I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

A pirate and sailor looked desperately at his first mate beside him, "Second...second mate, shall we continue fighting?"

The so-called second-in-command was planning to quietly retreat and escape on a small raft once he was out of sight when he heard this. He then felt the guy who called himself a hero looking at him and knew that he could not escape. He was filled with despair.

Fighting is out of the question; it's a dead end.

The greenhorn recruits who had just become pirates had no idea how formidable their opponents were.

That person's jump just now had a range farther than the cannons of their ship without any magic enhancement, and there was no trace of magic fluctuation.

In other words, the opponent is harder than a solid cannonball without any magical enhancement!

He voluntarily put down the musket in his hand and the dagger hidden at his waist, and squatted down with his hands behind his head.

"I, the second-in-command of the Blood Shark Pirate Crew, lead all the pirates in surrender!"

The dozen or so pirates who had surrounded them, who were originally holding up their scimitars, short axes, and cocked crossbows, ready to fight to the death, were now stunned.

No, the second-in-command?

We are ready to fight to the death, so why has Your Majesty surrendered first?!

Our leader is a mage and swordsman with high attack and low defense. He was just careless and didn't dodge, so he was ambushed by the opponent. Are we afraid of him with so many of us?

However, a few seasoned seafarers reacted, glancing at the second-in-command and then at Ji Tian, ​​their grip on the hilts of their knives tightening and loosening.

Finally, the blade struck the deck with a soft sound, followed by a series of clanging sounds—the sound of weapons hitting the ground was exceptionally clear in the silence.

"I surrender! I surrender!"

"Don't kill me! I'm just a handyman!"

"I surrender too!"

Ji Tian glanced at the kneeling pirates on the deck, then turned his head to look at another ship.

The pirates on that old ship had obviously seen the commotion, and some had already turned their ship around to try to escape, but they were stopped in no time by the elven sailors on the Seagull with their precise arrows.

Two ships and nearly two hundred pirates were all captured within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Ji Tian casually tossed the pirate captain onto the deck and gestured towards the direction of the Sea Sparrow.

Captain Evelyn understood and directed the Seagull to approach. Several elven sailors jumped onto the White Heron with ropes and quickly tied the pirates together.

Then, she called the first and second mates from the Seagull to board the ship with their men and take control of the White Heron and the old pirate ship.

The elven sailors moved swiftly and quickly adjusted the sails of both ships, allowing them to sail alongside the Seagull.

Evelyn stood on the gunwale between the two ships, her gaze sweeping over the cannons covered by canvas on the pirate ship's deck, and suddenly narrowed her eyes.

"Hero, please come and take a look."

Ji Tian walked over and looked in the direction she indicated.

Evelyn had already lifted the canvas of one of the cannons, revealing the cannon barrel underneath.

It was a cast iron cannon, with a caliber nearly twice that of the cannons used by ordinary merchant ships for self-defense. The casting process on the surface of the barrel was exquisite, and the rifling was clear, indicating that it was a finished product that had undergone precision machining.

Ji Tian didn't know much about artillery, so he waited quietly for the other party to explain.

Evelyn crouched down and ran her fingers along the grooves on the surface of the cannon barrel.

"This cannon is extraordinary. Its casting process is more refined than any I have ever seen, and its range and accuracy are at least three times that of old-fashioned bronze cannons."

"In other words, this thing couldn't have been made by pirates themselves."

"Of course not. Pirates can rob ships and goods, but they can't rob a foundry. This cannon was most likely produced in a port city with a complete industrial system."

Ji Tian nodded, then looked down at the pirate captain on the ground, who was beaten senseless.

Ji Tian reached out and grabbed him by the back of the neck, lifting him up: "Stop pretending, I held back my kick. What's your name?"

Blood Shark slowly opened one eye, and seeing that Ji Tian truly had no intention of making another move, he swallowed hard.

"Blood, Blood Shark."

"Real name".

"...Marcus Gray, the second son of the Gray family, was kicked out of the family after offending a powerful figure from another family, which led him to make a living at sea."

"Where did you buy your new artillery from?"

"Yes, it was bought from the underground market in Lion Fang City! The merchants there sell everything. The cannon-casting workshop is backed by a big merchant in the city. The new cannons have only started to circulate in the last six months."

The cannons on this ship were bought two months ago, costing a full two hundred gold coins!

"Were you the first pirates to use this kind of cannon?"

"No, no. The underground market in Lion Fang City releases information regularly, notifying each dealer when there are good items. In the last six months, the pirates in the area have been getting new cannons one after another; we were relatively late in doing so."

Ji Tian then asked, "What was the name of the person who sold you the cannons?"

"I never meet that person in person; all transactions are conducted through intermediaries. All I know is that he has a code name: 'Anvil.' It's said that he's backed by the chief cannonsmith of Lionfang City, and those cannons were all designed by that master himself."

Ji Tian was speechless for a moment.

What's this called? Cannon makers become arms dealers, pirates become customers, and Liontooth City becomes the distribution center.

A war king has emerged from here?

"Lionfang City... Free Port, underground market, unmarked cannon-casting workshops. How do you pirates usually buy these?"

Seeing that Ji Tian seemed more interested in the source of the weapon than in killing him, Blood Shark gradually calmed down and cautiously replied:

"There's a bar in town called 'Broken Anchor.' The owner is the middleman. Give the code, pay a deposit, and pick up the goods at the designated dock three days later. Pay the balance upon delivery."

After memorizing this information, Ji Tian kicked Blood Shark's shin: "Where are the bodies of the original crew members of the merchant ship you stole?"

Blood Shark's face paled slightly: "...They sank. They were in the nearby waters. My men accidentally killed them, so I sank them all."

"Accidentally killed them all? I think you were trying to cover your tracks. Exact location?"

"About three miles to the southeast, there is a reef on the seabed; the bodies all sank there."

Ji Tian said to the captain, "Make a note of this location. If there's time on the return trip, retrieve the person and send them back to the mainland for burial at the church."

Evelyn nodded in agreement, then asked the question that had been lingering in everyone's minds: "What should we do with these pirates?"

Ji Tian glanced at the thirty-odd people tied together in a string:

"You can deal with the pirate ships yourselves. If you can sail them away, do so; if you can't, tow them back and sell them as spoils of war when they reach the port. Pack up all the pirates and escort them back to the nearest port to be handed over to the kingdom's garrison in exchange for bounties."

When the pirates heard the words "in exchange for bounty," some breathed a sigh of relief, while others turned ashen-faced.

Evelyn nodded: "The nearest port with a kingdom garrison is Lionfang City. But that place—"

"I know that in a free port, the city lord has the final say. But since it's a free port, the pirates' bounties should still be paid."

"Indeed, the bounty system is universal in Lionfang City. As long as a pirate is officially captured, he can be exchanged for money at the sheriff's office."

After saying this, Evelyn turned around and began directing the sailors to clean up the mess.