Chapter 626: Movement of the Pirates

Tan Mo used information to start choosing a suitable pirate.

First was Da Han.

He was a saint level warlock and a member of the Fire Beard Pirates; he founded the Icebound Pirates and was currently the Fire Beard Pirates’ fourth mate.

This position could change hands.

Tan Mo read the information, “At present, Da Han is leading his Icebound Pirates towards Ice Sculpture Island.”

“Accompanying him are many pirates that joined together to get a piece of the action.”

“It is worthy of a saint level ambience.”

One could say that gold level transcendents were the cornerstone of power and gold level experts could quell a city. For example, Snow Bird Harbor’s City Lord and the former lord of Two Eyes Island, Hun Tong.

Then saint levels were the upper echelons of transcendents. They were usually nation level powers. When there were significant operations, they caused wide ranging influence and surged like a gathering storm.

Like Da Han right now, obviously he was acting on his own, but the scene of it caused other pirate groups to flock to him, lifting a particularly vast wave that would batter into the orderly Ice Sculpture Kingdom.

The Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s strength was rich and powerful. Especially during the National Ceremony, where the kingdom was more ready to display its strength and would dispatch its navy more often.

Based on past National Ceremonies, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s orderliness would consolidate to unprecedented levels, and safety would substantially increase. The once lively pirates on Ice Sculpture Island would voluntarily retreat ninety li. 

But this year’s National Ceremony had Da Han as an unforeseen event.

Da Han’s decision to attack negatively impacted the safety of Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s periphery waters immensely.

If one was simply looking at the numbers, the Icebound Pirates only had one saint level, Da Han, while the Ice Sculpture Kingdom had three saint levels. The contrast in strength was stark.

But in reality, the situation was complicated, and such a simple contrast was unworkable.

Like Zong Ge said, this was the charm of military affairs! Military affairs were never as simple as comparing military power, if that was done, then there was no need for war, and both sides would just fight to the death. Wouldn’t it be simple to judge who would win or lose based on who had more troops?

This was obviously out of the question.

Although the Ice Sculpture Kingdom had more saint levels, they were tied up in other things.

The Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s three saint levels were the king, the royal magician, and the White Dragon King.

Each had a high position and their respective affairs. To say nothing of death, if one went missing or left for some time, it was enough to cause massive waves and even cause their organizations to break down to a degree.

Therefore, when Da Han was coming to invade, the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s reply was no simple matter.

The kingdom had many things to be concerned about.

On the face of it, it seemed that they could dispatch a saint level to openly intercept Da Han.

In actuality, it was very difficult to decide who to dispatch.

The king?

He was the kingdom’s ruler, how could he recklessly move like that? No matter what, he would never be the first to enter the battlefield.

The White Dragon King? She controlled the white dragon community and was only an ally of the Ice Sculpture royal family.

The royal magician seemed to be the most appropriate. But he had countless daily affairs and needed to preside over the Warm Snow Cup as the anchor for this grand occasion. He also had important interests that demanded his attention, especially the Ice Lake Grand Formation, which was giving the royal magician unprecedented concerns.

Excluding the problem of who to send, there was also the consideration of security.

Was this the strategy of another enemy? They might be using Da Han as bait to lure in an Ice Sculpture Kingdom saint level, then perhaps ambush them when they had them alone?

This was possible.

Because the Fire Beard Pirates was a legend level force, don’t even mention their leader Fire Beard, they also had other saint levels in their ranks.

For example, it naturally is safer to stay behind in headquarters than to rush into the frontlines alone.

Even if one wanted to go out, they had to at least wait for information to clarify things.

How to get clear information?

The Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s intelligence apparatus was already working overtime and actively scouting out Da Han’s military situation.

Apart from that, there was the navy.

Once the navy and the Icebound pirates exchanged fire, there would be detailed and reliable information gleaned from the battle.

But if that happened, without a saint level overseeing the fleet, even if there are numerous gold levels and the newest warships, it would be very difficult to withstand Da Han directly.

If a confrontation occurred, there was bound to be losses.

But that in itself was normal procedures.

Through expending some of the navy, they could obtain sufficient time and information for the saint levels to move more correctly.

The standing navy were all elites, but the saint levels were far more important to the kingdom than they were. In the face of saint levels, these elites were mere cannon fodder.

All kinds of factors brought about the current situation.

Da Han was a saint level who led the Icebound Pirates, and he was making things difficult for the entire Ice Sculpture Kingdom.

One of the reasons he faintly held the advantage was that he grasped the initiative.

The pirates roamed beyond the coasts and could fight and retreat as they pleased.

Of course, Da Han would do his utmost to prevent himself from being outnumbered. Therefore, if two of the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s saint levels were dispatched together, he would immediately retreat.

Of course, someone like Da Han also took risks.

If it was in normal times, he wouldn’t be doing this. But right now, times are quite special – the Pirate Throne has appeared. Whichever pirates sat on that seat, became the Pirate King, the Pirate God!

One might as well ask, which pirate wouldn’t be excited by this?

“It’s very obvious Da Han is ambitious. He wants to plunder the Ice Sculpture Kingdom and steal a hefty sum to raise his rank on the Pirate Ship Sacred Monument.”

“The Ice Sculpture Kingdom will never sit back and watch this; they are merely waiting for enough information to move.”

“Da Han doing this while the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is holding the National Ceremony simply is urinating on the kingdom’s head. If the kingdom is unable to maintain stability over its territorial waters and protect the people joining the National Ceremony, then the Ice Sculpture Kingdom’s international prestige will undoubtedly take a dive and hit rock bottom.”

“The previous Ice Sculpture King was a legend level and could rely on personal strength to steady popular sentiment. But the current Ice Sculpture King is only a saint level, and compared to his grandfather, he has to maintain international prestige more!”

“This contest will no doubt be a saint level affair.”

“I’ll be a distant spectator to this liveliness. I cannot join in.”

Tan Mo turned over intelligence on Da Han, looking at the second page.

“Qian Xing…”

This pirate was also a saint level that was part of the Fire Beard Pirates.

But unlike the former, he was a loner and had no pirate group.

“He once appeared on Flower Skirt Island and fought against Cai Jing and Magician Da Bei. Ultimately, although he defeated his opponents, he was unable to obtain Great Master Fan Sheng Za Zhong’s inheritance. He also let Cai Jing, Da Bei, and others escape!”

“And based on the latest intelligence, Cai Jing has already joined the Ice Sculpture kingdom’s Alchemy Guild and became and elder who is currently in charge of unearthing the Great Master Fan Sheng Za Zhong’s other inheritances.”

“As for Qian Xing, he has been missing for a long time.”

Even if he was still around, Tan Mo had no way of finding and staging a show with him.

Qian Xing was less suitable than Da Han for this “performance”.

Because he was a solitary fighter, and unlike Da Han who looked after his underlings, Qian Xing had no people and was also very strong.

He would be more troublesome than Dan Han.

The third pirate intelligence report describes the pirate merchant Money Pot.

He was a water pigman, a gold level, and the commander of the Dread Firepower Pirates.

He was a famous arms merchant and one of the characteristics of his pirate group was their extreme amount of cannons.

Tan Mo evaluated it and felt that although Money Pot was only a gold level whose fighting strength nearly matched his own, he was not a compatible candidate for his performance.

On the one hand, the Dread Firepower Pirates had many gold levels. On the other hand, their pirate group’s long range firepower was too ferocious.

The fourth report had Feng Lian’s name written on it.

The latest information showed that Feng Lian had sailed his flagship, the Divine Wind, close to Snow Bird Harbor and came to the rescue of the Bayonet Gang remnants. Soon after, along their retreat path, their ships fought the kingdom’s second naval fleet.

Feng Lian’s recent activity was at some ocean beast’s lair. It could be determined that the ocean beast there was a saint level Cockscomb Ration Python.

Tan Mo looked through it and quickly vetoed choosing Feng Lian.

“I cannot treat Feng Lian as a normal gold level.”

Long ago, Feng Lian fled from a saint level while he was a gold level. In the newest intelligence, Feng Lian openly stood off against a saint level Cockscomb Ration Python, showing how bold and powerful he is.

“Although there isn’t information on his bloodline concentration, from his equipment and actual combat performance, one can see that Feng Lian’s bloodline concentration should be very high.”

“This kind of combat strength exceeds normal parameters and should be due to his high bloodline concentration enhancing it.”

“He might be a saint level seed!”

If Tan Mo wanted to utilize Feng Lian for his performance, it would be risky. Secondly, if Feng Lian becomes a saint level in the future, then wouldn’t he be offending a saint level? A saint level pirate at that!

The price was too high.

Tan Mo didn’t want to bear that.

There was another reason, it was the astonishing speed of Feng Lian’s Divine Wind Pirates. Their ships were all magic ships made on Gear Island, and their quality was ensured immensely.

“If we pick a fight with them, the Treasure Chest will be unable to escape, what will be done then?”

Being unable to escape was very embarrassing.

Tan Mo continued to browse the information reports.

He saw the Rope Pirates.

“This is a newly formed pirate group.”

“The commander is Archer Chuan Yun, and the auxiliary commander is Magician Huo Sheng, both of them were once famous bounty hunters.”

“Now they have renounced their old lives and turned to piracy.”

“Only two gold levels…not strong enough for me to ‘lose’ to.”

Tan Mo set them aside.

Next Tan Mo looked at the report on the Heroism Pirates.

This pirate group could work, their commander Ba Qi is very strong, and I am not their match.”

“Unfortunately, since resupplying on Flower Skirt Island, they haven’t appeared again.”

The information reports were finished.

Tan Mo’s brows were also wrinkled.

Don’t be fooled by the number of pirates, he unexpectedly didn’t find a suitable candidate.