Chapter 343 Setting the Stage

Let’s leave Feng Bujue for a moment and talk about Snow…

A dozen minutes ago, as soon as he left the open space, he quickly returned along the path he had taken, and soon he reached the large pit blasted out by the burst array.

There, he successfully intercepted Suantou, who was leading dozens of reinforcements.

According to the plan, Snow's mission was to trick these people back to the ship, telling them that "the captain has ordered that you are no longer needed to come."

To achieve this goal, or rather… to make this lie sound more believable, Snow had already prepared a speech.

However, Suantou wasn't a fool; his style was always characterized by caution and alertness. Faced with Snow's one-sided statement, Suantou would not easily believe him. Therefore, he asked Snow to lead the way and take them to verify the so-called "the captain and them have already solved the main enemy force, and ordered you to retreat" matter, and then make a decision.

So, with a somewhat uneasy feeling, Snow led Suantou's trio and the dozens of reinforcements they had brought with them to the open space…

…

About ten minutes later…

"Look, I didn't lie to you, did I?" Snow said, putting on a helpless expression.

In fact, when he saw that the open space in front of him was empty, he himself was relieved; however, his acting was still reliable enough to prevent the other party from seeing the changes in his heart.

"Hmm…" Suantou looked at the dragon corpses, dragon bones, and the traces left after the battle, and replied after a moment of contemplation, "Okay… it seems you're telling the truth."

Even Suantou was fooled, and his two loyal partners, Godfrey and Marty… naturally couldn't see any flaws in the whole thing; as for the other sailors, they were basically combatants, focused on fighting, and rarely thought about problems; they wouldn't ask what the captain and the officers were up to.

"Then…" After thinking for a few seconds, Suantou looked at Snow again and asked, "What about you? Are you going back to the ship with us?"

"No, I'm just responsible for delivering the message to you. I still have to go after them," Snow replied.

"Oh?" Suantou was suspicious after all, and he muttered, "The captain won't let us go, but he allows you… um… allies…" He didn't know that Blackbeard had already fallen out with Feng Bujue and the others, so he didn't dare to be too presumptuous in his attitude, "…to go together?"

"Is there anything wrong with that?" Snow replied, "Since you're so worried, why don't you come with me and catch up… and ask your captain yourself?"

Although he was deceiving, his attitude sounded confident, more real than real.

Sure enough, when Suantou heard this, he immediately flinched: "Uh… no, no, that's not necessary."

Let alone a character like Suantou, even the officers on the ship didn't dare to question the captain's orders casually. "Resisting orders" was an absolute no-go area.

Right now, Suantou basically believed that the order "the captain doesn't want you to follow anymore" was true. If he insisted on following, then… with Blackbeard's capricious and ruthless nature, he might kill Suantou in a fit of anger.

"Is that so…" Snow continued to maintain his calm appearance and shrugged, "Then… let's say goodbye here."

His implied meaning was—you can take those people back.

"Hmm…" Suantou was indeed ready to leave at this moment, but he seemed to vaguely perceive something strange, so he hesitated in place and tentatively asked, "Mr. Snow… I wonder… how are you going to catch up with the captain and them?" As he said this, he turned his head and glanced at one side of the open space, "Are you still following that set of 'marks'?"

This sentence, this look… was a trap.

A dangerous trap that could instantly expose Snow's lie.

Suantou was an old hand after all, very cunning. In fact, the direction he indicated with his eyes had no marks at all; the real marks… Suantou had already seen them, and they weren't in that direction.

These marks could only be recognized by sailors of the Blackbeard Pirates above the level of a small head; because Blackbeard had said before that he would leave marks to guide the reinforcements to catch up, so Mr. Wogg had been drawing them along the way, even after separating from the players… anyway, the players couldn't recognize those marks and couldn't see where they pointed.

At this moment, Suantou's question was a test…

If Snow looked at the direction that clearly had no marks and replied: "That's right, I'm going to follow that mark to catch up." Then it would show… no one had taught him how to recognize the marks at all, and everything he said before was a lie. He just wanted to trick Suantou into taking the reinforcements back to the ship.

And if Snow didn't fall for this trick, then he would have to explain how he was going to catch up with Blackbeard and his party who had already left for a long time. If he couldn't explain it clearly… it would also be suspicious.

"Hey! What are you still doing here?"

Just as Suantou's trap question came out and Snow was about to respond, suddenly, another voice sounded.

"Does it take so long to deliver a message?" Feng Bujue said, walking out from behind the tree where the real marks were.

"Tch…" Snow's reaction was also very quick. He immediately replied in an impatient tone, "Didn't you see it yourself? They're worried and think I'm lying, so they want to come over and take a look with me."

"What the hell?" Feng Bujue wasn't as gentlemanly as Snow. He glared, and his rogue tone came as soon as he spoke. He walked quickly towards Suantou and shouted, "You're rebelling! Who do you think you are? Your captain is waiting for us to gather so we can start the next step of the plan… He was already impatient five minutes ago and asked me to come back as quickly as possible to see what was going on… and it turns out you're dragging your feet here, do you want to die?" As he said this, he really pulled out his knife, "Or else I'll just cut off your head and report to your captain."

Suantou listened to this dialogue and looked at this posture, and cold sweat dripped down.

"Damn… what am I thinking… the other party is that Feng Bujue, the man who wiped out the Mad Eye Pirates with one sword… the captain has already decided to form an alliance with him, why am I making trouble for myself and suspecting his companion…"

After cursing himself in his heart, Suantou quickly changed his face and admitted his mistake: "So… sorry! We'll withdraw immediately! We won't disturb you!"

With that, he turned around and left as if he was escaping, gesturing to the sailors to stop talking nonsense and withdraw quickly.

Just like that, dozens of people swarmed back into the forest and returned the way they came.

"That was close…" After the group had gone far away, Feng Bujue looked at Snow and smiled, "Heh… if I hadn't been careful and waited for you here, you would have been in trouble."

"Hmph…" Snow also smiled, "I'm not as naive as you think. When Suantou said 'marks', I already guessed what he wanted to do… I wouldn't fall for that kind of trap. If you didn't show up, I would have just said that I didn't recognize any marks, but I would catch up with you through some kind of 'communication method between us otherworldly travelers', and as for the specific method… I can't tell you. That way, he wouldn't have been able to say much, right?"

"Alright~ alright~ consider me meddling." Feng Bujue put the dagger back into its sheath and said again, "Oh, right, let me introduce you… this is 'Ken'."

When Feng Bujue said this, his eyes were actually looking behind Snow.

Snow was also stunned and instinctively responded: "Who?" and turned his head following the other party's gaze.

As a result, his face turned only ninety degrees before he was startled.

"Wow!" Snow really took a small step back and looked at "Ken" and said, "When did you stand behind me?"

Chi Tie ignored him, just tilted his head and looked at Feng Bujue with a smile and said, "This kid's level was leveled up by someone, right?"

"Ah, obviously…" Feng Bujue replied noncommittally.

"Wait a minute… level?" Snow looked at the rather ugly NPC in front of him in surprise, quickly thought for a few seconds, and then said, "You are… a Derivative?"

"I see…" Chi Tie's expression changed slightly, "Your mind works pretty fast."

"I'll explain his identity to you on the way later." Feng Bujue then said to Snow, "Now… since the reinforcements have been tricked away by our plan, the next step is to find Honghu first and then…"

Shit——

At this moment, Feng Bujue's words were interrupted by a sound of air being torn.

Along with that rapid sound, a white figure darted out from the forest behind him and slowed down as it approached him, until it stumbled and fell in front of him.

"Haa… haa…" Honghu lay on the ground, looked at the three people standing around him, gasped a few times, and then said intermittently, "Haa… I… haa… my hand… arm…"

"We can see it~ we're not blind." Feng Bujue stretched his voice and slowly squatted down next to Honghu, quickly took out the Spirit Gem [As Slow As Forest] from his bag, and activated the item effect on Honghu, "But you're very capable too, aren't you? In just a short while, both forearms are blown off."

The gem's effect was "instantly heals the target's injuries (cooldown time of twenty-four hours; limited to healing external injuries and repairing limbs; cannot remove debuffs such as diseases, curses, or poisoning)", so Honghu's severed hands grew back "instantly" at an incredible speed.

"I'm not in the mood to joke with you…" Honghu wasn't polite with Feng Bujue. His wounds had healed, and he had regained his ability to take things. He immediately took out a bottle of Survival Value Replenishment from his bag and poured it down. After drinking it, he said, "In order to make Blackbeard 'fall for the trick', these hands had to be sacrificed…"