Studying The Stone Of Life, Pirates And Traffickers Arrive

On the way, Guy kindly cautioned them, "Brother, these girls around you are so beautiful. Traffickers often appear here, so you should be careful."

"Human traffickers?" Arias suddenly became interested, as if a keyword had been triggered.

Seeing Arias's interest and the curiosity in the girls, Guy immediately shared everything he knew. "Our sea area is somewhat remote, and Marines rarely patrol it. Therefore, some human traffickers like to visit our Forchart Island."

"A few years ago, we had a little girl here who was kidnapped by human traffickers. Her parents went to chase the traffickers, but her father was killed by pirates, and her mother was also seriously injured!"

"Hey! It's such a pity for that little girl; she looked quite distinctive. If she grew up, she would be a little beauty, but she was abducted by human traffickers."

Hearing this, Hiyori was the first to express her anger, saying, "Such human traffickers deserve to die! Don't let us meet them, or we will kill them all!"

Yamato also agreed, saying, "Hit them all, beat them all!"

Guy was shocked. These people must be noble young ladies somewhere; don't they know how vicious human traffickers are? They claim to be human traffickers, but, in reality, they are life-threatening pirates! Sometimes, even Marines dare to attack them! In his heart, he mourned for these people. When they truly encounter those human traffickers, they will likely be frightened to death. What a pity for these innocent souls.

However, Arias paid no heed. His attention was solely on the little girl. "What's that girl's name?"

Seeing Guy's surprise, Arias smiled and explained, "We still have some money. If we meet her somewhere in the future, we can help you redeem her."

Guy thought to himself, "This is still a good person! It seems I've never encountered a noble young master with such a sinister world view."

After a moment's reflection, he added, "It's been a few years; I have to think about it. What should I call her? Oh, right! Her name is Koala! If you can really bring her back, her parents will be very grateful."

Hiyori, confused, asked, "Didn't her parents look for her again? The child was abducted; shouldn't the parents search for her at all costs?"

But Guy didn't provide a clear answer; he simply chuckled twice.

This left Hiyori a little dissatisfied, and she wanted to talk more, but Guy suddenly said, "We're here! The Stone of Life grows there!"

Following his gesture, Arias saw a cave and stepped into it. Inside, stalactite-like structures adorned the cave.

These stones, resembling stalactites, illuminated the entire cave with their colorful Madara lights. However, unlike conventional stalactites, the top of the cave where they grew was not smooth stone but compact soil. The stones were deeply rooted in the soil, seemingly absorbing nutrients from an unknown source.

While there weren't many stones of life—only dozens—they beat slowly, resembling a heart. Faint sounds of the heart pumping blood could be heard.

Guy explained, "The Stone of Life grows very slowly and is very troublesome to make, so it takes me a long time to produce a few Lights of Life."

However, Arias was captivated by the cave's scenery, seemingly ignoring Guy.

Reaching out to touch one, he sensed a completely different feeling from the artificially created Light of Life. Picking off a piece, the colorful Madara light disappeared as soon as it was removed from the soil, leaving only the most ordinary white light.

Arias turned back to Guy and said, "Thank you for showing me the way. You can go ahead and do some research."

Guy looked at Hancock and others with reluctance, but seeing their disgusted expressions, he wisely left.

Once Guy was gone, Arias poured Qi into the Stone of Life he picked up. Suddenly, the seemingly lifeless stone bloomed with colorful light again!

"Wow! How amazing!"

Several girls gathered around, eager to touch the magical Stone of Life.

But when Hancock saw the delighted look in Arias's eyes, she immediately knew that this must be an excellent material for weapon refining, and he would likely be engrossed in studying it for a long time.

Sure enough, Arias said, "I'm going to study here for a while. You guys wander around this island first, and we'll leave after a while!"

The Stone of Life was indeed captivating. The girls admired it in the cave for a while, but the novelty gradually wore off. Yamato and Hiyori, holding hands, went to explore other parts of the island.

Hancock took out a luxurious chair from her bag, sat next to Arias, and gazed at him dreamily.

"Arias looks so handsome when he studies seriously!"

Even though they had been married for almost a year, Hancock's infatuation with him had not waned.

At the same time, a medium-sized pirate ship arrived at the port of Forchart Island.

"Boss Jesse, those women here are so beautiful! If you catch them, you will definitely be able to sell them for a sky-high price!"

"Not only those women, but that man is also very beautiful! They can be sold to rich women as toys, or some nobles with unique tastes also like it!"

Jesse, wearing a captain's hat and a big beard, patted his crewmate on the shoulder, "Well done. If those women are as beautiful as you say, you will benefit from them!"