Chapter 143

Immediately, right away.

Who knows if "that person" might change their mind after tonight?

He must return to Kazdel immediately, at least for now!

"We need to contact that derivative of Iberia..."

Zuo Jian leaned against the sofa to the side, turning his head to look over.

In the quiet rented room, Skadi and Laurentina sat at the table, Skadi happily stuffing a whole, uncut piece of Tumor Beast into her mouth.

Who taught her to eat like this...?

In contrast, Laurentina seemed much more normal.

In stark contrast to Skadi was Laurentina, who was carefully cutting the steak into small pieces with a knife and fork.

"Call----"

Zuo Jian a long sigh of relief.

Then he closed his eyes, trying to contact that person in Iberia whom he hadn't heard from for some time.

. but...

He slowly opened his eyes, his expression showing a hint of regret.

"It seems I can only sense that the other party is still alive at this moment, but I can't transmit consciousness or information to them? The distance is indeed too great."

Zuo Jian pinched his chin with a hint of regret, then slowly walked into the bedroom.

Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to resort to the most primitive method.

Inside the bedroom, stacks of envelopes sat quietly in the bottom drawer of the bedside table. In Terra, letters remained the primary means of communication for ordinary people facing long distances, and these envelopes, which the previous owner hadn't taken with them, or rather, had simply ignored, had become a boon for Zuo Jian.

Luckily, I insisted on not letting Laurentina throw them away, otherwise I would have had to spend money to buy new envelopes. Haha, that's the foresight that only adults have.

Zuo Jian sighing, Zuojian picked up the dip pen and letter paper left by the previous owner, which he had kept along with Laurentina and hadn't thrown away as trash.

He sat in the chair, seemingly deep in thought. Soon, as if he had an idea, he picked up the pen, plunged the nib into his palm, and watched as the tip of the pen absorbed his own blood.

"Hopefully the messenger can be a little faster."

After speaking, he picked up his pen and, using blood as ink, slowly wrote on the paper...

Three days later...

"... Finally, I wonder if everyone in Saltwind City is well, if there is enough food, if the crops have matured properly, if the villagers have mastered the skills of farming—and, if Anita has found joy in painting? If I could, I would truly wish to see it with my own eyes."

"The signature is... of the Painter!"

Anita excitedly finished reading the letter, walked over to the nun sitting on a chair nearby, and handed her the letter.

"Really? Little Anita can already read and write fluently. However, the Painter seems more interested in seeing Anita's paintings."

Sister Xiu Tina smiled and patted Anita's head.

"Yes! I will try my best! I want to become as good as the nun at painting!"

"Really? Then you'll have to practice a lot more."

"I'll try my best! I'm going to draw now, goodbye nun! Goodbye judge!"

Anita smiled and waved goodbye to the two people in the room.

"... Is that child really that outgoing?"

From the corner of the room, Irene, who had been silent all along, stepped forward and scratched her head somewhat strangely.

"Probably, but thank you so much for taking the time to bring us the letter."

Xiu Tina stood up and bowed slightly to Irene to express her gratitude.

"No, no, there's nothing to thank me for. I just happened to be passing through Saltwind City and brought it over for you..."

"Yeah."

Xiu Tina lowered her eyes, and beneath her flawless white eyelashes, her pupils, which were somewhat obscured by her thoughts, slowly swept over the opened envelope and letter.

"You seem to care a lot about that letter too?"

"What... what do you mean 'concerned'! This is just routine judicial work! Besides, I only opened it up to check! I didn't touch anything!"

Irene was taken aback, then hurriedly explained.

"Yeah?"

"Yes... yes!"

"Why is your heart racing, young judge?"

"Gulp!! How, how could this be! Cough cough, anyway, I've brought the letter for you, I should be going now!"

Irene hurriedly walked past Xiu Tina, preparing to leave the room.

However, before leaving, she turned back and glanced at Xiu Tina was still sitting in the same spot.

The latter put the letter aside and then continued to look intently at the oil painting on the easel in front of him.

It was an unfinished statue of the Virgin Mary, but...

"Hey, nun, why does the person in your drawing have six fingers on one hand?"

As if she couldn't help it, Irene finally spoke up and asked about the strange thing she had noticed as soon as she entered the room.

After listening, the other person turned to look at the painting, seemingly deep in thought.

After a long pause, Xiu Tina shook her head and said...

I'm sorry, I didn't know.

"... As expected, both artists and church people are abnormal," Irene muttered to herself, then quickly left.

After a long while, Xiu Tina stared at the image of the Virgin Mary in the painting, seemingly lost in thought.

She spoke slowly.

"Yes, why do we have six fingers?"

Reaching out, he tore off the almost stunning artwork that ignored the fingers and tossed it into the trash can, which was already overflowing with similar failures.

Then, Xiu Tina raised her hand, picked up the envelope again, and stared at the words on it.

Gradually, the black ink turned scarlet, and then, as if it came to life, it quickly transformed into swarms of threads, which were drawn from the paper and flowed into Xiu Tina's fingertips.

Now she could finally begin to read the revelations that her Lord had sent down—

Chapter 101, Creation No. 003

"Huff... huff..."

Irene walked through the brightly lit metal corridor. Despite the soft glow of the overhead lights, the surrounding environment consistently gave her a sense of oppression and claustrophobia.

Structurally speaking, the high-speed warship they were currently on could almost be described as spacious.

But why... this lingering sense of claustrophobia and tension...?

Thinking of this, she shook her head, then strode forward, heading straight for the Class A ship of this behemoth.

There, there were men wearing the same uniform as her.

Judge Dario.

"Was the letter delivered to her?"

The high judge turned his head and watched as his outstanding student came to his side, placed his hands on the railing, and spoke with a sense of relief.

"It's already been handed over to Ms. Xiu Tina, teacher."

"Well, that's good... By the way, you don't look too well?"

Dario's eyes, peering through the mask, saw Irene's expression as she gasped for air.

"No, I'm not feeling unwell... it's just..."

She looked down at the warship deck painted dark red beneath her feet.

"I don't know why, but I always feel like when I'm inside this warship, it's like I'm being swallowed up by some enormous creature."

Sample..."

"Yeah."

"Doesn't the teacher feel this... this feeling of being swallowed up?"

Irene turned her head curiously and asked.

"Perhaps it's just a subconscious illusion because it's your first time on such a massive structure; you'll get used to it."

Dario leaned against the armrest, feeling the warship beneath his feet.

"The other judges who boarded the ship had the same feeling as you, probably for the same reason. You see, those villagers who stayed on the warship the whole time... no, the church members didn't seem to have any problems."

A flicker of something crossed Dario's eyes, but he simply pointed to Irene "church members" chatting and laughing not far away, who were responsible for maintenance on the ship.

Without a doubt, he clearly realized that there was something wrong with this warship.

The judges' intuition was extraordinary. If it were just Irene, it might be dismissed as a coincidence. However, the judges who boarded the ship afterward almost unanimously expressed the same feeling as their student, which was enough to warrant attention.

But why... can't I realize this? Is it because I'm getting old?

Or is it...?

"Why..."

He sighed deeply, trying to stop himself from thinking about these things any further.

Although we had asked Ms. Xiu Tina where she got the warship, she only replied that it was "a gift from God."

Furthermore, they conducted various internal structural checks and clearly stated that there were no problems and it could be used as a normal high-speed warship.

But...

No. 003.

This is the nun's name for the warship; it's just a number, but it also makes one endlessly curious as to why it's 003 instead of 001.

It makes one wonder what the top two items are—are they also warships? Or something else entirely?

However, despite his many doubts, he had to calm himself down and subconsciously ignore some of the occasional rumors.

For example, the enemy was yelling, the warship's hull was shattered, but when they led the emergency repair team down the ropes, they only found a scratched area.

For example, the secondary gun compartment was filled with shells of various types and sizes, some purchased, some captured, of different specifications. But by simply touching the loading mechanism and praising "the Lord of Primordial Life," these shells could be directly inserted into the loading compartment and fired normally, the entire process seamless, as if the secondary gun itself had come to life and was automatically adapting to the size of the shells...

Although Sister Xiu Tina refuted the latter claim, Dario did indeed find various types of shells in the lower-level warehouses... some even compatible with the high-speed warships of other countries...

However, in any case, Dario himself must at least consider this to be a normal high-speed warship.

Because------

He turned his head and looked at the judges scattered in twos and threes on the vast overtime work area.

Without a doubt, it would be virtually impossible for them alone to destroy this regime, which has been thoroughly infiltrated by the Church of the Deep and is already corrupt enough on its own.

But...

This "Invincible Battleship," brought by Ms. Xiu Tina, had been unstoppable all the way, giving Dario a glimmer of hope.

An Invincible Battleship might not be able to completely change anything, but it could allow them to crush all the high-ranking officials who colluded with the Church of the Deep and then force them to the negotiating table.

... Perhaps the only problem now is... there are far too many high- Iberia members colluding with the Church of the Deep.

What's wrong with these people? Have they been completely fooled by those charlatans? If this continues, Iberia will be destroyed by these worms!

Call...

In short, whatever the reason.

This warship was their only asset; the rebellion instigated by these judges alone could not shake anything.