Chapter 143: Inside Story of the Pirates

“So how much power do the Pirates have in the City of Chaos?” Old Xie continued to ask.

“About half of the people inside are Pirates, and half of these belong to the three major Pirate organizations, the Black Dragon Society is one of them!” Constantine explained.

“What business do these Pirates do in the city?” Old Xie asked puzzled.

“They also open shops, but the shops only sell stolen goods and don’t buy things. Our shops are the opposite, we only buy stolen goods and don’t sell things!” Constantine laughed.

“Why don’t you just trade directly? Why so much trouble?” Old Xie immediately asked puzzled.

“Because we can’t agree on the price!” Constantine laughed, “For us, there are too many Pirates and too much stolen goods, so we have to use our limited funds to buy as much as possible. But those large Pirate organizations know the goods and have capital, so they are not in a hurry to sell. We don’t have an advantage when negotiating with them, so we simply set up shops to buy things from small Pirates, because they are poorer, anxious to sell, and don’t know the goods well, so it’s easy for us to get good things. As for those small Merchants who don’t have the ability to open shops, they naturally can only spend more money to buy stolen goods from the Pirates’ shops!”

“With so many Pirates and so much stolen goods, who exactly are the victims?” Old Xie immediately asked puzzled, “As far as I know, the Human Kingdoms have almost banned sea transport because of rampant Pirates, right?”

“Serious Merchant Guilds naturally don’t go, but don’t forget, for land transport, you have to pay 10% tax on the value of goods when passing through a city. How many cities are there between the northern and southern empires of the Human Race? Taxes alone, plus shipping costs, will almost multiply the price of goods by more than five times. But if you go by sea, you can completely save these troubles, at most adding one time the cost, that is to say, the profit obtained from a successful smuggling is almost three times the price of the goods. Such a huge temptation is inevitable for many people who are not afraid of death. So sea smuggling has never really stopped.” Constantine laughed.

“In addition, besides smugglers, Pirates occasionally land to rob small towns, and they won’t even be polite to each other. After all, although the Demon Archipelago is barren, at least there are some things. Even Demons from other planes won’t come naked, they will have some family property. Pirates don’t care who the Demons are, as long as their strength allows, they will visit the Demon Castles on various islands from time to time.” Constantine said, “These are the main sources of stolen goods! Anyway, no matter what, there are still a lot of stolen goods in the City of Chaos, and millions of Gold Coins flow here every year!”

“Even the Demons on the Demon Archipelago are robbed by Pirates?” Old Xie laughed when he heard this.

“Of course, in fact, they are all the same. Many Demons are Pirates themselves, and they also have strongholds on the Demon Archipelago. And the relationship between Demons is not good either, there are almost internal wars every day. I really don’t know, with so many of them, how they have fought for so long without dying out, instead, their number seems to be increasing!” Constantine smiled bitterly, “I remember before, there weren’t many Demons in the City of Chaos, most were Humans from the Continent. But in just a few decades, their number has almost accounted for more than half of the entire City of Chaos!”

“How many people are in the City of Chaos now?” Old Xie asked.

“About a hundred thousand?” Constantine said uncertainly.

“Are the Pirates a mess of sand?” Old Xie asked again.

“Yes, definitely!” Constantine nodded, then suddenly asked, “What do you want to do?”

“Hehe!” Old Xie suddenly grinned, then said a sentence that almost scared Constantine to death, “I want to rob the Black Dragon Society!”

“What?” Constantine exclaimed immediately, “Don’t you want to live? We can’t hide from those cruel guys fast enough, how can we go and rob them instead?”

“So what?” Old Xie said indifferently, “Since they dared to rob me, they must be prepared to pay the price. There is a saying, if you come out to play, you will have to pay back sooner or later!”

“But, but the Black Dragon Society has great power in the City of Chaos!” Constantine smiled bitterly, “Although Tianfeng Fourteen Lang took away 5,000 people, I dare say that their headquarters in the City of Chaos still has at least more than 1,000 people. After all, it’s very chaotic there, and it’s their key point, it’s impossible not to guard against it!”

“Fighting relies on brains, not just numbers and strength!” Old Xie curled his lips, then said, “Leave this matter to me!”

Then, Old Xie turned his face and continued to ask Diles, “Diles, how many Mercenary Groups do you know? I mean powerful organizations.”

“Young Master, I know quite a few, but there are not many reliable ones. I can’t guarantee that they will do the work after taking the money!” Diles said helplessly.

“Troublesome!” Old Xie didn’t expect the Mercenary Groups here to have such bad reputations, but thinking that the environment here was basically a Robber’s den, he was relieved. Then he asked, “Is it possible for the remaining two of the three major Pirate organizations to help us deal with the Black Dragon Society?”

“Impossible!” Constantine shook her head directly, “Although the three major Pirate organizations fight fiercely in secret, they will absolutely not have intense frontal conflicts!”

“Why is that?” Old Xie asked puzzled.

“Actually, the real owners behind the so-called three major Pirate organizations are three Legend Rank Great Demons on Demon Island. They are from the same Plane. Although they are not on good terms with each other, they know that in this unfamiliar Plane, only by uniting can they possibly save their lives. So they have a peace agreement with each other.” Constantine explained.

“Why don’t I know such big news?” Old Xie couldn’t help but ask strangely.

“This news is very hidden, and I only gradually found out after dealing with Pirates for many years.” Constantine smiled bitterly, “You also know, the three Great Demons want to conquer the Continent, so their reputation on the Continent is very bad, to the point where everyone hates them. If people on the Continent knew that they were the owners behind the three major Pirates, the City of Chaos would probably have ceased to exist long ago!”

“You knew, why didn’t you tell anyone?” Old Xie immediately asked strangely.

“Are you stupid?” Constantine rolled her eyes at Old Xie, then smiled bitterly, “If the City of Chaos was destroyed by the Allied Forces of various races because of my report, how would I receive stolen goods and make a fortune in the future?”

“You are really selfish!” Old Xie couldn’t help but cry and laugh.

“It’s not just me! There are many Nobles who know about this, and they all tacitly didn’t publicize it, just hiding it from the common people below!” Constantine said helplessly, “So, if I dare to break this invisible unspoken rule, it would be equivalent to offending the Nobles of the entire Continent.”

“Clearly knowing that such indulgence will only send milk to their enemies, and more people will be sacrificed in the future. But for the immediate benefit, the Nobles all choose to ignore it unanimously. So I say, Nobles, are really damn things!” Old Xie couldn’t help shaking his head and sighing.

“In your eyes, am I very bad?” Constantine couldn’t help but ask sadly.

“Hehe!” Old Xie smiled badly and said, “Being bad is right, if a woman isn’t bad, men won’t love her!”

“Hate, how can you say that!” Constantine then laughed and scolded, “By the way, what are you going to do now? Do you still want to rob the Black Dragon Society?”

“Of course, a word once spoken is hard to take back!” Old Xie said imposingly, “Let alone a mere thousand people, even if there were ten thousand people, I would destroy them!”

“Then how are you going to do it?” Constantine asked cautiously.

“Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed!” Old Xie pretended to be mysterious, “Anyway, you will know when the time comes!”

“I warn you, if you don’t tell me, don’t expect to mobilize my men!” Constantine immediately said strongly, “I won’t let my subordinates die in vain!”

“Hehe, whatever. Actually, I didn’t intend to invite you to participate anyway!” Old Xie laughed and said, “I don’t have the habit of sharing the loot with others!”

“Ha, are you that confident?” Constantine asked in disbelief.

“Nonsense, do I look like someone who likes to boast?” Old Xie said proudly.

“You don’t look like it!” Constantine then said seriously, “You simply are!”

Old Xie immediately made a bitter face and couldn’t help but say depressingly, “You really don’t give me any face!”

“Hehe!” Constantine looked at Old Xie’s appearance and couldn’t help laughing, then said, “Alright, stop fooling around. Go rest. We have to travel tomorrow!”

“Mhm!” Old Xie agreed, said goodnight to Constantine, and then they each went to rest.

…

A few days later, Old Xie and his group finally arrived at the City of Chaos. Looking from a distance, this was less like a city and more like a messy town. There were no city walls here. The outside was full of various tents, while the buildings inside seemed to be preserved quite well, but they were obviously specially reinforced. Whether it was originally exquisite sculptures or murals, they were all ruined, covered by various stones and wooden piles, making them look like small castles.