I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 345 - 345 344. Dont fight_1

Chapter 345: 344. Don’t fight_1 Chapter 345: 344. Don’t fight_1 According to the sea chart, Lu Ban would need approximately five days to reach the end of the Qiushan Channel, where the distant and near seas meet. Beyond Qiushan Island lay a multitude of islands as numerous as hairs on a bull, with each island being home to many residents, starkly different from the desolate region he was in.

When Lu Ban was bored, he also looked for the location of Song Island on the sea and found it to be very far from his position, almost at the other end of the sea.

“I wonder what the current state of Song Island is?”

He mumbled to himself, glancing at Amber sitting opposite him.

The pirates’ diet wasn’t very good either; He Dao itself had no advanced storage techniques, with the majority of protein supply being dried fish, seabird meat, and the like. Vegetables were scarce, with seaweeds and such being the inexhaustible marine plants.

Alcohol was the most abundant.

But whether it was due to the lack of brewing skills on He Dao or the pirates’ clumsy manufacturing technique, the taste of these drinks was very light, like fruit juice.

At sea, water could sometimes spoil due to how it was stored. Unless it was a large ship with good logistics from an official fleet, many times, those adrift at sea would drink alcohol in place of water, since alcohol could be antiseptic and at least wouldn’t result in strange diseases.

“I don’t drink alcohol.”

Amber said.

“I heard that some shrine maidens would chew rice and then use the chewed rice to brew alcohol called kuchikamizake, is that true?”

Lu Ban asked curiously.

“???”

Amber was full of question marks.

“There’s no such custom!”

“It’s said that wine is made by young girls smashing grapes with their feet, relying on the microorganisms on their feet to ferment the juice,”

Lu Ban looked at the wine-like liquid in his cup and took a gulp.

“Can you really eat food like this?”

Amber felt that Lu Ban was really not treating himself like an outsider.

The Island’s admirable traditions were about being reserved and restrained. Even a man and a woman expressing love could not directly say ‘I like you’, but had to say ‘The moon is beautiful tonight’. Amber, who had been educated since childhood to be poised and wise, found Lu Ban’s casual approach to any topic to be speechless.

“Once, I went to an island where all the people had turned into monsters. Their food consisted of various kinds of flesh, tentacles, eyeballs, and rotten remains. At the time, to avoid exposing myself, I also ate those things.”

Lu Ban suddenly began to recount a story.

“And then?”

Amber was a bit curious and sympathetic.

“And then, everyone on the island was burned to death, and I escaped. I’m still alive today, and very healthy,”

Lu Ban said.

“So?”

Amber did not understand the meaning of Lu Ban’s story.

She tried to think if it was some kind of metaphor or hint, but ultimately gave up thinking about it.

“What I mean is, people are not as fragile as you imagine. In many cases, you are stronger than you realize.”

Lu Ban bit into a piece of fish jerky as hard as wood.

“Is that so…”

Amber reflected.

Indeed, in the past few days, she had experienced and done many things she had never encountered before, things she would have never thought herself capable of enduring.

“So, you could actually try kuchikamizake,” Lu Ban said seriously. “It might taste better than this grape wine made with someone’s feet.”

“…”

Amber felt a bit silly for being seriously angry.

Just then, a horn sounded from outside.

Lu Ban set down his food and stood at the window to look out.

Under the cover of night, two ships were engaged in battle.

Both ships appeared to be pirate vessels, with flags bearing skulls. However, the skull designs were different: one had two knives crossed below the skull, and the other had two knives vertical on either side.

The pirates had reached the phase of boarding combat, swinging on ropes to the opposing decks to fight fiercely, with the roar of cannon fire and the clashing of blades.

In these kinds of battles between pirates, it usually ended with one side surrendering when they could no longer fight. With each fight, the number of people on the ship increased, and sometimes those who surrendered would outnumber the original crew.

There was a sense of the Ship of Theseus.

Lu Ban had not planned to deal with these people; he was ready to make a quick escape.

But someone, out of nowhere, fired a cannonball that almost hit Lu Ban’s ship.

“?”

Lu Ban felt that fighting was not good and decided to stop them.

He raised his hand, ready with the “Testament” Speech Bullet.

The silent gunshot rang out, and the Speech Bullet struck the structural integrity of those pirate ships.

The next moment, the already battle-damaged ships disintegrated instantly.

The pirates, who had been quarreling, started falling into the water, desperately clinging to floating planks.

“What the hell is that!!?”

The pirates were completely bewildered by this sudden and intense attack, looking around before they noticed a ship not too far away.

Unlike normal ships, this pirate ship had no lights on and appeared pitch black.

Under the moonlight, there was no skull flag atop the mast, only a black flag.

At the bow of that ship stood a man.

Beside the man, there was a strange creature.

Behind the creature, there seemed to be a dwarfish captain.

“…Ghost Ship? It’s the Ghost Ship!”

The pirates quickly remembered the legends of the high seas, some ships that wandered into unnamed mists became ghost ships that aimlessly roamed the ocean, sinking any encountered vessel, killing all the sailors on board.

In an instant, the desire to continue fighting left both sides of the pirates.

Facing such an indescribable monster, being alive was fortunate enough!!!

“Run, hurry up and go!”

Both pirate ships were in shambles, but some smaller boats remained; on this calm night at sea, they could at least row to the island where their stronghold lay.

They began to swim hastily.

However, that pirate ship started moving towards them.

It moved quickly and without lowering sails; it seemed to be pushed by something, silently gliding over.

“No, no, no!”

The pirates became hysterical, struggling with each other, trying to flee from the ship.

At that moment, the ship suddenly came to a halt.

Without any inertia, the ship fixed in the ocean, bobbing with only the waves.

The once fierce pirates now hugged the floating planks in the water, their faces pale, staring blankly at the man at the bow.

He possessed a beauty that didn’t belong in this world, like a perfect creature sculpted by the gods, reminiscent of some immortal monster.

And the creature at his feet was like a dog, yet at that moment resembled some fierce and terrifying beast.

Even the woman behind them looked eerie and frightening, as if she had crawled out of Hell.

The man stood at the bow, glanced at the pirates in the water, and extended a finger.

“Only one can live?”

“No, please, have mercy on us!”

“I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!”

“To live just by killing the others, how cruel…”

The pirates babbled and clamored when Lu Ban, standing at the bow, spoke up.

“Do not fight, fighting is not good.”

“???”

The pirates fell silent for a moment, unclear whether this was a test or something else.

Then, without any warning, the ship turned its bow and sailed into the distance, never looking back.

The pirates exchanged looks, unsure of what to do.