Safe City Ch.72

Chapter 72: Pitiful Lambs

Cheng Qisheng realized that the clergy hardly needed to preach at all.

As the White-Robed Bishops flew across the territory of the Little Blue Sea Nation, every Dazzling Star native who caught sight of them—and had already heard that the Divine Kingdom would soon send down divine messengers—became a believer on the spot.

As mentioned before, the people of the Little Blue Sea Nation had only half believed in the Creator God’s existence.

What did “half believed” mean?

It meant that part of them believed, while their rational minds insisted, This can’t be real. They could only suppress that believing half of themselves, trying not to sink into what seemed like a beautiful but illusory fantasy.

—But now the divine messengers had truly descended.

They were taller and more graceful than ordinary people, with enormous black skeletal wings spreading from their backs. Their hair was not silver-white either, but vivid, eye-catching colors—colors that, in this snowy world, signified overwhelming strength and complete confidence that they had nothing to fear from the snow beasts.

Whenever a divine messenger swept across the sky, their shadow glided over the pristine white snow. Even the oldest and most experienced hunters would instinctively feel the hairs on the backs of their necks stand on end beneath the crushing aura that accompanied them.

The snow beasts clearly felt the same way.

Of course, the clergy still had to eat.

But where did their food come from?

That’s right—from the snow beasts!

Killing the snow beasts they encountered along the way gave them a chance to obtain food item cards.

And even if no card dropped, a single snow beast was enough to feed four or five members of the clergy.

So ever since receiving the revelation of the great Creator God, the clergy had been traveling nonstop, attacking every snow beast they came across.

They flew swiftly, faster than almost all land-dwelling snow beasts could run. Coupled with their overwhelming combat prowess, and with more and more clergy joining together as they traveled, the expedition eventually became nothing less than a snow beast meat grinder.

Snow beasts possessed an exceptionally keen sense of smell. Even when the clergy stopped to rest before reaching the Little Blue Sea Nation, changed into spotless white holy robes inside snow dens, and carefully tidied their hair…

It made no difference.

From a great distance away, the beasts could still smell the overwhelming stench of blood that had accumulated around them, so thick it was almost tangible.

It was the blood of their own kind.

The scent warned them.

Those unidentified creatures flying overhead…

…had slaughtered countless snow beasts before them.

Danger!

Danger!

Most snow beasts lacked intelligence, but the instinct to seek safety and avoid danger was ingrained in every living creature. Almost immediately, they chose to flee.

From the Dazzling Star natives’ perspective, however, the sight was astonishing.

The terrifying snow beasts that normally lunged at humans on sight were now fleeing across the snow as though they had encountered their natural predators.

It was the first time they had ever seen so many snow beasts stampeding together.

Compared to the panic-stricken beasts below, the divine messengers in the sky remained utterly composed.

Not a single one spared the fleeing snow beasts a second glance. Their skeletal wings remained spread wide as they continued beating them at the same unhurried rhythm, without anyone lowering their gaze.

The divine messengers flew straight over the leading snow beasts and soon disappeared beyond the horizon.

So these… are the messengers of the gods?

The Dazzling Star natives trembled.

They longed to keep looking toward the direction where the divine messengers had vanished, yet they dared not stare for too long, afraid that their overly fervent gaze might profane the envoys who had descended from the Divine Kingdom.

“The divine messengers… They really are divine messengers…”

“The Divine Kingdom is real! The great Creator God of Blue Sea is real as well!”

“Then… does that mean… the land of eternal warmth… is real too?”

The silver-haired, pale-eyed people of Dazzling Star became followers of the Creator God after nothing more than a fleeting glimpse of the clergy.

Cheng Qisheng could feel the number of faith chains growing.

The clergy flew at tremendous speed, so to her, the total increased almost every second.

She didn’t need to deliberately count the faith chains. Just as a person doesn’t need to look at their own hand to form a finger heart, she instinctively knew exactly how many faith chains she possessed and how many new ones had just been added.

She could clearly sense that, as more and more clergy converged on the Little Blue Sea Nation from every direction, the number of newly formed faith chains continued to rise without pause.

While standing on the boat fishing, Cheng Qisheng silently counted the number of new believers in her mind.

556… 1,987… 4,490… 14,532… 57,821… 113,452… 297,321…

The closer the clergy drew to the Little Blue Sea Nation’s capital, the faster the number of believers increased.

Which was only natural.

After all, the Creator God’s ice statue—dozens of meters tall—was still standing outside the castle.

Cheng Qisheng gazed at the fishing float not far away.

It bobbed gently a few times.

—The number of new believers had reached 380,000.

The float suddenly dipped experimentally before quickly rising back to the surface.

—The number of new believers had reached 440,000.

It trembled a few more times before being violently yanked underwater.

—The number of new believers had reached 510,000.

Although Cheng Qisheng’s movements were slow and couldn’t keep up with the fish’s pace, she was more than strong enough. Keeping a firm grip on the rod, she followed the fishing tutorials she had watched online, patiently working the fish little by little.

—The number of new believers had reached 630,000.

The fish was a powerful one, thrashing relentlessly beneath the water in a tug-of-war against the rod.

With an ordinary fishing rod, it might well have snapped under such strain.

But Cheng Qisheng was using a custom-made titanium alloy rod paired with a braided steel-wire fishing line.

She had commissioned this set of equipment specifically for her current situation—someone with tremendous strength but slow reflexes, a novice angler whose gear needed to make up for her shortcomings.

No matter how desperately the fish struggled beneath the surface, Cheng Qisheng simply continued the contest at her own pace, slowly… steadily…

—The number of new believers had reached 710,000.

The fish burst out of the water.

Rather than being reeled in, it looked more as though it had simply been lifted straight out.

Cheng Qisheng slowly removed the hook, placed the fish into a bucket, washed her hands clean, picked up the paddle, and began rowing.

Her movements remained leisurely, but fortunately the paddleboard was large enough, and the little boat steadily made its way back toward shore.

Aether floated curiously over to the bucket and “sat” on its rim while scanning the City Lord’s catch.

“Crucian carp detected. Suitable dishes include winter melon crucian carp soup, braised crucian carp, sweet-and-sour crucian carp, and spicy douban-braised crucian carp.”

“Would the City Lord like Aether to provide detailed recipes?”

Cheng Qisheng slowly paddled the boat.

“No need~ I’ll just use the air fryer~”

As her mental strength continued to increase, the effects of her Mortal Body Syndrome had worsened once again, leaving her movements even slower than before. She found herself facing the same old problem in the kitchen—being too slow to flip food in time and ending up with burnt dishes.

Fortunately, technology improved lives.

Cheng Qisheng had bought an air fryer, an electric slow cooker, a steam convection oven, and other convenient appliances for lazy cooks. As long as she prepared the ingredients and put them in beforehand, all she had to do was wait for the timer to go off before eating.

Two white waterbirds flew overhead.

She stopped paddling and quietly watched them fly to the opposite shore of the lake before settling into the branches of a tree.

Just thinking that this lake, the fish swimming in it, and even those two waterbirds were all just beyond a single door inside her home filled Cheng Qisheng with contentment.

The existence of this lake was the result of an experiment.

She had wanted to test whether rooms with the same property could be merged together.

Before preparing for war against the other Safe Cities, Cheng Qisheng had deliberately left the interior layout of the City Lord’s Residence unchanged, keeping its aquatic area as a small pond.

As expected, after the Safe City’s territory expanded to 41,299 square kilometers, her home did not gain an extra room. Instead, the original 2,400-square-meter pond expanded seamlessly into a 14,789-square-meter body of water.

In other words, this latest expansion had increased her private domain by 12,389 square meters.

Previously, it had only been a small pond.

Now, after the expansion, calling it a private artificial lake would hardly be an exaggeration.

The experiment also confirmed her earlier hypothesis:

Rooms with the same attribute could indeed be stacked together.

That meant that whenever the Safe City expanded in the future, Cheng Qisheng could allocate the additional area of her private domain to whichever “room” she wanted.

Take this artificial lake, for example.

With each future expansion of the Safe City, she could continue enlarging it again and again—until one day it grew so vast that its far shore disappeared beyond the horizon.

The 1,100-square-meter cultivation area was the same.

As long as Blue Sea continued expanding, Cheng Qisheng could gradually transform it from a modest family garden into a true woodland.

Or perhaps…

Once the Safe City grew large enough, she could even try having an entire ocean inside her home.

The boat reached the shore.

Carrying the bucket with ease, Cheng Qisheng slowly stepped onto land.

The place looked just like an ordinary artificial lake. Trees lined the bank, the water was crystal clear, birds chirped cheerfully all around, and a trail of ants marched busily up and down a tree trunk.

At first glance, it was no different from the lakes found in a public park.

The only unusual sight was an utterly ordinary wooden door standing by itself a short distance away.

Cheng Qisheng opened the door, changed into her indoor slippers in the hallway, then carried the bucket into her kitchen and leisurely began preparing lunch.

To make crispy air-fried crucian carp, she needed scallions.

So she slowly returned to the hallway and opened another door.

Thirty minutes later, Cheng Qisheng came back carrying freshly picked scallions, a bundle of vegetables, and a bowl of cherries before making her way back into the kitchen.

The moment she officially began cooking, the number of new believers suddenly took another enormous leap.

—The number of new believers had reached 860,000.

Looks like the clergy have entered the capital of the Little Blue Sea Nation.

The first group of clergy to arrive at the castle hovered skillfully in midair.

Looking down at the enormous castle, the expressions they had kept impassive throughout the journey finally relaxed ever so slightly.

We’ve finally arrived.

The land our God has guided us to.

The people here would, under their guidance, become new members of Blue Sea—subjects of the great Creator God.

As the first to arrive, they were the pioneers, breaking new ground ahead of everyone else.

Perhaps the task would prove more difficult than expected.

But they had come fully prepared.

For the sake of their God, they were willing to make any sacrifice.

Hovering in the sky above, the clergy wore calm, compassionate expressions as they lowered their gazes toward the people below.

The crowd on the ground had gradually gathered together.

Dozens of clergy looked down upon them with the same gentle, benevolent eyes.

So these are the people we have come to guide?

Pitiful lambs who had lived alone in this frozen world without a god’s protection, their souls left without a place to belong.

Perhaps now was the perfect time to begin observing them.

First, according to the missionary manual compiled by His Holiness the Pope, they were supposed to instill the concept of Blue Sea into the people. Once they accepted Blue Sea, they would gradually come to understand that everything Blue Sea had become was thanks to the great Creator God’s protection over Her people…

Silently reciting the various evangelizing passages they had memorized, the clergy maintained their graceful composure as they slowly descended—

“Our God reigns above!!”

Suddenly, someone in the crowd below shouted at the top of their lungs.

The leaders of the Little Blue Sea Nation had already passed Blue Sea’s slogan on to their people.

Back then, however, they had regarded it as nothing more than a slogan.

But now…

The moment those words were cried out, nearly everyone erupted into the same fervent chant.

“Our God reigns above!!”

“May Blue Sea endure forever!!”

They were practically roaring the words, as though pouring every ounce of strength they possessed into those two declarations. Every single person trembled with overwhelming excitement.

The voices below swelled louder and louder, until they nearly drowned out the howling wind and snow.

The expressions on the clergy’s faces remained as serene and gentle as ever.

But some of them had already begun wondering whether they had somehow arrived at the wrong place.

These people…

…didn’t look like they were without faith at all.

The sea of people surged, their voices merging into a single thunderous chorus throughout the Little Blue Sea Nation.

“Our God reigns above!!!!”

“May Blue Sea endure forever!!!!”

—Ding!

Cheng Qisheng took the crispy fried crucian carp out of the air fryer. Its skin was golden and crisp while the flesh inside remained tender and juicy. She placed it on the table alongside a plate of freshly stir-fried greens.

After serving herself a bowl of rice, she sat down.

—The number of new believers had reached 930,000.

There was no longer any need for missionary work.

The Little Blue Sea Nation had a population of just over a million. The clergy had done nothing more than make a brief appearance, yet 930,000 people had become Cheng Qisheng’s followers.

She had every reason to believe that the remaining seventy thousand or so simply hadn’t encountered the clergy on their journey or had never heard the legends of Blue Sea’s Creator God.

But from this point onward, more and more Dazzling Star natives would hear that legend.

—As always, let’s begin with a mass blessing.

As Cheng Qisheng watched the newly converted believers bask in the happiness and tranquility of the divine blessing, tears glistening in their eyes as they gazed toward the heavens, she sent them a divine message.

Live on, my people.

Perhaps yours is not a civilization that I raised from the beginning, but as long as you place your faith in me, you are all welcome into the Blue Sea family.

I will lead you through many more worlds.

Together… we will survive.

The snow-white-haired, pale-skinned people of Dazzling Star felt the overwhelming warmth of the blessing, and the emotions in their eyes swiftly transformed into fervent devotion.

“Our God!!!”

“Our God reigns above!!!”

“I felt it! The God has blessed me! Thank you, my God! Thank you, great Creator God!”

The clergy, who were usually the first to be swept up by the passionate faith of fellow believers, found themselves unusually silent despite the deafening cheers surrounding them.

What’s going on?

Why does every single one of these people look like a fanatical believer?

Weren’t we supposed to be the ones preaching to them?

The clergy were genuinely bewildered.

Only when they themselves felt the divine blessing descend did the warmth of the great Creator God’s embrace instantly fill them with happiness.

“Our God! Thank You for Your blessing!”

The will of God was beyond question.

Surely, their God had simply judged that the number of believers in the Little Blue Sea Nation was not yet great enough.

Perhaps the great Creator God’s true intention was for them to remain here—to strengthen the Little Blue Sea Nation and cultivate even more believers.

Bathed in the joy of their God’s blessing, the clergy looked at the enormous castle before them, already making plans in their hearts.

This Tier 8 structure could still be upgraded further.

And the population of the Little Blue Sea Nation still had plenty of room to grow.

Five million believers, for example.

With the routine blessing complete, Cheng Qisheng shifted her attention away from the Little Blue Sea Nation and back to the meal in front of her.

Gaining over 900,000 new believers in one go definitely called for a celebration.

After lunch, she’d take a look at the new interior building designs for the Safe City.

As for the development of the Little Blue Sea Nation…

She would leave all of that to the Blue Sea government and the clergy.

Cheng Qisheng poured herself a glass of ice-cold cola and clinked it against a tiny virtual cup that Aether had projected onto one of its jellyfish tent*cles.

She drained the cola in a single gulp.

Refreshing!

After a busy day’s work, the Creator God picked up her chopsticks.

Time to eat!

<< _ >>