Wu Zi Xu knew what level Zheng He and Madam Zheng were at in terms of naval prowess. Just because he had been traveling the past couple hundred years didn’t mean that he neglected to keep tabs on potential future-leaders of the Chinese community. If the two of them were smart enough, they would have done the same to him. In fact, Wu Zi Xu felt a little disappointed. The incident at the Sun Alliance tournament with the atomic bomb had piqued his interest, but it ended up coming from external factors, likely the Jordsand community, he thought to himself.

Now that he had probed them and seen Zheng He and Madam Zheng with his own eyes, they were relatively talented but fell short in the end. They could be trained to become better and taught the strategies of the other naval communities, but what were the chances of that? These two lead their own factions, hundreds of thousands of people were under their control. Why would they ever follow someone else after having a taste of the power?

Unfortunately for them, Wu Zi Xu was now done with them. They were up to his standards since they were two of the best in China, but to get them under his banner would prove exceedingly difficult. With a sigh, he decided not to waste any more time. He had seen enough.

With a swift command, he ordered up to 95% of all of his forces, even the reserves, to advance and take on both Madam Zheng and Zheng He. By a small margin, Wu Zi Xu felt that Zheng He was a better naval strategist. His reasoning came from how easy it was to control the movements of Madam Zheng’s two spears. Namely, her two husbands.

That was why he personally took the mantle to travel from Madam Zheng’s territory to Zheng He’s territory to do battle. Truth be told, it didn’t really matter which opponent he faced right now. The result would be the same. As much as he wanted to show off his arsenal of weapons and such, he had to keep a few secrets up his sleeve.

Not many people within the Chinese community knew of this fact, but there were many spies from other countries mixed in with the local populace. For the most part, the Sun Alliance only had to keep an eye on a select few that worked under their greatest rivals. They did not really care if the Greeks and Romans found out a few secrets, nor would they care if it was the other powerful communities.

They cared a little bit if it was a community that ranked in the top 10. And they most definitely cared if the Jordsand strategists got ahold of this information. Even as powerful as the Sun Alliance were, they were but mere playthings to the great Jordsandinians. Still, that didn’t stop them from gaining any advantage that they could. That was one of the big reasons that they went on a centuries-long journey.

As Wu Zi Xu was dealing with the Vesper faction under Zheng He, a few of his elite disciples went to go take on the Forever Pirates faction under Madam Zheng. As far as he cared, the battle was as good as won. This wasn’t an exaggeration either. For this final battle, he revealed many of the things that he had not shown to his opponents yet. A few of his big purchases while on his journey around Planet 4.

Increased firepower, accuracy, destruction, and almost everything in between. This shocked the spectators even more. In a short amount of time, they had their horizons widened beyond belief. This only led to even more fervor and gossip and praise for the Sun Alliance and their unbeatable lineup of strategists.

As the days turned into weeks inside the simulation, Zheng He’s territory would actually fall first. Not the Forever Pirates as many had speculated. After Wu Zi Xu finished off the remaining Vesper forces, he couldn’t care less about the situation and decided to leave the rest of his forces under Sun Bin’s command as he took a few days to think about the many things plaguing his mind.

This only lasted a week before he got suspicious about the situation. Sure he hadn’t bothered to inquire as to the situation on Madam Zheng’s front, but he didn’t expect them to last this long. Although Sun Bin wasn’t as great as him in terms of naval prowess, it shouldn’t take this long to finish the job. Not to mention all of the disciples he had trained.

Wu Zi Xu ended up immediately getting to his main base of operations and asking what was going on. It turned out that the Forever Pirates always seemed to be losing on all fronts, but have never actually sustained too much damage in any one critical juncture. After a bit of digging around and spy reports, he found out what was going on. One of the enemies had seemed to have stockpiled a bunch of military aircraft and were now using it to even the playing field a bit. Of course, he was talking about Baron.

At this point, Wu Zi Xu wanted to get all of this over with and ordered the execution of operation Zip. This operation was meant to be the maneuver that landed them a victory. The whirlpools that they had conjured up earlier was just an appetizer. This one would be many more times more powerful. It took quite a long time to prepare for this move as the geography and excruciating level of detail that had to go into this venture.

It was good for Wu Zi Xu that he had already planned this just in case something like this ever happened. A few hours later, the Forever Pirates were crippled beyond repair by a massive whirlpool that opened up simultaneously and engulfed the majority of the ships under Madam Zheng’s rule.

In a stroke of luck, Madam Zheng was sucked into one of these as well and unfortunately, none of Baron’s, nor any other, aircraft was there to save her. With a crippled bunch of fleets, and their leader dead, the Forever Pirates did not even last. Finally, the simulation to determine who the best naval strategist in the Chinese community was. There were no more doubts in anyone’s mind that Wu Zi Xu is the undisputed king of the water.

This put a smile on Wu Zi Xu’s face, but he knew that this title meant almost nothing to him. It merely returned to him. Plus, there were much more pressing issues at hand. Such as to try and press his luck to see if he could recruit Zheng He or Madam Zheng. It was a long shot, but it was worth a shot.