Chapter 70: Seizing Boats

“Call me Demon Face,” Su Chen said inside the wine tavern.

Even though using the moniker that he had adopted in the Scarlet Mountain Range might give his identity away, who cared?

Upon hearing Su Chen’s words, the old man chuckled, “Demon Face, huh? Okay, so what kind of services does Demon Face require from this old man?”

Su Chen handed a piece of paper over to the old man.

When the old man glanced at it, his expression visibly froze. “What do you want this information for?”

“That has nothing to do with you,” Su Chen replied.

The old man shrugged. “That’s true. It’s always this stuff anyway. It seems like the Clear River Bloodline Nobility Clans are going to run out of luck soon.”

As he spoke, he suddenly lowered his voice. His lips were moving, but no sound could be heard; however, Su Chen nodded repeatedly.

After some time, Su Chen nodded, then pulled out a small pouch. “This is yours.”

“You’re welcome.” The old man opened the pouch and took a look at it, then laughed loudly.

He efficiently stowed the pouch away, then saw that Su Chen had already turned around and was walking out of the wine tavern. He said, “Aren’t you going to stay and drink a bit more?”

“No need. When the matter is resolved, I will come and find you again,” Su Chen said as he waved, his back to the old man.

Su Chen suddenly pulled out a vial of medicine as soon as he walked out of the wine tavern and gulped it down, sweat beading on his face.

“Master!” Iron Cliff yelled with concern.

“I’m fine. That old man’s poison was quite strong; I was almost unable to hold out,” Su Chen said somewhat faintly.

It seemed like he had only been making a simple transaction with Fifth Grandfather Tao, but they had already crossed hands below the table.

Otherwise, how could Fifth Grandfather Tao have accepted him so easily?

At this moment, Su Chen said, “Fifth Grandfather Tao is not simple, but we’ve passed the test for now. If we need any information, we can come here in the future. As for right now, we have some other business to take care of.”

“What are we doing?” Tang Ming asked.

“Tonight, a fleet of ships from Clear River City will be passing by here.”

Tang Ming’s eyes lit up. “We’re going to seize them!”

“That’s the idea,” Su Chen laughed.

Since they had already drawn up a plan to fight pirates with pirates, it was time to put it into effect.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

From now on, the Third River Army wouldn’t rob anyone but fleets coming from Clear River City!

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Nightall, on the surface of Lingyuan Marsh. A fleet of boats slowly floated along the surface of the water.

From a distance, it seemed like there were at least twenty boats all in a single line. The boats were loaded with goods that had come from foreign lands – mostly goods like salt, white sugar, and furs.

Perhaps because they hadn’t encountered other pirates in a long time, the fleet was only lightly guarded by a few people who patrolled among the fleets.

No one noticed an eye formed from Origin Energy watching them from a distance not too far away.

After observing for a bit longer, the eye then flew away and returned to a reeded patch before slowly descending, disappearing after it landed in Su Chen’s hand.

Behind him, a group of pirates had gathered and were awaiting his commands.

After putting the detection eye away, Su Chen said, “There’s a total of three Blood Boiling Realm cultivators and six Qi Drawing Realm cultivators all gathered in the front two boats. Notify all of the troops to prepare to attack.”

With a series of low whistles, the pirate boats began to emerge from the marshes, and they headed in a certain direction under the cover of night.

A few of the Origin Qi Scholars began to generate a large mass of black fog, causing the already thick darkness to become even darker.

The pirate boats advanced under the cover of the black fog. They weren’t discovered by the guards on the boat until they were very close to their targets.

“Who is it?”

One of the pirates chuckled darkly, “Naturally, people who want to make a profit off of the Bloodline Nobility Clans! Brothers, let’s go!”

Bang!

The boat at the front had already charged over at an angle, slamming into the first merchant ship. An instant later, countless hooks flew forward and latched onto the body of the boat. Then, countless figures began to charge onto the boat, the original Third River Army vice commander, Jiao Yinguang, leading the way.

With a single blade strike, Jiao Yinguang cut down the mainmast, then yelled, “Anyone who tries to resist or escape will be killed!”

The sound of an alarm began to ring out through the night.

A few guards charged over. “Who dares to rob the boats belonging to Clear River City?”

“You’re precisely the ones we’re trying to rob!”

Jiao Yinguang’s blade flashed brilliantly again, stabbing through the night and skewering the guard at the very front.

The boats that charged over at an angle created a bottleneck, locking the boats behind in place and making it so that they couldn’t advance or retreat. The pirate boats began to swarm over at this moment as well.

Even though there were quite a few merchant boats, they were primarily carrying cargo and didn’t have much combat ability. Even though the guards fought as hard as they could, they were slaughtered by the three hundred or so pirates.

Su Chen didn’t even participate in the battle; he just watched it unfold from a distance.

In the time it took three sticks of incense to burn, the battle for the fleet had nearly reached its conclusion.

After half an hour, the entire fleet had come under Su Chen’s control.

“Boss, we’ve captured twenty-three boats, a hundred twenty-four people, and countless goods. How should we deal with them?” one of the bandits reported.

“Leave one boat behind and send the people back on it. As for the rest, bring them all back to Jade Heart Island and sell them to Fifth Grandfather Tao,” Su Chen said calmly.

“Yes, sir!”

“A massive triumph,” Wei Yang laughed.

“It’s only the beginning,” Su Chen said.

Now in the possession of a large quantity of goods, the fleet began to return to Jade Heart Island.

When day broke, Jade Heart Island arose to welcome its own large harvest.

Cargo from dozens of boats lined the docks, causing the pirates to sigh with excitement. They couldn’t help but wonder who had suddenly made such a large haul.

But when they heard that the goods came from the Clear River fleet, the pirates’ expressions changed.

“Damn, they dare touch Clear River goods? Do these guys not know what death means?”

“The Jade Mountain Army and Qingyuan Army won’t let them get away with it.”

“That’s right. Some guys last time didn’t know what they were doing and touched some of the Bloodline Nobility Clans’ goods. Weren’t they wiped out by the Jade Mountain Army in the end?”

“And that time, it was just the goods of two of the Bloodline Nobility Clans. This time, the goods seem to belong to the entire Bloodline Nobility Clan Alliance. He’s gone and offended all of the Bloodline Nobility Clans at once.”

“They’re dead for sure, but it is at the expense of the Jade Mountain Army.”

“That’s right, that’s right.”

The pirates all stared at Su Chen with sympathetic looks.

No matter what these outsiders were thinking, the people in the Third River Army were in the process of enjoying the taste of making it big.

After an intense period of discussions, Fifth Grandfather Tao finally named a price that was quite generous to buy all of the goods away from him.

“One million Origin Stones, all right here,” Fifth Grandfather Tao said as he handed Su Chen an Origin Ring.

“Fifth Grandfather Tao is quite generous,” Su Chen laughed as he accepted it.

“Don’t blame me for not reminding you. After you take the money, get out of here and don’t come back to Jade Heart Island for some time,” Fifth Grandfather Tao said.

“Thank you, Fifth Grandfather Tao, for your reminder. I know what to do,” Su Chen laughed as he left with the others in tow.

They didn’t loiter around; instead, they got on the boat as soon as they arrived at the dock and left.

Not long after they left, a large boat came sailing in.

A ferocious bandit with a broadsword slung on his back jumped off the boat and yelled piercingly, “Where’s the bastard who robbed Clear River City’s fleet?”