In the pitch-black night, a pirate ship sailed silently across the waters, its blood-red skull flag rippling in the wind and carrying the stench of death.
Inside the captain's quarters, the swaying of the ship did not affect Lei Lin in the slightest.
At this moment, he was discussing their current objective with Isabelle,
"We have over fifty sailors now, but their quality..." Robin Hood shook his head, clearly having little confidence in the men who had only just submitted.
And rightly so. If not for the crushing pressure of death, they would never have surrendered so quickly. Expecting them to offer any genuine loyalty, however, was an outright joke.
If the opportunity arose, they would defect without a shred of hesitation — or even plunge a knife into the hearts of Lei Lin and his companions.
"I'm well aware of that, but loyalty isn't forged in a day or two.
Lei Lin's voice was calm, yet carried an unusual cruelty to it. Isabelle and Robin Hood seemed to envision countless pirates meeting their ends in the near future, executed mercilessly by Lei Lin for one reason or another.
"I plan to establish two production bases for refined sugar and fish floss on Faolan Island. That means we need a great deal of money — and slaves! Bearing these costs through the territory alone would be far too heavy a burden, so we need to pull off a few big heists!"
Lei Lin drove a dagger straight into the map.
The primitive accumulation of capital was the longest and most arduous process of all, and shortening it would inevitably come with vast amounts of bloodshed and sin.
Lei Lin simply didn't have time to gradually upgrade his industries. For him, only constant plunder could build up the production lines as quickly as possible.
The amount of time Marquis Louis had left him was truly running short.
Lei Lin had never trusted in the protection of any local faction. In his view, staking one's life on someone else's guarantee was nothing short of a tragedy! He would rather risk everything to grow stronger! Expanding trade profits was only one piece of the puzzle — next, he would launch a series of attacks to cripple his enemy's trade revenues.
Though Isabelle and Robin Hood didn't know the thoughts behind Lei Lin's words, the killing intent radiating from him made them shudder involuntarily.
"That's... Mermaid Island!"
Robin Hood was the first to recognize the name of the island where Lei Lin had driven his blade. He immediately drew in a sharp breath: "There's a pirate crew holed up there — the infamous Mermaid Pirates!"
"And on top of that," Lei Lin added coldly, "that pirate crew is also one of the fleets secretly controlled by Marquis Louis!"
Having already gotten his hands on Steve, the captain of the Black Tiger Pirates, Lei Lin had naturally done everything he could to pry open the man's mouth and extract whatever intelligence he could.
It had to be admitted that the level-ten warrior's willpower was indeed quite tenacious — he had lasted half an hour longer than the assassin before him.
"Heh heh… a cripple with both body and mind utterly broken — even if Marquis Louis ransomed him back, he'd have one hell of a headache on his hands!"
Lei Lin sneered coldly to himself. If torture and interrogation had their own ranks, he would absolutely be a Grandmaster.
The Steve who had passed through his hands had suffered a complete mental collapse. Even if a high-ranking priest were found to cast Restoration or something similar, it would be difficult to restore him to his former state.
In fact, Lei Lin suspected even more that Louis's side would simply have Steve killed outright. The man's value clearly didn't match the cost of inviting a high-level priest to perform divine magic.
While many temple priests charged fees for healing through divine arts, the price of inviting a high-ranking priest was still staggeringly steep.
A level-ten warrior — it was obvious that even selling the man wouldn't cover the cost.
"The
Lei Lin's palm traced across the map spread over the desk, encompassing the numerous ocean outlines drawn upon it. "Hordes of adventurers, nobles, and pirates have been flooding in here endlessly, yet they've barely managed to claim less than ten percent of the islands — and even that ten percent represents staggering profits and wealth!"
"Our ultimate goal is to bring every pirate crew in these waters under our banner or eliminate them. To become the undisputed rulers of the underworld here! Any ship that doesn't fly our protection flag will have no fate but to be sunk!"
Lei Lin's voice was low, yet this plain, matter-of-fact rhetoric was strangely filled with charisma, making Robin Hood's breathing grow heavy.
In certain respects, Lei Lin was even more skilled than the devil himself at negotiation and persuasion. This splendid vision and its accompanying promises seemed to have thoroughly won Robin Hood over.
"Besides, compared to other seas that have been discovered for years with tangled webs of competing factions, we have one enormous advantage! No particularly powerful forces have established a foothold here yet — our greatest enemy right now is Marquis Louis alone!"
Lei Lin spoke with a cold laugh.
The Bodhi Archipelago that Marquis Louis controlled accounts for over sixty percent of all trade in this newly developed sea region. That made him the one who set the rules, reaping profits beyond ordinary imagination.
And Lei Lin's goal was to eliminate him and take the throne for himself!
The clever exploit existing rules, but the wise create their own! Lei Lin now intended to shatter Louis's entire system and establish rules of his own!
To strike at the man, the pirate crews directly under his command and those under his control were obviously the first targets that had to be eradicated.
"Does anyone still have objections to my decision?" Lei Lin looked at Robin Hood. As for his cousin — anyone opposed to the Louis family would surely be more than willing to join.
"None whatsoever, Captain! I am willing to follow all of your commands!" Robin Hood immediately saluted, his expression solemn as he made his pledge.
"Excellent! There are only three major pirate crews in these waters — the Black Skull, the Tiger Shark, and the Barbarians! Once we absorb the Merfolk Pirate Gang, we'll at least be able to rival one of them!"
What Lei Lin didn't say outright was that, in truth, two of these three major pirate crews had deep and tangled connections to Marquis Louis — some were even directly controlled by him from behind the scenes.
If the Marquis had sent even one of them last time, Lei Lin's only option would have been to flee with Lady Sarah.
But obviously, the Marquis had underestimated Lei Lin's strength and hadn't paid much attention, which was why Lei Lin had managed to find an opening. Next time wouldn't be so easy.
"The Black Tiger, the Merfolk, the Black Skull, and the Tiger Shark — that's the entirety of the Louis family's pirate forces…"
A sharp gleam flickered in Lei Lin's eyes. "If two of them are wiped out at once, the look on his face will surely be priceless!"
Robin Hood was a highly competent navigator. After receiving Lei Lin's orders, he immediately determined the ship's position by the stars, altered their course, and set sail toward Merfolk Island.
In the stillness of the night, the Black Tiger gradually left the shallow waters behind, pushing deeper and deeper into the more mysterious and far more perilous open sea.
"Based on the route, it'll take roughly a day and two nights to reach Merfolk Island from here!"
A faint luminescence shimmered in Lei Lin's eyes. With the Chip's assistance, even without tools like a vernier scale, his estimates still surpassed those of any other first mate or navigator.
Just as Lei Lin was about to blow out the oil lamp, a commotion reached his ears — accompanied by the clang of clashing steel. His brow furrowed.
"What's going on?"
Frowning, Lei Lin threw on his coat and stepped outside.
Out in the open, the shouting and cursing were far clearer.
"A sailor mutiny?" Lei Lin said with indifference as he and Isabel walked to the deck.
There, a large group of former pirate captives had banded together, clutching curved blades and other weapons, backing several guards and Robin Hood into a corner.
Compared to their numbers — nearly thirty or forty strong — Robin Hood and his handful of men looked pitifully isolated and outmatched.
"Tedious." Lei Lin flicked his fingers, and several pirates blocking his path were instantly frozen into ice sculptures. The rest recoiled in terror and scattered, clearing a path for him and Isabel to walk onto the deck unimpeded.
"My apologies, Young Master! The moment these sailors heard we were heading for the open sea at night, they mutinied!" Robin Hood explained to Lei Lin, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Many dangerous sea monsters preferred to hunt under the cover of darkness, and only the strongest of fleets dared venture into the deep during those hours.
To make matters worse, these captured pirates had never been particularly compliant — quite the opposite, they were steeped in defiance. And since they vastly outnumbered everyone else, the moment the news reached them, chaos erupted. With a few instigators fanning the flames, a riot was practically inevitable.
"Seems like Isabel and Robin Hood's leadership skills still aren't quite up to par..."
Lei Lin sighed inwardly, then stepped forward. "Put down your blades, or you will regret it. As for the open sea, I give you my word — your safety is absolutely guaranteed!!!"
"Don't believe him! That bastard and the earlier bitch just want us dead!"
Just as the pirates were beginning to waver, a ghostly voice drifted from somewhere within the crowd.
"Get out here!"
Lei Lin narrowed his eyes. The mooring ropes along the ship's rail came alive of their own accord, lashing into the pirate mob like massive serpents. In an instant they had snared a sharp-eyed, triangular-faced pirate and dragged him out.
"Disgusting maggot — did you really think hiding in the shadows meant I couldn't touch you?"
Lei Lin flicked a finger. A searing fireball erupted forth!
[Blazing Sphere]!
BOOM! The hung, upside-down pirate instantly became a human torch. Sparks showered in every direction, mingled with agonized screams that sent a wave of horrified pirates stumbling backward.
"A mage! It's a mage!"
The pirates cried out in alarm. Most who turned to piracy were low-rent melee fighters scraping by. A true, high-caliber mage was a rarity even among the largest pirate fleets.