Chapter 108: Floating Farmlands
The floating farmland, large enough to completely crush the commoner district beneath it, was eventually placed on a floating platform with a sufficiently large surface area.
Naturally, there had originally been a large number of commoners living in this area.
Even before that, ship after ship belonging to the Blue Sea residents had already pulled up alongside the floating platform, calling for the commoners above to board.
Despite the explosions earlier, the Blue Sea residents had been flying around, checking every corner, yet stray sparks still occasionally fell from the sky.
The sea was also littered with broken bricks and tiles, snapped beams, and shattered pieces of wood that had fallen from the damaged structures.
Drifting across the water, accompanied by the glow of fire along the horizon and the sight of Blue Sea residents flying between the floating farmlands, carrying the injured down to safety, the whole scene looked like something straight out of a disaster movie.
But the commoners themselves felt none of that atmosphere of disaster.
They had gone far too long without properly riding a ship.
Now, after being brought aboard by the Blue Sea residents and seated in spacious areas where they could even stretch out their legs, these people seemed almost at a loss.
Many of them didn’t even have shoes. Their callused feet were covered in scars and black grime.
Setting those feet down on the smooth, spotless deck of the ship made them instinctively shrink back, as though they expected a whip to come crashing down on them at any moment.
But the cleanly dressed people aboard the ship did nothing of the sort. They simply shouted:
“Find a place and sit down! Those who got on first, move toward the back and make some room for the people boarding after you!”
“Hey! Wait a second!”
The sudden rise in the person’s voice made all the commoners on the deck instinctively flinch.
They immediately lowered their heads. Some didn’t even dare look up, while the bolder ones cautiously peeked over the backs of the seats in front of them, trying to see what was happening.
The commoner who had been stopped was an elderly man, a rare sight indeed.
In Kansidang’s domain, it was difficult for the elderly to survive.
First of all, elderly people from outside were never brought here in the first place. If a ship on Green Billow Star had any elderly people aboard, the pirates would kill them immediately. So the elderly commoners living in Kansidang’s domain were people who had been captured when they were still young.
When they were young, they were treated as expendable labor. Most didn’t even live to forty-five before dying from prolonged overwork and malnutrition, or from any number of other pressures.
And the elderly who somehow managed to survive were no more tolerated by the pirates.
The pirates considered the elderly slow and weak, nothing more than food-wasters. If they happened to displease the pirate overseeing the workers, even slightly, they could be pushed off the floating farmland.
Among the commoners, meanwhile, the elderly were also among the most vulnerable and were easily b*llied.
For a gray-haired elderly commoner, however long they had survived in Kansidang’s domain represented just how many years they had endured contemptuous looks and the daily experience of being disliked wherever they went and scrutinized with malicious eyes.
So naturally, this old man assumed that the tall, sturdy people who had suddenly appeared and defeated Kansidang would also be displeased by his presence.
When boarding the ship, he had hurriedly tidied his graying hair, put on his battered old hat, then desperately lowered his head while forcing his hunched back as straight as he could, trying to disguise himself as a middle-aged man who wasn’t quite so old and slip past unnoticed.
But he failed.
He was still discovered.
The old man’s entire body trembled. He wanted to say something flattering, something that might put the other person in a good mood and persuade them to let him go.
But his overwhelming terror seemed to have a grip on his throat. Forget trying to flatter anyone—he felt as though the world were spinning, his vision going dark, and even his breath had become trapped in his chest.
No, no!
He couldn’t pass out.
He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t lose consciousness.
Otherwise, he would lose his last chance to struggle.
A hand caught his body as he began to collapse.
The other hand supported the bamboo shard embedded in the old man’s back.
“You’re injured. You should go to the medical ship.”
The old man’s vision was already going black. He assumed that this so-called medical ship was actually a guillotine, and hurriedly waved his hands in pleading denial.
“No, no! It’s just a minor injury. It won’t affect my work! I’m very efficient, really! If you don’t believe me, I can work for you right now!”
When people become emotionally agitated, they tend to move their bodies instinctively, which only makes their injuries worse.
But despite all the old man’s frantic movements, the crew member holding him kept him perfectly steady. Somehow, his entire body was moving, yet his position didn’t shift in the slightest.
With one hand easily supporting the old man, she turned her head and shouted toward the outside:
“We have an injured person here! There’s a large foreign object embedded in his back, with an open wound that hasn’t closed. He’s highly agitated and has difficulty understanding what’s being said. Suspected excessive blood loss causing fragmented thinking and confusion when processing external information. Come pick him up!”
“Coming!!”
The medical ship that had been moving around the area quickly arrived. To prevent the wound from shifting while the old man walked, they even brought a stretcher.
They carefully had the old man lie facedown on it. A priest examined him.
“It’s not serious. He’s not at the point of severe blood loss. But this wound is at least four or five days old. It’s already started festering and becoming infected.”
The old man on the stretcher was still dazed.
He hadn’t been thrown into the sea because he was injured.
He was actually going to receive treatment?
Was all of this real?
The other commoners aboard the ship were equally stunned as they watched the old man whom Kansidang had regarded as worthless being carried away.
They didn’t dare speak. They didn’t dare let their eyes reveal that they were capable of having thoughts of their own.
They simply lowered their heads in silence, while countless thoughts raced through their minds.
My God.
Would that old man, whose ability to work had been drastically reduced, really receive treatment?
Those people—those tall, cleanly dressed people—they had even smiled at the old man.
What kind of faction was this, exactly?
The Blue Sea crew member had no idea that the seemingly vacant commoners aboard the ship were actually holding a full-blown meeting inside their heads.
She watched the stretcher being carried away with eager eyes, then couldn’t resist following after them.
“Can I go help out on the medical ship?”
The priest carrying the stretcher looked her up and down, taking in her tall frame, obviously well-trained muscles, and imposing presence.
One glance was enough to tell that her combat power was over 75.
The priest immediately understood.
“You’re planning to take the priest exam, right?”
The crew member immediately nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes, yes! I’m taking it this year.”
The priest’s expression instantly softened into the indulgent, gentle look of a senior guiding a junior.
“I heard that, due to the changes in the current environment, quite a few questions have been added to this year’s exam, and the difficulty is higher than in previous years. Wanting to study on the medical ship ahead of time is exactly the right idea.”
“Come on. Follow me. I’ll teach you.”
The crew member was overjoyed. She immediately shouted toward the back of the ship:
“Captain! I’m going to the medical ship to study! I’m taking some time off!!”
The captain was currently fishing various objects out of the sea. Because of the explosions, all sorts of things had fallen from the floating farmlands. Most of them were building materials, but a small portion were pretty useful.
These “spoils” floating all over the place were generally considered finders-keepers in the Blue Sea.
The residents who had participated in the actual battle were usually too lazy to bother collecting them. The rewards they received simply for participating in the fighting were already enough to give them a very satisfying haul.
Hearing the crew member, the captain shouted back:
“Sure! Go ahead! Study hard!!”
The crew member really did study hard. She followed the stretcher all the way back to the medical ship, where the priest immediately began teaching her whenever there was a spare moment.
“Look at this patient. His injury is on his back, so we need to place him in a prone position. Then, we need to use a piece of rigid cardboard and wedge it on both sides of the foreign object, creating a restraint to keep it from moving…”
The old man, lying facedown on the stretcher, had been running a persistent low fever because of his infected wound. Now, listening to the conversation between the two “masters” above him, a wave of sorrow suddenly welled up inside him.
He really was about to die.
He was hallucinating.
His life must be flashing before his eyes.
Otherwise, how could he possibly be hearing the word “exam” in the apocalypse, let alone hearing someone giving exam guidance?
Yet for some reason, as he listened to phrases like “continue monitoring vital signs,” “intravenous fluid replacement,” and “wound debridement and drainage,” the old man, who had stubbornly refused to fall asleep, felt an inexplicable sense of security wash over him again and again.
He fell asleep.
Then someone patted him awake.
The crew member was crouching in front of him, face-to-face.
The old man: “……”
The scene was so strange that he thought he was dreaming.
“You have five grenades. You used two. How many do you have left?”
The old man: What a bizarre dream.
But he was so accustomed to ingratiating himself with others that he still answered obediently.
“…Three?”
“The great God saw how devout you were and bestowed eight spears upon you. You gave one to your neighbor. How many spears do you have left?”
The old man: “…Seven?”
The crew member immediately reported to the priest:
“Consciousness is clear, vital signs are stable, and there are no abnormalities with the wound. He can answer questions normally. He should just be tired and drowsy, rather than suffering abnormal somnolence caused by blood loss or worsening infection.”
The priest nodded in satisfaction.
“Mm, very good. You did exactly right.”
The crew member grinned happily at the praise. She could already see the wonderful life awaiting her: passing the exam and entering the Temple, fighting every day, making countless contributions to the Blue Sea, and serving the great God for the rest of her life.
She smiled at the old man again.
“All right, old man. You’re fine. Go back to sleep.”
After being inexplicably awakened, answering two inexplicable questions, and then inexplicably closing his eyes again, the old man drifted back into sleep.
Just before sinking into dreamland, one final thought crossed his mind.
‘Why, exactly, did the great God give him spears?’
…
“Thank the great Creator God!! Thank you for Your mercy!”
Ma Yuetian quickly ran onto the floating farmland that had been placed on the floating platform. She dropped to one knee, scooped up a handful of rich soil, patted it here and there, kneaded it between her fingers, then looked up at the countless floating farmlands above her, so blissful that she nearly fainted.
“So much land! So, so much land!!!”
This place was practically a temple for agricultural students!!!
The sea-monster-shaped Zhu Feifan also sprawled half his body over the edge of the farmland, his claws enthusiastically rubbing the soil as he gazed at the countless farmlands above. His enormous maw stretched wide, revealing rows of sharp fangs.
Oh, my God!!!
He had known that Kansidang’s domain contained floating farmlands, but he had never imagined there would be this many!
Zhu Feifan simply took advantage of his current sea-monster form, jumped ashore, and rolled around in the dirt.
Then he excitedly raised his head—which had no neck—and shouted:
“Awoooo!!!”
On a Blue Sea ship that happened to be passing by, the commoners who had just been picked up stared at the scene, dumbfounded.
A sea monster?
A sea monster had come ashore?!!
Zhu Feifan raised five of his claws and waved at them.
…
“Awoo!”
“Large numbers of Kansidang’s commoners are reporting that poisonous fog invaded their area, and they all saw terrifying hallucinations?”
Kansidang had operated this domain according to the model of a nation.
Naturally, the Blue Sea residents who came to take over and organize the resources and population here were government workers with extensive experience handling exactly this sort of situation.
Some of the Blue Sea government officials hurried in and out, while others sat inside offices sectioned off aboard ships, facing piles of documents that seemed taller than mountains.
Because only a small number of government personnel had participated in this “infiltration battle,” it had inevitably turned into a situation where a handful of people had to handle a mountain of work.
They had barely begun working when everyone could already foresee the enormous workload that lay ahead.
Fortunately, they were already used to it.
A government official holding a report went to find one of his subordinates.
“Have we figured out what caused this poisonous-fog hallucination?”
The subordinate took the report and looked it over.
“One of our Blue Sea residents awakened a supernatural ability that lets him transform into a sea monster. He was dancing on one of the floating farmlands, and the Kansidang commoners who saw him were so frightened that they thought they were hallucinating.”
The Blue Sea official was puzzled. He knew Zhu Feifan—or more precisely, the fact that Zhu Feifan could transform into a sea monster had already spread rapidly throughout the area.
He only wondered:
“Was his dancing really that bad?”
The subordinate flipped through the records.
“Probably. Sea-monster limbs aren’t exactly very coordinated when dancing.”
“Oh! Well, that explains it!”
The official asked another question.
“Have we gotten anything out of the Thorn Pirates?”
“Still questioning them. But this matter will eventually be handed over to the Temple. The Thorn Pirates’ captain, Lilith, is very likely someone our God wants. As for those humanoid creatures known as Tudou, they’ve already been subdued and detained.”
Hearing that Lilith was someone their God wanted, the official immediately recited reverently:
“Thank the great God.”
‘Haha, that’s one less thing for us to deal with.’
Of course, having one less task didn’t actually make much difference to how busy they were right now.
Another subordinate came over and handed him a document.
“The number of floating farmlands and their approximate total area have been compiled, along with information on the crops and buildings located on them.”
The official’s eyes lit up.
Floating farmland was incredibly important to the Blue Sea. He immediately picked up the document and began reading it carefully.
—Cheng Qisheng was reading it too.
She could actually count them herself through the number of her followers.
But the great Creator God felt that with something this wonderful, the best way to enjoy it was to find out exactly how much there was all at once.
It was like waiting for a delicious meal to finish cooking.
The anticipation itself was part of the enjoyment.
So Cheng Qisheng forcibly restrained her urge to count them herself.
When the document was opened, she approached it with the same anticipation one might feel when waiting to enjoy a delicious meal, first looking at the number of floating farmlands.
Blue Sea documents had always been designed to highlight the key information at the very top.
Cheng Qisheng glanced over and immediately saw those few large characters.
Then the corners of the great Blue Sea Creator God’s mouth couldn’t help curling upward.
Total number of floating farmlands: 101.
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