A very sturdy-looking wandering ship emerged from beneath the brilliant gold seawater. It flew the insignia of a red sun and a vortex—it was none other than Vortex Country’s Beheading Great Saber.

Several crewmen dressed as Samurai surrounded a lavishly dressed man, standing at the bow with grins on their faces.

"Takuma, we’re not too late, are we?"

"Your Highness, we’ve arrived just in time."

"This sea beast is still wreaking havoc. Tell me, how should we deal with it!"

"Your Highness, we’ll naturally kill it and do our part for the peace of the Endless Ocean."

"And if someone gets in our way?"

"Then we’ll get rid of them along with the sea beast."

The heavily injured sea beast was still struggling, but its spine was damaged, its body was riddled with internal injuries from the churning Ice Annihilation Power, and twelve thick chains from the Dream of Salmon were already embedded in its flesh. Its ferocity had dissipated; death was only a matter of time.

The Beheading Great Saber, however, paid no mind to any of this.

It was as if the sea beast before them was prey they had captured themselves.

"Wude, what is the meaning of this! This sea..." Chris began furiously, but didn’t finish.

Shi Ming simply waved his hand.

’No need to waste words.’

’Against unrepentant invaders like these, fists are the only real truth.’

He sized up the Golden Ship. It was crudely constructed, forged from refined steel, and also stained with a great deal of blood.

’Not bad, very sturdy. A custom-grade Golden Wandering Ship, built from the very beginning for slaughter. It combines the Vortex Country’s old-era military technology with their whaling experience—an absolute weapon of destruction, with abundant energy and immense power.’

Shi Ming wasn’t familiar with the internal structure of such a wandering ship. Naturally, he had no idea where its Energy Core was located.

’But it doesn’t matter. I’ll just take my time and find it.’

’Beheading Great Saber... an interesting name.’

’Beheading.’

CRACKLE, CRACKLE,

It was the sound of seawater freezing.

A tyrannical cold began to slowly freeze the entire sea region. The Beheading Great Saber’s turbines suddenly jammed in the solid ice, rendering it unable to move an inch. Everyone, from Wude to Chris and his crew, felt a chill even colder than that of the Zero-Degree Ice Sea!

For a moment, the cold was so intense their skin went numb!

"Insolent! How dare you attack this Prince!"

The pampered Prince Wude was about to use his B-rank skill and order the A-rank Awakened, Takuma, to kill the enemy. But from a distance, he suddenly sensed a murderous aura soaring into the sky.

The killing intent had solidified into substance!

!!!

In less than a second, a seven-to-eight-meter-long crimson blade of light arrived with an ear-piercing whistle!

The salty sea breeze carried the smell of rust from the Dream of Salmon, mingling with the lingering stench of blood over the water, making Wude feel as if he were walking on the edge of Hell!

’If that slash hits me, I’m dead!’

He mustered all his power as a B-rank Awakened and comically dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the abrupt slash!

However—

CRACK!

Tenfold power!

Although Wude had dodged the fatal blade of light, the crimson energy didn’t stop. With a shriek sharp enough to shatter eardrums, it slammed viciously into the bow of the Beheading Great Saber!

The Golden Ship had an extremely heavy tonnage, but it still shuddered violently under the force of the slash!

Then, before the disbelieving eyes of Wude and the several Samurai on board, the Beheading Great Saber’s thick, sturdy hull was violently sundered by an unimaginable force. Like steel cutting through rotten wood, the "head" of the Golden Ship was brutally cleaved open, splitting directly in two!

Shattered ice flew!

Seawater flooded the holds!

The severed bow crashed into the water, unleashing mountainous waves!

The tenfold-power blade of light sank into the sea and slowly dissipated. Everyone on the hunting ship felt a chill run down their spines. Their legs trembled, and a warm wetness spread through their trousers.

The ship’s red warning lights began to flash, BEEP BEEP BEEP, issuing a severe alert.

The main body of the beheaded ship lost its balance. Its center of gravity now unstable, it began to slowly capsize.

On the Dream of Salmon, Chris’s round eyes were wide with shock.

He felt as if he were in a dream.

’One slash...’

’To behead a Golden Ship?’

’The crew of the Dream of Salmon was even more terrified. The earlier hunt for the White Dragon Whale hadn’t even been his limit! The Beheading Great Saber, the pride of the whaling fleet, had been sliced in two like a block of tofu. Just what kind of Awakened had their captain hired?’

Used to a pampered life, the B-rank Awakened Wude had never witnessed such a scene. He lost his footing in the violent tremor and tumbled to the deck.

The A-rank Awakened, Takuma, was more worldly. Seeing the power of that slash, he knew his prince had picked a fight with the wrong person. Without a moment’s hesitation, he deftly launched a small boat from a honeycomb-like bay, jumped aboard, and fled.

He even activated his A-rank skill, "Shadowless Lightning"!

"Prince, I’m going to find Lord Quert!"

He didn’t take his Prince with him!

’Sometimes, when facing danger, you just need to run faster than your companion!’

With the Prince here, the enemy wouldn’t chase him, giving him a better chance of escape.

’It was a classic case of sacrificing the general to save the soldier!’

CRACK.

Shi Ming leaped onto the beheaded Beheading Great Saber. He unleashed his Ice Annihilation Power at full force, freezing the ship within a glacier and stopping it from capsizing. Along with it, Takuma’s small boat, which had just hit the water, was also firmly trapped in the ice.

He hadn’t found the Sailing Heart yet; naturally, he couldn’t just watch the ship sink.

Takuma knew a great battle was inevitable and launched a flanking attack with his Shadowless Lightning.

Shi Ming clad himself in ice armor, the greatsword in his hand glinting with a cold light!

"Kill him! Quickly, kill him! Whoever kills him, this Prince will reward handsomely! I’ll make him the Black Society’s General of the Sea Expedition!" Wude scrambled up from the deck, stumbled behind his Samurai, and used them as a human shield.

But seeing Shi Ming’s terrifying power, who would dare provoke this Evil Star?

"Right, Uncle! Uncle!"

Like a drowning man grasping at a straw, Wude grabbed the communicator on his belt.

It had long since frozen over and shut down.

Wude’s face turned waxen. He found his feet frozen to the deck again. A blade of ice had materialized at his abdomen, and blood gushed out, only to instantly freeze into red ice.

Shi Ming’s sword was already resting on his neck.

The frigid ice scraped against his face.

"Trash like you dares to plunder the seas? And you talk about doing your part for the peace of the Endless Ocean?"

"I don’t want to kill indiscriminately. Whoever finds this ship’s Energy Crystal Stone first, I’ll let them go."

Before Prince Wude could even speak, the Samurai had scattered like birds and beasts. The only A-rank Awakened on board, Takuma, understood the situation was lost. He gave up resisting and was the first to rush into the central control room. With a BANG, he smashed through the console and dug out a blue Crystal Stone, offering it as a sign of surrender.

There’s an old saying in the Dragon Country: Discretion is the better part of valor.

It was the smartest choice.

To avoid future retaliation, he even deliberately said—

"Here’s the Crystal Stone! Let our Prince go! He is the son of the Vortex Renhuang. Killing him will bring you endless trouble."

"Right, right, you can’t kill me."

"I was wrong, I shouldn’t have tried to plunder your ship! Let me go! I promise I won’t cause you any trouble!"

Wude’s voice became meek.

Suddenly, it turned high-pitched, as if he had seen a ray of hope!

"Uncle! Uncle! Save me! Kill him, kill him!"

Hm?

’Uncle?’

Shi Ming felt a barely-detectable fluctuation suddenly appear, just above and behind him.

BOOM!

With a thunderous crash, a massive figure descended from the sky, smashing right through the solid ice covering the wandering ship. Like a Divine Spirit, he appeared on the deck of the decapitated Beheading Great Saber!

He was a man in his forties, built like a Beast Fighter from Ancient Rome.

His body was sturdy, covered with scars that looked like they were from fire burns.

"Let him go!"

His deep voice carried a sense of authority and power.

Shi Ming smiled.

’What’s this?’

’I beat up the small one, and now the old one shows up. Is this going to be an endless family reunion?’

"See? You should have said something sooner."

Shi Ming tossed aside the corpse in his hand.

The unlucky prince from Vortex Country collapsed on the deck, no longer breathing.

The man’s expression turned extremely ugly.

...

...

...

On the Dream of Salmon, Chris watched the man descend from the sky, his face changing drastically.

He recognized this person!

It was Quert, who had appeared many times in the "Twelve Morningstar Chronicle"!

The captain of the General-class wandering ship, the Constantinople! An S-rank Awakened renowned as one of the top combatants in the European Sea Region! How could a figure like him be connected to this prince from Vortex Country!?

"Brother, S-rank! Be careful!"

Shi Ming already knew, of course.

The moment he appeared, the Eye of the World had given him a notification.

Seeing the powerful enemy arrive, Stone Pillar, back on the Dream of Salmon, knew exactly what to do. He, along with Chris, began to drag the near-dead, unresisting White Dragon Whale quickly away from the battlefield. Shi Ming, meanwhile, fixed his gaze on the enemy before him, a hint of genuine seriousness entering his eyes.

It wasn’t fear,

but the respect one gives an opponent of equal standing.

[Some people spend their whole lives trying to get to Rome, while others are born in Rome!]

[Quert, known as "Spartacus," Awakened at sixteen. For nearly thirty years, he has never known defeat in the European Sea Region. His worst result has been a draw. Perhaps today will be the same?]

[Possesses the S-rank skill, Invincible War God.]

[Rank: 50]

[Tsk tsk tsk, on what grounds does a mere rank 50 Awakened skill, not even as good as 2D Girl’s rank 39 "Person in the Painting," dare to call itself "Invincible War God"?]

[Can he truly never be defeated?]

[The Eye of the World is very curious about the answer to this question.]

[It hopes that Shi Ming can put it to the test. To that end, it will provide a little help.]

...

The Arm of Power was on cooldown.

But that didn’t matter.

Shi Ming took out a codex. It was the wondrous item he had confiscated from Mr. Shadow, the "Codex of All Nations."

[Gorinchis Scripture, Article 322 states!]

[Lottery probabilities must not only be publicized, but there must also be a pity system! After fourteen draws, the next draw will have a 100% chance of winning the grand prize!]

Laws can’t just be fabricated from thin air; they must be based on reality!

Then, he quickly awakened the Titan Bloodline within him!

An illusory clock appeared.

It looked like a lottery wheel.