Chapter 1106: Black-bearded Man
Elder Zumar couldn’t figure out the problem immediately, and so had no choice but to change the subject for a while, hoping that Lin Li was just joking. After all, although he had heard that the Tower of Dusk was building s.h.i.+ps, he didn’t think that the Tower of Dusk could have a huge fleet of s.h.i.+ps all of a sudden.
“Sure, it’s settled then. I hope the Gilded Kingdom won’t come up with any more excuses for delay by then.” Lin Li didn’t immediately respond to Elder Zumar, and instead confirmed it with Cantory before turning to look at Elder Zumar. Smiling, he said, “Elder Zumar, what are you talking about? What makes you think I will definitely be interested?”
Hearing Lin Li’s words, Cantory suddenly panicked, but he was soon relieved. In his opinion, Lin Li probably only said that because he couldn’t find an out for himself. His thoughts were the same as Elder Zumar’s. Apart from using a huge fleet of cargo s.h.i.+ps, he really couldn’t think of any other way for Lin Li to transport the large number of Magical Crystal Cannons back to the Breezy Plains.
Elder Zumar frowned slightly, and vaguely felt that something was wrong. However, when faced with Lin Li’s questions, they couldn’t consider those matters anymore. He had no choice but to put those matters aside and say, “This time, our nation’s founding celebration coincides with the opening of the sea city that opens once in 10 years. There will be many extremely precious specialties of the Endless Ocean available there. President Felic, are you interested in going for a stroll there?”
“Sea city?” Upon hearing that term, Lin Li couldn’t help but remember the lively sea city on Cage Island in the world created by Geresco. Indeed, as Elder Zumar had said, Lin Li was more interested in the sea city which was said to open once every 10 years. Lin Li was much more interested in that than in the Gilded Kingdom’s founding celebration.
The envoys of the Gilded Kingdom stayed at the Tower of Dusk for three days, during which they visited the Magic City of the Tower of Dusk before bidding farewell. However, the members of the Tower of Dusk did not invite them to go back to the tower again for another tour. It was indeed a huge regret for them.
After sending off the envoys from the Gilded Kingdom, Lin Li also returned to the s.h.i.+pyard in Ortland Port where the hideous steel beast was quietly lurking, and waiting for the test of the storm of the Endless Ocean. On the docks on both sides of the s.h.i.+pyard, the s.h.i.+pbuilders and the numerous craftsmen who had partic.i.p.ated in this construction project were also extremely excited as they were waiting for the first trial of the s.h.i.+ps they had built.
“President, please name this battles.h.i.+p,” said respectfully one of the people in charge as he walked towards Lin Li. The battles.h.i.+p, which hadn’t been given a name yet, had to be named by the president.
“Let’s call it The Star.” Lin Li saved himself the trouble, and directly named it after The Star. However, he was also well aware that this battles.h.i.+p was worlds apart from the original The Star.
Soon, the name The Star was painted on the side of the battles.h.i.+p, along with the emblem of the Tower of Dusk. Lin Li and some crewmen then stepped on the deck of The Star. Those crew members were not all involved in the construction of this battles.h.i.+p. Most of them were from the various ports. After all, that battles.h.i.+p was not the real The Star, and Lin Li could not maneuver it alone.
Those crew members were basically above level-15, and were considered experts with rich experience. However, there had never been a large naval fleet in the Breezy Plains, and it was the first time they had seen such a huge battles.h.i.+p. Thus, after they stepped on the deck, the crew yelled and shrieked in surprise continuously. To them, The Star was like a city at sea.
“The Star? This big thing looks similar, but it’s probably just in terms of appearance!”
Amidst the countless exclamations, Lin Li suddenly heard someone say that. Although that person’s voice was soft, Lin Li the Sanctuary powerhouse heard it clearly. Lin Li immediately turned around and scanned the crew, only to see that there were two of them who seemed to be a bit out of place with the people around them even though they looked ordinary.
Lin Li found it extremely strange as he felt that the two of them sounded like they knew what the real The Star was like. The Star that Lin Li knew was from the world from thousands of years ago created by Geresco. How did those insignificant individuals know about The Star?
Feeling doubtful, Lin Li stepped forward, and the people around those two crew members immediately shunned them like the plague. Now, it would be impossible for them to hide in the crowd even if they wanted to. Hence, they had no choice but to remain standing, waiting for the possible punishment. After all, if they were the owners of the s.h.i.+p themselves, they would not want others to secretly badmouth their s.h.i.+p, even though it might seem terrible to them.
“Do you know about The Star?” After Lin Li walked over, he didn’t berate the two of them like others expected. Instead, he waved his hand to gesture for the surrounding crew members to leave, and asked that question that made others feel puzzled.
“Lord, I’m so sorry, my brother just didn’t think twice before speaking. The Star is the most majestic battles.h.i.+p we’ve ever seen, how could there be any other s.h.i.+p that can compare to it?” said the younger-looking crew member of the two. His brother was a bearded man who looked much fiercer.
“No need to be nervous, I’m just asking if you know about The Star.” Lin Li waved his hand to tell them not to be nervous. He then asked the bearded man the same question.
“I…” The bearded man hesitated for a moment before looking at his companion. “Lord, my family has been living at sea for generations, so I’m aware of the legends at sea. The Star, which you’ve mentioned, is only something that I heard about in the legends. I was just spouting nonsense just now, please forgive me.”
Legends of the sea? Living at sea for generations? Lin Li looked at the two men, gently rubbed his hand on his chin, and said, “You two are probably not ordinary sailors. I won’t hold it against you for what you’ve done previously, but I don’t want my subordinates to be hiding anything from me. Now, I’ll give you a chance to explain. If you don’t explain, I won’t make things difficult for you, but I won’t let you continue staying on this s.h.i.+p, either.”
The bearded man was much more straightforward. As soon as he heard Lin Li’s words, he turned around and got ready to leave, but his brother who was beside him pulled him back while turning around, and saying to Lin Li, “Lord, we do have our reasons. If you’d like to know, why don’t we go somewhere else? I’ll tell you everything that I know.”
Lin Li smiled and cast his Domain World with a wave of his hand, directly engulfing the two of them. “Okay, can you tell me now?”
When Lin Li cast the Domain World, the two crew members immediately became extremely nervous. However, by the time they were engulfed by the Domain World, they coincidentally revealed a look of hopelessness. Clearly, they had already felt that such power was simply not something they could fight against. Compared to Lin Li, they were just like insignificant ants.
“Okay, Lord, since you’re asking, we can only tell you the truth.” Seemingly having resigned to fate, the bearded man said in a hoa.r.s.e voice, “We’re not afraid of letting you laugh at us when we tell you our true ident.i.ty. We’re just a bunch of lowly pirates at sea. Unfortunately, we ran into the Gilded Kingdom, and as you can see, we’re the only survivors.”
“Lowly pirates? I doubt it. Otherwise, how could you have thought of hiding on my battles.h.i.+p? I’m afraid this is the only place where you can hide from the Gilded Kingdom. I don’t care if you used to be pirates or whatever, but if you want to continue working for me, you must tell me honestly where you came from!” Lin Li’s tone became stern all of a sudden. He didn’t care about whether they were pirates or not, but he couldn’t tolerate having his subordinates hide things from him. Although the two of them were too weak to cause a stir on The Star, Lin Li didn’t want to defend them for nothing.
“My nickname at sea is Black-beard, and I had six s.h.i.+ps and hundreds of subordinates under me. However, they all died at the hands of the Gilded Kingdom. Only my brother Jack and I escaped. Due to the fact that we hijacked some merchant s.h.i.+ps of the Gilded Kingdom, the Gilded Kingdom wants to arrest us, but we’re not willing. The Gilded Kingdom has already issued a warrant to have us arrested. The bounty for me is 100,000 gold coins, you can take it if you want, but there is no bounty on my brother, so please let him go.” Before Lin Li inquired further, Black-beard immediately came clean.
“100,000 gold coins? Haha.” Lin Li burst into laughter as 100,000 gold coins was nothing to him. However, he could tell that Black-beard was not as simple as he seemed on the surface. At this moment, he sounded righteous, but he was actually just trying to provoke Lin Li.
Those who were knowledgeable enough would know that Black-beard was a pirate leader, so how could he be unaware of the relations.h.i.+p between the Tower of Dusk and the Gilded Kingdom? Given the hostility between the two, how could they be willing to hand over the fugitive wanted by the Gilded Kingdom for a mere 100,000 gold coins?
“Black-beard, Jack, good. You two may stay, but like I mentioned, I don’t care if you were pirates before, but since you’re on my s.h.i.+p, you have to do your best to work for me.” Lin Li immediately retracted his World Domain and released Black-beard and Jack. At the same time, he took out another potion, tossed it at Black-beard, and said, “I think your abilities must be beyond that. This potion can cure your injuries. If you’re not scared that I might have tampered with it, just drink it.”
“With your strength, you can deal with us easily.” Black-beard grabbed the potion and removed the lid of the bottle before downing it without hesitation.
In fact, from guessing the other party’s ident.i.ty as a pirate to a.s.sociating it with his thick beard, the information about the pirate Black-beard had already surfaced in his heart. Although the Tower of Dusk had been operating businesses on the mainland of the Breezy Plains all along, they had only begun getting in touch with the forces at sea when the Gilded Kingdom appeared.
However, Lin Li knew just as much as the people who lived at sea about the forces on the said sea. Lin Li still had a doc.u.ment with detailed nautical information that he had obtained from the Gilded Kingdom. It also introduced the forces of the sea.
Of course, since it was recorded by the Gilded Kingdom, they were naturally extraordinary forces. Besides, Black-beard and the pirates he led happened to be on the list. Lin Li reckoned that that was probably the reason that the Gilded Kingdom acted like they wanted to nab Black-beard, be it dead or alive, after annihilating their lair.
According to the information of the Gilded Kingdom, Black-beard’s name was Julio, and he belonged to a family of pirates. His ancestors dated back to the Dark Age, and were the leaders of pirates of the Endless Ocean. Although Julio said effortlessly that he once had six s.h.i.+ps and hundreds of subordinates under him, those six s.h.i.+ps were extraordinary. Those who had seen them before knew that although Black-beard’s s.h.i.+ps could not compare to the Gilded Kingdom’s giant alchemical s.h.i.+ps, they were much stronger than those of the Ledin Kingdom and Felan Kingdom.
Apart from the Gilded Kingdom’s alchemical battles.h.i.+ps, most of the s.h.i.+ps were still using sails. Black-beard’s six battles.h.i.+ps seemed to be sailing s.h.i.+ps too on the surface, but in fact, they were powered by the alchemical power system that had thousands of years of heritage hidden below.
Hence, no matter what the combat power of Black-beard’s pirates was like, their speed was definitely the best. In the Endless Ocean, speed was a great advantage, and almost none of the merchant s.h.i.+ps that were targeted by Black-beard’s pirates managed to survive because of their enemies’ speed.
Unfortunately, this time, Black-beard’s s.h.i.+ps turned into pieces, and hundreds of his subordinates were also fed to the fish. Although he and Jack managed to escape, their combat abilities had already fallen below the Legendary-level because of their injuries. Although they had healed their injuries, the Gilded Kingdom issued a wanted notice for them, causing them to be too afraid to show their faces. Everyone was out to kill pirates, and the Gilded Kingdom was not worried that the others wouldn’t kick them in the rut.