Chapter 303 — The Pirate King's Ruins

As for where their pirate ship came from—Wormy had materialized it, of course. Likewise, their clothes in the pirates' style had all been materialized by Wormy and draped on temporarily. This was no illusion; what Wormy materialized was real, physical matter. As long as its power was not exhausted, it could exist forever—even outlasting the shelf life of genuine articles of the same kind.

"We're here."

The moment they set foot on the Scorching Isle, a cacophony of hawking voices surrounded them—some in Donghuang tongue, some in Seven Isles tongue, and some in gibberish native tongues from who-knew-where. As navy personnel, Xiao Qin and the others had received professional training and could understand and converse in all of these.

Shi Jin had even less trouble. His talent was telepathy—he could even understand panda speech, let alone the different languages of humans. With this telepathic talent, even if he went abroad in the future—to the Seven Isles, to Glory, to Tingxiang—he would be able to communicate with the locals without hindrance.

Hence, there were quite a few telepathic Beast Tamers serving as translators...

"Let's find a place to ask around first." Once on the island, Xiao Qin said helplessly.

They had come to join the environmental protection department—so how had they somehow wound up on a pirate ship, running off to explore ruins???

Was this the Marine Environmental Protection Department or the Marine Ruins Exploration Department?

But thinking of how Shi Jin was one of the Bureau of Eleven and remembering his identity as an archaeologist, she let it go. In short—what a sin.

"Yes, boss lady," Huang Qi and Qin Mingzhi responded from beside her, making Xiao Qin's mouth twitch again.

And truth be told, the scar on her face made her look more like a pirate than Shi Jin and the others did.

In fact, given Xiao Qin's status and position, finding a way to remove the scar would not have been difficult, but to commemorate her fallen beast, she chose to let the battle scar remain forever on the face that should have been youthful and lovely.

The Scorching Isle was not large.

But by now, all manner of wooden huts and stone houses had already been thrown up on the island.

Judging by the traces of construction, they had clearly been built with the power of pet beasts — wood-type skills and earth-type skills, for instance, combined into the combo skill "Civil Engineering."

Apart from the temporary structures visible everywhere, signs of battle lingered in many places. In a lawless place like this, accidental clashes were all too common; even if someone got killed, no one would bat an eye.

Shi Jin and the others had only just landed when, not far off, two bands of pirates started fighting it out. At the same time, another group of pirates, seeing how young they looked, came over to collect protection money.

"Hey, you lot — new here? Know the rules?" Three or five pirates, weapons tucked about their persons, swaggered over. Shi Jin raised his head slightly.

"Get lost." The moment the words left his mouth, a terrifying intimidation radiated from his pocket, like a thunderclap going off inside their skulls, and they dropped to the ground on their backsides, dazed.

Xiao Qin and the others did not spare them another glance. Led by Xiao Qin, the group walked down the street and entered a huge wooden tavern that looked gaudy and garish.

Following Xiao Qin inside, they were met at once by the smell of liquor. The place was noisy and raucous — shouting, cursing, the clatter of drinking contests — all of it swirling endlessly through the smoke-filled tavern.

Watching Xiao Qin's practiced manner, Shi Jin muttered to himself, "An old hand at this, huh."

"This is the mark of a pirate crew that deals exclusively in intelligence." Beside him, Huang Qi and Qin Mingzhi, both well-traveled, explained to Shi Jin.

After the four of them entered the tavern, Xiao Qin walked up to the front desk.

Standing at the front desk was a female pirate whose face was even fiercer than Xiao Qin's, all slabs of muscle.

"Drinking?" she asked the newcomers directly.

"Drinking," Xiao Qin answered a moment later. But at the sound of her voice, the slab-faced female pirate froze.

She studied Xiao Qin's features carefully, then her eyes filled with disbelief.

"Hey." She then called a companion over to take her place and looked at Xiao Qin and the others. "Come with me."

This turn of events left Huang Qi and Qin Mingzhi a little baffled.

But Shi Jin had already caught on, a thoughtful look on his face.

After that, Shi Jin and the others were led by this woman into another room, and then down into an underground chamber with stone steps.

At that point, Xiao Qin said, "We're all on the same side."

The words had barely landed when Huang Qi and Qin Mingzhi were stunned.

Holy shit — the huge pirate crew in the Chaotic Sea that was forever selling intelligence, they were on the same side?

This bunch of undercover agents was something else.

"Xiao Qin, you — what are you doing here?!" Meanwhile, the female pirate was still staring at Xiao Qin in shock.

"Did you come because of the rumors about the Pirate King's ruins too?"

"Sister Shi, let's not get into that. What's the situation on the island right now?" Xiao Qin asked with a bitter smile.

The female pirate called Sister Shi pondered for a moment. "Nothing's happened, actually. We can't even tell yet whether the news is true or false."

"Still, quite a few vicious characters have gathered on this island. The most noteworthy are an Overlord-level snake-man from Yamata Island and an Overlord King Kong from Giant Ape Island — both have come here, and each is accompanied by human servants of no small strength."

"Two Overlords?" Xiao Qin was startled.

"That's right. Pirates being drawn here is one thing, but even Overlord-level alien races have been lured in. It's probably those human servants of theirs stirring things up behind the scenes again." Sister Shi spoke irritably.

"Two Overlords, huh..." Hearing the distribution of fighting power on the island, the Gem Cat yawned. A snake-man and a King Kong? They sounded slow-witted. If it wanted to run, they definitely wouldn't be able to catch it. Solid.

If there really was a legendary gem, one deft swipe and it would slip away clean. Who could stop it?

"This cat..." Sister Shi looked at the Gem Cat that had spoken.

"This..." Xiao Qin glanced at the Gem Cat and at Shi Jin and the others watching the show from the sidelines, then introduced them to Sister Shi:

"Huang and Qin, rising newcomers, both with Commander-level pet beasts. They're my subordinates."

Sister Shi was briefly stunned, then cast an admiring look at these two young hunks. Not bad! The Navy is growing stronger and stronger, and Master-level beast tamers are getting younger and younger.

She looked at Cen Yu. This one was even younger, looking not even twenty — surely he wasn't a Master-level beast tamer too?

Thereupon, Xiao Qin looked at Cen Yu and said, "This one is my new superior."

Sister Shi: ???

Sister Shi's mouth fell slightly open. What?

Wasn't Xiao Qin Admiral Xiao's daughter, a top-tier Master not yet thirty, once the Navy's super genius? How, how the hell did she suddenly have a superior around twenty years old??

What on earth was going on?

At this, Shi Jin narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Not even a scrap of news about the ruins?"

"No, not a trace. We can't even determine where the rumor first spread from." Sister Shi was briefly startled, then answered at once.

Hearing this, Shi Jin looked toward the Gem Cat and shrugged.

The meaning is, you see.

Nine times out of ten, it's just a rumor.

The Gem Cat stubbornly puffed out its cheeks.

It suspected that Shi Jin was targeting it!

No Legendary Gem, no Pirate King ruins — what good does that do you!

It's obvious you want to explore them yourself too.