Chapter 17: Rampant Pirates |
The noon sun seemed to shoot a million arrows down that painfully broiled the skin.
It was a windless day.
The scorching air warped one’s vision as numerous hoisted imperial flags draped around their poles.
Despite the torrid heat, many navy marines were training together. Every one of them sweating profusely in this hell.
Several hundred imperial warships were docked in the harbor, but under the sweltering heat, they had none of their majesty and instead looked like beached animals enduring the sun.
This was a naval base, the Sheng Ming Empire’s navy’s headquarters.
Bong, bong bong.
The navy commander office’s doorbell rang.
“Come in.” A young voice came from inside.
After coming in, the old knight saluted, “Young Master.”
The young master was in the middle of handling a small mountain of official documents as he gravely spoke, “Here, I am an imperial Vice Admiral.”
He was young, and had short golden hair that spiked straight up from his head.
His eyebrows were also golden and thick. They were long enough to connect with each other and spread out from his face like an ‘J’.
His face was solemn and there were dark bags under his eyes, exposing his tired state.
When the old knight heard him say that he immediately saluted again, “Hou Men pays his respects to the acting commander and naval vice admiral, Lord Wei Sheng!”
The young Wei Sheng sighed and waved his hand, “Don’t refer to me as acting commander, that was not what I was appointed…forget it, tell me what is going on in the clan?”
The old knight, Hou Men, was Wei Sheng’s clan knight. If his clan had personally tasked the grizzled servant to come here, it had to be important. Otherwise, they could had used magic equipment or carrier pigeons to carry their message.
Hou Men knew how his young master felt. He liked direct frankness and loathed dawdling and delaying, thus he began to recount his purpose in coming.
“The Bai Zhen Clan has asked my help in searching for Zhen Jin?” Wei Sheng’s brows immediately pursed.
His finger rapped against his desk, showing his obvious displeasure, “I will need to allocate public resources for private goals, isn’t this abusing my position for personal gain?”
The old knight, Hou Men, sputtered out, “Zhen Jin is the Bai Zhen Clan’s sole heir, he is the Bai Zhen Clan’s only hope.”
“He is also templar knight of the Fifth Order.”
“He disappeared while sailing, searching for and rescuing him is precisely one of the imperial navy’s duties, how could anyone say you are abusing your position for personal gain?”
Wei Sheng coldly snorted, “The Bai Zhen Clan is worthy of being a once great noble clan of the south, even though it is in decline, it still has some influence. What treasure has his father offered in exchange for my strength?”
Hou Men was just about to speak when Wei Sheng raised his hand.
The latter cut off Hou Men’s reply and impatiently said, “Forget it, you don’t need to say anything, I am not interested.”
He sighed again, “I shall take on this task, but only this once. Return with my answer.”
Hou Men gritted his teeth, and said before he left, “The clan elder specifically instructed me to also ask that you, young master, should do this as soon as possible. Or at least, come up with some reliable clues.”
Wei Sheng’s brows furled, and the annoyance in his tone increased, “As soon as possible?”
He glared at Hou Men, “You should also be aware of the current situation.”
“This generation’s Pirate Throne has appeared, and the entire sea is boiling!”
“One week ago, a marquis’ daughter was abducted and extorted by pirates. Said pirate’s whereabouts are indeterminable, and is very sly. The negotiation is still deadlocked.”
“Three days ago, a large Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance fleet was pillaged, a joint operation of three pirate groups.”
“Then this morning, White Skin Island was raided, all of its inhabitants were massacred. It was the Death Pirate Group’s captain, Han Lian, openly sacrificing to the God of Death!”
“In these circumstances, I have to use my large navy to search for a single knight?”
“Its already great that I agreed to look into this affair.”
“Withdraw!”
The old knight could only leave when faced with Wei Sheng’s beratement.
After closing the door, the old knight sighed to himself, “Ah, young master.”
“This is no simple matter.”
“My subordinate’s subordinate is not my subordinate. The clan’s interests and the empire’s interests have differences between them.”
“You have been in the military academy for too long, you must understand that your clan is your roots!”
“You see, when Zhen Jin met with a mishap, the templar knight order only did a cursory search. The ones who truly searched without abandon was his clan.”
“The Clan Elder agreed to help the Bai Zhen Clan. While the Bai Zhen Clan did provide a handsome reward, they also wanted this opportunity to probe your attitude towards your clan and to the empire.”
“Alas, I hope you can attach genuine importance to this matter, it will clarify your position.”
The old knight was loyal to Wei Sheng’s clan, but there were many matters he could not solve by himself.
The old knight walked away, while Wei Sheng threw the matter of finding Zhen Jin to the back of his mind.
His bright eyes instead focusing on the intelligence in his hands.
Just as the old knight closed the door, more intelligence was conveyed through imperial magic systems.
Wei Sheng mumbled to himself, “The battlefield has been well prepared.”
“The three fleets have already been encircled in Fish Island.”
The Death pirate group had been boxed into the island, but they had managed to set up fortifications.
“We must attack as soon as possible, otherwise more fortifications will inflict more casualties!”
The Death pirate group’s commander, Han Lian, was not only a priest of the Death God, but he was also a warlock. If he deployed a strong spell formation, his threat level was sure to greatly rise.
Wei Sheng unfurled a map across his desk.
This was an alchemy product, a magic military map that displayed minute arrows around Fish Island, along with the surrounding terrain.
Not only that, but it also showed the position of the navy, as well as the latest information on the pirate group’s defenses.
“I need someone strong to storm the front and attract firepower.” Wei Sheng used his index finger to plot out the attack route on the map.
“Soon, the other two fleets will come ashore to attack from the east and southwest.”
“The key to this is the front man.”
To this, Wei Sheng had already found a suitable candidate.
Kan Quao!
He was renowned among the rear admirals for his bravery.
He was the first choice to lead the front.
As far as the battle was concerned, Wei Sheng was very certain of the outcome.
Every commander of the three fleets was gold level. While the Death pirate group only had one, their commander, Han Lian.
Not only did they have stronger characters with greater strength, but they also had better equipment and troops.
“The Pirate Throne manifesting has caused the pirates to run rampant more than ever.”
“I must constrain this situation and ensure stability in imperial waters!”
Wei Sheng was always an outstanding officer, he understood how important morale and popular sentiment was.
He had planned out the battle from beginning to end, and already felt he held victory within his grasp before the confrontation truly began.
“It’s a pity that I can only accomplish this step.”
“Command of the battle will be passed onto Kan Qiao.”
“I would have been wonderful if I could’ve gone to fight and command in this battle personally!”
Wei Sheng’s eyes twinkled, and his lust for battle was strong.
“Alas!”
“Commanding on the battlefield should be my job.”
“But the commander has gone missing!”
“Despite the situation, he is still in dereliction of his duty!
“Dammit!”
“Why do I always lose to him in chess?”
A large naval ambush had concluded.
Six pirate ships were faintly undulating with the waves.
The surrounding seawater had a layer of watery blood adorning it, splattered with a complement of pirate corpses and hull splinters.
The alchemy puppet models, “basic maintenance worker”, were fixing holes on the sides of back of ships.
Inside a ship hold, the defeated pirates were tied together tightly and watched over by swordsman guards.
Victory belonged to the Mystifying Monster Island survivors.
Currently, they were gathered in the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s cockpit to deliberate the postwar situation.
The ghostly girl, Zi Di gave her report, “This fight, we altogether expended 186 alchemy arrows, of which 66 were armor piercing, 45 were frost arrows, 21 were paralysis arrows, and 18 were flash arrows.”
The swordsman guards consumed 11% of the Deep Sea Monster Fish’s magic power reservoir. Converted to money, it would be about 305 gold coins.”
“No casualties taken by those who fought.”
“The greatest loss was a swordsman guard, it was completely destroyed. Da Zhao destroyed its core, and we currently cannot repair it.”
After pausing for a moment, Zi Di continued, “Our biggest gain of the battle was the Soft Heart Stone.”
“The stock exceeded expectations, it should be a few months of stock and according to current market prices, it is roughly worth 120 gold coins.”
“Next are the six pirate ships, although ordinary vessels, they are in total worth 300 gold coins.”
“There are some food, water, and everyday supplies.”
“There are 220 captive pirates. Combined with the pirate’s former captives, there are a total of 449 people.”
“We also captured some equipment, the most valuable of which was a silver level corset, a pair of iron level hide boots, and an iron level thorny spear.”
“By present estimates, our net profit for this battle is about 370 gold coins.”
After hearing the port, most of the survivors beamed with joy.
Cang Xu lamented, “I am beginning to understand why pirates grow rampant. 370 gold coins…you know, a territory chancellor’s annual salary is only 180 gold coins. A baron’s domain’s annual income is about 4800 gold coins. We managed to get this much in one ambush.”
But Fei She shook his head, “This, this is not normal. Da Zhao’s pirate group just, just ransacked an island. The moment, the moment we ambushed them was when they were at their richest. Under normal circumstances, how could such pirates have this kind of wealth?”
Zong Ge pondered the battle from a tactics point of view, “Beforehand, every time we dealt seabed magic beasts, every fight would put us at a deficit. But when attacking pirates, we have great profits, perhaps we can use war to fund war!”
Zi Di muttered to herself, “The two situations are different. For example, when we were hunting the Dragon Whisker Electric Eel, we bombed it indiscriminately, tattering its flesh and plunging the value of it. The only thing left of actual value was its gold level magic crystal. Regular hunting groups have better and more focused hunting methods that will conserve more of the prey’s worth. Also, because Da Zhao’s pirate group is composed of humans, we can easily make use of their ships and equipment.”
After pausing again for a moment, Zi Di continued, “370 gold coins in profit is actually only a preliminary estimation.”
“Perhaps there are some fugitives in the pirate captives that have a bounty on them. We can use their heads to obtain that bounty.”
“They ransacked and slaughtered an island, it is likely we will be rewarded by the empire for eradicating them.”
“There are also those fisher folk captured by the pirates, they are still unconscious. If we sell these people to a slave market, we will earn even more.”
When that sentence was spoken, everyone had different expressions, but the young captain resolutely overruled it, “Absolutely not! They are all sinless, if we sell them into slavery, are we any different than those pirates?”
Zi Di smiled, “I was just assuming, that’s all. Anyways, we should be rewarded for saving these fishermen.”
As a former mercenary commander, the goblin, Tripleblade nodded, “We deserve it.”
The young captain exposed a threat of pity, “Their home has already been destroyed, their situation miserable, they cannot reward us.”
Zi Di had foreseen the young captain’s reply and used it to concede, “In the absence of a material reward, they should work for us. Our unusual circumstances mean we cannot set them free. The more people spread news of us, the more clues we leave, the greater probability of a divination or prophecy on us.”
The young captain was silent, Zi Di’s words were reasonable.
Lan Zao glanced at the young captain, although he was extremely loyal to him, he was not blinded by it.
He gave his own opinion, “If we want to sell these pirate ships, we need to at least bring them to a port. But there are only ten of us, we cannot sail all of these pirate ships.”
Sailboats used the wind, and were far more difficult to control than the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Sailboats needed sailor hands, a helmsman, lookouts, a captain, and a crew working together.
If it were a magic ship, they would also need people to protect the magic power reservoir magic engine, furnace, and other components.
Zong Ge added his own input, “Besides the fisher folk, we can also incorporate some pirates too, giving them some ability to fight.”
“We want redemption, this cannot be accomplished in a short period of time.”
“During this time, we need to conceal our identities.”
“By incorporating outside people to control these ships, it will give us a layer of protection.”
“Do you think we can dock at Snake Rat Island with the Deep Sea Monster Fish?”
The young captain did not speak.
Cang Xu coughed, “Right now, we have obtained a lot of Soft Heart Stone. I want to immediately try to construct the Deceptive Disguise formation.”
“With it, we can definitely conceal our identities.”
“If that happens, we can use it to conveniently recruit some pirates and wake up the fisher folk.”
“If we use these pirate ships to make landfall, it is unlikely to attract attention.”
“As for those pirates who saw our true identities, I say we immediately kill them.” Zong Ge’s killing intent was unwavering.
Cang Xu shook his head, “Too wasteful.”
“We have a memory extractor and duplicator device. We can try to alter the memories of these pirates.”
“Perhaps, we can use it to make them swear loyalty to us.”
The survivors blankly stared, their eyes lighting up one after the other.
The discussion had come to an end, and everyone was gazing at the young captain.
He was their leader.
Sensing everyone’s eyes, the young captain was solemn, and with a heavy tone, he said, “Then we’ll do that.”