Chapter 83 The Spear of Courage Still Presses Forward (Part Six) Our Mission...
Ji Wuchou looked up and met Xia Zhu's eyes. A cool breeze blew in from the window, and her eyelashes trembled. Her pupils flickered as she looked behind Xia Zhu.
Feng Feng and Ying Ya, who had gone for a stroll on the deck, returned, and the tense atmosphere suddenly eased.
"If you ask me, this old man is definitely Liang!" Feng Feng said as he climbed into the cabin. "Where have I ever seen an NPC with such a rich backstory before?"
"But if it really is this old man, what is his obsession?"
"Become a pirate? That can't be..."
"To do big business and become rich? Why does it have to be in the game world?"
She used both her left and right brains to analyze the situation, giving the stingy old man a thorough critique.
Ji Wuchou took the opportunity to return to her seat and carefully examined the parchment scroll, but her expression was dazed, and it was unclear whether she was truly looking at it.
“If Liang isn’t this merchant, then isn’t the dream world a bit too elaborate… It feels like it’s just building an ideal world, so even a small character has a complete storyline behind them?” Xia Zhu said, expressing her thoughts.
“I tend to agree with that view.” Ji Yinxiu finished meditating and opened her eyes. “An ideal world? If that’s really the case, then the difficulty of this dream is probably even higher than it appears. But I really can’t understand why you and Xiaofeng don’t have any side quests. Could this be some kind of hint?”
"Could it be a characteristic of the elves and clergy? If it's based on geographical location?" Feng Feng said.
"Knock knock knock—" came the old merchant's question from outside the sliding door of the top cabin, the wooden door making a gurgling sound as it slid along the track.
"Guests, I've come to bring you dinner." The old man knelt on the floor and moved the large tray behind him into the top cabin. Six plates contained the same bacon and eggs, as well as green asparagus, and six glasses of plain iced lemonade.
He pulled a pink lace placemat from his shoulder, laid it on the floor, then arranged the cutlery, and finally tucked the tray under his arm.
Feng Feng crawled on his knees to the placemat, and just as he picked up a fork, he noticed that the old man was still kneeling at the door and showed no sign of leaving.
"Is there anything else? We've already paid."
The old man twitched his beard and smiled with his eyes narrowed.
"I am merely a traveling merchant, simply following in my mother's footsteps to travel the world. I am probably not the person you are looking for. However, there is a legend on our seas: if you have any doubts, you may wish to ask the stars in the sky."
He held up one finger and pointed to the ceiling above his head.
"Star?"
“That’s right. The ocean is boundless, and even the most experienced sailors can easily lose their way. You can’t easily believe what others say, and sometimes you can even deceive yourself. Only the universe and stars can tell us the right direction.” As he spoke, he slowly moved to the corner of the wall, where there was a rope hanging from the ceiling.
The old man smiled and pulled the hoisting rope, and a skylight slowly appeared in the ceiling above his head.
The sun had just set, and the sky was still a bright, clear blue, without a single star in sight.
"If you look at the night sky with these questions in mind, and you see a bright, shining star, that's it responding to you."
"This top cabin where you are now once housed a lost young man, but I guess he has now been guided by the stars and is on the path to becoming a hero with no turning back."
"Alright, have a wonderful evening, everyone. I should go enjoy my dinner now. See you later." With that, the old man took his tray and went downstairs, leaving Feng Feng and Xia Zhu staring blankly at the skylight.
"This old man is really strange?" Xia Zhu couldn't help but ask.
"What's strange about it?"
"His words were ambiguous. Was the star's response an affirmation or a denial of the question? If our question was where to find the spirit, but after the star twinkled, there was still no answer."
"Oh dear, since things have come to this, let's eat first!" Feng Feng rubbed Xia Zhu's head, telling her not to believe the old man's words, that he might just be trying to amuse them.
But after finishing their dinner in silence, the group lay down under the skylight, hoping to see if that one unique star would appear in the night sky.
Only Ying Huo disdained to participate in this childish question-and-answer game; he never questioned anything in the heavens, whether it was the stars or the gods.
As the spaceship ascended above the clouds, the clear night sky appeared through the square skylight. To better observe the stars, the lights in the upper cabin were not turned on. The moonlight, like a thin, angular veil, framed the few people on the ground.
Xia Zhu felt that the starry sky above her was no different from usual, with fine, scattered stars dotting the heavens. She really had nothing she wanted to ask, and she didn't believe that the stars would actually give her an answer.
The night breeze ruffled the hair on her forehead, and occasionally a wisp of cloud drifted overhead. She could also hear the wind and maple leaves beside her wriggling restlessly in the darkness. Xia Zhu's blinking rate began to slow down. Staring at a certain spot for too long caused visual fatigue, and she had the illusion that the starry sky was constantly magnifying before her eyes, with a vast and boundless aura that seemed to be about to devour her.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but when she turned around, she found that Feng Feng had already fallen asleep, his face peaceful and his breathing deep and even.
Xia Zhu couldn't help but smile. Sometimes she couldn't help but feel envious of Feng Feng. Many people thought that the genius girl of the Feng family was a simple-minded and clueless person, but she thought that Feng Feng knew everything and understood everything. He saw everything too clearly, which was why he could live so happily.
But when she looked away, she saw the remaining three people still staring intently at the night sky. Their expressions were serious, their eyes sparkling, as if there really was an incredibly bright and unique star responding in the skylight.
Xia Zhu straightened her head. The starry night was desolate, the sky clear and bright. She seemed to understand what the old man meant. Facing the stars that only twinkled and never spoke, she had already found the answer the moment she asked the question in her heart.
Just like she used to make choices by flipping a coin, but if she felt a sense of loss the moment it landed, it meant that she actually wanted to choose the other side. The answer had already been given, but she just wasn't aware of it.
When they look up at the night sky with questions in their minds, they will surely see the star they are looking forward to.
So what kind of problem is it?
Her vision gradually blurred, and the night sky spread out like a soft velvet blanket, slowly covering her eyes.
*
Xia Zhu was woken up by the sun. She had fallen asleep with the skylight open last night, and the sun high in the sky was even more scorching, so bright that she couldn't open her eyes. In her drowsy state, she felt a tightness in her chest and thought she had fallen so low that she had to go out on the street to perform and break stones on her chest. In fact, Feng Feng was sleeping sprawled out on top of her.
She raised her arm to shield her face, and only turned her head away once her eyes adjusted to the light. Ying Huo was still sitting by the window, the glare obscuring his face. Xia Zhu stared blankly at the strands of hair sticking up on his head, her consciousness gradually fading, her eyelids growing heavy again.
Have you seen enough?
He suddenly spoke, and Xia Zhu's pupils involuntarily dilated.
"Not yet." She actually finished the sentence.
"It's okay, you can take your time looking at it." He leaned forward, his face growing larger and clearer in front of Xia Zhu. The visual impact was so strong that she was startled and sprang to her feet, using her iron head technique to knock Ying Huo away again.
"You need to move around a bit when you get up in the morning." Xia Zhu blankly spread her arms to do chest expansion exercises, and saw Ying Huo sitting by the window with his forehead covered, staring at her resentfully.
"What's wrong... Have you had breakfast?" Feng Feng, still half asleep, straightened up from a short distance away. Xia Zhu's quick, agile movement knocked her to the ground as well.
Suddenly, a strong feeling of weightlessness jolted the remaining three people awake. The top cabin was swaying so much that they couldn't even sit up straight.
"What happened? What happened! The plane crashed?" Feng Feng was wide awake, covering his head with his hands in a defensive posture.
The old man's shouts came from downstairs.
"Everyone, we'll be landing in the Middle Kingdom in twenty minutes, so get ready!"
They borrowed the old man's washroom and lined up to tidy up. Due to their shrewd business acumen, they unanimously decided not to spend any money on the ship, regardless of whether they were hungry or not.
Xia Zhu came to the deck. The wind made her long robe flutter, and her hair was all sticking to her face. She had to keep pushing it away to see the way ahead. However, all around was a white expanse. She could not see anything except clouds and mist. The clouds hit her head, and the icy water vapor and the cold air that entered her lungs made it difficult to breathe.
She abandoned her idea of going to the ship's side to admire the scenery and turned back to stand with Ji Wuchou under the eaves.
"You can go check on her again once things stabilize," Ji Wuchou kindly told her, her face cold but her voice gentle.
Sure enough, after a violent rocking motion, the ship passed through the clouds, and the thin mist gradually dispersed to both sides, revealing a face without features at the bow.
"Waaaaah!!" Feng Feng burst out of the washroom. "What's that?!"
The view was completely exposed, and the face, though indistinct, exuded a sacred aura and belonged to a towering statue. The statue appeared to be a woman, dressed in a white-gold robe, bowing her head slightly in prayer, her hands clasped together. The waters of a great river rushed down from her fingertips, like thunder in a thousand valleys, soul-stirring and awe-inspiring. The closer one got, the more thunderous the tremors in one's chest became.
Feng Feng excitedly leaned over the bow of the boat, waving wildly at Xia Zhu and Ji Wuchou, shouting something, but it was indistinguishable due to the roaring river.
The two had to get closer to hear what she was saying.
"I mean! This statue looks so much like Ah Zhu!"
The spaceship was descending, and the statue's face slowly rose in front of everyone. Xia Zhu looked up blankly, wondering how it could resemble someone without any facial features.
"It seems so." Ji Wuchou nodded silently.
As they got closer and closer to the ground, the crowd grew louder and louder, and the spaceship finally came to rest in a huge square in front of the statue. The other three people also got out of the cabin one after another.
The place was bustling with activity, filled with the sounds of drums and music. Various market stalls were scattered throughout, and people of all races, including elves and orcs, were present. There were even red-clad soldiers with swords patrolling the area to maintain order.
The waters from beyond the heavens converge here, forming a wide river that stretches straight to the western horizon, winding around a distant church with a stained-glass dome. Sunlight shines upon it, scattering iridescent rays that reflect off the shimmering surface of the river. A flower-lined avenue stretches to the ground in front of the church, colorful light flutters in the air, and the fountain in the center of the square is made of sparkling gemstones of various colors. In short, everything here is so dazzling that Xia Zhu can hardly open her eyes.
The ship's wing retracted into its compartment. The old man emerged from the wheelhouse, leaned over the railing, and waved to the crowd.
"Gentlemen, this is the sacred land of the Great River in the Central Plains. All good things must come to an end. Hurry up and disembark, don't delay my business! Good luck!"
Xia Zhu looked down at the parchment scroll in her hand; it emitted a musty, musty smell under the scorching sun. The main quest had changed again.
"Head to Sunset Cathedral and enchant the staff."
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