Black Skull Pirate Group

Three days passed quickly, and all two thousand Soul Masters assembled by Spirit Hall had arrived in Vast Sea City.

As the person in overall command of the expedition against Sea God Island, Qian Jun Douluo delivered a rousing speech outside Vast Sea City.

"Set out for Vast Sea City's harbor."

At Qian Jun Douluo's command, the two thousand Soul Masters left the city gate in a great procession and headed for the harbor west of the city.

Vast Sea City's harbor was enormous. At least twenty piers, each hundreds of meters long, extended into the sea, giving it enough room to accommodate hundreds of seagoing ships at once.

Today, however, the harbor was much quieter. No merchants came and went; there were only rows of heavily armed soldiers, while a total of ten warships lay neatly moored at the largest piers.

To ensure that Spirit Hall's Soul Masters could set sail without trouble, Vast Sea City's officials had closed the harbor for the day.

"Board the ships in order."

The Soul Masters from Spirit City were the first to board the largest warship, and the Soul Masters from the other regions followed, boarding the other warships.

"May the elders have smooth sailing!" Vast Sea City's senior officials called out together in farewell.

"Many thanks," Elder Qian Jun said. He then leaped into the air with the other elders and landed on the largest warship.

"Set sail!"

The warships raised their sails, and long oars extended from both sides. Propelled by both muscle and wind, the ten warships slowly left the harbor and sailed into the open sea.

The warships had sailed for a day and were now a considerable distance from the mainland. The wind and waves at sea gradually grew stronger.

At first, no one thought much of it, but as time went on, Soul Masters aboard several of the warships began to suffer from seasickness.

Following the advice of the professionals, the warships slowed down so that the Soul Masters from the mainland could adjust to the wind and waves.

Jun Yan was a Soul Saint powerhouse, after all, and was in excellent physical condition. Although he felt a little uncomfortable at first, he soon adjusted.

In the early morning, he went up on deck and faced the sea breeze as he admired the sunrise.

On the boundless sea, a streak of red appeared far to the east, where the water met the sky. Then a fiery red sun slowly rose, its brilliant light spilling over the water and setting the waves shimmering.

"Ugh."

A voice suddenly sounded beside him.

Jun Yan turned and saw Bibi Dong supporting Yu Xiaogang as he vomited on the deck. Yu Xiaogang's face was pale, and he looked ready to collapse at any moment.

He's only a Soul Grandmaster, after all. His constitution really is poor, Jun Yan thought.

Jun Yan quickly wiped the smile from his face and walked over to the pair with a stern expression.

"Your Highness Saintess, how did this Grandmaster Yu still end up coming along? Didn't you pass the elder's words on to him?"

Bibi Dong's face was full of concern for Yu Xiaogang as she kept patting his back.

Yu Xiaogang coughed twice, then said to Jun Yan, "So it was you who was talking nonsense to Dong'er."

"Idiot!" Jun Yan slowly spat out the word.

A flush of color immediately appeared on Yu Xiaogang's deathly pale face. He pointed at Jun Yan. "You... what did you say?"

Just then, a wave struck, and the ship immediately began to rock.

"Ugh." Yu Xiaogang quickly grabbed the railing and continued vomiting over the side.

Jun Yan said with a look of disgust, "Look at you. You can't even ward off seasickness, yet you still want to go to Sea God Island. If you actually get there, will you even be able to stand straight?"

Yu Xiaogang retched a few more times. "I'm just not used to it because this is my first time on a seagoing ship. I'll be fine in a few days. Besides, I'm not the only one like this. Across all ten ships, there must be seven or eight hundred people in the same state as me."

Bibi Dong patted Yu Xiaogang on the shoulder, then took a waterskin from her Soul Tool and handed it to him. "Have some water!"

She then turned to Jun Yan and said somewhat helplessly, "You could say a little less too!"

But she found that Jun Yan was not looking at her. He was staring blankly at the distant sea.

"What is it?" Bibi Dong asked, looking in the same direction as Jun Yan.

A long black line had appeared on the distant sea, and it was slowly growing thicker.

"What is that?"

Jun Yan shook his head and said with a bewildered look, "I don't know, but judging by how fiercely it's coming, it probably isn't anything good."

After a while longer, the distant black line resolved into a fleet of seagoing ships.

Jun Yan had sharp eyes. He made out the skull shapes on the ships' masts and instantly realized they had run into pirates.

Soon, Bibi Dong also saw the designs clearly and said in a somewhat relaxed tone, "Pirates."

At sea, apart from food and water, the greatest dangers to watch out for were Sea Soul Beasts and pirates.

Anyone who made a living at sea needed to know where Sea Soul Beasts congregated and generally did their best to avoid those places.

Pirates were different, however. Even the fleets of the two great empires could be robbed by pirates if they had too few men.

But before these ten warships, the threat posed by the pirates was scarcely worth mentioning compared with Soul Beasts.

As the pirate fleet drew closer, the sailors aboard the ships spotted the enemy and began blowing whistles to sound the alarm. The ten warships slowly came to a stop.

The pirate group had fifty or sixty ships in all, the largest of which was about the same size as the ten warships.

The pirates surrounded the ten warships. Several thousand pirates in clothes of every color stood on their decks with weapons in hand, eyeing the warships like tigers watching their prey.

A voice came from the largest pirate ship. "This is the Black Skull Pirate Group. Imperial fleet, you are surrounded!"

"Hand over all your wealth, and we'll leave you a few small boats to escape in. Otherwise, we'll send your ships and everyone aboard to the bottom."

The moment the pirate finished speaking, a figure flew into the air from the largest warship. It was Ye Feng, an elder of Spirit Hall.

Nine Soul Rings appeared around Ye Feng-two yellow, two purple, and five black. His seventh and ninth Soul Rings flashed at the same time, and an enormous sword appeared in the sky before suddenly chopping down.

Boom-

With a thunderous crash, four warships in a straight line were cleaved in two and slowly sank into the sea.

"Titled Douluo!"

After splitting four ships with one strike, Ye Feng did not attack again. He left them with a single word instead.

"Kill." Naturally, this was for Spirit Hall's Soul Masters.

Almost instantly, lights of every color flashed across the ten warships, caused by the vast number of Soul Masters activating their Martial Souls.

Countless Soul Masters then leaped down from the warships. Those who could swim dropped straight into the sea and swam toward the pirate ships, while those who could fly flew directly over. Those who could do neither could only watch from the warships.

The ten warships had not closed in, since boarding actions would also damage the warships.