Apart from money, Feng Chou's power had also increased by several times in the past ten years.
Under his command, there were already more than thirty thousand professionals above the intermediate level, including twenty-five thousand sailors serving the fleet and five thousand knights stationed on the island.
Among these thirty thousand people, the number of high-grade professionals had reached a terrifying three thousand. Of these three thousand, two thousand were Green Dragons. Apart from the high-grade pirates that Feng Chou had recruited, the other one thousand were mostly young people who had just advanced.
The extremely talented young people that Feng Chou had recruited through Qiankun Pagoda had already begun to show their prowess.
Among these young people, apart from some of the most outstanding ones being sent by Feng Chou to serve as officials in the fleet to train, most of them were hidden by Feng Chou in his territory's knights. These young people were actually still in the process of maturing, and their ultimate goal was to become Masters and Legends.
Feng Chou had used the Wizard Tower to set up a Wizard Academy, with the demon wizard Anrick as the principal.
In just ten years, this Wizard Academy had already started to have high-grade wizards graduate.
Other than the strength he had on the surface, the unknown power in Feng Chou's hands had expanded even more.
Through interplanar transactions with the Yugros, Feng Chou had obtained a large amount of flesh and soul materials to create a large number of skeletal magic statues.
Ever since Qiankun Pagoda had been successfully upgraded, Feng Chou, who had an almost limitless production capacity, had accumulated thousands of skeletal magic statues in the form of spiders over the years.
Feng Chou did not dare to use soul crystals in interplanar transactions with the Yugros, so he could only use the alchemy equipment produced by Qiankun Pagoda.
In order to attract the Yugros to continue trading with him, Feng Chou had no choice but to give up a lot of profits. Even though Feng Chou had an almost limitless production capacity and the extremely low production cost of Qiankun Pagoda, this transaction was still a loss for Feng Chou.
Through this kind of interplanar trade, Feng Chou spent almost 400 thousand crowns on materials alone to make a skeletal golem. Thousands of golems cost Feng Chou more than three billion crowns.
This was also because he did not want to arouse the suspicions of the Yugros and had suppressed the trade volume.
Apart from the skeletal golems, Feng Chou also produced thousands of Black Steel Constructs designed by Qiankun Pagoda. Even though the real Black Steel Constructs cost half as much as the ones on the market, it still cost Feng Chou nearly five billion crowns.
The reason Feng Chou produced so many golems and constructs at all costs was to protect the huge wealth in his hands.
Over the years, Feng Chou had made use of the power vacuum in the Northern and Southern Continents to amass a huge amount of wealth that even the King would drool over.
Even though he was taxed by several countries in the Northern and Southern Continents, Feng Chou still managed to amass a huge amount of wealth of more than 30 billion crowns in the past decade.
Feng Chou knew very well that his strength was too weak in the face of such a huge amount of wealth.
Therefore, apart from training in seclusion, he had also been desperately increasing his strength.
…
After returning to Green Dragon Island, Feng Chou only took a short break before locking himself in the laboratory of the Mage Tower.
Fortunately, when Feng Chou was building this Mage Tower, he had built several Master-level laboratories. He, the Demon Mage Anric, and the Goblin Master Moorsock shared the Mage Tower, so it was not crowded at all.
Just as Feng Chou was immersed in the laboratory day and night, in the faraway Amazon Kingdom, a conspiracy against him was brewing intensely.
Ever since the seventh princess had successfully advanced to Legendary, the Church of the Lord of Storms had been supporting her more and more.
Under the pressure of the church and the seventh princess, the eldest princess felt more and more strained.
To the eldest princess, she needed to find a key point to launch a counterattack and weaken the seventh princess' advantage.
Green Dragon Island was undoubtedly a very good target.
Over the years, Feng Chou's fleet had grown larger and larger, and the volume of goods they transported had also increased. Rough estimates showed that just this fleet alone had transported about 5% of the trade volume of the entire Northern and Southern Continents last year!
How much money Feng Chou's fleet earned had nothing to do with the eldest princess. However, Feng Chou had handed over all the high-quality goods from the Northern Continent to the seventh princess' trading company. This was something that the eldest princess could not tolerate.
With the strong support of Feng Chou and the excellent Manta Port, the seventh princess' trading company had grown rapidly in strength over the years. It had grown into one of the top five companies in the Southern Continent.
This was also the main reason why the seventh princess allowed Feng Chou to be free and unfettered.
The seventh princess' powerful economic strength was quickly converted into hard power in her hands.
Over the years, with the support of the Church of Storms, the seventh princess had replaced the generals of the Manta Army and the Manta Fleet with her men. The second largest port in the Amazon Kingdom had become the seventh princess' private port.
In the past two years, the difference in strength between the seventh princess and the eldest princess had undergone a fundamental change.
And this change was definitely due to Feng Chou's support.
In addition, the enormous wealth accumulated by Green Dragon Island had also moved the eldest princess.
How much wealth Green Dragon Island had amassed from the trade between the Northern and Southern Continents could not be hidden from observant people. According to the rough estimates of the staff in the seventh princess' trading company, Green Dragon Island had earned a huge profit of about two billion jinsol over the years.
Even the King would drool over such a fortune.
… …
Half a year after returning to Green Dragon Island, Feng Chou's research on "Greater Haste" had reached a critical point when he suddenly received a distress message from the old captain.
Feng Chou's fleet had just left Green Dragon Island half a month ago and was sailing towards Manta Port. According to the fleet's speed, they were now in the middle of the Bloodsail Island Chain.
The old captain used a short message to tell Feng Chou that they had been besieged by the Bloodsail Pirates.
More than three hundred Bloodsail Clippers surrounded Feng Chou's fleet. More than three hundred master-level Amazon warriors and more than three thousand high-level Amazon warriors rode the wind and parachuted onto Feng Chou's thirty merchant ships, setting off a terrifying storm.
Fortunately, with the skeletal spiders at the front, Feng Chou's sailors withstood the attacks of the Amazon warriors.
This forced the three legendaries hidden among the Amazon pirates to take action in advance.
Under the realm of legendaries, the skeletal spiders were unable to withstand a single blow.
Feng Chou, who was in the laboratory, immediately abandoned the experiment when he received the old captain's distress message. He flew to the sky above Green Dragon Island and summoned the green dragon Aysera.
Feng Chou rode the green dragon and soared into the sky. According to the spatial coordinates he had left in the fleet, he brought the green dragon with him to the sky above the battlefield.
After seeing Feng Chou and the green dragon appear in the sky, the three legendaries of the Bloodsail Pirates immediately abandoned the fleet and soared into the sky, besieging Feng Chou who was riding the green dragon.