The current problem was clear: Ashin had vanished without a trace. And even after eliminating all the visible pawns, the mastermind behind it all had yet to reveal themselves.
Wilder's initial plan, whatever it might have been, had come to nothing.
Abandon Ashin?
That was impossible. Setting aside Ashin's crucial role within the Black Serpent organization, the mere fact that this hidden adversary had dared to target his own crew meant this could no longer end peacefully.
Yet, how Ashin had disappeared remained a complete mystery. Furthermore… had Ashin been captured by those monsters encountered in the jungle? Or was he simply killed? Was it even possible… that Ashin and his group hadn't been captured or killed at all? Could they have hidden themselves deliberately?
None of these possibilities could be ruled out.
But regardless of the specifics – whether Ashin hid himself or was taken – the ultimate cause undoubtedly lay with the hidden figure pulling the strings.
Therefore… Wilder's sole focus now was on this mastermind.
"Boss… what do we do now?" Bacon asked hesitantly, seeing Wilder standing motionless. Bacon had never been one for taking initiative.
Besides… for some reason, he felt the air growing increasingly cold and unsettling, as if unseen eyes were watching them from the shadows.
It wasn't just Bacon. Claire, Yves, and even Wilder himself felt it. For Wilder, the sensation was the strongest, and accompanying it was that familiar, disquieting agitation deep within his soul.
Wilder didn't understand why. He'd felt it ever since setting foot on this island, and it had intensified significantly after encountering those monsters in the jungle. It left him with a strange feeling, a sense that something within him was being drawn towards, or influenced by, something external.
"That's…"
Ignoring Bacon's question, Wilder's brow suddenly twitched. He turned and walked back into the tavern.
In truth, he had been continuously scanning the surroundings with his Observation Haki. And now, he had noticed something he'd mentally brushed past earlier, something seemingly insignificant that he had dismissed.
Behind the bar!
Where Barrett had been standing, there was a hidden panel in the floor. It slid open to reveal a deep, shadowy underground passage – a stone staircase spiraling steeply down into the earth.
Wilder stood at the entrance, peering into the bottomless darkness below, his eyes flickering thoughtfully.
The faint, foul stench and traces of black mist still lingered in the air, not yet fully dissipated. If one looked closely, faint wisps of the black gas could still be seen drifting, barely visible.
Wilder reached out, attempting to grasp these few remaining wisps. Though they flowed insubstantially through his fingers, in that brief moment of contact, he felt the agitation in his soul surge more intensely than ever before!
Acting nonchalant, Wilder quickly scanned the tavern again. The last traces of the black mist had now vanished completely.
"Holy crap! There's a passage here!?" Bacon exclaimed, having followed Wilder back inside. His jaw dropped as he peered into the seemingly bottomless stairwell. He'd honestly never seen a passage this deep, let alone one hidden behind a tavern bar.
"Regardless, this might be the clue we need," Wilder stated calmly. "We have to check it out. Bacon, you take point."
"Huh?!"
Bacon barely had time for his eyes to widen in protest, his expression freezing, before someone gave him a firm shove from behind. He tumbled head over heels down the stone steps with a yelp.
"Aah!!"
Wilder immediately followed, descending into the stone passage – though he, naturally, walked rather than rolled.
Claire and Yves entered next, while the ten crewmen took up positions guarding the entrance above.
Darkness was the passage's sole defining feature.
Bacon, filled with resentment, muttered curses under his breath as he led the way. The tunnel was incredibly long, stretching further down than seemed possible. They had initially tried counting the steps, but after ten minutes of continuous descent, they abandoned the effort.
It was simply too long, winding endlessly deeper underground. Even after ten minutes, there was still no light ahead, only the blackness of the passage and the stone steps extending infinitely downwards.
"Whoever built this must've been a real psycho," Bacon grumbled, shifting his complaints to the passage itself, his expression souring further.
"Psycho or not, I don't know," Yves interjected coolly – quite possibly one of the longest sentences he'd uttered on the trip. "What's certain is, we've reached the end."
A faint light indeed appeared not far ahead. After walking about fifty more meters, they emerged into a spacious underground chamber.
However, 'chamber' might have been the wrong word; it felt more like a transit station.
It was an empty, square space, roughly forty meters wide. Aside from the lingering, faint foul odor in the air, it contained nothing.
It wasn't entirely enclosed, though. Set into the far wall was a large, dark red door. It wasn't locked. Bacon, still in the lead, hesitated, glanced back at the others, then cautiously pushed the door open.
The sound of rushing water instantly filled the air. Inside, they saw stone banks flanking a wide underground river channel. A swift current surged through the middle, washing against the stone edges. This river was the source of the sound.
"Does this… lead out to the sea?" Bacon wondered aloud, looking first one way down the river, then the other. Like the staircase, the river stretched away into darkness in both directions, seemingly without end.
"Possibly," Wilder nodded, offering no objection. The damp air rising from the river definitely carried the salty tang of the ocean.
"Could this be the mastermind's lair?" Bacon asked as they began walking along the stone bank, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings and the dark water.
The river passage was slightly brighter than the staircase had been, but still shrouded in dimness.
The others remained silent. It was a question they had all considered, and now, it seemed highly likely. After all, constructing such a massive underground complex required immense effort; it wouldn't make sense unless it served a significant purpose.
The most crucial point remained: the mastermind was still hidden. They were dealing with an unknown opponent, one capable of making Ashin and his men vanish without a sound – suggesting a potentially very dangerous adversary.
Extremely dangerous…!
Dangerous enough that Barrett, the man who had apparently wiped out an entire town, was merely a puppet, a spokesperson, controlled by this hidden entity.
Considering Barrett's earlier behavior, it was highly possible he hadn't even known he was a puppet. Or perhaps he had known, but complied willingly for some unknown reason.
What reason could that be? Complete control exerted by the hidden presence? Or perhaps intimidation? Wilder leaned towards the former. Like that black gas – perhaps it was the key to survival provided by the mastermind? Perhaps losing the gas meant death. Or maybe only Barrett's followers relied on the gas, while Barrett himself was more… parasitized? That could certainly explain his descent into madness.
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