Chapter 146: Saving People is a Vital Task

“Ah! Aaaah!”

“M-my leg! H-help me!”

“You were supposed to protect us! Where were you?!”

“This can’t end like this! I’m not going to die in this hole! Gha!”

“Where’s the captain?! Where’s Captain Bongromonte?!”

Inside the ship, the mangled body of the Terra Octopus lay buried beneath a pile of debris, a huge hole torn through its head.

Its mouth and tentacles were smeared with blood, and the remains of several passenger could clearly be seen between its teeth.

Panic had spread everywhere. The passengers desperately sought answers, looking for someone to vent all the fear and anger they had built up after the nightmare they had just endured.

The surviving workers rushed between them, trying to calm everyone down, but in the end, they were the ones who had to bear the brunt of all that rage.

....

“S-sergeant! Things are bad! You’re the only senior officer left!”

A young worker named Ou Huten climbed over the wreckage outside the hole in the ship and sat down beside the smoking Old Oluye. His head was shaved, a scar ran behind one ear, and his hands were trembling.

“Eh... Little Huten. Go on, give me the report.”

Old Oluye had no desire to take on such responsibility, but having no other choice, he accepted his new role.

“Eighty-eight dead, forty-one injured, and we don’t know how many of them will survive. And... and a hundred and six survivors, but their morale...”

Huten grabbed his head with both hands. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to handle this, and everything’s only going to get worse! I know it!”

“Hey, don’t cry on me! Don’t be afraid. Everything will be fine! Once the captain comes back and the rune master repairs Pure Sky, we’ll be able to get out of here without any problems!”

The old man blew smoke into the air and patted the boy on the back, doing whatever he could to encourage him.

“Where is this rune master?” A voice suddenly came from behind Oluye. He turned sharply and saw Old Mo hovering in the air, his right arm missing.

“Master Mo!”

“Master Mo!”

The old man with the pipe and the young man both jumped to their feet and bowed.

Old Mo merely nodded, making it clear that he was waiting for an answer.

“Sir, the rune master was up there the last time I saw him.” Old Oluye pointed toward the stern.

“He’s not there. I just came from there...”Master Mo frowned, then suddenly noticed the energy chain wrapped around the sergeant’s arm.

“Hm? What’s that?” He pointed at the chain and asked.

Old Man Oluye lowered his head and immediately understood what he meant.

“Heh! The rune master made this for me before I jumped off the stern. He said it could withstand three attacks, and he was right!” The old man proudly praised An as though the runes were his own handiwork.

“Runes made from pure Qi... I’ve only seen something like this in the Upper-” He suddenly felt a piercing gaze on his back, sending a shiver of unease down his spine.

“You actually survived, old man... I thought you’d fall apart running around here, playing the hero.”

Everyone turned and saw their so-called rune master standing there once more, covered in dust and wearing torn clothes.

“Huh? Hoho! How could I not survive?! Thanks to your runes, I’m practically a cat with nine lives! Besides, it’s still too early for me to fall apart!”

Old Oluye burst into laughter and slipped into a much more casual tone, completely forgetting that a Pseudo-Golden Core cultivator was standing right there.

Master Mo watched the two of them interact as equals. One was only a Qi Condensation cultivator and a mere ship worker, while the other was clearly in the Foundation Establishment realm, as was obvious from the fact that An was hovering in the air.

And he was a rune master, not one of those ordinary hacks found in every market in the cities and forts, but a genuine master. Old Mo had never encountered anyone like him during all his time in this lower world, apart from one person.

“Rune Master. Where were you?”

Master Mo interrupted them, demandint to know where An had disappeared to during the battle, when he should have been repairing Pure Sky, the artifact that was essentially their only means of survival in their current situation.

An fell silent and met Old Mo’s gaze for a moment before turning toward the forest he had come from.

“The captain is dead. While I was up on the ship, I saw something strange near the area where they were fighting. Then, when everything suddenly went quiet, I decided to investigate. When I arrived, all I found were traces of blood and a few scraps of clothing...”

“Wait, wait! The captain is dead?! How?!” The young boy, Huten shouted, clutching his head before collapsing onto the ground with a look of despair.

Old Oluye pulled out his pipe with trembling hands and lit it, trying to calm himself while completely ignoring Master Mo’s presence and the respect he was supposed to show him.

Unlike the other two, Old Mo did not panic. He silently looked into An’s eyes, then turned his gaze toward the forest. “Are you sure he’s dead? And what exactly was the anomaly you saw from the stern?”

“Some kind of black spot was moving across the treetops. As for whether I’m sure he’s dead... I can’t say for certain. But after coming back here and not seeing him, the only conclusion I can draw is the obvious one.”

An shrugged and looked over Old Mo’s shoulder. Feng Min and Su Mei were climbing out through the hole in the ship and heading toward them.

“Old servant Mo, what’s going on?” Su Mei, still maintaining the pretense that she was a man, asked Master Mo in the gruffest voice she could manage.

“Young Master Su, bad news. The captain is most likely dead.” Old Mo lowered his head respectfully.

“What? Where’s his body?” Feng Min cut in, looking around at everyone with a mixture of anger and confusion.

Feeling his gaze, Old Oluye put away his pipe and lowered his head, shielding the still-panicking Huten behind him.

“The rune master said that only blood remained at the site where the captain and the third-rank creature fought. Nothing else. So it can be assumed that the captain is dead.” Old Mo gestured toward An.

Feng Min frowned and stared intently at the shabby-looking rune master in front of him. “Are you sure you saw everything correctly? And what were you even doing in the forest? You were supposed to be at the stern repairing the artifact!”

An merely gave him a mocking smile.

That only made Feng Min even more agitated, and he was just about to say something else when he was interrupted.

“Master Feng, enough.” Su Mei placed a hand on his shoulder, and Min was immediately forced to calm down.

“Rune Master, can you show us where you found the traces of the battle and the blood?” Su Mei tried to take control of the situation, her voice calm but commanding.

An nodded toward the forest. “It’s almost two kilometers straight ahead. You won’t miss it... But I need to finish working on Pure Sky.”

“Can’t that wait even a single minute?” Su Mei frowned slightly. She clearly disliked the fact that he had challenged what was essentially her order.

“We’ve already lost almost half our people in a single clash, so I think it would be better if I repaired the artifact and made sure everyone here was safe. Don’t you agree, Master Su?”

An gave her a way out, making it seem as though the decision to continue working on the artifact was hers rather than his.

Su Mei studied his eyes carefully, then nodded and looked at Old Mo.

“Old servant, stay here and look after the people. Master Feng and I will inspect the captain’s battlefield. Perhaps we’ll be able to figure something out.”

Old Man Mo nodded. “Yes, Young Master Su! Be careful!”

The three of them flew off in different directions, leaving Old Oluye, Huten, and An behind.

“Where’s the girl? Is she all right?” An suddenly remembered the young woman who had been at the stern with him and the old man.

“Eh... Her short and reckless life has come to an end. Poor child... So young. I hope her next life will be much easier!” The old man’s expression fell. He pulled out his pipe again and began lighting it.

An merely nodded, having expected that answer. “What about you? Are you all right? Can those old bones of yours still move?”

“Hm? Ha! My bones could run circles around yours! You little brat! By the way, thanks for those runes again... If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be standing here smoking this cheap tobacco.”

With a smile that shifted between amusement and sadness, the old man patted Huten on the shoulder, trying to help the boy pull himself together.

“That’s good... Then I’ll get back to Pure Sky. There’s not much left.” An checked their Qi flows and, after confirming that they would be fine, pushed off the ground and rose into the air.

“What about the timing?! How long until it’s ready? What am I supposed to tell the passengers?” The old man suddenly remembered to ask, shouting after An as he rose into the sky.

An stopped and turned his head. “It’ll be ready by sunset. There are only a few finishing touches left...”

He turned back and continued upward, ‘If, of course, the artifact itself isn’t broken.’

Flying close along the ship’s side and the hole in its hull, An began drawing in the Death Qi and the remaining soul particles of the passengers who had died only a few minutes earlier.

He slowed down, no longer worried that anyone might notice what he was doing.

After absorbing everything he could, he landed on the deck and calmly made his way toward the artifact, returning to his work.

.

.

‘Even if I gather all the chains and connect them into a single system... There’s no guarantee the energy will spread evenly because of these two chains. I still have no idea what they actually do.’

An studied the three dozen pea-sized chains in front of him, trying to figure out what to do with the two chains on the artifact whose functions he still couldn’t determine.

“Cluck! Bawk!” Baldi sat beside him, carefully examining the runes and offering his own ideas, doing his best to help.

“Oh? You mean I should use an auxiliary energy source, integrate it into my chains, and connect it to those two as well? Basically making them dependent on it and bypassing them... Hmm. Not a bad idea.”

An nodded as he considered a way out of the dead end.

“Baawk?” The bird turned toward him and grumbled unhappily, as if saying: That’s not what I meant.

An took a sheet of paper from his ring, tore off a small piece, wrote a few words on it, and held it out to the bird. “Find Old Oluye and give him this. Got it?”

“Cluck!” Baldi snatched the paper away, still clearly annoyed with An, then hopped up and flew toward the ship’s side.

“Don’t fly too high! Remember where we are!” An shouted after him.

Baldi nearly faltered in the air when he remembered the Kullo birds that had filled the sky and dominated the air.

.

.

Barely two or three minutes later, the bird returned with Huten.

Since Huten was young and relatively light, Baldi grabbed him by the shoulders and, with an expression that looked as though he might burst from the effort, somehow managed to haul him up to An.

“Cl-CLUUCK!!”

The bird collapsed onto the deck with a wail, completely exhausted. He lay there helplessly, stretching one wing toward An and begging for help.

“You fat, useless laughingstock... You’re a second-rank beast! You’re equivalent to a Foundation Establishment cultivator! And you can’t even lift a load weighing fifty kilograms?”

An enveloped both the bird and the slightly frightened Huten in Qi and pulled them toward himself, continuing to scold the bird, which had already lowered its head in shame.

“M-Master, Sergeant Oluye couldn’t come. He’s too busy with the passengers.” Huten bowed and quickly handed An an old spatial pouch.

“This is everything they could find in the supplies! I hope it’s enough!”

An took the pouch and waved his hand. “Relax. You can hang around here and rest for a while.”

“T-thank you, master!” Huten bowed once more, then stepped aside and sat down with his back against a pile of debris from what had once been part of the ship. He was glad to have a chance to rest amid all the chaos out there.

“Cluck?” Baldi approached An on trembling legs and gently tapped him with one wing.

“Here, you fat lard.” An rolled his eyes but nevertheless took out five different fruits and placed them beside him.

All of Baldi’s exhaustion and guilt vanished at once. He shook himself, sending his folds rippling, then immediately attacked the juicy fruits.

An didn’t hesitate. He took two second-rank fruits that were beneficial to cultivators with a dominant Water element and sent them over to Huten with his Qi.

“Huh? N-no, that’s not necessary! Master rune master, I’m not worthy!” The boy shook his head repeatedly, trying to refuse.

“One fruit, then one cultivation cycle. Only after that should you eat the second. Understood?” Using his Qi, An placed both fruits into the boy’s hands.

“T-thank you!” Huten jumped to his feet and bowed several times. When the rune master gave no response, he sat back down and immediately began eating the first fruit.