"The Emperor is the songstress, right?"  

Li Site puffed on his cigarette and said, since the eastern coast was far from the mountains and emperor’s reach, unlike the inland where people would panic at the mention, he could spin whatever tale he wanted. "I admit the Emperor is strong, but what if I pledged allegiance to Beima royal descendant and replaced him, then advanced to become King of Beima? I would send Shadi to seduce his daughter, then wait for the old man to die naturally. Shadi would naturally ascend. Then I kill Shadi, and I become the ruler of the Arlan Empire. How would the Emperor respond then?"  

"That’s a brilliant plan."  

Shadi had nothing to say, just rolled his eyes.  

"To think… such a feminine move."  

Wolman was greatly shocked, adding, "Women nowadays don’t buy the strong and gentle act anymore; they only admire your kind of androgyny. Your current status is equivalent to a fitness coach, rapper, former military instructor, veteran, barbecue shop owner, and a Genshin Impact player who doesn’t smoke traditional cigarettes."  

"You’ve already taken all the bonuses, haven’t you? The flower language of the steel wool ball is endurance and wealth."  

Ren chimed in.  

"Wait!"  

Micah spotted a blind spot. "This plan seems to not require you to become king at all. It’s meaningless. As long as Shadi launches an attack, the Arlan Empire will be destroyed immediately."  

"Heh…"  

Shadi sneered, blue veins bulging on his forehead.  

Li Site was stunned, then seriously said, "As captain, I order you: go seduce the Emperor’s daughter. I will allocate thirty gold dragons from public funds for travel expenses, skincare, hotel fees, brothel combat experience multiplied by ten times King Kai Fist training fees. Black Sails only need to wait for the Emperor to die naturally in Heaven’s Port to conquer the Western Continent!"  

"Wow, is there really such a spiritual time chamber brothel? What kind of cultivation can come out of that!"  

Wolman was puzzled.  

"I said it’s ten times King Kai Fist. All indicators rise tenfold. Not just humans, even magical beasts… can be instantly killed!"  

Ren evaluated.  

The others had already left the navigation room, utterly disinterested in the idiotic conversation.  

"The supplies for the voyage were all ordered yesterday. They will arrive in the city gradually. Secret Port doesn’t deliver, so Sven and I will rent ten horse carriages in the city later. We’ll have the sailors help transport everything onto the ship. Don’t let them become lazy and useless. Once at sea, they’ll have to work intensely."  

Fen said this, also instructing Ox and others to keep an eye on things and assign some work when idle, like training combat skills or learning woodworking from Haywood. If the ship has problems during sailing, they can solve them more efficiently.  

On the deck, they saw several sailors distracted, shivering, muttering prayers like possessed.  

"What’s going on?"  

Ox asked.  

"They were curious why I was wearing a helmet, so I showed them."  

Haywood said innocently. His helmet only exposed a slit for the eyes and was now worn again.  

"Look at this, all up and working."  

Morrison scolded.  

The next day.  

Noon.  

Li Site originally planned to find a channel to sell the gift sent by the count, but after thinking it over, decided to use it to boost loyalty.  

Now the ship had only over thirty sailors, not many. Each person got a whole bottle of wood elf fruit wine and some high-grade tobacco. Bro, I’m sincerely honest with you guys; you’d better be loyal till death.  

"Enjoy yourselves."  

Morrison looked at the sailors on deck, all with satisfied faces. They couldn’t believe they’d ever get to enjoy such things in this life, a mix of emotions.  

"Alright, the first mate, Kill-brother, and I are going to the banquet. We have to get into the city early to prepare. I leave the ship to you; I trust you."  

Li Site said to Ox. "Society’s Ox, ruthless and quiet, along with human rights card and supermodel card, can be called Black Sails’ top three forces. He’s a data freak."  

"Should we take Sven along? If anything goes wrong, he can come back with news."  

Ox thought Sven could be useful now. Being from the Thieves’ Guild, his skills were all in underhanded methods: stealing, sneaking, lockpicking, cheating, assassination, even having a witch doctor for curses. Anything dirty, he’s all-around.  

If Sven fights head-on, he probably can’t kill many enemies, but sneaking in at night, it’s a different story.  

"Of course, he’s already arranged. Haven’t you noticed no one else is on the ship?"  

Li Site said.  

"Could it be that he sneaked in last night?"  

Ox realized.  

"Yeah, maybe all the bad stuff is done: spying on the countess bathing, playing current offender games, hiding in some cabinet or place, just waiting for tonight to kill."  

Li Site speculated. Although this world had many races and varied aesthetics, decent people might be particular, but ruthless types didn’t care and just did their thing, spending money like no tomorrow compared to Earth.  

"Killing is one thing, but today’s auspicious words have also appeared."  

Morrison wrapped in a black cloak, hid the arsenal on him. After all, going to someone else’s house for a meal, if you carry too many weapons, business talks won’t succeed.  

Fen was speechless. Though from the Thieves’ Guild, this guy was way more proper than the rest on the ship.  

Over an hour later.  

Linden City.  

Next to the Adventurers’ Guild were many weapon and consumable shops.  

With nothing to do, the three wandered around randomly, accompanying Morrison to pick up weapons.  

Morrison inspected his new gear.  

"Are you becoming Iron Man?"  

Li Site looked at Morrison’s arm armor. His fighting style was already flashy, and now he added a hand cannon.  

Morrison knew some mechanics, drew design plans, and had the shop owner make it. Customized gear wasn’t new; powerful adventurers adapted equipment to themselves.  

"Crossbow bolts have limited damage. Although this thing isn’t very accurate, as long as it’s point-blank, it works."  

Morrison’s arm armor had a simple projectile launcher installed. On the curved iron block’s edge were five small cannon barrels. Due to technical limits, it couldn’t fire continuously, only one shot per reload, so it could only be used once per battle.  

"But loading is fast, silent consecutive firing is also an advantage."  

Morrison tugged a cord on the armor. The crossbow launcher rotated to the other side. Although it couldn’t penetrate iron armor, the damage was still considerable.  

"A true master always keeps the heart of an apprentice."  

Li Site sighed.  

Kill-brother was already this twisted but kept improving himself. Truly admirable.  

Morrison said he used to make a living helping adventurers cheat on their promotion assessment tasks—in other words, power leveling—with generous pay each time.  

Assessment tasks usually required hunting powerful magical beasts. Many adventurers felt they couldn’t handle them but wanted to advance to silver or gold rank to get better tasks, so they hired power levelers.  

Morrison was such a proxy of the sky.  

Half a year ago, Li Site and Morrison were scouting to rob a noble’s cargo entering from the port. Near a small town, they met adventurers troubled by the same issue. Morrison considered returning to old business. It wouldn’t take an hour and was easy money, plus the adventurers pooled eight gold dragons for the task reward. The total was substantial; why not?  

One hour of guiding, three seconds to finish.  

The target was a nearly ten-meter-tall white terror giant ape wandering the forest. The local town’s residents were terrified. All villagers contributed small amounts, the lord contributed a large amount, totaling twenty-six gold dragons. The guild published a task hoping someone would solve it.  

The giant ape’s strength could lift several tons of stone and tear people apart with bare hands. Without a multi-person golden rank adventurer team, it was unmanageable.  

Morrison kicked the heel of his boot; two daggers popped out from the front. Dual-wielding knives.  

Then he became dazzling beyond description. If you had to compare, it was like a climber using ice axes climbing a vertical cliff, sped up a hundred times.  

Using all four limbs like he was brutally killing a primordial form going upstairs, he climbed the giant ape, causing bursts of blood and flesh. The giant ape’s big hand slammed at Morrison but hit itself. In less than two seconds, Morrison stepped on its head, wrapped his blade-whip around its neck, pulled hard, then instantly decapitated it, spraying blood everywhere, instantly killing it.  

The adventurers were stunned and insisted Morrison join their team.  

But who’d be a proper adventurer? The lord’s big cargo was still waiting to be robbed.  

One can only say people have joys and sorrows, and oxen and horses decorate life.