“Whew…that was close, almost got capsized in the gutter.”

Two seconds after the explosion, Feng Bujue reappeared. He was floating in the air, holding Mad Eye by the back of his collar with one hand. His position was right at the edge of the blast radius, unaffected by it.

"You're pretty quick on the uptake." Mad Eye, who had been pulled out of the danger zone by Brother Jue in the nick of time, didn't change his attitude because of it.

"That was already slow. If I'd realized what they were going to do a few seconds earlier, maybe I could have countered them before they even launched their attack." Feng Bujue replied.

"They?" Mad Eye was about to ask about that word when a translucent black sphere slowly rose from the rolling smoke ahead.

Through the smoke, Feng Bujue could already see three people standing inside the sphere: Blackbeard, Honghu, and Snow.

"As the ones responsible for scouting, could you two explain…what's going on?" Blackbeard naturally looked displeased at this moment. Although he and the two people beside him were unharmed, his henchmen might not have escaped such an attack unscathed.

"Hmm…" Feng Bujue muttered thoughtfully, "From what I can see…this should be a mixed spell of mega_Brand and elmekia_flame. Although it's just a combination of a mediocre earth-type magic and a mental magic, because the caster's magic energy is extremely high, the actual release…"

"Who asked you about the principles of magic?" Blackbeard interrupted impatiently before he could finish, "I'm asking you why you didn't detect the enemy and send a signal before this attack was launched."

"I did detect them." Feng Bujue spread his hands, "Didn't I shout 'retreat'?"

"You shouted a second before, are you kidding me?" Blackbeard retorted.

"Tch…I wanted to shout earlier too." Feng Bujue said, "But there was absolutely no energy fluctuation before they cast the spell, what could I do? If you don't believe me, ask your few cadres…uh…" As he spoke, he looked down at the still-smoking seawater, "They're not dead yet, are they?"

Blackbeard didn't answer his question, but instead asked, "Since there was no energy fluctuation, then you shouldn't have been able to advance even a second, right?"

"Heh…indeed, I didn't sense any signs of a strong magic about to be launched, but…before that wave of attacks came…I caught a magic arrow." Feng Bujue said.

"So what?" Blackbeard asked.

Feng Bujue said, "Generally speaking…that doesn't prove anything, but as for me, when I encounter something, I come up with a hundred possible hypotheses; and one of those hypotheses is precisely—'This is a homing arrow'."

Blackbeard was very shrewd. After Brother Jue said this, and he pondered it over, many things became clear.

"You mean…there's more than one of them?" Blackbeard quickly changed the question.

"At this stage, that possibility is very high." Feng Bujue replied, "You saw that move just now, although it's a mixed magic, it can't be considered very advanced; the only reason it could produce that kind of power is pure reliance on huge magic energy to support it." He paused for half a second, then added, "Assuming there's only one caster, then there's a problem…a magic user with this level of magic energy, wouldn't they really know how to use other more advanced and more efficient spells to attack?"

"Oh~" Hearing this, Snow also understood, "But if it's a large group of magic users with average or even weaker skill casting spells together, then this can be explained."

"That's right." Feng Bujue continued, "So, the magic arrow I caught earlier was undoubtedly used to target the location for that large group of casters." He paused, then added, "By the way…judging from the magic energy exuded from that magic arrow, the guy responsible for targeting is very strong; I also have a rough understanding of the level of those cultists in the Illusory Demon Church, this guy must be a cadre-level, which means…he clearly recognizes me, knows my identity, and heard my warning, but…still launched the attack."

"Oh?" Blackbeard pondered for a moment, "That is a bit strange…".

"Ha!" Mad Eye chuckled beside him, "I think it's pretty normal." He turned to look at Brother Jue, "Someone like that, just standing in front of me, I have the urge to hack him to death with random cuts, I can completely understand if he couldn't hold back for a moment."

"Hmph…" Blackbeard's mouth curled into a cold smile upon hearing this, "That makes sense."

While these few were floating in the sky talking, in the area that had just been leveled by the magic burst…in that boiling seawater…figures slowly crawled out of the water.

"I think I've been deafened by the explosion." The first to come ashore was Mark Neckthick, and he was shaking the big horse head on his neck as he walked.

"Sigh…" His brother, Mark Hoofbig, followed closely behind. After hearing his brother's line, he sighed, stepped forward, and grabbed the other's head with both hands, "Idiot! What's the use of shaking it straight?" As he spoke, he pulled his brother's head to the left and right respectively, "pouring it out".

"Eh?" Mark Neckthick was immediately delighted, "It's better now~"

"Nonsense, isn't it good to pour out the mud from your ears?" Mark Hoofbig's IQ wasn't high, but it was still better than his brother's; perhaps…because he had a human head, his IQ had the upper hand.

At this time, at a mud slope five or six meters away from them, Mr. Vogue and Nesru also came out of the water one after another.

"Ptooey—Damn it! The thing I hate most is taking a bath!" After spitting out a mouthful of seawater, Mr. Vogue still opened his mouth to curse.

And Nesru, who was beside him, looked very lost at this moment; because…the reflection in the water had already told Nesru that his "cake head" had completely collapsed at this moment…drooping into an unusually short "watermelon Taro" hairstyle.

In addition to these four cadres, Garlic Head, Godfrey, and Marty were also basically unharmed, and they soon came out of the water as well.

However, the situation of the remaining nineteen pirates was not so optimistic…Even though they were members of Blackbeard's Pirate Crew, not everyone could survive such an attack; of those nineteen, four never left Chew Demon Island alive, another six were seriously injured and unable to move, and the remaining nine also suffered injuries of varying degrees.

Under these circumstances, Blackbeard still decisively issued an order—he asked the Garlic Head trio and those injured who were still able to move to take all the injured crew members back, and then bring back nineteen uninjured people.

As for Blackbeard, the three players, Mad Eye, and the four cadres on board continued to move forward, leaving marks along the way so that Garlic Head and the others could find their way when they brought reinforcements.

In this way, the team of thirty was sharply reduced to nine, one of whom…was still Mad Eye, who had no combat power and could run away or defect at any time.

Even so, Brother Jue still didn't see the slightest sense of crisis or tension in Blackbeard's eyebrows…

Although he didn't show it, Feng Bujue's heart faintly felt…Blackbeard's purpose in coming to Chew Demon Island this time was probably not just to find his son, his old men, and treasure; this island…obviously still held some unspeakable secrets.