The Intrepid Expedition slowly docked at the dilapidated pier. Ye Chui and his companions on the deck, along with the sailors and crew, all wore expressions of reverence as they looked towards the dock. Something was wrong, very wrong. As one of the largest port towns along the Gorge Sea coast, Coldwind Port was always bustling with people. At midday, it should have been teeming with activity and noise, yet now it was eerily quiet.
In fact, to avoid causing any commotion, the flag of the Pirate King had already spread across the seas. Although Starry was a harmless Pirate King, pirates were still pirates. His presence would surely terrify the sea merchants. Ye Chui’s original plan had been not to dock at all, but to disembark using flying magical vehicles a few miles offshore. However, upon noticing the anomaly on the sea surface, he decided to steer the Intrepid Expedition here.
“President, what happened to the people in the town? They haven’t all vanished into thin air, have they?” Green asked Ye Chui.
The others also turned to look at Ye Chui, knowing he could detect the surrounding environment.
Ye Chui stared strangely at his grimoire and shook his head. “No, everyone is still here, but they seem to harbour intense hostility towards me.”
Ordinary strangers would appear as white dots in Ye Chui’s grimoire. Even those who hated him, if they did not know him personally, would still show as white dots. Many in Coldwind Port had likely heard Ye Chui’s name, but they should not recognise him. Yet now they all appeared as red dots, filled with murderous intent.
“Hostility? Could the town be under the control of the Church?” Lesha asked in surprise.
Ye Chui shook his head. The grimoire was densely packed with red dots, almost a solid red mass, numbering at least ten thousand. Had the Church mobilised so many people at once? If these red dots were all Church believers, where had the original residents gone?
“I have a friend in Coldwind Port,” Ilabesa said suddenly, her face turning somewhat pale. Ilabesa had grown up in Pirate Bay. The friend she spoke of had been abducted by human traffickers at four or five years old and taken to Pirate Bay, ending up in Madam Rose’s brothel. Ilabesa had been close to her. That friend had been fortunate; at sixteen, a sea merchant took a liking to her gentle and beautiful nature, paid to buy her freedom, and took her back. Since then, she had lived in Coldwind Port, and Ilabesa had kept in touch through letters.
This time, seeing Ye Chui off, Ilabesa had been talking for ages about visiting her friend here.
“Do you know where your friend lives? What is her household like, and how many people are there?” Ye Chui asked.
Ilabesa nodded. She had visited her friend’s home, so she knew the location. Based on Ilabesa’s description, Ye Chui located it on the map. He frowned. “There are people in that house, just as you said, five in total. It seems the people of Coldwind Port are still the original residents, but for some reason they are filled with hostility towards me.”
“Could it be some method of the Church controlling them?” Lesha guessed. Coming from the Church herself, she knew its techniques well. There was a dark holy scripture that could turn people into walking corpses, extremely evil.
“Mr Ye Chui, can you help my friend?” Ilabesa asked worriedly.
Evans shook his head. “This might be a trap. We should avoid this place. Miss Guni, what are you doing?”
“Adventure! Let’s go and see quickly. I’m getting excited. I hardly fought at all in the Puppet Graveyard,” Guni said eagerly. She had already climbed onto the ship’s railing, ready to jump down at any moment.
After thinking for a moment, Ye Chui said, “Let’s go and take a look first. If it really is some terrible trap, we can consider leaving then.”
Debbie, Green, Lesha, and the others had no objections to Ye Chui’s decision. They immediately prepared for adventure. Aqua, however, had hidden early in the cabin. “Knowing there’s danger and still going out, I’m not going with you. I hope you all die, idiots.”
“If little brother, the Creator, dies, you might disappear from this world too,” Lesha said amusedly.
Aqua froze for a moment, then rushed out excitedly. “Then let’s go! Dealing with cursed evil spirits is my speciality. I feel this town is full of filth!”
The others were speechless. The sailors and crew stayed to guard the ship, while the rest jumped onto the dock. Ye Chui checked the map as he led the way into the town.
The town was calm, with no signs of fighting, but this very calmness felt eerie because it was so unnatural.
Soon, the nearest red dot seemed to detect Ye Chui’s movement and approached their group.
After turning a corner, the approaching red dot appeared before them. It was a swordsman.
Clang, clang. The swordsman dragged his sword, leaving scratches on the ground. His steps were slow, head lowered, hair dishevelled. There were no visible wounds on his body, yet he resembled a corpse, or rather, a walking dead man.
“Could it really be that secret Church technique?” Lesha said in surprise upon seeing the swordsman’s state.
“He seems completely unconscious,” Green judged.
“But he radiates intense hostility. I can feel it,” Guni said, gripping her greatsword.
“Don’t approach him rashly!” Ye Chui saw Guni eager to try and quickly pulled her back. Then he noticed Aqua peeking from behind the group, chuckled, and patted her shoulder. “This is for you.”
“Eh?”
“Go!”
Ye Chui grabbed Aqua’s arm and threw her towards the zombie-like swordsman. With a thud, Aqua landed in front of him. She rubbed her head aggrievedly as she got up, only to look up and see the swordsman’s drooping face: eyes vacant, expression blank, drool flowing from his mouth as he emitted low, hoarse “ah, ah” sounds.
Aqua’s body stiffened instantly. She let out a loud wail and scrambled back towards Ye Chui. The swordsman’s reaction was extremely slow; only after she ran did he slowly raise his sword and make a slashing motion towards her.
With a bang, Green’s vibranium brick flew through the air and struck the swordsman’s head. The swordsman swayed and collapsed.
“So weak?” Everyone was shocked that Green had knocked him out with one brick. Ye Chui confirmed the red dot representing the swordsman had vanished from the grimoire.
As they wondered, Ye Chui noticed another red dot approaching. This time, it was a fat man carrying a kitchen knife, dressed like a cook with greasy clothes. Like the swordsman, his face was blank, steps shuffling, heading straight towards Ye Chui’s group.
Ye Chui tried scanning his face to enter his memory world, but it was eerily empty, containing only one memory entry: “Kill me.”
Ye Chui realised this was likely the only thought in these walking corpses’ minds.
“President, what do we do?” Green asked.
“Kill him,” Ye Chui replied.
Green agreed and swung his brick. The next moment, with a bang, it landed on the fat man’s head. With Green’s current brick power, an ordinary person would have their skull shattered, but astonishingly, the fat man only tilted his head and showed no sign of falling.
“So tough?” Green looked puzzled. He took a deep breath, doubled his strength, and swung again.
Bang, a muffled sound.
Yet the fat man still did not fall. He shuffled on, his head showing no injury.
Green frowned. He had easily killed the swordsman earlier, yet this seemingly ordinary fat man’s head was so hard? It made no sense.
In an instant, the fat man was mere metres away. Green, feeling embarrassed, muttered, “This move I thought of in the Puppet Graveyard. I planned to keep it hidden to shock you against strong enemies later, but it seems I have to use it now.”
After saying this, Green took a deep breath, gripped his brick, and struck the empty air beside him.
His brick hit nothingness.
Then space shattered, cracks spreading from the impact. The cracks rapidly extended, instantly reaching the fat man. Crash. All things exist through space; when space breaks, so do they. The man’s body was invaded by the cracks, shattering like glass into a pile of minced meat on the ground.
“This is my move, Space Crack,” Green said proudly, waiting for praise.
“Hmm, not bad,” Ye Chui nodded.
Debbie patted his shoulder. “Keep working hard.”
As president and vice president, they had to politely commend a guild member’s progress.
The others turned away in disgust at the fat man’s gruesome death.
Green: “”
“Someone else is coming!” Debbie suddenly spotted something and warned everyone.
This time, it was a magician in tattered robes, with a decayed, blackened grimoire floating around him. The town’s residents had clearly suffered some curse or magical harm, affecting even the magician’s grimoire.
Green stepped forward immediately. “Let me handle this!”
He unleashed Space Crack again. Crash. Space shattered, cracks instantly spreading to the magician. But this time, the expected sight of the magician torn apart did not occur. Cracks covered his body, yet he continued shuffling forward as if unharmed.
“Eh?” Ye Chui and the others were stunned.
Green flushed with humiliation and swung repeatedly, creating more cracks that spread towards the magician, but they could not stop his advance.
“Green’s magic is too weak. Is it one-use only?” Debbie teased.
“Maybe that magician is a space specialist, immune to space magic?” Lesha guessed.
Ye Chui shook his head. “No, I sense no magical aura on him. He isn’t using magic.” Ye Chui scanned the magician’s will, finding only one memory entry: Kill me!
Ye Chui continued, “Green’s space magic is very powerful. Even other space magicians couldn’t easily defend against it. Could it be…” An idea struck Ye Chui. He decided to test it.
He walked to Green, patted his shoulder to let the devastated Green step back, then summoned a magical handgun and fired at the magician. Bang.
The magician fell dead.
Green felt even more frustrated, looking miserably at Ye Chui.
Ye Chui shook his head. “It’s not that your magic is weak, but he is now immune to it.”
“Immune? What do you mean?” Green asked, confused.
At that moment, Ye Chui noticed a swaying drunk approaching from the side. He raised his gun and fired at the drunk. Bang. The flying magic bullet hit and passed through as if the drunk were an illusion, leaving no wound.
The others finally understood.
“The same attack becomes ineffective the second time!” Debbie exclaimed.
Ye Chui nodded and pulled out various modified guns from storage.
He found that the same handgun model was ineffective against the drunk, and even different guns using flying magic bullets were useless. The drunk had immunised against all his bullet attacks, including full-power Starfire Annihilation derived from heavy weaponry.
Finally, Ye Chui took Green’s vibranium brick and teleported it to smash the drunk’s head, but the drunk remained unharmed.
The same attack method, even used by others, was immunised!
Lastly, Ye Chui cast an ice spell, raising an ice spike from the ground that pierced and killed the drunk.
Moments later, a bald man dragging an axe approached.
Reusing the ice spike spell failed, but other freezing ice spells still killed the bald man. This led Ye Chui to conclude: They immunise not same-element magic, but similar attack methods.
“You are indeed clever, Ye Chui.” As Ye Chui figured out their trait, a cold voice suddenly rang in their ears. It blended countless voices, as if the entire town spoke in unison, perfectly overlapping, thick and eerie. “The Bible says, ‘You cannot kill a person twice.’ My power derives from that. The same attack is ineffective against me, no matter how strong. Once you kill me once, you cannot kill me again. And I can become countless people.”
“Who are you?” Ye Chui asked coldly.
“Divine Punishment Division, Tixis,” the voice replied. “I come by the Pope’s order to execute you!”
“What happened to the people of this town?” Ye Chui continued, seeing Ilabesa’s worried expression.
“Them? They have all merged with me. I am them, and they are me. But they retain a sliver of will, living in fear and pain as their bodies wither and rot. Death is their only release.” The voice continued as people began appearing all around the town. “Mr Ye Chui, you may leave now. With your power, I cannot stop you. But all the townspeople will continue suffering that pain. As long as I do not release them, they will endure bodily decay forever.”
“You are using this town to threaten me!” Ye Chui said coldly.
Ilabesa had started crying, having spotted her friend among the crowd, now a walking corpse. Tixis’s words made it clear: Though dead, these people retained will, trapped in their decaying bodies enduring torment.
Only by completely killing her could they find release.
“Though you have done great things, you are undoubtedly a good person. You will not remain indifferent to the suffering of twelve thousand four hundred and twenty-three residents,” Tixis’s combined voice said. “Come, attack me. Use all your methods. Only by thoroughly killing me can you free everyone here!”
“Little brother, I’ve heard of her,” Lesha said fearfully to Ye Chui. “They say she is a mad nun called ‘Mad Tixis.’ Three hundred years ago, she slaughtered an entire church of believers in the Yellow Sand Empire, enslaving their souls. She was captured by the Church’s Divine Punishment Army, but who knew she survived to now and joined the Divine Punishment Division.”
“Her background is that big?” Ye Chui was also surprised.
“Mr Ye Chui, her power is strange. If you attack rashly, the Church might gain a way to immunise against your abilities. We cannot risk it. We should leave quickly!” Bart urged anxiously.
Ye Chui glanced at Ilabesa, who had knelt in grief, shook his head, rejecting Bart’s suggestion, then smiled. “The power to immunise after one death should belong only to her. She has already immunised against my flying magic bullets, so now we must eliminate her completely. Leaving her alive would be trouble later. Each death immunises one attack. Heh, interesting. But there are many ways to kill someone.”
Since you have over ten thousand lives, I will kill you in over ten thousand different ways.
