abnabooks Chapter 71 Continue the Plan to Escape
Chapter 71 Continue the Plan to Escape
Zag asked in confusion, "Why?"
"Hmm... it's hard to say, but I just don't have the time! And think about it, if the Holy Spirits were to respond to every believer, they wouldn't be able to do anything else all day long—or even if they did nothing but keep an eye on the believers, how many believers would be praying or performing rituals every moment? It's simply impossible to manage them all!"
"I thought that as 'gods,' the Holy Spirits must be able to multitask."
"That's true, but that doesn't mean we should waste our energy. More often than not, it's just a natural feedback—believers receive predetermined rewards by performing rituals that conform to the authority of the Holy Spirits. Can you guess why many Holy Spirit prayer rituals have strict rules and scripts?"
"That makes sense..."
Zag was persuaded.
In other words, Snowball's explanation is logically consistent.
After all, there must be a reason why the fixed nature of prayer rituals has become a universally accepted standard. It can't be that believers deliberately created useless ritual rules just to make it seem more sophisticated, right?
Even if there were such a reason, it would not explain why all the ritual prayers of the Holy Spirits are similar in three parts—one part is to say the true name, one part is to describe the content of the request, and one part is to swear allegiance or express gratitude.
This is a standard that even children know, and it is recognized by all the cultivators in the temple of the Nine Holy Spirits!
But he still felt a chill down his spine.
"Once we shave the coal briquette bald and sell its hair, let's leave Dongchui Port as soon as possible."
Snowball looked puzzled: "But you just rented the place! And the lease is for a year! A full 52 weeks!"
Zag replied, "It doesn't matter. Survival is the priority. It's best to stay away from these messy cults. Besides, the penalty is only a 10-shilling deposit. Once we sell the coal briquettes, we can go back and exchange them for a batch of healing slime with the tree spirits. We won't be short of money for a while. The 10-shilling penalty is nothing!"
Compared to my life, what are 10 shillings!
Snowball complained, "That's enough to buy five baskets of dried fish!"
Zag offered a half-hearted reassurance: "When we get to Holland, I'll buy you ten baskets!"
But Snowball was buying it: "Then I think going to Holland is a good idea! When do we leave?"
"No rush. I'll study alchemy and basic magic for a couple of days first. Then you can contact the tree spirits when you have some free time and see if they're willing to trade long-term. If all else fails, we can see if there's another way to establish a trade route with them..."
Zag really didn't want to give up a stable supply of healing slime. Based on the tree spirits' "production speed," he could exchange it for goods worth at least a hundred gold pounds every six months—pure profit!
Snowball chimed in, "That's easy. There are fairies here in Eastgate Port too. I can get them to help. These little things can be transported directly to Holland through the 'Fairy House'!"
Zag immediately tilted his head and looked at Snowball in surprise.
Snowball instinctively tucked its ears to its head, looking at Zag warily: "W-what's wrong?"
Zag exclaimed, "I never thought you could be reliable!"
"Stupid dragon! What do you mean?!" Snowball was instantly furious, its fur standing on end. "Whenever you do something stupid, I'm the one who cleans up your mess!? Meow! I'll bite you to death!"
As if venting all the anger of the day, Snowball pounced on Zag's shoulder and bit down hard.
It hurts a little, but the skin isn't broken.
Since it was winter, Zag had deliberately worn his old sentry uniform with leather padding underneath to keep warm, so he had a rather thick leather shoulder pad. It would be strange if Snowball, with its kitten-like sharp teeth, could bite through it.
"Alright, alright, I was just kidding. This lowly servant Zag is only able to survive in this world thanks to the great Snowball." Zag laughed and pointed to the flower-decorated garden fence that was already visible in the distance, saying, "We're almost home, hurry up and turn back."
These flowers were bought by Mrs. Marsh when she went to the market on the weekend. She has recently become very close to her neighbor, an elderly lady of the same age, and even got a part-time job knitting sweaters for money from her. With more money in her pocket, she seems to have become much more enthusiastic about life.
Or perhaps Mrs. Marsh was a woman who appreciated the finer things in life, but long-term poverty and toil left her with no time for such things.
According to the old lady, she could earn 5 pence for each scarf she knitted, 1 pence for two pairs of knee pads, and 3 pence for a pair of gloves. If she could sew leather over the wool gloves for a double-layered finish, she could earn an extra 3 pence.
With Mrs. Marsh’s skill, even when she was not very energetic, she could make two pairs of gloves a day and earn a net income of 10 pence.
This is quite a good income for a housewife who doesn't have many other survival skills, earning at least 5 shillings per week.
It's easy to imagine that a healthy housewife could work twice as many hours as Mrs. Marsh, and her income would naturally double as well—a very considerable weekly wage of 10 shillings or more!
Moreover, the materials were all provided by the tailor shop at the "Popeye Market" in the North District, and if there was a guarantor, no deposit was required. Mrs. Marsh's new neighbor was her guarantor, so she could take the materials home for free to make the garment, and then hand it over to the tailor shop when it was finished.
Especially now that it's winter, the demand for gloves is huge. For low-level laborers, these are consumables, making this job even easier.
When Zag brought the snowball into the garden, he saw Mrs. Marsh humming a song as she loosened the soil in the garden.
"Oh dear, Snowball's with you? I was just wondering why I hadn't seen it all afternoon. I didn't expect the little guy to have gone looking for you!"
Mrs. Marsh was in a good mood, and it was only Monday, just two days after she drank the Healing Hand. The effects of the medicine made her look much less weak than she had on Thursday and Friday.
Zag casually lied: "I met it at the street corner. It was playing by itself, so I brought it home."
You can't exactly say that Snowball went to find Zag on its own, can you? That would be way beyond the normal intelligence range of a cat.
"What a lively little fellow!" Mrs. Marsh, unsuspecting, smiled and beckoned to Snowball, "Come on, I'll take you to get your favorite creamy fish paste bread!"
"Meow!"
Snowball cheered and jumped off Zag's shoulder, trotting happily after Mrs. Marsh into the house.
Helford was resting by the fireplace and only slightly twitched his ears when he heard Mrs. Marsh enter the room.
It was thoroughly bothered by Snowball last night—in the early hours of the morning, Snowball, having slept well, must have forced Herford to visit its room, even waking up Zag.
With no other option but to let Zag help, Herford dragged his weary steps and squeezed into the cramped attic space.
Fortunately, Zag is the kind of person who can fall back asleep as long as he feels sleepy, even if the sky falls down. So waking up in the middle of the night didn't affect his energy the next day too much.
Unfortunately, Herford was not so lucky. He looked gloomy all day and even skipped eating two baked potatoes for breakfast, which worried Mrs. Marsh for quite some time.
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【Oblivion】: Also known as the Oblivion Realm, the Oblivion World, or the Planes of Oblivion, it is the largest known subworld, overlapping with the world of Dawn Continent, and is a magnificent and magically rich world.
Legend has it that many demons, including demon gods, and various powerful magical creatures live in Annihilation, but many followers of the Nine Holy Spirits deny this and claim that the Holy Spirits' kingdom is in heaven.
In conclusion, annihilation is an extremely dangerous place for mortals.