Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

Gu Chen used his true essence to directly unleash the Burning Wood Blade Technique, imbuing the raging flame blade energy with the destructive power of his true essence, and slashing outwards without any blind spots.

Streams of sword energy tore through the surroundings like a storm, instantly cleaving pirates below the True Essence Realm in two.

There was simply no way to resist.

Before he could escape more than a few steps, he was caught up by Gu Chen's fiery true essence sword energy and killed instantly.

In the blink of an eye, Gu Chen had killed off more than a dozen pirates.

Gu Chen continued toward the central area of ​​the island.

The commotion he made while killing the pirates had already alerted pirates in other areas of the island.

The pirates, unaware of his true strength, continued to arrive from afar.

Arrive at the central area.

"Who are you, daring to land on the island and slaughter people today?"

A powerful roar resounded.

Then a dark figure flew over from afar. His aura had reached the peak of the fifth level of the Innate Realm, a half-step True Essence Realm, similar to Gong Yi back then. He was the island lord of Duya Island, the strongest pirate leader.

Upon seeing the Pirate King arrive, Gu Chen snorted coldly, "Just a slightly larger ant."

it's the same.

"Who I am is not important. What is important is that you will all be wiped out today," Gu Chen said calmly.

"Crazy! Surround him! Don't let him escape!" the pirate king ordered the pirates who were rushing over from all sides.

Among the pirates, three leaders, all at the early to mid-stages of the fifth level of the Innate Realm, immediately surrounded Gu Chen, blocking all his escape routes.

"I don't care who you are, you dared to kill so many of our brothers today. I will not only kill you, but I will also make you die in despair and pain!" the pirate king roared, carrying a large iron-ringed sword.

They charged directly at Gu Chen from the front.

Gu Chen was no ordinary man; he had killed one of his pirate leaders, who was at the fourth level of the Innate Realm. He would not underestimate his opponent. As soon as he made his move, the aura of a half-step True Essence Realm expert erupted.

We must crush Gu Chen with absolute strength.

Gu Chen was too lazy to waste words with them; the sooner the fight was over, the better.

Gu Chen's cultivation level exploded, and a different kind of true essence appeared within his body, surrounding him.

He did not activate the Azure Dragon phenomenon.

It's not necessary to deal with someone at the half-step True Essence Realm.

Gu Chen transformed into a blur and charged towards the Pirate King.

At the same time, the first move of the Demon-Suppressing Blade Technique, the Evil-Exorcising Slash, was unleashed.

The alien true essence was infused into the Fire Profound Blade, transforming into a thunderous strike to exorcise evil.

He slashed at the pirate king.

Gu Chen's strike was fierce and powerful.

His Fiery Profound Blade was entwined with demon-suppressing runes, radiating a blood-red light.

The pirate king in front of them was completely terrified!

"True Essence Possession, you are at the True Essence Realm!" The Pirate King was dumbfounded.

Gu Chen, who came to deal with them tonight, was actually at the True Yuan Realm.

This level of existence.

They actually came to deal with them personally.

Ruined.

"Sir, spare us! We're willing to be your dogs!" he shouted immediately.

He couldn't muster the thought of resisting in the face of a True Essence Realm cultivator.

"I don't need dogs." Gu Chen continued to slash at him with his sword, showing no mercy.

"No!"

In his haste, the Pirate King held his iron-ringed broadsword horizontally in front of his chest, attempting to block Gu Chen's strike.

Unfortunately, it had no effect whatsoever.

Gu Chen's blade severed the iron ring broadsword in his hand, and then, with undiminished power, struck him, slashing him diagonally down from his left shoulder.

The upper body and lower body are separated.

The two halves of the body fell backward.

He convulsed a few times and then died.

The rest of the pirates were completely terrified.

They are weaker than the Pirate King.

Even the pirate king, who was at the half-step True Essence Realm, had no power to resist Gu Chen!

Moreover, there are those who...

They couldn't understand how their whereabouts had been exposed, attracting a monster like Gu Chen to the island to slaughter them.

Several pirate leaders at the fifth level of the Innate Realm began to retreat, as did the rest of the pirates.

Gu Chen didn't bother with any more words and directly used his true essence to unleash the Burning Wood Blade Technique, slashing out countless large blade energies in all directions.

The raging flames and blade energy instantly enveloped and annihilated the pirates who had surrounded him.

Below the fifth level of the Innate Realm, even a powerful expert who has not yet generated true essence cannot withstand his fiery true essence sword energy.

The group of pirates who came to attack him were all killed by him before they could retreat more than a few steps.

Corpses lay scattered on the ground, some even ignited by the fiery blade energy.

Of the entire Duya Island, only a dozen or so pirates in the distance hadn't had time to arrive yet.

They narrowly escaped this wave of attacks.

Those people were so scared they ran away in terror.

They frantically fled towards the estuary in front of the island, trying to board a ship and escape.

Gu Chen leaped across hundreds of meters and landed on the ship at the exit, blocking their path.

"Sir, please spare us! We have elderly parents and young children to support!"

"Yes, sir, my wife is pregnant. I was forced into piracy!"

"We're just ordinary people from a nearby town. We had no other choice but to take this path; it's the first time we've ever done this before!"

The dozen or so people all wept bitterly and knelt down to beg for mercy.

"Stop with the talk," Gu Chen said coldly. "I need you to do one thing for me now, and if you do it well, I might consider sparing your lives."

"Thank you, sir. We are willing." A dozen people stood up and looked at Gu Chen.

"Go and bring all the silver and treasures you've obtained from looting this island, along with all the silver notes and valuables from the pirates I killed tonight, such as pills, cultivation techniques, and martial arts manuals." Gu Chen looked at the dozen or so men: "Don't keep anything for yourselves, or you'll all die in the end. Go!"

"Yes, yes, sir." The dozen or so people nodded repeatedly and immediately went back to do things for Gu Chen.

Let them do this, so I can relax a bit.

This saves him the trouble of searching each of the pirates individually.

Furthermore, only the pirates themselves know where the treasure vault of this island is hidden.

It will inevitably take some effort to find it yourself.

of course.

Gu Chen didn't completely trust them either.

Gu Chen released his divine soul power outwards.

They followed and monitored the dozen or so pirates.

If they dare to withhold resources or fail to bring out the true treasures from his treasury, it would be disastrous.

It means death.

Even if they did exactly as Gu Chen instructed, Gu Chen would never let them off the hook.

All we can say is that we'll let them live a little longer.

These dozen or so people work very quickly.

Soon.

He then looted the silver and all other valuables from the pirates he had killed that night for Gu Chen.

And the resources in their treasure trove on the island too.

Gu Chen took stock of everything.

There were over 30,000 taels of silver notes, but not a single secret manual, though there were some pills.

More than fifty Qi and Blood Pills, more than twenty Qi and Blood Elixirs, more than ten Skin Tempering Elixirs, nine Bone Forging Elixirs, four Tendon Changing Elixirs, and one Dirty Cleansing Elixir.

Gu Chen frowned: "Why are you so poor? All the assets of your entire group of pirates combined are only this much. Didn't you just plunder a batch of supplies from the major powers of Nine Bays City? Did you hide some of them?"

"No, sir!" The dozen or so pirates were so frightened that they hurriedly knelt down.

"My lord, you may not know this, but although we pirates can plunder resources, most of those resources are sold at a discount. There are many of us brothers, and after each plunder, there is not much silver left for each person."

"The resources consumed by the brothers in their cultivation are terrifying, especially those consumed by the island lord and the leaders. Every time we finish a job, the silver we get is used to buy cultivation resources."

"We're good at this kind of work. We live a life of constant danger, and we might die any day now. So, it's impossible for us to keep money on us. Using the money to improve our strength is the priority."

"We only go to the mainland once in a long while, and when we do, we usually spend all the money we have. The pills we buy are immediately used for cultivation!"

"The rest of the money will be used to buy survival supplies. It has been ten days since we last went to the mainland. Last time, we spent most of the money on buying cultivation resources. The pills that the brothers bought are almost used up."

"What a bunch of spendthrifts!" Gu Chen cursed. "You guys work so hard to earn money, don't you know how to save it? You finally managed to rob some silver, and instead of keeping it all, you spent it all as soon as you got to land!"

Most of what these pirates said was true.

In this world where strength reigns supreme, who would steal silver and not use it to buy resources to enhance their power?

We're waiting for him to come and take it.

For the pirates on these islands, who are short of resources, every trip to land inevitably means spending most of their silver to buy resources and improve their strength.

These poor bastards finally managed to get some cultivation resources, and they're definitely going to consume and refine them to improve their strength, so there aren't many pills left.

As for secret martial arts manuals, these pirates didn't have any.

This puzzled Gu Chen.

With so many pirates, they must have dropped at least one or two martial arts manuals.

Don't they practice martial arts normally?

Even without a large amount of silver and pills, if you were to give him a few secret manuals or martial arts techniques, even if he couldn't use them, he could still make a fortune by packaging them up and selling them to the Cheng family.

"Don't you usually practice martial arts? How come you don't have a single manual or martial arts technique?" Gu Chen asked, looking at the dozen or so pirates kneeling on the ground.

"We are practitioners, sir." They hurriedly replied, "However, most of us are illiterate, so we can't understand the techniques and martial arts. We can only understand martial arts with pictures, but it's difficult for us to learn them just by looking at a few pictures."

"Our martial arts and techniques were all passed down to us orally by the leaders and island lords. They personally demonstrated the movements and guided us step by step, which is how we were able to barely get the hang of it," a dozen pirates explained. "The leaders and island lords don't seem to be literate. They actually found someone outside to teach them and then memorized the martial arts and techniques by rote. So they basically didn't leave behind any techniques or secret manuals."

Upon hearing this...

Gu Chen was speechless. They were a bunch of illiterate pirates!

"A bunch of good-for-nothings! I told you to study hard and learn to read, but you wouldn't listen. No wonder you became pirates! I gave you martial arts techniques, but you couldn't even understand them!" Gu Chen roared.

The dozen or so pirates lowered their heads and dared not talk back after being reprimanded by Gu Chen.

It seemed that the man hadn't managed to "rob" much silver from them, which angered him greatly.

If they were to talk back at this moment, they would be unjustly killed by him.

"Hand over your silver and resources, and you can leave," Gu Chen said. "I'll let you go this time, but next time we meet, it won't be so easy."

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!" The dozen or so pirates hurriedly took out all the silver and pills they had on them.

Then he ran like a madman toward the ship in Haikou.

I want to escape.

Gu Chen turned around, his back to them.

Then he turned back to them, looked at them again, and said calmly, "Now, this is our second meeting."

"I told you, if we meet again, I won't let you go," Gu Chen said.

The dozen or so pirates were dumbfounded upon hearing this.

This is even possible!

No one gave them an answer.

At this moment, Gu Chen's sword energy surged towards them.

More than a dozen people were all cut in half at the waist by this one strike.

Blood and internal organs were spilled all over the ground. He collapsed, convulsed a few times, and then died.

There's no need to hold back against these ruthless pirates who kill without blinking an eye and whose daily lives are filled with murder and arson.

If they gain the upper hand.

They won't let themselves off the hook either.

The only downside to this trip was that the gains were less than he had expected.

When he came, he was thinking that this job would make him rich overnight, allowing him to raise a huge sum of 60,000 taels of silver to buy pills and break through to the Breaking Aperture Realm in one fell swoop.

It seems he was overthinking things.

Now that they have obtained more than 30,000 taels of silver, plus these pills, they can sell them all to the Cheng family and get several thousand taels of silver.

To raise the full 60,000 taels, another pirate force needs to be wiped out.