Lan Xiaorong drew his wooden sword and swept it in all directions, cutting pirates that got within his attack range in half.
The pirates did not seem to flinch at his moves and continued to rush at him, following the Vice Captain's orders.
One after another, pirates jumped at him, swarming like an annoying insect army seeking to take down a larger prey.
Lan Xiaorong's expression was not good, he was quite annoyed.
Hengsheng had just left him to deal with all the pirates, and he hadn't expected their numbers to be this many—thousands at the Spiritual Foundation Realm and more than three hundred at the True Body Realm, ranging from the First Gate to the Ninth.
The pressure of being surrounded was no joke; he had to be serious from the very start.
After cutting down dozens of pirates, a sudden shift in the Vice Captain's movements caught his divine sense.
The man he had been cautious of since the battle began—the strongest among all the pirates present here, the only Nine Gate True Body Realm cultivator—was finally making his move.
The Vice Captain's saber came down on him from above, aiming for his right arm.
Lan Xiaorong blocked it with his wooden sword.
CLANG!!!
The Vice Captain seemed shocked that his saber was blocked. He sensed the killing intent appearing in the enemy's eyes.
The enemy's saber pushed him, making him hurl backward, and the enemy's saber rushed at him once again with a sweeping attack.
He swiftly dodged the saber strike and the attacks from the other pirates that surrounded him.
The Vice Captain did not give up and continued to attack, performing a saber dance upon him. Multiple black saber qi slashes rushed at him, clearly intending to end his life.
The attacks came from all sides, putting so much pressure on him, but he did not go down easily at the hands of these pirates.
With profound techniques that had been trained since he was five, he parried the saber, dodged, and counterattacked!
His wooden sword slipped through the enemy's defense, aiming for the enemy's neck.
Unfortunately for Lan Xiaorong, the Vice Captain had some life-and-death experience, retreating swiftly to dodge a fatal attack from the wooden sword at the last moment.
Even though the Vice Captain successfully dodged a fatal attack, Lan Xiaorong's sword did not entirely miss; it made a shallow cut on the Vice Captain's neck.
After Lan Xiaorong inflicted the wound on the Vice Captain's neck, the battle seemed to pause momentarily.
"Who are you…" The Vice Captain asked coldly.
Lan Xiaorong considered whether he should answer these filthy criminals' questions.
He figured they would die soon anyway, so at the very least, they deserved to know who would end their lives.
"I'm Lan Xiaorong, the one who will end your lives." He spoke.
"Lan… Lan Clan from the Endless Wealth Company?" The Vice Captain was stunned.
He knew the name of the Lan Clan, as it was rumored to be one of the clans behind the Endless Wealth Company.
He hadn't expected the intruder to be the new ruler of the Southern Sea Kingdom.
Recently, they had been paid by a certain Noble Clan to target the ships of this new power roaming the southern sea.
This was also why their tribute yield this year had increased so dramatically—those ships were exceptionally wealthy.
'Is the Endless Wealth Company here for revenge? Whatever the reason he came to their base, he won't be leaving here alive!' the Vice Captain thought, a vicious smile appeared on his face.
"I don't know what gave you the courage to come to our place, but you made a big mistake! Form a battle formation! Kill him!" the Vice Captain shouted as he gave the order to the pirates.
The surrounding pirates began to form a battle formation, their qi surging.
Moments later, dozens of black sharks made entirely out of spiritual qi by the battle formation soared into the sky, revealing their sharp teeth as they rushed toward Lan Xiaorong.
Lan Xiaorong's eyes narrowed as he sensed the powerful aura emitted by the black sharks and became serious.
His spiritual qi surged and merged with mana, he began to cast the 4-star Verdant Magic Summoning, calling forth the Verdant Guardian to aid him in battle!
The magic circle appeared beneath his feet. In the next moment, four massive green golems made of rock and wood emerged in the four directions, surrounding Xiaorong—not to attack him, but to protect him!
All the golems put their hands forward, and a green aura materialized, forming a wall of green energy that slammed at the incoming black sharks, stopping them from advancing toward Lan Xiaorong.
The green golems began to move independently, engaging in battle with the black sharks.
A massive rock fist struck one of the black sharks, causing its body to explode.
The golems spread in four directions, attacking the group of pirates that formed the battle formation.
"What?!" The Vice Captain was shocked; he had never seen such a technique before. He sensed that these rock monsters did not seem to be mere puppets, but were more like Demon Beasts.
The Vice Captain noticed that Lan Xiaorong had disappeared from his spot. His divine sense immediately caught the opponent descending from above!
He quickly raised his saber to intercept the wooden sword!
CLANG!
The Vice Captain became angry. He could clearly sense Lan Xiaorong's cultivation realm—it was only at the First Gate—but somehow, the opponent's strength was almost equal to his!
The Genius Cultivator!
He recalled his past, back when he was still a wandering loose cultivator. Those genius cultivators from noble clans and sects had always suppressed him.
He hated people who were born with gifts the most!
The Vice Captain's killing intent surged from within; he roared like a beast, and then a chilling, bloodthirsty aura began to cover his saber, emitting a powerful spiritual aura.
This was Saber Intent—the manifestation of the Vice Captain's mastery over the saber!
The Vice Captain's spiritual power suddenly surged, and his saber struck Lan Xiaorong's wooden sword, sending him flying backward and crashing against the tree behind him.
Lan Xiaorong was helplessly sent flying under the powerful saber strike, crashing against tree after tree before stopping at the 14th tree.
He quickly got to his feet and flew into the sky, avoiding the Vice Captain's follow-up attack that landed where he had just been.
BOOM!
The forest below was devastated, and the Vice Captain soared toward Lan Xiaorong in the sky!
The Vice Captain swung his saber, releasing multiple arcs of saber qi that soared after the enemy!
Lan Xiaorong parried each saber qi with swift movements, narrowly dodging the saber thrust at him, and retreated further at the incredible speed.
The Vice Captain's saber shone with intense spiritual qi as he performed the technique. A shark's jaws full of sharp teeth appeared before him, biting at its target.
Lan Xiaorong, seeing the enemy's attack coming, did not panic. Instead, he focused, and then, a sharp and profound aura began covering Lan Xiaorong's wooden sword—it was his Sword Intent!
He performed his own technique instantly; the Verdant Colossus Sword appeared and clashed against the shark's jaw!
BOOM!
The atmosphere exploded. The Verdant Colossus Sword was destroyed, and the gigantic jaw descended on Lan Xiaorong's body.
Lan Xiaorong's body was ripped into countless pieces by the shark's jaw.
However, like Lan Yueli, he also has the same escape technique—the torn body turned into countless blossoms and disappeared, and his real body appeared on the other side of the sky.
The Vice Captain was angry that he couldn't kill Lan Xiaorong with his technique.
He rushed toward the enemy once more—this time, not just a shark's jaw, his entire body transformed into a gigantic, fiercely black shark, soaring through the night sky toward the enemy.
"DIE!!!!!" The black shark roared.
Lan Xiaorong's expression paled from the earlier crash. His Sword Intent was clearly inferior to the other side's Saber Intent.
That was to be expected—Martial Intent required time and experience to cultivate. He had only just entered his mid-twenties and couldn't compare to a cultivator with a thousand years of cultivation experience.
However, from the previous clash, he could identify his advantage that could be used against the opponent.
He realized he had something the opponent lacked—of course, not counting the stat attributes or the skills from the system—it was the mastery of the law!
He had long noticed that the system somehow helped him comprehend the worldly laws with far less effort than normal, far less than it was supposed to be at an unimaginable degree.
This shortened his comprehension time by countless folds—his current mastery of laws could easily rival that of cultivators who had lived for thousands of years!
Lan Xiaorong gazed at the approaching gigantic black shark with calm eyes.
He assumed a sword stance, then activated a series of buff skills—his strength instantly surged, more than doubling.
His wooden sword glowed with a brilliant green light and a profound aura of spiritual power as he was about to unleash the fourth technique of the Flowering Sword Cultivation Technique.
The Black Shark appeared before him, just as the gigantic shark's jaws were about to close around him, Lan Xiaorong thrust his glowing wooden sword forward.
For a fleeting millisecond, the entire area around Lan Xiaorong was bathed in brilliant green light—it felt as if time itself had frozen for a brief moment.
The next moment, the Black Shark's entire body instantly disintegrated, turning into countless blossoms before disappearing.
The Blossom Burial of Ten Thousand Petals was the fourth technique of the Flowering Sword Cultivation Technique—a secret art without a clear technique grade classification.
With a single thrust, the sword infuses the target with the user's all power and comprehension of the worldly law or Dao.
If the target failed to defend against it, their body would disintegrate by user power from within, turning them into ten thousand blooming petals, scattering into the wind.
This profound technique was not without risk—if the enemy's power surpassed the user's, the backlash would be fatal. The one who cast it could face the same fate, torn apart and scattered like blossoms in the wind.
Lan Xiaorong felt a wave of relief—his gamble had paid off.
But when his gaze swept across the battleground beneath, he saw the remaining pirates trying to flee the island, their morale shattered after witnessing their Vice Captain's death.
His eyes turned cold. Without hesitation, he soared toward them and began the massacre.