"This..." Kasait was momentarily tongue-tied, unsure how to answer.
Some pirates were, in fact, the moneybags of powerful figures. Leaving aside local strongmen like the lord of Vast Sea City and Kasait, even quite a few nobles in the Heaven Dou Empire's capital profited through pirates.
It was nothing more than the same old arrangement: after the pirates plundered a ship, the powerful figures' property was returned in full, while the valuables taken from fishing boats and merchant ships without backing were split thirty-seventy with those figures. Naturally, the pirates only received thirty percent; the lion's share of seventy percent still belonged to the powerful figures.
Since Kasait was inextricably tied to the pirates' rampant activities, he could only hem and haw, not daring to reveal the truth.
Admittedly, Spirit Hall paid a high salary, enough for him to support a large family. If he saved for a few decades, buying an incomplete Soul Bone at auction would not have been difficult.
He wanted to climb higher and enter Pope Hall, but he had no patron above him. Titled Douluos were not easily approached, so he could only try contacting the Four Great Platinum Bishops.
As it happened, Salas, one of the Four Great Platinum Bishops, was extremely lustful and liked frequenting auction houses in search of unusual beauties, so he was desperately short of money.
These so-called unusual beauties were young girls whose Martial Soul Awakening had gone wrong, leaving their Martial Souls with certain problems. They might have animal ears and tails that they could not retract.
Unusual beauties such as cat-eared girls and rabbit-eared girls fetched the highest bids at auction.
High prices meant that securing one required a considerable sum of Gold Soul Coins.
Although a Platinum Bishop's annual salary was substantial, it was ultimately limited.