Chapter 1787 (Raw 1799): Iron Horn Pirate Group
The other party is very strong?
Since these words came from the Iron Hand Yama, they were rather extraordinary. After all, he was someone who once held a position of command within the Savage Blood Pirate Group.
“Which pirate group is it? Could they be even stronger than the Wolf Smoke Pirate Group?” Xiao Chen asked, feeling confused.
Fei`er, Luo Nan, and the others nodded slightly, indicating that it was indeed true.
The Iron Hand Yama said, “It is the Iron Horn Pirate Group. Only three pirate groups in the Grave Sea received the Iron Blood Token. One was the Savage Blood Pirate Group of the past, and one was the Wolf Smoke Pirate Group. The remaining one was the Iron Horn Pirate Group.”
The Iron Horn Pirate Group?
Xiao Chen felt slightly stunned on hearing that. He seemed to recall Ding Yuan mentioning that the Grave Sea’s Pirate Alliance branch had indeed given out three Iron Blood Tokens.
At that time, he only heard that the Savage Blood Pirate Group and the Wolf Smoke Pirate Group had received one each. However, he had not asked who received the remaining Iron Blood Token.
“However, this Iron Horn Pirate Group left for the forbidden seas long ago. They have not returned to the Grave Sea for twenty-odd years already. I never met the Iron Horn Pirate Group before and only heard stories of them.
“Many years ago, they were the overlords of the Grave Sea. Then, they left for the forbidden sea. When we met them, they had already become a 6-Star pirate group.”
There was practically no hope of snatching the Scarlet Blood War Banner from a 6-Star pirate group.
Xiao Suo apologized somewhat embarrassedly, “Captain, sorry. If only I had not used that Scarlet Blood War Banner back then. Then, it would not have been borrowed.”
Xiao Chen consoled him, “Don’t say that. It is enough that you are alive. Just think about it: back then, you were already forced into a corner. Had you not used the Scarlet Blood War Banner, the entire crew might have been annihilated already.
“You simply could not have predicted the arrival of the Iron Horn Pirate Group.”
Xiao Chen did not hold any hatred for this Iron Horn Pirate Group. It was normal for pirates to snatch things.
The other party had already been very benevolent by not making things difficult for the Black Cutlass. Had they been ruthless, they could have just ignored the Black Cutlass’s plight. Either way, they would still have obtained the Scarlet Blood War Banner.
“Let’s leave this matter at this. How is the ship?” Xiao Chen asked. He was more concerned about whether the Black Cutlass was damaged or not.
“The ship is fine. It just needs some minor repairs. This time, we managed to reap a bit of a harvest. We found eight stalks of Ghost Cloud Grass and many other natural treasures. If we sell all of them, we can upgrade the Black Cutlass to a 5-Star pirate ship,” Xiao Suo reported excitedly, perking up at the mention of the pirate ship.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Just at this moment, knocks came from the door.
A waiter came over, bringing something for Xiao Chen. “Young Master, earlier, someone outside delivered a storage ring and said to give it to you, mentioning you by name. He also said something about congratulations on the safe return of the Black Cutlass’s crew.”
The others all appeared confused, but Xiao Chen guessed what it was. “It is the compensation sent by Jiang Hengchuan. You can go back first. Just say that I’m accepting the things.”
Luo Nan and the others exchanged incredulous looks, finding this hard to imagine.
The Wolf King that they were helpless before, three months ago, now actually sent compensation and apologized.
The Iron Hand Yama carefully sized up Xiao Chen and was shocked to discover that Xiao Chen’s aura was now exceedingly extraordinary.
His aura was now several times stronger than it was two years ago.
Xiao Chen’s aura now reached a level that the Iron Hand Yama found unfathomable—and this was despite the Iron Hand Yama having broken through his bottleneck and advancing to the Starry Sky Stage Cloud Sea Realm during the past two years.
“Captain, did you really defeat the entire Wolf Smoke Pirate Group on your own?” Until now, Xiao Suo was still in some disbelief. This was simply too surreal.
Xiao Chen retorted casually, “Could it have been fake?”
After Xiao Chen spoke, he sent his Spiritual Sense into the storage ring he just received. When he came back out of it, he smiled and said, “The Wolf King is really generous. He probably sent half of what he received at his birthday banquet over.”
This was nothing more than spending money to buy one’s life.
Xiao Chen handed the storage ring to Xiao Suo, saying, “I’m handing this over to you to manage. Use it to upgrade the Black Cutlass to a peak 5-Star pirate ship within the shortest time possible.”
“Alright, leave it to me.”
The Iron Hand Yama said, “I have some connections in the Pirate Hall here. We can make use of them, which should help a little.”
Xiao Chen nodded and said, “I’ll leave this to the two of you, then.”
Elder Tang felt stunned. As he looked at Xiao Chen, he asked, “Young Master Xiao, are you planning to give up on the Scarlet Blood Pirate King’s treasure?”
Xiao Chen raised his eyebrow. “Why should we give up on it? We have already put in a lot of effort. We should at least try to fight for it. Just giving up like that is not my style.”
Elder Tang immediately became excited and said, “That is good. I thought that Young Master Xiao would just give up.”
Xiao Chen smiled faintly. “Come, let me see the Black Cutlass first. We can continue our reunion on the ship.
“Let’s go!”
Everyone wore smiles as they left the inn and headed for the harbor.
Along the way, they spoke of their encounters after they had separated. Two years had passed in a flash.
They still clearly remembered the day of parting like it was yesterday. Yet, in the blink of an eye, two years had passed.
In two years, Xiao Chen had grown a lot, and his strength was extraordinary now.
However, the crew of the Black Cutlass was noway inferior.
The Iron Hand Yama had broken through to Star Venerate, and his cultivation already stabilized, his strength climbing steadily. When he was still at peak Major Primal Core Realm, he had been considered unrivaled within the same cultivation. Now that he had broken through, he became even more incredible.
If not for the Wolf Smoke Pirate Group having eight people with the strength of a Star Venerate each and the Wolf King himself being a peak early-stage Star Venerate, the Iron Hand Yama would not have cared about such an ordinary 5-Star pirate captain at all.
That couple—Luo Nan and Fei`er—also received extraordinary opportunities. With the cleansing of Xiao Chen’s Life Juice Source, they already reached the Major Primal Core Realm.
Although their progress was nothing compared to that of Rank 4 sect disciples, such improvements were already hard to make with their talent.
Elder Tang’s cultivation did not grow much. However, his skills at beast taming had improved, becoming more exquisite.
However, it was Xiao Suo’s improvement that was astonishing. The Life Juice Source seemed to have completely unleashed his potential.
Right now, Xiao Suo had actually already reached peak Major Primal Core Realm. Just based on cultivation, he was exactly the same as Xiao Chen.
About seven minutes later, the group arrived at the Black Cutlass.
The Black Cutlass’s appearance had not changed. When Xiao Chen saw it, he immediately felt a sense of familiarity.
He went to the hidden floor and arrived before the Immemorial Demon Soul Formation, which was his main concern.
The Yazi Beast carved on the formation plate at the core of the formation already had three and a half pearls lit up.
“This is our Black Cutlass’s greatest trump card. Once the Yazi Beast Demon Soul is unleashed, it rivals a middle-stage Star Venerate. If not for the Yazi Beast Demon Soul, we would not have dared to barge into the Grave Island Sea Region.”
Elder Tang sighed before continuing, “Unfortunately, the trouble we ran into was too much for it to handle.”
“What trouble?”
“We ran into a flock of Underworld Ghost Birds. Their strength was only at middle-stage Star Venerate, but their abilities were too strange; they could immaterialize their bodies. The Yazi Beast Demon Soul could not defeat them and was killed. If not for the Iron Horn Pirate Group’s captain’s help, we would have been eliminated.”
Xiao Chen exclaimed in shock, “That Iron Horn Pirate Group’s captain is really that strong?
The Iron Hand Yama nodded and said, “I got the feeling that he was a late-stage Star Venerate. Elder Tang and the others could not make out that captain’s strength at all.”
A late-stage Star Venerate?
That was already an extremely horrifying cultivation. Right now, Xiao Chen could only barely protect himself against a middle-stage Star Venerate.
In a head-on clash, he would lose in less than one hundred moves.
On reaching the Cloud Sea Realm, every increase in cultivation grade brought about an earth-shattering improvement in strength.
The qualitative change made middle-stage Star Venerates completely different from early-stage Star Venerates—a whole world of difference.
Without trump cards, Xiao Chen’s current strength should be only on par with the Wolf King, a peak early-stage Star Venerate.
He had no way of fighting a middle-stage Star Venerate, much less a late-stage Star Venerate.
Xiao Chen entered deep thought. It looks like I have to make a breakthrough to Star Venerate before going to the forbidden sea.
Right now, he already had one foot over the threshold of the Cloud Sea Realm and could advance at any time.
Xiao Chen, who already formed the will of soul, had no bottleneck to advancing to the Starry Sky Stage Cloud Sea Realm.
It was just a matter of waiting for the right conditions.
After advancing to Star Venerate, Xiao Chen could formally start cultivating Soul Energy as well as Entering Hell, the Mahāmāyā Abstinence Violation Saber Technique’s third move.
His Purple Thunder Divine Incantation could also break through to the eleventh layer, and he could begin cultivating the Divine Dragon Body Tempering Art’s fourth layer.
All of his Martial Techniques and Cultivation Techniques required him to advance to Star Venerate before they could improve further.
Just at this moment, someone suddenly came to the entrance of the bottom level in a fluster.
“Captain, something bad happened. The Iron Horn Pirate Group is back.”
