(There’s indeed double votes for the month, so I’m decisively asking for votes. Yesterday I actually forgot—though that’s seems to be a normal thing. Anyway, even though it’s only the last day or two of the month, I’ll ask for votes nonetheless.)

Bubbles, the God of the Grocery Store, is the conclusion Lilina came to after precisely evaluating that silly bird’s symbolic divine power.

Probably because it’s not yet complete and too immature, Medivh’s influence on the symbolic power of surrounding objects is highly random. A person who believes in the Crow God might receive various blessings: perhaps new power, perhaps freedom from all diseases, maybe mysterious knowledge, or even awaken a new ability to eat 200 cherries in one minute (no mistake). This randomness in blessings leaves Lilina with quite a headache since it means the Crow God can’t be clearly defined: What type of deity is she? What kind of power should her followers possess? What’s the standard way of praying? Without defining these three major aspects, a god’s authority is nothing but a castle in the sky.

"The church doesn’t have to be serious, but the deity’s ’image’ must be serious. At least it should appear serious to the followers," Lilina rarely said to me solemnly, "The Little Bird can’t get serious about this matter now. Look at the Goddess of Life, though there are various issues, her power is impeccable. What the goddess’s followers should do, what they will become, and the goddess’s power system are all as unshakeable as laws, and this is the way a god should lead its followers. Whereas now, the followers of the Crow God are more like they are taking a gamble—praying for three minutes, then a dialog box pops up: ’Congratulations, you’ve received the reward of +10086 defense today,’ isn’t this nonsense..."

It’s not easy to hear the word "nonsense" from Lilina’s mouth; it seems this girl indeed has a worldview...

"A long way to go, a long way to go," Lilina sighed, pressing her forehead, then pointed shamelessly at Vanilla, "This is all your task, you must sort out all these things, at least understand the correspondence between the prayer rituals and the effects of blessings."

Vanilla was focused on picking her fingers and raised her head blankly after hearing this: "Ah?"

Lilina let out a long sigh and started rolling on the ground: "So stupid, so stupid, so stupid! Are you aware at all! You’re the only one among all the Crow God’s followers who cannot write the ’Crow God Scripture,’ do you know that!"

Vanilla scratched her hair awkwardly and laughed foolishly: "Because I originally can’t write."

"Alright, don’t trouble Vanilla anymore," I reached out to pull Lilina from the ground, tidying her messy dress, "Medivh is still young. In the lifespan of a deity, right now she’s only slightly more developed than a fertilized egg...ahem, eventually she’ll grow and stabilize. I remember Xiao Xue mentioned that the Crow God is some sort of guardian deity, which suggests she will have a fixed divine role in the future." I turned to look at Xiao Xue, who rolled her eyes: "Guardian God for Mages, Thieves, Assassins, Summoners. Dad, pay some attention, or in the future, you’ll only be able to put her at the maternity door to bless mother and child’s safety...ah, mom, I was wrong!"

Before I even moved, Xiao Xue, the stubborn kid, was decisively dragged away by Miss Lin for a scolding. Lin Xue is gradually stepping into her role more and more.

Although the Crow God is somewhat chaotic for now, and the famine-stricken people’s belief in the silly bird doesn’t appear serious, Lilina has gathered plenty of valuable information. She has figured out a rough process needed for Crow God rituals, a basic method to export a small portion of Medivh’s power for miracles, and several effective "Prayers." With these, at least establishing a religious prototype is sufficient.

"The symbolic power of a deity doesn’t work arbitrarily; otherwise, even heretics, as long as they live in the deity’s city, would gain power, wouldn’t that be chaos," Lilina explained the so-called "rituals" like this, "’Rituals’ are using certain special items and actions to simulate a scenario of being with the deity or mimic some of the deity’s characteristics and deeds, while psychologically hinting to the believers. Symbolic power works by leveraging information disturbance, thus this unscientific ’rituals’ can trigger tangible and effective miracles because they generate information guidance. Christianity has the concept of using bread and wine to represent Christ’s flesh and blood, which is linking oneself to the deity through special items and psychological hints. To perform rituals for the Crow God, one needs to clip black bird feathers onto their clothes, use flexible grass to build nests, place goose eggs or similarly shaped objects in the nest, ensure the first character when praying is ’caw,’ and upon ending the ritual, scatter a handful of corn seeds in the nest. These are currently the most effective processes I’ve summarized, allowing mortals to borrow power from the Little Bird. Of course, sincerity is required, at least sincere enough to psychologically hint oneself, like...like firmly believing oneself to be a bird..."

What Lilina mentioned earlier made quite some sense, but in the end had me choking. I genuinely admire those who believe in the Crow God Sect: it takes a strong psychological resilience to be a priest in such a sect, following this silly bird is no easy task. Moreover, adding a ’caw’ before praying for the Crow God...I finally found a more nonsensical rule than adding one’s name and address after praying.

"Um," as we’re chatting with Lilina about her days of missionary work, the lounge door was cautiously opened, and the small-statured Cat Lady appeared at the door with her head lowered, "The room has been tidied up and dinner is ready."

"Wow, that was fast!" Qianqian jumped to her feet and began walking fast, "Time to eat, I’m really hungry after wandering all day..."

After a while, she pushed the door open again: "By the way, where’s the dining room?" The Cat Lady quickly followed, "I’ll guide you."

"Isn’t she excessively timid?" I murmured looking at Rabi’s disappearing direction.

"She’s been bullied since childhood, growing up meek and submissive," Lilina lamented maturely, "In the Southern Region, there are only two ways to survive. You must be strong enough or smart enough to either beat people down or live by deception, or lower yourself to picking up others’ leftovers. Rabi is extremely weak, her brain isn’t much help, so unless beaten or suppressed, what else can she do?"

Perhaps due to her agility as a cat, Rabi works admirably fast and has already prepared a large table of food for us. Considering there are more than a dozen people here, yet seeing the large dining table full of food, I couldn’t help but glance at Sandora; the food here is evidently still insufficient.

The cat probably couldn’t understand that there are only two types of chefs in the world who can fill Sandora’s stomach: one is Anwina and the other is a hundred-person chef team. The food prepared by Rabi isn’t enough to fill Her Majesty’s dental gap.

We settled at the dining table, Sandora immediately started pulling food from her Personal Space. She’s aware of her appetite so she always packs reserve food in her personal space while traveling. Her majesty wouldn’t reject normal food, even though she can be survivalist outdoors. Sandora’s move instantly startled the Cat Lady, who hesitantly and shyly asked, "Um...is Rabi’s food not to your taste?"

"Even if you stir up a pot of sand, it suits her taste," Bingdisi said as she stuffed food into her mouth casually, "just doesn’t suit her appetite." Then she suddenly patted Lin: "Little girl, make friends with Rabi."

"Ah?" Lin lifted her head in confusion, meeting Bingdisi’s mischievous gaze, as Bingdisi gestured towards the Cat Lady: "She’s a sufferer too, you both might share mutual language, like discussing the experience of being bullied."

Lin expressionlessly shook her head: "No way, two sufferers together lack a storyline. One dominant and one submissive form the perfect match."

The entire world fell silent, the room was astounded staring at the normally obedient Dragon God Girl’s astonishing remarks, Bingdisi still had a vegetable leaf stuck to her lips as she froze, then Lin bit her spoon and cautiously glanced around, whispering: "Bubbles taught me."

Bubbles, who was feeding Little Baobao, immediately jumped up from the chair: "You eat first, Daddy, I’ll check on the milk I’m heating for the child in the kitchen... Ah!" Then she was promptly subdued by Big Sister. We criticized her for a few minutes, seriously condemning her for not only indulging in unhealthy habits herself but also trying to spread this deviance to the most honest family member. Finally, Bubbles admitted her mistake and promised to correct the Dragon God Girl’s worldview. She ran up to Lin and said seriously, "The situation of one top and one bottom should be limited to two men, and you’re a woman, so there’s no need to worry about lack of plot with this cat—you two can be a yuri couple."

Lin: Although she didn’t understand, she went "Oh."

As a result, we ordered that Bubbles wouldn’t be allowed to eat dinner tonight.

After resting for the night and restoring some spirit, we began discussing the upcoming itinerary. There seemed to be no mandatory tasks in this world, which was quite unusual for us and meant everyone could just enjoy some leisure time here—everything was functioning normally in Shadow City, and all affairs were arranged before leaving, so no need to worry. The little ones didn’t have any plans and were just fine tagging along with the adults. Pandora and Visca wanted to conquer the world, so let’s ignore that. Qianqian felt that as long as she was with Ah Jun, anything would be exciting, so that’s ignored too. The Divine Race Tiaozi Five wanted to head to the Southern Region to see what bizarre outcomes Lilina’s missionary work had produced, which actually aligned with their profession, while Lin Xue and Lilina wanted to stay here a few more days: they weren’t done having fun yet.

Perhaps we can stay here for another two or three days, and then set off for the south: I’m quite curious about what the Crow God Sect is like.

"By the way, Vanilla, have you not gone back to your hometown to take a look?"

After leaving the Secret Magic Meeting, before heading to other city areas we didn’t visit yesterday to play for a while (the cat lady named Rabi was left to watch the house, not because we didn’t want to bring her but because she seemed quite afraid of going out), I glanced at Vanilla, who was chattering with Little Crow at the back of the group. The little girl seemed very excited, probably because a big city like Sen Tu was quite eye-opening for someone who grew up in the mountains. Of course, Shadow City was even more mind-blowing, but its scale was too high for her to comprehend. In contrast, a place like Sen Tu, which was both bustling and not overwhelmingly so, felt more relatable to Vanilla.

I remember Vanilla mentioning before that she originally lived near a small mountainside town called "Loren," which seems to be in the Southern Region. The Southern Region... it seems to be a very underdeveloped part of this country. From what I’ve heard so far, everything related to the Southern Region involves either barren mines or deserted mountain villages. Loren Town, where Vanilla used to live, is considered economically developed.

"I secretly went to take a look the day I got back," Vanilla stuck out her tongue, "but it didn’t seem like anyone cared where the girl selling herbs went in the end. Instead, they were talking about how a Spirit of Nature appeared outside the town not long ago, attracting the kingdom’s soldiers, and they mentioned me in passing. They probably think I’m already dead. No one really cares, so I don’t want to go back either."

"I see..." I thought it wasn’t something worth celebrating, but seeing Vanilla’s indifferent attitude about it, I decided not to say more, "By the way, it seems those two half-dragons live in the Dark Alley District. We didn’t visit the Dark Alley District yesterday, did we?"

Lilina, already briefed by me about the half-dragon Shajina and Sona, immediately nodded: "Right, let’s go check out the Dark Alley District—but just to be clear, the Dark Alley District is basically a slum, so it’s not really fun there."

"A slum, huh," whispered Qianqian, who got along well with those two half-dragon girls, "It seems like the status of half-dragons in this world isn’t very high. I didn’t see a single well-dressed half-dragon on the streets yesterday."

Sister has been in this world for about half a month now and has some understanding of its local customs and practices. She nodded: "Half-Dragons—actually, not many people here acknowledge that term. They are the only ones who call themselves half-dragons because they firmly believe their ancestors were Dragon Clan members cursed and thus had their powers sealed, turning them into what they are now. Almost ninety percent of other races on the continent regard that belief as superstition and delusion. In their view, those half-dragons should be called ’Lizard Men.’ Just from these two names, you can sense the situation. It’s said that a long time ago, half-dragons had a glorious era and left behind powerful civilizations and relics, but their race had a fatal flaw—they couldn’t learn anything related to magic. Also, they were trapped in internal conflict for years. When other races rose to power, these half-dragons, who monopolized half the continent’s living areas, quickly declined. After many years, they’ve now become low-status ’Lizard Men’ with no territory of their own on the continent, except for a few islands across the sea where a few half-dragon ’countries’ exist. The half-dragons left on the mainland have to live dependent on other races. Every race on this continent has its own land, except the half-dragons."

"A glorious history, a miserable present," sighed Lilina, "Now all they have left to show for is their physical strength and a glorious history. Oh, they also call themselves Dragon Descendants with a sense of pride. I admire that, actually. Half-dragons still firmly believe they have Dragon Clan blood and would rather die than change this belief. I wonder what supports this pride."

I’ve heard about Shajina and Sona’s past but never about half-dragons having such a history. Based on my observations over the past couple of days, I realized the awkward status half-dragons hold in this world. What Sister described evokes a lot of feelings: it’s a snapshot of a race after its decline. I suddenly recalled when I first met the two half-dragon girls a few days ago. They introduced themselves, saying, "We’re half-dragons!" with pride on their faces, perhaps with helplessness and readiness to accept ridicule in their eyes. After all, for half-dragons, those three words represent something that’s just history now.

Bingdisi suddenly nudged Lin’s arm and started murmuring: "Hey, why don’t you check if those half-dragons are really related to dragons? What if it was a mistake you made in your youth..."

The whole group burst into laughter, and I dragged this female hooligan to the side: "I say, do you have any sense talking like that? Lin is still young, and you’re just making things up. By the way, Lin, how old are you?"

The Dragon God Girl, blushing, clearly had her line of shame crossed by Bingdisi’s joke earlier. She hesitated for a moment before lowering her head and answering: "Se... Seventy thousand plus years. I’m still young, and I haven’t even been in love yet."

I: "..."

I was wrong. I shouldn’t have discussed such topics with a group that doesn’t even understand the concept of "time" from the start!

The Dark Alley District was easy to find. The layout of this port city was quite organized, with each residential area separated by nearly straight lines and all adjacent to the Central Square. Underneath the sculpture at Central Square, there’s a simple map showing the general directions of several residential areas.

Holding the address Shajina had left for me, I compared it with the building numbers around. It seemed they lived in the middle section of this chaotic area, which was considered a relatively good area. The deepest part of the Dark Alley District was a complete slum, where even complete houses were rare, and there were naturally no so-called building numbers. The homeless and beggars crowded into the ragged shelters there. The middle section of the Dark Alley District, on the other hand, was where civilians lived, and although the houses were old, at least they were normal residences. The authorities in Sen Tu also maintained some management and order there. The entrance section of the Dark Alley District was connected to the adjacent market area mentioned before, where explorers and local scholars (mainly traveling scholars from the Secret Magic Meeting) conducted business. As one of the largest ports leading to the Lost World, Sen Tu was also the first stop for "Lost World resources" turnover. Naturally, the scale of the explorer trading market here was very large, spanning two city districts.

The road was bumpy, and the stone slabs were already shattered into fragments. Due to the lack of drainage facilities, quite a few of these pits were filled with stale standing water. The surrounding buildings were low, almost all one-story houses, with mottled walls, many of which were cracked, indicating everything here had long been in disrepair. The only slightly brighter color seen occasionally at intersections were the notices posted by the authorities in Sen Tu. However, whether anyone paid attention to these colorful notices is another matter. In my view, they are far less interesting to the residents here than the graffiti made with poor-quality paint on other parts of the walls.

Finally, we found our destination in a corner, "a door with two dragons carved with a small knife," which was the landmark Shajina told me about. Although they looked more like two starving bats carved on the door, the address was probably correct.

We knocked on the door for a long time, but there was no response from inside. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) and vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)