At the same time, at the end of the First Circulation Zone and on the verge of entering the Banta'an Sea, there lay a mixed long-range fleet.

A three-masted merchant ship, flying Hightins' Blood Cross Flag, appeared unremarkable from the outside. However, its interior was heavily guarded, with sentries posted every three steps and watch stations every five.

The Law Network enshrouded the entire ship, leaving no angle uncovered.

Numerous uniformly dressed, well-armed personnel had sharp gazes, never relaxing their vigilance even at sea—a testament to their elite status.

Each was armed with a blade and a gun, equipped with the Kingdom of Hightens' finest military sabres and the latest model Chalville 1470 Flintlock Gun.

They were armed to the teeth.

Even the most ordinary sailors on this ship were far more robust than those on other merchant vessels, making it abundantly clear that their masters were... wealthy!

This was none other than the Royal Tax Investigation Bureau, led by the Minister of Finance.

Their maxim: "The greatest crime is tax evasion!"

The protracted wars with the Irisflower Kingdom were like a gold-devouring beast, voraciously consuming the kingdom's finances.

Byron's eighth-generation ancestor, John, the King of the Displaced, had shifted the demands on his nobles from military service to providing the state with various additional heavy taxes.

This change led the nobles to unite, and on June 15, 1215, during the Silver Era, they forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which placed the king under the law.

One of its primary objectives was to curtail the king's power of taxation.

Everyone knew that "tax" represented the money at the state's and the king's disposal—the very symbol of national power.

The Lancaster dynasty never ceased in its desire to reclaim this power.

Successive kings covertly supported the Protestant Doctrine, suppressed the theocracy, and consolidated royal power.

Internally, though they lacked the authority to create new taxes, they maintained a firm grip on the Royal Navy—the king's private army—while simultaneously establishing a specialized corps of Tax Officers.

They armed personnel for the Royal Tax Investigation Bureau, levying taxes on land, commodity transactions, trade, and imports, determined not to miss a single copper coin that was due.

During the zenith of royal power in the era of Henry V, this bureau's influence reached its peak.

It even possessed its own Armed Inspection Squads, prisons, courts, lawyers, and intelligence departments, capable of confronting any major noble house in the country.

Naturally, during this period, they engaged in countless overt and covert struggles with the Parliament of Nobles and various other factions.

If this trend continued, such a scene might one day emerge:

"Cases the Tribunal can't break, I will break. People the Tribunal dares not kill, I will kill. Matters the Tribunal dares not touch, I will handle. In short, I will manage what the Tribunal can, and I will manage even more thoroughly what it cannot—executing first and reporting later, by special grant of royal power! This is the Tax Officer. Is that clear enough?"

Impressive!

The phrase Byron uttered, "Only death and taxes are inevitable," also followed a proud tradition.

When the White Rose York Family seized the Crown, their new position dictated their thinking, and they naturally adopted the very system they had once vigorously opposed.

Under the leadership of Earl Warwick, they even seemed poised to surpass their predecessors.

"A toast!"

"To our hard work on this month-long ocean voyage, and to the bright future that awaits us!"

In the best-appointed officer's cabin in the sterncastle, a group of seven or eight influential Tax Officers gathered around a table.

Among them were only a few Law Mages and Treasure Hunters; the rest were all Golden Eyes and Guardians of the Treasury from the Gold Sequence, all extremely sensitive to money.

With their unparalleled intuition for finances and numbers, those of the Gold Sequence could seamlessly transition between banking and the tax department.

They often outperformed even the Law Mages who had the deepest understanding of dogma and tax laws.

Once they were on the case, they could unearth ancestral money pots buried in courtyards for decades.

These Tax Officer gentlemen were mostly accustomed to lives of comfort and privilege. Even while enjoying the best available living conditions on the ship, they deeply detested such long-distance oceanic treks.

Now, on the verge of leaving the First Circulation Zone, everyone's spirits were high.

"Haha, who says the reinforcements summoned by those incompetents from the Newman Family will definitely take their side? They're nothing but dogs raised by His Majesty. The amount embezzled this time is huge, and the evidence is conclusive. Once the Sword of Damocles falls, their deaths are certain."

"Exactly. With the Kingdom of Castilia and the Star Moon Empire both crippled from their conflict, this is the perfect opportunity for Hightins to rise unexpectedly. Giving a prime location like Jamestown to such an upstart family is a terrible waste. The Kingmaker has promised that if we bring down the Newman brothers, who are loyal to King Edward, everything they possess will be entrusted to our administration. I believe the colonists have long yearned for an incorruptible Governor. Gentlemen, we absolutely must not fail the Kingmaker's trust."

"That's right. King Edward is still too young. He can't handle such overwhelming wealth... no, such a storm. It's better we bear this burden for the Newman brothers."

"They've been confined by the Kingmaker's Sword of Damocles. They're probably quaking in their boots right now, HAHAHA..."

The Tax Officers' exalted status had also bred in them a disdainful arrogance.

Consequently, the two Pirate Generals known from intelligence reports to be close to the Newman Family were not even taken seriously by them.

They had deliberately chosen to travel alongside two Warships from the Tribunal.

Those ships were full of Mid-Sequence Transcendents and Sacred Relics; any invaders would undoubtedly meet a gruesome end.

Even if the suspected Fourth Order 'Blue Hair' Barbarossa Halding himself were to appear, he wouldn't be able to harm them in the slightest.

With the Law Network in place, an internal breach was impossible.

But just then, one of the Treasure Hunters suddenly twitched his nose and asked in confusion, "Do you smell a hint of blood? It seems to also carry a strange scent of Alchemy Gunpowder."

He followed the scent, gradually stooping until he was close to the floor.

Everyone's gaze followed him, slowly lowering to their own feet, and a collective shiver of dread ran through them.

"Alchemy Gunpowder...?!"

...

In the cabin directly beneath the sterncastle.

Alvin, 'the Falcon,' had used a Deep Sea Leap to arrive, then disguised himself as a crew member to quietly board the ship. He had been lurking for a day.

He placed a glass bottle filled with a blood-red liquid on the ground and then sprinkled a little of it on the floor.

Upon contact with air, the liquid immediately began to bubble violently, emitting a red, viscous fog and becoming extremely unstable.

This 'Blood and Fire Sing As One' still needs Violet's further improvements. If it weren't for Mr. Falcon's fearlessness, were it my true self here, I wouldn't dare use such a dangerous concoction.

This was the assassination tool Byron had commissioned from Violet.

Its core component was the 'Flame's Kiss' gunpowder formula, precious as gold, which she had utilized many times.

Its intrinsic power was mediocre, but if consumed by various animals, it would react uniquely with their flesh and blood, transforming into a terrifyingly potent incendiary or explosive.

But this time, they weren't using the flesh and blood of any ordinary animal.

Instead, it was the entirety of the Blood of Metamorphosis from that Third Order Barbary Pirate frogman, which Byron had refined using the Holy Grail of Blood (Chapter 176)!

This was equivalent to converting a Third Order Transcendent into an Alchemical Bomb, which was then repeatedly purified to create this exquisite product.

Even Violet, the Grand Artificer, marveled that she had never created such an extravagant piece of art in her life.

And she had named this ultimate work of art—Blood and Fire Sing As One!

Byron himself was desperately trying to distance himself from the whole affair.

Naturally, he wouldn't drag Violet into it. Carrying this 'great firework,' he had infiltrated the investigation team's ship alone.

He then took out a flare gun, commonly used on ships for nighttime signaling, aimed it at the glass bottle, and affixed a delay device Violet had provided.

He set the timer for ten seconds.

Then, like a fish, he slipped out through the porthole.

Diving into the water, he rendezvoused with the Man-Eater Shark already waiting there and plunged into the depths, fleeing for his life.

False tax evasion: researching tax laws, forging ledgers, arguing with tax collectors, hiring Law Mages to battle wits in the Tribunal. And true tax evasion is...

BOOM—!!!

In a deafening explosion.

The Tax Officers, who had just sensed something amiss, had no time to react before the surprised expressions on their faces were frozen forever.

An intense shockwave of heat, with 'Blood and Fire Sing As One' at its epicenter, radiated outwards in all directions.

Ship planks and human bodies alike were instantly torn to shreds, then incinerated to ash in the searing heat.

Even the ship's mounted Cannons were engulfed by innumerable gouts of fire, showing signs of melting as they were blasted high into the air.

To onlookers, all that was visible was a dark red cloud of fire erupting into the sky.

Even an Ammunition Depot explosion would fall far short of such a spectacular sight.

As Byron fled for his life, he failed to notice an entry in his Sailing Logbook under 'Secret: Prophecy, the Power of the King, and the Racial Revival Prophecy of the Mad Hunt Deity, Woden, Historical Influence: 69':

"In the Empire Era, the Bayfolk still chased wild deer in the forests of the Eternal Night Peninsula. Hundreds of years later, they would pursue the entire Silver Continent. They conquered the continent with force but were, in turn, conquered by the faith of a heretical religion. The glory of the North Bay Folks then sank to the deepest part of the ocean. But one day, it will be reawakened by blood and flame! My right eye will witness everything."

These words quietly materialized in the log but did not advance any Decryption Rate before fading away again.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!...

Numerous Transcendents aboard nearby sailing ships rushed to their decks to observe.

This was especially true for the two most powerful Warships in the entire Fleet, those belonging to the Tribunal.

The leading Sun Crown Priest produced a Sacred Relic resembling a crystal ball, held it before his eyes, and aimed it at the towering pillar of fire.

After observing carefully for some time, he murmured with a grim expression, "Divination results: all hands lost. Cause of death... a signal flare misfired?!"