First Arrival in Vast Sea City

"Get down here and fight me head-on! What kind of god hides behind someone else? Your heir ran off, and I still haven't had my fill!"

The two golden words remained floating where they were, flickered twice, then slowly faded away.

The sea returned to calm.

The sun had fully sunk below the horizon, leaving only a smear of dark red afterglow hanging in the sky.

A flock of seagulls that had been knocked unconscious wobbled out of the water, shook the droplets from their feathers, and looked around blankly, completely unable to understand what had just happened.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed.

"Vast Sea City is up ahead."

The middle-aged pirate uncle pointed at the distant harbor as he spoke to Jiang Lan and Doro on the small boat.

They were pirates, so they had no way of delivering the two little ones directly there. They could only let them take a boat over themselves.

Jiang Lan nodded. "Thank you, Uncle!"

With that, he prepared to row the small boat toward Vast Sea City.

"Wait."

At that moment, Zi Zhenzhu's voice rang out.

Jiang Lan stopped at the sound of Zi Zhenzhu's voice. When he turned back, he saw something flying toward him.

After catching it, Jiang Lan realized it was a bracelet-type Storage Soul Tool.

"There's some money inside. Enough for you two to live on."

Jiang Lan held the bracelet-type Storage Soul Tool and lowered his head to look at it for a long while.

The bracelet was silver, engraved with delicate wave patterns that gleamed softly in the morning light.

He gently turned it with his fingertips, then raised his head. A serious expression appeared on his chubby little face.

"Sister Zi Zhenzhu, this must be expensive, right?"

"Not expensive. I stole it." Zi Zhenzhu stood at the bow with her arms crossed, speaking as casually as if she had given him an orange rather than a Storage Soul Tool. "I have no use for it anyway. Take it and spend it."

Jiang Lan knew she was lying.

After spending a month with the fleet, he had long understood just how rare Soul Tools were at sea.

Even among the core crew of the Zi Zhenzhu, few could afford to use a Soul Tool.

He did not expose her. He simply put the Storage Soul Tool on his wrist, then looked up and gave Zi Zhenzhu a huge smile.

The morning light shone over his neat little white teeth, making them sparkle brightly.

"Sister Zi Zhenzhu, when I become the Sea God, I'll definitely make you the first mate of Sea God Island!"

Zi Zhenzhu's lips twitched.

She wanted to say, Who wants to be your first mate? But when the words reached her lips, they became a very soft sigh instead.

"Enough, get going." Zi Zhenzhu waved her hand as if shooing away an annoying seagull. "Keep dawdling and it'll be dark before you get there."

Jiang Lan nodded, sat back down, pulled Doro closer into his arms, and grabbed the oars.

Doro poked her head out from Jiang Lan's arms, waved her tiny hand at Zi Zhenzhu, and let out a soft little "Doro," probably saying goodbye.

Zi Zhenzhu did not wave back. She merely stood by the railing and watched the small boat drift farther and farther across the sea. Morning light spread over the water, dyeing the entire ocean pale gold.

That chubby little bundle in a penguin onesie sat in the middle of the boat, with a little white bundle lying atop his head. His rowing was crooked and clumsy, and several times he nearly spun in circles on the spot.

Jiang Lan hurriedly adjusted their direction, muttering nonstop under his breath, probably arguing with Doro about the correct way to row a boat.

"Boss." The bearded uncle had somehow appeared behind Zi Zhenzhu, a jug of wine in his hand. "If you can't bear to part with him, stop pretending to be cool. Your eyes are already red."

Without turning around, Zi Zhenzhu smacked the back of her blade against the bearded uncle's stomach. "They're not red. It's the sea wind."

The bearded uncle clutched his stomach and squatted down, but he could not suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth.

After following Zi Zhenzhu for so many years, it was his first time seeing his boss wear such an expression.

The woman who shouted every day about throwing the brat overboard to feed the fish had, at the moment of parting, given away one of the few Storage Soul Tools aboard the ship.

He knew that Storage Soul Tool had taken Zi Zhenzhu three years of saving during her days as a mercenary to buy. She treasured it dearly, personally wiping it clean every time. If any crew member so much as touched it, she would glare at them for ages.

Yet she had just given it away to a little brat who had eaten and lived aboard the ship for free for an entire month.

"Still, now that the little brat's gone, the ship's kitchen is finally safe." The bearded uncle rubbed his stomach, stood up, and looked toward the distant boat. "You gave away that precious bracelet of yours. Doesn't it hurt?"

Zi Zhenzhu fell silent for a while, watching as the small boat was finally swallowed by the morning light, leaving behind only a tiny black dot.

Then she turned and headed for the cabin. After taking two steps, her shoulders gave an almost imperceptible shrug.

"...Think of it as paying for a month of dishwashing. Besides, he earned his free meals with his own ability, and that bracelet was stolen anyway. I don't mind."

The small boat drifted across the sea for another half hour before finally wobbling ashore.

Jiang Lan tied the boat to a stone bollard at the harbor, then jumped onto Vast Sea City's dock with Doro in his arms. The pier was packed with noise and people. Bare-chested workers carrying cargo rushed back and forth, fish vendors shouted themselves hoarse, and several dried salted fish hung from wooden racks, swaying in the wind. The air was thick with the mingled stench of sea brine and sweat.

Jiang Lan took a deep breath, then coughed repeatedly from the smell. This was completely different from the salty sea breeze of Sea God Island. The wind on Sea God Island was clean; the wind here had been thoroughly pickled.

"Jiang Lan, it smells so bad here." Doro buried her whole face in the hood of Jiang Lan's penguin suit, leaving only her large purple eyes exposed as she vigilantly scanned the surroundings.

"It really doesn't smell as nice as the island." Jiang Lan patted Doro's head, puffed out his chest, and marched into Vast Sea City with his little legs raised high.

Vast Sea City was far larger than Sea Maiden City. All kinds of shops crowded both sides of the streets—weapon shops, herb shops, cloth shops. Their signs hung crookedly, while the cries of shop assistants rose and fell one after another. Jiang Lan looked around curiously. When he spotted a stall selling sugar figurines, he could not move another step. He squatted in front of it and stared for a long time, only remembering that he had money now when the vendor asked whether he was buying.

He opened the bracelet Zi Zhenzhu had given him and glanced inside, then froze on the spot.

The space inside the bracelet was not large, about the size of a small room, but stacks upon stacks of gold coins had been neatly arranged inside—at least several hundred of them.

Beside the gold coins were several sets of spare clothes. They were not the rough linen worn aboard the pirate ship, but soft, comfortable garments made from fine cotton.

The clothes were clearly child-sized and fit his current build perfectly.

Several packets of dried meat, a bag of rations, and a waterskin had also been stuffed into one corner. There was even a small jar of orange jam.

When Zi Zhenzhu said there was some money inside, she had not said there would be this much.

And those clothes and food had certainly not been tossed in there on a whim.