Sir! Don't close the net!

Jones had just opened his mouth when Heidi's voice rang out from behind them.

"it's out of the question."

The tightly closed doors to the captain's cabin slowly opened.

“Levi’s Est. Richard, come in.”

Chapter Forty-Five: Scales and Curse

What does it mean when a woman invites a man into her room?

This signifies a breakthrough in a relationship.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Li Yili's forehead. Given his personality, even if the other party were Heidi Serra, he would have happily shouted "Go!" and jumped in. But just now, Jones scrambled out, and because he was in such a hurry, he ended up rolling down the second half of the way.

He wasn't nervous or scared at first; in fact, he was quite looking forward to it. But Jones's actions made him afraid. Since he didn't know what he was afraid of, he suddenly felt terrified.

Come on! You pirates! Can't you be a little more lustful?! Your boss is so beautiful, with such a great figure! You should at least have some ideas about her, right?! Damn it! Why are you running away?!

Undeterred, Li Yili turned and leaned against the railing, looking down at the other pirates on deck. If even the slightest hint of envy appeared in one of their eyes, he would immediately cheer and rush into the captain's cabin.

The moment their eyes met his, all the pirates turned their faces away, and some even started shouting and betting dice as if they were feeling guilty.

Good heavens!!!

Don't Have

The captain's cabin door remained open, utterly silent, without any prompting.

Li Yili swallowed hard, reaching into his backpack with his right hand as if he wanted a bottle of rum to bolster his courage, but his fingers were completely immobilized, as if they were caught in a spider web.

Li Yili's heart skipped a beat. She looked down and, sure enough, his silver hair completely covered his backpack.

Trying to muster courage failed.

Li Yili lowered her head and cautiously crept to the front of the captain's cabin. Just as she was about to peek out to greet them, she felt a tremendous force strike her, and she fell forward onto the floor of the captain's cabin. As soon as Li Yili raised her head, she met Heidi Sera's eyes, and the door to the captain's cabin behind her slammed shut with a bang.

"Haha—Miss Heidi, is there something you need?" Li Yili laughed awkwardly twice, quickly stood up, whistling as she pretended to be carefree as she looked around at the captain's cabin.

The unexpectedly delicate style made Li Yili sigh. Pirate Empress Heidi Sera was a woman, unlike those rough men outside who could lie down on the deck and sleep soundly. For a moment, he thought he had entered the legendary Dragon Palace.

Li Yili tilted her head and looked at the map behind the coral seat, which almost occupied the entire wall and had dense stitching marks.

Li Yili nodded subconsciously. He really liked this style of map and would like to collect one if possible. However, this map looked unusual, and he wouldn't be so tactless as to ask Heidi if he could have one.

Heidi took a step back and pulled down the zipper of her red jacket with her right hand.

The unexpected turn of events left Li Yili stunned. She watched as Heidi took off her red jacket and began to undress. It wasn't until her pearly white skin caught Li Yili's eye that she reacted. With a righteous expression, Li Yili stepped forward to stop Heidi, but she was too late. Heidi had already pulled her clothes down to the side.

Li Yili paused, his pupils contracting sharply. What was exposed to him was not fair, jade-like skin, but dense, iridescent scales. It was so natural and absurd that Li Yili had the illusion that Heidi's shoulders, which were not covered by scales, had some kind of skin disease.

Do you understand?

Heidi lowered her eyelids slightly, gave a self-deprecating laugh, and was about to pull her clothes up when Li Yili darted over, pressing her left hand on Heidi's shoulder and running her right index finger along the iridescent scales.

A strange, tingling sensation made Heidi shudder and almost cry out. Feeling ashamed, Heidi gritted her teeth, clutching her clothes to her chest, and glared fiercely at Li Yili. "Don't you want your fingers anymore?"

"want to."

Li Yili answered quite honestly, pointing her right index finger upwards at the tip of a scale.

The faint tingling sensation made Heidi involuntarily clench her fingers, her legs shifting nervously. To avoid Li Yili discovering her embarrassing behavior, Heidi took a deep breath and sneered, "Then why are you hissing—"

"Wow—it really came off!" Li Yili exclaimed, pinching the scales with disbelief on her face.

Heidi's forehead veins bulged, and her long silver hair silently spread throughout the captain's cabin, reaching behind Li Yili, opening its mouth like a giant shark preparing to strangle its prey.

"This is... the curse they were talking about?"

Li Yili tossed the scales up and caught them in her palm. Her clear eyes, devoid of any disgust, silenced Heidi, and the hair that was almost touching Li Yili's neck began to droop down little by little.

"Don't say anything like you think it's beautiful," Heidi said expressionlessly, turning around and pulling her clothes up.

"No, no, no—it's disgusting."

Li Yili raised her hand and waved with clear eyes.

"boom--"

"Wow—what a commotion!" A pirate looked up towards the captain's cabin, then immediately ducked back down, nudging Jones, who was shaking dice, with his elbow. "What do we do? Boss, did you accidentally throw Mr. Li Yili away?"

"So what if we've been exposed? We're pirates!" Jones sneered.

“But if the boss blew up Mr. Li Yili, then you’ll be the one being bribed by Mr. Li Yili next,” the pirate said earnestly, poking the rum bottle protruding from Jones’s chest with his finger.

Jones's lips twitched violently. "What's there to be afraid of! I think Mr. Li Yili is quite a good match for the boss, cough—it's nothing, it's nothing."

Heidi narrowed her eyes slightly and lifted Li Yili's neck with her right hand, making Li Yili, who was trying to stand on tiptoe, completely lift her feet off the ground.

"Cough cough cough—Miss Heidi, I have something to say—" Li Yili coughed a few times.

"Beg for mercy?" Heidi stared intently into Li Yili's eyes.

"No, although it's a bit cheesy, Miss Heidi, you've exposed yourself."

Li Yili's eyes are very clear, as clear as a mirror, from which you can see many things.

Heidi's pupils dilated violently, but she still gripped Li Yili's neck tightly, seemingly indifferent to everything, though her long silver hair had already wrapped around her neck in circles.

“Miss Heidi, I must first make one thing clear,” Li Yili sighed with regret, her tightly clenched fist loosened, and her index and middle fingers were raised, revealing the iridescent scales between them. “But looking at these scales, in terms of color and shape, I would call them works of art, but they should not grow on a human body.”

"This is... a curse..."

Heidi loosened her fingers, turned around and buttoned up her clothes, her gaze fixed intently on the map on the wall, which had many stitches.

"A curse upon us who venture into the ocean and enjoy freedom."

Chapter 46 So you'd rather your world only be this big?

The ocean is mysterious and terrifying, and curses are a derivative of this temple and terror. No matter which film or television work, curses seem to be a standard feature of the ocean: ghost fleets, giant octopuses, maddening melodies, and cities hidden in the deep sea where humans cannot reach.

and also……

Li Yili held the rainbow-colored scale in her hand and looked at Heidi, who was already dressed and had her back to him.

Abnormalities in the body.

Such physical mutations are actually the most common curses in the ocean: what one gets infected while breaking into someone's tomb, what treasure one shouldn't take, or which wizard's stall one smashes while looting a harbor.

Because pirates are free to do whatever they want, it's not surprising that they get into trouble.

“Freedom? This is the most precious treasure in the world,” Li Yili tossed the iridescent scales in her hand. “You found this treasure in the Sea of ​​the Dead… no, you found it in the ocean, but you were cursed because of it. That’s why the ordinary crew members turned into that, and you, as a chosen one of the gods, grew these scales.”

"If you understand..."

"Hmm, so what? Now that you know the high price of freedom, do you think that by staying in this Dead Sea and letting Austin and the others exploit you, you can give back the freedom you've gained? Do you think you can make those guys outside go back to what they were before?"

Heidi was silent for a moment, then her shoulders slumped. "I have to take responsibility for how they've become like this."

"Oh--"

Heidi took a deep breath. As a chosen one of the gods, she tried to control her emotions, making her heart as calm and easy as the surface of water, just like controlling her own fingers. But this was already the umpteenth time she had lost control of her emotions in front of Li Yili.

"You are provoking my pride, Heidi Serra."

"Since it's already been trampled on countless times, what's wrong with me trampling on it one more time?"

Faced with Heidi's undisguised threatening gaze, Li Yili decisively swung her hand, put her hands behind her back, and walked briskly along the wall of the captain's cabin, completely unfazed by the increasingly sharp aura emanating from Heidi.

“You didn’t care about being trampled on so many times by Austin and his gang, but now you start emphasizing your pride when it comes to me,” Li Yili paused, stopping in front of a piece of sharkskin pinned to the wall by a dagger, and turned to look at Heidi. “Is it because I touched a nerve? If you don’t want to admit it, you’d better control your emotions—”

Li Yili raised her finger and pressed it against the silver hair in front of her, which was woven like the fangs of a giant beast. A drop of blood appeared on Li Yili's fingertip, but Li Yili seemed not to feel anything. She continued to move her finger forward, and all the silver hair scattered and fell like fine sand, slowly gathering back together.

Li Yili's expression remained unchanged, but she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Human skin has a certain degree of toughness and cannot be easily pierced, but he just poked it and his finger was pierced. If he continued to press it, his finger would most likely have another hole.

Seeing Li Yili rubbing her fingers nonchalantly, Heidi was furious. But she knew very well that the reason she was so angry was just as Li Yili had said: she had been hit where it hurt.

"What is your purpose?" Heidi exhaled and crossed her arms.

"Although Austin and Josephine, the two local bullies, are fighting, the situation that the Sheep Village Logistics Minister faces in the Dead Sea has not changed. If the Sheep Village Logistics Minister can get the help of the pirates, he can freely scout and measure the situation in the Dead Sea, and the Underwater Paradise Project can take an important step forward."

Li Yili raised her hand and pointed at Heidi.

"If the pirate leader, Haidy Sera, is willingly exploited by Austin and has to be careful in everything she does, then the Sheep Village Logistics Minister's underwater paradise plan will have to die in the womb. So whether it's trying to get close to her or provoking her, we must split Austin and the pirates."

“Hmm, that makes sense,” Heidi raised an eyebrow slightly. “And what about Levi Esther Richard?”

"For Li Yili—"

Li Yili pointed at Heidi and shook it from side to side.

"Damn it, they're clearly a bunch of pirates, all they do is sit there listlessly wiping the deck, wiping, wiping, wiping the windows. If they're scared, they shouldn't be pirates, they should go work. If they're not scared, they should be more arrogant. These half-baked guys are just annoying."

"And another thing, aren't you the Pirate Queen? Even the Crusade wouldn't dare mess with you at sea, so how come you got eaten alive by that pig Austin?"

Li Yili waved her hand at Heidi with a look of disgust.

He could understand why Dela Pal was too afraid to talk back to El, since Dela Pal was out of control as a chosen one of the gods and had the Black Goat pressing down on his head, so he could only endure it.

But Heidi, as a chosen one of the gods, was in a very stable mental state and was also the Pirate Emperor, yet she still managed to reach such a frustrating agreement with Instas.

Li Yili couldn't understand it.

Heidi's lips twitched slightly.

She had expected Li Yili to be very direct, but she hadn't anticipated that Li Yili would be this straightforward.

Even if you say that…

"For the crew"

"In that state, you wouldn't continue to challenge the ocean, right? The curse of watching your crew turn to that state while enjoying freedom is something you can't bear," Li Yili turned and patted the map on the wall, covered in various stitching marks and notes. "So you'd rather your world only be this big."

Heidi's fingers, which were clasped in front of her, tightened slightly, but she remained silent.

"As a result, even if they obtain the power of the ancient gods and are baptized by the knowledge of the unknown world, the chosen ones are no different from ordinary people," Li Yili sighed, resting her hand on her waist.

"If you understand..."

Heidi turned and pushed open the door to the captain's cabin.

“But I don’t think the changes that have occurred in you are a curse,” Li Yili raised an eyebrow slightly.

"boom--"

The captain's cabin door was slammed shut, and the pirates, who had been curious about what Li Yili and Heidi were doing, immediately started shouting and shaking dice to cover up their attempt to eavesdrop.