The wind and rain never stopped, but the people on the sea were not afraid of the storm.
Sage left half the people on the ship, including Renedia.
It's not because ability users can't use their powers in this storm. In fact, if an ability user isn't submerged more than halfway, it won't affect them much.
But someone had to guard the ship, and Renedia was still a little girl. It wouldn't be good to let her go out in this storm, plus, she's familiar with ships and can use her abilities to move the ship in case of an emergency.
Otherwise, with just these few hands, it would be hard to even raise the sails.
Facing the wind and rain, Sage walked up to the fainted fisherman, "Gin..."
Gin stepped forward, grabbed the fisherman's collar, and slapped him twice.
Stimulated, the fisherman gradually woke up, opening his eyes to see a face that looked like a black-faced demon under the gloomy sky.
"Ghost..."
Bang!
Gin pulled out the cane hanging behind his waist. With the iron ball dancing around, the cane pressed against the fisherman's throat, pushing him heavily onto the sand.
The heavy iron cane with the iron ball pressed down on the fisherman's eyes, causing him to gasp for air, his hands instinctively groping around the cane in a desperate attempt to break free.
"Are you awake?" Gin asked lightly.
The fisherman nodded vigorously.
Gin withdrew the cane, looked at the coughing fisherman, and said, "We're not ghosts, we're pirates."
"Pi-pirates..."
The fisherman was stunned, and instead of being scared, he immediately turned around and shouted to the back, "It's pirates, no need to run, it's pirates! Quickly collect the things from the sand fort!"
Sage asked curiously, "Hey, I'm a pirate, aren't you afraid?"
The fisherman waved his hand, "What's there to be afraid of with pirates? I thought it was a ghost ship."
"I'm a pirate, I'm here to rob!" Sage emphasized.
"I know, what else do pirates do but rob?"
The fisherman looked at Sage strangely, "Judging by your outfit, you're obviously here to rob, but there's nothing here..."
Crash!
A sound of waves striking echoed from behind, and the sound revealed a look of fear on the fisherman's face.
"It's high tide!"
Panic cries echoed from the sand castles on the beach.
"Woo—"
Following that was a dull and strange sound of a bone horn, and with that sound, many people ran out of the sand castles and headed inland.
"Sage..."
Lily's expression became serious as she called out.
Behind them, waves were crashing like a pack of wolves, rushing towards them.
If caught by it, it would be like a shipwreck.
"What are you standing here for? Waiting to drown? Run!"
Sage just glanced back, lifted his foot, and ran forward.
This kind of giant wave, of course, should be avoided temporarily.
Especially Sage himself.
Though he's not an ability user, it's not much different. If he submerges halfway in the sea, he will not lose his abilities, but something far scarier than losing abilities will happen.
It will summon Sea Beasts and even a Sea King!
Yes, in terms of bad luck, he's extremely confident!
The group of people also started to run forward, avoiding the waves crashing behind them. The surging tide swallowed the beach area, quickly reaching the sand castles farther in, and with one sweep, the sand castles collapsed, exposing the stone beds and shells inside.
A woman holding a child stumbled while running and fell to the ground, looking in horror at the rushing waves, instinctively hugging her child tightly.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind blew unexpectedly, and the woman who had fallen suddenly flew into the air, bouncing in the air for a while, and then was placed at the top of the highest slope on the beach.
It wasn't until then that the woman looked up, seeing a man adorned with many trinkets bounce a few times in the air and then land back on the ground.
"Tha-thank you!"
The woman tightly hugged her child, knelt before Sage, her eyes filled with tears, "Thank you so much! Thank you very much!!"
The tide continued to surge but stopped when it was about to reach the top of the slope. The once sizable sandy area now shrank into a small sandbank, gathering two to three hundred people.
At a glance, all were elderly, women, and children, with occasional men, but all were feeble and weak.
In their hands, they held tools made of stones and shells, and a few flint stones... besides that, no decent clothing, all their garments patched in various ways.
"You really are dirt poor..."
Sage clicked his tongue and sighed helplessly.
At his worst, he'd only be unable to fill his stomach, but not poor enough to use stone pots and shell bowls.
He glanced back at the sandy area now turned to seawater, "What's going on here?"
"The Shallow Sand Kingdom is built on a tidal ground, every once in a while, we encounter high tides, and the sand castles we build will be washed away..."
Among the crowd, a woman stepped forward and said, "Thank you so much for saving Shiludi and her daughter."
This woman was tall, at least two meters, taller than this group of pirates, yet not strong, but a gentle woman, wearing a white robe adorned with a few shell ornaments, her black hair smooth as silk casually draped over her back, straight and shiny.
And that face, clearly not old, yet exuding an exceptionally soft maternal vibe...
A black-haired beauty.
"That kind of thing doesn't matter."
Sage waved his hand, "I'm not interested in poor people, it's fine if you're poor, as long as your king is rich. Since I saved your people, show me the way, tell me where the king is, so I can go rob him."
The black-haired beauty was taken aback, "Rob the king... aren't you good people?"
Sage snarled, rushing up to the woman, raising his hand, "First, do good people have to serve freely? Second, look at me from head to toe, what part of me looks like a good person!"
An open-collared pirate shirt, loose pants paired with black tight boots, a jewel decor pistol at the waist, a red jade necklace around the neck, jewelry and gold rings on the fingers, plus a large cape, along with the vicious weapon-toting people beside him.
Doesn't seem like a good person at all.
Rather, it's a very standard pirate outfit.
"Marika, they're pirates!" cried the fisherman from earlier.
The black-haired beauty heard and gave an awkward smile. She bowed slightly to Sage and said, "So you're pirates. Sorry to disappoint you, as you can see, we're very poor. As for the king, let me introduce myself. I'm Marika, the king of this Shallow Sand Kingdom."
Sage: "..."
"You're the king?" He raised his eyebrow, eyeing Marika up and down, "Don't joke, you don't look like a king, I bet you're the only thing worth anything."