Chapter 248: Chapter 0248: Bursting Human Faces (Third update, bonus for 3000 subscriptions)
After awakening Douson, Liszt’s tense mood greatly eased. The phrase “man with his dog” might sound a bit offputting, but having Douson by his side really brought comfort.

“Woof, woof!”

Douson devoured the jerky in two bites and started barking again; it still couldn’t see its surroundings clearly, seeing only the misty fog all around. Liszt too couldn’t see the environment clearly; he could only infer his situation through the magic lines outlined by the Eye of Magic.

However, the Dou Qi Secret Technique of the Eye of Magic collapsed once when the Ghost Ship switched the real scene.

As a result, his eyes were still fatigued. Just after awakening Douson, he couldn’t persist and had to dispel the Eye of Magic. Once the Eye of Magic was dispersed, the boundaries between reality and illusion blurred once again, going round and round on the deck, unable to contact anyone else.

“What exactly is my current state?”

“How exactly does the Ghost Ship cause such effects, far beyond mere illusions?”

He tried to grope his way toward Paris’s location based on memory, but regrettably, after walking dozens of steps and crossing several holes in the deck, he still hadn’t reached Paris.

Only Douson was following behind him.

Since Douson had been awakened by the jerky, it didn’t fall back into delusions. Liszt firmly held the leash in his hand. Feeling that this wasn’t secure enough, he tied one end of the leash to the belt of his pants to prevent himself from letting go of Douson’s leash if he fell into delusion again.

Maybe it was because he had been nervous too many times, but now, although the situation was unknown, he seemed to have adapted to it, and his mind had returned to its calmest state.

“A dragon’s magic power infects the surroundings, producing treasure; an elf’s magic power affects crops, making plants thrive; Douson’s magic can create rocks, and my Dou Qi can burn detached from my body. All these things show that magic power exists, not only can it create out of nothing, but it also has unbelievable effects.”

He looked closely at the rolling mist around him.

He felt that he was touching the essence of what was happening with the Ghost Ship, “So essentially, this Ghost Ship belonging to Marquis Cohen is also a display of magic power? To say it’s illusory, it sure is illusory, because it’s just made up of magic power; to say it’s real, it certainly is real, because magic power can affect reality.”

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this conjecture was correct.

But it seemed that knowing the principle was of no use; those who were trapped on the Ghost Ship were still trapped.

“I should wait for my eyes’ fatigue to ease, then cast the Eye of Magic again. Without the Eye of Magic within the bounds of the Ghost Ship, I can hardly move an inch!”

The recent collapse of the Eye of Magic made him feel as if he was suffering backlash, causing his eyes to fatigue. Ever since he had completely mastered the Eye of Magic, he had been able to perform the Dou Qi Secret Technique continuously without experiencing fatigue.

As he circulated his Dou Qi to recover from the eye fatigue, he sighed silently, “I hope not everyone is dead.”

They were supposed to go to Red Crab Island for a joyful festival, and perhaps obtain some good things from Marquis Merlin, but they encountered the almost impossible Ghost Ship.

Such rotten luck.

Anxiousness won’t make hot tofu cook faster.

He didn’t immediately cast the Eye of Magic, still waiting for his eyes to recover from fatigue. After a while, with continuous restoration from his Dou Qi, his eyes became spirited again, with not a hint of fatigue.

“That’s more like it!”

In an instant, he cast the Eye of Magic, and the vision shrouded in mist changed once more. The outlines of the ship and the shadows of people drawn by magic reappeared. Comparing his memory, he first found Li Vera trembling, being chased in circles by an Apprentice Knight.

Bang! Thud!

Liszt kicked the Apprentice Knight away and then grabbed Li Vera, “Wake up, Li Vera!”

Splash! Splash!

Slapping her own face twice, Li Vera still didn’t wake up.

Having no other choice, Liszt directly dragged her and stuffed her into a cabin of the ghost ship… Without anyone to chop at her, he let her cause a commotion in the cabin first.

After rescuing Li Vera, Liszt didn’t stop for a moment and, with quite an effort alongside Douson, captured Levis, dragging him into a cabin as well.

The groggy Levis couldn’t muster the combat strength of an Elite Earth Knight.

With his brother and sister rescued, he planned to drag Paris into a cabin next. But Paris was far more skillful than the others, and despite Liszt and Douson throwing punches at her, they still couldn’t restrain her, and she even showed signs of transforming. Seeing this, Liszt simply left her be.

With her combat strength, she probably had no equal on this ship.

“To wake these people, we’ll probably have to deal with the ghost ship!” For Liszt, who possesses the Eye of Magic, a ghost ship without phantoms posed no threat.

“Come on, Douson, to the place with the brightest magic power!”

Leading Douson, they headed straight for the place where the magic power of the ghost ship was most concentrated. This ghost ship, with its green magic power, formed vague outlines, among which were three distinct centers of magic concentration.

One was at the top of the mast with the Goat Head Flag, where magic flames blazed fiercely.

Another was at the bow, where the figurehead was a depiction of the Sapphire Dragon. People from the Duchy of Sapphire believed that the Sapphire Dragon could suppress all the sea monsters of the Sea of Azure Waves and protect the safety of the sailors. Only now, with green flames burning on the figurehead, it looked less like a dragon and more like a bat.

The last, and also Liszt’s intended destination, was in the middle of the ship’s cabin.

While not as powerful as the Goat Head Flag or the Dragon Bow Figurehead, it seemed like the heart of the entire ghost ship, with every trace of magic power outlining the ship starting from there.

“Woof woof!”

Douson’s massive body struggled to follow Liszt, moving through the decaying wood towards the middle of the cabin. The creaking sounds below their feet kept coming, as if the wooden planks could snap underfoot at any moment—Douson really shouldn’t have been brought down here, as the cabins and passages below were too narrow.

It wasn’t suitable for Douson to move freely, but with Douson by his side, Liszt felt bold enough to walk alone on the eerie and terrifying ghost ship.

“We’re almost there!”

A few more steps and they would reach the cabin chamber where the magic radiance was most vibrant. But at that moment, the previously silent ghost ship, where only the sound of wooden planks was heard, suddenly echoed with a faint whisper.

Unclear.

But Liszt was certain he wasn’t having auditory hallucinations since Douson, too, pricked up its ears, looking in the direction from which the voice came: “Woof, woof!”

“Douson, hush!” Liszt calmed Douson.

He listened intently.

The voices were intermittent but were indeed coming through, vague and incoherent, only catching a few disjointed words: “Chase… death… Andite… loyalty… Mom… home… magic… save… Curtis… madman… no…”

And these words were obviously not spoken by one person; it was a group of people shouting in disorder.

“Andite? Curtis? They sound like two names.” As Liszt muttered these names to himself, suddenly, on the wall outlined by magic in front of him, a ghostly pale face appeared.

The face seemed to be shouting at Liszt, or just shouting to itself: “No!”

This unexpected sight startled Liszt so much he instinctively swung his sword, plunging the Crimson Blood Sword into the face, the Fire Attribute Dou Qi exploding and shattering the magic shaping the face.

The face vanished, and the shouting stopped.

Withdrawing the Crimson Blood Sword, Liszt’s face was cold: “Come on, Douson, let’s see what’s playing tricks and conjuring a bunch of low-grade phantoms!”