Facing the cold wind, the warship broke the waves.

Todd sat on the side of the boat on the right, glanced at Karin, who was standing at the bow of the ship with an excited, shouting face, and sighed.

Huggins slid the oars in his hand, gasped for breath, and asked him, "How long are we going to stay on the island?"

The monk took out the notepad from his bosom, looked at the pencil marks on it, and said as he thought: "According to the confession of the Grey Skull captive, considering the time between our stays and the spring countercurrent, we may have to stay on Waiheke Island for two days before we can leave for the mainland. ”

Huggins nodded in understanding.

Karin turned her head in surprise, "Shouldn't you go to the Northern Islands?"

Todd closed the notebook and glanced at the girl, "Did I say I was going to the north?" and added: "Don't blame me for not reminding you, before you got on the boat, I said that this trip would be very boring,"

Karin's smiling face suddenly fell.

An hour later, the ship docked at the shoals of Waiheke Island.

Huggins commanded the crew to pull the hull ashore, lifted the tarpaulin from the cabin, and began to examine the glass in the crates.

Todd sat down on a boulder in the shallows, opened the map he had with him, and observed the small island, which was only four kilometers off the west coast of the twilight. Viewed from above, the island is oval in shape and no more than 400 acres in size. The shore is a sand bed formed by sand and gravel alluvium, and the inside is a dense forest. In the middle of the island is a living spring, and where it flows, a small river is formed, hence the name Waiheke Island.

Closing the map, Todd focused on Huggins' helper. There were nine in all, and the men called them "reliable acquaintances." Whether it's paddling the sails or carrying goods, these people are skillful, uniform, silent, and hard-working.

While the monks were still speculating about the identities of these men, Karin came to him, took his hand, and led him deeper into the island.

"Hey, hey, Karin, where are you going to pull me?!"

Ignoring Todd's protests, the girl pulled him into the forest away from the shallows, and said angrily, "Let's make an exchange!"

The latter was confused: "Exchange?"

Karin pointed her finger at Todd's forehead, "I want you to tell me about your so-called crazy plan! Huggins is always playing dumb riddles with me, Edgar doesn't know anything and is talking nonsense, you don't want to tell me anything!"

The girl paused, bit her lip, and continued: "In exchange, I will tell you a secret about me. ”

Todd frowned, "About your secret?"

"That's right, a secret I've never told anyone!"

Could it be ......

Todd's heart raced.

Taking a deep breath and waiting for his emotions to calm down, he thought about it carefully, and now he told Karin all the plans, as if there was no big deal, so he cleared his throat and said slowly.

Initially, the plan was developed with three goals in mind.

1. Establish a base area belonging to different species in the port of Duxi and completely get rid of the situation of sending people under the fence.

2. Find ways to get out of the whirlpool of struggle between ecclesiastical and ascetic factions, and try to ensure that relations with the two factions do not degenerate into hostility.

3. If possible, find a way to get rid of the unsightly priest Paul, or make him lose power.

Although the Church agreed to hand over the harbor to Todd, this was on the premise of helping to encroach on the monastery, which undoubtedly conflicted with the second point, and the Church was likely to cross the river and tear down the bridge after achieving its goal, and if he chose to stay out of the matter and deal passively in the struggle between the two factions, he would definitely be repossessed by the Church in the end of the consecration book and the right to operate the harbor.

Therefore, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult to develop a well-thought-out plan to achieve all three goals at the same time. But these three goals are mutually reinforcing, and failure to achieve any of them can have unforeseen consequences.

Thankfully, Todd eventually came up with a whimsical solution.

The first step is to use the glass processing technology of the previous life to make craft-grade glass products that cannot be touched in this era, and forge these glasses into literary and artistic works during the Taylor Empire.

The second step is to grasp the dynamics of the pirates' southward movement and study the power situation of the northern archipelago.

The third step is to maintain good relations with the church so that we can borrow troops from them in the future when we are exterminating pirates.

The fourth step is to have Huggins spread the false news that the Northern Islands have buried the treasure of Taylor between the villages and towns.

The fifth step is to cooperate with the church army to exterminate pirates, ensure the safety of the shipping lanes, and capture the warships.

In the sixth step, Todd took the initiative to spread the false news that he was going north, in fact, using a pirate warship to load glass and hide on the nearest island to the mainland, Waiheke Island.

Step seven, after waiting for a while, Todd will return triumphantly with a ship full of Taylor's treasures, pretending to have discovered the treasures of the Northern Isles. And by building momentum, the attention of the church was shifted from encroaching on the monastery to the glass.

At present, the plan has only reached the seventh step, and the three objectives are basically half the battle.

It is worth mentioning that during the extermination of the pirates, due to the miscalculation of the fighting strength of the "Grey Skull" tribe, the whole plan almost failed completely, but fortunately Alfonso Decavo turned the tide and put down the berserker Sakru.

Hearing this, Karin raised her own questions.

"Why can't we just exchange glass-making technology for help from the church, but instead use the 'Treasure of Taylor' and spend so much effort?"

Todd explains it in a hypothetical way.

If you dedicate your glass-making skills to the church, the best case is to get a reward, and the worst case is that the church will kill yourself, a person who has no use value, in order to prevent the glass craft from spreading.

If you use the name of the treasure of Taylor, you will offer the treasure to the church. Without any naval power and ignorance of the northern islands, the Church will have to rely on itself to help build the Twilight Seaport for more glasswork.

Hearing this, Karin finally had an intuitive impression of Todd's plan, but she vaguely felt that this plan was not as simple as it seemed on the surface, and there were some deeper things hidden that the other party did not tell herself.

Todd rubbed his hands, looked into the girl's eyes and blinked, with a look of anticipation: "So, what about your secret?"

Karin frowned and thought for a moment, then picked up a stone from the ground and threw it off into the distance. In the next second, her figure appeared where the stone had landed.

"My xenomorphic ability is attachment, I can attach my body to anything I come into contact with and move a distance with it. After saying this, Karin noticed Todd's dejected expression and disappointed eyes, and hurriedly continued: "My ability is useful!"

Todd waved his hand and walked towards the beach with heavy steps.