Chapter Ten Not all rings have grandfathers living in them

  The sun slowly sets on the sea surface, the dark night is about to arrive, but the battle at sea has just begun.

  Even though the sailors had done their best, the merchant ship's speed was still no match for the pirate ship. After the catapults fired continuously, the wind sails on the merchant ship were finally shattered by the stone balls, and the entire hull suddenly lost control and capsized.

  Taking advantage of the opportunity, the pirate ship behind accelerated to catch up. Before the two ships were side by side, those ferocious pirates grabbed the sail ropes, grinned and jumped over the ship's side, wielding curved knives to brutally slaughter. In an instant, more than a dozen sailors were hacked down, and the flowing blood dyed the deck red.

  "Good job, in ten minutes I want to see a ship with nothing but dead men." The pirate leader standing at the mast, directing with a satisfied gruesome smile, the ear-piercing laughter carried by the wind sounded like metal scraping against glass.

  "Who is that guy?" Lin Taiping picked up the telescope and looked far away, the pirate leader was thin as a bamboo pole, with black skin covered in olive oil, his long neck looked extremely strange, just like a vulture's head and neck.

  "That guy's nickname is Bald Eagle, a pretty good fast sword user and also one of Captain Blood Eye's subordinates." Kristen opened her eyes wide in thought, probably thinking that this wasn't enough to show the other person's strength, so she added another sentence in her usual way, "Also, he's worth two hundred gold coins."

  This introduction is indeed quite intuitive, Lin Taiping can only express his respect, but on the other hand, the pirate captives from a few days ago were only worth tens of gold coins, while this Mr. Vulture is worth two hundred gold coins, which already explains many problems.

  "Two hundred gold coins, can buy a lot of food?" Tuluo didn't care about that, he was already excited to the point where his eyes were red, "Lin, what are you waiting for? Let's rush over now and turn these guys into gold coins, and take over that merchant ship while we're at it."

  "Good idea!" Lin Taiping raised his hands and feet in approval, "However, it seems we don't need to go there after all, because those guys are already preparing to come to our doorstep... be careful!"

  Before the words had fallen, the pirate ship had already discovered something was amiss and quickly turned its bow around. Amidst the sharp sound of the horn, the old catapults were fired again, and huge stone balls came whizzing in, heavily pounding the area near the Black Pearl, stirring up towering white waves.

  "Charge forward, prepare for boarding combat." Lin Taiping made a wise decision immediately, which he learned from the game of Grand Voyage. If your long-range firepower is far inferior to that of the enemy, then just get close and fight in numbers.

  In fact, Kirsten was already doing so, under her skilled control, the Black Pearl quickly turned around and narrowly avoided a stone bullet, and with the help of the wind, it sped forward and crashed into the pirate ship in the distance.

  In just a moment, the Black Pearl would close to within a thousand meters, and the Minotaur-like people in black robes seemed like they had been injected with chicken blood, eagerly waiting for the two ships to come alongside each other so that they could give the pirates a big surprise.

  But the pirates were apparently smarter than imagined, the vulture twisted its long neck, and a sinister sneer suddenly appeared at the corner of its mouth: "Boarding battle? Foolish guys, although I don't know why you have such courage, but to be on the safe side, I won't give you this chance."

  Under his command, the pirate ship immediately pulled up full sail and retreated, its speed even surpassing that of the Black Pearl by a large margin. Almost simultaneously, several pirates rushed to the stern of the ship, whereupon a large piece of canvas was torn off, revealing a larger catapult in the air.

  "Damn it! Two catapults?" Lin Taiping and Kirsten exchanged a glance, suddenly realizing that the situation was not good, Kirsten immediately frantically turned the steering wheel, trying to make the Black Pearl change direction.

  But this escape was too late, the two catapults had already begun to fire alternately, huge stone balls whizzed in continuously, heavily pounding on both sides of the Black Pearl. After several consecutive misses, a stone ball finally locked onto its target, bringing with it an ominous shadow from the sky!

  "Watch out!" Lin Taiping shouted, suddenly grabbing Kristin and pulling her to the side. Almost at the same time, several hundred kilograms of heavy stone balls fell heavily, instantly smashing a large hole in the deck, causing the entire ship to shake violently.

  Under this great inertia, Christine rushed over, and with a soft thud, the two of them suddenly came together in an intimate embrace, even able to feel each other's scorching breath. And worst of all, because of an unconscious push upwards, Lin Taiping's hands happened to be placed... well, very soft, aren't they?

  A few seconds later, Kirsten's pretty face turned bright red like a volcano about to erupt. However, before she had the chance to go off on a tangent, another sharp whistling sound pierced through the air and another stone bullet came crashing down.

  I love this cannonball! Lin Taiping was so moved that he was choked with sobs, and then suddenly retreated several steps, but in that instant, the cannonball had heavily hit the side of the ship, and the Black Pearl suddenly tilted out of control.

  He was completely unable to control his balance, and Lin Taiping involuntarily flew out, seeing a sharp wooden board in front of him. He subconsciously stretched out his hand to block it, and the fireball ring on his hand was instantly dented by the board. The ruby on the ring's surface was thoroughly shattered.

  "My ring!" Lin Taiping couldn't help but feel a sharp pain in his heart, but at this moment, the shattered surface of the ring suddenly burst out with dazzling red light, completely enveloping him.

  It was unbelievable that at the very next moment, when he struggled to open his eyes and look around, he found himself already far away from the battlefield, standing alone in -

  "Uh... who can tell me, what is this place?"

  Before him, a gigantic sacred temple towered, with a black altar burning fiercely in the center. Standing on the altar and looking up, one could see dozens of towering statues of gods piercing the clouds, shrouded in silvery white light, exuding an aura of terror that seemed to crush all living things beneath its gaze, as if it could reduce the entire world to dust.

  "Temple? Sacrifice?" In the face of this indescribable oppressive feeling, Lin Taiping almost found it hard to breathe, and just as he was struggling to resist this oppression, a low, hollow, and gigantic voice suddenly resounded throughout the temple hall.

  "Mortal, kneel before the gods and offer your sacrifice with a devout heart, and you shall receive the blessings of the gods!"

  Gods? Even in the midst of shock, Lin Taiping couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth. Don't kid yourself, even if there really are gods in this world, they're just some kind of powerful existence. Moreover, such a powerful existence may have long since left this world, otherwise the Minotaur people who worshiped the Dark God wouldn't be so down on their luck.

  In fact, just as he had anticipated, even without seeing him kneel down devoutly, the voice remained unangrily and emotionlessly repeating in a hollow tone.

  "Mortal, kneel before the gods and offer your sacrifice with a devout heart, and you shall receive the blessings of the gods!"

  This time, when Lin Taiping heard the words again, he was moved in his heart. So, in the next moment, he immediately raised his head thoughtfully and asked: "May I ask, what is the offering that I should present, and what can I get?"

  He didn't get angry because of the offense, and the voice fell silent for a moment before answering in an emotionless tone again: "Magic crystals and magic cores are the most satisfactory offerings to the gods. The more you pay, the more blessings you will receive."

  So it was, Lin Taiping vaguely felt that he had grasped something, so after a few minutes of contemplation, he immediately tried to take out the six magic crystals, which were the spoils of war "voluntarily" offered by the pirate captives. Although the grade was not high, they could still be sold for five or six hundred gold coins on the market.

  "Alright, I hope it doesn't disappoint me." He took a deep breath, picked up the six magic crystals and gently threw them into the raging flames of the altar.

  The raging flames seemed to possess a strange power, instantly reducing the magic crystal to nothingness. But in the brief silence that followed, the voice sounded again...

  "You have offered sacrifices to the multitude of gods, and they are pleased with your offerings. They grant you the blessing of the sea god... From this moment on, you will possess the talent halo of navigation expertise for three days."

  Before the words had fallen, among the towering statues of gods above, the statue of the sea god holding a trident suddenly burst into dazzling light, enveloping the entire altar.

  Enveloped in this brilliant light, Lin Taiping only felt that his whole body was warm and cozy, countless symbols like flying birds swirling in his mind, and when he suddenly came to his senses, he found himself already leaving the temple, standing again on the damaged deck.

  "Boss, what are you spacing out?" Completely unaware of what had just happened, Kristen yelled at him loudly, but in that instant, two stone bullets whizzed by one after another, their piercing breaking wind sound sharp to the point of being ear-piercing.

  Taking a deep breath of cold air, Kirsten immediately spun the wheel wildly, trying to get the Black Pearl out of this attack, but it was no use. The two stone bullets were too fast, so fast that even if she could dodge one, there was no time...

  "Let me!" Lin Taiping pushed her away, grabbed the still-spinning steering wheel, and quickly turned it to the left. He paused for a moment before turning it back again.

  In the midst of creaking and groaning sounds, the rudder seemed to be on the verge of shattering, yet under such rough control, the Black Pearl somehow managed to stubbornly turn its bow to the right. Immediately afterwards, the ship's body violently shook and then mysteriously moved a few meters to the left.

  Almost simultaneously, the first stone bullet fell heavily and landed on the right side of the Black Pearl, just a few seconds later, the second stone bullet also whizzed by, hitting the left side of the sea surface of the Black Pearl, stirring up a large wave.

  Incredible miracle! To know that even if it was just a second slower, the poor Black Pearl would have been smashed to pieces. But this very irregular tiny turn actually allowed it to dodge the stone bullet, and not even the paint on the side of the ship was scratched.

  "How is this possible? Seeing this bizarre scene, the vulture almost fell from the mast, its long neck nearly twisted off. 'How can this be? Even if it were the most skilled pirate captain, it would not be possible... damn it, that guy must be the private son of the goddess of luck!'"

  "Boss, are you the illegitimate child of Lady Luck?" In fact, Kristen had the same question, "Wait a minute, didn't you say you knew nothing about navigation, boss?"

  "I'm fine now, isn't that okay?" Lin Taiping replied with a smile, completely ignoring the other person's astonished gaze.

  At this moment, when his hands touched the steering wheel, he immediately had a feeling of being connected by blood vessels, as if the Black Pearl suddenly had life and was completely integrated with his body, every move was so light and natural.

  "Master of Navigation? Gifted Halo?" He stroked his chin leisurely, turning his head to gaze at the silly-looking Kirsten, whose eight white teeth sparkled in the sunset.

  "Hmm, dear Kirsten, have you ever tangoed... I mean, with a boat!"

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  This one, although there is only one update every day for the past few days, I basically have more than 3,000 words per update. Yesterday's chapter had more than 4,000 words, which should be barely passable. Everyone please collect, click and vote to support.

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