It was the middle of the day, but there were still plenty of other drunkards wandering about and making noise. A block away, there were two Adepts dueling to the death. On our way back to the ship, we passed by at least three or four hardcore brawls. Honestly, under the circumstances, Mei’s little outburst shouldn’t have even drawn any attention.

Unfortunately, screaming “Death to the King!” was a pretty big taboo in most monarchies. Especially if the person is already on a ‘shit list’. I mean, it didn’t help that she spent the last two hours ranting about how she was ‘Hua Mei’ and the ‘rightful ruler of Hua Ri Keep’.

When we got to the Titanic Fury, there was a battalion of Apprentice soldiers blocking our path. They were wearing thick azure platemail and carrying steel halberds or swords. If you’re wondering whether I was stupid enough to approach the wall of angry-looking giants… No, no I was not. In fact, the moment that I saw them from a distance, I decided “Nope, fuck that shit!”

There were small and large boats all over the place. The warships were basically all guarded, but there were plenty of tiny fishing vessels and medium-sized ferries. Those captured silver troop-transports were starting to sail off into the distance. They were filled with those newly initiated members of the Church of Luna. I also saw Raphael standing at the helm of the largest one.

“Ugh, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this…”

I picked the nearest unprotected skiff and hopped onboard. There was a black tarp covering it, so there was plenty of room for me to hide, along with my unconscious companion.

“I really wish that I could see what’s going on over there. Goddamn it, Mei!”

Not only did she smell like piss and vomit, it seemed like she was on the brink of explosive diarrhea. As much as I loved her, I was not willing to suffocate inside of that floating coffin with her. After turning her onto her side and propping her up against the inner hull, I climbed back out onto the dock.

Xiaotong was still snoozing in my Dantian on ‘autopilot’, so I was basically on my own. However, it took me a few minutes to realize “Wait a second… It doesn’t matter if he’s the King or whatever, Queen Hua Jiang would never allow him to kill me. She definitely wouldn’t give a damn if something happened to Mei, but that douchebag probably can’t hurt me. At least not on the Titanic Fury.”

Well, just to be on the safe side, I pulled the double-barreled sawed-off shotgun out of my money-bag and loaded it with two ‘slugs’. Each of them had a written message in English on the side: “Warning! Experimental High-Explosives! Handle Carefully!” It’s not like I would bring along a shotgun without any ammo. I really didn’t want to risk my life to fire those sketchy shells though.

I walked to the end of the small pier and entered into the crowd of random people, most of whom were much bigger than myself. For fuck’s sake, I was only a little more than four feet tall and the average was around five to six feet. There wasn’t really a huge difference between the men and women either. Most Adepts were over two meters and super-beefy. It wasn’t only genetics, but it was generally easier for bigger people to cultivate. Not only did they have more room in their abdomens for their Dantian to expand, it took a lot less work for them to pack on loads of muscle.

Anyway, no one seemed to recognize the weird ‘thing’ that I was holding as a weapon. Most people just saw it as a piece of artwork. Hell, there was a skinny pickpocket girl, not much older than myself, who tried to steal the shotgun right out of my hands. She had short brown dreadlocks and wore a loose white t-shirt, which dangled past her knees. It was covered in various stains and had a few rips in various locations.

The only thing that really stood out about the kid was her heterochromatic eyes. Her left iris was dark-brown, but the right was light-blue and slightly glowing. When she tried to rob me, I reached out with my left hand and grabbed her right wrist.

“Get off me!” As she screamed and struggled to escape my grasp, I sighed and let her go. In the heat of the moment, Qi was agitated and I could easily see the runic markings on the back of her hands. She was eleven years old and only at the third level of the Novice Stage. Not only that, but both of her eyes turned bright-red.

I know, it may seem totally meaningless to give such an in depth description of some random thief, but I promise that there was a point to that. Mainly, I had been wondering about whether someone with heterochromia would be able to have multiple Innate Talents. Oh yeah, and it definitely wasn’t my last encounter with that girl.

***

There was a pretty large space between the three-hundred soldiers and the crowd of people who were going about their business. A single Adept was standing upon that enormous bridge that led to the Titanic Fury, while the Apprentices were all situated on the long and thick ironwood pier.

As I approached the front row, I glared at the peak-level Apprentice in the middle and ordered “Move out of the way, now.” He didn’t even bother to look at me, while some of the other men and women started laughing.

A bastard in the second row shouted “Who the hell do you think you are, Brat?!”

Some giant twat behind him screamed “Fuck off, ya stupid little shit!”

Then another guy in the second row yelled “Hey Captain Qin, you should teach this kid a lesson!”

That dude at the very front suddenly glared at me and snorted. I’m not even making this shit up, he literally ‘snorted’ at me. I opened my mouth, but didn’t really know whether I should laugh or shoot him in the face.

He growled “Child, you have three seconds to scram, or I’ll obliterate your Dantian. Three, two-”

Before the douchebag could finished talking, that three-meter tall mid-level Adept screamed “Let him through! His Majesty the King wishes to speak with him!” She was really muscular and her face was extremely masculine, so until I heard her voice, I couldn’t even tell that the bald bitch was a woman.

After hearing the order, that Qin guy sneered at me and obediently moved the fuck out of the way. Although they seemed to be disgruntled, everyone else followed suit and there was a nice pathway for me to walk through.

I wasn’t afraid, but I was definitely nervous. Judging by what Mei had told me, her brother was a hardcore sociopath and a total scumbag. There was a ninety-nine percent chance that he would try to murder me later on, so I was going to deal with him first. It was going to be a bloody and vicious battle. I had so many plans and scenarios in my head.

“What if Captain Li tried to stop me? Should I kill her too?”

“What if he has some sort of magical treasure that can block my bullets?”

“What if they find Mei while I’m over here fucking around?”

“What if a giant swarm of zombie dragons suddenly arrive and destroy the whole city… No, that probably won’t happen.”

“Should I challenge him to a sparring match and make him waste his defensive abilities? Then as he’s leaving the boat, I could use my rifle to assassinate him from my window… What kind of bullets should I use?”

“Would it be better to pretend to handle things peacefully, then use the snub-nose… Oh wait, I forgot to bring it with me! Maybe I can find an excuse to go into my room and grab it? No, that would be way too suspicious…”

“I’ll probably have to kill his soldiers too, including that Adept… This might be really hard. I don’t actually know if these explosive rounds work the way Azrael claimed. Even if they are like grenades, these assholes are using loads of armor and they’re all basically superhuman.”

“Fuck, I think I’m gonna have an anxiety attack before I even finish walking up this ridiculously long bridge!”

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