Look, God!

"However, I know where Shuishui is." Yu Xian looked at Hai Liwei and paused a moment before speaking with a smile. Hai Liwei, who had still been racking his brains, felt as if Yu Xian had punched him right in the head, leaving him momentarily dazed. He sucked in a deep breath, sorely tempted to snap at Yu Xian to just finish his sentences all at once. But now was clearly no time for griping, so he hurriedly asked, "Where is Shuishui?" "Clan Leader Hai, you're both injured and thoroughly drained. You should return to Crescent Bay to recuperate as soon as possible. Rest assured, leave saving Shuishui to me," Yu Xian replied with a beaming smile instead of answering directly. Hai Liwei stared at Yu Xian, rendered speechless. He knew perfectly well that Yu Xian was jabbing at him for having set out without him in the first place. "I apologize. I was wrong. I shouldn't have left without taking you along back then, Brother Yu. Please, let me come with you to save Shuishui." Hai Liwei finally let out a long sigh, pressed his palms together, and offered an earnest apology. Yu Xian reined in his smile. After a moment of thought, he said, "Clan Leader Hai, Shuishui is relatively safe for now. You can come along, but on three conditions." "Forget three—ten would be fine!" Hai Liwei agreed without hesitation. Yu Xian nodded, standing up. "Then back to Crescent Bay first. Afterward, we'll set off together to rescue Shuishui, lest further delay brings trouble." "Alright. Though... heading back won't be easy either." Hai Liwei nodded, his expression turning bitter as he realized he seemed to have done something foolish. Put politely, that foolish act was burning his bridges behind him; put bluntly, it was cutting off his own retreat. Because he had destroyed the pocket space leading back to Crescent Bay, the best way for the Sea Clan warship to return now was to borrow Yu Xian's previous trick—locate a broken world, which would take far more time. A round trip would likely cost several more days. Yu Xian had been preparing to return to the Aska, but hearing Hai Liwei's words reminded him of the mess the man had made. He stared speechlessly at Hai Liwei's grimacing, rueful face. Bold? It was certainly bold. At first, doing so had indeed made Hai Liwei seem clever and possessed of the daring spirit befitting a clan leader. Yet looking at Hai Liwei now, Yu Xian couldn't help feeling as if he were looking at a husky—no matter how he looked at him, the man seemed like an expert at demolishing his own house. *** In the Abyss, two warships cruised side by side. Whether Hai Liwei's stunt of detonating the space had screwed over anyone else was anyone's guess. What was certain was that he had successfully screwed over both Yu Xian and himself. Now, they had no choice but to head for a nearby broken world before performing a space jump. In truth, the Aska did not need a broken world to execute a space jump; after Muse's repairs and upgrades, the Aska could jump even from within the Abyss. However, Yu Xian was softhearted after all. Unable to bear seeing more of the Sea Clan perish, he decided to escort them on their return journey. Up ahead, a broken world radiated white light, still holding out against the erosion of the Abyss. Before this broken world, the Aska and the Sea Clan warship looked utterly miniscule. "This world... is tiny." Sitting in the Aska's cockpit, Yu Xian looked at the world before them with a surprised expression. Everything was relative. Compared to a warship, the broken world ahead was indeed enormous, but compared to the broken worlds Yu Xian had entered before, it was an entirely different story. Though earlier broken worlds had already been in ruins, each had been immense—vast and boundless, one could say. The world currently before them, however, was exceptionally small; the total area of the entire world felt hardly larger than the Milky Way. "Brother Yu, looks like our luck is pretty good. That's a coin world," Hai Liwei's voice came through the Star Ring. Worlds came in many varieties, such as planar worlds, disc-shaped worlds, onion-shaped worlds, and rainbow-shaped worlds. A so-called coin world was essentially a planar world. Such worlds typically possessed only a single continent. Suspended within the world like a coin, the sun and moon circled around it. Planar worlds almost always possessed supernatural powers. Furthermore, their systems of supernatural power tended to be fairly singular. Hai Liwei called it good luck because planar worlds usually had relatively stable space and coordinates that were easy to calculate. Performing a space jump within such a world saved considerable time. *** Tigua Continent, Greenfort Plain. An adventuring party holding torches was riding on horseback across the pitch-black plain. At the head was the scout, Pushkin; second was the leader of the party, Arthur the Brave; third was Sith, a priest of the Sun Church... Several hundred years ago, the sky cracked open. Unfortunately, when the heavens fractured, the sun happened to be hanging high in the sky, and so it was sucked away by the rift. After losing the sun, the entire world fell into chaos. All contact was lost with the eternal gods said to dwell in the sun, and no matter how devoutly their followers prayed, there was never any response. Gradually, a rumor began circulating through the realms of humanity. The sun gods had been plotted against by the gods of the moon and were now imprisoned within the abyss. Only the most devout champions, by defeating the wicked moon gods, could rescue the sun gods and bring the sun back to this world. Over these past few centuries, countless heroes had assembled parties and embarked on crusades against the moon gods, yet every single party had ultimately vanished without a trace. Everyone knew they had failed. After all, the sun had never returned. Yet with the financial backing of the Sun Church, hero parties continued to emerge, endlessly setting forth on expeditions to slay the moon gods. Arthur was one among them. He was drowning in romantic entanglements; several hundred lovers were on the verge of causing an explosion, leaving him unable to survive in Sun City any longer. Left with no choice, he gathered a few drinking buddies and resolved to set out on a crusade against the moon gods. He felt that even facing the gods of the moon would be easier than dealing with the bloody battlefield of his lovers. As for Pushkin riding at the very front, he was actually just a failed writer. Sick of grinding out words day and night, and exhausted by the well of inspiration running dry, he had attempted to hang himself, only to be stumbled upon and saved by Arthur. Since he was seeking death anyway, dying on the road to crusade against the moon gods sounded fine as well, so he joined the party. Then there was Sith, the priest of the Sun Church. Truth be told, he was simply an unpopular leftover within the church, shipped off to their party under the fine title of "financial overseer." "I'm a bit tired, Sith. Why don't we rest and recuperate here for a bit?" Arthur said with a yawn. Sith replied expressionlessly, "We just rested two hours ago. How can we dawdle when crusading against the moon gods? I refuse to rest." "No wonder you got shoved off into our party," Arthur mumbled, resigned to slumping over his saddle and dozing off. This was already the one hundred and fifth time he had said that since setting out. Sith remained entirely unmoved; he was, after all, a man of faith. Yet as they continued forward, the world suddenly grew even darker. Everyone looked up in unison, only to see two colossal iron fish suddenly emerge from the cracked sky. "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! The moon gods' lackeys are here!" Everyone's expressions changed drastically, and Sith began screaming at the top of his lungs. Then, they watched helplessly as the two enormous metal fish hovered in midair before warping space and vanishing. Once they had calmed their terrified horses, everyone kept their heads raised, staring blankly at the sky. "Just now... what was that?" Arthur asked after a long while. Pushkin kept his head tilted up, shaking his head. "No idea, but I've got inspiration..." "What inspiration?" "I plan to write a story about a fisherman and a golden fish." "Remember to let me read it when you're done." "Alright." After a short while, the party set off once more. Across the pitch-black plain, the faint flickers of their torches drifted farther and farther into the distance.