I Don't Agree to the Terms

"Captain, the Evil Angel and Man-Eating Shark are here too, we... should retreat," the second mate beside him also looked like someone who had narrowly escaped death.

Cai Jian looked in two other directions, where two ships not much smaller than the Black Divine Dragon sped swiftly towards the mountain range suspended above the sea.

On the way, pirate groups that couldn't dodge were crushed into pieces, which looked extremely tragic. If it weren't for his luck, it wouldn't just be his ship that was destroyed, but his life would likely be lost too.

"They're actually capturing members of other pirate factions, are they planning to use these people to scout ahead?" Cai Jian muttered to himself as he watched the actions of the Evil Angel and Man-Eating Shark.

Sure enough, the Black Divine Dragon soon began to capture people as well.

Wouldn't this provoke a huge backlash? These three major pirate factions wouldn't care about that at all, for them, it was a minor issue.

How would anger help? These ants that they could crush with a flick of their hand, they simply didn't care about.

Fortunately, Cai Jian's Dark Demon Pirate Group had escaped the debacle, because the Black Divine Dragon Pirates had already passed by; they wouldn't turn back just for his relatively small group.

Meanwhile, the Barbaric Bull Pirate Group decisively turned their ship around and then headed in the opposite direction.

"Hmph, a mountain of treasure right in front of them yet they cower away. Sure enough, they deserve to beg on the seas for a lifetime," Cai Jian said disdainfully after seeing Zhang Tie flee.

The second mate beside him felt even more helpless, now considering jumping ship. Cai Jian was greedy, arrogant, and short-sighted.

Was Zhang Tie really cowering? That was cutting losses in time.

All three major pirate factions were here. Did they really think they could take all the treasures for themselves? More likely, they would be controlled by these three factions and then turned into cannon fodder.

Didn't they see that people were being captured already?

If it wasn't for being at sea with no way to escape, the second mate would have fled long ago.

'Indeed, this Spirit Martial Path is nothing good. Luckily, I only dabbled and didn't delve deep into cultivation. The power of the Divine is much stronger,' the second mate knew. Cai Jian wasn't always like this. He used to be rational and would have been the first to leave in such situations.

But later, due to continuous practice with the Spirit Martial Dark Poison Dagger and his increasing strength, his personality turned more paranoid and peculiar.

He had observed before that anyone who practiced the Spirit Martial Path became paranoid.

Some became extremely benevolent, while others developed an insatiable thirst for killing or indulged in lust and greed.

In contrast, he was normal, precisely because he had initially only focused on Spirit Martial without deeply cultivating it.

Many had already discovered the problems with Spirit Martial, which is why the pirates had split into two factions: one following the Divine and the other the Spirit Martial Path.

However, the number of people following the Spirit Martial Path was the majority. After all, everyone knew what the Divine had done before; if they continued to develop powers imparted by the Divine, what would happen if they were enslaved again one day?

Even though the Divine had faded into obscurity now.

"We should turn the ship around too," Cai Jian suddenly said.

The second mate, hearing this, felt relieved, seeing that Cai Jian wasn't too deluded to be irrational.

However, what Cai Jian said next made the second mate's heart, which hadn't yet fully dropped, rise back to his throat.

"Let's return half an hour after the three major pirate factions go ashore." Giving up was impossible for Cai Jian. For him, this was the path to heaven. If he gave up now, he'd have to remain a mere pirate for life, whereas he aspired to be the king of the world and have everything.

"Yes!" What else could the second mate say? There was no way to leave now.

Watching the departing Cai Jian, his eyes shimmered with complex emotions.

'Cai Jian must be crazy, I have to find an excuse not to go ashore, then take the ship and leave!'

Cai Jian might be seeking his death, but he wanted to live.

Time ticked away second by second. The three major pirate factions had long since landed on the island, and nearly an hour had passed. Only then did Cai Jian and his Dark Demon Pirate Group tentatively set foot on the mountain range.

The first feeling upon setting foot on the ground was softness, giving Cai Jian the sensation of stepping onto marshland, though this seemed to be an illusion.

"Move quickly, catch up with the three major Pirate Groups, we absolutely cannot let them succeed," Cai Jian exclaimed with a frenzied look, as if he had become invincible.

Seeing this, the first mate also felt a chill in his heart. It wasn't just Cai Jian who had a problem; everyone did, even himself. After entering the outskirts of this mountain range, he too had developed many strange thoughts.

'I can't go.'

Earlier on the road, the first mate had come up with several excuses, but Cai Jian had refuted them all, which left him somewhat frustrated; in the end, he could only follow.

But having sensed the mountain's eeriness, he once again beat the retreat drum.

Then, grimacing, he harmed himself, and his face turned pale as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Captain, I... cough, I'm injured," the first mate decisively said.

The frenzy on Cai Jian's face paused, and after a suspicious glance at the first mate, he could only say, "Useless thing, you had your chance and lost it, go back and watch the ship."

Upon hearing this, the first mate rolled and crawled back. The crew on the ship burst into mocking laughter, but the first mate seemed oblivious.

After the first mate left, Cai Jian led his men in a mad dash towards the center of the mountain range. They didn't even notice that their faces had begun to display bizarre expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

"Become divine, become divine!" Cai Jian suddenly heard strange shouting.

He clearly heard one of the voices—it was the young man who had tried to kill him earlier.

Crack...

The crisp sound of metal breaking was jarring, and he blankly picked up his Spirit Martial Dark Poison Dagger, only to find it had broken.

This moment hugely impacted his consciousness, and he instantly snapped out of it.

"Not good," he was about to say retreat when he suddenly realized that all his crew members seemed already to have joined the mad shouting of the three major Pirate Groups.

And he was surrounded at the center.

Only he had not joined in the shouting, making him the odd one out.

"Why aren't you shouting?" everyone turned to him, faces with stiff smiles, looking at him with increasingly eerie gazes.

"I, I, oh, become divine! Become divine!" Cai Jian, looking ugly, knew he had to comply.

"You're shouting in the wrong tone, not supposed to use your throat and tongue," the crowd spoke again.

Before Cai Jian could react, he saw their skin begin to shed, strange plants spreading across muscles, even the roots and patterns of plants appearing on their bones.

Cai Jian couldn't help but step back, his scalp tingling at the scene.

"Run, run fast!" Instead of being paralyzed by fear, he pushed away the people around him and sprinted for his life.

At that moment, he felt the ground wriggling. Countless bizarre creatures watched him, even the plants were alive and began squirming toward him.

The fear on him continued to erupt, blasting out the fastest speed he had ever achieved towards where he had come from, intending to escape this eerie area.

"Don't go, stay..." The overlapping voices had no effect on retaining him but instead made Cai Jian's speed increase by three more parts.

"It's a trap, it's a Navy trap, they intend to round up all the pirates."

As Cai Jian ran, he muttered, his initially clear thoughts gradually becoming muddled. The last thing he knew was that he boarded his own ship.

And what he saw was naturally the surprised and frightened face of his first mate, before he lost consciousness and completely passed out.

...

"With so many samples, finally one succeeded," Gu Shanhai watched the ship sailing away on the sea surface, also with a smile.