Chapter 83: The Age of Sail
Tian’ou fell silent.
The songbirds fell silent.
Even the city lords hovering above the clouds, who had been continuously “live-streaming the front lines,” fell silent.
In the city lord group chat, only those who weren’t in the area but had been eagerly following the spectacle were left wondering about the sudden quiet.
[Why did everyone suddenly stop talking?]
[The chat’s gone dead all of a sudden.]
[@Zishasang Safe City Weren’t you supposed to livestream the whole thing? You scammer! Give me back my 150 crystals!]
But Zishasang had no attention to spare for refund requests or customer complaints.
She stared blankly at the sea below, now boiling violently from the intense heat.
And at the chunks of a Catastrophe-class sea monster floating to the surface.
She muttered in disbelief,
“An ultimate weapon?!”
Every city lord above the clouds wore the same expression as Zishasang.
Their faces had gone deathly pale.
That Tier 5 sea monster—which could unleash the power of a sixth-tier creature while in the ocean—had actually been killed by Blue Sea.
The developmental paths of human civilizations were, for the most part, remarkably similar. Just as Blue Star had nuclear weapons, Blue Sea possessed Holy Bombs. Naturally, among the native civilizations these city lords came from, some also had comparable weapons. They simply went by different names or operated differently.
But regardless of the civilization, such weapons were typically possessed by only a handful of nations in their home world and stored in one or more top-secret locations.
Very few Safe Cities managed to bring such a superweapon with them when they departed from their original world.
Yet Blue Sea had one.
Putting aside the question of how Blue Sea had managed to transport such a devastating weapon into its Safe City during the apocalypse, the fact remained that the sea monster which had intimidated so many city lords had been annihilated by a single shot.
Tian’ou was finished.
Now that he had lost the sea monster that had served as his greatest deterrent, there was no way he could survive against Blue Sea’s strength. His death was all but certain.
Zishasang had been lying in wait here from the beginning, planning to seize the moment Tian’ou showed an opening. Together with the other city lords, she intended to swarm in and tear off a chunk of Tian’ou Safe City’s territory, making up for the losses she had suffered when the Safe City War was activated.
But after seeing what had just happened, she thought for only a minute before quickly entering a random set of coordinates.
“AI, relocate.”
Zishasang wasn’t the first city lord to choose to leave the area.
One Safe City after another vanished above the clouds, disappearing with ripples in the air.
Time to go.
With Blue Sea possessing such a heaven-defying weapon, who would dare stick around?
What if, after wiping out the sea monster, Tian’ou, and Mingqin, Blue Sea decided to destroy a few more Safe Cities while it was at it?
After all, while Blue Sea had been fighting, they had been happily watching the spectacle in the group chat—even livestreaming the battlefield.
Of course, the city lords could all more or less guess that Blue Sea probably didn’t have many superweapons of this caliber.
After all, Safe Cities only appeared during apocalyptic events. Everyone had lived through such a catastrophe.
With the world collapsing into chaos, the fact that Blue Sea had managed to obtain even one or a handful of such weapons was already astonishing.
But just as none of them dared gamble on whether Tian’ou had already used up all his monster summoning charges, neither did they dare bet that Blue Sea had exhausted its entire stockpile after firing this superweapon.
—
President Qin Zhi received the military’s report.
“So it’s already dead?”
She looked at the footage that had been transmitted back from the scene of the sea monster’s death.
It had died even faster than she had expected.
It seemed that although its combat strength had approached the Tier 6, its physical body was ultimately still that of a Tier 5 creature—well within the destructive capability of a Holy Bomb.
Although the sea monster had been dealt with, Qin Zhi did not cancel the remaining orders.
Instead, she turned her attention to the Surveillance Department, which was using a Tier 2 telescope to monitor the skies above.
More than a dozen Safe Cities hovered above Blue Sea.
Even though the oracle sent down by the Great Creator God had said that none of those Safe Cities currently intended to declare war on Blue Sea, Qin Zhi’s combat instincts remained on the highest alert.
She would not allow any threat to exist anywhere near Blue Sea.
Especially now.
Blue Sea had arrived in an unfamiliar region and was about to defeat this area’s “lord.” Once that happened, this high ground, the surrounding seas, and even the skies above would naturally belong to Blue Sea.
If the Safe Cities above the clouds had any objections, Qin Zhi wouldn’t mind declaring war immediately.
For example, one city, one Holy Bomb.
The Surveillance Department quickly sent back a report.
“Madam President, all of the Safe Cities above have withdrawn.”
Only then were the countless plans Qin Zhi had been formulating for “how to fight more than a dozen cities at once” temporarily shelved.
She issued a new order.
“Abort the launch orders for all remaining Holy Bombs. Cancel the combat authorization codes and restore the safety locks.”
Excellent.
That saved over a dozen Holy Bombs.
The original plan of “bombarding the sea monster with dozens of Holy Bombs” was no longer necessary now that the creature was already dead.
When Dark Star had been destroyed, Blue Sea had been unable to evacuate all of its Holy Bombs. And since they currently lacked the means to manufacture more, every Holy Bomb in storage was irreplaceable. Unless absolutely necessary, Qin Zhi had no desire to expend any additional ones.
Just thinking about it filled her with concern.
It was obvious that the higher a Safe City’s level became, the more dangerous the worlds it would be sent to. There would undoubtedly be situations in the future where Holy Bombs would be indispensable.
The people of Blue Sea loved to fight.
Qin Zhi’s responsibility was to ensure they always had a safety net in the form of Holy Bombs, so they could fight without reservation.
Unfortunately, when Dark Star had been consumed by the black hole, the vast majority of its Holy Bombs had been lost. Blue Sea had done everything it could at the time, but had only managed to evacuate a small portion of them.
Qin Zhi stared at the remaining inventory of Holy Bombs and let out a sigh.
There were only 598 left.
They had to restore their manufacturing capability as soon as possible.
…
The names Tian’ou Safe City and Mingqin Safe City turned gray one after the other.
At that point, the city lords who had been wondering why the “frontline livestreamers” had suddenly gone silent immediately understood.
[Tian’ou’s dead? But didn’t he summon the sea monster?]
[Possibility one: Blue Sea killed Tian’ou before the sea monster arrived. Possibility two: Blue Sea killed the sea monster first, then finished off Tian’ou and Mingqin.]
[Nooo! I bet three whole crates of biscuits that Blue Sea would unlock its Floating Safe City!]
[So why is everyone who was actually there staying quiet? Can somebody tell us what happened?]
After refunding the city lords who had paid for her frontline livestream service, Zishasang hesitated for a moment before carefully composing a few messages.
[Because we were completely stunned by Blue Sea’s strength.]
[Thanks to Blue Sea for getting rid of Tian’ou, the biggest scourge among the city lords! He screwed me over so badly before. Thank you, Boss Blue Sea, for avenging us!]
— Zishasang Safe City has transferred 500 jin of fish to Blue Sea Safe City. —
Her warm tone and enthusiastic attitude gave no hint whatsoever that she had been sitting in the group chat moments earlier, happily watching Blue Sea’s battle unfold.
Once Zishasang broke the ice, the other city lords who had been spectating above the clouds and chatting in the group also seemed to take the hint.
One after another, they all sent fish to Blue Sea—each transfer an identical 500 jin.
Even Born-to-Gamble Safe City, which had run the betting pool, quietly transferred half of its gambling profits to Blue Sea.
And every one of those transfers came with a message cursing Tian’ou.
Cheng Qisheng found the whole scene oddly familiar.
But this wasn’t quite the same as what had happened with Cosmic Lord.
From Blue Sea Safe City’s perspective, they had just arrived in a brand-new world when someone immediately triggered a Safe City War. Blue Sea had been fighting for its life on the ground, while a crowd of city lords hovered overhead, spectating, commenting on the battle, and even betting on whether Blue Sea would survive…
If Blue Sea had lost, that really would have been infuriating.
But Blue Sea had won.
It had inherited everything Tian’ou and Mingqin owned, and the Safe Cities above had all withdrawn. So Cheng Qisheng calmly accepted the fish and the gambling proceeds.
Blue Sea Safe City: =v=
The assembled city lords collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
No one in the group chat brought up how Blue Sea had killed the sea monster.
A superweapon like that was the ultimate trump card of any Safe City. Seeing it for themselves was one thing, but if someone blabbed in the group chat that Blue Sea possessed such a devastating weapon, what if Blue Sea took offense?
—So the city lords unanimously decided to spread the news privately instead.
Cheng Qisheng didn’t care whether they leaked the fact that Blue Sea possessed Holy Bombs.
There was no such thing as a secret that could stay hidden forever.
The moment Blue Sea used a Holy Bomb once, keeping it confidential was no longer a realistic expectation.
What she wanted now was to take advantage of the fact that these dozen-odd city lords were feeling guilty and eager to put the whole “watching the show” incident behind them.
It was the perfect opportunity to get some free information.
[Blue Sea Safe City: I just arrived on Green Billow Star and don’t know much about this planet. Could everyone help answer a question?]
[Blue Sea Safe City: That Tier 5 sea monster was enormous. Even though it was blown to pieces, judging by how dense it looked, shouldn’t the fragments have sunk to the bottom? Why are they all floating on the surface instead?]
Indeed, the sea monster’s corpse was now scattered across the ocean.
A chunk here, a chunk there—a head over here, a leg over there—all of it drifting atop the waves.
Cheng Qisheng even spotted a beautiful crimson Tier 5 crystal, bobbing steadily on the sea’s surface.
NPC Tian’ou hadn’t mentioned anything about this when he explained the world’s background.
What an incompetent NPC.
Cheng Qisheng decided to forgive him.
He might have been terrible at serving as an NPC, but as someone who dropped loot upon defeat, he had been absolutely outstanding.
She hadn’t had time to sort through the spoils of war yet, but Tian’ou Safe City alone contained 530,000 crystals.
It was the first time Cheng Qisheng had ever obtained such an enormous quantity of crystals from a Safe City War.
Previous city lords would usually spend their crystals like crazy before being defeated.
Only Tian’ou had done the opposite.
He could clearly have spent 300,000 crystals to upgrade his Safe City to Tier 4, but in order to keep using the Bone Flute, he had deliberately kept his city at Tier 3. Then, because he relied too heavily on the sea monster, he missed his last chance to spend his crystals before dying.
Cheng Qisheng: Thank you, Tian’ou!
Still, the man had proven unreliable.
She decided it would be better to gather complete intelligence on Green Billow Star from the other city lords before sending her followers to explore these waters.
Just as Cheng Qisheng had expected, the city lords who had witnessed the Holy Bomb were all exceptionally eager to help. They enthusiastically shared everything they knew about Green Billow Star—competing with one another to reveal information.
The other city lords who had only recently arrived on Green Billow Star quietly took advantage of the opportunity, listening in as the veterans explained the situation.
Zishasang was the first to speak.
[Zishasang Safe City: Blue Sea, have you heard of the Sea of Souls? Some civilizations also call it Subspace. It’s a place with no matter, no energy, and chaotic laws. Any object discarded anywhere in the universe could end up there.]
[Zishasang Safe City: Green Billow Star is a very unusual apocalyptic world. It was originally just an ordinary flood apocalypse, but for some unknown reason it became a gateway to the Sea of Souls. Above the ocean is Green Billow Star, but beneath the sea, the waters have already been contaminated by the Sea of Souls.]
It was Cheng Qisheng’s first time hearing about Subspace.
She straightened in her seat and listened attentively as the city lords explained, each adding another piece of the puzzle.
In simple terms, there existed a place called Subspace.
It was chaotic, devoid of order, and immeasurably vast—at the very least, it was known to be larger than multiple universes combined.
Remnants from destroyed planets were drawn into the Sea of Souls.
Anything swallowed by a black hole could also end up there.
There were even rumors that when a Safe City was destroyed, some of its wreckage would drift through the Sea of Souls as well.
Cheng Qisheng’s conclusion was straightforward:
The Sea of Souls was essentially the universe’s junkyard.
As for Green Billow Star, whether it was fortunate or unfortunate was hard to say.
It had become connected to this unimaginably vast junkyard.
Ordinarily, when it wasn’t interacting with living beings, the ocean looked no different from a normal sea. But whenever something moved rapidly across its surface, it disturbed the portion of the Sea of Souls hidden beneath the water, causing it to occasionally spit out all sorts of objects.
The bad news was that what had once been a flood-ravaged world—dangerous, but still safe enough to dive into—had become a place where simply touching the seawater could threaten your life.
The good news was that, with nearly ninety percent of Green Billow Star now covered by the ocean, almost anything could be fished out of the sea.
And they meant anything.
It could be food.
Or an item card.
Crystals.
A used tissue.
A rotten banana peel.
Ore.
A feather.
A cup of water.
Half an arm.
Or, just as easily, some bizarre creature that emerged from the water with the sole intention of killing whoever it saw.
And because Subspace was utterly chaotic and devoid of order, the weather was just as unpredictable.
One moment the sky could be perfectly clear.
The next, torrential rain.
Halfway through the downpour, it might suddenly turn into a hailstorm.
Once, it had even rained nails.
As a result, whether they were native inhabitants of Green Billow Star or residents of Safe Cities, everyone who came to this world relied on boats and ships to keep moving.
Cheng Qisheng: So… the Age of Sail?
The information provided by the dozen-odd city lords was largely consistent. With more than a hundred other city lords silently following the discussion in the group chat, the intelligence was probably trustworthy.
After giving it some thought, Cheng Qisheng had one of the yachts they had acquired on Velvet Star brought out.
She selected a small squad and ordered them to conduct a trial expedition.
Once aboard the yacht, the team experienced no discomfort whatsoever.
They cautiously started the engine, and the yacht ran perfectly normally.
Then they cast a net into the sea.
Sure enough, they hauled up fish.
They were alive and flopping vigorously, looking completely ordinary. They were most likely native Green Billow Star fish rather than some exotic product of Subspace.
Cheng Qisheng kept her attention fixed on the exploration team.
Five hours later, after the team had continued sailing without incident, they cast their net once more.
This time, they caught something heavy.
Fortunately, every Blue Sea resident possessed tremendous strength, and the net itself had been specially reinforced. Working together, they managed to haul it back aboard.
The moment the catch was pulled onto the deck, the entire squad froze.
Cheng Qisheng froze as well.
She stared at the pitch-black object.
The familiar object.
The one with her own portrait printed on it.
This was…
A Holy Bomb?
One of the Holy Bombs Blue Sea had lost to the black hole?!
