"Adam, have you ever heard of the Ashram?"

After returning to his own cabin, Zhang Cheng immediately dialed the satellite phone and got in touch with the android who was responsible for monitoring the situation on the entire earth.

You must know that it is theoretically impossible to maintain absolute secrecy in such a thing as spreading faith.

No matter how careful you are, you will inevitably show some horses' feet.

Among them, the purchase of children whose three views have not yet been established is precisely the most noteworthy point.

The reason for this is very simple, and it is basically no different from some religions that allow parents to bring their children to worship and participate in various brainwashing scripture reading activities, which have an irreversible impact on them.

Children who grow up in such an environment naturally choose to embrace the religion they have been raised and the gods they worship.

In short, to attain a devout faith, you need to create an environment where believers can influence and interact with each other.

Generally speaking, unless the scale is very small, there is a certain chance that every secret meeting will be discovered by the outside world.

"Hermitage?"

On the electronic screen, Ya was frowning consciously, as if he was thinking about something.

It took about two or three minutes before he sent a document and explained in a deep voice: "The Retreat is an organization that only started its activities six years ago, and it was initially small and did not attract my attention. However, they soon developed into the eastern continent of North America, and now control more than ten pirate ships, two important ports, and a large number of bandits and gangs. What, is there anything suspicious about them that caught your attention?"

"Yes, as far as I know, this organization has been buying children under the age of ten everywhere. Isn't this alone worth paying attention to?" Zhang Cheng asked bluntly.

He couldn't believe how Adam, who had never made mistakes, could make such a big mistake.

"Sorry master, I don't think there's anything worth paying attention to. I'm afraid you don't know, but the world is no longer before the asteroid impact, and things like human trafficking are nothing. According to my rough statistics, there are about 470 million people in the world, of which more than 40 million are slaves. In other words, on average, more than 1.3 million people are bought and sold as livestock every year. There are countless organizations and individuals who buy and sell children like this around the world. In a calm tone, Adam spoke of the current harsh reality of the world.

"One million and three hundred thousand a year?" Zhang Cheng raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Adam immediately nodded, "Yes! One hundred and thirty thousand." Of course, this is only the number of transactions, not that 1.3 million people are forced into slavery every year, and many of them are transferred from one slave owner to another. But since you're interested in the Retreat, I'll focus on them next, and I'll keep you informed if anything is really suspicious. ”

"Well, it seems that the New Age is much worse than I expected, and perhaps it should speed up the evolution of civilization a little. Zhang Cheng touched his chin with a thoughtful expression.

There is no doubt that in the current cruel living environment, as well as the poor traffic and law and order conditions, it is not an easy job to find those gods hidden in the shadows.

But if there were a few powerful conquerors, several powerful empires built around the world, and the level of agriculture and technology would be greatly improved, then the population would grow rapidly, and it would not be so easy to spread the faith secretly.

Thinking of this, he immediately called up a map of the distribution of major forces on a global scale, and began to look for candidates, intending to support them and become the emperor of one empire after another.

Of course, he didn't plan to give up on the hermitage, and was ready to follow this clue to find out first.

......

Time flies, and half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

After half a month of repairs in the port of Grint, Joanna finally couldn't bear the loneliness and boredom, and sailed the Sea Serpent back to the endless sea, intending to plunder the passing merchant ships along the northbound shipping lane, and then go to the northern port of Manchas to see the famous Colosseum.

The reason why it is famous is that the competition held here is not like in other places, where slave gladiators fight each other, and at most there are lions, tigers, bears and other fierce beasts, but magic monsters who have come to Earth from another world to fight humans, and the cruelty and bloodiness are many times higher than the former.

Almost every contestant has very strong supernatural powers, otherwise it would be impossible to defeat a monster twenty or thirty times larger than themselves.

Just as Zhang Cheng was sitting alone on the deck, enjoying the comfort brought by the cool sea breeze blowing on his cheeks, he suddenly heard the lookout shouting at the top of his voice: "Port side has found a target! It's a merchant ship!"

"What, merchant ships!" Joanna's eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.

After all, she hadn't succeeded in robbing a merchant ship since she declared herself a pirate, so her spirits immediately became high.

Also excited are the busy pirates on deck.

For them, the successful sacking of a merchant ship meant not only a good share of the spoils, but also a sumptuous meal and unlimited wine after the war.

Soon, with more and larger sails and streamlined hulls, the crew of the Sea Serpent finally saw a medium-sized merchant ship nearly half their size smaller than themselves appear on the sea level in the distance.

It's small, but the belly of this ship is extraordinarily rounded, obviously designed to carry more cargo, and the speed is very slow.

As the two sides got closer, the pirates could even see the desperate expressions of the sailors on each other's decks.

"Hahahaha! Look at those poor creatures!" said Rose, who had just been promoted to boatswain, grinning unbridledly.

"We're so lucky!

"Let's hope the cargo won't disappoint too much!"

"Shit! It's a medium-sized cargo ship! Even if it's full of the most worthless grain, we'll be able to make a deal of it. ”

......

With the pirates' rambling, they seemed to have regarded each other as a meal on their plates, and they couldn't wait to rush up and take a bite immediately.

But the owner of the merchant ship was not a fool, and began to shout orders to his men to throw boxes of heavy cargo into the sea, trying to reduce the weight to increase the speed of the ship, otherwise if caught, there would be absolutely no good end.

But before they could throw much, the experienced pirates of the Sea Serpent used the bed crossbow in the bow to shoot arrows with ropes at the ends, followed by the power of the winch to forcibly close the distance between the two ships, and then completed the jump with extremely skillful movements, rushed up to kill the crew who tried to resist, and took control of the entire ship in less than ten minutes......