Chapter 143: Escalation, No Turning Back

“Faster! Move! Don’t stop! Get as far inside the ship as you can!”

A worker waved his hands, urging the passengers forward and occasionally pushing them from behind. He even received a few threats for it, all of which he completely ignored.

“Servant! I forgot my suitcase! Go bring it to me!”

One of the passengers, a gentleman dressed in perfectly clean clothes, pointed toward a pile of belongings lying a hundred meters away and ordered the worker in a commanding voice.

“Get inside!” Snarling at him, the worker kicked the gentleman in the backside, sending him stumbling deeper into the ship.

The passengers nearby immediately lost their pride and arrogance when they saw this and hurried inside.

....

‘Damn! Damn! Damn! What do I do?’ Among the crowd already inside the ship, Feng Min sat down on a chair and lowered his head, doing his best to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.

‘That damn old man wants to use me as a shield for himself and his passengers! Screw that!’

Remembering how the captain had unexpectedly dumped the responsibility for everyone around him onto his shoulders, Feng Min began to grow nervous, tapping his foot against the floor.

“Master Feng Min! There you are! Captain Bongromonte is calling for you!” Pushing his way through the crowd, a worker who looked no older than fifteen, with a large scar behind one ear, wiped his sweaty, shaved head with his hand.

Reaching Feng Min, he didn’t even bow as workers normally did. He merely looked around anxiously, urging Feng Min to hurry with every movement.

“Fine, lead the way!” Standing up and grabbing the hilt of his rusty sword, Feng Min shoved the boy in the shoulder, venting his anger on him.

‘Bastards! If you expect me to sacrifice myself for you, screw you!’

The force of the shove sent the boy stumbling into a nearest passenger. He quickly got back up, helped the woman he’d knocked to the ground, apologized, and, pretending nothing had happened, led Feng Min through the crowd.

....

When they reached the captain, the boy bowed and gestured toward Feng Min behind him. “Sir, I have brought him!”

“Good job, Huten. You’re dismissed.” The captain looked at Min, gestured for him to follow, then turned and headed toward the exit leading outside the ship.

“Captain, Master Feng Min.”

Su Mei, disguised as a man, and her servant, Old Mo, immediately emerged from the crowd and approached them.

The four of them stepped outside the ship and stood in the open, staring into the dense, trembling forest.

“Five Terra Octopuses...” The captain looked at the three of them. “I’ll take the third-rank beast. Young Master Su and Master Mo, you take one each... Feng Min, you’ll take two. Is that clear?”

Feng Min couldn’t help pointing toward the stern of the ship. “What about the one up there? I can’t figure out his cultivation level, but he’s clearly no mere Qi Condensation cultivator.”

“Master Feng, the rune master has his own task, and we can’t put his safety at risk.” Old Mo interjected, sensing the young man’s unease.

“Master Mo is right. We can’t risk him... for now.” The captain turned and looked toward the side of the ship, where three figures and a fat chicken were looking down at them from above.

Feng Min turned his head and met An’s gaze from several hundred meters away. His eyes were filled with undisguised hostility and contempt for the dandy.

“They’re here. Prepare yourselves!” The captain activated his Qi to its full extent and directed all his pressure toward the forest.

The dust and leaves flying around them instantly vanished, while the distant forest seemed to press itself against the ground, no longer moving even in the wind.

“ROOOAAR!”

Strange creatures emerged from among the motionless trees.

Their bodies were like enormous balls, each with a huge mouth filled with rows of tiny teeth. The mouth alone occupied more than half of its round torso.

Four enormous limbs extended from each body, with dozens of huge claws instead of toes. The limbs were more than twenty meters long, holding the spherical bodies suspended above the ground.

Their skin was covered in smooth, rounded scales that resembled those of a fish.

The four creatures behind the leader were gray, with faint hints of red and blue shimmering across their bodies.

The beast at the front differed not only in color. Its entire body was white, covered with shades of blue and red. All three colors seemed to compete for dominance across its body, but none managed to prevail.

Another difference was its size. It was far more imposing than the others.

With ten small eyes as black as night, it surveyed everything in front of it before focusing on the captain, who continued releasing his Qi pressure without pause.

“Buuur. Rurr... Deeeem!” As it slightly opened its mouth, sounds resembling speech began to emerge from it.

The creature’s voice was so deep and loud that the ground all around and beneath the ship trembled.

....

“An in-intelligent beast?! B-but how?!” On the ship, the young woman pressed herself against the railing and leaned over it. She was so shocked that she’d forgotten all about her own safety.

“Heh! Little girl! You have no idea how many intelligent creatures I’ve encountered during all my years aboard ships... Once, a spirit beast in human form even blocked our path. Whew, I got quite a few gray hairs that day!”

The old man immediately began bragging and frightening the young woman, but then remembered their current situation and fell silent.

An carefully watched the walking octopus at the front. ‘In three years in the Beast Lands, this is the first time I’ve seen a creature and a human actually communicate... This world really is amazing.’

During the three years he’d spent surviving here, An had encountered third-rank creatures countless times. On several occasions, he’d even sensed terrifying energy rushing past him, energy that was clearly above the third rank, meaning it exceeded the density of Qi possessed by cultivators in the Golden Core realm.

However, witnessing something like this, where a creature was actually attempting to communicate, was a first for him. Especially since it wasn't communicating with a human, whom he hadn’t encountered even once during all these years, but with other creatures of a different species.

Normally, the only time he’d witnessed anything similar was when beasts communicated among themselves, within their own species.

....

Hearing the beast’s garbled speech, the captain frowned deeply and turned toward the ship. “Miss Fieya!”

“I-I’m coming! I’m coming!”

A woman with gray hair but a surprisingly young-looking face ran out from among the crowd, a large book in her hands.

As she hurried through the hole in the ship and ran toward the captain and the others, she kept flipping through her book, trying to find something.

“Miss Fieya, what did it say?” The captain turned back and, without even waiting for her to reach them, calmly asked the question.

“C-Captain Bongromonte, if I’m not mistaken, it said that h-humans don’t belong here.” She finally reached the four of them and bent over to catch her breath.

“What does that mean, we don’t belong here?” Feng Min immediately objected, but the captain stopped him.

Holding out a hand to silence Min, the captain turned his gaze toward Miss Fieya.

“Tell the beast that we’re still on a trade route. A route we’re authorized to travel.”

“O-okay!”

Afraid even to look toward the enormous creatures, she buried her face in her book. After finding the words she needed, she began speaking loudly and clearly.

“Suuaaa! Ei. Eaa! Roee. U-? Ueaaa!”

“ROOOAR!”

One of the four beasts standing behind the leader suddenly roared, sending a massive wave of air from its mouth toward Fieya.

With a snap of his fingers, the captain created a barrier around her that easily blocked and dispersed the wave.

“Shaaa. Gruu~ Sha! Gea! Tua. Luuur.” The leading octopus began speaking slowly and at length. With every word, the ground trembled more violently.

Even An, more than half a kilometer away from the creature, could feel the ship creaking and cracking under the force of its voice.

“So... So... He said: Human contracts in the sky, once they reach the ground, all privileges… Eh?! T-the end?!” Miss Fieya turned pale, barely managing to remain standing.

“Tell that slimy bastard this: your King will be furious if he learns that you’ve violated the treaty, and he will learn about it even if you leave no one alive. Special artifacts have already transmitted our coordinates. That means that, one way or another, nothing that has happened here, or will happen here, can be hidden. Translate!”

The captain poured an enormous amount of Qi into his hands, prepared to launch himself forward and attack the massive white creature at any moment.

Clutching the book and trying to suppress the panic inside her, Fieya began conveying the captain’s words.

After hearing the translation, the beasts standing behind their leader exchanged glances and waved their limbs as if laughing.

“Sha! Sha! Sha! Kuae. Gneee~ To! Siu~ Suiii~” This time, the leader’s voice was heavier, filled with undisguised anger and hatred.

The four creatures behind it suddenly began hissing very quietly and deeply, creating a strange weightlessness around themselves as rocks and earth began floating into the air.

“H-he laughed! And he said he doesn’t care about either the human king or the king of the Beast Lands... H-he’s free, and his desires are free! And those desires are to fill his belly...”

Realizing what she’d just translated, she nearly dropped the book from her hands again. “T-they want to eat us!”

With a sharp movement of his hand, the captain sent Miss Fieya back inside the ship.

Everything happened so quickly that she didn’t even have time to understand what was going on, let alone scream in fear.

The captain shot into the air and released the Qi he’d accumulated in his hands. “Furious Resonance!”

All that shimmering energy, ranging from white to red, surrounded the captain, forming a hazy sphere around him.

Whooosh!

In an instant, the captain appeared in front of the leading beast. Extending both hands forward, he sent more than half of the energy mist from his sphere directly into its enormous face and torso.

“RO-OOAR!”

Caught off guard, the beast hadn’t prepared itself and was sent flying backward, straight into the dense forest. Even so, it received only superficial scratches on its fish-like scales.

The four creatures left behind immediately took several steps back and began making guttural noises, frightened and unsure what to do after watching their boss get sent flying by a single attack.

The captain remained hovering in place and wiped a drop of blood from his lip. ‘Damn! I need to be careful. Otherwise, my core might not hold up!’

“The rest is up to you! I’m counting on your help!” Shooting into the sky and leaving those words behind for the three people remaining in front of the ship, the captain disappeared in pursuit of the beast.

“GROOOAR!”

“GRUUUA!”

Sensing that the powerful opponent had disappeared, and that only three weaklings now stood between them and their plentiful meal, all four Terra Octopuses regained their courage.

Without hesitation or fear, they charged forward, leaving their leader to handle the powerful enemy alone.

....

“I’ll take the two on the right! You take the ones on the left!”

“Horizon-Cleaving Storm!” Drawing his rusty sword, Feng Min directed all his energy into its tip.

Like a beam, an enormous stream of Qi burst from the blade, forming a wall of ice and snow that froze everything around it and turned it white.

The beam of energy shot straight through the middle, dividing the creatures into two groups.

“GRAAA!”

The freezing beam passed too close to one of the creatures and partially froze one of its limbs.

Staggering and losing its balance for a moment, the beast left the its companion exposed.

And at that moment, Feng Min launched himself forward, striking the exposed beast directly in the forehead.

....

“Miss Su! I’ll take the one whose energy is in the late second rank. You take the other one, the early second rank! And most importantly, be careful!”

Old Mo tossed the act aside, stomped his foot, and shot into the air. Drawing two spears, he shouted and hurled them at the beast, aiming directly for its enormous mouth.

Su Mei took out several talismans and, after activating them, attached them all over her body.

Five membranes of different colors immediately surrounded her, each corresponding to a particular element and together forming perfect protection.

Taking a combat stance straight out of a training manual, she produced two combat blades in her hands that closely resembled fans.

The weapons were made of black metal, covered in golden runes.

“Dance of Falling Petals! First Form!” In an instant, thousands of snow-white petals appeared around her.

Su Mei rose into the air, lifting only a few meters off the ground, and began performing her battle dance.

Every graceful movement, every turn of her body sent petals flying toward the ravenously hungry beast.

“GRAAA!!”

Sensing danger from the tiny white things that seemed to move slowly, the beast realized that it couldn’t even follow their speed, seeing only flashes of their shadows.

Realizing this, it stopped dead and raised one of its limbs in front of itself, using it as a shield.

Expecting something powerful, the beast was surprised when the petals simply settled onto the surface of its limb, becoming lodged in the uneven gaps between its scales.

The beast nearly went mad at how ineffective the tiny dancing human before it seemed, when suddenly it heard a hiss.

Turning all its eyes toward the petals, it saw them spontaneously ignite with blinding white flames. The longer they burned, the faster their temperature rose.

“Hrrr! HRAAA!!”

Opening its enormous mouth, the beast screamed in pain as thousands of those petals burned holes through its massive limb.

It could feel itself slowly losing control of the limb.

Trying to understand the cause of the pain, and, more importantly, how to deal with it, the beast focused on the small, writhing two-legged creature.

Realizing she was the cause, it ignored the pain as best it could and charged straight at her, ignoring the petals that were now attaching themselves to its other limbs and body.

“Damn it!! Falling Sunrise!” Seeing the beast getting closer and closer, Su Mei stopped her dance and raised both hands, gripping the fan-blades tightly.

Closing her eyes and concentrating, she whispered something before suddenly releasing them.

All the petals dancing around her instantly froze in place. Then, as if on command, they ignited, changing color to a searing red before shooting toward the beast.

“HGRRAA!! UGGNAA!”

Ignoring its burning body, the beast continued closing the distance. When it was less than twenty meters away, it let out a tearing roar and hurled one of its limbs straight at her.

“NO!!” Su Mei had misjudged the creature’s size and the length of its limbs. She’d miscalculated the distance, and the sudden strike caught her completely off guard.

“AGH!!” The direct blow from a limb weighing several dozen tons nearly knocked Su Mei unconscious from the sheer physical force inflicted on her body.

Like an arrow fired from a bow, she flew backward with a sharp whistle and slammed directly into the bottom of the ship.

“ROOOAAAR!!”

Roaring triumphantly, drunk on victory, the beast accelerated. It understood that the only obstacle between it and its plentiful meal was almost destroyed.

Just a little more, and its day would be complete.

....

“Oh no! Young Master Su! The passengers!” The young woman on the stern suddenly pulled a sword from her bracelet and jumped onto it.

“S-stop! Idiot!” Old Oluye tried to grab her, but reacted too late.

“Damn! Youth’s gone to your head! Hot blood’s making you a moron!” Taking out a golden rope, he spun it around and threw it downward.

Turning toward An, he said, “I-I have to go! Rune master, be careful!”

Before he could finish speaking, he saw An create several rune chains in the air. With a movement of two fingers, An sent them straight toward him.

Three rune chains surrounded the old man and attached themselves to him.

“This will keep you from dying from its attacks three times… in theory... Good luck, old man.”

An waved his hand, and Oluye dropped over the railing like a stone.

A moment later, the old man was hovering just a few centimeters above the ground below, right in the middle of the raging battle.

“Bleh!” Covering his mouth with both hands so he wouldn’t embarrass himself, the old man jumped to his feet and looked upward. He nodded.

Lowering his gaze, he wrapped the rope around his arm and, with determination and a hint of panic, began looking around.

“Now! Where are you, you brainless girl?!”

....

“Stay here. I’ll be back soon.”

An lightly tapped Baldi on the head, took several steps, and appeared on the other side of the ship, far from where the battle was taking place.

‘It’s risky, but I can’t let an opportunity like this pass me by... The important thing is not to make a mistake...’

He watched the battle between two giants through the dense forest, the third-rank beast and Captain Bongromonte, a cultivator in the Golden Core realm. Jumping over the railing, An landed on the ground, and began running toward their battle.