Chapter 123: Beauty Is Justice, Beauty Is Truth

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Lin Xiao had mixed feelings about Barbara. On the one hand, he did not want to become too entangled with her; on the other, he had to admit that without her help, he would have found himself in grave danger several times.

Why was he unwilling to accept her?

The reason was simple. Apart from the fact that she possessed no supernatural power and could not protect herself, there was another important reason: she was not beautiful enough!

In this age of judging people by their looks, Lin Xiao, once a bottom-tier streamer on Dungeon Fighter Online, knew all too well how important appearance was.

If I had a good face, I would have started selling things online long ago. Why would I waste my time arguing with a bunch of old men, only to lose my life?

In this age—or, for that matter, in any age:

Beauty is justice.

Beauty is truth.

Beauty is everything.

If Zoe had not possessed such a pretty face when they first met, Lin Xiao would not have faced her empty-handed. He would have drawn his great axe and hacked straight at her.

He knew perfectly well why he had fallen for Zoe at first sight, why he thought of her constantly.

The reason was simple:

Because she was beautiful enough.

Beautiful enough to take one’s breath away, beautiful enough to inspire pity even at a glance, beautiful enough to fill his eyes and occupy his heart. Beautiful enough to make him unable to forget her, so that a single day apart felt like three years.

He was not being hypocritical. From ancient times to the present—or rather, deep within the human genes themselves—the concepts of ugliness and beauty had been engraved. To despise the ugly and love the beautiful had always been human nature.

In the era he had come from, young pretty boys were everywhere and influencer faces could be found on every street. Many of them had no real talent at all: they sang off-key, used body doubles for every acting scene, and relied entirely on variety shows to attract fans. Yet they still flourished, accumulating fortunes worth hundreds of millions.

Why?

Because their looks were marketable, and appealed to everyone from the old to the young.

Unless one’s talent reached an extraordinary level—such as that of Lo Ta-yu or Gu Long—appearance ceased to matter.

Or unless one possessed a fortune like that of Jack Ma. Then it would not matter whether one looked like a Martian, an alien, a caveman, or even a Yuanmou ape-man. One could still appear on television and play some version of Tarzan of the Apes.

Apart from that, success basically depended on one’s face.

Of course, some people said that beautiful faces were a dime a dozen, while interesting souls were one in ten thousand.

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Unfortunately, once I see your face, I have no interest in exchanging souls with you. So go as far away as you can and stay there.

Lin Xiao was not such a cruel person. Besides, Barbara had saved him repeatedly, and this time she had also rescued Number Eleven and Zoe. Thus, he could hardly say much.

So when Zoe decided to bring Barbara along to rescue Nancy, Number Eleven and Misty had no objections. Even Michael and Stefan agreed. Lin Xiao could only choose to do the same.

Barbara and Zoe had a good relationship, and she quickly became part of the trio of witches. The four girls squeezed together on the sofa in the lounge, recounting everything that had happened over the past few days, their laughter and conversation filling the room with warmth.

Lin Xiao sat in the cockpit, steering the boat while lost in thought. His mind was not occupied with Barbara, but with how to rescue Nancy, Michael’s sister.

After two attacks, the strength of the Saint Paradise Church had far exceeded their expectations. Their methods were even more reckless—murder, silencing witnesses, ambushes, assassinations. There was nothing they dared not do.

And with their ability to summon a ghost ship, the power and influence of this heretical organization were unquestionably no weaker than their own.

In fact, Lin Xiao felt that if Duke Cullen were willing to provide his full assistance, they might not be without a chance of winning.

Unfortunately, the old vampire seemed to be plotting something. Although he acknowledged Michael as the young master, he showed no enthusiasm for rescuing Nancy and did not even seem inclined to involve himself in the matter.

With that main combatant out of the picture, Misty was merely a high-ranking witch in name. Though her rank was not low, her actual fighting ability was unimpressive. In a one-on-one battle, she could probably do no more than fight Lin Xiao to a draw.

He could not help sighing. Just how useless were these teammates of his?

Apart from Number Eleven, who occasionally proved useful, Zoe and Misty were severely lacking in combat power. As for Michael and Stefan, there was no need to mention them—they could not even defeat Lin Xiao.

Michael’s potential was indeed immense. He possessed the seed of divine power within him, and his bloodline power was quite impressive as well. But his attacks were especially effective against ordinary people. In terms of single-target destructive power, he was certainly inferior to the leader of the opposing side.

That leader had defeated Eric and the others with ease, severed Sheriff Hope’s arm, and abducted Nancy. Such strength was in no way inferior to that of Duke Cullen. At the very least, the two were evenly matched.

Moreover, Duke Cullen had just used certain methods unsuitable for children to interrogate the assassin and uncover the true depth of the Saint Paradise Church’s foundations.

Aside from their leader, a woman who called herself the Saintess, they also had two Garden Watchers, both supposedly ranked as high-level wizards.

That was not all. This time, they had brought along a secret force as well: a religious guard known as the Silent Holy Serpent Spirit, composed entirely of black wizards.

Every member of this guard possessed unique dark magic and could employ all manner of bizarre methods to attack. Four members had been brought on this expedition. Not long ago, one of them had died under mysterious circumstances, leaving three.

Such formidable strength weighed heavily on Lin Xiao’s shoulders. If not for his relationship with Michael and Number Eleven, he would have been too lazy to care whether that arrogant girl Nancy lived or died. If they wanted to sacrifice her, then let them. What did it have to do with him?

Beyond that, the grudge over the Saint Paradise Church’s people severing Sheriff Hope’s arm also drove him to continue the pursuit.

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Lin Xiao was not one to hold grudges. Normally, he settled them on the spot. If he could not settle one immediately, he would simply wait for another opportunity.

As he drifted through these thoughts, the speedboat left the inland waterways and entered Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes.

Lake Erie was one of North America’s Great Lakes. The United States lay to its east, west, and south, while Canada bordered it to the north. To the east, it connected to Lake Ontario. Its average depth was only about eighteen meters, making it the shallowest of the five Great Lakes.

With the aid of Misty’s tarot divination, they followed the route taken by the Saint Paradise Church, trailing them at a leisurely pace while always maintaining a safe distance.

The enemy seemed to have learned that the ambush force they had left behind had been completely wiped out. They had consequently increased their speed, though it was unclear whether they feared being overtaken or were preparing some new scheme.

Lin Xiao and Stefan took turns piloting the boat. They continued until evening, when a sudden storm descended upon them.

The storm was extraordinarily strange. Only moments earlier, the sky had been ablaze with sunset and the weather had been perfectly clear. Then, without warning, dark clouds gathered, violent winds began to howl, and waves rose and crashed with thunderous force.

A short while later, the storm swept over them. Towering waves battered the yacht without pause. This medium-sized vessel was far less capable of withstanding wind and waves than a large ship. It rocked wildly in the storm, perilously close to capsizing.

Fortunately, none of them were ordinary people. Number Eleven and the three witches unleashed their full strength, struggling against the massive waves and raging winds and barely managing to keep the yacht from being swallowed by the storm.

The gale shrieked. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. The lightning of nature was hundreds, even thousands of times more powerful than the thunder summoned by Lin Xiao’s Thunder-Calling Talisman. This was the true might of nature—the power of heaven and earth.

One thunder dragon after another twisted through the clouds, roaring furiously, as though the God of Thunder himself had descended to deliver divine punishment. The violent thunderclaps shook their eardrums with pain, and they covered their ears before retreating into the cabin.

Stefan and Michael were so frightened that their faces had gone pale. They hid in their rooms and did not dare come out. Duke Cullen put on a show of composure, but Lin Xiao noticed that his body was trembling as well.

Vampires were terribly afraid of thunder and lightning. Lin Xiao knew this very well. If his Thunder-Calling Talisman possessed even one percent—no, one thousandth—of the power of the lightning outside, Duke Cullen would be nothing to worry about.

He could deal with Duke Cullen at his leisure. That ridiculous Saint Paradise Church, its Saintess, and the Silent Holy Serpent Spirit could all be blasted to death by a single bolt, ending everything once and for all.

However, Lin Xiao estimated that even if he reached Level Five, or perhaps even after his second awakening, it would be difficult for him to attain such power. Unless he advanced another step and became a true—

God.

Only then could he command thunder dragons of this magnitude.

Boom!

A thunder dragon writhed through the sky with a furious roar, lightning blazing around it. Lin Xiao was in the cockpit when he suddenly noticed a colossal object leaping from the waves ahead. It crashed back into the water with a thunderous impact, then came straight toward them.

That was…

A sea monster?