Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

Elena did not immediately refute.

Rainwater dripped down the vines outside the cave, landing on the stone surface and making a soft, pattering sound.

After a moment, she calmly said, "No matter how much you envy me, it's worthless to me."

She raised her hand and looked at the calluses on her knuckles from holding a sword for so long.

"I have the extraordinary power to protect myself, I don't need anyone's protection, and I really don't care about this face."

My father once told me that if you rely on your looks to please someone, you'll ultimately have to be subservient to them.

As she said this, a hint of coldness flashed in her eyes.

"Don't be fooled by the fact that the Sea Demon Temple or Samuel are very flattering to me."

If I were to ask them to pay the price and shield me from trouble, I'm afraid they wouldn't be willing.

In their minds, I'm probably just using my beauty and status to highlight their own.

Xilun remained silent.

He wasn't good at comforting people, nor did he think Elena needed comforting.

Elena looked at him for a while, then suddenly laughed and said, "You're not bad-looking either. I bet a lot of girls have a crush on you, right?"

Xilun shook his head: "No."

He spoke so earnestly that Elena became intrigued: "No?"

Xilun thought for a moment and said, "Fortunately, no."

Elena paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

The laughter was soft, yet it seemed to dissipate some of the damp, oppressive smell in the cave.

"You're so unlucky? Not a single woman has approached you?"

"I have had contact with a few people."

"Looks like they all look down on you." Elena rested her chin on her hand, a hint of mockery in her eyes.

"Actually, you're not a bad person, although you're a bit cold, a bit quiet, and a bit scary when you kill people. But I really don't know if they don't know what's good for them, because no one wants to live with you."

She looked Xilun up and down, her smile widening: "It makes you seem rather pathetic."

Xilun looked down at the small campfire in front of him.

Last night they lit a tiny fire deep inside the cave, using damp stones and the cold to block out the smoke.

The flames were low at that moment, and what they reflected in his eyes was not warmth, but rather the sparks of revenge buried in the ashes.

"You don't need to pity me," Siren said. "This is my own choice."

Elena looked at him.

Xiren continued, "I have things to do, and I really don't have the time or the inclination to think about anything else."

The flames flickered.

In that instant, Elena saw something very deep in his eyes.

It wasn't the disappointment of youth, nor the ambition of an ordinary rogue cultivator, but rather hatred repeatedly tempered by blood and rain.

The hatred was quiet, but it did not die out.

Elena suddenly realized that it wasn't that Siron hadn't been approached; rather, he had pushed away every possible place to stay.

She sighed softly, then resumed her half-joking tone:

"If in the future I can't find a reliable partner, and you're all alone like you are now, I might consider you."

Xilun was taken aback.

Elena beckoned to him with her finger.

Xilun frowned: "What are you doing?"

"Come a little closer."

Xilun did not move.

Elena leaned forward slightly. The two were already close, and as she got closer, the scent of rain, blood, and faint grass mingled with her breath, almost filling Siron's nostrils.

She gently blew a breath into his ear.

Xilun's body stiffened slightly.

My ears are a little itchy.

The next moment, Elena gently kissed his earlobe.

It's very light.

Like a damp, warm feather falling.

"I'll stamp this." Elena stepped back, her expression as natural as if she had just wiped the blade of her sword.

He lived in Westrenton.

He didn't speak for a moment.

Logically speaking, this is a case of benefiting from something.

But his first reaction wasn't one of romance, but rather a stiffness that was difficult to handle.

They had just crawled out of a life-or-death situation, and they cooperated, concealed things from each other, and kept secrets from one another.

Such close contact blurs what should be clear boundaries.

He wanted to say something.

For example, don't do that.

For example, we are just cooperating.

For example, it's not suitable now.

But when the words came out, they all sounded too stiff.

Elena glanced at him, as if guessing his predicament, and laughed even softer: "We're out of firewood, I'll go gather some."

Xilun immediately said, "I'll go."

"No need." Elena stood up, picked up her twin swords, and said, "You continue to recover. You'll be on guard at the cave entrance. I won't go too far."

Siren frowned: "It's not safe outside."

"I know."

Elena pulled the silver-gray rope back to her waist and casually pushed aside the vines at the cave entrance.

She glanced back at Xilun, her smile fading slightly but still bright: "Don't worry, I don't plan to make you a widow so soon."

Before Xilun could answer, she had already disappeared into the rain.

Vines hung down from the cave entrance, obscuring her back.

Xilun sat there, the slight sensation near his ear still lingering.

He raised his hand to touch his ear, then quickly lowered his fingertips.

He didn't like this feeling of being out of control.

Emotions, relationships, and intimacy all create expectations.

But if expectations are shattered, they become a new weakness.

He already has too many weaknesses.

Xilun took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

The Moon Memory Meditation Technique slowly operates, and the core of the mind seems to sink into a deep lake under the cold white moonlight.

The chilling aura of darkness traveled along the gaps in the flesh, suppressing the stinging pain left by the black wolf smoke, and also suppressing the cold, snake-like remnant of the evil god's limb deep in the right arm.

Time passed little by little.

The sound of rain grew louder.

There was nothing unusual outside the cave.

Xilun thought that Elena was just going around to pick up some dry branches nearby, and even if it took a while, it wouldn't be more than fifteen minutes.

Half an hour later, the chill at the cave entrance remained untouched, and Elena did not return.

Xilun opened his eyes.

The campfire inside the cave was reduced to a dark red ember.

He looked out of the cave, his brows furrowing slightly.

After a few more breaths, he picked up the golden spear and stood up.

The movement aggravated the wounds on my body, causing a dull pain in my chest and abdomen.

Without pausing, Siron hid Hogg's body deeper into the cave, concealing it with rubble and vines, and adding another layer of chill to the entrance.

He then pushed aside the vines and stepped into the rain.

The dense forest outside was even darker than before.

Raindrops pattered on the leaves, and the air was filled with the smell of turned-up soil.

Following the direction Elena had gone, Xiren walked a dozen steps and soon noticed that the ground had been trampled.

These were not footprints left while gathering firewood.

In the mud, there was a thin line drawn by the sword's edge, and a few wet leaves shattered by the force of the impact.

Xilun's eyes suddenly darkened.

He squatted down and picked up a little muddy water with his fingertips.

Blood was mixed in with the mud.

It's very new.

Xilun did not hesitate any longer.

He followed the trail and went after it.

The sound of rain in the dense forest was so loud that many subtle movements were masked.

When ordinary people enter such a place, they can only rely on their eyes to find footprints.

But Siren is different; his affinity for water allows him to discern subtle changes in the direction of rainwater flow.

He could clearly and calmly discern where the mud had just been trampled, where the puddles had been broken by rapid footsteps, and where there were abnormally splattered bloodstains on the grass.

Elena was very cautious.

She probably only encountered two or three scout pirates at first, and wanted to finish them off quickly after the initial encounter.

But then more people surrounded her, and she had to fight and retreat.

There were traces of silver-gray ropes dragging on the ground, as well as gaps left by the twin swords cutting through the vines.

The more Xilun chased, the colder his expression became.

If Elena were at her peak, these people might not have been able to keep her.

However, she suffered mental damage and was also poisoned by black smoke last night.

What she feared most was not direct combat, but being bogged down and constantly worn down by musket fire and sheer numbers.

A gunshot suddenly rang out from ahead.

Then came the second and third tones.

A barrage of lead bullets tore through the rain curtain, startling a flock of blackbirds into flight.

Xilun paused, then silently slid into the puddle.

With his deep-sea diving talent and water-friendly control activated simultaneously, he glided past the low bushes like a shadow skimming along the muddy water.

About a hundred paces away, beside a low slope eroded by wind and rain, a dozen pirates were surrounding a rocky clearing.

Elena was in the middle of the open space.

Her uniform robe was torn in several places, and there was a shallow cut on her shoulder. Her silver twin swords drew sharp arcs in the rain.

Each time he drew his sword, he forced back the nearest swordsman.

But her movements were noticeably slower than the night before; the weariness between her brows was undeniable, yet her eyes remained as cold as a drawn sword.

The outer pirates were divided into two circles.

Nearby were swordsmen who had trained their strength, wielding curved swords, short axes, and iron hooks, constantly closing in and consuming her space.

In the distance, musketeers used tree trunks for cover, searching for an opening where she might catch her breath.

A man dressed in a light blue short coat stood under a giant leaf that resembled a rain shelter, accompanied by four or five guards.

His face was pale, his eyes were sunken, but a strange, excited smile played on his lips.

"Don't hit her face! Don't hit her face!" the man in blue shouted. "Such a beautiful girl, it's no fun if she has a scar on her face!"

Several pirates nearby laughed.

Someone shouted foul language.

Elena's eyes grew even colder. With one sword stroke, she severed the tendons of the attacking swordsman, and with another sword, she slit his throat.

But just as she was about to give chase, two lead bullets came from the side. She had no choice but to roll back and retreat. The blade of her sword grazed the lead bullets, and the sparks flashed and died out in the rain.

The man in blue clapped his hands and laughed: "That's hot! I've been here for so long, and I've finally caught a real beauty."

The women of the Holy Light Monastery are definitely more interesting to play with than those port goods.

He spoke in increasingly vulgar language.

Elena pursed her lips and did not respond.

She knew that any anger at this moment would cloud her judgment. She was simply waiting for an opportunity.

If she could break through one gap in the musketeers' ranks, she could escape through the dense forest.

However, she was mentally unstable, and the silver-gray rope was being closely watched by several experienced pirates. If she used it, it was very likely that the other side would cut it off in advance.

Beside the man in blue, a pirate with blue fishbone tattoos on his face suddenly frowned:

"Young Master, we can't delay any longer. The Crown Prince has ordered us to evacuate as soon as possible. A lot of people from the monastery have come to this forest."

"What's the rush?"

The man in blue said impatiently, "My brother killed him, I'm doing my own thing. Besides, with so many people, you can't even take down an injured woman? Are you all useless?"

The pirate dared not try to persuade him any further.

Just then, a musketeer behind the low slope had just finished loading gunpowder when he suddenly felt a chill on his neck.

Before he could react, his entire field of vision tilted downwards.

Xilun covered his mouth with one hand and twisted his throat with the other, then gently placed the body into the mud.

The second musketeer heard a noise and was about to turn around when a cold finger was already pointing at his neck.

The chilling aura instantly pierced his blood vessels, freezing him in place. The next moment, his throat was crushed.

The third pirate sensed something was wrong and opened his mouth to shout.

The golden spear remained unsheathed.

Xilun took only half a step forward, pressed his palm against the back of the man's head, and slammed him against the tree trunk.

The muffled sound was swallowed up by the sound of rain.

Three people fell in succession, creating a brief gap in the outer firepower.

The man in blue finally realized something and turned around.

In the rain, a figure dressed in black emerged from the shadows of the low slope.

Siren then snapped the throat of the fourth pirate.

His movements were slow, yet chillingly clean.

There were no unnecessary roars, no boastful bursts of strength, just one person taking one step at a time, like harvesting weeds that had already been marked in place.

The man in blue was taken aback: "Who are you?"

Xilun did not answer.

The intelligence he had reviewed before the mission flashed through his mind.

One of the five most notorious pirates of the Blue Ocean, the Pure Prince, born into the Blue Ocean pirates' direct line, his father being one of the ten most notorious pirates.

This person prefers to wear blue and green clothes, acts licentiously and cruelly, and is often accompanied by a musketeer squad and swordsmen.

The person in front of me doesn't have a strong aura; it's only fluctuating between the peak of the second tier and the threshold of the third tier, and even seems somewhat weak.

Unlike the real Big Five.

But the face that bore a resemblance to the wanted poster, and the "young master" the surrounding pirates spoke of, were enough to show that his identity was by no means ordinary.

The man in blue was enraged by Xilun's silence: "I'm asking you a question!"

Xilun stomped his foot, and the mud and water exploded.

Instead of charging at the man in blue, he first attacked the nearest musketeer squad.

These musketeers are the biggest threat to Elena.

A musketeer hastily raised his gun, and just as the lead bullet left the barrel, Siron had already sidestepped, gripped the barrel with his five fingers, and smashed the opponent's nose with his backhand.

Another man drew his sword and slashed, but the other man swept his chest across with the shaft of his spear, the sound of ribs shattering so clear that even the sound of rain couldn't drown it out.

"Stop him!" the man in blue shouted shrilly. "Kill that man!"

Several knife-wielders immediately turned towards Xilun.

Elena's stress level dropped significantly.

She seized the moment, and a silver-gray rope silently emerged from her sleeve, coiling around the ankle of a musketeer to her side like a living snake.

The man cried out and fell to the ground, but Elena was already close enough to deliver a fatal blow to his throat.

The next moment, she crossed her two swords and forcefully tore a gap in the encirclement.

The man in blue's expression changed slightly.

"Useless! A bunch of useless trash!"

He cursed and retreated, while four guards stepped forward at the same time.

These four were all skilled swordsmen who had trained their internal energy, and their teamwork was quite adept.

The two protected the man in blue, one rushed towards Elena, and the other intercepted Xiren.

Xilun glanced at the man in blue.

Although this person makes a lot of noise, his actual strength is far inferior to Hogg's.

His strength was weak and his steps were unsteady. Although the short sword in his hand had extraordinary patterns, he looked more like a young master whose status was built on his equipment and family background.

If it weren't for the protection of more than twenty people, he wouldn't have been able to subdue Elena at all.

Xilun coldly said, "Retreat."

This was said to Elena.

Elena did not back down.

Her eyes were fixed on the man in blue, as if he were a dirty stain.

"I want his head!"