Pirate Kingship

"Power of Stomach, three thousand segments!"

The phantom giant wolf, as tall as a small hill, swallowed the thief and leaped out from the earth.

Inside the massive translucent belly appeared a constantly rolling, pitch-black sphere, the "stomach" manifested by Britney’s authority.

The sphere expanded and contracted intermittently, clearly indicating the "maid" swallowed was struggling fiercely inside the wolf’s stomach.

Presumably due to some reflection from the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood."

The big bad wolf consumed Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma but couldn’t digest them, which gave the Hunter a chance to save them.

Therefore, the "unfading regret" in the story feedbacked into Britney’s powers, birthing the divine arts named [Fenrir’s Giant Devouring Mouth].

Symbolizing the demon wolf Fenrir whose gaping jaws could separately push against the heavens and earth.

The giant mouth could devour all material and energy, even swallowing Polyxia’s fireball in one gulp.

The wolf’s stomach could confine and digest everything it swallowed.

Unfortunately, she lacks the authority of [Nether River] to digest and absorb divinity, only capable of converting "food" into energy to spit back out, or digesting and supplementing her own spirituality to enhance endurance but not permanently increasing her upper limits.

But among the Fifth Order Upper-level Wizards, these combat authorities were top-notch.

With one successful strike, [Wolf Grandmother] Britney also walked out of the hall.

The Pharaoh King couple, who had already reached the palace gate, were nowhere to be seen.

She glanced at the Court Guards who heard the alarm and swarmed around, casually asking:

"Should the thief be alive or dead?"

Most of these Court Guards were descendants born from Fourth Order Mythical Creatures or Fifth Order Pseudo-Gods within the Creation Nine Pillars School.

Due to the "regression to the mean" in intelligence, the wizard offspring find inheriting their parents’ intelligence more challenging than inheriting bloodline and wealth.

Those with research qualifications would continue to join one of the pillars in the school for in-depth study.

Those without qualifications could only rely on their lineage, exploiting the foundation set by their bloodline limits.

And as often known among frequent researchers, to achieve groundbreaking results, one should ideally join when a related field has had foundational work laid by great figures, yet still has a vast unexplored blue sea.

Commonly known as picking cherries.

Once the project is halfway through, the first batch to "eat crabs" would have consumed the sweetest meat, even if those coming after were talented, they could only refine small details, becoming insignificant amidst countless numerical changes.

Commonly known as class solidification, even at an immortal-level absolute solidification.

The Creation Nine Pillars School, having developed for a thousand years, focused more on fabricating myths about the Nine Pillar Gods rather than exploring world truths.

This sea had long been too red, otherwise, even the best-conditioned Pharaoh King couldn’t have been stuck at Fourth Order.

First was the invasion by [Lake Light Knight] Lancelot, followed by today’s "thief" intrusion, even the Court Guards who could take on a hundred men seemed similar to minnows before them.

While the school’s big figures were "Lesser Gods" before Seventh Order True Gods, most resided in their strongholds throughout the Empire, unwilling to visit the Royal Palace for guard duties without reason.

The previous Guard Commander died pursuing Lancelot, the newly appointed Commander smiled at Britney:

"Your Excellency, as long as we retrieve the treasured object His Majesty specially instructed to use today, the thief’s life or death doesn’t matter."

Britney nodded, intending to thoroughly digest the person and spit out their storage miracle object, only to suddenly find this "thief" surprisingly hard to digest.

Before her Divine Aura could erupt, adding force, she suddenly noticed the phantom giant wolf’s body stiffen, transforming into stone from the belly upward.

Then, a green Divine Light flashed, and the entire giant wolf shattered instantly.

A figure reappeared before everyone, but it was no longer the original maid thief, instead, a... Snake-haired Gorgon!

The lower half comprised a massive snake tail, while the upper half was a stunning beauty with six white arms, most striking were her wild hair transformed into multicolored poisonous snakes, hissing with crimson forked tongues.

"It’s bad, it’s a Kin of [Thousand-Faced Serpent], quickly close your eyes, don’t meet her gaze."

The quick-reacting Guard Commander loudly warned.

Yet, despite the warning, several guards too close to the Snake-haired Gorgon were petrified on the spot merely from exposure to her Petrification Spirit Light, turning into rigid gray stone statues.

Others in the palace finally realized the "thief" was actually a Kin cultivated under the Old God’s Bloodline Codex "Thousand Faces Rites."

Furthermore, not a simple Fourth Order Mythical Creature, but a Fifth Order Pseudo-God from the [Thousand-Faced Serpent]’s church "Petrified Snake Nest!"

"Snake-haired Gorgon? As the Grand Priest of the Skinning Cult, today I finally see what a true Snake-haired Gorgon looks like."

No one understood [Snake-haired Gorgon] better than Byron, for that was precisely the progression path within his subordinates’ Black Wizard Syndicate Skinning Cult.

Through the "Thousand Faces Rites," using an obsidian dagger inscribed with incantations, performing a series of skinning ceremonies targeted at specific objectives allows the removal of a still-active skin.

And fully preserving the counterpart’s personality, soul, and transcendent ability.

As long as you wear the skin, you can completely acquire the counterpart’s power.

The skinning target can be various animals, demon monsters, of course, it can be humans, enabling identification replacement within a species secretly.