Although Aige had rejected Eadro's proposal, Anbaixiu found himself admiring the pirate captain even more. She had made her stance unmistakably clear: once she ascended to godhood, she would undeniably favor her friends in the Elegy Poetry Society, and Anbaixiu was naturally her favorite among them.
What promise could be more valuable than that?
Had Anbaixiu not been running around exhausting himself precisely for this?
With Aige's position so straightforward, how could Anbaixiu have any reason not to support her?
Though it would be far more troublesome, the harvest would be equally immense. Moreover, right now was the prime opportunity.
The Volcanic Sea was a new territory that had abruptly emerged. Having just entered a cooling-off period, no race had managed to claim full dominion over it yet.
Anyone could strike, and anyone could seize it—that was the beauty of uncharted lands.
Better still, this new territory lacked indigenous inhabitants entirely, which spared them endless trouble.
Speed was paramount. Without delay, Anbaixiu instructed Aige's Silent Night Pirates to head straight for the Volcanic Sea to claim the best grounds first, regardless of who else was there.
Standing on the deck of the ghost ship, Anbaixiu addressed the core officers of the pirate crew. "I'm sending you to seize territory, but not areas suited for the undead! You are looking for zones exceptionally well-suited for living creatures to thrive and multiply. Understood?"
Phil was the first to voice his confusion. "Why is that?"
"Because territory fit for the undead is unwanted by anyone else in the first place—there's no need to fight for it!"
The undead could endure extreme conditions. Water at a hundred degrees was a death zone for other creatures, cooking them through within minutes.
For the undead, however, it posed no issue at all. Their flesh had rotted long ago, so who cared if it was cooked? As long as the heat wasn't high enough to reduce bone to ash, it had no effect on the dead.
By the same token, if a stretch of this sea suffered from harsh conditions—such as a lack of food or an inability to sustain marine vegetation—small fish would not thrive. Without small fish, there were no large fish, and without large fish, even fishmen could not survive.
Such areas typically harbored substances toxic to living organisms—perhaps excessively high sulfur concentrations, severe acidity, and the like. They were restricted zones for the living, yet harmless to the undead.
Nobody would ever contest such wretched places. The undead would not need to lift a finger, for the land was already effectively in their grasp.
Therefore, what Anbaixiu wanted to claim were prime grounds capable of sustaining vast numbers of worshippers.
To attain godhood, Aige could not poach believers from the established, divided seas, but a newly formed territory was fair game.
Idiots like the kuo-toa were the ideal worshippers. As long as Aige did not mind her hull taking on the likeness of a lobster's head, she surely would not mind duping a horde of kuo-toa into becoming her flock.
Provided one didn't mind ugly appearances, the kuo-toa were the most perfect believers.
Stupid, yet intensely pious, they provided over a dozen times more power of faith than other races, enough to have birthed an intermediate kuo-toa goddess out of sheer delusion. Furthermore, they were remarkably easy to hoodwink; demonstrate the slightest bit of power, and the kuo-toa would worship you as a deity. Even their own goddess could do nothing to stop their fickle shifts in adoration.
That goddess was a lunatic herself, whose erratic temperament prevented her from systematically fostering faith or organizing a proper clergy. Consequently, the kuo-toa were trivially easy to deceive.
The initial plan was simple: seize the territory, round up the kuo-toa, raise them first, and worry about cultivating their power of faith later.
The moment the Silent Night Pirates heard there was a battle to fight, they began howling with excitement. Even Aige felt a stir of eagerness.
Her true body was a warship, after all, and a thirst for battle was ingrained in her nature.
Yet while Anbaixiu's side threw their efforts into claiming territory, Aeolus, whom they had been tracking earlier, had completely vanished. Not a trace of him remained in the neighboring waters.
Ugly and merely a few days old, this child of a god was currently over a thousand kilometers away.
He had swum relentlessly forward, guided by the bizarre voice echoing in his mind. The seawater aided rather than hindered him, and currents continuously shifted direction to propel him forward, carrying him at astonishing speed into a desolate underwater cavern.
Here, Aeolus caught sight of a horde of grotesque fishmen with oversized heads and stunted bodies.
Their piscine heads were massive and dopey, wearing expressions of perpetual, vacant stupidity.
It was a grand congregation of kuo-toa. They were packed together in staggering numbers; with a single glance, Aeolus counted over ten thousand, not to mention the murky shadows further out where countless more silhouettes loomed faintly.
Though they looked utterly dim-witted, their devotion was undeniable as they gathered around a bizarre effigy, chanting unceasing prayers.
Yet after listening for a long while, Aeolus realized that not a single line repeated. It was as though the litanies were not fixed verses at all, but improvised on the spot by the kuo-toa themselves.
It was an eerie sacrificial scene. Compared to the magnificent and solemn rites of the merfolk, the kuo-toa's gathering appeared amateurish, bordering on the comical.
Yet curiously enough, a power of faith so immense that it was visible to the naked eye coalesced toward the idol.
The hideous statue was piled together from stone, coral, and lobster carapaces. It depicted a gargantuan, naked female humanoid possessing the head of a lobster, articulated shells covering her shoulders, and lobster claws for forearms... looking bizarre in every conceivable way.
Surrounding the idol, lobsters of all sizes sprawled prostrate. The smallest were merely the size of a palm, while the largest dwarfed whales. These ancient crustaceans seemed to be followers of this divinity as well, offering their prayers in an inaudible tongue.
Aeolus was briefly unnerved by the unsettling display, until the strange voice resonated in his mind once more.
"Come, come to my side, child. I have waited for you for a very long time."
Aeolus responded in bewilderment, "Waited for me for a long time? But I don't know you at all."
The voice replied, "Yet I have known you for ages. When the universe was newly born, I pondered within the primordial chaos, and already I foresaw our meeting today."
As if coming alive, the lobster-headed goddess idol slowly turned its head toward Aeolus, its feelers swaying in a gesture that seemed to beckon him.
Aeolus was not afraid. Pushing past the devout worshippers, he arrived beside the statue.
The moment he drew near, a whirlpool erupted from within and sucked him inside.
By the time Aeolus regained his senses, he found himself in a dripping limestone cave.
Here, the lobster-headed goddess materialized before him as a phantom of luminous light.
"May I ask who you are?" Aeolus inquired.
The lobster head introduced herself, "I am Blibdoolpoolp, a divinity born of ancient chaos. Before the world was even forged, I already existed."
"Wait, weren't the ones born of chaos the Lady of Silver, Selûne, and the Goddess of Darkness, Shar?"
"Mere children," Blibdoolpoolp scoffed dismissively.
"I am far more ancient than they. My might is beyond your meager comprehension, and I wield primordial spells that even the Goddess of Magic cannot fathom. Every plane, every ocean in existence belongs to me."
Aeolus furrowed his brow. Though he was not particularly bright, he was familiar with the oceanic pantheon, and the kuo-toa goddess was ranked near the very bottom.
Still, one had to maintain reverence before a deity; that was a mortal's duty.
Rather than refuting Blibdoolpoolp's boasting, Aeolus asked, "Then Goddess, why have you sought me out?"
Blibdoolpoolp chuckled. "You are the son of Talos, are you not?"
Startled, Aeolus quickly shook his head. "No, that's not true. I merely worship the Lord of Storms, Talos."
This was his Father God's strict command: he was forbidden from claiming to be Talos's son, and could tell no one.
"What? You're not?" Blibdoolpoolp seemed shaken, her tone turning irate. "Impossible! I remember that you are! You were fashioned from his lightning... Wait, no, why does your power stem from the ocean... No, that's wrong, wrong..."
Aeolus watched as the lobster-headed goddess spiraled into manic self-doubt. Countless swirling mists and vortexes manifested around her, carving deep gashes into the cavern floor.
Finally, Blibdoolpoolp bellowed, "No, no, you are the divine child forged by Talos! Do not dream of deceiving me!"
Aeolus offered no reply this time. He was already contemplating flight; this goddess was mentally unhinged, and lingering here would only get him killed once more.
Yet in the next breath, Blibdoolpoolp acted entirely unbothered. "Well, it matters not. Regardless of whether you are or not, you have been swindled, and I cannot simply stand by. The blood of a god flows through your veins, and I will not allow you to be deceived within my seas."
Aeolus hastily asked, "Goddess, what on earth are you talking about? Who deceived me?"
"You still have to ask? The lich, of course! That vile, cunning, venomous, greedy... that lich who should have ascended to godhood long ago! He claims to be your friend, but in truth, he deceives you at every turn. He wants to turn you into his tool! To use you, and then wield you against Talos!"
Hearing this, Aeolus replied in astonishment, "How could that be?! The Lord of Storms stands far above mortal reach. What capability could he possess to challenge a deity? Besides, he is my friend. He has no reason to lie to me!"
"What capability? Little one, are you truly that ignorant? Lolth, Shar, Zariel, Tiamat, Loviatar... there is no telling how many divinities have suffered at his hands! Half of Lolth was destroyed, Shar has vanished entirely, and the other goddesses fared little better. Think about it: if this lich can swindle even gods, how could you possibly escape his clutches?"
Aeolus remained unwilling to believe it. In his heart, Anbaixiu had always treated him well and was even helping him search for his wife.
Yet Blibdoolpoolp seemed to see straight through his thoughts, sneering in mockery. "Do you still not see? The Ariel he is helping you find is a fake!"
"On what grounds can you say that? I haven't even seen what the merfolk high priestess looks like!" Aeolus cried, agitated.
"I know, of course, because the Ariel you seek is right here with me."
Blibdoolpoolp waved her hand, and a creature bearing a human head atop a lobster's body materialized before them. Its face was an exact match for the Ariel Aeolus had seen.
Chapter 422