To most deities, faith was the most precious of treasures. No deity would ever trade it away; if one wanted faith, one could only seize it.
Even though Silvanus had been willing to accept Leira as his subordinate deity, he had granted her a mere hundred druids, leaving her to develop the rest on her own.
From this, one could see just how precious worshippers truly were.
To obtain faith, one either converted the faithless into believers or directly snatched away the worshippers of other deities.
Such an act struck right at a deity's jugular; the conflict it bred would be exceptionally fierce.
Anbaixiu truly didn't want to clash with deities, even the weakest among them.
Yet sometimes there was simply no helping it. Had Loviatar not come looking for a free ride from the start, Anbaixiu would have reached an agreement with the goddess and avoided offending a string of evil goddesses along the way.
And this time, he would not offend another deity.
Originally, helping Aige attain godhood was just to secure a divine backer. If making one friend meant gaining another enemy—with the friend being a fledgling newborn god and the enemy an established, veteran deity—what on earth had he been busting his neck for?
Therefore, this time, making an enemy of this goddess was out of the question.
No, more accurately, he couldn't afford to antagonize any deity. The sea was home to far more than just the merfolk goddess Eadro.
The Sea and Sky pantheon comprised nearly a score of deities: Persana, god of the tritons; Sekolah, god of the sahuagin; the god of sea monsters; the dolphin goddess; and so forth. Even the Prince of Demons, Demogorgon, was counted as the god of the marine ixitxachitl.
In that case, he would just gather faith from creatures abandoned by the gods.
"I'm here to do business, not to make enemies, and certainly not to offend deities. Harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth..." Anbaixiu muttered to himself.
Suddenly, Phil kicked off with both legs and darted away.
Then Anbaixiu felt the ghost ship slow down.
Just as he was about to ask what was happening, Melina rushed over to him and gasped, "Father, look! A huge shark!"
It was a vibration of the soul as well as a sound wave produced by her parted lips. Anbaixiu heard it clearly and immediately cast his perception outward.
Deep within the ocean depths, reefs, coral, fish, shrimp... every inanimate object and living creature was enveloped by Anbaixiu's perception, reflecting corresponding descriptions within his soul.
These were immensely detailed descriptions, and Anbaixiu had to rely on habit to filter out the useful information.
Until he sensed an enormous shadow.
Just as Melina had said, it was a shark, but its size eclipsed even this ghost ship. Stretching nearly fifty meters long, it was a true colossus.
The shark's head was larger than the ship's prow, and every tooth in its twin rows was larger than a shield.
The colossal shark swam past the ghost ship. Its snow-white underbelly looked like a wall, and the current it dragged along set the vessel swaying.
Anbaixiu was startled. If a creature of such magnitude attacked the ghost ship, wouldn't it tear the vessel to pieces?
Undead were generally unpalatable, but who knew whether a shark like this scavenged carrion?
Yet Phil and the undead crew aboard wore eager expressions, as if laying eyes on prized prey.
Anbaixiu frowned. Before meeting Aige, he had no wish to court complications.
Fortunately, Phil remained at the bow, merely gripping his harpoon. Even as the giant shark departed, he did not throw it.
The ghost ship sailed on, and Phil walked over to Anbaixiu, his face full of regret: "A pity, what a real pity. That's a giant shark reared by sahuagin. If only it were wild, we could have had an extra treat today."
The undead could survive without eating, but most zombies retained a penchant for fresh flesh and blood. Though it couldn't fill their bellies, devouring flesh provided a sense of satisfaction.
Anbaixiu asked, "Raised by sahuagin? How can you tell?"
"The tail. Sharks raised by sahuagin all have a unique notch on their tails—that's a mark they cut out." Phil had been a sahuagin in life and knew the practices of his kin best.
"We're pressed for time today, or I would've made a move. Slaying that shark wouldn't be hard, but the blood would definitely bring sahuagin in pursuit, and then we'd miss our appointment with the Captain."
Phil never feared a fight. In this ocean, he bowed to no one except Aige. Even if that shark were an avatar of Sekolah, he would dare charge forward to trade blows.
"What's the use of raising a shark like that? Do they eat sharks too?" Anbaixiu asked.
"No. Just as humans usually don't eat monkey meat, sahuagin look a lot like sharks, so they generally don't eat them either. A giant shark like this is usually raised through the collective effort of an entire tribe to deal with deep-sea monsters. As you know, some deep-sea octopuses are even bigger than that shark, while ordinary sahuagin are only about my size, so they're at a serious disadvantage against behemoths. That shark being let out to forage means there's a sahuagin tribe nearby—at most two hundred nautical miles away."
That was already quite a distance, but ordinary sharks had immense hunting ranges, to say nothing of a giant shark like that. Who knew how many fish and prawns it took to fill its belly?
Yet that wasn't what Anbaixiu was concerned about. He asked, "Did this sahuagin tribe move here recently? Or are you simply unfamiliar with our current route?"
Phil scratched his head. "Come to think of it, honored guest, you're right. There shouldn't be any sahuagin around here. Why did they suddenly migrate over? Don't they know this is the territory of our Silent Night Pirates?"
"Probably because of the Githyanki," Anbaixiu said. "A hundred thousand Githyanki plus dozens of dragons have to eat. Their territory was probably taken, forcing these sahuagin to migrate."
To his surprise, Phil shook his head. "That doesn't sound right. Food in the sea has always been abundant. Besides, I've seen those Githyanki—barely any of them can swim, let alone fight underwater. Red dragons can't submerge either; at most, they fish around the islands. How could they possibly threaten sahuagin in the deep sea?"
"Even that many Githyanki couldn't affect them?" Anbaixiu asked.
"Honored guest, you don't know just how vast the ocean is. If you scooped up the entire continent and dumped it into the sea, it wouldn't fill much at all. The highest mountain on land is only a few thousand meters tall, but trenches ten thousand meters deep are everywhere in the ocean. An extra hundred thousand or so Githyanki couldn't possibly make a dent in the ocean, let alone strip the sahuagin of their food."
"Is that so?" Anbaixiu stroked his chin in thought. What could be the reason for this sudden sahuagin migration, then?
Anbaixiu suddenly had a strange premonition. This was no coincidence—it was fate offering him a sign.
In that case, why not try a divination?
Anbaixiu tried rolling a few Dice of Fate.
As a divination wizard, even wielding the power of fate didn't mean he could use it willy-nilly. Who knew if the Goddess of Fate was in a foul mood today? One slip, and he might divine a future where he died a miserable death.
Therefore, only when his premonition was exceedingly strong would Anbaixiu bring out the Dice of Fate for divination, as that meant the Goddess of Fate was prompting him to look ahead. Remaining indifferent at such a moment was an invitation to get kicked by her instead.
Anbaixiu didn't need much guidance—just a sliver of a clue.
The dice were cast, spinning briskly where no eyes could see. The phantasmal Dice of Fate didn't stir so much as a ripple in the sea, seeming utterly nonexistent, visible only to those who commanded the power of fate.
When the Dice of Fate came to a rest, a hazy scene appeared before Anbaixiu.
Sensing it closely, Anbaixiu murmured in confusion, "This is... a wedding? Whose wedding?"
Chapter 369