Chapter 1 The Assault

Before the pirates could fully react, the Old Lingdun group that had stormed out of the black tower were already rushing towards the "U-shaped Bay."

Suren pointed out the direction, and everyone headed straight for the black-sailed *Windrider*.

They only needed a small ship for the five hundred of them.

With Mr. Mirror leading Qian Tiao and a few other Fourth-tiers at the front, the pirates barely put up any effective resistance before being forced into a complete rout.

They had originally planned to face Rafael Grand Duke's well-trained elite guards, expecting a fierce battle.

The battle had been anticipated.

But the intensity of the fighting was much less than expected.

The pirates were just a rabble.

You couldn't expect them to charge in formation and fight to the death like a regular army.

Most of the pirates were brave but lacked strategy, especially the lower-level pirates who, seeing that things weren't going well, retreated while fighting, prioritizing self-preservation.

Although the pirates had more than twice the numbers, they were completely overwhelmed.

After all, the five hundred who had charged out of Old Lingdun this time were all elites.

Apart from a few support personnel, almost all were combatants.

Not to mention the Mirror Organization, even the elite guards cultivated by the Reis family, though not high in rank, carried the top-tier equipment from Old Lingdun; they had no shortage of various mechanical, alchemical, and cursed items.

The Reis family might lack other things, but they certainly had money.

With "cash power" as a buff, alchemical bombs and alchemical cannons were fired without restraint, and the collective combat power was not to be underestimated.

And Qian Tiao and the others were like gods and demons descending.

Watching them sweep away all resistance, Suren realized that each member of the Mirror Organization possessed combat strength far exceeding that of ordinary professionals of the same rank.

During their previous actions in Old Lingdun, they had faced powerful enemies, so it hadn't been clear just how great the difference was.

Now, facing the pirates, the gap immediately became apparent.

Although they were both Fourth-tiers, the pirate Fourth-tiers could barely withstand a few rounds against them.

They could even face Fifth-tier squad leaders head-on and not be at a disadvantage in the short term.

Mr. Black, Qian Tiao, Card, Assassin Ray, Red Demon Armor, Number Nineteen... and that mysterious warlock with the "Rotten Flower" on his cloak.

Suren also saw the "Rotten Flower Warlock" use his abilities for the first time.

Although he couldn't discern what his talent was, it seemed to be a plant-based ability.

After unsealing his battle armor, his limbs seemed to turn into tree trunks, and he could raise his hand to create wooden spear thrusts. Bullets clanged against him, but were completely ineffective.

Of course, while Qian Tiao and the others were strong, they were, after all, fighting individually, which was fine for spectacle.

The one who made the biggest splash was Suren.

When he made a move, a hundred cloaked puppets followed him, running wildly.

[Nightmare Doll], [Blast-Resistant Doll], [Lead-Weighted Doll], [Oil-Swallowing Doll], [Phosphorus Fire Doll], [Voodoo Doll], [Black Hole Doll], [Twelve Heavy Knights]...

The dolls spat fire, spewed oil, and cackled with their sharp knives exposed...

He alone exuded the aura of an entire legion charging.

He didn't need to engage the Fourth and Fifth-tier enemies, but the miscellaneous pirate trash below the Third-tier were slaughtered like vegetables by this fearless puppet legion.

This was the excellence of a puppeteer; as long as the main body didn't die, the battle would never end!

Wherever the puppet legion passed, it was like a meat grinder, with limbs and broken arms flying everywhere, belonging to both puppets and people...

The scene was bloody and bizarre.

If nothing else, the aura alone scared the pirates from approaching easily.

Even the Old Lingdun group, who didn't recognize Suren, were all terrified.

Everyone couldn't help but sigh in their hearts: Sure enough, those who wear gold-patterned cloaks are all very strong!

.......

The plan was to launch a surprise attack, and the effect was ideal.

In the blink of an eye, with only minor casualties, the five hundred had already reached the harbor.

This place was originally just a small military port, but now it was densely packed with nearly a hundred pirate ships.

At this moment, Mr. Mirror's urging came through the communicator: "Board the ship and leave quickly! The pirates underground are already destroying the restrictions; they're about to break out!"

Hearing this, no one dared to delay. Using the ships as cover, everyone began to board the *Windrider*.

Suren also jumped onto the ship. He estimated that he was the only one present with experience sailing a ship.

He would take on this important task without hesitation.

Releasing the sails, raising the anchor, securing the ropes...

He did the work of an entire team on the deck alone, and then directed others to help.

Did the ship need power to leave the harbor?

That wasn't a problem.

This was a world of alchemy.

Suren secured the sails, adjusted the angle, and shouted to Mr. Black not far away, "All set!"

Hearing this, Mr. Black formed a warlock's seal with both hands, and a pale blue heptagram array immediately appeared under his feet. In that instant, his robes billowed, and a strong wind suddenly formed.

It was a Fourth-tier wind-based spell, [Gale]!

To continuously provide strong wind power, Mr. Black also continuously threw a pile of cursed crystals into the array, and the sound of whistling instantly rang in his ears.

The wind rose, the sails instantly billowed, and a huge force propelled the ship slowly forward.

Everyone on the *Windrider* swayed, and joy appeared on their faces.

Success!

.......

The pirates were stunned by the surprise attack and didn't react for a moment. Hadn't the underground been captured? Where did these hundreds of people come from?

Seeing Mr. Mirror take action, the squad leaders also recognized that he was a Sixth-tier professional, and no one dared to confront him head-on.

But that didn't mean they had no power to fight back.

The defeated pirates gathered on the flagship with the dark gold ram at the front of the fleet.

Having captured the castle in the previous battle, they had seized a lot of fine wines and delicacies, and the rich aroma of wine and meat wafted out of the cabins.

"Damn it! Those guys are trying to steal a ship and escape! Quickly notify Boss Gahr!"

"Boss Gahr... is drunk!"

"Wake him up quickly!"

"We tried, but he won't wake up..."

"Damn it, pour 'fermented herring juice' on the boss to sober him up!"

"Oh, heavens! If the boss finds out someone poured that shit-like stuff on him, he'll twist that person's head off."

"It's the enemy who poured it, you know! The enemy! If you don't hurry, the enemy will steal our ship and escape!"

"Oh, right."

"..."

.......

Suren and the others didn't know why the Sixth-tier Frost Giant Gahr Popov hadn't appeared after fighting for so long.

But now they had successfully seized a pirate ship, and the *Windrider* was a combat frigate, light and fast.

As long as they could break out of the harbor, the boundless sea would be theirs to roam.

But just then, a change occurred.

A roar like a wild beast tore through the night sky, and then a bone-chilling cold suddenly descended, and the temperature dropped sharply.

Everyone looked in unison, only to see an ugly giant, more than three meters tall, wielding a mace, storming onto the deck of the pirate flagship.

It was clear that he was very angry.

After a roar, the cold air emanating from his body condensed the water vapor in the air, and dozens of meters around him congealed into a layer of white frost, forming a frost domain.

The pirates seemed to be familiar with this and retreated one after another.

The ugly giant's roar could be heard clearly from afar, "Damn it, who poured shit into my mouth!"

A squad leader said, "Boss, it's the enemy! Oh, they killed our brothers and stole our ship! They have very powerful experts among them."

"Experts? Gahr likes killing experts the most!"

Hearing this, the ugly giant laughed grotesquely and jumped down.

.......

Suren recognized the identity of the ugly giant with the wild boar tusks on his face at a glance: Gahr Popov, the youngest son of the King of the North Sea, a human-frost giant hybrid.

"He's really ugly..."

Suren muttered in his heart.

It wasn't that he was prejudiced against the Frost Giant race; in the northern ice plains, giants were a large race.

He just found it hard to understand how humans could breed with giants.

Giants were born with a pair of boar tusks, and by human standards, even the most beautiful woman among them was incredibly ugly.

How could Oleg, the King of the North Sea, bring himself to do it?

But he had heard that Oleg himself was of Viking descent, also descendants of giants, and his aesthetics might be different from normal humans.

"According to the memories of those pirates, this guy doesn't have high intelligence. He really looks... but he's really strong."

Suren felt the cold air and looked solemn.

The dense frost laws were beyond his comprehension.

At this moment, Mr. Mirror's voice came through the communicator: "This guy has condensed a frost domain and is already a half-step Seventh-tier. You guys go first, I'll hold him back!"

At half-step Seventh-tier, they didn't even have the qualifications to watch.

Hearing this, everyone on board didn't stop at all, accelerating the blowing of the wind, wanting to get the ship away from the harbor.

Watching Mr. Mirror rush out, Suren had a slight look of worry in his eyes.

He then identified Gahr's two pieces of equipment from a distance.

One was the frost-entwined mace in his hand, and the other was the frost-white armor he was wearing on his upper body.

At this sight, his pupils shrank slightly.

The [Frost Mace] was actually a Dark Gold-level cursed item, dealing both physical and magical damage, and also had a super "armor-shattering" effect.

And the armor he was wearing was an even stronger Dark Gold-level cursed item, the [Frost Dragon Scale Armor], an ancient relic, armor made from real dragon scales, with super-high physical and magical defense!

As expected of the son of the North Sea Pirate King, he had quite a few treasures on him.

Both pieces of equipment had super-strong frost curses, which would continuously inflict "frost poison" damage on the wearer, requiring high-level frost laws to control.

And the mixed-blood frost giant bloodline had a natural frost resistance and was highly compatible with these two cursed items.

Once he could use them, his combat power would increase several times!

Seeing the equipment, Suren's eyes became even more solemn, and he transmitted the intelligence he had identified to Mr. Mirror.

Mr. Mirror also didn't show weakness, and a layer of fiery red fire element domain suddenly condensed around his body, directly blocking the ugly giant.

The two sides instantly became entangled in battle.

......

After all, Mr. Mirror was a true Seventh-tier or higher in strength. Even if he hadn't fully recovered his strength, dealing with the not-so-intelligent Frost Giant Gahr wasn't a big problem.

Killing him in a short time seemed impossible, but at least he could hold him back.

As long as the *Windrider* could get out to sea, she was a vampire and could fly over.

The battles between that level of professionals were simply not something that Suren and anyone else could participate in.

Even Qian Tiao and the others had boarded the ship; they had to protect the people on board. The pirates weren't just watching the show; they were aiming their cannons and firing wildly. Fortunately, the pirates' ships were parked very densely in the harbor, and most of the cannons and alchemical crossbows were restricted.

Mr. Black and a group of wind warlocks were doing their best to create gales, pushing the ship out. Those few experts in the organization who could catch cannonballs with their bare hands were also trying their best to protect the hull. Even so, the *Windrider* seemed to be battered by the wind and rain amidst the barrage of cannon fire, and could capsize at any moment.

But obviously, the Mirror Organization was prepared.

Just then, the mysterious warlock with the "Rotten Flower" pattern on her cloak made another move. She said to Mr. Black, "Mr. Black, I'm going to use that 'sealed item'!"

Mr. Black nodded, "Okay!"

At this moment, Suren watched her take out a small sealed box from under her cloak.

With a warlock's seal, she shouted softly, "Seal Release!"

The box opened, revealing a black root the thickness of a small arm, which the identification showed to be a "Legendary Quality" alchemical product: [World Tree Root Corroded by Darkness].

"Will it be cursed into a treant after use?"

Suren frowned slightly as he looked at the cursed characteristics identified.

Even a corpse couldn't use this thing; it had to be a warlock who had mastered the wood-based laws to activate the energy within it.

At this moment, the "Rotten Flower" took off her cloak, revealing a face full of strange totems that looked like tree bark.

Holding that section of root, she formed a warlock's seal with both hands, and a dark green heptagram array immediately appeared under her feet.

Looking again, she took root under her feet, and her body visibly swelled up, actually turning into a lush banyan tree!

In the blink of an eye, the branches that her body had transformed into filled the entire hull. Those hull breaches that had been pierced by cannonballs recovered as if new flesh had grown, and it was impossible for the dense barrage of cannonballs to sink the ship any further.

Moreover, it wasn't over yet!

After the "Rotten Flower" used the root to become a treant, she formed a warlock's seal with her arm, which had turned into a branch, and chanted softly, "Plant Alchemy Spore Secret Art!"

Just as the alchemical array's light lit up, a huge bud suddenly grew out of the top of his head.

The bud grew larger in the blink of an eye and suddenly burst open.

Suren's eyesight was amazing, and he instantly saw countless [spores] finer than dust scattered in the air after the bud burst open.

Before he could figure out what this technique was for, the wind blew and the spores scattered all over the sky.

Almost at the same time, the pirates on those distant pirate ships screamed heartbreakingly.

"Cooper! A mushroom grew out of your head!"

"Nichol, a patch of mushrooms grew on your back! Oh God, they're growing more and more..."

"What the hell are these damn mushrooms! I feel like they're sucking my blood, help me pull them off..."

"Ah!!!"

"..."

Suren looked over, and a horrifying scene appeared before his eyes.

Those pirates actually began to grow fleshy mushrooms all over their bodies...

These mushrooms, nourished by flesh and blood, visibly grew larger, and the pirates' bodies instantly became emaciated.

Hands, necks, heads... all exposed skin grew various colorful mushrooms.

Moreover, they couldn't be pulled out!

After pulling them out, it was like severing one's own limb, and blood gushed out immediately.

Just in that moment, the pirates who had pulled out the mushrooms screamed in unison.

People in this surface world didn't have the habit of wearing gas masks. Those whose skin was growing mushrooms were fine, but the worst were those who had inhaled them through their respiratory tracts, and the demons grew directly in their alveoli.

One pirate after another felt the horror of the "strange things" expanding in their bodies. If they didn't deal with them, the mushrooms could suck them dry and burst their organs. They could only take out sharp knives and cut open their stomachs before the mushrooms grew too large...

Horror, bizarreness, bloodiness... this scene spread almost across all the pirate ships.

Third and Fourth-tier professionals were fine; their keen senses allowed them to detect something was wrong in advance. But large numbers of pirates below the Third-tier were instantly killed!

And coincidentally, those who operated the cannons were all low-level pirates.

The ships were densely packed, making it impossible to avoid.

This one move, [Spore Secret Art], directly destroyed the pirates' cannon barrage.

At this time, the pirate squad leaders belatedly realized.

"Everyone, hold your breath!"

"Burn the surroundings with fire spells, there are parasites in the air!"

"Be careful to cover your skin and not expose it to the air..."

"Go to the sea! You won't get infected in the sea!"

"..."

Then they heard the sound of splashing as people jumped into the sea.

Suren was amazed by the scene before him: "What amazing abilities..."

He suddenly realized what the "Rotten Flower's" talent was, [B-003-Child of Nature], a talent with super high wood affinity and the legend of being able to communicate with plants!

Needless to say, she was another Second Awakening.

.......

Because of the "Rotten Flower's" technique, the surrounding pirates were silenced.

The *Windrider* sped out of the harbor.

But just then, suddenly, Gahr, the Frost Giant who was fighting fiercely with Mr. Mirror not far away, saw that they were about to escape, and strode towards the sea, roaring, "Gahr won't let you escape!"

Mr. Mirror teleported and stopped him.

She kicked out, and Gahr's tall body fell, breaking the mast of a pirate ship and crashing into the sea with a bang.

The nearby seawater instantly solidified into ice, and the guy stood up from the ice as if nothing had happened.

Although he wasn't very intelligent, he also knew that the person in front of him was difficult to deal with.

At this time, Gahr suddenly raised the mace in his hand, and the cold air under his feet visibly condensed, becoming denser and denser.

After charging up, he slammed the mace down on the sea.

Although Mr. Mirror sensed the terrifying frost law was being condensed, she couldn't stop it.

"Boom!"

A wave dozens of meters high exploded on the water's surface.

But strangely, the wave didn't fall, but froze in mid-air.

In the moonlight, it turned into a crystal clear ice flower.

In an instant, a deadly cold erupted and swept through the entire harbor.

Suren had just been thinking that with Mr. Mirror holding him back, the ugly giant would definitely not be able to catch up, but reality immediately struck him hard.

The shockwave of cold air swept over, cutting his face like an ice knife. Looking again, the sea surface visibly froze rapidly, catching up with the fleeing *Windrider* at an extremely fast speed.

An unexpected scene occurred; the biting cold actually froze the entire ship on the ice, unable to move at all.

The entire huge U-shaped harbor was frozen into a smooth ice surface, and hundreds of pirate ships were all frozen in place!

And those pirates in the sea were frozen into ice sculptures before they could get ashore.

The hundreds of people from Old Lingdun on board were all horrified.

Suren's eyelids twitched as he watched, and he thought, "This is going to be a bit troublesome..."