Chapter 289: Section 77: Infiltrating the Fishman Village
Justice, Captain’s quarters.
Cang Xu, holding a list, reported slowly, “In this battle, our side suffered twelve deaths and sixty-five injuries.”
“The sails were damaged, seventeen in total, and the masts and hull that need repairing are estimated to require four days.”
“Three Bronze Level cannons were destroyed, over a hundred Bronze Level cannonballs were used, and twelve Silver Level cannonballs.”
…
The youth sat behind the desk, quietly listening throughout.
...
Compared to the previous battles, the consumption of cannonballs had increased significantly.
The main reason was that the Sea Giants, with their enormous bodies and slow movement, were very obvious targets.
In this battle, these cannons indeed made a considerable contribution. Many cannonballs were lost, but they also played their roles effectively.
After Cang Xu finished reporting the losses, he spoke about the complete tally of spoils from the battle.
The Justice Pirate Group had reaped a substantial reward from this battle.
The corpse of a Silver Level Sea Giant was their largest gain.
The youth did not use the Blood Core to absorb it, although the Sea Giant’s Bloodline fit the criteria the youth was looking for.
Firstly, the body was salvaged on the spot, making it inappropriate for the youth to act alone.
Secondly, everyone saw it happen, and even if the youth later ordered it to be absorbed secretly, it would raise suspicions.
Thirdly, even if the youth absorbed it, it would only be a fragment of a Silver Bloodline, not enough to give the youth any significant enhancement.
The gains were far less than the risks, so the youth was unwilling to take that risk.
Apart from the Sea Giant’s corpse, the piles of Fishman corpses and Fishman prisoners also provided Cang Xu with a large number of experimental subjects and materials for manufacturing Soul Crystals.
There were also some benefits that weren’t apparent.
For example, the combat experience gained by the pirates from this battle. According to Zong Ge’s words, the training effect from actual combat was tremendous, and the entire pirate group was becoming increasingly elite.
Moreover, to prepare for exploring the Sea God’s temple, some Underwater Breathing Potions were specially used in this battle, allowing some Transcendent Level pirates to enter the water and fight the Fishmen.
“The gains far outweigh the losses, but it’s not advisable for the pirate group to continue deeper into the Sea Eye,” the youth told Cang Xu.
Cang Xu nodded, agreeing with the youth’s assessment. He thought the same.
In fact, not only him, but Zong Ge and Ashen-one also thought likewise.
According to current intelligence, there are stronger indigenous forces in the Sea Eye. The fleet would need to deal with even more powerful enemies as they ventured further.
In the recent combat, facing a Silver Level Sea Giant required Zong Ge and Ashen-one to join forces.
Facing more powerful indigenous forces would expose the Justice Pirate Group to greater risks, especially since these indigenous leaders were becoming more intelligent, which was a major concern for the higher-ups of the Justice Pirate Group.
Because with intelligence comes the ability to strategize and possibly ally with each other.
“How much longer can our supplies last?” the youth asked again.
Cang Xu immediately answered, “By conservative estimates, at least one hundred twenty-seven days.”
This was a very accurate figure, as after their experience on Mysterious Monster Island, Cang Xu had placed great importance on supplies, recalculating them every one or two days.
“In fact,” Cang Xu said with a smile, “we might be able to last even longer. On one hand, we will reduce personnel. On the other, we can fish locally.”
“The Sea Eye area is rich in resources, and there are many sea fish. Lan Zao has been showboating lately; he could catch enough to feed half of the pirate crew for three meals with one net.”
“How are the modifications to the ship coming along?” the youth asked again.
Faced with this question, Cang Xu finally showed a troubled expression, a departure from his previous calm demeanor.
In preparation for the expedition to the Sea God’s temple, the upper echelons of the Justice Pirate Group decided to modify all the ships to better resist water pressure and to be able to dive and resurface for short periods.
Cang Xu said gravely, “Excluding the supply ships, five ships have been modified at New Moon Port with a series of inlet and outlet water devices. During the voyage, I’ve been installing purchased devices on other sea ships. Currently, two ships remain unmodified.”
“But after this step, we still need to coat five other ships with a layer of crystal veneer.”
“This veneer can cover the surface of a ship, helping it resist water pressure. It was very popular once, but in recent years, it has been supplanted by the Empire’s metal coating alchemy technology, which is why it isn’t much used nowadays.”
Only the Empire mastered this metal coating alchemy technology.
Cang Xu could not master this technology.
“I’m just an Undead Mage, at the Black Iron Level,” Cang Xu sighed to the captain before him, “Recently, while I’ve been researching Memory Crystals, it’s become more and more evident that we need to hire a trustworthy Alchemist.”
In the Justice Pirate Group, the busiest was not the Dragon-man youth or Zong Ge, but Cang Xu.
This elderly man had to manage and report on the entire pirate group’s affairs, secretly research Memory Crystals, and also create Soul Crystals. Besides this, he had to maintain his daily Mage practice, such as meditation and practicing spells. For writing ‘Evolution Theory,’ he could only squeeze in a little time each day.
“Fortunately, my body has been modified using Undead Magic, so I only need one or two hours of sleep each day.”
“Not to exaggerate, but joining the pirate group was the busiest time of my life. Sometimes, I couldn’t even rest for several days.”
The youth quickly spoke to reassure the old scholar in front of him.
Cang Xu shook his head, “Sir, I’m not complaining to you or trying to take credit. It’s just very difficult to make any new progress with the Memory Crystals.”
“To be honest, being able to reproduce the use of the Soul Crystal array already feels like a great achievement to me.”
“In the field of alchemy, my meager Mage talent offers very little help.”
Currently, the Justice Pirate Group had an alchemy device for making Memory Crystals.
It was the one Zi Di had once used for Zhenjin.
However, no matter how Cang Xu tried, he could not use this device to forcibly extract memories from his targets.
Cang Xu experimented on quite a few Fishmen.
Out of a hundred Fishmen, only a few succeeded.
But the memories contained in the created Memory Crystals were incredibly fragmented and disjointed, rendering them utterly useless.
And the fate of those Fishmen who were forcibly extracted was very bleak—they either went mad or died from brain explosions.
In summary, this Memory Crystal Manufacturing Device could only allow users with a subjective will to successfully and safely produce valuable Memory Crystals.
“I’m very sorry, sir,” Cang Xu said apologetically. “We can’t use this method to torture out the Fishman Language, the Fighting Enegies and Combat Skills used by Fishmen, or the intelligence about the Fishman forces in the Sea Eye.”
“No need, I already know how to speak the Fishman Language,” the youth kept this remark to himself and outwardly sighed along with Cang Xu. “There’s too much missing information.”
“I think instead of an Alchemist, we need a powerful Thief who can bring in abundant information.”
“Just now in the battle, there was actually a traitor among the Fishmen!”
“Without the sneak attack from that brown-scaled Fishman, we couldn’t have won so easily. Unfortunately, we didn’t capture that brown-scaled Fishman.”
“This shows that the powers within the Sky Pillar Sea Eye are complex and fraught with many contradictions. As outsiders, if we had reliable and sufficient information, we could navigate well among these forces.”
“What a pity,” the youth sighed.
“Yes. Everything happened too quickly,” Cang Xu lamented.
The youth continued, “In that case, I’ll just have to board the Deep Sea Monster Fish alone and explore the depths of the sea.”
“Captain, isn’t that a bit risky? You should at least bring one or two Transcendent Silvers with you…” Cang Xu was interrupted by the youth before he could finish.
“It’s not necessary to waste valuable military resources. Even if they came to help me, their aid would be limited at the bottom of the sea.”
“The Deep Sea Monster Fish and Tower Spirit are my greatest allies.”
“You consume these Fishman captives quickly in the coming days and produce Soul Crystals. I’ll need the ship soon; the time for the Sky Pillar to rise is not far off.”
Cang Xu nodded, “Understood, sir.”
The youth kept the secret that the brown-scaled Fishman was actually an disguised operative of his own.
He could have justified it to others using the pretext of Beastification People.
But there was no need.
To do so would be superfluous.
Days later, the youth left the fleet in the care of Cang Xu and Zong Ge, announcing that he was going into seclusion to cultivate. In reality, he boarded the Deep Sea Monster Fish and plunged into the Sea Eye.
In a sea trench, he hid the Deep Sea Monster Fish well and transformed himself into a Fishman, swimming out alone.
As planned, he “accidentally” encountered a Fishman merchant caravan that had been scouted by the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
The youth blocked the caravan’s path.
The caravan leader was also a brown-scaled Fishman, clearly very old, with dull eyes.
The old brown-scaled Fishman was visibly stunned upon seeing the youth: “gralwm, wallral, mwalrl?” (Young fellow of the Fishman Race, what is your name? Impressive, did you kill these iron-skin batfish?)
Two Black Iron-level batfish lay beside the Fishman youth.
This was the introductory scenario the youth had crafted for himself.
“wmgrlll, mmmwagrl. (Of course, I killed them. My name is Bobo.)” The youth calmly replied while twirling the Black Iron-level scimitar in his hand, flaunting a few impressive moves.
The old Fishman’s pupils contracted, he opened his mouth wide, showing his decayed teeth, and laughed heartily, “mlwwl, wwmmgrrr. wglmaima? (Brother Bobo, to be so remarkable at such a young age is really pleasing. Are you selling your prey?)”
After a moment’s thought, the Fishman youth agreed to sell the two iron-skin batfish corpses to the old Fishman.
He took the opportunity to ask the old Fishman where they were heading.
Upon learning the name of a Fishman Town, the youth tilted his head thoughtfully and naturally said he was a bit tired from his arduous cultivation and decided to simply follow the old Fishman and his group to the Fishman village.
After hesitating for a moment, the old Fishman nodded and agreed to the youth’s request.