The darkest passage of the novel website, where updates are fastest and the collection is most complete, was filled with a thick smell of blood and intermittent, piercing screams. All these grim sights were whipping and gnawing at Pirate Charlie's mind. Fang Senyan, quite shamelessly, made the man walk at the very front to scout the path, while he himself strolled leisurely behind, hands clasped, swaying slightly as he followed. Fang Senyan also keenly noticed that the carvings on the castle walls were a mix of old and new, the newer ones seeming to have been chiseled only in the last few years. If segmented and viewed individually, they strongly resembled combinations of strange, esoteric letters. Though Fang Senyan could not decipher their meaning, he felt an indescribable chill through his touch! It was like caressing... the sensation of hell itself.

The ground vibrated once.

Lightly, but decisively.

It was perceptible that the entire castle structure was trembling! Fang Senyan immediately stopped in his tracks, while Pirate Charlie instantly dropped to the ground... which, to some extent, visibly explained why he had been captured alive previously. But very quickly, a second, more violent impact struck. Fang Senyan could even feel a section of the massive fortress collapsing, followed by a faint, indistinct cheer that could be clearly identified as the tide-like roar of pirates. And from the deep darkness came a surge of cold, furious agitation, likely the original guards exchanging rapid messages.

An age-old solitude settled.

"Over here!" Pirate Charlie suddenly sprang up from his prior stupor and panic, exclaiming with wild ecstasy: "God in heaven, they've routed these damned heathens! The Captain did brilliantly; he plunged his knife into the hearts of those vipers hiding in the dark. He must have conquered the treasury of Tortuga Castle, just as he promised!"

Fang Senyan's pupils instantly constricted. Conquer the treasury? This band of pirates, already weakened and fragmented by him, had managed such a feat? He immediately realized that his plan had encountered a variable. This deviation had emerged the moment Scar Henry had volunteered, but at the time, Fang Senyan had merely viewed it as a minor nuisance. Only now did he suddenly grasp that he seemed to have consistently underestimated the man known as Scar Henry—an underestimation that perhaps began the moment Henry lost a wrestling match to him.

That failure, which amounted to nothing significant, had caused Fang Senyan to overlook Scar Henry's other identity: the infamous First Mate of the pirate ship Bell Ringer and Wine Glass, the second in command under Captain Amand! A veteran powerhouse who had survived and thrived in the Caribbean for over twenty years!

The two continued their trek through the darkness for about ten more minutes before spotting a dazzling firelight emanating from a distant fork in the path. Soon after, more than twenty pirates, drenched in blood, strode confidently around the corner. Though these savage and rough men looked tattered like beggars, their expressions were those of kings.

Everyone began loudly singing the Bugle Call Song popular among sailors and pirates. It was visible that seven or eight figures in the center of the group were staggering under a clear heavy load; they were carrying four enormous, sturdy chests bound with brass hoops, made of oak planking, and adorned with exquisite carvings—and of course, prominently displayed was the double-headed serpent crest of the Folk family, which Fang Senyan was frankly sick of seeing. When his gaze fell upon the chests, the prompt he received was "Sealed Riches," and nothing more.

And Scar Henry, whom Fang Senyan had just been thinking about, walked at the head of the procession. He clenched both fists, his bare torso revealing corded muscles that gleamed under the firelight as if slicked with olive oil. A silver glow seemed to envelop his body, and the muscles in his face twitched involuntarily from time to time. The surrounding pirates looked upon this bald giant as if regarding their own god of war!

Evidently, Scar Henry had displayed strength worthy of his reputation, turning the tide and rescuing those pirates who were fighting in the wrong place with the wrong tactics from hell—and incidentally, completely messing up Fang Senyan's meticulous plan.

Of course, it must be noted: messing up the plan, not failing it.

When Fang Senyan successfully persuaded Amand to let him ashore, his web of strategy had already been successfully cast. Now, even with any unforeseen complications, the difference was only between earning a little more or a little less; the concept of "failure" had been temporarily discarded from his vocabulary. When the pirates ahead noticed two figures suddenly emerging from the darkness, their instinctive reaction was caution, drawing blades. Then, upon clearly recognizing Pirate Charlie’s face, they erupted in a special, rough cheer unique to pirates:

"H! Damn it all, guess who we have here! It's our Charlie! You lousy bastard, you haven't dropped dead yet! Seeing your damn face excites me!"

The surviving pirates were undoubtedly Scar Henry's confidantes, so Charlie, grinning foolishly, immediately received affectionate treatment—slaps on the rear and rubs on the head from his comrades. But the appearance of Fang Senyan brought no such pleasantries. By now, all the pirates suspected that their recent horrific ordeal was likely tied to this man's flawed decisions! Naturally, they showed him no favorable expressions. Some rougher types even began drawing their cutlasses, seeking retribution for their fallen brethren.

"You fool! How dare you show your face before us?" a pirate roared, his shout quickly echoed by his comrades, nearly shaking the entire castle apart. Scar Henry, surrounded by the throng, also stepped forward. His massive frame cast a suffocating oppression under the torchlight. Fang Senyan could clearly see the veins bulging and pulsing near his temples, and the fine sweat beads on his bald head were clearly visible in the firelight, dense like grass covering a plain. This man, usually radiating hearty confidence, was now as sullen as a dark cloud—the pale grey gloom that often hangs over his homeland, the Scandinavian Peninsula, a gloom usually signaling the approach of a blizzard.

Scar Henry stared at Fang Senyan, his gaze akin to a bloodshot beast eyeing its prey, ready to pounce and tear everything to shreds! The giant suddenly extended his left hand; tied around his wrist were many aged bracelets made of bafflingly diverse materials—some woven from grass, others crudely cut from canvas—dotted with specks of fresh blood, radiating a primal, tragic decay.

"These," he ground out, "were entrusted to me by those brothers before they died. But there were far more brothers who didn't even have the chance to hand me their bracelets! And all of this is because of your wrong decisions! Sailor Yan! Your idiotic actions caused our fine lads to fall one by one onto this damned castle's cold floor. You have betrayed the expectations of the great Son of the Black Sea!"

As Scar Henry spoke, Fang Senyan noticed the dense crimson web of veins in his eyes; at a glance, they appeared entirely a frantic orange-red, to the extent that his pupils were almost invisible. Coupled with the current setting, this truly induced a sense of panic. As for the content of his impassioned roar, Fang Senyan chose to selectively ignore it. For Fang Senyan, he had already considered and prepared for this exact scenario a hundred and thirty hours and nineteen minutes ago.

Fang Senyan met Scar Henry’s gaze without fear, suddenly raising his right hand and slowly extending his index finger:

"I will not deny your accusations. But even a man about to be hanged has the right to say his last words! I have only one question, Henry; I hope you will answer me honestly."

The muscles in Scar Henry's face twitched. Clearly, his physical condition was not as robust as it appeared, but Fang Senyan's request was fundamentally reasonable; he could not refuse it, nor could he refuse it without immediately striking down the man before him!

"What else do you have to say?"

Clearly, Scar Henry's words still held explosive rage. He simultaneously produced another pouch of liquor and drank deeply, even though doing so would likely worsen the concussion injuries he was suffering. But at this point, Scar Henry could no longer afford to care.

"Since you accuse my plan of being wrong, what would you have done before entering the castle?"

Fang Senyan’s reply was consistent with his established style: sharp, swift, and often using offense instead of defense! It was like a knife thrust straight to the heart of the matter! Scar Henry frowned again, realizing Fang Senyan's words hid a trap, but the excruciating aftereffects of the concussion felt like countless needles stabbing inside his ears... Fighting this agony consumed most of his energy.

However, the question Fang Senyan posed was undoubtedly pointed, because people often engage in comparative thinking... Regarding certain iconic historical events, almost everyone entertains the thought, "What would I have done if I were in that situation?" and might even derive a strange pleasure from dwelling on it (this, by the way, is the fundamental reason why transmigration/historical fiction novels have risen in popularity)... In the instant Scar Henry hesitated due to the headache, some of the pirates began answering Fang Senyan's question with a string of curses and slang:

"You idiot whose head is crawling with maggots, of course, we'd gather everyone together and search slowly! The moment those rats hiding in the dark popped their heads out, we’d blast their insides out with our muskets! That way, not a single man would die, and those bastards would learn that our knives and guns are even better tools than oars and sails!"