Chapter 158 Joseph Vilburad
Li Wen continued to eavesdrop, hoping to gather more clues.
However, what awaited her was a rather long silence, so long that Li Wen almost thought her eavesdropping had been exposed and that the people inside were silently discussing how to capture her.
After a long pause, Remington’s slightly weary and muffled voice came through, “At least, you need to reveal more information about the fugitive so that I can conduct a targeted search.”
“Have you ever heard of Roberts’ Pirate Gang?” the naval officer asked.
“You mean Roberts, the ‘Sea Nightmare’ who left a notorious reputation on the outer seas over thirty years ago? I heard that he and his ship, the ‘Mist Devourer,’ were sunk by the Xiderian fleet, becoming insignificant sacrifices to the endless ocean.”
“Roberts himself is dead, but after all, he controlled a notorious pirate group. After their leader died, those scoundrels scattered like birds and beasts. Some were absorbed by other pirates, and some, under different banners, prepared to regroup… As for the rest, they were Roberts’ most trusted subordinates, and thus the most loyal to him. After Roberts died, they did not choose to betray their captain.
“You may have heard the saying that Roberts was a Transcendent of the Decayed Lineage. The Xiderian’s cannon fire only destroyed his decaying physical body, but his soul had long been immortal, buried somewhere in the ocean. Those loyal to Roberts firmly believed this and spared no effort to search for him. One of them was Joseph Vilburad, the ‘Blood Hook,’ who served as Roberts’ first mate and committed countless blood sins and massacres with the ‘Sea Nightmare.’
“More than ten years ago, someone reported to the Kingdom Navy claiming to have seen him near the Arthur sea area, and shortly thereafter, a fierce sea massacre proved the accuracy of this statement. Since then, the Kingdom Navy’s Fourth Fleet has begun to issue a warrant for and pursue that brutal pirate leader. However, with unknown Extraordinary Power and perfect disguise abilities, he has escaped the pursuit of the Kingdom fleet several times, achieving this feat that should have been impossible.
“Although that guy’s every appearance has been marked by a massacre, we have reason to believe that he is searching for something in this sea area, and it must be closely related to his captain, Roberts, the ‘Sea Nightmare.’ I don’t want that to happen, and neither do you, do you, Captain Remington? After all, you also love the sea and sailing.”
The officer paused for a moment before speaking in an even lower, more oppressive tone, “Now, extremely reliable information tells us that the extremely ferocious pirate is currently on this ship, plotting an unknown conspiracy. Make your choice, my dear captain.”
Such a statement undoubtedly moved Remington. After a moment of struggle, he said in a soft voice, “What can I do in this matter?”
“I need you to provide me with the list of all crew members and embarked passengers, of course, including the list of transported goods.” The naval officer said righteously, “Tomorrow morning, I need you to have everyone on board appear on the deck as quickly as possible to accept my investigation. Anyone who dares to be absent, I will treat them as an accomplice of that pirate.”
Remington was silent for a long time, still hesitating, “But won’t this alert the enemy? What if he…”
The naval officer let out a disdainful laugh.
“Do you think only a support ship is present today? In reality, thirty nautical miles away, the Kingdom Navy’s Fourth Fleet has formed a encirclement, sealing off this sea area. Even if Joseph Vilburad had heaven-defying abilities, he would have no chance of escaping apprehension this time.”
Li Wen stopped listening. She now understood why such a common conflict on the ship had attracted the Kingdom Navy; it turned out there was such a backstory.
She had never heard of Roberts, the “Sea Nightmare,” mentioned by the naval officer. After all, no matter how famous someone was in life, once dead, no one would care. However, Li Wen had vaguely heard of “Blood Hook” Joseph Vilburad somewhere.
Her memory was too vague, and the girl couldn’t recall the details at the time, which led her to infer that it was probably not something important back then. But the situation was different now. In her previous life, Li Wen had dealt with pirates on the outer continent. As far as she knew, anyone qualified to serve as first mate on a famous outer sea pirate ship should at least be a Tier 4 Transcendent. If Roberts was as infamous on the outer seas as the officer and Remington said, it wouldn’t be surprising if his first mate was a Tier 5.
In other words, there was currently a Transcendent who was Tier 4 or even Tier 5, with unknown lineage and who had committed countless killings on this ship. At this time, the more information she had, the greater her chance of winning. Even as a Player, Li Wen did not want to become fish food in the sea here. She still had to go to Port Beren to search for clues about the Decayed Original Text.
As for the encirclement mentioned by the officer, she honestly didn’t put much trust in it, and unease and anxiety were spreading like flames.
Li Wen shook her head and calmed herself down.
Her memory yielded nothing, so she quietly returned to the cabin, only to collide with Moria.
“Why are you standing here instead of sleeping?”
Li Wen immediately decided to strike first.
The priest gently shook his head, “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d look for anyone behaving suspiciously.”
In the eyes of others, you are probably the one behaving suspiciously.
“Then you continue.”
Li Wen said casually, walking around Moria to return to her room.
But at that moment, the priest reached out and stopped her. This was not something Moria usually did, so Li Wen stopped in her tracks and looked at him with confusion.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Moria said softly and turned to leave the cabin.
Watching his retreating back, Li Wen raised an eyebrow.
“Truly inexplicable.”
*
The next morning, sunlight streamed into the cabin through the window, bringing a touch of warmth to the gloomy ship. Li Wen had been awake all night, but instead of continuing to refine medicine, she replaced sleep with meditation, recovering her Mana in the process.
The ship was already noisy and irritating early in the morning. It seemed that Captain Remington had carried out the officer’s orders. After a while, someone knocked on the door and informed her about the assembly in
a relatively gentle tone. This was naturally the attitude shown because she was a distinguished guest on the ship. The attitude of the sailors towards other passengers was clearly not as considerate.
However, this attitude was based on Li Wen appearing on deck to participate in the assembly. If she pretended not to hear, the next knock on the door would probably be from the elite troops of the Kingdom Navy.
