Genshin Impact, Teyvat's own beloved immortal.

Haiji Island is their home, their hometown. No matter what happens, the people here will never abandon their hometown!

After discussion, the members of the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) decided that the best solution was for the shogunate to immediately wage war against the pirates.

The shogunate dispatched the navy to suppress the pirates, and the pirates were able to take a big bite out of the shogunate, allowing the people of Umijima to successfully reclaim their lost territory.

The problem is that although a war between the shogunate and the pirates is inevitable, the timing of the war is still up to the shogunate. They can drag it out indefinitely until the people of Umijima can no longer hold out and flee to Narukami Island to become citizens of Inazuma.

Therefore, the pressure of public opinion on Narukami Island was also very important. Only by stirring up public opinion could the people of Inazuma urge the shogunate to send troops to suppress the bandits.

The longer the shogunate delays, the greater the public pressure will be.

Suzuka Gozen, who cared so much about her reputation, would naturally not sacrifice her authority and honor for the sake of a few people.

The task of stirring up public opinion fell to Ayaka Kamisato, a former member of the Society. She had already made contact with those who were previously loyal to the Kamisato family, and with just one order, the voice of public opinion would spread throughout Narukami Island.

Goro's return this time is to stabilize the hearts of the people on Umijima Island, gather their former strength, and wait for an opportunity to raise the banner of rebellion against Inazuma once again.

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see that the shogunate's so-called offer of amnesty was nothing but a scam.

The people of Haiji Island worshipped the Great Serpent, regarding it as their supreme deity. However, the Thunder God destroyed their faith, creating an irreconcilable blood feud between the two races.

If it weren't for the isolationist policy that nearly starved Haiji Island to death, who would have agreed to surrender?

But what about now? Amnesty, amnesty? What kind of amnesty is that? Not only is life worse than before, but even the remains of their own god have been harmed. His entire head was chopped off by the shogunate. What do you call that? You call it being torn to pieces!

I wonder what the people of Umijima would think if they knew that this pirate calamity was actually related to the shogunate.

Lu Sheng thought to himself that he was lucky to have read "Water Margin". The good thing about this book is that it lets people know what the fate of the faction that accepted amnesty was.

Coral Palace Heart Sea suffered from a lack of education, not only getting herself into trouble but also dragging the people of Haizhi Island into the fire.

To be honest, Rikuo thinks the best solution is for the people of Umijima to simply agree to the shogunate's request to relocate to Narukami Island. Even though they would lose their homeland, at least their race could continue.

If this continues, and Suzuka Gozen gets impatient one day and decides to take the land but not the people, that would be truly disastrous.

However, Rikuo would never say such a thing. To him, the more chaotic Inazuma was, the better, and the more people opposed Suzuka Gozen, the better.

"I never imagined things would turn out this way. Sigh... such devastation!"

Having retrieved his six tails, the divine child silently gazed at the burned-down village, feeling pity and unable to help but sigh.

Lu Sheng: "Then who caused all of this?"

"Of course it's Suzuka Gozen, could it be me?"

"Suzuka Gozen has only accelerated this process. You don't really think that lifting the isolation edict will allow Narukami Island and Umijima Island to live in peace, do you? Let me tell you, racial conflict is a dead end. Unless one side completely forgets the past, the same thing will only keep repeating itself. And the best way to achieve this is to make one side disappear completely."

In fact, the conflict between Narukami Island and Umijima Island is not just a simple racial conflict, because the conflict originated from the attack on Narukami Island by the giant serpent of Umijima Island, which was then killed by the Raijin.

Regardless of the underlying reasons, this is what people see on the surface: the giant serpent and the thunder god are once again involved in religious matters.

With religious and racial conflicts compounded, the combined effects are so strong that unless an absolute and unassailable power descends to force them to reconcile, the two sides will continue to fight each other until one side is completely wiped out.

Upon hearing this, the divine child's expression changed slightly. After a long silence, she said, "There is no such thing as perfection in this world. People always have to make choices in life... Alright, let's not talk about such heavy topics anymore. We have important business to attend to on Haiqi Island."

"I'm just reminding you that even if you overthrow Suzuka Gozen in the future, you may not be able to do a better job than she did."

Lu Sheng left a message, took off on his sword, and flew towards the pirate camp.

The effeminate and handsome Kidomaru sat in the stolen shrine, his face full of gloom, drinking alone in anguish.

Ah Huang wagged its tail and refilled its master's cup of sake, saying obsequiously, "Master, we have already occupied half of Haiqi Island. Recently, the natives have been resisting fiercely, and it will take some effort to take over the whole island."

Kidomaru nodded and finished his sake. "No rush. Give them some time and let the shogunate hurry up and send these natives to Narukami Island."

Ah Huang stared wide-eyed in surprise, "Master! You ordered the occupation of Haiqi Island, could it be that you're still doing that thing for the Regent?"

"Of course! I'm a loyal retainer!" Kidomaru suddenly became excited. "I was forced to become a pirate! It must have been that dog and that fox who spoke ill of me to the Regent! As long as the Regent sees my good intentions, she will... she will..."

"Master! Stop daydreaming! The Shogunate has already assembled the navy and is about to set out to annihilate us!"

At this moment, Ah Huang was more anxious than anyone else.

I thought I was loyal enough as a dog god, but I never expected there would be such a foolishly loyal dog as my owner!

No! He should be called Suzuka Gozen's lapdog!

"Heh~ Inazuma Navy? It must be that dog's idea. Just you wait, I'll personally kill Tengu and Tamamo-no-Mae, take their heads to the Regent, and tell her that I am the most loyal one!"

Ah Huang silently left the shrine, shaking his head and sighing bitterly, "It's over...it's hopeless, hopeless! We're all doomed!"

Suddenly a figure descended from the sky and landed beside Ah Huang, startling him so much that he forgot to speak and barked wildly a few times.

"Woof! Woof woof! Huh? It's you! What do you want? My master is in this state because of you!"

Ah Huang recognized the mask the newcomer was wearing at a glance—it was the Fools who stole the ledger that day!

"You naughty dog! You want to eat dragon fruit again, don't you?"

Lu Sheng's words made Ah Huang tuck its tail and run inside.

"Master! It's terrible, Master! The Fools from that day have returned!"

Kidomaru's slightly tipsy eyes snapped open, and he grabbed the treasured sword beside him and rushed out.

"Wait a minute! I'm not here to fight."

Faced with the menacing Kidomaru, Rikuo remained calm and showed no desire to fight.

Now that I have the Three Thousand Thunderclaps, I can easily dodge even if Kidomaru attacks first.

Kidomaru suppressed his extreme rage and stared intently at Rikuo. "You got away by luck last time, and you still dare to come here to die?"

"I don't like hearing that. I'm here to help you."

"What did you say?"

Rikuo threw an evil eye at Kidomaru.

"Familiar?"

Kidomaru took a look and realized it was an evil eye, but he didn't understand its intentions.

"What would I do with this? Do I need something like this to increase my strength?"

He threw the Evil Eye to the ground with utter disdain.

"What if I said I had dozens of boxes of this stuff?"

Kidomaru looked up in surprise and scrutinized Rikuo intently. "What did you say?"

Rikuo calmly explained to him, "Now the shogunate has assembled the navy to wipe you out. They have sent out their elite forces. The commanders are Ootakemaru, the magistrate of the shrine, Tengu, the magistrate of the territories, and Yae no Miko, the magistrate of Narukami Shrine. The navy has three times the number of your pirate alliance. What makes you so confident that you can survive such an encirclement?"

"We, the Fools, love helping the weak the most. I'll give you dozens of boxes of Evil Eyes for free to enhance your pirate crew's fighting power. In the future, I'll also help you take down the three admirals on the battlefield. What do you think?"

Kidomaru narrowed his eyes, somewhat tempted. "You want to help me take down those three guys? Why? What's in it for you?"

Inazuma Arc: Chapter 88: The Flame Witch's Forge

"I want to rescue my colleague, is that not allowed?"

Lu Sheng's reasons were quite valid.

"You mean those two Fatui executors?"

Lu Sheng nodded. "Perhaps you can tell me where they are."

"Are you trying to talk to me about cooperation?" Kidomaru sneered. "You've ruined me like this, and you still have the nerve to ask me for cooperation?"

“Then there’s nothing to talk about.” Lu Sheng sighed, turned and left. “Fine, then you can go and deal with the three generals by yourself.”

"stop!"

Just as Rikuo had predicted, Kidomaru changed his mind. His eyes still held hatred, but he disliked the other few people more than the fools in front of him.

"Leave the Evil Eye here, and I'll tell you where 'Lady' is. After the battle starts, you hold off that guy named Ōtakemaru. You don't need to worry about anything else. After the battle, I'll tell you where 'Skirmishers' are."

After weighing his options, Kidomaru made his request, which Rikuo readily agreed to.

“I can give you the Evil Eye right now, but where is the ‘Lady’?”

"She was imprisoned on Renren Island, north of Narukami Island, and guarded by a group of elite shogunate guards."

Rikuo countered, "Can the Shogunate army keep an eye on her?"

Kidomaru shook his head, somewhat reluctantly telling Rikuo, "You'll understand when you see her. I advise you to be careful; she's no longer the executive officer you knew."

Not the executive officer I know? What does that mean? Could Inazuma have turned the lady into something strange?

In order to find out the truth as soon as possible, Lu Sheng immediately threw dozens of boxes of Evil Eyes out of the Dust Song Pot and flew to Blade Link Island without stopping.

Blade Island is an isolated island located northeast of Narukami Island. It is uninhabited and has long served as a stronghold for pirates.

But not long ago, the shogunate's army moved in and wiped out all the pirates on the island. They then set up a military camp and began large-scale construction, building a huge furnace in the very center of the island.

Subsequently, swordsmiths and carpenters from Inazuma were sent to the island one after another, along with boatloads of ore.

From that time on, Renren Island became a place where Inazuma produced weapons. The sound of hammering never stopped day and night, and ship after ship of weapons was transported out of the island, while new materials were brought in one after another.

The thing that all the craftsmen talked about most was the furnace in the center of the island that never needed to be fueled and burned all day long.

The metal smelted in this furnace is much purer than that smelted in an ordinary furnace, and the melting speed is extremely fast, greatly improving the efficiency of forging.

"Ah Fa, I'm telling you, there's definitely something fishy going on in this furnace!"

The white-haired old knifesmith, with a serious expression, grabbed his young and strong apprentice and recounted his strange experience from the previous night.

The apprentice, Afa, chuckled and pulled a red-hot iron block from the furnace, hammering it. "Old man, I think you're just too old and senile. The temperature in this furnace would burn even a monster to ashes. What kind of ghost could you possibly be?"

The old knifesmith shook his head vigorously, insisting, "There's definitely a ghost! I heard it with my own ears last night! It was a female ghost! Her screams were so pitiful!"

Ah Fa said helplessly, "Fine, fine, there's a ghost inside, okay? I believe you. You'd better go do your own thing and not bother me. If you don't meet today's quota, you'll get whipped again."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a soldier in shogunate armor walked over and shouted, "What are you all chatting about? Get to work! War is about to break out, and the shogunate needs you right now. Give it your all! Let the regent see your loyalty! If you dare to slack off, my whip won't be merciful!"

Suddenly, a figure descended from the sky and landed directly in front of the furnace.

The man completely ignored everyone around him, not even glancing at them, and simply looked at the enormous furnace with curiosity, marveling at it.

"Hey! Who are you? How dare you trespass into a military restricted area!"

The soldier, holding a long whip, walked over and shouted. Before he could even pull the whip out of his hand, he was suddenly sent flying backward and fell into the sea.

No one even saw what hit him.

The commotion at the scene immediately attracted the attention of the garrison, and a group of fully armed Inazuma soldiers surrounded Rikuo.