Chapter 48

Unexpectedly, Sui Xiong and the savage races of the Gray Stone Mountains got along quite well; "a meeting of minds" would be the perfect way to describe it.

Those savage races were not inherently evil; the grievances between them and humanity were primarily due to the struggle for living space. If a human deity accompanied by human adventurers had arrived, they would naturally have been enraged and fought to the death. But since a jellyfish deity arrived, accompanied by his mount—when Lei learned of this perception later, he lodged a stern protest, though it was ineffective, as Sui Xiong still chose to perch on his head—and this deity was quite friendly toward them, why wouldn't they show goodwill in return?

Of course, Sui Xiong would not tell Lei that the main reason he was friendly toward these savage races was that he had sensed the aura of divinity on their priest.

It was an aura similar to the deity who had helped him in the past. According to the information from the God of Redemption, this indicated that the one the priest worshipped and served was that deity's subordinate, the God of Fertility.

Thanks to the God of Redemption's files, Sui Xiong already had a considerable understanding of the gods of this world. For instance, he knew that the deity who had helped him when he clashed with the Sleepless God in White Leaf Village was named Morani, the main god of the Wilderness pantheon, revered as the "Steel Lion." He was a benevolent deity who enjoyed traveling the mortal realm and righting wrongs. Under his command were several subordinate gods, among whom was the God of Fertility, named Zhuogeng, known as the "Wanderer of Abundance," who could turn any barren land into fertile fields—a target many pantheons had long wanted to poach.

According to the God of Redemption's files, the God of Fertility did not have a church, merely sharing faith under the banner of the God of Wilderness. But looking at this priest's situation, it seemed this so-called "lack of a church" only applied to the world of humans or humanoid creatures; in the world of the savage races, this God of Fertility still had quite a market.

Since that incident in White Leaf Village, Sui Xiong had not seen the God of Wilderness again. However, in his heart, he had long regarded this deity, whom he had met by chance and who had helped him, as a friend; a friend's subordinate was, of course, also a friend. This was the reason he showed goodwill toward those Fierce Goblins, who possessed a rather ferocious air and whose alignment was likely neutral leaning toward evil.

Sui Xiong understood that in order to defend their living space, the savage races could not avoid war with humanoid races. Such wars were fought for the survival of their species; perhaps they were evil, but they should never be condemned for that reason alone.

In any case, defending one's family and resisting invasion were never wrong.

He was neither a holy white lotus, nor a heartless man of iron, nor one of those perverted saints who would offer their right cheek after being slapped on the left; he fully understood and supported such actions. If one day he were to establish a divine kingdom, he would never turn away believers who acted this way simply because of a difference in alignment.

If warriors shed blood while alive, how could one let them shed tears after death!

This also made him doubt the effectiveness of the "Eye of Alignment Appraisal" spell; perhaps the spell itself had a built-in bias... Considering that this spell came from the God of Redemption's files, and the God of Redemption's followers included only humans and some humanoid creatures, not the savage races, it was not surprising that it yielded such results.

One man's hero is another man's villain; even gods cannot escape such biases!

After bidding farewell to that Fierce Goblin tribe and camping in the wild, he shared these thoughts with Lei.

"Your way of thinking is truly strange. Gods naturally have their own races, and where there is a race, there is a stance. For a god not to think from the perspective of their own race would be unreasonable," Lei commented, then added, "Of course, this doesn't apply to you. After all, a jellyfish is a non-sentient creature, so you don't have the issue of a 'racial stance.' Perhaps to you, those savage races are even more interesting and worth befriending than us humans."

Sui Xiong fell silent. He wasn't actually a jellyfish, but a human—though not a human from this world.

As a transmigrator, his innate stance was not much different from that of a jellyfish. To him, various sentient beings—as long as their appearance didn't clash too violently with his aesthetic—really didn't differ much.

"The world is so big, and the living space occupied by these savage races is actually quite small; why do people still want to seize it?" he couldn't help but mutter to himself, immediately realizing the absurdity of the thought—how can there be "contentment" in the human heart! Not to mention this otherworldly realm with its myriad races, even on Earth, where everyone was of the same species, groups with the same yellow skin and black hair often saw friends turn into enemies in the blink of an eye.

Such things, even gods can't help with...

Because of his foul mood, Sui Xiong remained silent for the next few days of the journey. He poured his energy into research, using it to pass the time and shift his mood.

Not long after, when Lei finally reached the edge of the Gray Stone Mountains, his research bore fruit.

"Your Majesty... what is this?" Looking at Sui Xiong's projection suddenly appearing and handing him a strange object, Palin was puzzled.

It was a flat, round, thick disc with colorful spirals on the surface, winding from the center to the edge. Below it was an ordinary wooden stick acting as a support. Sniffing carefully, one could smell an alluring sweet fragrance, much like candy.

If an Earthling were here, they would surely widen their eyes in surprise—isn't this just a lollipop!

"Designed specifically for you, it can effectively prevent the symptoms of vitality deficiency," Sui Xiong said with a smile. "Try it and see if it's to your taste."

It really is candy?!

Palin tried putting the strange treat into his mouth, and a warm, sweet flavor melted on the tip of his tongue, quickly turning into a warmth that spread throughout his body. It not only swept away the exhaustion from his battle with the ledgers these past few days but also stirred an indescribable sense of satisfaction and happiness from the bottom of his heart, as if he were a child who had done a good deed and received praise from his parents, causing him to smile involuntarily.

The young mage sucked on the special candy, remaining silent for a long while before coming back to his senses.

"This candy... is quite marvelous," he said. "The flavor is indeed excellent, and the effect is very good."

"That's all that matters." Sui Xiong laughed heartily, pulling out a handful of colorful lollipops at once. After a moment's thought, he cast a spell to wrap each lollipop in a similarly colorful waterproof paper, tying a pretty bow with a short red ribbon at the bottom of each, and shoved them all into Palin's hands.

"Don't worry, eat slowly; I have plenty more here!"

With that, he laughed heartily, and his projection vanished with a pop.

The research was a huge success! His product had received rave reviews from the customer! He really felt like giving himself thirty-two likes!

Because the "lollipop" research was a success, Sui Xiong was in a great mood and began chatting and joking with Lei again.

However, Lei was not accustomed to this; he was actually quite satisfied with the period of silence from His Majesty Void Mask. Quiet, calm, peaceful—the whole world was so tranquil. Now, this detestable jellyfish had started chattering away with nonsense again, making him deeply feel that "good times are always short," yet he was helpless to stop it.

Sui Xiong didn't care whether he was satisfied or not. Since transmigrating, this was the first time he had met someone who didn't look up to him, could communicate relatively as an equal, and was also quite idle.

Gerald and Palin had completely turned into fanatics; even if he said the sun was square, they would only think that mortal eyes were truly shortsighted, unable to see the true face of the sun that could be seen every day—with such people, one could discuss specific tasks, but not topics like worldviews, life philosophies, or values.

Satan and Rod were not so fanatical, but they were wise and cautious, definitely following the crowd on core ideological issues. One couldn't expect to get any particularly valuable or unique information from them.

Among the three dragons, Frost's thoughts were clear at a glance: nothing more than "inferior creatures are all trash, only my great dragon race is the sole master of this vast world," and his thoughts had no reference value for Sui Xiong at the moment. Sleet's thoughts—so annoying, can you not talk to me, I want to sleep...—well, every time Sui Xiong tried to talk to her about something, that was her response.

Snowflake was a person (dragon) with complex and profound thinking, possessing an independent personality and deep thoughts. However, she was very busy. Ever since taking on the position of "advisor," she had been working hard to analyze the actions of various deities from all pantheons over the years, trying to grasp their thoughts and plans to prepare for the diplomacy Sui Xiong would need before ascending to godhood. If one dared to disturb her with those impractical topics, she would likely glare with cold light and say coldly, "If you mess around again, I'll kill you even if you are a god."

As for the armored creature Phil, Sui Xiong had once tried to strike up a conversation with him while he was busy in the flower fields of the temple that had been converted into a dragon lair. His reaction was to think for a moment and then say: "I once saw—no, just heard—of a person of noble birth, outstanding talent, and noble character, who could be called a heaven-sent genius. Just because he spent all day thinking about these questions, he eventually went mad, became a great devil king who wanted to destroy the world, and died at the hands of someone who never thought about such questions. And the person who killed him, because he started thinking about such questions, fell into depression and confusion for a long time. It is evident that thinking about such questions is more harmful than beneficial."

He said this and then ignored Sui Xiong.

As for the gods, Sui Xiong did have the ability to contact them now, but he absolutely did not want to discuss these topics with them.

After all, these topics were truly sensitive, and he didn't know which ones might offend the taboos of the gods. Until they were familiar enough with each other and he was strong enough, it was better not to go too deep.

Looking around, the only suitable conversational partner was Lei.

"I say... what do you think if a hundred people are on a ship at sea, the ship breaks and is about to sink, the lifeboat can only hold sixty people, and the remaining forty are fighting desperately to get on the lifeboat, but if they get on, the lifeboat will sink. A kind and highly skilled ranger is guarding the lifeboat; should he let everyone sink together? Or should he force the remaining forty to die?"

"...I hate these damn questions!"

"But don't you think they are very meaningful? Don't you think that through these questions, we can deeply contemplate topics like kindness and human nature?"

"I'm not interested!"

"Perhaps my question is unrealistic, so let me think of another one: there is a paladin who falls into a dilemma where he must eat human flesh to protect others..."

"Get lost! You evil god!"

Thanks to reader "Azure Movement" for the enthusiastic tip. Everyone's support is the motivation for my updates! By the way, have you cast your recommendation votes?