Black Sail
Chapter 207: CCVII. Triumph

Chapter 207: CCVII. Triumph

Nine days later.

November 27.

The SS Fuma Keqing Revenge had already sailed into the territorial waters of Heaven Port.

A beam of red lighthouse light, misleading passing ships to run aground, swept around as if calling from the edge of the world.

Shipwreck Bay had been reached.

Acting as the temporary helmsman, Claude also deftly turned the helm to the left.

The vertical coordinate of Heaven Port was higher than that of Londen City, and even at noon, the sky was obscured by a thick layer of leaden haze, allowing not even a beam of light to penetrate, only scattering behind the grey clouds.

Feathery large snowflakes drifted in the slow wind, all pirates had thickened their clothes with only cheap, tattered fluff or tweed coats.

Meredith held her hands together and exhaled a warm mist for warmth, under her constitution trained with a special Magic Method, the plaster had already been removed.

The gloomy deep blue sea floated with swollen shipwrecks and decayed, rotten furniture, like wandering lost souls.

Then, a breathtaking sight was seen.

Like a fairyland, hundreds of stranded boats chaotically stood on the gigantic reef, including large luxury liners, all covered with a thick layer of white soil by the fluttering heavy snow.

This desolate scene plunged Meredith into melancholy.

Knowing Goria didn’t want to get her involved, she left on her own, now without danger.

She had company even in her loneliest moments.

Even though these were good things, why did it feel this way?

She just wanted to ask why.

Gawain no longer needed his crutches to walk and was now drunkenly sitting by the railing, his own brother had just suggested they go to the island together to visit a brothel.

The heavy atmosphere was quickly shattered.

It was an extremely furious engine startup sound, as if many gears were furiously spinning, their sharp and piercing wails like metal mourning.

Inside Maple Forest’s Arm Armor, there was an internal combustion device powered by the Magic Energy Industry, which could be powered by magic in any form and also embedded with a Demon Crystal.

Sefer, being one of the Great Nobles of the Southeast Province, had learned from Fen that this type of Red Crystal could drive super-large machinery, talking only about the power of a Magic Puppet arm, it could almost drive it for a month, a staple in heavy industry for its high purity grade Magic Ore.

If placed inside this Arm Armor, it would directly burn out the engraved array and mechanism inside.

Therefore, Fen took Morison’s fee of five Golden Dragons and inscribed a Magic Pattern array on the Red Crystal to control its discharge rate, enough for Morison to use.

"Damn..."

Morison picked up the specially made, large, detachable blade, which, despite being a heavy weapon one meter forty in height, only weighed around thirty jin due to its special material.

He removed a blade to align with the gears, scraping out waterfall-like sparks, the weapon’s insides causing the sharp blade to buzz and tremble at high speed.

Morison used an axe as a test object and chopped down with the blade.

Cutting cleanly through metal like slicing through mud, the blade smoothly passed through the middle of the axe face.

"This used..."

Considering the festive season, Morison left his sentence unfinished, dismantled the large blade into nine swords of varying sizes, flicked his boot to raise the suitcase, and packed all the blades inside, snapping the latch with his thumb.

This suitcase was specially constructed with shock-absorbent nut springs at the base and quickly returned to quiet.

"I’ll sell it to you for eighteen Golden Dragons."

Morison was just figuring out how to play around, and once he got the hang of it, there was no need to keep it. He thought of himself as a rough man and didn’t need these fancy gadgets.

Shadi waved his hand in refusal. It would be rather funny if he cut his own hand with this thing. Though he could buy it if he could resell it, unfortunately, he couldn’t sell it. Who dared to sell stuff from the Aran Energy Department in the black market? That would be asking for death. Besides, it wasn’t very valuable, and only a few people could use it.

"Winter is still the best season."

Rein wore only a thin jacket as the fur provided excellent protection against the cold, and he had arrived at what was the most comfortable climate for him.

"Damn, another year has gone by just like that."

Liszt didn’t know that Rein had betrayed him and was still immersed in the joy of returning to the port.

He was committed to delivering on his promises, spending a considerable sum to treat his shipmates to a big celebration, joyfully welcoming the new year. He immediately called for Mika, who was attending to Liu Bei in the ship’s infirmary.

Bai Xiaosheng, also known as Little Mika.

He compiled the "Military Firearm List," considering both Inner Strength and External Skills, with rankings having contact addresses and charging standards.

"Once you disembark, go and organize a Martial Arts gathering. I’ll give you four hundred Golden Dragons for starters. Make sure everything is set up comfortably and don’t fucking waste it—make it last until the end of the year. Come back to me if it’s still not enough."

Liszt patted Mika’s shoulder, effectively dealing with the loose ends of the thirty-four boxes.

The method for distributing loot not yet decided, there was still thirty-four thousand left, including jewelry and mechanical watches. Fen had already appraised them. At regular store prices, it was worth around twenty-five thousand Golden Dragons. Considering the cut-throat rate in the black market, it was just over twenty thousand. This was somewhat unstable as the market could fluctuate at any time, potentially going higher or lower.

Mika crunched some numbers—it was only about three days’ worth, more than a hundred pieces a day; damn it, what merit did these scum pirates have to live so lavishly?

He just booked the most high-end places in the Inner City, completely inhumane in his spending.

"Okay."

Mika did some warm-up exercises, then went to meet the top-ranked person in the "Military Firearm List," the Heavenly Fairyland Street Queen, a retired minstrel from Heaven Port who had fled there due to a scandal and the murder of her spouse, and who had once been first-rate with extremely high fees.

"This time you’re back, you won’t be moving again, will you?"

Hened had also come out from the room. He was once a pirate in the Narrow Sea Golden Waters and was accustomed to living on a ship.

When they had set out, Liszt and the others hadn’t told him what ruthless plans they were preparing. Hened only knew they were heading to Aran and only heard the details on the return journey.

Hened had to admit, those who went out to sea to make a living now, though not as unified as before, were ferociously ruthless.

During the Emperor’s prime years, a time of innovation and a world in chaos, a great era was indeed arriving.

"Of course, even if there is movement, it will just be nearby. This time, I’ll collaborate with Taylor, but to avoid being used as his tool—brothers went through life and death in Aran only to benefit someone else—now that would be downright foolish, still I will need your esteemed presence to lend us credibility."

Liszt believed that by the end of the month, the Black Sail Trading Company’s reputation would be solidly established.

And with just over thirty days left, that time would be used for preparation, communicating with colleagues on the island, selling to the boss with a split of sixty-forty, foolishly thinking on my part of eighty-twenty or even ninety-ten.

First focus on building up volume, with cooperation from the former Great Knight of the Imperial Guard and Taylor, drawing in large quantities wasn’t difficult.

The challenge was how to deal with the sabotage from the other two bosses later, as well as interference from the Boss of Heaven Port.

The current Boss had caused the emergence of three bosses just to let them keep each other in check through mutual hostility.

With his approach, seeing how fiercely independent we had become, he might just come looking to recruit us.

But Liszt would only fight it out to the end.

Heaven Port’s power, compared to Aran’s, wasn’t at the same level. What could they have over Marcus and Joshua?

Now that the power of the Stele had been verified and Fafna was growing strong, it would be hard to lose. I also brought some men back for a fight, all Heroic Level adventurers. What could they try against me?

The ship continued to sail for over an hour, and through the snowstorm, the outline of Heaven Port was faintly visible.

It could certainly be considered a grand triumphant return.