Captain – Chapter 680 – Like Tide, Like Flow

All of them… deceived?

Hearing these words, the officer couldn’t help but freeze slightly, unable to understand the hidden meaning for a moment.

“That’s right, our past victories, the intelligence we exchanged with countless lives…”

Seeing this, the young man spoke again. He withdrew his gaze and came to the side rail, gripping it as he looked toward the ghostly ship, saying: “In reality, it was all what it wanted us to see.”

“What it made us firmly believe.”

At this point, the words were quite clear.

Though the other generals looked grave, their eyes still showed confusion and displeasure, not fully understanding. Only the officer who had personally experienced everything gained some enlightenment.

And when he recalled these twelve years of hunts—sometimes smooth, sometimes difficult, but ultimately all failures, especially those few times they came closest to success—his expression gradually changed, his slightly trembling pupils filled with disbelief.

But thinking of His Highness’s earlier reasoning, he still believed it.

Because the Crown Prince was never wrong.

This statement had no logic, yet it was the common thought of the officer and all the generals and soldiers—the reason they followed him to this day, nearly approaching faith.

And among all these people, only the officer himself, and perhaps that Eunuch Qin, understood this statement not merely as absolute loyalty.

But truly believed it in the literal sense, because they had personally experienced that military coup.

They were survivors of that “divine battle” in the capital.

In their eyes, except for someone like His Majesty—a celestial being—there should be no one else in this world who could make the Crown Prince feel lost in clouds and mist, committing another fatal error.

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No, even that incident, and the subsequent exile, couldn’t be entirely seen as miscalculation.

But rather advancing by retreating, seeking to reverse the situation.

Since this was so, His Highness’s view of this filthy thing should also be correct. Unfortunately, it was only near the final moment that he had the chance to see it.

And reach this conclusion that left only despair.

“You mean all the intelligence is false?”

The death bell, the habit of appearing head-on, using worldly aura to bind its form, and so much more… could all of this be false, merely disguise?

Hearing the officer’s forcibly calm words that still couldn’t hide his dejection, the gathered generals finally reacted, their gazes toward the ghostly ship outside gaining some horror.

They were not fools. In brief contemplation, they had already vaguely guessed the truth.

Now that the officer had pointed it out, they wouldn’t question it further to deceive themselves.

Only, if this was true, if this reverse hunting scenario was a shocking conspiracy that the skeletal giant ship had been planning since twelve years ago…

Then it was far too terrifying. How could it still be called mindless?

Or was that also disguise?

Hearing the questioning from behind and feeling the deathly silence that followed, the young man lightly patted the railing, was silent for a moment, then said: “That may not necessarily be so.”

“At least… the fact that it can be bound by the mundane—this cannot be faked no matter what.”

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Because that strange mist was not its possession, not under the ghostly ship’s control. Its past escapes and hiding now seemed more like being swallowed by the mist.

The only thing hard to understand was: under such circumstances, how did it enter the world?

Could it be Prince Deming’s methods?

After throwing out that statement, the young man said no more, only his thoughts racing like wind.

And just as his mind wandered, the subordinates digested those words but still couldn’t find a way to break the situation and remained silent, the giant dragon’s bone claws struck down solidly several more times, shaking the light curtain so violently it was nearly completely dimmed.

At this rate, in just a moment more, those sharp claws would reach the young man’s eyes.

At this point, any orders came too late, all resistance lost meaning. Even though everyone present had firm resolve, their expressions couldn’t help but turn somewhat ashen.

Only that officer, after calming his emotions, seemed to think of something and instinctively stepped forward, wanting to approach the young man—whether to persuade him to leave or protect him was unclear.

And before that, in the Crown Prince’s heart, there were no longer complex information and reasoning, only some faint melancholy and regret that couldn’t be dispelled.

Not regret for entering this trap, but regret for…

Not facing this ship of the dead earlier.

If he could have suppressed everyone’s objections and personally led campaigns against it when the fleet was strong, perhaps the outcome would have changed, and those close to him wouldn’t have died.

Even without achieving victory, seeing through it earlier would have been enough.

Unlike now… having to face it alone.

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Whether past events or reminiscences, all the old scenes and unwilling emotions finally transformed into a quiet sigh—very light, yet still heard by someone.

Naturally, it was the officer who had already started moving toward him.

This subordinate who had accompanied the Crown Prince since childhood had sensed something and taken action when the young man fell silent earlier. How could he not understand the meaning of this sigh?

So without even having time to cry out, or rather, knowing that no matter how he tried to persuade, it would be useless, the officer’s form suddenly moved, stepping forward like an arrow…

Under the bewildered and helpless gazes of the generals, he reached out to press on the young man’s shoulder!

This was a great act of disrespect. In the past, it could be seen as defiance or even assassination. Even though the officer’s status was different, this was absolutely improper.

But in the next moment, everyone’s eyes changed, filled with thick terror.

Not because the officer actually drew a blade to assassinate, but because his hand pressed empty air. At the railing nearest the curtain… the Crown Prince’s figure was already gone.

Only then did his shouts, full of shock, anger, and grief, burst forth.

“Ziyao!”

Calling him by name directly showed how much the officer had lost composure, but the others were the same.

The Crown Prince summoned by that name, who had suddenly vanished, had vaulted over the railing before his close aide could stop him, using the counter-force to leap high into the air.

When he fell again and appeared before everyone’s eyes, he was already near the bone claw that—whether by coincidence or calculation—happened to strike down toward the light curtain.

“Crack!”

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When the young man in his hunting short robe with all ties torn and black hair flying, like a weightless leaf, passed through the curtain completely unobstructed and landed on the giant dragon’s claw, that sharp talon half-covered in scales with pale bone joints also pressed against the light curtain.

With a crisp sound, the cracks on the curtain suddenly blazed, then split it into countless pieces.

Falling like rain, like autumn leaves filling the sky.

From this moment, that warship and everyone on it lost their barrier, placed like an exquisite feast before the ship of the dead.

But the imagined brutal scene didn’t occur.

Because the Crown Prince had already rushed forward swiftly, avoiding the giant dragon’s claw strikes and bites, leaping lightly up, then with his boots neither light nor heavy, stepped on its head.

And during that process, starlike dots of misty, pale golden light streams appeared from nothing behind him, then twisted and converged, gradually becoming vast and surging.

The young man charged, light and mist following. When he leaped up, it already resembled a tide.

And when his boots touched the giant dragon’s head, that patch of not-too-blazing but sufficiently violent tide also surged up with him, crashing against the ghostly ship like a giant wave.

So accompanied by countless splashing droplets, accompanied by increasingly fierce then suddenly subdued roars from the ship of the dead’s hull, that giant vessel toward the direction the tide came from…

Was forcibly pushed back over ten meters, nearly tilting sideways!

And as the soldiers on the great ship cheered and the generals frantically searched for the young man’s form, he had already used that step to float up gracefully, falling toward the ghostly ship’s deck.

Like kindling meant to ignite the abyss.