It appeared that all three bands of pirates in the Yangshan Archipelago favored this lucrative side gig.
He Lingchuan accepted it without the slightest hesitation, treating it as compensation for his hard work.
Busy from dawn till dusk, He Lingchuan finally headed back to Blade Harbor with Zhu Daniang, Dong Rui, and the others.
Once more, an evening breeze caressed his face. Sitting at the bow, He Lingchuan felt completely refreshed.
With his troubles resolved one by one, the very first territory in his possession—a chicken bone in the eyes of the Lu family—was about to turn into a prize pig, ready to plunge into bustling development.
He could begin recruiting troops, buying horses, and building up his strength. The future was full of promise.
The mirror tucked in his breast asked, "Yangshan had three pirate chieftains. Why did you accept the surrender of Min Tianxi and Huang Zhao, yet didn't even grant Yue Pinghe a chance to negotiate? Don't tell me it's just because of his bad character; I bet it wasn't that simple."
With neither Huang nor Min around, He Lingchuan half-closed his eyes and said, "Congratulations, you guessed right."
Feeling rather smug, the mirror quickly pressed, "You killed him so cleanly. Why?"
Yue Pinghe had offered his ransom voluntarily. Thirty to fifty thousand taels of silver amounted to thirty to fifty million copper coins—a sum most people couldn't earn in a lifetime!
Buying the Yangshan Archipelago from the Lu family had only cost He Lingchuan eighty thousand.
Yet this colossal sum failed to move He Lingchuan.
The mirror knew its master's temperament wasn't one to treat money like dirt. So how exactly had that man named Yue offended him?
He Lingchuan propped his feet on a low stool and shifted into a more comfortable posture.
"Facing a mob of pirates like this, killing is the only way to establish authority."
You had to sing the tune of whichever mountain you stood on.
If one used bloodless methods too often, others would mistake mercy for weakness. "Look at Yue Pinghe. Didn't he assume all along that I would negotiate with him and allow him to bargain with me?"
"None of the three pirate chieftains were decent sorts, but Yue Pinghe happened to have the worst character of all. If I didn't kill him, who else would I kill?" He Lingchuan gave a light chuckle. "So who says character and credibility don't matter?"
When the power of choice rested in someone else's hands, those with terrible reputations and credibility were the easiest to weed out when survival of the fittest was on the line.
"Besides, I have no need for three pirate bosses under my command, and the Yangshan Archipelago needs more laborers."
Over a hundred pirates from the Third Channel had been captured.
They were not yet qualified to join He Lingchuan's guard. Instead, they would be sent to the islands to open mines, reclaim wasteland, or harvest and press palm oil.
As captives, their status ranked below hired laborers and common residents, making them precisely the workforce the Yangshan Archipelago needed most right now. Yet He Lingchuan had not forgotten to give them hope: after half a year of compulsory labor, they could freely choose whether to leave or join paid production.
That way, the overseers guarding the captives would treat them with some decency and not truly look upon them as beasts of burden.
***
Two days later, He Lingchuan took his trusted confidants and set sail once more into the depths of the Yangshan Archipelago.
The appointed time with the king of the yin hui had arrived. Starting today, he would siphon away the archipelago's fiend energy and transform this place into land fit for human settlement.
From his previous conversation with the king of the yin hui, he knew there were seven outlets of yin fiend energy across the Yangshan Archipelago, distributed across five islands. The main island, Longji Island, alone accounted for three of them.
Whenever rain fell or night descended, the fiend energy drifted in all directions, turning the heart of the archipelago into a deserted wasteland.
In other words, so long as He Lingchuan controlled the concentration of yin fiend energy at these seven locations, he could control the habitability of the entire archipelago.
He had an agreement with the yin hui clan: the southwestern tip of Longji Island was already allocated for their residence, so there was no need to tamper with the earth fiend outlet at the White Abyss sinkhole. The earth fiend outlets he actually had to control numbered only six.
He Lingchuan's countermeasure was to install the Dragon-Torture Pillars deep within these six fissures. The moment the yin fiend energy surged forth, it would be absorbed immediately, leaving no chance to spread to the surface.
The volume of yin fiend energy erupting from each fissure varied, but on average, each eruption filled roughly five percent of a Dragon-Torture Pillar's capacity.
Factoring in the eruption frequency, it would take an average of over four months to fill a single Dragon-Torture Pillar. If He Lingchuan dropped two Dragon-Torture Pillars into a single fissure, they could last over half a year.
And he had forged dozens of them in one go.
Once a Dragon-Torture Pillar was full, tossing it to the divine bone necklace was all it took. It would drain the yin fiend energy inside and return the empty pillar to He Lingchuan.
Thus, theoretically speaking, out of the forty-two islands in the Yangshan Archipelago, up to thirty-eight and a half could be made safe and free of fiend energy.
Naturally, the secret of the Dragon-Torture Pillars was known only to He Lingchuan's inner circle for now—namely Zhu Daniang, Dong Rui, and a dozen or so Mount Rong disciples.
The group divided the Dragon-Torture Pillars among themselves and set off on separate paths.
In less than two days, fourteen islands stretching from the center to the north and northeast of the archipelago were completely purged of fiend energy, ready to be opened to all living souls.
This was also He Lingchuan's deliberate design.
The outer perimeter of these fourteen islands ran close to regular shipping routes, forming a loop of their own. Aside from them, the other twenty-odd islands remained steeped in yin fiend energy.
There were three reasons for this:
First, the Yangshan Archipelago was simply too vast. He Lingchuan recognized that with his current financial and material resources, he could not possibly oversee the entire region at once.
Take too big a stride, and you were bound to pull something down there, right?
Second, very few islands truly boasted broad expanses, fertile soil, and suitability for farming. The rest were only good for foraging, contained nothing but mines, or were too small and scattered to be of much use.
In short, he needed to concentrate his strength to get things done.
Finally, the open seas south of the Yangshan waters not only suffered frequent storms and towering waves, but were also plagued by sea demons—some of which particularly relished attacking vessels and devouring humans. The islands had originally been cloaked in yin fiend energy, which terrified these creatures and kept them from drawing near. Once the fiend energy vanished, who knew what sort of massive beasts might swim into the archipelago's waters?
With obstacles like the yin fiend, the pirates, and the yin hui resolved one by one, the grand development of the Yangshan Archipelago began without a moment to lose.
He Lingchuan asked Ding Zuodong, "What are we lacking most right now?"
Ding Zuodong answered without hesitation, "People!"
"Clearing land and farming requires people; harvesting and pressing palm oil requires people; erecting buildings and warehouses requires people; felling timber and opening mines requires people." He wore a grave expression. "Forging weapons and building ships require people as well, though those two can be postponed for now."
"Recruiting troops and buying horses is essential, but it isn't the most pressing matter. As for shipbuilding..." He Lingchuan rubbed his brow. "If hands are short, we'll just have to charter ships from Blade Harbor first."
All three pirate factions had been assimilated under his banner, and dozens of pirate vessels large and small belonged to him now, but it was still far from enough.
Currently, more than a dozen islands were being developed simultaneously across the Yangshan Archipelago. The movement of supplies and transport of personnel relied entirely on seagoing vessels; there was no alternative form of transit.
"Miss Lei Ni has already pressed us several times," Ding Zuodong explained, laying out the grim reality. "A massive yield of oil palm fruit has ripened on the island, but harvesting tools, labor, warehouses, and ships haven't caught up. If we miss this autumn's harvest, the next bumper crop of palm oil won't come until next spring or summer."
That was piles of shining silver waiting to be claimed; letting it go to waste would be an utter tragedy.
Chapter 926