Silas thought for a moment.
With his current abilities, he had no way to determine whether what Kircheis said was true or not.
And even if he knew, it wouldn't be of much use to him at the moment.
Rather than obsessing over these irrelevant matters, it was more important to loot the spoils first.
So he turned to Anderson, raising the soul in his hand:
"I killed this guy, so he's mine to dispose of, including the bounty and Beyonder characteristic."
"No problem," Anderson shrugged.
"Then the pirates I killed are mine... if they have characteristics or bounties."
"Fine," Silas said with a nod. "Anything valuable we find in the ship's hold gets split sixty-forty."
"Deal!" Anderson laughed, snapping his fingers.
He was well aware that even if the other party took everything and didn't share anything with him, he wouldn't have any complaints.
Of course, the fact that the other party was willing to share was naturally better.
Silas nodded and began preparing to "Shepherd" Kircheis.
His internal slots were full, so before swallowing the soul into his body, he first released the soul of that "Demon Hound."
"Roar..."
Having been tormented by his "Shepherding" for so long, the giant hound's soul had become pale and weak.
Even its cry after gaining freedom sounded feeble. Fortunately, it didn't need to cry anymore.
The moment it was released, Silas grabbed it with his right hand and directly crushed its soul between his fingers.
"Snap!"
The soul shattered with a wail, leaving only the Beyonder characteristic to reconsolidate in his palm.
At the same time, Kircheis was absorbed into his body, confined in the slot he had just freed up.
The three abilities fixed from Kircheis were "Danger Premonition," "Lava Sword," and "Demonization," exactly the same as those fixed when Shepherding the Demon Hound.
In other words, Silas had replaced the Sequence 6 abilities with identical Sequence 5 ones, thereby increasing their power.
Combined with the desire-type abilities from the other "Apostle of Desire" he had Shepherded, Silas basically possessed the full capabilities of a Sequence 5 Demon!
"Ahem..."
Watching the horrifying scene of "Shepherding," Anderson's mouth couldn't help but twitch.
He quickly lowered his head and instead ran to search the pirates' bodies.
Unfortunately, these pirates didn't have much money on them, let alone Beyonder items.
Surprisingly, the same situation occurred inside the ship's hold.
"There's hardly any money..."
Anderson said incredulously.
The two searched through all the cabins, from the captain's quarters to the ordinary sailors' lodgings, from the storage room to the lowest cargo hold.
Apart from essential supplies like food, light beer, cannonballs, and weapons, they found only a few dozen pounds in cash.
They're affiliated with one of the "Four Kings," yet their possessions are so meager!
"Could it be that Agalito took all the money and didn't leave them much?" Anderson speculated.
"Or we could think about it differently," Silas had a different view.
"What Kircheis said was true.
They're controlled by the 'Death Announcer,' they're its servants.
Unable to control their own actions, they can only obey the ship's commands and have no personal will to plunder valuables?"
Anderson drew in a sharp breath.
"If that's really the case, these so-called subordinates of the Four Kings are pretty miserable..."
He said.
"Who knows? I'm just guessing." Silas responded casually, pulling out a bag of flour and placing it on the ground.
At this moment, he was moving around the ship's galley, planning to take some food supplies back.
Though his own ship had plenty of supplies, it was always good to supplement them when possible.
Cured meat, flour... can be stored for a long time, can take more. Light beer... might as well take a few barrels.
Fresh fish... completely unnecessary, can catch them from the sea anytime...
Wait!
Silas's body suddenly shook violently.
Because he had suddenly spotted something peculiar.
On the galley's cutting board lay a fish that had just been gutted, its belly bloody... This wasn't just because the fish's belly was bleeding, but also because inside the fish's belly were three blood-soaked fingers.
Human fingers!
Silas strode over quickly.
The closer he got, the more solemn his expression became. As an expert in blood and flesh matters, he could detect the unique nature of these three fingers.
They didn't belong to an ordinary human, but rather to a Beyonder of the Secrets Suppliant pathway, at least at the Rose Bishop level!
These three fingers weren't merely fingers, they were also a letter.
The sender had used special flesh magic to preserve information within the fingers!
"This is..." Anderson said cautiously. "Something they caught while fishing?"
Judging from the scene's condition, it seemed the cook had discovered them while processing fresh fish and cutting open the belly.
But before he could deal with it, they had encountered him. Currently, this ship's cook was peacefully lying in the pile of corpses on deck, offering no opinion on the matter.
Silas extracted the three fingers, stacking them bloodily on the cutting board.
"Swish!"
The three fingers briefly solidified together, then melted like hot wax, turning into a squirming mass of flesh that traced out a crimson word on the cutting board:
"Help!"
Help?
A Secrets Suppliant pathway calling for help... Silas looked at the word on the cutting board, seemingly quickly guessing something.
The person who sent this message is very likely the trapped Aurora Order saint!
Luna's divination has been verified!
With some delight and excitement, Silas reached out and tapped on the cutting board, causing the mass of flesh to gather back together, restoring to the shape of three fingers.
He could use the spiritual imprint within this flesh to trace back to the person who sent the message.
This way, he could find the location of that saint!
"Grab the stuff, we're heading back," he said to Anderson. "Hurry up."
"You're in such a rush... are you planning to rescue him?" Anderson couldn't help but ask, seeing him pocket the fingers.
Rescue him?
Silas smiled at Anderson and said:
"What do you think?"
I'm guessing not...
Anderson gave a dry laugh in cooperation, then helped Silas transport the supplies to the deck.
After that, they collected the characteristics precipitated by the pirates (Anderson was pleased to discover that the Sequence 6 Beyonder among them was on a wanted poster), then borrowed the gale Silas created to send the supplies and bounty-worthy corpses back to their own ship.
As for the black-sailed ship, because it was too conspicuous, Silas and Anderson set it on fire.
"Luna, well done. Very accurate divination."
After returning to his own ship, he smiled and praised his cat.
Then he manipulated the sails, steering the ship in the direction indicated by the fingers.
"Too bad we let those adventurers on that ship leave. Didn't get any leads on the 'Fountain of Immortality'..."
Anderson thought with some regret.