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“How is it going?”

After the ritual had ended, Bailuo asked everyone to leave and then sought out his uncle and senior apprentice-sister.

“The method was correct, but the offering was wrong,” Bailuo said. “We used the wrong thing for the ritual.”

“Wasn’t it supposed to be grain or some sort of cereal?”

The senior apprentice-sister said, “Then, shall we go and fetch some precious animals instead?”

“If we want to conduct another ritual, we have to wait a month.”

Bailuo hadn’t expected a penalty for failure, but after some thought, he found this to be not such a bad thing, as it would give him an opportunity to attend to his own affairs.

“This is perfect!”

The uncle said, “Now that we have the time, it’s time to add to our population.”

Population, that was something the People of Yatun were in dire need of.

With more people, more Children of Miracle could be born.

Children of Miracle could form new troop types, assemble armies—that was the foundation for protecting Yatun and for ensuring that the nation could stand tall on Miracle Mainland.

“Follow me.”

The uncle led the two to his home and then rummaged to find a map: “You have rarely sailed the seas before and are not too familiar with the surrounding regions. This sea chart was obtained during my adventurous youth.”

“Lookhere, our Yatun Island is approximately located here.”

“Uh…”

Bailuo discovered the sea chart was blank: “Our island isn’t marked on the sea chart?”

“Don’t scoff at it, having it is already good. It’s a bit outdated,” the uncle tapped his own head. “But the information is here.”

“That’s true.”

Bailuo: “Go on, Uncle.”

“We are located to the southeast of Miracle Continent.”

The uncle marked the locations of the Iron Eagle Kingdom and Yatun Island:

“To our southwest lies an archipelago, known as the Azure Duchy.”

“To reach the closest part of the Azure Duchy from us, even with our fastest warship, a round trip would take at least half a month’s time.”

“Iron Eagle, Azure, and the waters surrounding our Yatun Island—this entire sea area is known as the Eastern Waters,” the uncle said. “The power of Pirate King Morgan is entrenched right here.”

“Little Luo, what do you think?”

Faced with his uncle’s question, Bailuo replied, “Surrounded on three sides, the geographic location of Yatun Island can connect to the Ancient City Xilu’en and even continue westward to the Kingdom of Mountains and further west to the Holy Empire.”

“If we head northward from the east, bypassing that area, we can pass through the sea region of the Brilliant Duchy and reach the Far North Empire, engaging in trade with the cities there.”

“Heading south goes without saying. Although I have never been to the Azure Duchy, I have heard of its great reputation.”

The Azure Duchy may be just a duchy.

According to the uncle, a duchy is a nation that possesses three but not more than seven miracles.

This nation proclaims itself as a ‘permanent neutral country’ on Miracle Mainland and has been recognized by many other nations.

“The Azure Duchy is large; for the time being, it is best we do not provoke this colossal entity.”

From the uncle’s experience, they should not have a direct confrontation with the Azure Duchy within the next decade; it would be very irrational.

“What about Morgan? Little Luo, what do you think?”

“This…”

After some thought, Bailuo felt he was bound to wage war against Morgan, as the two had long-standing enmities.

“Feiya?”

“Dad, what you want to say is that you hope we will replace Morgan, right?”

The senior apprentice-sister’s words made Bailuo suddenly understand, “That’s right, if Morgan could establish himself in the Eastern Waters, then if we were to defeat Morgan, a change of Pirate King would not disrupt the maritime balance.”

“It’s a challenge, yet also an opportunity.”

“Exactly.”

The uncle saw Bailuo and his senior apprentice-sister’s collaborative thinking and felt reassured about Yatun’s future with the two of them: “However, this is just a theoretical plan, and it cannot be accomplished with a single battle or even several battles.”

“This sea area is too vast. Even if we intend to take it over, we must seize the right moment.”

These past few days, the uncle had been discussing strategies with two other seniors; the three of them were like Yatun’s key advisors.

Lacking sufficient political and military experience, Bailuo understood well whom to consult for opinions regarding major strategic layouts and how to make his decisions.

“Will there be a battle soon?”

“We’re definitely going to fight,” answered the uncle to Bailuo. “But first, we need to understand why we are fighting this battle.”

“Are you talking about Sigurian?”

“Him, but also Pirate King Morgan.”

“At present, we’re not clear on the opponent’s military strength. To wage war rashly would be very unwise,” said the uncle.

Fighting ordinary pirates was of no real consequence.

But if they encountered an army composed of Miracle Troop Types, to be honest, even if Yatun could win, the losses would be grievous.

“What’s our interest in this, Uncle?”

Bailuo was a rational man. War was driven by interests, and without interests, Bailuo would not engage.

“Time and deterrence,” explained the uncle. “Our war with Sigurian aims to gain more time and also to make it known that we, the people of Yatun, are not to be trifled with.”

As for launching an offensive to eliminate Morgan…

Even though Bailuo had obtained three miracles, he had far too little time.

Even if Bailuo’s efficiency were tenfold that of Morgan’s, how could his recent achievements shake the Two-hundred-year accumulation of miracles by Morgan?

“Of course, for now, we shouldn’t rush to attackMorgan, but Sigurian’s forces —they are not Morgan’s main army and amount to only one-sixth of it.”

“Choosing the right battlefield, defeating Sigurian will not be difficult.”

In these past days, the three seniors had been discussing where to choose the battlefield. Now there was significant progress, and they were simply waiting for Sigurian to deliver himself.

“Morgan’s matter, we can put off for now.”

“Our immediate priority is to travel to the Azure Duchy.”

“We should first avoid drawing the attention of the Miracle Lords over there,” the uncle said. “Our target is those slave traders.”

Yes, slave traders.

Yatun needed a population, and the best source of people was the slaves who had lost their homes due to war.

Without a homeland, they lost their freedom and identity.

Once they arrived at Yatun Island, as long as Bailuo treated them well, it would soon become their only refuge.

Bailuo didn’t want pirates because these people had bad conduct and too many issues.

If he were to buy, given the chance to choose at will, it would be better to purchase some commoners, or even better, young people.

“Perhaps some of them harbor ill intentions, but most of them should be willing to integrate into Yatun,”

There would always be those who bite the hand that feeds them.

Uncle didn’t expect to assimilate everyone; even a 70% assimilation rate would satisfy Bailuo.

“Find these slave merchants and establish trade with them.”

“Sell the slaves to us,” Uncle said, “even if the price is 20 to 30 percent higher, or even double, we can accept it.”

The presence of the Initial Sprout Holy Pouch was like giving Yatun Island an endless gold mine.

Its output, those spices, couldn’t compare to the consumption of this world.

After all, slave transportation takes time, and as long as Bailuo and his team maintained a good export volume of trade, the price of black pepper would not only hardly decrease but also, due to increased demand, they would profit from thinner margins on higher volumes.

More importantly, it was a monopoly!

Sell less when the price is low, and export more when it’s high.

The price? Wasn’t it for them to decide?

“Black pepper is hard to grow; it has too high of an environmental demand,” said Uncle, “so in the coming period, Xiao Luo, you need to bring out more black pepper so we can dry it and make it into black pepper powder.”

Doing so would also avoid the issue of recalculating due to internal moisture in the black pepper later on.

“Okay.”

Drying the black pepper was actually quite simple; with Lilith’s fairy magic, it was a matter of minutes.

So the next day, everyone loaded crates of black pepper onto the warship.

The ship was left behind by the pirates but had been modified by Lilith with some fairy magic.

From its appearance alone, there was a significant difference from before, and it would not be recognized.

“Everybody aboard?”

There were six members in total for this operation.

Among the males, there were Bailuo, Little John, and Anderson.

They also brought three women: Yimoteer, the cook, Gonnia, Bailuo’s secretary, and Fiona, Nors’ sister.

Gonnia was very smart and had a very high IQ.

With her there, Bailuo wouldn’t be played by the numbers.

If there was an issue with the opponent’s price, just one sentence from Gonnia would make sure the opponent realized how severe the consequences of deceiving the People of Yatun could be.

Besides these people, Uncle, Sister, Inya, and others stayed on Yatun Island.

And there was Lilith who continued to teach the children magic.

Of course, Bailuo would take Sherri with him.

And according to the relationship between a Miracle Creature and its master, as soon as Bailuo summoned her, Lilith would immediately appear by Bailuo’s side.

The only issue was that once summoned, Lilith would have to stay outside with Bailuo and then take the ship home.

Lilith needed to stay to defend Yatun Island, so unless necessary, Bailuo tried not to summon her.

“Is this all the people we have?”

Little John was puzzled, and Anderson, who was new and on his first visit, also looked towards Bailuo.

The tree elf lad had a white cloth tied over his head, dressing up like a third brother—to hide his ears.

Bailuo brought Anderson out because Anderson wanted to come out to see the world and broaden his experience, so he could do more for Bailuo in the future. Though it was risky, Bailuo was very willing to cultivate his subordinates, so he gladly accepted his request.

“About that,”

Bailuo explained, “We’re taking a large ship out, not to buy slaves to bring back, but first to place orders with the slave merchants.”

Slaves were typically not bought directly from slave merchants but were usually sent to slave markets around the world, handed over to Slave Masters, and then resold.

Naturally, Bailuo could go to a slave market.

But it was too chaotic there, and the hassle of taking people out to sea—not to mention in such large quantities—would eventually cause trouble.

“What we’re doing is for long-term business, not just one or two transactions.”

Bailuo’s plan was to find a slave ship and then directly deal with their boss.

Pay a deposit first, then build up initial trade trust.

“Picking an island by the sea and not heading to Blue Sea City in the Azure Duchy benefits both parties,”

Slave merchants did this to reduce taxes, while for Bailuo, it was for safety: “Now let’s see who dares to do business with us.”

Money was not an issue after all.

The People of Yatun lacked many things, but money wasn’t one of them.

Bailuo: Yes, my family owns a mine!

“Captain.”

Gonnia adopted the new address, as Bailuo had requested, “although money is not an issue, we shouldn’t let others take advantage of us and overcharge.” “Well, yes,”

Bailuo wasn’t good at business, “then I’ll leave it to you. When it’s time, Gonnia, you take the lead in negotiations; I will just back you up.”

“Alright.”

Each person had their specialty, and Gonnia, having been educated by Uncle for many years, though far from his equal, had inherited a good three to four parts of his skill.

“And us, don’t forget about us!”

Three adorable kittens chased each other around on deck, their words only audible to Bailuo; to others, it was merely the cute meowing sounds.

“We’re super fierce too!”

The three kittens posed defiantly, showing the potential to become the three admirals of Yatun’s Naval Headquarters.

“Prosperity, civility, harmony, freedom, justice, dedication…”

The mice held up an unnamed pest, chanting the slogans Bailuo had spoken, indicating they’d been working hard.

“Heh.”

Bailuo nodded his head towards them and then announced to everyone, “Raise the anchor, we’re setting out! To Coral City!”