Chapter 26: Civil Unrest, Section 10

Receiving the fleet and supplies. Years of combat had made the Blood Wolf Pirates adept at such tasks. With the help of the airport staff, the preparation for deploying five Moor frigates was almost complete. By the time Kurokami and the others arrived at the airport, they immediately saw five white warships docked in a corner of the airport. These five white warships were so beautiful, like five swans, that anyone who saw them was deeply moved.

Indeed, Miss Veri was not stingy. Kurokami had struck gold. These five Moor frigates were completely different from anything he had seen before—they were a completely new model. Their shape was no longer massive but sharp, like enlarged willow leaves. Pointed at both ends with a slightly bulging middle, they exuded a strong sense of speed. Even when docked, they gave the impression of being ready to pierce through anything at any moment. And this willow-leaf shaped hull was just part of the warship—in Kurokami’s eyes, each warship had three such hulls, connected in a triangular formation, creating a vessel full of power and beauty.

Three-hull ships!?
Kurokami and Blood Pupil exchanged glances, both seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes.
Blood Pupil’s surprise was unsurprising. In this world, he had never seen such a multi-hull warship design. As for Kurokami’s surprise, it stemmed from his shock at the Moors’ audacity.

As an elite from Earth, he certainly knew how much of an advantage such multi-hull warships had over ordinary conventional warships. Not to mention anything else, just the cargo capacity—several times that of regular warships. And cargo capacity was the foundation of a warship’s endurance and offensive power. A larger cargo capacity allowed for more powerful weapons and ammunition, whose benefits in actual combat were self-evident.

But the advantages of multi-hull ships went beyond that. With multiple hulls, there were more design possibilities. What impressed Kurokami the most was the unique ability of these multi-hull warships: disassembly and reassembly!!
That’s right—disassembly. Because of having multiple hulls, each hull could be equipped with its own engine, along with excellent connection mechanisms. Generally, such multi-hull warships had the ability to disassemble. In combat, they could split into three separate warships at will, based on the user’s strategy, greatly enhancing flexibility and surprise. When strong firepower was needed, they could reassemble into one massive fire platform.

Without a doubt. This is a feat in the history of warship design. Black Hair even remembers that the first designer on Earth to propose this theory of multi-body warships won a major award for it. Yet, he was never able to turn his vision into reality.
There’s no way around it—besides the extremely strict requirements for materials, multi-body ships also demand incredibly high technical standards. After all, war is not like normal times; disassembly and assembly must happen in an instant. Without precise guidance and lightning-fast assembly speeds, realizing this concept is nothing but a dream. If it took hours, like with Earth’s space stations in the past, the enemy could easily destroy the warship.
Moreover, multi-body ships have a fatal flaw: their connection points are extremely fragile. Without hull armor for protection, even a little artillery fire or a shrapnel fragment could cause the entire ship to collapse. They simply can’t be used in actual combat.
Have the Moors solved these problems?
In confusion, Black Hair boarded the warship and quickly inspected it.
As expected, the Moors had indeed brought the concept of multi-body ships to life. These warships, resembling swans, had their connection points built inside—nothing was exposed on the outside. Three willow-leaf shaped hulls fit tightly together, leaving no gaps at all. The Moors’ unique Stone Essence armor provided excellent protection, completely solving the problem of weak connections in multi-body ships.
Shocking—absolutely shocking. Even Black Hair had to admit it now: the Moors’ civilization far exceeded his expectations. Just this single multi-body ship alone had a technological level at least a hundred years ahead of humanity’s magic civilization!!
But… these five warships now belong to him!!
Just like their beautiful appearance, the names of these five warships, when translated, also meant “swans.” However, the crew members were something Black Hair couldn’t praise.
These crew members were actually creatures similar to octopuses, each with dozens of tentacles. It was precisely because of these astonishing numbers of tentacles that each of them could handle more than five times the workload of a normal human. On such a large warship, the number of crew members was less than a hundred!?
Damn it, is it even possible to live like this? After seeing these crew members operate with precision and speed, even Blood Eyes, who always considered himself an elite, was impressed. He cursed violently.

Fortunately, these octopus people are quite docile. Each one is as obedient as a sheep. After Kurokami and the others boarded the ship, they neatly lined up on both sides of the passage, their fearful yet submissive eyes making it hard for Kurokami to associate them with war. Could such weak creatures really be used as a warrior race? Just because of their numerous tentacles? Kurokami truly couldn’t understand the Moors’ way of thinking. In his view, these octopus people were more like slaves than warriors. He even saw a pirate following him casually throw away a cigarette butt, and a group of octopus people rushed over screeching to snatch it. The one who succeeded was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes as he carefully hid the half-smoked butt in his arms, his wrinkled face showing an expression akin to happiness. Seeing this, almost all the pirates vomited, all thinking the same thing: These octopus people are fucking amazing… But they had no idea that tobacco in the Moor Empire was a luxury among luxuries—rare enough to be compared to diamonds in human society. Apart from the elite, ordinary people couldn’t even smell it, let alone smoke it; even if they could, it would be enough to brag about for days. Though the cigarette butt thrown by the pirate was only half an inch long, on the black market, it would be worth at least half a month’s worth of food for an ordinary person—though they might not even be able to buy it… As for these octopus people, though they seemed extremely cowardly most of the time, their race possessed a special physiology—a hormone secretion. During battle, this hormone greatly paralyzed their minds, making them forget fear and increasing their speed by more than three times, turning each octopus person into an excellent combatant. Although they would suffer from weakness for days afterward, it was still enough to make them the most qualified crew members in the eyes of the Moors. Coupled with their obedient nature, these octopus soldiers held a high value in the Moor Empire’s army. Miss Veri’s five Swan of the Day warships were true noble warships, so naturally, the best crew members were needed. That’s why Kurokami could see these octopus people; on ordinary warships, he probably wouldn’t have seen them at all.

The rest period lasted only five days. Hong obtained the information Black Hair needed. The intel showed that the poor and unlucky Lord Locke, knowing he couldn’t face the Tarot family’s judgment after his defeat, had fled to another space station under the control of the Dark Hand Duke—about fifteen standard jumps away. It was a long distance, and the route required passing through three extremely hostile star regions, perpetually in turmoil with chaotic energy flows and fierce pirates. These areas were never wanted by the Moor Empire, with hundreds of warships and merchant ships lost each year there—true demon territories!

Miss Wei Li wanted Black Hair to head to a space station controlled by another faction after resting to gather troops. Once they had thirty warships, they could jointly launch a campaign against Lord Locke to ensure safety. But this would mean Black Hair had to wait over two weeks, giving Lord Locke ample time to prepare.

Any traitor would be like a frightened bird, constantly on guard against punishment. Given more time to prepare, even Black Hair would know what awaited him.

So, after receiving the intel, he didn’t even take time to go to Miss Wei Li’s residence. Instead, he boarded his own Li Feng, assigning some Blood Wolf pirates as captains of five Swan-class warships. The entire fleet rushed out of the spaceport like mad and vanished into the vast starry expanse.

Aboard, Black Hair’s fingers flew across the Li Feng’s control panel, inputting data streams. Soon, a complete star map appeared on the main screen.

Seeing this, Blood Pupil, still unaware of Black Hair’s thoughts, carefully studied the star map before sighing deeply.
“Boss, although Moorian warships are slow, it’s been half a month since Lord Locke fled. With so much time, he should be nearly at the Dark Hand Duke’s space station by now. It seems we can’t stop him before he arrives.”

Hearing Blood Pupil’s words, Black Hair remained silent for a moment before typing a few more commands on the control panel. Instantly, the main screen changed, showing a completely new route map.

Seeing this map, Blood Pupil was stunned.
“No way! Boss, are you planning to cross those three chaotic star regions?!”