Chapter 344: Sacrifice

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With those final words, Tamanegi lost consciousness completely.

Brother Hu's brow knit into a tight furrow. "Do you know who this kid was talking about?"

"He must mean the young mistress living in the hillside mansion. If I recall correctly, her name is Kaya," Lao Ze replied.

"Right! The villagers are closing in. Take this boy to them and explain the situation."

"I'll head up the mountain to scout the mansion first. Keep in touch via the mini Transponder Snail."

"Brother Hu—" Lao Ze started to protest, but Brother Hu had already blurred into the shadows.

Gritting his teeth, Lao Ze scooped up Tamanegi and sprinted toward the approaching glow of the villagers' torches.

BOOM!!

Moments later, a concussive blast detonated across the back mountain.

The entire island shuddered violently from the shockwave. Lao Ze wheeled around in horror and bolted straight toward the ridge. "Brother Hu! Brother Hu, hold on! Are you alright?!"

Reaching the crest of the hill, Lao Ze froze at the sight before him. "Xiao Kai?! What are you doing here?!"

Standing amidst the smoking debris was the boy, Xiao Kai—eyes glazed over and hollow, as though his very soul had been torn away.

"What happened here?! Where's Brother Hu?! He came this way, didn't he?!" A suffocating dread seized Lao Ze's chest. "Xiao Kai! Xiao Kai, talk to me!"

"Dead... they're all dead!"

"Everyone's dead!" Xiao Kai suddenly screamed at the sky, his small voice cracking with absolute despair.

"Brother Hu is dead!"

"It was that woman! She did this!"

"What did you say...?" Lao Ze's pupils constricted into pinpricks. Trembling, he slowly turned his head to survey the surroundings.

The once-tranquil courtyard had been obliterated into a colossal, scorched crater. The thick perimeter walls of the estate had collapsed into fine rubble.

To produce this tier of localized ruin...

Just what kind of monster descended upon this place?!

Torches bobbed frantically in the valley below as the villagers hurried up the mountain path. They had just realized that, in addition to Tamanegi, two other local children had failed to return home.

At this hour, a disaster had undoubtedly struck.

"Xiao Kai!" Lao Ze bellowed, grabbing the boy's shoulders. "Tell me what happened! Why were you here?! What happened to Brother Hu?!"

Yet Xiao Kai remained frozen in that shattered, vacant daze, staring ahead without uttering a word.

Lao Ze let out a long, ragged sigh.

He's still just a child. Witnessing such unspeakable horror at his age was a psychological shock far beyond what any kid could endure.

Slumping down onto the cracked ground beside him, Lao Ze spoke in a low, measured voice, as if talking to himself:

"This world was never fair from the start. Far too many people are cursed from birth, never allowed to live peaceful, ordinary lives."

"I was like that. Brother Hu was like that. We were outcasts discarded by the world—until we joined the Dark Clan and found a place where we belonged."

"Every one of us knew that life in the Dark Clan meant endless warfare. We knew that one day, we would fall on some forgotten battlefield."

"But none of us ever regretted it. Because the Dark Clan... is our home."

"When we took the oath, we had already made peace with our fate. We even picked out the ground for our own graves."

"You're young, so you might not fully grasp it yet. But even if Brother Hu fell here tonight... he died an honorable death in the line of duty!"

"With zero regrets!"

A flicker of life returned to Xiao Kai's hollow eyes. It felt as though a piercing beam of light had cut through his pitch-black world, illuminating the path ahead.

Lao Ze continued steadily, "We are carrying out a mission assigned directly by the true master of the Dark Clan! Weren't you his biggest admirer? One of the Legendary Four Brothers, Emperor of the Sea, the God of War—Lord Drake!"

"Our mission hasn't failed yet! We have to make this sacrifice count, so Brother Hu didn't die for nothing! What do you say, Xiao Kai...?"

A heavy silence followed.

Xiao Kai suddenly scrambled to his feet. Raising his trembling forearms, he scrubbed furiously at the endless stream of tears burning down his cheeks.

No matter how hard he wiped, the tears kept falling.

"If you need to cry, just let it out," Lao Ze said softly.

"WAHHH...!"

Xiao Kai finally broke down, wailing into the night. As his sobs gradually subsided into choked breaths, he rasped out: "It was that woman! The exact woman Lord Drake is hunting... She's the one who killed Brother Hu..."

"So... Brother Hu really..." Even though he had braced himself for the worst, Lao Ze's heart seized painfully.

"Yes! Right in front of my eyes... she tore him apart!" Xiao Kai gritted his teeth, turning his face away from the gruesome memory.

"Where is she now?! Has she fled the island?! What's the situation?!" Lao Ze pressed, fighting the tremor in his own voice.

"I... I don't know! I was so terrified that I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again... everything was destroyed like this."

"Understood. We need to contact Daixi immediately and route this to the regional branch!"

Lao Ze linked up with Daixi's team at once. Without wasting a single second, they forwarded the complete tactical intelligence to the Dark Clan's East Blue command hub.

In an instant, the entire East Blue underground network mobilized. Synthesizing the report from Daixi's unit, the command hub issued high-priority operational directives:

The search perimeter was immediately narrowed to the archipelago surrounding Gecko Islands. All embedded Dark Clan operatives across adjacent islands were placed on maximum combat readiness, monitoring every vessel and unknown individual making landfall.

The efficiency and deployment speed of the Dark Clan far exceeded ordinary comprehension.

Simultaneously, the priority dispatch reached the Demon Warder and the Dragon Flag Pirates.

Aboard the ship, Drake reviewed the tactical breakdown and operational roadmap provided by the command hub, nodding in grim approval.

At least this time, a full-scale island-wide genocide had been averted. With the operational sector narrowed down, cornering Im was only a matter of time.

"Demon Warder: Set course for Syrup Village at maximum speed!"

Locking onto the coordinates, the Demon Warder surged forward, cleaving through the ocean swells and leaving a towering wake across the serene sea.

Syrup Village...

Drake repeated the name under his breath. Why did that sound so familiar?

He froze.

Wait... Isn't that Usopp's hometown in the East Blue?!

Why there of all places?!

This is bad...

Panic would solve nothing now; all they could do was push their engines to the absolute limit. Im had to be eradicated swiftly to eliminate the threat once and for all.

Only then would the nightmare end.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Drake roared into the receiver, catching the latest update from the Transponder Snail.

"You're saying that woman abducted a young girl?! What is her name?!"

Drake's pulse spiked. When it came to girls from Syrup Village, only one name came to mind: Usopp's childhood friend, Miss Kaya.

It couldn't be that coincidental...

The voice on the other end answered crisply: "According to our operatives on the ground, the victim's name is Kaya, the heiress of a prominent local estate."

"Her current status and whereabouts are unconfirmed!"

Drake stood in stunned silence. The worst-case scenario had unfolded after all...

"Additionally, we have one more casualty report, my Lord. One of our Dark Clan operatives deployed in Syrup Village has been confirmed killed in action. Furthermore... two local village children are believed to have perished alongside him..." the operative reported steadily.

"That concludes the situational briefing!"

"Understood. Maintain your tracking protocols..." Drake lowered the receiver, his eyes turning cold as frost.

"Children..."

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