“What? You, a human being from the alternate realms, can actually get the title of a Viscount?”

“We may really survive if we follow him. Just think back—weren’t we putting our lives at stake every day anyway, during all these years of endless plunder on the seas? For heaven’s’ sake, we will hug our guns even when we were asleep! When had we ever rested with the peace of mind? And no, I don’t want to die now, I still want to enjoy life!”

“You, human being from the alternate realms, you need to swear by your words!”

Several of the pirates were being somewhat convinced, and the colors of their names which floated above their heads changed rapidly between red and green. This showed that they were having huge internal struggles on whether to trust Lin Jie.

However, there was a pirate who had only 15% of his health bar left, and his name remained consistently red. He stared viciously at Lin Jie with a savage expression, his fists clenched tightly beside his body. It was as if he was trying to hide his emotions and wait for the best chance to strike.

Lin Jie put on a cold smile—such was the privileges he enjoyed as a player: he could make use of information like the colors of names to predict NPCs’ future reactions! He raised the Silent Killer, aimed at this particular pirate, and shouted, “I don’t need to make any oaths, because if you don’t believe me, you will only face one outcome: death! Just like him!”

Bang bang bang bang bang—

The Silent Killer shot out five bullets, and within the blink of an eye, this pirate’s chest was being penetrated. His remaining health points were not high to begin with, and after this series of shots, he dropped down dead.

“You…” Another pirate wanted to launch an attack at Lin Jie, but Lin Jie aimed the Silent Killer at him, his eyes cold and void of any emotions.

“I surrender!”

“Me too!”

At this moment, two of the pirates’ names finally settled down on green color, and they surrendered to Lin Jie. The rest of the pirates looked at each other and chose to surrender one by one, putting down their weapons on the floor.

Lin Jie scanned the pirates in front of him and made sure that these pirates did not have any intentions to attack him for the time being. Following which, he had to think of an idea to evade the Holy Church’s interrogation. However, before all these, he still had to take care of a big treasure—more accurately, two treasure chests!

Correct, it was those two treasure chests that were originally supposed to be Baili Xuanyuan’s income for selling the slaves. One contained 100,000 gold coins, while the other held unknown items. Lin Jie kept all the gold coins into his backpack and ordered the pirates to fill that chest with all sorts of waste before dumping it into the sea.

‘What’s inside this chest then? From what Simon revealed, it seems like this chest contains something which can help to expand Baili Xuanyuan’s slave trading business?’ Lin Jie opened up the other chest and saw that it was filled fully with palm-sized bags containing pink powder.

Pink Velvet Flower Powder: This is a material that can be used in Potionery, Smithing, and Cooking.

Lin Jie’s lips twitched involuntarily—so this was it, the Pink Velvet Flower! No wonder Baili Xuanyuan would send all the slaves here despite the long journey it took.

The Pink Velvet Flower grew within the oceans’ coral reefs. They looked like dandelions, and it was extremely hard to discover them—even if one found them, they wouldn’t be able to pick them because these Pink Velvet Flowers were ‘Superior-grade’ herbs. Before one’s Herbology achieved Superior-grade, the chances of failing to gather these flowers were as high as 99%. This was a Potionery material that could be used to produce Anesthetic Poisons and Paralytic Potions. At the same time, this was a required material for Lightning Mages to cast their advanced magic, and it could also be used for Cooking Studies.

The Pink Velvet Flower was equivalent to the poppies of the real world—not referring to the poppy capsules, but the poppy flowers! Three sets of Pink Velvet Flower could be made into one set of Pink Velvet Flower Powder, and one could just imagine its potency. If one whole packet of the Pink Velvet Flower Powder was thrown into a pot of soup, this soup would be extra fragrant, and no one could resist it. However, the price of consuming the soup would be to fall into a deep sleep for a few days following that, unless they were awoken by some special stimulus.

One packet of such powder could easily take down any human-sized living creature who did not have capabilities as powerful as a Level 60 Gold-tiered Boss. As for Beast-type monsters, as they generally had stronger physiques than human beings, it would require more of such power to take them down.

In fact, if one used it well, this whole chest of Pink Velvet Flower Powder could take down all the Dragonites in the Moratti Shrine!

‘These items are simply too great to throw away! I must make it mine!’

These items must not be found by the Holy Church! Yet Lin Jie’s backpack wouldn’t be able to hold so many items.

An idea occurred to Lin Jie, and he closed the chest, dumping it down into the sea swiftly with all the Pink Velvet Flower Powder intact.

“All of you here, the Holy Church Navy is about to arrive. Surrender all of your equipment, weapons, potions, and secretly kept items to me. We, the human beings from the alternate realms, all have Space backpacks. No one can discover these items if I keep them into my backpack. Or else, you will be condemned to your deaths if such items are found by the Holy Church!” cried Lin Jie urgently. The pirates looked at the arriving ships, gritted their teeth, and removed everything from their bodies.

Ding~

—’You received two gold coins.’

—’You received Pirate’s Cap from the Pirate Miler (Gold).’

—’You received Pirate’s Coverall from the Pirate Miler (Gold).’

—’You received Pirate’s Boots from the Pirate Miler (Gold).’

…

Lin Jie’s backpack was soon filled up with 20 full sets of Level 40 Gold grade Pirate Sets (including weapons), 56 gold coins, secretly kept Primordial coins, antiques, letters from the pirates’ family members and amulets. (Note: Due to the fact that all these are NPCs’ sets, they only occupy one space in his backpack.)

All these pirates were definitely desperate to save their own necks. If not, under normal circumstances, how would they ever remove all of their equipment?

The Level 40 Gold Pirate Sets did not have great basic attributes. However, when one gathered a full set, there would be an additional effect for the wearer: it would increase Pirate-type skills’ effects by three levels, but this would not be usable for players.

‘All these sets are damn good!’ A shiver ran down Lin Jie’s spine—no wonder these people were the Simon Pirates, even the equipment they carried was so strong!

At the moment, the Holy Church Navy approached them. A fleet of 40 ships from the Holy Church Navy surrounded the Flying-Wing Cargo Ship, and the reputed Knight Leader ‘Cade’ stood at a ship bow. Holy Light surrounded him, and he looked simply magnificent.

All of the 20 Enhanced Elite level pirates lie down naked on the ship’s deck. This was upon Lin Jie’s orders, and they were supposed to be feigning death. Of course, to make the act looked real, Lin Jie gave them each numerous strikes with his swords, and they were all left with just the tiniest bit of health points.

Lin Jie stood at the Flying-Wing Cargo Ship ship’s bow, and shouted loudly, “Help! I am an adventurer from the City of Light! Paladins, I need your help!”

Wu Dongdong stood beside the Paladin Cade, and shock was written all over his face. He cried, “Big brother!”

With a wave of his hands, Cade stopped Wu Dongdong’s replies. He opened his mouth and spoke in a calm, but absolutely loud voice. All at once, it was as if there was a train traveling past a tunnel and giving out loud rumbling sounds. Some of the sea waves even subsided due to his booming voice.

Such was the prowess of an advanced level Paladin!

“Any evidence?”

“I am Fu Sheng, the Viscount from the City of Light.”

The Knight Leader Cade was in charge of armed combat, and he had a high position within the Holy Church. Naturally, a mere rising Viscount from the City of Light was not what he would pay attention to. He asked some questions from the Priest standing beside him, nodded his head and continued interrogating, “What are you doing here?”

Lin Jie was angered. “Saving people! I was upon orders from the Warrior mentor to kill the Stray·Emilia, and I discovered how the Simon Pirates were trading slaves! To uphold justice, my sailors and I fought to disrupt the transaction!”

“Oh? So it was you who killed the Stray? No wonder the voyagers reported to us that they were able to navigate the seas more safely recently. However…”

“Viscount, you are not a Navigator, how can you command your sailors to fight for you? I guess you are also not the owner of this Flying-Wing Cargo Ship? Last but not least, you mentioned that you stopped the slave trade. Where are the slaves then?”

Lin Jie was dumbfounded, and he felt even more resentful of this Knight Leader Cade. Although these pirates were hurt on purpose but weren’t they still considered living people? Considering his job as a Paladin, how could he ignore saving people and focused on the interrogation process first?

In Lin Jie’s previous life, he had interacted once with the Knight Leader Cade. He was an extremely inflexible character, and in the game’s expansion pack ‘The Rule of Liches’, as Cade was unable to accept the fact that Dark Liches were allowed to roam the main cities freely as commoners, he betrayed the authorities. In fact, Cade led a troop of soldiers and started attacking various major cities, and his attempt almost became the background story for another expansion pack.

‘Damn you, after I manage to deceive you, I definitely will let you have a taste of the Pink Velvet Flower!’ Lin Jie licked his lips and shouted, “Don’t you care about saving these poor lads’ lives?”

“If you are our enemy, you have no need to live.”

Both sides were reluctant to let either party pass.

Wu Dongdong was trying to speak good terms for Lin Jie frantically, but with a wave of Cade’s hands, he was being Silenced. All the other sailors who knew Lin Jie were also being chained up by the Holy Light Chains, and they could only witness the whole scene helplessly.

Lin Jie hugged his arms and laughed coldly, “You just want to see how I can fight on the seas? If not, I will be considered as Pagan followers?”

Cade smiled and gave his silent consent.

“Fine, fine! Nagas, come out now!” Lin Jie took out the Naga’s Trident and cried loudly. Ripples appeared on the calm sea surface, and the scaled Nagas emerged from the seas, their snake-like bodies with their four limbs visible for all to see. They stared silently at all the people upon the Holy Church ships.

Cade was shocked.

“You—you actually manage to enslave Nagas? Not bad, no wonder you were unstoppable on the seas. If one said that Mermaids are the Light at sea, then Nagas will be their Dark equivalents. Alright, you gained my trust—considering how you can command them, you are worthy of my respect!”

Ding~

—System prompt message: Your Reputation points within the City of Light are decreased by 2,000 points. Your Support from the Civilians is lowered by 20%.

Lin Jie’s heart skipped a beat. ‘That darn fellow!’

Ignoring those pretty words which seemed to be praising him, Lin Jie could see clearly that Cade had his guard up against himself. This Knight Leader was like the Light Sword Saint Mogata, and both were extremely hateful of anything that was related to the Dark. If not for the fact that Lin Jie had earned huge credit by killing the Stray, he would have just killed him directly!

2,000 Reputation points—Lin Jie would have to do tens of missions or get numerous First clears of dungeons to earn those points back. Most importantly, he had lost the support from civilians, and there were no known ways of increasing that as of yet.

A cold look flashed past Lin Jie’s eyes as he shouted, “Nagas, pass the wounded slaves to them.”

The Nagas respected Lin Jie’s commands and transferred the wounded slaves onto the Holy Church ships. In fact, Gion threw up the water-swollen Baizhan Yusheng onto one of the ship’s deck, wetting the entire ship’s floor.

NPCs could breathe underwater, but Baizhan Yusheng could not! After Gion dragged him down and remained in the sea for 10 plus minutes, he almost choked and suffocated to his death.

The kind Priests immediately started healing the slaves, while Lin Jie and Cade still stared coldly at each other on their ships.

After a long moment, Cade waved his hands and commanded, “Soldiers, keep this Flying-Wing Cargo Ship and bring it back. Lord Viscount, you should leave here with us. The seas are dangerous, and is not meant for someone like you.”

“Wait a minute!” cried Lin Jie loudly.

“This Flying-Wing Cargo Ship belongs to me!”

After all, a Flying-Wing Cargo Ship was worth millions! He would definitely do anything to keep this ship, even at the sake of risking his own life!