open in an instant, and Su Ming’an’s sword chopped into the opponent’s shoulder, blood spurting like an arrow.
[HP-567!]
[HP-150! (True Damage!)]
The red numbers flashed montarily, and Su Ming’an saw that the opponent had already raised a pistol inlaid with a crimson gemstone.
...
[Detecting combat, entering boss battle mode.]
[Current boss (Puler), Combat Power: 1600]
[Probability of winning: 86%]
...
combat power.
If a player wanted to forcefully take over this ship, they would first have to defeat three Soul Hunters with a combat power of 1600. This was almost an impossible task.
...excluding himself.
He stared at the pistol aiming straight at him, saw Puler tighten his shoulders, trapping his sword so he couldn’t pull it out, and watched as a victorious smile appeared on the bearded face...
"Bang!"
The bullet was fired, a blood-red stream of light flashed past, cutting through the air towards his forehead.
Extending from the Sword of Yarman in a fleeting flash, he smoothly pulled out his sword, and as the opponent retreated, the blade in his hand also swiftly detached, striking precisely at the opponent’s neck.
—There, a blood-red ring of light appeared, exactly the combat hint from the Weakness Insight skill.
"Bang!"
[HP-1219! (Fatal Injury! Weakness Insight Break Technique Bonus!)]
[HP-200! (True Damage!)]
Puler fell heavily against the wall, nailed there by the sword, and the entire cabin shook violently.
With a "clang", the bullet fell to the ground, as if suddenly pressed down by the air.
Su Ming’an promptly activated the Heart of the Future’s suppression skill to prevent himself from getting a headshot with one shot.
Facing such firearm attacks, the energy suppression effect was extrely effective. He could now barely control the range of the energy suppression, ensuring it did not cause the nearby staircase ceiling to collapse as well.
He took a breath, stepped forward to pull out his sword, and heard the system’s notification sound.
[*You killed Puler (Yate Vessels A-grade Soul Hunter), Exp 3000!]
[You have obtained Hunter’s dal·A-grade*1]
[Hunter’s dal·A-grade: Possessing this dal allows you to exchange for Soul Clan points with the Soul Clan faction, which can be used to exchange for equipnt and props at key NPC locations in the Soul Clan faction.]
...
A golden dal appeared in his hand, at the center a blood-red gemstone, flanked by golden wheat ears, making it look quite ornate.
He put the dal into his backpack and walked over to Puler’s corpse.
He had already realized that the strength of the Soul Hunters was indeed formidable. It was only because his own combat power had reached 1900, and since the opponent was configured with high attack but low health, that a sword through the throat ended the battle so abruptly.
He didn’t know where the other two Soul Hunters had gone, nor whether they were equipped with firearms, but he knew one of them was the old man who had previously accompanied Saya.
Last week, when he was chasing those four dood players, he had also encountered the old man once. The old man was likely responsible for the night patrols.
The remaining one must be in charge of guarding another distinguished noble, though he did not know who that was.
He searched Puler’s body and even picked up the other party’s firearms to try them out, only to find they were dysfunctional. The system also displayed "damaged firearms."
He stuffed the gun into his backpack, walked past Puler’s corpse, and looked toward the golden door nearby.
This sixth floor isn’t like the other floors with many rooms; it only had this one grand door.
It seed that the Grand Duke’s living conditions were quite good; he had the entire sixth floor to himself.
The fight with Puler had been very brief—an almost instantaneous victory without much commotion. The Duke inside probably hadn’t been awakened yet.
He approached, not breaking down the door violently, but directly teleporting inside.
With a flash of white light, he found himself in darkness.
The floor was carpeted, soft underfoot; the room seed vast, like a living room.
He walked along the wall, making no sound at all. After covering so distance, he saw light leaking through a crack of a door nearby.
... This must be the room where the Grand Duke sleeps.
Looking at the light... was the person still awake? Up late handling official duties?
His main reason for coming now was to understand the attitude of the Grand Duke. He was almost certain that all the incidents aboard the Yate Vessel were orchestrated by this high-ranking Grand Duke. The lower-level crew mbers could not have possibly gathered such potions, nor could they casually murder soone under the vigilant eyes of the powerful Soul Hunters.
Killing Puler was to leave the Grand Duke with no way out, under absolute suppression of force, the only way for the Duke to survive was to rely on him.
He didn’t hesitate. There was rely a wooden door in front of him, which he very easily pushed open after preparing himself.
"Creak—" the room’s lights flickered.
Glimpsing tall tal racks and a gramophone playing soft music, he saw a large bed at the center of the room, with curtains draped over it, under which was a form wrapped up in blankets.
He directly approached and pulled back the blankets.
There was no shrill scream, nor any pleas for rcy.
Su Ming’an’s hand paused in midair.
He stared at the person hiding under the blankets, the legendary Grand Duke from the Yate Vessel, and was stunned.
A teary-eyed, golden-haired young boy, no older than fifteen, was cowering on the bed. Dressed in a pristine white nightgown, his small fra trembling, a pair of deep blue eyes was looking up at him.
"Duke?" Su Ming’an couldn’t help questioning.
Was the Duke really this young?
His preconception had been misguided; he had assud the Duke to be a man in his forties or fifties.
The young boy lifted his head, looking at him sowhat curiously.
"What is it?" the young boy tilted his head, his expression slightly confused, "Su Rin... sir?"
Su Ming’an’s motion stopped.
He looked at the Empire’s Grand Duke before him, who seed very reverent, and listened to the address, suddenly feeling as if he had stumbled upon sothing remarkable.
"Sir Su Rin." The young boy reached out, clutching the hem of his robe:
"I’ve already taken care of everything you commanded. You’ve co late at night... is there sothing else you need to do?"
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