Chapter 873: Betrayal
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In this Great Voyage World, the human race had never been the master.
In other words, the human race had never managed to conquer the entire world, whereas the goblins had.
Although evidence of their existence had mostly vanished in the river of history, there were still some remaining—such as those buildings outside.
However, those buildings only had aesthetic value and little practical value compared to the research institute.
To be seen as a research institute, it should at least contain some useful information or resources from the past, such that one could infer how prosperous the ancient Goblin Empire had been.
It was said that the reason why Ettoman could develop their Ironclad Navy in a very short period of time was due to their discovery of a steam research institute constructed by the ancient Goblin Empire.
Looking at what Fang Yuan had discovered, it was much more astonishing. Not only was its scale huge, but it even had some metal guards left. Although it was unknown whether the Soro Pirates had reactivated the metal guards, it was still surprising enough.
“What a pity… Even though the full set of ironclad technology is here, it’s still useless. It takes too long for a completely different industrial system to catch up to this technological level…”
Fang Yuan shook his head indifferently.
Most important to him were things that he could provide him with immediate power—for example, Sun.
” Roar! Roar! ”
The metal beasts’ eyes flashed red. They roared and leaped forward.
“Block them!” Butcher shouted as he rushed to the front.
Having been shot by the aboriginals’ darts and seeing that incident as a disgrace, he urgently needed to do something to release his rage.
Suddenly, a few water streams appeared on his skin, and his body grew larger as blue scales emerged and covered his skin.
Dang!
He waved his giant saber, stopping one metal guard immediately.
“Ovation of the Seas!”
A few Ocean Warlocks combined their powers and activated the rings of blue light on their bodies.
The water in the river suddenly boiled and split, forming a giant blue whale that opened its mouth to swallow a few metal guards.
“KDPNGIL!”
The last three remaining goblin guards, who were faster than the ordinary guards, mumbled in the goblin language and made their way toward Fang Yuan.
“Bind!”
Fang Yuan opened up his hands and released spider net-like blue strings from his fingers that then fell on one of the goblin puppets.
Bang! Bang!
The goblin puppet hit by the blue string turned its head forcefully and attacked another goblin puppet.
“Your Excellency, I’ll leave the last one to you!” Fang Yuan said to Blackbeard.
He backed far away, leaving enough room for Blackbeard to deal with the last remaining goblin guard.
What a sly asshole! Blackbeard gritted his teeth in anger and surprise. This Arcane Trickster is too cunning. I need to be more careful next time.
Of course, he was not scared at all. After all, he had been the pirate governor of the Nightmare Ocean and was one of the strongest pirates.
He drew a thin rapier and dashed at the goblin puppet, leaving a hole smaller than his pinky on its chest.
Whoo! Whoo!
Almost immediately, a circle of black smoke rose from the puppet’s body, and the puppet became paralyzed.
Obviously, Blackbeard had struck its energy source in that stab.
Bang! Bang!
At the same time, the puppet Fang Yuan was controlling broke down along with the other one.
“Era of Ice!”
The Ocean Warlocks attacked with all their energy. An extremely cold gale blew through, and several ice statues glowing with blue light appeared.
“It seems that those metal guards were just flawed gadgets of the Goblin Empire!” Blackbeard walked forward and kicked the paralyzed goblin statue. “Maybe the Soro Pirates reactivated them to defend against pirates. However, they’re only useful against ordinary pirates. Against us… heh.”
He suddenly stopped speaking.
Fang Yuan had accidentally activated some mechanism while he was examining and touching a metal wall.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Lamps lit up one after another, making the surroundings as bright as day.
The whole place became clearer. It looked like they were in an immense karst cave, only its walls were much smoother and covered with metal.
The strings of light suspended all around, shining brightly onto a conspicuous object.
There was an enormous steel warship!
The black steel warship occupied more than half of the space inside the mountain, oppressing everything around it.
” Sss …”
Almost all the pirates took a deep breath of cold air.
Usually, the longest ordinary warship was one hundred meters. An ironclad, which was considered very large, was usually around one to two hundred meters long.
However, this warship was at least three hundred meters long. It was undoubtedly the largest warship in the world.
Most importantly, this warship looked simple and classy. It was made of some special dull-colored metal, and there was not a single trace of rust on it after so long.
“It seems like this is the ancient magic warship ‘Sun’!” Fang Yuan exhaled. “I wonder how they moved such a big ship inside!”
The river outside was at most two meters wide, and the entrance was tiny. No one would think that the warship was moved in from that path.
“Since Sun is here, it means that the Soro Pirates’ treasures must be on it!”
Blackbeard’s eyes were filled with excitement. He walked closer to Sun and climbed up swiftly.
It was hard to tell what this warship was made of, and the ship’s deck was densely packed with cannons that were so thick that they could contain human bodies inside, making their scalps numb from the sight of them.
“Is there any other clue on the treasure map to direct us from here?” Blackbeard asked as he saw Fang Yuan coming up.
“Let me see…”
Fang Yuan took out the treasure map.
At this time, all the original sea routes on the map had disappeared, and a brand new route had appeared.
At the end of the route, there was the symbol of a key.
“Sun’s key! The core—”
Swoosh!
Before Fang Yuan’s voice fell, Blackbeard transformed into lightning, dashed over, and grabbed for the treasure map.
“Blackbeard!”
Fang Yuan seemed prepared for Blackbeard’s sudden attack. He instantly withdrew his right hand, and the treasure map disappeared.
However, Blackbeard did not slow down and went straight into the cabin.
“From now on, Blackbeard is our enemy…”
Fang Yuan released a deep breath. He had already predicted Blackbeard’s betrayal.
Although Blackbeard was a famous pirate governor and had made a promise, his actions in recent days were indeed slightly abnormal.
Keeping promises and obeying rules were nothing to pirates.
Thus, Blackbeard’s purpose for sticking around, although he had shown no interest in it previously, was to obtain the Soro Pirates’ treasures, especially Sun.
How could a legendary pirate not have his own flagship?
If Blackbeard was able to get all those treasures, he would definitely have the power to rise again.
Therefore, for the past few days, he had just been acting in front of Fang Yuan and hiding his true purpose.
Finally, his true purpose was exposed.
“Speaking of which, Blackbeard used to have a piece of the treasure map, so it’s reasonable that he’s done some research in advance…”
Fang Yuan waved his hand. “After him!”
To Blackbeard, this was his only chance. However, to Fang Yuan, this was just a normal adventure. The two were simply incomparable.
Furthermore, the fact that Blackbeard had rushed into the cabin recklessly after seeing the treasure map made Fang Yuan’s life so much easier.
After all, it was not easy to find a pirate as powerful as Blackbeard to help him clear the path in such a dangerous place.
“He thought what he saw just now was everything, but too bad for him… Everyone, follow me!”
Fang Yuan chuckled lightly and walked into the cabin.
Surprisingly, traces of light shone on the treasure map, and more information appeared.
…
With the map on him and Blackbeard helping to clear the path, Fang Yuan moved forward effortlessly.
He even saw a few broken guards occasionally. Blackbeard had evidently ripped them apart.
At this time, Blackbeard’s only hope to survive was to get the key to Sun and become its owner as soon as possible.
Otherwise, even if he could escape from them on land, he would still not be an opponent for Specter Ship at sea.
Thus, Blackbeard went all out this time.
” Tsk tsk … Unexpectedly, besides being proficient in black magic, he also has outstanding fencing skills…”
Fang Yuan was very confident that he could easily defeat Blackbeard, and he even purposely slowed down.
The guards in Sun were mostly metal machines and not difficult to deal with. They were, at most, a small challenge left by predecessors.
” Tsk tsk … Blackbeard seems to have destroyed this special track. Be careful, everyone!
“How could such a thick metal door be directly broken? He must have used either a forbidden technique or some consumable…
“Look at that cutting pattern. It should be some type of laser trap. Blackbeard is indeed very powerful!”
…
The more marks he left on his way, the clearer Blackbeard’s strength was to Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan gathered all the information from these marks and obtained a fuller picture of him.
Finally, after walking through a sci-fi-esque gate, Fang Yuan and the rest reached the core power room of Sun.
Inside the power room, Blackbeard stared at the silver key floating in a pillar of light greedily.
“The key to controlling Sun!” His hands reached out. “As long as I can take control of Sun and its powerful cannons, nothing will be able to stop me!”
“Blackbeard, you traitor!” Fang Yuan shouted.
“Only an idiot would believe the promise of a pirate!” Blackbeard said proudly, though he looked dirty and sloppy. Without pausing for even a single second, his hands kept moving toward the pillar of light.