Chapter 118: Cemetery
In the end, after continuously defeating twenty-one people and winning twenty thousand Belly, no one in the tavern dared to step forward and challenge Aoxi anymore.
Even though in the last few matches Aoxi deliberately held back, putting on a show of running out of stamina, she still couldn’t hook any more fools.
Moreover, the intelligence about Sky Island was also…
These people clearly knew some things, but they hemmed and hawed and refused to speak.
To the point that she even resorted to soul gaze in the end, yet they still didn’t budge, as if saying it out would cause them to lose something important.
No choice, Aoxi could only finally take out a few coins, pay the bill, and leave.
……
“How did it go? Did you learn anything?”
At night, in the cabin, the Beasts Pirates crew gathered around a table to sort through the intelligence collected during the day.
“No gains. As soon as I mentioned ‘Sky Island’, the people in town looked at me like I was an idiot.”
Obei said helplessly. After receiving white eyes all day, her mood was clearly not good right now. In fact, she had already couldn’t help punching several smooth-talking pirates during the day.
“Same for me.” Wright adjusted his glasses.
“Those elders in town either shut up about ‘Sky Island’ or insisted that the place doesn’t exist.”
“Hmm…”
Jhin held his arms crossed, saying nothing.
Due to his special identity, he still hadn’t left the cabin today.
“Aoxi, what about you?”
“Same here. Those guys had ideas in their minds, but their mouths were zipped shut, not willing to say a single word.”
Aoxi had a string of cherries in her mouth right now, trying to tie a knot on the stem with her tongue.
This town seemed particularly suitable for growing cherries due to the climate, and the cherries sold in the market were all big and sweet.
“Ah~ Success.”
With a slight bite of her silver teeth, Aoxi took out the cherry stem tied into a bowknot on her tongue tip, then tossed the remaining cherries into her mouth.
“reoreoreoreo~”
Jhin rolled his eyes at the other’s playful actions and helplessly continued to instruct:
“Let’s keep going to the town for the next couple of days. If we really can’t gather any useful information, we’ll try the method in that log.”
……
You ask why not try the method in the navigational log from the start, instead of going far to ask around town?
In fact, the navigational log that Wright picked up did describe how to go to the Golden Land, but it was quite vague.
The fleet to which the log’s owner belonged wasn’t an expedition team specially formed for treasure hunting. Their arrival at the legendary “Shandora” was completely an accident.
So what was recorded in the log wasn’t a specific reliable method at all, but merely the process of how they were swept to “Shandora”.
【Near Gaya Island, they were swept into the sky by a massive sea current, and there they saw an island floating in the sky.】
That was the entire description in the log about how to go to Sky Island.
As for how near “nearby” was, how many sea miles, in which direction?
What was the massive sea current? How big? Was it only once, or did it occur periodically?
Hmm?
None of these questions had answers!
Respond to me, oh magical navigational log mister! Why are you just staring?!
“Eh~ Guess that’s all we can do.”
Wright closed the magic… ah no, navigational log in front of him and sighed helplessly.
……
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night.
Fulaihai’er, who had lost the last thousand Belly on him, returned to his leaky home everywhere and sat directly on the floor.
The stools, tables, and even bed in the house had all been taken away, as payment for his medical fees from a while ago.
Since the other party could open a clinic in pirate-infested Magellan Town, they weren’t afraid of you not paying.
They had plenty of strength and means.
So almost everything valuable in Fulaihai’er’s home except the four walls and roof had been taken away and sold, exchanged for a few rolls of supreme bandages.
But fortunately, the other party didn’t go all the way; his eating tool, the big iron chain wrapped around his arm, wasn’t taken.
Maybe because this thing wasn’t worth much to begin with~
After gulping down several mouthfuls of cold water from a broken clay bowl, Fulaihai’er recalled how he had set out from his East Blue hometown full of ambition, forging ahead through hardships along the way to earn the title “Ground Demon”, then charging straight into the Grand Line…
Thinking of the bar tab he still owed the tavern boss plus those two coins, Fulaihai’er slapped the floor and got back up.
He now had almost nothing left: dreams, partners, treasure, future…
What remained was just a dazed walking corpse that mechanically lived day by day.
Leaving behind the creaking gate, he staggered along, somehow ending up at a remote bay on the east side of the island.
……
“Hmm? Fulaihai’er, why are you here?”
“Stuffed, came for a stroll.”
Shaking the cold water in his belly, Fulaihai’er said to the old pirate who asked.
“Strolling all the way here? I think you want to set sail again?”
The old pirate snorted, tapped his pipe, and turned his head away.
As the ‘gravekeeper’ here, he had seen too many people like Fulaihai’er.
Clearly determined to rot away on the island, but then after some stimulus one day, they act all revved up again.
He wouldn’t mock or interfere; after all, as soon as these people saw the “corpses” of their “partners” abandoned here, they’d obediently accept their fate.
“No such thing~”
Fulaihai’er gave a dry laugh, his gaze also falling on the bay behind the elder, as if searching for something.
And in his line of sight, countless ships of all sizes were crowded and floating in the bay.
These pirate ships varied in size and age, but without exception, they all gave a lifeless feeling.
Just like coffins abandoned on the sea surface!!!
This was the grave of ships, and also the grave of dreams.
“It’s there, the one on the far left in the back.”
“I said I have no plans to set sail again.”
He said that, but Fulaihai’er’s gaze still uncontrollably glanced toward the corner on the left of the bay.
There, a rundown pirate ship that seemed like it might fall apart any second was bobbing and floating on the sea surface.
The deck was full of dust and corrosion marks, and gray-green moss had grown in the cracked wooden seams.
The ropes binding the sails had come loose on one side, the remaining half-sail hung like rags, and the skull pattern on it was already blurred.
“This whole ship probably only has the keel and main mast still intact~”
The old pirate said casually.
For a ship, that was almost like only a skeleton left, soaking in the sea waiting to quietly decay one day…
“Is that so…”
Looking at his former partner in this state now, Fulaihai’er felt a bit stuffy in his heart; the spark that had just ignited seemed about to be extinguished by reality again.
『Eh… forget it.』
Under the old pirate’s ‘just as expected’ gaze, he slowly turned and left.
“By the way, what stimulus did you all get today? Why are you coming here one after another?”
“Eh?”
Fulaihai’er, who hadn’t walked far, suddenly stopped.
“Others came too?”
“Of course, with you it must be nearly twenty people. This place has never been this lively.”
“And them…”
“Same as you, took one look and left.”
“Is that so? I see…”
