This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 323: Outbreak

Chapter 323: Chapter 323: Outbreak

For Chen Ke, the squid-headed creature had just been the real trouble, but now he had a rare moment of leisure.

He leaned against the ship’s railing, watching the crew bustling about. The sailors lined up neatly and swiftly, passing buckets and basins to bail out the water from the lower holds.

Nathan and Conrad were on the bridge, now reduced to two and a half stories, trying to restart the Endurance.

Chen Ke’s current life countdown was 149 hours and 41 minutes. To compensate for the energy consumed by activating his Skill, he had crushed another soul to replenish himself.

However, he had secured enough souls from the Administration Bureau in the 2006 timeline—40 were left on hand, which should be sufficient.

Chen Ke activated a temporary scan of the ship’s hull and saw some people bailing water from below decks, while several others attempted to repair the leaks.

He wondered if they could fix it... it would be best if they could, as the ship was still within the forbidden sea zone with no signals. If they sank, no passing ships could possibly rescue them.

"Ah... what a tragedy..." Chen Ke heard a woman lamenting nearby.

He thought it was Laura and replied, "That’s life at sea for you..."

But then he felt something was wrong because he spotted Laura’s figure toward the stern of the ship, causing the hairs on his body to stand on end.

When Chen Ke glanced to his right, he saw a headless woman, holding her own head in her right hand, lamenting.

"Shit!" He was startled, instantly summoning his Fire-igniting Broadsword and swung it fiercely to the right.

The sword passed through the woman’s body, which turned into a cloud of dark blue mist and vanished into thin air before Chen Ke’s eyes.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, save for the sound of the waves—Chen Ke’s shout had been so abrupt that it drew the attention of everyone else on board.

It was incredibly awkward at that moment: he stood there with a sword in one hand, frozen mid-air as if venting at the empty space.

Yet, in this eerie place, Chen Ke was the only Spiritual Ability User. Whatever could scare him like this was definitely not a good sign.

Laura heard Chen Ke’s strange curse and hurried over to inquire about the cause.

"I just saw a woman..." Chen Ke whispered, putting away his sword.

"A woman?" Laura’s face darkened as she became alert and surveyed the surroundings.

"I’ve seen that woman in Conrad’s family photos in the captain’s quarters..." Chen Ke said.

"Captain’s quarters... you’re saying there’s another woman on this ship? I haven’t seen her...Could it be..." Laura exclaimed, imagining the worst.

"It’s not what you think... What I mean is, that woman has appeared in his family pictures... along with that little boy... Laura, I haven’t told you before, but Conrad, he is dangerous," said Chen Ke.

"I understand..." Laura grasped what Chen Ke meant.

Conrad had killed his own wife and daughter during a bout of PTSD, and the woman Chen Ke saw was the embodiment of his nightmare.

This sea could turn all nightmares into physical entities, and none of these entities could provide any loot for Chen Ke, be it souls, ferocity, or information.

Chen Ke had never fought such a losing battle; the troubles on this ship were simply depleting his resources.

"If the child was strangled, then his wife... must have had her head cut off..." Chen Ke murmured, stroking his chin. Compared to those creatures, Conrad seemed even more terrifying...

"Should we go and tell the crew... to be careful..." Laura asked softly.

Chen Ke glanced across the deck; the people below were still busy, and nothing unusual seemed to have happened yet. It looked like the woman had appeared for the first time.

"It’s fine below decks, let them focus on fixing the ship... We can’t save everyone," Chen Ke said.

His Spiritual Vision couldn’t see the physical entities made real by the sea, and he couldn’t patrol the entire ship. There was always going to be a first victim, and Chen Ke couldn’t guarantee everyone’s safety.

Backing up a bit... All these people were merciless smugglers of Holy Relics, and even if Chen Ke didn’t feel qualified to say they deserved to die, he wouldn’t be filled with compassion at the moment of their death.

He just wanted to get away from this sea as quickly as possible, get to Norton City, and find Wang Ailin—Sam, Louis, and Rama were still waiting for news.

"Wait a minute... Chen Ke... Do you fucking have X-ray vision?" Laura suddenly furrowed her brows and asked in a low voice.

"Huh...?" Chen Ke was stunned for a moment and looked at Laura.

"I just saw your eyes emit a blue light, and then you said everything was okay down there... Is that also a Transcendent skill?" Laura asked.

"That’s right..." Chen Ke honestly admitted.

Laura’s face showed disgust, and she covered her chest and lower body with her hands, frowning, "I finally understand what your unique method of warming up is... You’re really disgusting..."

Chen Ke immediately understood what she meant and shook his head, "What are you thinking... This Transcendent skill isn’t that useful; all I can see are blue outlines of lines."

"Who would believe that..." Laura said disdainfully.

"The day you gain Spiritual Energy, feel free to try it out, and then you’ll know if what I’m saying is true or not." Chen Ke spread his hands, not wanting to explain further.

"Fine... But until then, I reserve the right to keep suspecting you, and now I want to keep my distance from you..." Laura said with a smile, stepping back a few paces.

Chen Ke also laughed; they were all adults, and this was the United Federation.

The crew had been bailing water for some time, but the ship still hadn’t started moving. Chen Ke looked down again, and his expression suddenly froze.

The human-shaped outlines in the fish hold had all disappeared, and the people repairing the ship, he had no idea where they went. At that moment, chaos spread from the front of the queue to the deck.

"There’s something down there! Below!" a crew member who ran out of the hold shouted. He turned around and shut the door behind him, his face pale as if he had seen something ghastly.

Only four crew members remained, and they all stood on the deck. Those who had lined up to enter the fish hold, Chen Ke didn’t see their outlines; he figured they were probably all dead.

"Is it that woman?" Laura asked.

Chen Ke didn’t know; those four crew members had already surrounded him.

"Take it easy, what did you see?" Chen Ke asked.

"I didn’t see anything; the people below suddenly told me something was wrong! I turned and ran, feeling like something was chasing me from behind." the crew member replied, gasping for breath.

"What about the hole in the bottom of the ship? Is it fixed?" Chen Ke asked.

"Not sure, probably not fixed yet..." the crew member said in despair.

Chen Ke’s brow furrowed, and he turned to look at the sea, feeling as if the sea was targeting him.

Conrad and Nathan noticed what was happening below and quickly came down from the bridge to join Chen Ke. Chen Ke briefly recounted the situation.

"This is tricky, Chen Ke, we must fix the crack in the hull..." Conrad said.

"You don’t say, I had no idea... I sure don’t want to go back swimming in the sea again," Chen Ke sighed.

"Nathan and I will go check it out. Conrad, do you have .45 imitation Spiritual Bullets made by civilians?" Laura asked.

Nathan didn’t want to go down; he felt concerned upon hearing what Laura said.

"I only have this gun, but I’m not going to give it to you," Conrad shook his head.

"Conrad, now’s not the time to be stingy. We’re dealing with monsters, ordinary bullets are useless. Or, do you want to go down and take a look?" Laura said.

"I’m not going anywhere, nor will I give you the gun," Conrad smirked menacingly.

Chen Ke noticed something was amiss, this guy might be having another PTSD episode...