Chapter 118: Time to Leave
Cheng Qisheng had never been certain whether the children of newly recruited residents would, like Blue Sea’s own children, be born as believers.
Now she had her answer.
Wonderful!
That meant Blue Sea was finally free of its biggest constraint.
As long as each generation of believers continued on like this, everything would fall into place.
Receiving two pieces of good news in a row put Cheng Qisheng in an excellent mood.
She watched the sleeping infant for a while before turning her attention back to guiding believers home.
As everyone had predicted, storms on Green Billow Star were becoming more and more frequent, and the wind and waves were growing increasingly violent.
The group chat that had once included over a hundred city lords had gradually dwindled until only a little over thirty remained.
It had now been two months since the seas first began turning rough.
Fortunately, the sea monsters hadn’t started appearing in greater numbers at higher tiers. But the ever-growing waves alone were already enough to make it unsafe for people to remain at sea.
That fit Green Billow Star’s situation perfectly.
The sea monsters and the ocean itself had always been part of the planet’s original apocalypse. The massive waves capable of smashing a medium-sized ship to pieces were the result of subspace fluctuations.
Although Lord Duxi had said the fluctuations might only be temporary, none of the city lords wanted to take the risk. Those who could leave had already done so.
Most of the ones still staying behind were simply waiting for their scattered residents to regroup.
The group chat, once lively every day, had fallen noticeably quieter over the past few days as its membership shrank.
A city lord was speaking in the chat.
[Huansheng Safe City: Thank you, everyone, for all your help and information. The storms are getting worse and worse. I really can’t hold out any longer—I’m pulling out. Take care, everyone.]
The higher a Safe City’s tier, the more cautious its ruler tended to be.
Especially with Green Billow Star having partially merged with subspace, no one could guarantee the world wouldn’t suddenly take a turn for the worse. At the slightest sign of trouble, more than half of the Safe Cities had immediately withdrawn.
Those who remained behind either had enough confidence in their ability to protect themselves, or were in a situation like Huansheng Safe City.
Because Huansheng Safe City originated from an ancient civilization, it had relatively scarce resources. As a result, they had no choice but to take the risk of staying on Green Billow Star a little longer to harvest resources.
[Huansheng Safe City: I hope I can meet all of you again in another world. I was truly lucky to have crossed paths with you all. Thank you again, everyone.]
She was a Tier-3 city lord herself, so she knew very well what the city lord group chats in other worlds were like.
A group chat like the one on Green Billow Star—where city lords freely exchanged all kinds of information, with some even voluntarily revealing the secrets of their Safe Cities—was something she had never encountered before.
If she hadn’t received so much information from everyone, Huansheng Safe City would never have been able to hold out until now.
Everyone had genuinely gotten along very well during this time. Among the thirty-plus city lords who remained, a Tier-4 city lord quickly replied:
[The circumstances on Green Billow Star are special, which is why this group chat environment is so unusual. If you encounter us again in another world, don’t let the friendship we’ve built here cause you to lower your guard.]
Another city lord immediately chimed in.
[Exactly. Green Billow Star has abundant resources, and several big shots took the lead in fostering cooperation, which is why everyone has been able to get along so amicably. In another world, if resources are scarce, I can’t guarantee that I won’t go to war with someone I know if we cross paths.]
[Same.]
[Born-to-Gamble Safe City: Got it, understood, crystal clear. I’m leaving too. No matter the reason, I’m still pretty glad that we were able to help each other out for such a long time.~]
[Born-to-Gamble Safe City: I bet I’ll never have another experience in such a wonderfully bizarre world again. Hahahaha! I’m off!]
Although that sounded rather humblebraggy from the perspective of the Safe City residents…
The truth was that most city lords felt lonely.
After all, if a Safe City lord was killed, their position as city lord would be transferred to the person who killed them. So, in order to guarantee their absolute safety, many city lords basically never left the City Lord’s Mansion.
Some of them would bring a few trusted relatives to live with them in the ever-expanding City Lord’s Mansion.
Others didn’t even trust their own friends and family.
Even as their Safe Cities advanced in tier and their supernatural powers grew stronger, so that they no longer needed to be as constantly on edge as a frightened bird, they would never completely let down their guard around their residents—let alone speak to them as equals the way they were doing now.
Perhaps even long after this world had become a distant memory, the city lords who had once stayed here would still remember it.
They had once lived peacefully alongside other city lords for a brief period in a certain world.
Everyone had chatted and shot the breeze in the group as though the apocalypse had never happened, sharing bits and pieces of their daily lives. There had been no verbal scheming, no hidden calculations, no traps or struggles against one another.
That day, more than a dozen more city lords left the group.
Only eleven city lords remained in the chat, including Duxi Safe City.
Duxi took the initiative to send Cheng Qisheng a private message.
[Duxi Safe City: Boss, are you getting ready to leave too?]
By now, the relationship between the two had advanced to “Ordinary Friends”. Considering that they had no business dealings or other matters tying them together, the fact that their relationship had progressed so quickly was largely thanks to the various exclusive pieces of information Lord Duxi had provided.
Cheng Qisheng quickly replied.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Soon. I still have some residents who haven’t returned yet, so I’m waiting for them.]
Among the city lords who remained, some believed that the benefits to be gained outweighed the loss of residents, making it worth taking the risk and staying a little longer.
But ever since the winds and waves began intensifying, Cheng Qisheng had already been issuing divine revelations, ordering residents whose ships were still intact to return to Blue Sea, while those whose ships had been damaged were to wait for rescue.
She had no intention of taking any risks.
Not even the slightest one.
No matter what incredible treasure Green Billow Star might contain, to Cheng Qisheng, the most important thing was keeping her believers alive.
If the wind and waves had already grown powerful enough to swallow ships whole, then naturally, it was time to leave.
Once all the residents had successfully returned to Blue Sea Safe City, Cheng Qisheng would immediately advance to the next tier and leave this planet at once.
Aside from waiting for the residents, she was also waiting for Lilith to finish modifying the floating device.
Lilith’s people had been sent back to Blue Sea Safe City one after another. After all, they were members of the same race who had received the same education. Although they had no magic power, they were still faster than Blue Sea’s people at helping with this sort of work, which greatly accelerated Lilith’s modifications to the floating device.
Most of the Blue Sea residents had already returned. Only a small portion were still making their way back because they had traveled farther away.
And an even tinier portion had both ventured far away and suffered damage to their ships, leaving them with no choice but to wait for rescue.
During this period, Cheng Qisheng had essentially been acting as a living map provided by the Creator God, constantly guiding everyone.
She estimated that, based on the number of believers who remained and their distances from Blue Sea, it would take about another half a month before Blue Sea could leave.
Conveniently, by then, the floating device should also be almost completely modified. It could then be upgraded into a permanent device using crystals.
[Blue Sea Safe City: What about you? When are you leaving?]
[Duxi Safe City: I want to wait and see whether these subspace fluctuations will pass. Subspace fluctuations have their ups and downs. Maybe they’ll settle down after a while.]
[Duxi Safe City: Boss, can I ask you something? Have you already completed the world quest to take Lilith away? Have you found the quest target? It’s just that Blue Sea hasn’t left Green Billow Star with her yet, so the quest completion notification hasn’t appeared.]
Cheng Qisheng was surprised.
Every time she chatted with Duxi, she got the feeling that he’d somehow activated a cheat.
Was this the power of an interstellar civilization?
She hadn’t revealed the slightest hint in the group chat that she’d already found Lilith. But since Duxi had asked directly, Cheng Qisheng had no intention of deliberately hiding it. She readily admitted it.
[Blue Sea Safe City: Yes, I’ve already found the target for the world quest. Duxi, how did you figure that out?]
[Duxi Safe City: Hahahaha. We haven’t known each other for very long, but I’ve already figured out that you wouldn’t let a world quest slip by. If you hadn’t found the quest target, you definitely would have tried to gather information about it.]
But Cheng Qisheng hadn’t searched for any information. She’d merely been casually chatting in the group.
It was like a company suddenly cutting everyone’s salaries, prompting everyone to complain that their pay was too low and demand that the boss stop the cuts.
If there were one person who didn’t make much of a fuss and behaved completely normally, anyone paying attention to her would naturally suspect that she might not have had her salary cut in the first place.
Cheng Qisheng silently took note of this when she read the message.
The atmosphere in Green Billow Star’s group chat had been much friendlier than before, so she hadn’t deliberately maintained a particular persona, nor had there been any opportunities for scheming against one another. As a result, she’d inadvertently let a clue slip.
She’d have to be more careful next time.
The great Blue Sea Creator God decided to write this down in her little notebook and make sure to improve on it.
[Duxi Safe City: Boss, I’ll be honest with you. The reason I haven’t left is because I don’t think this world quest is simple. Normally, world quests involve rescuing someone or preventing something from happening. This is the first time I’ve encountered a world quest that requires taking the quest target away.]
[Duxi Safe City: So I suspect that this quest target probably isn’t a native of Green Billow Star. The target came from another world and has affected the fluctuations caused by the fusion between subspace and Green Billow Star. That’s why the world quest requires us to “take them away.”]
[Duxi Safe City: Right now, I’m actually waiting for the world quest to be completed, to see whether Green Billow Star can return to its normal state of fluctuating between activity and dormancy. That’s why I asked if you’d completed the world quest.]
Cheng Qisheng had genuinely never considered it from that angle.
[Blue Sea Safe City: If that’s the case, is it possible that Green Billow Star will return to normal after I leave with the world quest target?]
[Duxi Safe City: Very likely. My original civilization encountered something similar before. It wasn’t until that person was taken away by a Safe City that everything returned to normal.]
“An influence from spacetime?”
Cheng Qisheng fell into thought.
But she had no intention of testing the theory anymore. The people of Lilith’s civilization had already become her believers.
[Blue Sea Safe City: In that case, I’ll leave as soon as possible. Hopefully we’ll have the chance to meet again someday.]
[Duxi Safe City: Hopefully we’ll meet again someday.]
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