Chapter 1 The Bloody Street

The once bustling streets had become blood-soaked ditches. The roaring flames reflected cries and howls, and the pirates' wild laughter echoed through the port that had been ruled by peace for seventy years. After landing, the selected hundred or so pirates stood scattered, their impatient expressions and fanatical eyes revealing their eagerness to join the looting. Only the prestige of Scarface Henry and the ruthlessness of Fang Senyan kept them in check; otherwise, they would have scattered and stormed into the shops long ago.

Amidst shouts and curses, the pirates from the Bell and Goblet rushed haphazardly towards Tortuga Fortress. Their motivation was naturally the legendary mountains of wealth inside the fortress. As they advanced, they trampled upon still-warm corpses, and the smell of gunpowder mingled with blood. Many seasoned pirates couldn't help but get excited, throwing open their chests and roaring wildly.

Fang Senyan, who had never experienced such a scene before, was momentarily stunned, but he quickly regained his composure. He roared at the pirates beside him, urging them to speed up, and to unhesitatingly swing their knives and fire their guns at anyone who blocked their path! Such barbaric and bloody tactics would normally have caused great trouble, but in this chaotic and wealthy port, it undoubtedly had a very good effect.

"Look!" A quick-witted pirate at the front picked up a small piece of headscarf from the side. "This is Old Butch's! It looks like they went to the fortress this way too."

Fang Senyan took the piece of headscarf. There was no blood on it, and the cut seemed quite rough. His eyes flickered, and his pupils contracted slightly. He shouted loudly:

"Everyone, put in some effort! Old Butch was so excited that he even dropped his headscarf. Our partners are probably guarding a pile of treasure, waiting for us to move it!" The pirates next to him immediately became excited, raising their scimitars and letting out a wild roar! They ran even faster. Scarface Henry originally wanted to take the piece of headscarf and take a look, but Fang Senyan had already led his men to the front of the team. His head was also experiencing a piercing pain at an inopportune time, so he could only immediately take out his wine bag and take a gulp of rum to numb that damn nerve, then reluctantly cover his head and follow the main force.

When this group of pirates arrived at the gate of Tortuga Port, they found that the majestic fortress was dark and filled with deathly silence, as if it had been abandoned for hundreds of years, leaving only gloomy ghosts and spiderwebs. The gate of the fortress was open, like the black mouth of a giant beast waiting for prey to be delivered to its door. The team that had been sent in earlier seemed to have completely vanished!

Faced with such a strange situation, all the pirates fell silent. Only the crackling sound of the torches could be heard clearly. The pirates looked at each other in dismay, and some of the timid ones' faces changed. In their imagination, it would either be heavily guarded or a scene of chaos, but they had never expected such a bizarre scene.

Now was the time for Fang Senyan to make a decision. He came to Scarface Henry's side and whispered:

"This should be the enemy putting on a show."

Scarface Henry said in a deep voice:

"What do you mean?"

Fang Senyan calmly said:

"According to the information we have, Little Fork initiated the attack on the Black Pearl. That means he had plenty of time to plan this. Little Fork's main force is still on the Black Pearl, and his remaining manpower in the fortress must be insufficient, so he's deliberately making a show of force, wanting to take advantage of the dispersed situation after we enter the fortress to attack us. Otherwise—wouldn't it be better to directly close the fortress gate and defend against the enemy?"

"Then what about Schiaer and the others?" Henry said.

Fang Senyan said in a resolute tone:

"I think they must have entered the fortress and dispersed to look for treasure, and they should still be trapped inside. If we go in immediately, we can still save them!"

This trip was originally led by Fang Senyan, with Scarface Henry only responsible for monitoring. Although he felt something was wrong for a moment, he was being tormented by continuous and severe pain in his head, so he couldn't find any reason to refute Fang Senyan. Fang Senyan also directly told his deduction to the pirates. Given his previous prestige, even if someone had any doubts, they could only swallow them.

Fang Senyan then divided the pirates who came into six groups, with the smallest group having at least twenty men. Each group was arranged with melee swordsmen and shieldmen, and ranged gunmen. The arrangement was quite reasonable, leaving no room for criticism. Then, he continued to lure the pirates with the wealth inside, and finally took the lead, holding a torch and rushing into the fortress.

Since Fang Senyan had adopted a high profile of "follow me" instead of "charge for me", Scarface Henry was embarrassed to stay behind. He took another group of people and entered the fortress. With the two leaders taking the lead, what else could the pirates, who were already desperadoes, say? In addition, the torches they held gave them great courage, so they roared and rushed in. According to the prior arrangement, each group of pirates would send a group to investigate when they encountered a fork in the road. Soon, the vast Tortuga Fortress swallowed up these six groups of pirates.

After dispersing into small teams, Fang Senyan still took the lead, holding a torch and walking at the front of the team. However, he seemed very relaxed, as if he was sure that the surrounding environment was very safe. He looked completely unprepared. Fang Senyan's prestige among the pirates was quite high now, and the pirates followed him without saying a word. They occasionally exchanged a few words while walking, but otherwise, there was a sense of solemn silence.

The furnishings in Tortuga Fortress were quite magnificent. Under the light of the fire, what they stepped on was a camel-wool carpet transported from the Middle East. Putting aside the exquisite patterns on it, the soft touch alone was very comfortable, giving the pirates a sense of being eye-opening. However, the light and valuable things, such as gold candlesticks and silver cutlery, had disappeared without a trace, apparently hidden by the owner in advance, which indirectly supported Fang Senyan's previous deduction. Suddenly, a pirate in front stopped, his hand on the hilt of his knife. He turned around and said urgently:

"Be careful, there's a smell of blood!"

Everyone immediately took a few deep breaths and indeed smelled a faint fishy smell in the air. For these ruthless desperadoes, this was undoubtedly a very familiar smell. The situation suddenly became tense. Many pirates drew their weapons. Fang Senyan brought the torch closer to the ground and found a string of difficult-to-identify light brown bloodstains on the thick, soft carpet. Following the direction of the bloodstains, they stopped abruptly in front of a seemingly solid granite wall.

"It's a secret passage!" A pirate's voice trembled with excitement. This series of bloodstains made a turn and stopped in front of this wall, which seemed very abrupt - the injured guy couldn't have suddenly disappeared, right? The only explanation was that he had escaped into the secret passage. If there were no bloodstains to guide them, who would have thought that there was a secret passage behind this seamless and hard stone wall?

With clues, these pirates began to look around in a hurry. Among these old foxes, there were naturally experts who were good at this. Soon, they found a small handle under the carpet. Two pirates used all their strength to pull it, and a large number of heavy iron chains collided in the wall. Then, the granite wall rumbled and slowly rose, revealing a dark secret passage.

Under the light of the fire, the things scattered on the ground of the secret passage gave off conspicuous and lovely light. All the pirates' breathing became heavy. Shiny gold coins, exquisite tableware, and smooth silk like milk were scattered sparsely in the secret passage, which seemed to be the result of hurried transportation. There was no doubt that these pirates roared greedily in their throats and pounced on the wealth. They followed these scattered treasures into the depths of the secret passage. Only Fang Senyan was still holding the torch and standing in place, with a strange expression on his face, with a bit of regret and a bit of relief.

Then he threw away the torch, took a deep breath, and charged the falling window beside him with his right shoulder! The rusty iron frame supporting the window quickly succumbed, twisted, and broke under the huge force. The window, inlaid with stained glass, shattered into thousands of thin pieces in an instant. Fang Senyan took advantage of the momentum to rush out of the fortress, squatting in the air, retracting his abdomen, and landing!

The first to land was the soles of his feet, followed by the arches of his feet. When his heels touched the ground, his entire body's center of gravity shifted forward, and then he transferred the downward force into a forward rush. Fang Senyan only felt severe pain in his feet, knees, and elbows, but it was just pain. He rolled five or six times on the ground and then straightened up with his hands on the ground. Although he had just jumped from the third floor of the fortress, he had only suffered some minor injuries due to his proper handling, and his life value was less than one-fifth. In the current non-combat state, it would automatically recover in less than five minutes.

Fang Senyan took out the small piece of headscarf from his arms and sighed slightly:

"I'm sorry, I knew this was a trap, but I still brought you in."

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