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"These two trades are not equivalent. You can add some more conditions," Bernadette added after the deal was made.
"This ship's power seems to be having issues. Can you send the people on board to a nearby port?" Leyton said without thinking.
"Are you sure you want to add this condition?" Bernadette didn't immediately agree, but asked again.
"Yes, this condition," Leyton nodded, confirming.
Bernadette said nothing more. The pea vines in the room began to fade and disappear one by one, and everything returned to how it was before.
"Go find Auf on the deck; he will arrange for you to board the ship." Bernadette's figure also vanished along with the surrounding pea vines.
Leyton and Bugs Bunny, who was cowering at the side, not daring to make a sound, exchanged glances.
"Let's go! Pack up your luggage; we're changing ships," Leyton said.
After packing his luggage into a leather suitcase, Leyton took Bugs Bunny and prepared to go to the deck to find Auf.
On the deck, Leyton saw a middle-aged man dressed as a pirate, with a cutlass and a revolver hanging from his waist, a two-pointed pirate hat, and a thick, bushy beard.
He was negotiating something with the ferry staff. The pirate-dressed man was doing most of the talking, while the ferry staff listened submissively, nodding constantly.
On one side of the deck, there was also a person Leyton found somewhat familiar.
It was a middle-aged man in a dark brown overcoat, corpulent, with dark brown skin and small eyes—the Beyonder he had brushed past at Seville Port earlier.
A strong aura of decay, cold, and death clung to him, and his face was as pale as a Zombie.
"He's the Beyonder who didn't dare to show his face! It seems the negative effects of that Sealed Artifact are quite severe; even a Beyonder of this Pathway can't withstand the erosion of this death aura," Leyton mused inwardly.
His gaze swept past this Beyonder of the Corpse Collector Pathway, who was eroded by the death aura, and landed on the middle-aged man dressed as a pirate who was negotiating with the ferry staff. Leyton was unsure if he was Auf.
"Don't look, I'm Auf. Wait a moment, I'll take you away after I've dealt with these people," the pirate-dressed middle-aged man shouted towards Leyton in a rough voice.
Leyton nodded in understanding, then took Bugs Bunny, walked past the Beyonder whose face was as pale as a Zombie, and leaned against the railing, gazing at the massive sailing ship on the sea, the "Dawn," famous throughout the Five Seas.
"Why did you get into a conflict with that group of pirates? Were they after you?" Leyton asked curiously, looking at the miserable Beyonder of the Corpse Collector Pathway after retracting his gaze.
Because he was so severely eroded by the death aura, this Beyonder, who resembled a Zombie, took a while to react.
He opened his mouth and said in a hoarse, weak voice, "No, I just happened to run into those pirates who were hijacking the ferry in the cabin. He discovered the Mystical Item on me and wanted to snatch it, so we got into a conflict."
"That Mystical Item has very significant negative effects. Even with my good resistance to death aura, I couldn't escape it, which is why I sought your help at the time," he quickly added, seemingly afraid that Leyton might also covet his Mystical Item.
"Are you a Corpse Collector?" Leyton thought he was too weak to be a higher Sequence Gravedigger.
"Yes! I was originally going to send my teacher's Relics back to the Southern Continent, but now…" The Corpse Collector's words trailed off.
Leyton said nothing. In a sense, this Corpse Collector was indeed quite unlucky. He innocently encountered pirates, and after finally risking his life to deal with them, he then ran into even stronger pirates.
While Leyton was conversing with the Corpse Collector, Auf, the pirate-dressed man, had finished negotiating with the ferry staff.
These staff members quickly dispersed, leaving only two people who timidly accompanied Auf, not daring to speak.
"The captain and first mate of this ship were all dealt with by that group of pirates. They operate under the name of the King of Immortality and are very skilled at this! Hmph!" Auf approached a few steps, his tone still dismissive of this group of pirates.
"So, they're not truly the King of Immortality's subordinates? Then why does the King of Immortality allow these people to flaunt his banner?" Leyton asked, somewhat puzzled.
"These guys don't just impersonate one banner. They use whichever Pirate King's name is more appealing, and the King of Immortality doesn't care about these things, so most of the time they plunder under the King of Immortality's banner," Auf explained the pirates' modus operandi.
"No one questions it?" Leyton was still confused.
"Question? They only plunder ferries and never target cargo ships with stronger protection."
"And using a Pirate King's name is just to make the plundered people not dare to resist. This doesn't mean they're just a bunch of weaklings; their leader also has the strength of Sequence 7," Auf explained.
Then he added, "Of course, in the eyes of those with some strength, they are just a bunch of weaklings."
Leyton nodded, roughly understanding what was going on.
"When do we depart?" Leyton was more concerned about when he could go to the Future.
"We have to wait a bit longer. The people on this ship will pay our Artisans to help them repair the ferry. Don't worry, it won't take too long. This ship's power system is fine; those pirates only damaged the operating system and the people who could command and repair the ship. For an Artisan, it can be fixed quickly," Auf explained the current situation in detail.
Leyton then started chatting with Auf about his experiences at sea. As a pirate who had long been active at sea, Auf knew much more detailed information than the data provided by the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.
Soon, the ferry staff came to the deck with a bag of collected banknotes and gold coins. Auf took the money handed to him, threw it to his subordinate following behind him without even looking, and then took a few Dawn crew members into the cabin behind the staff.
Leyton watched Auf's practiced actions and felt that he must have done a lot of opportunistic plundering at sea.
As Auf said, repairing the ferry's operating system was quick. In about half an hour, Auf returned to the deck with a group of people.
"You guys, take this guy who's almost a Zombie onto the ship," Auf said, pointing to the Corpse Collector sitting on the deck, whose face was as pale as a Zombie.
Then he walked over to Leyton: "Lean on my shoulder. We're leaving now."
Leyton paused, thinking of an ability: "Spirit World Traversing."
He wasn't planning to take him to the Dawn, but directly to the Future!
"Hold on tight to my shoulder," Leyton warned Bugs Bunny on his shoulder, then reached out and placed his hand on Auf's shoulder.
The surrounding environment rapidly distorted and stretched, turning into a rich, oil-painting-like scene. The Spirit World Traversing didn't last too long. The scenery changed again, and Auf had already brought Leyton to a rocky island.
After three consecutive Spirit World Traversing, Leyton appeared on a pirate ship anchored at sea.
Under the gaze of Leyton's Eyes of Mystery Prying, the sails, gunwales, and hull of this pirate ship were adorned with numerous mysterious and intricate symbols. These symbols interconnected, forming a whole with peculiar effects.
"Auf? Why are you here? Did the Queen send you?" a woman's voice came, sounding somewhat surprised and excited.
The figure of a lady, wearing a purple gown with gold embroidery, gold-rimmed glasses, with fair and smooth skin, small ears, and slightly deep purple-black eyes, quickly materialized from a patch of starlight.
Leyton glanced at this Future Hermit lady, then withdrew his gaze.
"I am here by the Queen's command to bring this young man to your ship for a period of time. I don't know anything else. You can ask this young man directly. The Queen has other matters, so I'll be heading back now," Auf said, and his figure quickly faded and disappeared.
Leyton hadn't expected Auf's explanation to be so simple and blunt. He had thought he would be given an identity to stay on the Future.
Admiral of Stars Cattleya's gaze fell on Leyton after Auf left. A faint purple halo appeared in her eyes, clearly using her Eyes of Mystery Prying to observe Leyton.
In Cattleya's eyes, Leyton's spirituality appeared relatively normal, but the blue, green, and red spiritual colors on the rabbit perched on his shoulder was dazzling.
Cattleya frowned slightly. She couldn't understand why someone would put so many Mystical Items on a Beyonder animal they were raising, while having nothing on themselves except a few spiritual items.
If Auf hadn't explained so little, she would have even suspected that the rabbit on his shoulder was the true body.
"Hello, my name is Al Tines. I made a deal with Queen Mystic, asking her to send me to the Future for a period of time. I have some experiments and would like the help of your first mate, Frank Lee."
Seeing that Admiral of Stars had no intention of speaking first, Leyton had no choice but to introduce himself.
Upon hearing Leyton say he needed Frank Lee's help, Cattleya's expression became strange. Experiments that required Frank's help made her very worried about the Future of the Future.
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