Chapter 1 You Must Have Noticed It

"You guys should have noticed it too, right?" After walking through the forest for a while, Mad-Eye suddenly spoke to the people behind him, "Even with the 'shackles' on, I've already spotted 'those guys'... there's no way you still don't know, right?"

"Ah, we've known for a while now." Brother Jue, following behind Mad-Eye, responded in a relaxed tone, "We're still within their 'reconnaissance magic circle,' so being 'monitored' to this extent is only natural."

"Then why are you still moving forward so nonchalantly?" Mad-Eye asked. "Aren't you afraid they'll hit you with another explosive array?"

"Heh..." Blackbeard, who was behind them, sneered when he heard that. "Then what do you suggest?"

Mad-Eye glanced back at him. "Of course, we should go into the forest and take out all the guys who are tracking us."

"Taking them out... wouldn't be difficult." Honghu, who hadn't voiced his opinion for a while, interjected, "If I wanted to, I could kill all the trackers in the surrounding forest within ten seconds." At this point, he changed the subject. "But doing that wouldn't mean anything... because they're no longer a threat to us."

"What do you mean, not a threat?" Mad-Eye asked, puzzled.

"Isn't it obvious?" Honghu replied. "If they wanted to attack us again, they would have already done it, but... why are they following us so sneakily? There's only one reason..."

"...That previous spell was probably the strongest attack these people could muster," Snow interjected, taking over for his teammate to explain to Mad-Eye. "Perhaps... they can't even cast it a second time in a short period. So, facing us, a group of enemies who 'were fine even after taking that powerful attack,' all they can do now is trail us in the dark."

"So what?" Mad-Eye retorted. "Even if these people temporarily don't have any intention of attacking us, or have already given up, they're still the enemy. Even if you're too lazy to kill them, you should at least grab a few of them alive and bring them back for questioning, right?"

"Hmph..." Blackbeard snorted again. "Alright, let's see what Captain Mad-Eye has in mind."

Before he finished speaking, Blackbeard slowly raised an arm, holding it out straight, and opened his palm towards his side, then clenched it.

In that instant, a muffled groan came from the forest. The next second, a figure shot out... like a piece of metal being attracted by a giant magnet, it was "sucked" to Blackbeard's palm.

The person who was captured was wearing a dark gray robe with a hood. Under the hood was a face as pale as a zombie and as ugly as a beast.

"Ugh—" After falling into Blackbeard's hands, this person was still groaning, but didn't say a word.

Everyone heard the sound and looked over, immediately noticing one thing: this person's mouth had been sewn shut.

His upper and lower lips were pierced back and forth by a metal wire as thick as a shoelace. Even an amateur could see how "rough" this stitching technique was.

"Judging from the state of the wound... it's been sewn up for more than a day or two, right?" Brother Jue muttered after seeing the person.

"Nessru." Blackbeard didn't say much, just called out to his subordinate, and then threw the "prisoner" in his hand towards Nessru.

Nessru easily caught the person and pressed him to the ground. Then, he took out a small knife from somewhere on his body, and with a speed that even Brother Jue found "fast," precisely cut the stitches on the prisoner's mouth without hurting his lips at all.

"If you want to live, answer a few questions," Nessru said coldly, his murderous aura obvious. Because... he was in a bad mood at the moment. Nessru's appearance, combined with his Taro Yamada hairstyle, was really ugly. Maybe others didn't care much about it, but he himself was very concerned.

"Ah... rArA... Bu ah... ha..." However, when the prisoner opened his mouth, another frustrating fact was revealed to everyone: this guy's tongue was long gone.

"They're really ruthless..." Even Mr. Vogue couldn't help but comment on the scene before him.

"Wait... something's not right," Snow quickly realized. "I can understand cutting off subordinates' tongues to prevent them from leaking secrets, but why... sew up their mouths after cutting off their tongues?"

"Hmm..." Honghu pondered. "It is a bit redundant, and... that way, even eating and drinking would be..."

"Ah... ga... ha..." Just as they were talking, the prisoner suddenly convulsed in pain, and a series of strange sounds, as if coming from a very distant place, came from his throat.

Seeing this strange sight, Mr. Vogue, who was incredibly experienced in the martial world, quickly stepped forward and pulled Nessru back a few steps, away from the prisoner.

Sure enough... just as Nessru retreated a few meters, a change occurred.

No sooner said than done! Accompanied by increasingly loud, strange noises from who knows where, the prisoner's chest swelled up to an extremely exaggerated extent, and then burst open when it reached a certain point.

Then, in the exploding blood and bone fragments, a dragon's head about the size of a rhinoceros's head emerged from the corpse's torso.

Then... there was a long neck, then claws, a body, wings, and a tail...

Finally, a dragon-like beast, four meters tall and over nine meters long (from the top of its head to the tip of its tail), emerged from the corpse of the human-shaped creature.

Obviously, it didn't come from "inside" the prisoner, but used his body as a medium, like a "door", to climb out of another space.

By the time the alien beast had fully revealed itself, the body of the prisoner had been torn into a tattered bag of minced flesh.

"Oh~ I see." Facing the monster, Feng Bujue was actually muttering in an academic tone, "Cutting off the tongue was to imprint a trigger-type small magic array in that guy's mouth, and the stitching on his mouth was a kind of magical material. Once the thread is cut, it will lead to..."

"Are you done yet?" Before Brother Jue could finish speaking, Mad-Eye interrupted him with a roar, "What does that matter? Didn't you see this..."

Whoosh—

Perhaps because Mad-Eye shouted too loudly, attracting the monster's attention, the dragon-like alien beast, after settling down, immediately swung its tail towards Mad-Eye.

In the sound of the raging wind, Mad-Eye turned his head sharply, looking at the dragon's tail coming towards him, constantly enlarging in his pupils. For a moment, he was so shocked that he didn't know what to do.

Bang!

Just as Mad-Eye thought he was going to fall here, Mark Hoof strode forward, stood in front of him, and used his strong body to withstand the alien beast's tail sweep.

Chih...

After the collision, Mark Hoof's four hooves actually dragged four deep hoof marks on the ground, and his face became somewhat solemn.

"Hmm..." After catching his breath, Mark Hoof squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth, "No... I can't hold on."

After saying that, he spat out a mouthful of blood and fell sideways.

"Ah! Brother!" Seeing this, Mark Neck roared angrily and charged towards the monster with the scimitar at his waist.

"Be careful!" On the other side, Mr. Vogue shouted as he stepped forward to support, "This is a 'Wàng Lóng' (Delusion Dragon)!"

Hearing this, Nessru followed without saying a word. For a time, the three subordinates engaged in a fierce battle with the "Wàng Lóng." The surrounding dense forest, earth, and rocks... began to collapse and crumble at a speed visible to the naked eye...

"Wàng Lóng, huh... It's been many years since I last saw one..." At this time, Blackbeard had already activated his "black spherical barrier" and retreated to a safe distance, muttering to himself, "When 'Idiante' was still 'here,' there were quite a few on his territory. I didn't realize they hadn't gone extinct."

"Did you just say... 'Idiante'?" A few seconds later, Brother Jue, who was also carrying Mad-Eye, came to Blackbeard's vicinity and asked, "Are you referring to... the God of Delusion - Idiante?"

Blackbeard's reaction seemed very calm. "Who else could it be?"

Honghu, who had been to Mouth Demon Island with Brother Jue last time, undoubtedly remembered this name as well. He also asked, "Captain... you seem to... know Idiante?"

"Everyone knows them," Blackbeard replied. "When I was young, there were 'Nine Gods' in the Chaos Sea. They each occupied a territory and didn't interfere with each other. Each of them had their own territory and followers. Idiante was just one of the well-known Nine Gods."

"Oh?" Hearing this, Feng Bujue immediately exchanged a look with Honghu, and then asked, "Then... where are they now?"

"How would I know?" Blackbeard asked back, and then said, "When the era of the Four Pillar Gods came, I left the Chaos Sea. All I know is that they didn't leave..."

"Ha!" Hearing this, Mad-Eye laughed. "They're not as shrewd as you."

"What?" Brother Jue raised an eyebrow at Mad-Eye. "From the sound of it... you know the whereabouts of those Nine Gods?"

"Hmph... this isn't a secret anyway," Mad-Eye replied. "Many years ago..." He glanced at Blackbeard, "It was not long after that guy left, right? The Nine Gods of the Chaos Sea and the Four Pillar Gods had a conflict. After a great war, the former was defeated miserably. Four of them fell on the spot... and the surviving God of Delusion, God of Lies, God of Wandering, God of Wisdom, and God of Truth joined forces to cast a spell and escaped into other planes. Since then, no one has ever seen them again." He paused. "Of course... there have been rumors all these years that a few of them haven't given up, and have left some altars and literature in this plane, hoping to return here one day and make a comeback."

"Oh..." Feng Bujue nodded, thinking to himself, "In other words... the elf (Wandering God-Volker) we roasted and ate when we came to Mouth Demon Island last time was actually super strong? He was secretly active and accumulating power on Mouth Demon Island, but we accidentally screwed him over... Hmm... speaking of which, how is the killing power of Uncle Trash's sissy form calculated? Is it a law of causality weapon..."

Just as Brother Jue was thinking, on the other side, the battle between the three Blackbeard Pirate Group subordinates and the Wàng Lóng had reached a critical moment.

But see...