Chapter 68: Fighting Pirates With Pirates
Aboard the deck of the Barracuda, a large group of people knelt in front of Su Chen. It was the pirates who had surrendered.
âThereâs 162 people in total, including one Yang Opening Realm cultivator, eighteen Blood Boiling Realm cultivators, and forty-one Origin Qi Scholars. The deceased include a Yang Opening Realm cultivator, five Blood Boiling Realm cultivators, and twelve Qi Drawing Realm cultivators,â Iron Cliff reported to Su Chen as he read off of the roster.
Su Chenâs gaze fell on the pirate who was kneeling the closest to him.
It was the blade-wielding Yang Opening Realm cultivator. He was called Jiao Yingguang and had the Stone Sickle Beast Bloodline. He was quite strong.
Su Chen already knew that the group of pirates they had annihilated was called the Third River Army. They were a mid-tier group of pirates within Lingyuan Marsh and had a certain amount of fame. Today, however, they had been bagged up all at once.
âHow are you planning on dealing with this group of people? Are you going to kill them all, or are you going to hand them over to the authorities?â Tang Ming asked.
Tang Ming had always been prideful, but ever since the expedition to Goldwater Ruins, Su Chen had become someone that he at least respected. But if you were to listen to him, he would say that he only respected Su Chenâs way of dealing with things, not his strengthâŠâŠ Haha, now that everyone is in the Blood Boiling Realm, he canât rely on his cultivation base alone to suppress me.
At this moment, he was asking Su Chen because he wanted to see how Su Chen was going to deal with them.
Su Chen replied, âHand them over to the authorities? I am a government official. What need is there to hand them over to anyone? As for killing themâŠâŠâ
He purposefully stretched out his words. The pirates below him began to tense up, and some even began to cry out with fear, begging for mercy.
âSo many people and so much combat power â it would be a waste to kill them. In addition, we already said that we wouldnât kill them if they surrendered. Eating our own words like that wouldnât be appropriate.â
Everyone sighed simultaneously with relief.
Only Jiang Hanfeng curled his lips. âYou didnât say that you were going to keep your word when you killed the head of the pirates earlier.â
Wu Xiao kicked him, reminding him that this was not the time for friends to butt in, but Su Chen didnât mind. He continued, âIn fact, this kind of thing has a precedent. Wouldnât you say so, Iron Cliff?â
Iron Cliff scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. âYes. Hand them over to me, and I can train them to adhere to you. Isnât that where our guys came from?â
Su Chenâs current underlings were all former mountain bandits; adding in a group of pirates to the mix wouldnât be that strange.
One of the mountain bandits said loudly, âYou donât need to fear, either. As long as you follow our master, nothing bad will happen to you. We used to be bandits in the Four Flats region, but we were captured by our master because we tried to rob him. Unexpectedly, we became his servants, and he has even bestowed mystical techniques on us. Did you see the Dragonfish Transformation from earlier? That was a blessing our master gave to us.â
âThatâs right. As long as you follow along obediently and become useful to him, youâll have an opportunity to continue living.â
âBut if anyone tries to be two-faced and betray our master, I promise you that you will suffer a fate that is ten thousand times more painful than death.â
âHaha, actually, master really likes it when people try to betray him. He never thinks that he has enough research subjects.â
âThatâs right, but becoming a research subject isnât that bad either. If your luck is good, you might even be able to become like Old Second Chang and have your strength soar.â
âHahahaha, thatâs exactly right!â
The group of mountain bandits began to chuckle and laugh amongst each other.
Su Chen was always strict and firm. No one would believe that Su Chen hadnât instructed this group of people to chuckle and laugh like this.
Those pirates, however, didnât know this. When they heard those words, hope began to rise in their hearts. One after another, they began to yell, âWe are willing to die for master!â
Su Chen said lazily, âAs long as youâre willing to listen, thatâs good enough. You donât need to die for me. If you really werenât afraid of dying, you wouldnât have surrendered so easily. But now that youâre in my hands, Iâm not worried that you wonât sell your lives to me. You donât know some things right now, but you will know eventually. Just like those guys said, I am very happy when you make mistakes. Iron Cliff trained these bastards too well, and now that they donât make mistakes, I am always somewhat lacking in research subjects. If you arenât afraid, then go ahead and try to challenge me.â
Those pirates felt their hearts tremble with fear. They had no idea what kind of person their master was, who would await day after day for his underlings to make mistakes. In addition, the former mountain bandits had been trained into a group of household guards. They originally should have been completely disorganized, but now each one of them was quite useful. This truly was somewhat inconceivable.
Su Chen didnât want them to figure out the clues in what he had said. He then said, âAlright, go ahead and take them down. Once Iâve made some medicine for them to drink, you can bring them up again for training.â
âYes, sir.â Some people stepped forward and led the captives down into the interior of the boat.
After they had all been taken away, Su Chen said to Tang Ming and the others, âIâm not planning on bringing these people back with me.â
âDidnât you say that you wanted them to submit to you?â Jiang Hanfeng was confused.
Su Chen shook his head. âThey should submit to me, but that doesnât mean that I want to turn them into my household guards. Jiangfeng, Tang Ming, I have an idea, but I need your support for it to work out.â
âWhat?â
âIâm planning on rebuilding the Third River Army.â
âWhat?â Everyone present was stunned.
âRebuild the Third River Army?â
âYes! Rebuild the Third River Army,â Su Chen said confidently. âThe issue of the Lingyuan pirates isnât something that can be resolved with a single battle. The Third River Army is just a small component of all of the Lingyuan pirates, and they arenât even that critical. Furthermore, they donât belong to the Clear River City Bloodline Nobility Clans. If we want to attack the Clear River City Bloodline Nobility Clan Alliance and clear out the Lingyuan pirates, we cannot be constantly starting and stopping in our attempts to exterminate them; it needs to be a continuous fight.â
âContinuous fightâŠâŠâ Tang Ming was beginning to understand Su Chenâs intentions. âYou want toâŠâŠâ
âFight pirates with pirates!â Su Chen replied.
He would establish a group of pirates in Lingyuan Marsh belonging to himself, creating internal strife and using pirates to fight pirates while at the same time targeting the trade convoys belonging to the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans.
In these past few years, the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans had relied on their influence to control the waterways and monopolize the natural resources, obtaining massive benefits from themselves.
Now, however, Su Chen had interfered with their resources, then dealt a serious blow to their transportation of those resources.
By this method, he could constantly weaken his opponentsâ influence and keep their hands full with dealing with him.
Today, the ten Bloodline Nobility Clansâ conflict with the villagers in West River Forest was still ongoing. Now, with this disaster on the waterways, their attention would be further diverted, giving Su Chen a lot of time to work with.
And time was what Su Chen desperately needed.
Every day that went by, Su Chen would grow a bit stronger, and his opponents would grow a bit weaker.
Dealing with the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans was going to be a weighty and lengthy project. Su Chen was not in a hurry.
In addition, apart from the ten Bloodline Nobility Clans, there was an even more dangerous opponent waiting in hiding who hadnât appeared yet.
Before dealing with that enemy, Su Chen couldnât waste too much of his attention and resources on the Bloodline Nobility Clans.
Let them fight amongst themselves.
Tang Ming understood what he was thinking. âBut if thatâs the case, it is going to take quite a long time. After all, you still need to return to Clear River City to take care of the situation there.â
âThatâs right. Thatâs why Iâll need to rely on you guys for what happens here.â
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