Chapter 374 – Off To The Sea

But these methods were new and innovative in Ark Continent. The Ark Continent still didn’t reach the level of civilization to have newspapers. Napoleon even said before that newspapers are equivalent to 100 thousand soldiers. So it was natural for Zhao Hai to use propaganda to deal the Radiant Church a huge blow. In the future, the Radiant Church may even be regarded as a cult within the League of Dark Mages’ territory.

Smith paced around the room slowly, he knew that if Zhao Hai’s methods worked, then the Radiant Church would surely be eliminated inside the Rosen Empire while at the same time the status of the League would be elevated.

This elevation of the Dark Mage’s status was very important to the profession. The reason why Dark Mages had a hard time finding successors was because their public image was not very good. The population viewed Dark Mages as wicked folk, so how could they be willing to learn Dark element magic?

But this method was also very difficult to implement, there may even be nobles who wouldn’t agree, but it was still worth a try. If it succeeds, then it would certainly be very good for the Dark Mage profession.

Smith stopped pacing, then he turned to look at Zhao Hai, “Brother, your method is very good. I’ll have to represent all Dark Mages in expressing our gratitude.”

Zhao Hai replied with a smile, “This method is actually very difficult to do, I only provided the idea. But there is another thing that I hope Brother Smith would do.”

Smith looked puzzled at Zhao Hai, “Brother, tell me.”

Zhao Hai nodded and said, “I hope that Brother can persuade the league that if the plan became successful, they should create a disciplinary team to deal with those people who do evil using Dark Magic. Only then would the image of the Dark Mages be changed in the eyes of the continent.”

Smith stared blankly as he pondered about the Dark Magic disciplinary team, this wasn’t something he thought of before. To increase their strength, some Dark Mages would perform massacres of the common people. Some would kill others to turn them into undead. These things were quite common among Dark Mages. If Zhao Hai’s disciplinary team were to be established, then these people wouldn’t be allowed to do these deeds anymore. In this case, the overall strength of the Dark Mages would certainly drop. This was not something that was good for the profession.

Zhao Hai looked at Smith and knew what he was thinking about. Zhao Hai had already been in the Ark Continent for quite some time, so he knew what Dark Mages were really like. He could even confidently say that the current image of the Dark Mages were 50% caused by the Radiant Church, while the other 50% were caused by the Dark Mages themselves.1

A Dark Mage’s offensive methods were way worse than the other departments, while also having a slow rate of progression. This made the Dark Mages in the continent resort to evil methods to quickly improve their strength. They would turn people into undead for a quick boost in their fighting capabilities. This fact was used to degrade the image of Dark Mages, causing even more people to be unwilling to embark on the profession.

In Zhao Hai’s mind, these deeds were a path of no return. The Dark Mages could certainly increase their strength in a short period of time, but in exchange their mental states would become unstable. This would make the progress in their rank quite hard in the future, forcing them to perform evil deeds once more.

A Mage’s essence is Magic, your qualitative strength would only increase if you reach a higher rank. But Dark Mages actually focused on making more undead, placing the importance of ranking up behind, this was not the correct way.

This would not only make them fail to reach another level, they also killed innocent people which caused the populace to view them even lower, causing the profession’s reputation to plummet.

Therefore, establishing this disciplinary team was a necessity. Zhao Hai looked at Smith and said seriously, “Brother Smith, if our plan succeeds, there is no other way to make the success continue other than to establish this disciplinary team. We may help people in their problems, but if another Dark Mage goes on and kill innocent people, our efforts would certainly go down the drain.”

Smith took a deep breath and replied, “Good, then I will promise you that if our operation succeeds, we will establish this disciplinary team. But on the condition that you will join said team.”

Zhao Hai stared blankly, he didn’t expect Smith to pull him over to the disciplinary team. He laughed and said, “Very well, but you should know that our plan wouldn’t reach completion in a short period of time. We still have to wait a while before creating the group.”

Smith nodded, “Now I’ll have to send your idea over to the family, after all, they still have the final say in everything.” Speaking of this, Smith couldn’t help but sigh. Although he was Sky Water City’s Lord, he was only one of the successors of the Calci Family, not the Family Head itself. Although he thought that Zhao Hai’s ideas were very good, he couldn’t be sure about what the other people in the family would think.

Zhai Hai smiled faintly, “I only offered advice, there’s no need to follow it. Anyway, using it would bring us no harm, only benefits. Right then, I’ll head back now. Also, how are my ships going, have they been modified?”

Smith nodded, “They have been remodeled. You can get some people to drive them away tomorrow. How long will the Fire Fishes take to arrive?”

Zhao Hai smiled, “They should only take a few days, I just need to have the ships ready.” Then he stood up and prepared to leave. Smith escorted Zhao Hai out the door.

After Zhao Hai left, Smith immediately had all of Zhao Hai’s ideas written down and sent to the family. He feared that if he delayed in writing it, he would miss one or two key points.

When the people from the family received Smith’s letter, they were shocked to see the contents in it. Even the more-experienced members have not heard of such method before. Upon looking on the ideas in the letter, the family knew without even implementing them that these methods would produce very substantial effects.

The family immediately told the nobles about the means to prevent the Radiant Church from establishing its influence on their territories. Also, the family knew that Zhao Hai’s methods needed to be done gradually. If they just send in Dark Mages to cure the nobles’ citizens, they certainly would think that there was something odd going on. Even if there was nothing bad going on, the nobles were certainly not stupid.

So what they needed to do right now was to first start their propaganda of promoting the negative aspects of the Radiant Church, spreading the word to as many citizens as possible. They also planned the anti-Radiant Church lectures on schools. With this, the nobles wouldn’t need to worry about the church seeping into their territory.

The nobles agreed with the Calci Family’s methods, they weren’t dumb, they knew how useful these methods could be.

At the same time, the Calci Family immediately implemented Zhao Hai’s methods in their territory. They didn’t worry about suspicions since there were already a lot of Dark Mages roaming around their territory in the first place. The citizens also knew that they were under the rule of Dark Mages, so they weren’t very displeased with their presence. This gave the Calci Family a reason to instantly implement Zhao Hai’s idea of having Dark Mages cure ordinary people.

Moreover, they expanded upon the proposed methods. Zhao Hai suggested to have a Dark Mage occasionally visit the sick in order to cure them, but the family instead scheduled a fixed schedule for a Dark Mage to visit a certain place. Not only did they give anti-Radiant Church lessons, they also gave a lesson about Dark Mage History among other things.

After hearing these movements, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but smile. He thought that he really did underestimate the people inside the Ark Continent, they certainly aren’t stupid, he only gave an idea, but they surprisingly added new novel ideas on top of it.

But these didn’t have anything to do with Zhao Hai right now. Currently, Zhao Hai, Laura and the others were onboard the Poseidon. The Poseidon was now completely transformed, it’s symbol was removed as well as having its name changed to Haven.

It was Laura wanted to change the ship’s name and Zhao Hai didn’t oppose to it. This time, he was the one to profited the most, he got tens of millions in gold coins in addition to the other items that he had looted. Most of all, he actually gained two ships! Also, he didn’t need to get commodities for the Haven since it was already filled with supplies from the very beginning.

When Zhao Hai looked at the commodities present, he saw that they were also some items that the Beastmen needed. Although some of them weren’t of any value, Zhao Hai didn’t care. Come next spring, they could just sell these things to the Beastmen in the prairie. This time, he just wanted to use his two ships.

Manning the ship were the undead sailors who didn’t need rest. This made it possible for Zhao Hai to transform the crowded cabin into a luxurious place for living. He changed some storage places as well as some of the living quarters into what he thought would be a good place to live on. This made the Haven the most luxurious ship present in the Ark Continent.

This time’s voyage wasn’t just to stock up some fire fishes onto the ship, the group also had another important matter that they would like to accomplish. They wanted to head towards the deep parts of the sea and absorb a portion of it to see if the Space would get some upgrades.

…

Zhao Hai placed some chairs on the deck of the ship while he sipped on some tea as he looked at the sea. Because the Haven was a ship which had five masts, it moved very steadily on the water. So the group didn’t worry so much and just enjoyed cruising on the water.

Also, while heading towards the deep parts of the sea, they also wanted to find an uninhabited island to establish a base in. Zhao Hai planned to leave some undead on this island to guard it. This would make their future sea travels much more convenient.

Other forces couldn’t easily establish bases on islands on the sea. This was because they needed to consider the weather, the food for their personnel as well as their drinking water. Zhao Hai didn’t need to worry about these stuff since he will only let undead guard the island. As for the storms, the undead were durable enough to endure them.

Even when they themselves were to stay on the island, they still didn’t need to worry since they still had the Space. Also, even if they travel for years in the sea, they still wouldn’t have any problems.

What Zhao Hai was worried about was the distance of the island to the Ark Continent. He wanted an island that couldn’t be easily seen but was still at a short distance from the continent. Moreover, the island shouldn’t have strong Magic Beasts, otherwise, the undead would always get assaulted by these Magic Beasts.

…

To be honest, observing the sea while cruising was really a pleasant thing to do. Laura who hadn’t done this before was very curious.

When they went out, Megan actually wanted to join them. But Smith didn’t agree, this was also the reason why Megan had been very mad at her father these past few days.

Zhao Hai also didn’t want Megan to come with them, he didn’t want to expose his greatest secret which was the Space. If Megan joined Zhao Hai’s group, they wouldn’t be able to hide inside the Space when a huge problem came.They couldn’t just leave Megan outside wouldn’t they? Megan not able to join was in line with Zhao Hai’s intentions.

Laura placed her cup down and sighed, “The sea is really beautiful when it is this calm. But it’s very scary when it storms. Fortunately we have the Space, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed a few days ago.

The group were already at sea for seven days. A few days ago, they were suddenly buffeted by a huge storm. Even though the Haven could withstand most troubles because of its build, the might of nature was not one of them. With a storm that huge, if Zhao Hai didn’t have the Space, the Haven would certainly be shredded to pieces. They just waited out the storm inside the Space.

After the storm had passed, Zhao Hai released the Haven again as they travelled onward. Although they didn’t experience the storm firsthand, they were still terrified of it just by the seeing its projection on the monitor.

Zhao Hai smiled faintly, “The sea is like a moody god. If she was calm, she will warmly welcome us into her bosom as we swim on it. But if she was angry, she would certainly rip you to pieces. But this is the charm of the sea.”

Laura agreed, although they were terrified of the storm a few days ago, they couldn’t deny the fact that the calm sea was very beautiful.

Laura looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Brother Hai, when will you absorb some seawater into the Space? I want to see what the sea looked like inside the Space.”

…

1.The matter of getting undead could actually be solved with Zhao Hai’s method, albeit quite slowly. If Dark Mages help people, there certainly would be some of them who would be willing to serve the Mages after death as paying a debt of gratitude. This may even make creating advanced level undead easier if there’s some soul aspect in it since the owner of the body is willing to be turned into undead. I don’t know, food for thought. Comment your ideas below, let’s discuss. XD