Chapter 161: Truth Stone
City Lord Liuliu had openly proposed in the group chat that they choose a [Company] to side with, and of course, he had his own considerations.
[Liuliu Safe City: Those Companies are ridiculously powerful. There’s no way we can complete the World Quest on our own. If everyone is thinking along the same lines as me, I hope we can all choose the same Company.]
Quite a few City Lords joined the discussion in the group chat.
[Fight together?]
[We really should fight together. Our advantage lies in the ability users under our command. If we fight separately, with one group of Safe Cities attaching themselves to one Company and another group choosing a different one, wouldn’t that just turn into an internal war among the Safe Cities?]
The [Companies] might not know much about supernatural abilities, so they could easily be caught off guard.
But the Safe Cities knew the supernatural system very well. If everyone became opponents, they’d truly be sabotaging one another.
They were all fifth- and sixth-tier City Lords by now. Everyone understood this logic perfectly well.
[I’m actually quite interested, but I have a question. The reward for the World Quest is a Heavenly Punishment. If we all work together to complete the World Quest, that’s more than four hundred Safe Cities. If we destroy one Company, we get one Heavenly Punishment. What about four Heavenly Punishments? How do we divide them?]
[To the person above: it should be three Heavenly Punishments. There’s no way we’ll be able to destroy the Company we choose to side with. They certainly won’t share the spoils they seize from the other Companies with us.]
[All right, three Heavenly Punishments. How are we supposed to divide them among more than four hundred Safe Cities?]
At this point, the Greenroot City Lord, who had the best sources of information in the group, finally spoke up.
[Greenroot Safe City: I know of a similar situation that happened in the past. The City Lords worked together to complete a World Quest, and when it was over, the quest rewards were divided according to each Safe City’s contribution.]
[Greenroot Safe City: Most likely, the Safe City that contributes the most will receive the Heavenly Punishment. The other Safe Cities can receive some of the things available in this world as rewards, such as nuclear crystals | mineral resources | weapons stockpiles, and so on.]
As an information broker, Greenroot’s words were generally trusted. And with that, the City Lords’ group chat erupted into even more activity.
The prospect of only the Safe City with the greatest contribution receiving the reward was completely different from the prospect of everyone who participated receiving something. It gave the City Lords a very different kind of incentive.
Some City Lords had originally been unwilling to take the risk. But if they only had to send a small number of residents and participate just a little to get a share of the rewards, then why not?
Everyone immediately launched into an enthusiastic discussion.
They first made one thing clear: either all the Safe Cities would stay out of the battle, or, if they chose to participate, they had to side with the same [Company].
If any City Lord went behind everyone’s backs and chose a different [Company], then the temporary alliance of Safe Cities that had just been formed would unite against them.
This condition received the agreement of every City Lord participating in the discussion.
No one wanted to be seriously working on the World Quest, only to have a Safe City suddenly stab them in the back.
At present, this could hardly be called a plan. There was no formal contract, either. Everyone was merely discussing things casually.
The conversation soon shifted to the question: So, which [Company] should we choose?
Some suggested [Norn], because it had the strongest combat power.
Others suggested [Zephyr], because it was the weakest and should therefore be the one most in need of outside assistance.
The mid-tier Zipa, on the other hand, was barely mentioned at all.
It was the Greenroot City Lord who suddenly spoke up:
[I think we should choose Ota.]
[The reason is simple. The three major Companies have been locked in a three-way balance on Moon Silk Star for a very long time. Before this, they had already plundered a considerable amount of the resources and energy that currently exist on Moon Silk Star. Logically speaking, they should be more powerful than the newly awakened Ota.]
[And everyone knows what the Companies are like. If they can, they absolutely will not tolerate a new power rising up. The fact that they have been willing to put up with Ota, or even avoid Ota, proves that Ota possesses considerable strength.]
[So, I believe our Safe Cities should choose Ota.]
The argument was well-founded and the logic was sound. The City Lords in the group chat visibly began leaning toward [Ota Company].
Cheng Qisheng, who had been silently lurking and reading without saying a word, quietly gave the Greenroot City Lord a thumbs-up in her heart.
What a good person!
If she hadn’t genuinely done absolutely nothing, she would almost have thought that the Greenroot City Lord was a plant she’d hired.
Much appreciated, Greenroot! Keep going!
She could hardly wait to welcome the assistance of more than four hundred Safe Cities.
—
While the City Lords were gathered together discussing matters, the [Ota] airships were practically flying through the entire journey without encountering the slightest obstacle.
There was no need to mention Liuliu Safe City in Rakshasa Territory. Judging by the messages in the group chat, its City Lord was currently packing up and preparing to flee.
As for the locals of Rakshasa Territory, the moment they saw such a massive fleet of bizarre-looking airships mobilizing, they immediately reacted as though they had just witnessed the onset of the Endless Night. Some scrambled underground, some hid in the towns, while others simply took off running, carrying a small portion of their belongings, and headed straight into the hard-to-enter “forest.”
Even the Blue Sea residents sitting inside the airships couldn’t help looking down at the completely deserted land below and sighing:
“Moon Silk Star really is… convenient for everything.”
On the apocalyptic planets they’d visited before, whenever they went somewhere to carry out a mission, they would always encounter some locals along the way.
People were all different, after all, and the same held true in the apocalypse. Some locals simply wanted to follow them and escape the danger. Others coveted the equipment they carried and would secretly try to set traps for them, or quietly pick up whatever scraps they could.
Although these “unexpected situations” never had any real impact on the Blue Sea people’s missions as a whole, having them crop up from time to time still meant the team had to deal with them.
Moon Silk Star would never have a situation like that.
Previously, Blue Sea had even planned to clear the area once they arrived, to prevent anyone from seeing them salvage the Truth Stone.
After all, this was a treasure. Blue Sea wanted to possess it, but they didn’t want anyone else to know that they possessed it.
But once they actually arrived at the Red Sea, they realized there was no need to clear the area at all. In every direction, for a radius of three li, they couldn’t find a single person.
There had originally been several hundred fishermen working along the shore nearby. But the moment they spotted the airships in the distance, they grabbed their belongings and ran without even looking back.
Forget the locals—even the mutant beasts and mutant plants here were comparatively better at reading the situation.
Ma Yuetian watched as a mutant sea beast observed Zhu Feifan on the shore from a distance for a few moments, then silently sank beneath the water and swam away with waves churning behind it. He couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
“Looks like it’s got quite a bit of meat on it.”
Nearby, a Blue Sea resident was tying a rope around Zhu Feifan to keep him from “getting lost.” Hearing this, he looked up and took a glance as well, and couldn’t help feeling a little hungry.
Of all the strange monsters they’d encountered across so many apocalyptic worlds, the Blue Sea people liked the sea monsters from Green Billow Star the most.
They were huge, had plenty of meat, and because Green Billow Star enjoyed clear weather most of the time, the meat could easily be dried into long strips.
Unfortunately, those sea monsters were difficult to raise. They couldn’t survive in Blue Sea’s small ocean.
The mutant sea beasts of Moon Silk Star, on the other hand, could at least serve as a substitute.
He took out three pieces of candy, ate one himself, gave one to Ma Yuetian, and tossed the third into Zhu Feifan’s mouth.
“Once the mission is complete, let’s see if we can haul up a few mutant sea beasts. Maybe they taste pretty good too.”
Ma Yuetian and the sea-monster version of Zhu Feifan both nodded.
Salvaging the Truth Stone was the God’s mission. Although they were terribly tempted, under the oracle of their God, everything else had to take second place.
As for the mutant sea beasts, there would be plenty of chances to eat them later.
The pressure in the deep sea was immense. Even if Ma Yuetian wrapped himself in a ball of water and hid inside Zhu Feifan’s mouth, it still wouldn’t work. So this time, Zhu Feifan had to carry out the mission alone.
He was a little unused to it.
Compared with most Blue Sea residents, who were willing to venture out alone and boldly take risks, Zhu Feifan wasn’t particularly brave.
The main reason was that he’d been afraid of blood since childhood. There were many activities his peers enjoyed growing up that he couldn’t participate in, and some of the places children liked to go were simply “dangerous” to him. After all, Blue Sea children were constantly bumping and tumbling around every day. Scraping their skin and bleeding a little was completely normal.
Growing up in such an environment, Zhu Feifan could be considered “timid” by Blue Sea standards.
Among the young people of Blue Sea, he was one of the rare types who was only really suited to playing a support role. He could work out every day and constantly train himself, but whenever there was an outdoor mission, he would always scamper along behind Ma Yuetian.
Zhu Feifan really liked his sea-monster body. Its appearance was a little ugly, but it was strong.
Most of the time, he stayed in his sea-monster form. Only when he felt the need to take human form and reaffirm his human identity would he switch back to his human state.
Once he felt that he was doing fine again, he’d immediately transform back into a sea monster, then happily admire his powerful, muscular tentacles and the sharp teeth nestled inside the suckers at their tips.
But at this moment, even though he had already grown to dozens of meters across and was the kind of local mutant sea beast that would flee at a single glance, Zhu Feifan still couldn’t help shrinking back at the thought of going down into the deep sea alone.
The enormous sea monster slowly moved one thick, fleshy tentacle into the water, testing the temperature first. Then more tentacles followed.
Finally, its massive sea-monster body, so huge that anyone looking at it would have to crane their neck—and still wouldn’t be able to see the top—gradually entered the water as well.
As it descended, the enormous sea monster kept looking back every few steps.
It would move a little farther into the water, then turn around to look at Ma Yuetian. Move a little farther, then turn back to look at the other Blue Sea residents on the shore.
“Wuu…”
Not all of the Blue Sea residents had gone down to the shore. A large number of airships were still hovering in the sky. They needed to make sure that, while Zhu Feifan was underwater, at the very least there wouldn’t be any threats on shore that might affect him.
“He looks so pitiful.”
One of the pilots couldn’t help saying over the channel, “Didn’t we bring submarines? How about we send one down to keep him company?”
Zhu Feifan had been consuming nuclear crystals like crazy lately, and his body had been growing nonstop. In a one-on-one fight, he could absolutely beat any of the Blue Sea residents present.
But after he revealed that timid expression—honestly, it was really hard to tell on a sea-monster’s face—none of the Blue Sea residents laughed at him.
Blue Sea people had known from childhood that everyone had something they were afraid of.
Some of them were afraid of theory classes. Some were afraid of math problems. And some were afraid of gearing up with every piece of equipment they had, heading out to fight, and then not encountering a single mutant beast.
Zhu Feifan was simply like every ordinary Blue Sea resident. He just happened to have something he was afraid of.
As everyone began discussing whether they should send the submarine from the backup plan down ahead of schedule, the enormous sea monster that had been repeatedly looking back from the shore—taking huge steps every time, maintaining his timid state of mind but not actually slowing his descent into the water—suddenly perked up.
He wasn’t afraid anymore. He wasn’t timid anymore. His entire demeanor went from shrinking back nervously to striding forward with swagger, and then he plunged straight into the water with one powerful dive.
“Whoa!”
“Beautiful!!”
Every Blue Sea resident watching knew exactly what had happened.
“Our God must have blessed him.”
“Thank you, our God.”
“Our God, I’m starting to envy him.”
Under the envious gazes of everyone around him, Zhu Feifan’s enormous body disappeared beneath the surface of the sea.
He really had felt his God’s blessing.
No—if anything, it was more than a blessing.
Something else, like the warm, gentle care of their God, flowed around him, as though their God were guiding him forward.
Zhu Feifan whipped his tentacles back and forth at lightning speed. Under his God’s care, he was so excited that he swam so fast he was practically leaving afterimages behind him.
Wherever he passed, it was as if not a single fish could survive.
Whether they were normal-sized fish or relatively large mutant sea beasts, the moment they saw the enormous sea monster charging through the water as though it had been injected with adrenaline, they chose to keep their distance.
Those tentacles were practically spinning into propellers. Mutant sea beasts knew how to seek advantages and avoid danger too—how could they possibly dare approach?
Under his God’s gaze, Zhu Feifan became more and more energetic as he swam.
Meanwhile, Cheng Qisheng borrowed Zhu Feifan’s perspective as a believer, attaching her mental power to his sea-monster body as she observed the situation beneath the Red Sea.
It didn’t look particularly pleasant—
The Red Sea really was completely red. The seawater was so crimson that it looked practically like blood, giving every visible rock and patch of aquatic vegetation an almost hellish beauty.
Zhu Feifan continued diving deeper.
He knew this mission was going to be a massive undertaking. The Red Sea was enormous, and finding a single stone in it would probably take until the Year of the Monkey.
But perhaps because he could feel his God’s gaze upon him, or perhaps because the hellish scenery beneath the Red Sea perfectly matched Blue Sea’s love of all things cool and spectacular, Zhu Feifan’s state of mind had completely stabilized.
He was already prepared to put down roots in this crimson ocean for several years.
‘Our God! I can do this!!’
Zhu Feifan encouraged himself as he continued diving.
‘Our God above! Blue Sea forever!’
‘Everything is for the sake of Blue Sea civilization!’
The gaze in the giant sea monster’s enormous eyes became resolute. At that moment, he felt that he had completely grown up.
The next second, Zhu Feifan received his God’s oracle:
—Go right.
‘Huh?’
Zhu Feifan swayed his body and obediently swam to the right.
After transforming into a sea monster, his ability to think had clearly diminished. At this moment, it didn’t even occur to him to wonder why his God had given him such an instruction.
But that didn’t matter.
If his God told him to do something, he would simply do it.
Another oracle from his God came:
-Go down, then turn left.
Zhu Feifan obediently followed the instructions again.
Watching her believer swimming rapidly, Cheng Qisheng guided him while feeling a little incredulous herself.
Her mental power could sense something beneath the seabed, something with an extremely high energy level that was emanating a pull.
There was an eighty-percent chance it was the Truth Stone.
After all, this thing could answer every question in the world. It would be strange if its energy level wasn’t high.
But she could actually sense it.
It was like a beam of light in the darkness, the mutant beasts in Old Eighth’s eyes, and the gradient colors on Aether.
Everything was so conspicuous.
Yet when she’d faced the Replica Mask before, she hadn’t been able to sense anything at all.
Was this the difference between a treasure worth ten million nuclear crystals and one worth a hundred billion nuclear crystals?
Cheng Qisheng guided Zhu Feifan deeper and deeper, turning left and right until they entered an underwater canyon whose depths were impossible to see.
Zhu Feifan hadn’t reached the destination yet, but the mental power she’d spread throughout the area had already sensed the enormous ten-meter-tall stone.
There was no doubt about it. This was the Truth Stone.
They’d actually found it.
Even Cheng Qisheng could hardly believe it. She’d previously thought it would take at least a year to locate this stone.
And now, they’d pinpointed it directly.
So, could her mental power sense these highly energy-rich treasures?
Just like how, back on Dark Star, she could casually detect which mountain contained a gold mine or which river had large fish swimming beneath it?
The difference was that these treasures had to be “super-big fish.”
Ten million nuclear crystals wasn’t enough. They had to be worth a hundred billion nuclear crystals before she could detect them.
Cheng Qisheng fell into deep thought.
So… didn’t that make her essentially a treasure detector?
A snobbish one, at that—the kind that could only detect super-expensive treasures.
As she let her thoughts wander in all directions, she watched Zhu Feifan continue diving until he reached the ten-meter-tall boulder.
Just as she’d guessed, if they’d sent a submarine down here, there was absolutely no way it could have hauled the thing back up.
But Zhu Feifan was different.
He wrapped some of his tentacles around it. Although it was quite a struggle, he still managed to do it, grunting and straining as he hauled the boulder upward, looking like all those nuclear crystals he’d eaten had finally paid off.
Cheng Qisheng’s mental power followed him the entire way, continuously blessing him and giving him greater stamina. Every so often, she would even pat him on the head.
Even the Great Blue Sea Creator God found the whole thing rather miraculous.
They’d actually gotten the Truth Stone.
She could already see it—
Countless sparkling nuclear crystals were hopping around in front of her, waving at her.
