Chapter 50 Part 2

Learning that beneath the seemingly calm surface, turbulent waves were already surging, and that Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang might have to face the Outer Gods’ schemes again as soon as they caught their breath, they abandoned any reluctance to add pressure and hurriedly imparted their experience in dealing with gods to the younger generation.

Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang took their lesson while multitasking—strolling through the streets.

“This grilled squid is delicious.” Xia Xifeng bit into his grilled squid, then shoved it into Qin Lang’s hand and snatched Qin Lang’s grilled fish head. “Ugh, what’s so good about fish head? Tastes terrible!”

Even after experiencing this for over a decade, Qin Lang could only look at Xia Xifeng with contempt.

Most of the time, their tastes were different, especially when it came to snack choices.

Xia Xifeng knew perfectly well he didn’t like the snacks Qin Lang enjoyed, yet he’d always snatch the snack right out of Qin Lang’s hand and then go, “Ugh, just as I thought, terrible.”

As far back as they could remember, for over a decade, over a decade, it had always been like this!

My childhood friend probably damaged his brain falling as a kid and still hasn’t recovered. —Qin Lang

After chewing the charcoal-grilled fish head twice and reconfirming that this stuff had little meat, bland flavor, and was not tasty at all, Xia Xifeng returned the fish head—now missing a small chunk from where he’d bitten—to Qin Lang and snatched back his grilled squid.

“Free Port really is prosperous.” Xia Xifeng sighed. “Even though Free Port in the game was also prosperous, there were very few NPCs and tons of players.”

Ordinary NPCs wouldn’t dare live by the sea.

When players first entered the game, Free Port was the only port in the Free Alliance that hadn’t fallen into ruin.

This one port that hadn’t fallen into ruin initially had no ships able to put to sea.

That widowed lady lord—whose appearance and personality were both sharp and mean—had insisted on staying there to build a port, claiming she thought it would make her a fortune.

Later, although she really did make a fortune, the players didn’t think she had foresight.

Because all that money was earned from the players!

Before the Sea God launched His counteroffensive, throughout those long Doomsday Era years, NPCs still never dared go out to sea.

On land, you could flee. At sea, if you were attacked, there was nowhere to go.

But Free Port now—oh, what a magnificent, prosperous scene it was, with countless sails gathered like clouds.

Xia Xifeng bought many useless novelty items.

Most cities had “mail” services.

Xia Xifeng paid exorbitant shipping fees to send gifts to his teacher and friends in Green Sand City, the Hope City, and Silver Moon Holy City.

In the evening, they received Siger’s invitation to dine at his home.

While strolling the streets, Xia Xifeng had been “cursing out” that sharp, mean, stingy, greedy female lord from the game to Qin Lang. At dinner, he met the woman herself.

Lady Kaiti, with her round, oval face, personally served the seafood feast she’d cooked.

When she learned that Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang had just turned twenty not long ago, the slightly plump noblewoman, with a face full of maternal kindness, brought them little sweet biscuits. The biscuits were so sweet it was like biting straight into a sugar cube.

Xia Xifeng: 【Is this the same Lady Kaiti?】

Qin Lang had also been quietly observing for a long time before he could just barely perceive a trace of that Kaiti in this pampered, kindly noblewoman.

Siger also called his twin daughters to join the meal.

The two teenage girls still had scales that hadn’t yet receded from their faces; they couldn’t fully control their appearances.

Lady Kaiti was of the Sea Demon race, with a fish tail. The daughters she bore with Siger were half-Sea Demons. Though they hadn’t been born with fish tails, they did have fish scales on their bodies.

Sea Demons were beings that lived on the ocean floor and called themselves creations of the Sea God.

They had not only fish tails but also snake tails or the tails of myriad other strange deep-sea creatures.

Even the “merfolk” had tails of all kinds of bizarre deep-sea fish, making players exclaim that the game’s art and modeling teams must be all-out workaholics.

Was this truly the same Lady Kaiti from the game, who wore a black veil, with sharply protruding cheekbones, deeply sunken eye sockets, and a chin so pointed it could stab someone to death?

Players had once secretly searched every place they could access but never found any portraits of Lady Kaiti’s deceased husband, nor had they triggered any related memory quests.

They had only learned from other related NPCs that Lady Kaiti once had a husband and twin daughters. Her husband, Siger, had been the former Lord of Free Port and the Sea God’s bishop.

When Siger first observed a strange black tide at Free Port, he ventured into the deep sea to investigate and never returned. From then on, Lady Kaiti temporarily assumed the position of lord.

When the sea’s surface turned completely black, a plague spread among the Sea Demons. Many frail Sea Demons and half-Sea Demons didn’t survive. Lady Kaiti’s twin daughters also succumbed to illness in that plague.

From Free Port’s destruction to its rebuilding, Lady Kaiti became the port’s true, sole master.

Players had once wanted to find a thread of tender warmth for this lord, who had been voted one of “Players’ Most Hated NPCs.”

Like, she became this way to mourn her family, her homeland, or something similar.

But in the game, there was simply no trace whatsoever of Lady Kaiti missing her family or home. She was just purely sharp, mean, stingy, and greedy. Every word out of her mouth, in a piercing, grating voice, was about making money and enjoying pleasure.

She draped jewelry all over her gaunt, bony body, and her gaze toward the bizarrely dressed, rough-mannered players was always full of contempt and greed.

“Still so young, and already serving as messengers? How hard that must be.” Lady Kaiti’s voice was very soft, her tone very slow, carrying a magic that soothed the mind.

Siger’s gold-rimmed glasses had been swapped for a pair with wider black frames. His meticulously slicked-back hair had turned into a slightly tousled, fresh look. He actually appeared somewhat kindly now.

Especially when he looked at his two daughters.

“Business is done. You two can stop being on guard now.” Siger winked at Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang and chuckled lightly. “From now on, just treat Kaiti and me as your elders and relax for a few days. Once my Lord replies, you’ll be off again, weary and toiling.”

Lady Kaiti said, “Why don’t I accompany them? It’s a good chance to take the girls back to the seabed to play for a while.”

Siger’s face fell. The two adorable little girls threw up their arms and cheered.

The weather was heating up; they wanted to swim, to swim freely under the sea!

“Leaving me all alone?” Siger said glumly.

Lady Kaiti smiled helplessly. “Just a day or two. I’ll deliver them and come right back.”

Only then did Siger’s expression improve.

He scooped up his two daughters and nuzzled their faces with his stubbly cheek until they giggled, “Daddy, Daddy, stop!” “You little ingrates, dislike the land’s too hot and don’t want your daddy anymore?”

The two little girls laughed and pushed away their father’s prickly face. “Daddy’s always busy. Don’t want Daddy.”

Instantly, Siger’s face fell again in dejection.

While Siger bonded with his daughters, Lady Kaiti looked after Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang.

She had a very fussing, nurturing demeanor, constantly urging them to eat more. Whenever Xia Xifeng or Qin Lang showed appreciation for a dish, she’d bloom with a proud smile, smiling until fine lines appeared at the corners of her eyes.

This Lady Kaiti quickly overwrote the game’s Lord Kaiti’s original appearance and voice from Xia Xifeng’s memory.

Xia Xifeng: 【Doesn’t Lady Kaiti’s temperament feel a bit like Ron’s mom from Harry Potter???】

Qin Lang: 【Mm…】

The two had mentally prepared themselves to face Lady Kaiti, only to find that preparation was completely wrong.

Who was this person? Had the game’s Lord Kaiti borrowed the real Lady Kaiti’s identity?

Even lying in bed, the two still hadn’t digested this.

Of course, Lady Kaiti had been too hospitable. They’d overeaten, and the food in their stomachs hadn’t digested either, keeping them awake from bloating.

Xia Xifeng: “Players once wildly guessed that Lord Kaiti stubbornly held onto Free Port because she missed her family. Turns out it might not have been a wild guess after all.”

Qin Lang: “Mm.”

Xia Xifeng: “Then why couldn’t we find any information about Lord Kaiti’s family in the game? Didn’t she keep a single portrait to find comfort in?”

Qin Lang: “Maybe she didn’t dare to look.”

Xia Xifeng fell silent.

After a long moment, he tilted his body and bumped the top of Qin Lang’s head with his own. “We have to finish the world-saving mission. We have to go back to the moment right after we transmigrated!”

Qin Lang gently patted the top of Xia Xifeng’s head. “We definitely will. Sleep now.”

“Tomorrow, let’s ask Siger if we can use his library!”

“Okay.”

The two closed their eyes and gradually fell asleep.

Outside the window, tonight’s Silver Moon was perfectly full.

Moonlight quietly streamed through the window, illuminating the bed—which should have been untouched by its rays—as bright as day.

Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang were woken by the light.

Both turned their heads simultaneously, exchanged a wordless glance.

Then, both simultaneously pulled sleep masks over their heads and quickly fell back asleep.

The moonlight retreated beyond the window, shrinking back especially fast, with a hint of embarrassment and anger.

This unusual scene was witnessed by Siger, who was working late into the night, and Lady Kaiti, who was preparing his late-night snack.

As a senior clergy member, Siger keenly analyzed, “Our earlier guess—that Xia and Qin were just a front Amuruo put on the surface—might be wrong.”

Lady Kaiti asked, “Could they be Silver Moon’s Chosen?”

Siger thought for a moment and shook his head. “Though a deity may have more than one ‘God’s Child,’ and indeed, Leo and Perila are the Sun’s and Silver Moon’s Chosen, and Silver Moon might have other Chosen… they likely aren’t God’s Favored. That wasn’t the attitude a deity shows toward a God’s Favored.”

The corner of his mouth twitched. “The attitude was too… flippant.”

“Just like how my Lord treats you?” Lady Kaiti couldn’t help but laugh.

Siger’s mouth twitched violently again.

It was precisely because Siger had experienced it that while ordinary people or even ordinary God’s Favored might have mistaken it for a Silver Moon Blessing, Siger recognized it at a glance: Silver Moon was playing a prank.

There was no blessing in that moonlight. It was simply, deliberately, turned up to a higher brightness.

Though he didn’t know how Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang had handled it, seeing how fast the moonlight “scrambled” back out, and that no sound came from the guest room, Silver Moon had clearly gotten no satisfaction.

After the Divine War, gods could not easily interfere with the mortal world. Projecting their power directly into the mortal realm took tremendous effort and was reserved for critical moments.

But some gods? They’d rather lie prone recuperating for days than waste their energy on such pointless antics.

Siger was deeply afflicted by this, which was why he couldn’t become the most devout believer or the most revered Sea God’s Favored in the temple.

The reason Siger rarely went to the ocean—whether on its surface or beneath—was that the bored Sea God, once Siger reached the sea, would, every so often, dump bitter seawater into his meals to show how very, very bored He was.

“Let the girls endure it for a few days. Keep them ashore.” Siger said seriously. “Once the Sea God issues a new oracle, then we’ll take them back to the sea to visit family.”

If Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s relationship with Silver Moon was unusual, their coming to see the Sea God might be no small matter.

Could the problems the Sea God faced be even more severe than he had imagined?