Walnut used me to boost her sales performance.

Upon hearing Jiang Bai's words, the pirates' expressions immediately softened considerably.

"The reward is negotiable, but is it absolutely necessary to have Haiqi Island?"

These pirates clearly didn't want to go to Haiqi Island, or rather, they loathed it.

Jiang Bai was somewhat puzzled; the pirates' attitude towards Haiqi Island seemed rather unusual.

"The Death Star will only stop at Haiqi Island. If it goes to Narukami Island, no ship can get through the thunderstorm..."

"It seems there's no other way. We can only take you to a place near Haiqi Island, not land you there. Haiqi Island's coastline is patrolled by guards, and they don't welcome pirates like us..."

They did not want to make contact with the garrison, lest they be recognized.

Jiang Bai thought for a moment, "Then how about this, you take me to the vicinity of Haiqi Island, give us a small boat, and we'll row there ourselves."

Since they were pirates, they certainly had no shortage of small boats, which were very useful for scouting and other purposes.

If they wanted to contact the guards of Haizhi Island, it would be best to do so through normal means. If they flew directly to the island, they would be completely unsuspecting and would only arouse suspicion and vigilance from the Haizhi Island side.

"this......"

The pirates looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Alright, for Changci's sake, I'll give you a ride and a small boat, and I'll charge you 10 Mora!"

"One hundred thousand Mora..." Changci tightened his pack. Just a trip to Haiqi Island would cost so many Mora. He suddenly felt a sense of urgency that he didn't have enough money.

"So expensive?" Jiang Bai was rich, but he didn't want to be ripped off.

"This is already a friendly price. The shogunate has been fighting with Umijima for so long, their ships have long been controlled. Unless we build them ourselves, it's very difficult to buy ships now. Every ship we use is one less we have..."

As a means of transportation at sea, ships were brought under control the moment the fighting broke out between the two sides.

Most people who don't want their God's Eyes confiscated want to escape to Umijima Island, but Narukami Island is so far away from Umijima Island that it can only be reached by boat. Under the control of ships, very few people can escape.

Buying ships now requires various permits and licenses, which pirates have no chance of obtaining.

The situation was similar on Haiji Island; all the locally produced ships were used as strategic assets, and none of them were released.

Even so, Jiang Bai still felt the price was too high.

He wanted to say something more, but Changci tugged at his clothes.

"Brother Jiang Bai, let's keep this price. I can pay half."

Chapter 454 This is war...

These pirates helped his mother leave this place and even took her to Sumeru. Choji was very grateful to these pirates and was willing to pay for it.

He would have paid for everything if he didn't need to save money for travel and living expenses.

"alright."

Although 50,000 Mora is still a bit much, it's better than 100,000 Mora.

Changci carefully untied the bundle, took out a few crystallized marrow pieces, and, holding these pieces that weren't of the best quality but were clearly carefully cleaned, walked up to the pirate captain, looking at him with hopeful eyes:

"I don't have Mora, will this work?"

Seeing the crystallized marrow in Changci's hands, the pirates ultimately couldn't bring themselves to take it.

"Alright, keep these long scrolls safe. The expenses for going to Sumeru will definitely be considerable, so you should be frugal. I'll just take 50,000 Mora from you."

Choji wanted to go to Sumeru to find his mother, and they couldn't stop him. Since he had his own idea, they let him go.

Changci was delighted. "Thank you, Uncle!"

Jiang Bai didn't say anything. Chang Ci had negotiated the price himself, and even if he hadn't paid Mora, Jiang Bai was still planning to take him there, let alone since he was willing to pay.

This further improved Jiang Bai's already positive impression of him.

The pirate ship set sail, heading towards Haiqi Island.

As we left the area around Bayun Island, the sunlight shone on our faces once more.

Looking at the warm sun in the sky, Changci tilted his head back, stretched out his hands, and tried to catch the sunlight.

He hadn't seen the sun in ages, and now that he did, he couldn't bear to leave its warmth for even a moment.

Seeing that he was staring at the sun, Jiang Bai reached out and covered his eyes.

"Don't stare at the sun for too long, or you'll go blind."

"Mmm." Choji gave a shy smile, ran to the deck, leaned against the railing, and looked at Hachiyun Island.

From here, it's quite clear that Bayun Island is shrouded in dark clouds, and you can occasionally see flashes of lightning within them.

Jiang Bai, having nothing to do while standing on the deck, struck up a conversation with Mutō, who was sitting on the deck wiping his sword.

"Sigh, before going to Bayun Island, I had never felt the sunshine so comfortable..."

He exclaimed in a sigh, which drew agreement from Muto beside him.

"Who says otherwise! This damned evil spirit, this damned weather! They've turned this once beautiful Bayun Island into this horrible mess..."

"I heard that the shogunate destroyed the protective charms to cause trouble for Umijima..."

Muto scoffed dismissively, "What shogunate? It was clearly Umijima who did it!"

"Huh? I heard from the wandering samurai on the island that the shogunate sent people to destroy the protective barrier in order to kill the Kaijima army that occupied Hachiyū Island..."

"They know nothing! I saw it with my own eyes, a squad of Haiqi Island soldiers sneaked onto the island at night and destroyed the protective charms!!"

Speaking of this, Muto gritted his teeth in hatred.

Although they were pirates, they still had a sense of morality; otherwise, they wouldn't have sent Nagatsu's mother to Sumeru for treatment or agreed to let her take care of Nagatsu.

However, Haizhi Island's move completely disregarded the people on Bayun Island, to the point that apart from Haizhi Island's soldiers, there are practically no living people left on Bayun Island!

"How could this be?" Jiang Bai's mouth dropped open in surprise, completely unexpected to have obtained such important information.

"But they destroyed the town's protective barrier, so why weren't they affected while stationed on Bayun Island?"

"Who knows how they weren't affected! They probably did this because they knew they wouldn't be affected! That current human-god witch of the Coral Palace is incredibly wise and resourceful, she can calculate everything without missing a beat, so it's not surprising that she could come up with such a desperate move..."

“This…? Please tell me more.” Jiang Bai adopted a listening posture, and Chang Ci also came over, looking intently at the pirate uncle, ready to listen to his story.

For Nagatsugu, the people in Hisaki Village were all his relatives and friends, yet they all died because of the shaman. His mother almost died because of the shaman. How could he not care who destroyed the talisman?

Although there's not much he can do right now, at least he needs to know who destroyed the protective charm!

Musashi sheathed his gleaming sword and began to recount what had happened.

“At that time, the shogunate army was still stationed on Haiji Island, and the Coral Palace had not yet occupied Hachiyun Island. I remember that it was raining that night, and we were resting in a hidden cave on the shore. I was keeping watch when I suddenly saw a ship coming from the direction of Haiji Island and docking at the shore.”

"We didn't light a fire, and our location was well-hidden, so naturally we didn't attract their attention."

"I woke my companion, hoping to see if there was a chance to steal something valuable from the ship, but instead a squad of armed soldiers disembarked..."

"Our pirates have pretty good eyesight. Although they're wearing Shogunate army uniforms, they're clearly ill-fitting, and they're coming from the direction of Umi-no-Island, sneaking onto the island like this..."

"These unusual signs convinced me that they were people from Kaigi Island disguised as the Shogunate army!"

They were on the western coast of Bayun Island, while Haege Island was to the west. The ship was sailing straight from Haege Island.

If it were a ship belonging to the Shogunate army, it would be impossible for them to take such a long detour to land on the island from the turbulent west side.

"Seeing their posture, we naturally didn't make any rash moves. After this small group left, we quietly followed them. However, the rain was too heavy and they walked quickly, so we soon lost them."

"We were worried they were after the protective charm and wanted to destroy it, so we decided to guard it to prevent it from being damaged. But when we arrived, the group had already killed the soldiers guarding the charm and destroyed it!"

“We fought them, but we were outnumbered, and two of our brothers were injured. This group of soldiers didn't linger; they would wound us and then leave to destroy the next town's structures. In one night, they destroyed all the town's structures!”

Speaking of this, Muto practically gritted his teeth.

There weren't many guards on Bayun Island. After the guards protecting the protective artifact were killed, the outside world had no idea which side had destroyed it!

After that, Haiji Island quickly occupied Bayun Island, and the garrison on the island had to withdraw.

"Didn't you tell anyone else about this?"

Jiang Bai was somewhat puzzled.

Logically speaking, since there are eyewitnesses, this matter should be impossible to hide. How come no one knows about it to this day?

"Who would believe us pirates? We have no way of proving that they really are from Haigi Island. The village chief of Hishiki Village knew before, but he's gone mad..."

Pirates have extremely limited credibility; nobody believes what they say.

Both sides claimed responsibility for the destruction of the protective charm, but their voices were never heard.

"Where are the people who vandalized the town? Finding them should be enough evidence!"

"Who knows! They might be dead, or they might have gone back to report... Just to be on the safe side, we won't get too close, lest they recognize us and kill us."

It's more likely that this group of people died; the ship that brought them there didn't even wait for their return journey and went straight back.

This kind of dirty work is usually done by assassins.

Jiang Bai couldn't comment on the actions of Haiqi Island.

From the perspective of Umijima Island, it was naturally the right thing to do to crush the morale of the shogunate army in one fell swoop and put their side in a favorable position.

However, from the perspective of the residents of Ba Yun Island, this was a completely undeserved disaster.

Ordinary people caught up in the war don't even know how they died.

"This is war..."

Ruthless, bloody, and cruel.

Chapter 455 Why Did They Fight?

Choji squatted on the deck, hugging his knees, staring blankly at his toes. "Why does war have to happen..."

If there hadn't been a war, Bayun Island would be fine, the village would be fine, and everyone would be fine...

But because of the war, the village is now completely deserted.

Neither Jiang Bai nor Muteng spoke.

Why do wars have to happen? How can we end them?

Perhaps only the gods can answer this question.

Because of the incident of destroying the town's protective charms, Nagatsu had developed some resistance and aversion towards Umijima Island, but if he wanted to find his mother, then Umijima Island was a place he had no choice but to go to.

Muto escorted Jiang Bai and Nagatsu to a location about three or four nautical miles from Haiji Island. From this position, they could vaguely see the patrolling guards on the coast, but not too close.

Jiang Bai and Chang Ci switched to a small boat and began rowing by hand.

As we got closer to Haigi Island, the scenery of Haigi Island became clearer and clearer.

Compared to Ba Yun Island, where the clouds prevent the sun from shining, Haegi Island, with its bright sunshine and dreamlike atmosphere, is simply paradise on earth.

Nagatoshi's heart was filled with indescribable complex emotions.

The war between the two sides left Bayun Island in a terrible state, with almost all the villagers dying, but Haiqi Island remained intact, seemingly unaffected.

"Although it was the people of Haiqi Island who destroyed the protective charms, we have no evidence, and they deny it. Once we get to the island, try to remain silent and don't show any disgust or hatred towards Haiqi Island..."

Jiang Bai gave Changci a piece of advice.

Although the child is smart, some reminders are still necessary.

"Yes, I know, I won't act impulsively." Nagatsu nodded; he knew what was important.

The two rowed towards the shore. Jiang Bai secretly used wind element to increase their speed. He did not intend to reveal that he could use two elements at the moment, so as not to attract unnecessary attention.

The small boat quickly reached the shore, where the garrison of Haiji Island, which they had spotted earlier, stood ready with long spears in hand.

"Stop the ship!" The garrison pointed their spears at them. "Where did you come from, and what are you doing on Haiqi Island?"

Jiang Bai, of course, could not directly state his purpose. He released the oar, indicating that he posed no threat.

“We could no longer live on Bayun Island, so we came to seek refuge on Haiji Island. This is my younger brother, Nagatsu.”

"So you've come to join us, welcome, welcome!" Upon hearing this, the patrolling soldiers put away their rifles, and their expressions immediately became amiable.

They took in many people who had fled to Haiji Island because of the Eye Hunting Order, and a considerable part of the resistance force on Haiji Island consisted of these people.

Jiang Bai was with a small child, so he obviously couldn't be an undercover agent sent by the Shogunate.

Because of the war, Haiqi Island is now severely understaffed, so people who come to Haiqi Island with their families are very welcome!