Mystery: Emerging From Knowledge Moor

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Leyton narrowed his eyes slightly, and a faint purple glow filled his pupils beneath his glasses. Under the gaze of Eyes of Mystery Prying, many Natural Spirits circled where the cannonballs had eerily stagnated.

"Sanguine and Spirit Medium? Not from the Chained Pathway?" Leyton murmured, gazing at the smuggling ship ahead.

The smuggling ship ahead had also realized it was locked onto by Admiral of Stars's Future, with no escape. It could only maintain the distance between the ships while firing all cannons.

When the opponent's cannonballs approached Future, they were blocked by a barrier made of starlight.

After a period of mutual cannon bombardment, Future was not significantly affected, but the enemy ships were already damaged.

"Get ready for boarding combat," Cattleya's voice rang out.

Leyton saw strange plants growing and spreading on one of the opposing ships.

"Hey! Nina has already infiltrated the enemy ship, you all better keep up!" The Quartermaster, Otto Lowe's voice came.

A bridge of condensed starlight connected the two ships. The First Mate, "Bloodless" Heath Doyle, led the Pirates from Future to attack the ship Nina had already infiltrated.

"Stick close to me!" Frank turned and instructed Leyton.

The other smuggling ship, however, increased its attack intensity at this moment, firing cannonball after cannonball. Some Natural Spirits were hidden within these cannonballs, planning to sneak onto Future.

Leyton glanced back. Cattleya, who was maintaining the starlight bridge, seemed unable to continue the starlight barrier that blocked the cannonballs.

Leyton reached into his jacket pocket and grasped the Devil emblem inside.

Three pale blue fireballs, emitting a strong smell of sulfur, shot out from beside Leyton. They directly hit the cannonballs in mid-air, causing explosions. The flames from the explosions had a poisoning effect, also affecting the Natural Spirits mixed within them.

Leyton raised his right hand, and pale blue flames ignited in his palm. He used Flame Cage to intercept several approaching cannonballs in the air.

"This is a Devil's ability?"

Frank, who hadn't gone far, asked in surprise when he saw this scene.

Several streaks of silver-white lightning flashed, and all remaining cannonballs were destroyed. Leyton shrugged, knowing he had underestimated a Pirate Admiral just now.

"Do you need me to go deal with the people on that ship?"

Leyton asked Cattleya, who stood steadily in front of the captain's cabin.

"Are you confident?" Cattleya retorted.

Leyton replied without hesitation:

"If there's only one Spirit Medium, no problem."

"Frank, you and Al go together." Cattleya didn't hesitate.

"Okay, Captain!"

Frank replied and walked back to Leyton's side.

Without waiting for Frank to speak, Leyton directly scattered a handful of silver dust, causing himself and Frank to float up and fly slowly. Bugs Bunny and Paz, seeing this, immediately pounced onto the two, taking off with them.

In mid-air, Leyton scattered iron-black materials again, using an invisible giant hand to propel the two forward quickly.

The Natural Spirits and Revenant circling in mid-air discovered Frank and Leyton in the air and, under the control of the Spirit Medium, lunged towards them.

Leyton took out a small dried fish specially made by Frank from his pocket. After infusing it with spirituality, he smeared it with black dust. The dried fish, briefly exhibiting living characteristics, became entangled with black mist, which had a strong attraction to the Undead.

Leyton casually threw the dried fish into the sea. The Natural Spirits and Revenant immediately changed targets and chased after the falling dried fish.

"Meow! My dried fish!"

Paz, clinging to Frank's neck, let out a miserable cry.

"That was prepared by Frank for you, the kind of dried fish that can come alive and jump into your mouth," Leyton explained.

Paz's expression instantly changed, and he even added:

"Do you have any more? Throw them all away! Those things aren't dried fish at all. Dried fish don't come alive!"

"Why? Isn't dried fish that comes alive and jumps into your mouth good? Didn't you complain to me before that eating dried fish bite by bite was troublesome?"

Frank had never understood why, after he listened to Paz's suggestion and improved the dried fish, the other party was so disgusted.

Leyton wanted to retort to Frank, but the cannons on the opposite ship were firing towards them, so he had to concentrate and control the invisible giant hand to push himself and Frank aside.

When the opponent's cannons were preparing for a second round of attack, clear, crystalline streams of light rained down from the air behind Leyton, landing on the deck ahead. Soon, the sides of the smuggling ship were adorned with one ice prism after another.

"Is Cattleya's casting range this far?" Leyton was secretly surprised.

Then, seizing the opportunity, he controlled the invisible giant hand to bring himself and Frank onto the ship.

Several black, illusory flames suddenly exploded ahead, rapidly closing in on Leyton and Frank.

Leyton's eyes quickly glowed with blue-white light, and a somewhat incomplete halo appeared behind him. In the center of the halo, a pattern of an open book, outlined by several distorted lines, seemed to turn its pages as if real.

"Guardian," he softly uttered a Dragonese word. With both hands, he simultaneously scattered silver and iron-black dust, which rapidly expanded, rotated, and distorted in the air, forming a silver-black barrier like fine sand around himself and Frank.

Then came dense gunshots, and many bullets struck the silver-black barrier, emitting grating metallic friction sounds.

Strangely, those black flames didn't actually burn through but clung tightly to the silver-black barrier Leyton had constructed. They even melted some of the bullets that shot from behind.

"Otherworldly version of 'Friendly Fire'?" Leyton was somewhat puzzled by the operation of these black flames.

"Don't retaliate yet. This barrier will also affect us who are inside. When the other side reloads, I will retract this barrier, and then we can act."

Leyton spoke to stop Frank, who wanted to retaliate.

"Huh? Then isn't your barrier just a living target?"

Frank asked, somewhat confused.

Leyton was a little embarrassed, then explained:

"My skill is limited; I can only set the barrier's effect this way to maximize its defensive effect. My original thought was that if it wasn't useful, I could throw it on enemies to restrict their movement."

"Haha! Really? Al, your idea is truly excellent! It's a pity you're not a Beyonder of the Planter pathway, otherwise we'd have so much to talk about!"

Frank didn't think the development of this spell was a matter of Leyton's skill level; instead, he thought the idea was very good.

Leyton didn't respond. After the storm of bullets from the other side significantly weakened, he scattered a handful of translucent powder. A whooshing gust of wind appeared out of nowhere, sweeping the sand-like silver-black barrier, transforming it into a storm that swirled outwards.

Leyton seized the opportunity to bend down and pick up Bugs Bunny, who was clinging to his pant leg, then told Frank, "Close your eyes."

Bugs Bunny instantly understood, extending his small paw to touch the tall top hat on his head. His pupils suddenly dilated, and light burst forth in front of him, making the surroundings a blinding white.

For a moment, Leyton heard several screams, including Frank's voice beside him.

"Meow!" A majestic cat's meow echoed across the entire deck.

As soon as the dazzling white light passed, a layer of mist filled the area in front of Leyton, and then a gust of wind blew, carrying the mist towards the positions where the shots had been fired earlier.

Leyton opened his eyes and saw this scene, slightly surprised. He praised Bugs Bunny, "Well done!"

He placed Bugs Bunny, whom he had been holding, aside. Leyton took out the Devil emblem and put it on his chest.

"Fallen," he uttered a Devil language word full of defilement and corruption.

This caused the area enveloped by mist ahead to show a tendency towards Abyssalization, and many screams came from within the mist.

Frank, who hadn't yet recovered from the flash Bugs Bunny created, threw a handful of unknown seeds in the direction of the screams. These seeds rapidly grew and mutated in the air, dark red thorns wildly attacking the surrounding creatures.

The blue-white light in Leyton's eyes faded, replaced by mysterious purple phosphorescence. Leyton used Eyes of Mystery Prying to continuously scan the area around the deck, trying to find the Beyonders hidden in the crowd.

A strong gust of wind howled again, dispersing all the mist on the deck. The aura of death suddenly permeated everywhere, countering the defiled and Fallen aura brought by the previous Words of Defilement.

The vines that were once leaves, thrown by Frank, were very quickly scorched by black flames. At the same time, a layer of frost silently spread in front of Frank.

From somewhere on this ship, a large group of Undead surged out and began attacking Leyton and Frank.

Leyton extended his hand and scattered gray-black sunflower powder. After burning in mid-air, it emitted a strong but not irritating golden light. This light flowed like water in all directions. The surrounding Undead, upon contact with the golden light, had their "bodies" emit green smoke, finally evaporating and disappearing.

The Undead attacking Frank couldn't even get close. The hair and beard on Frank's body seemed to come alive, directly attacking the Undead. They carried a potent poison that even Undead feared; as soon as these Undead were touched, they sizzled and emitted black smoke.

"Slow," "Fallen," two Words of Defilement in quick succession.

The surrounding Undead's movements stiffened for a moment, then their bodies were covered in a slightly viscous black liquid, which then exploded, shattered, and transformed into Fallen black mist.

"Wooah~ These ghosts are so weak!" Bugs Bunny, observing the scene from the side, exclaimed.

Leyton was also somewhat puzzled. Although the number of these Undead was large, their quality was low, as if they were just pulled out to make up the numbers.

A sudden spiritual intuition warned him. Leyton followed his intuition and quickly retreated two steps. Several black flames exploded at the spot where Leyton had just been standing.

A Sailor's knife made of white bone suddenly rushed out from among a cluster of Undead behind him, stabbing directly towards Leyton's heart.

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