Chapter 1 The Distance

A minute passed, and the distance between the two ships was less than twenty meters; they were about to collide.

But Blackbeard never gave the order to fire...

And on Mad Eye's side... Although he couldn't figure out what Blackbeard was up to, he wasn't the kind of captain who would change his plans due to a little doubt, so... he still launched a barrage just before the collision, as he'd originally planned.

Boom boom boom...

Accompanied by a deafening roar, sixteen cannonballs flew out of the sixteen bow guns of the Brown Algae and slammed into the hull of the Queen Anne's Revenge without exception.

However, this barrage, though every shot hit, was useless.

Those cannonballs struck the outer shell of the Queen Anne's Revenge... and couldn't even leave a scratch, merely causing a slight sense of shock to the pirates on board.

"Tch... even the Brown Algae's cannons are useless..." Mad Eye spat and muttered, "That ship really is a monster..."

He wasn't surprised by this result, though he was unwilling to accept it.

Because... this wasn't the first time Mad Eye had stood on the deck of an enemy ship facing the Queen Anne's Revenge.

In fact, he was probably the pirate in the Chaotic Sea who had survived the most defeats at the hands of the Blackbeard Pirates...

...

Many years ago, when Mad Eye was still a cabin boy, the warship he was on was raided by the Blackbeard Pirates. In that attack, almost all the soldiers on his ship were wiped out; Mad Eye only escaped by hiding in the kitchen's chimney.

Some years later, Mad Eye became the boatswain of a well-known pirate crew. But his luck was bad; one day, his pirate crew was defeated and annexed by Blackbeard.

That time, Mad Eye was captured alive, but he still refused to surrender even after his captain was killed.

Blackbeard saw that he had guts and decided to give him a "chance."

As for the specific content of that "chance," it was to leave a dozen shallow cuts on Mad Eye's body and then throw him into waters swarming with sharks.

In the end, Mad Eye really didn't die... He survived the shark attacks and returned to a nearby island, where he gathered a group of old subordinates in the name of the deceased captain and sat on the "captain's" chair for the first time in his life.

And so, many more years passed; Mad Eye finally became a dreaded great pirate and reached the first peak of his pirate career.

But... perhaps it was fate that Blackbeard ended his "peak."

Even though the Mad Eye Pirates were strong and at the height of their power at that time, they were ultimately no match for the terrifying sea overlord.

In a sea battle that lasted nearly an hour, Mad Eye lost miserably... All the crew members of the entire pirate crew, except for him, were killed.

Finally, Mad Eye, with the mentality of taking one down with him if he could, ignited the powder magazine on his ship.

But unexpectedly... he didn't die again.

For the next six months, Mad Eye, who miraculously survived the explosion, lay in bed recovering from his injuries.

Until one morning, the news of Blackbeard's "death" suddenly spread throughout the Chaotic Sea.

At the time, no one realized how significant the "meaning" behind this news was, and by the time people came to their senses, the era of the Four Pillars had already arrived.

...

Bang—

Crackle crackle...

The collision happened.

The bows of the two pirate ships touched suddenly, then immediately veered off to one side, the sides of the ships rubbing against each other, making a maddening grating sound.

"Ye scurvy dogs! In the name of Mad Eye!"

"In the name of the Blackbeard Pirates!"

The captains on both sides shouted almost simultaneously.

The fierce and savage pirates on both ships responded to their captain's call at the first moment; each drew their weapons, glared at the enemies on the enemy ship, and roared at the top of their lungs.

"Kill!"

"Kill them all!"

A second later, Blackbeard and Mad Eye gave the order to attack in unison.

At that moment, the shouts of killing shook the sky, and the murderous intent exploded.

Between the gradually connected hulls, on decks that were slightly different in height, hundreds of fierce men who had been through countless battles and tasted blood on their blades... began a life-and-death battle.

Ropes, figures... soared into the air.

Swords, guns... metal clashed and cannons boomed.

Of course... compared to "land warfare," the "ship" battlefield was too small; the number of participants in a battle was also extremely limited.

However, only those who were there understood... this was the real Asura's Land.

This was a battlefield where there was nowhere to escape, no room to retreat.

This was a group of warriors who feared neither death nor life, and were almost insane.

The fighting between pirates... was chaotic; they had no neat formations, no unified command, no forbidden means, and not even basic mercy.

But... this chaos also contained a bit of ingenuity, a bit of splendor.

Every round, every move... the confrontation between people was like a dance on the edge of life and death.

Every step in it was unpredictable and never repeated...

When these steps came together, they became an unparalleled performance—depicting a poem of blood and strength belonging to the men of the sea.

...

"I say..." Snow held a rapier, fending off the enemy beside him, and said to Feng Bujue, who was not far away, "Can you be a little more serious and come and give me a hand?"

"Huh?" Feng Bujue, holding a kitchen knife, was doing the same thing as Snow. "Is it necessary?" He glanced at Snow and replied, "I think you're fighting with plenty of room to spare."

"I certainly have the strength to talk to you and maintain a calm tone," Snow replied immediately, "But that doesn't mean I have any advantage in the battle." He didn't wait for Jue-ge to respond, paused for a second, and quickly added, "To be honest... according to my estimate, I won't be able to parry more than ten more moves from this brother in front of me."

"Is that so..." Feng Bujue smiled when he heard this, "Oh... there's really no way..."

After saying this, his body swayed, selling a flaw.

The pirate who was fighting him saw the opportunity and took half a step forward, slashing down with force.

This slash was definitely not ordinary... On the curved blade of the cutlass, there was a faint blue glow; this was clearly a "skill-level" attack.

Of course, Feng Bujue was also prepared; he wanted to use a skill to end the fight in front of him, so he deliberately lured the enemy.

In a flash of lightning, Jue-ge used his indescribably bizarre movement technique, and with a move that no ordinary person could imagine, he stabbed back at the opponent with his hand; at the same time, he used the hand that was not holding a weapon, which the opponent thought could not be used for defense... and activated Finger Flick, firmly挟夹 clamping the enemy's descending blade.

With this strange move of attacking and defending, victory and defeat were immediately determined.

After Jue-ge retracted the bloodstained kitchen knife, the pirate who had been fighting him first widened his eyes and looked down at the wound on his chest, then... he fell to the ground dejectedly; when his breathing stopped, the fighting spirit in his eyes had not yet dissipated...

At the moment of death, did he see a slideshow of his past life, or a piece of darkness and cold? Did he hear the bells of heaven, or the wails of hell? Did he have unrealized dreams in his heart, or a sense of relief without regrets...

All of this, no one will ever know, and no one will ever mention again.

The life of an unnamed pirate is not romantic, nor is it tragic.

They are like the fish and shrimp in the sea; even if they occasionally leap out of the water, they may not be seen; even if they are seen, no one will remember them.

Romance and tragedy only belong to the strong, to the kings among pirates. Even if they have a name of extreme evil, they are happy to be praised by people for ages.

"I'm coming!" After taking care of the enemy who was entangled with him, Feng Bujue turned and rushed towards Snow; as he approached, he shouted, letting the other party know that he was about to make a move.

Seeing this, the pirate who was fighting Snow naturally couldn't remain indifferent; as a pirate under Mad Eye, his strength was about the same as that of the Blackbeard Pirates, or to put it more bluntly—very strong.

Seeing that the two players were about to join forces to deal with him, this guy immediately used his trump card...

He suddenly straightened his body, held his knife horizontally at his waist, with the blade facing outwards... Then, he spun around like a top, and approached Snow at a very fast speed.

"Tch—" Snow saw that the situation was not good, his expression tightened, and he hurriedly retreated quickly.

"Whoa~ every NPC in this script can use skills, huh? And this guy seems to be going all out." Feng Bujue, who had rushed over, had to stop his advance to avoid hitting the enemy's blade. "Speaking of which... I seem to have seen this move somewhere before. Could it be the legendary... mACk's (a character in the arcade game *Captain Commando*) spinning blade wheel?"

Ding ding dang dang...

Just as Jue-ge was complaining, Snow had been forced to the edge of the deck. With no room to retreat, he could only use the Seven Stars Light Sword to face the enemy's Spinning Blade Wheel head-on.

For a time, the ultra-high-speed rapier strikes and the chainsaw-like edge of the blade wheel collided in a series of rapid metallic sounds, and bursts of sharp sparks burst into the air.

"That kind of thing doesn't matter!" Snow finally couldn't hold back; before his skill was finished, he shouted, "Hurry up and think of a solution!"

"A solution..." Feng Bujue said leisurely.

Just when Snow's skill was exhausted and he was forced to jump ship by the blade wheel, Jue-ge finally moved again...

Sh—

Whoosh—

Instantly, a red light appeared.

Feng Bujue instantly activated Spirit Gathering Body Technique - Modified, and with a speed that exceeded Snow's dynamic vision, grabbed the latter's shoulder.

A second later, accompanied by the sound of clothes breaking through the wind, the two figures suddenly appeared seven or eight meters away from the pirate.

"Huh?" Snow, who had been teleported by Feng Bujue, was stunned by the change in the scenery in front of him; then, he reacted and looked at Jue-ge, saying, "Sand Flying in the Wind?"

"You've studied me quite thoroughly." Feng Bujue replied in a drawn-out voice, "You even remember the name of my skill; you must have watched a lot of my match recordings, right?"

In the time it took to say these two sentences, the pirate who had just released the blade wheel had stopped spinning and reorganized his posture... and charged towards them.

Not only that, due to the change in position, Feng Bujue and Snow had entered the attack range of three other Mad Eye pirates.

At this moment, those three also took the opportunity to surround them.

Just like that... the situation that had just been eased took a sharp turn for the worse in an instant.

"It's not easy..." At this time, Feng Bujue thought to himself, "There are too many friendly units around; if I use Storm Leg, there will definitely be friendly fire... If it was just me alone, there would be many ways to deal with it; but now that there's an extra burden, things are..." Thinking of this, he had a bad idea, "Otherwise... I might as well just..."

Pfft pfft pfft pfft—

Just as Jue-ge was planning to "sell out his teammate"... suddenly!

Four light arrows shot out from under the deck, pierced through the thick deck like breaking through a window paper, and then accurately drilled into the ki—uh—posterior part of the bodies of the four Mad Eye pirates.

Half a second passed, four cyan-white rays of light pierced through the heavenly spirit covers of the four people, and four blood flowers composed of brain matter and blood bloomed above their heads...

"Hmm... they really came just in time." Feng Bujue didn't even need to think to know who the four arrows were from.

Sure enough... two seconds later, Honghu, dressed in white, used some kind of beam attack to cut open a piece of deck and jumped out of the cabin below.

"Are you kidding me..." After Honghu stood still, he quickly looked around and muttered in a complaining tone, "Haven't you finished yet?" As he spoke, he fixed his gaze on Jue-ge, "You're sandbagging with your strength..."

"Anyway, we'll win even if we don't do anything, right?" Feng Bujue shrugged in response, "Isn't it good to save some stamina and spirit energy?"

"You've already revealed your identity; what are you pretending for..." Honghu adjusted his glasses with one hand, and without waiting for Jue-ge to say anything, he continued, "Anyway... I'll just cover Little Brother Snow; you should go and get some exercise..."

As he said this, he suddenly pulled open the bow in his hand and blindly shot an arrow towards his side rear without turning his head.

He saw a flash of a light arrow... and then, three meters behind Honghu, a hidden pirate appeared.

That guy was obviously still in a state of confusion; in a daze, he dropped the knife in his hand with an incredulous expression, raised both hands, covered the bloody hole on his neck that had been pierced by the light arrow, and maintained this posture... face down on the deck.

"The difficulty of this script is higher than we thought, and... I also have some unexpected discoveries." But Honghu, who had dropped the arrow and completed the instant kill, was as if nothing had happened, and continued what he was saying earlier, "We'd better be careful and act cautiously, lest we screw up."