Chapter 440: The Arcane Chorus

The next day, at six in the morning, Gao De woke up on schedule, still dressed in his clothes as he slept.

He rose and walked to the window, lifting one corner of the curtain to look outside.

The sunrise in Lagos City came early.

The sky was already bright, golden sunlight spilling across the streets, casting long shadows of scattered figures in the morning light.

Street vendors along the roadside had already begun their work, pushing carts to set out fried plantains and bean cakes; the air reeked of grease and spices.

Women in long robes moved through the crowd, baskets balanced on their heads, filled with fresh bread and fruit.

Several dilapidated carriages stood parked by the street, drivers straining to attract passengers.

Gao De lowered his gaze and turned to glance at the little girl sleeping soundly on the bed.

Climbing a desolate snowy mountain led him to meet an arrogant "man"; a routine mission took him aboard an airship, where he inexplicably picked up a little girl.

Why did such strange, dramatic things always happen to him?

It was truly a curious thing.

Even more curious was that, though they had met for the first time, the little girl trusted him completely, sleeping so deeply beside a stranger with no trace of caution.

Of course, what surprised Gao De even more was that this five-year-old girl knew an astonishing amount.

But to him, it didn't matter.

His nature was this: once he had made up his mind and promised to help Anna find her sister, he no longer cared much about her family background.

Just as when he first met Du Wei on the snowy mountain—he knew Du Wei's origins were complicated, but so what?

He had once teased Du Wei, "Are you planning to become emperor?"—a jest, but also a statement: even if the other were a "crown prince," it wouldn't affect their relationship.

Now the same applied: even if Anna were a "princess," it wouldn't change Gao De's promise.

Of course, that was an exaggerated assumption.

Gao De woke Anna, who was still fast asleep.

"Brother…?"

"Eat breakfast, then sleep again," Gao De chuckled, deploying the classic parental "evil" line.

Then, holding the still-drowsy Anna's hand, he took her to the inn's dining room for the complimentary breakfast: bread sprinkled with fine salt, a small dish of jam, and a steaming cup of barley tea.

As a traditional agricultural city, even though it had declined, its foundations remained—so the bread was made from fine wheat flour, not rye, and tasted excellent.

But for Anna, it was still barely edible.

Watching the little girl struggle to swallow the bread while still half-asleep, Gao De unexpectedly missed Lady Florala.

After all, he had been away from the North for two and a half months.

After breakfast, Gao De returned Anna to her room, ruffled her hair into a messy "bird's nest," ignored her "resentful" glare, and warned: "Wait here for me. Don't wander off."

The Jin Quehua Dynasty's order far surpassed that of the Xien Principality; at least within the city, Gao De wasn't worried about Anna's safety—he only feared she'd revert to her "naughty child" nature and run off again searching for her sister.

Pulling on his cloak to partially conceal his Sea Sentinel uniform, Gao De left the Palm Tree Inn and headed straight north toward Lagos City.

Marco District, though called a district, seemed part of Lagos City.

In truth, it lay a great distance beyond the city limits, outside the urban area, so Gao De hired a carriage to save time and energy.

The closer they got to Marco District, the more dilapidated and desolate the scenery became.

Cobblestones gave way to coal slag and mud; wheels splashed sludge onto the carriage as they rolled over potholes.

But before departure, the driver had already stated the fare to Marco District required extra payment, which Gao De agreed to.

So the driver made no complaints, merely cracked his whip to urge the horses faster through this "place even rats found cursed."

The stench in the air grew thicker, until it hit him full force.

A grayish lagoon came into view.

This was the northern estuary of Lagos City—and the starting point of Marco District.

Along the lagoon's edge lay a few derelict, beached fishing boats.

Their hulls were covered in barnacles, sails torn like spiderwebs, half-submerged in sewage, crawling with blackened shellfish.

Behind the boats stretched a vast, chaotic cluster of shacks jutting abruptly from the water, like a twisted forest grown from filth.

This was Marco District: a massive slum built atop the lagoon.

The land road ended here.

After collecting Gao De's payment, the driver turned around quickly, fleeing as if even a moment's stay would pollute him.

Gao De frowned, covering his nose and mouth, and approached the shore.

Within the lagoon, brownish-gray sewage churned, occasionally bubbling up green gas.

The surface floated dead fish with upturned bellies, rotting vegetable leaves, and all kinds of trash; the stench was overwhelming—penetrating the nostrils, making one desperate to flee.

No wonder no Sea Sentinel mages would accept this task, despite its low difficulty and double military merit reward.

Marco District had no conventional roads; its crisscrossing waterways served as the residents' "streets."

The locals moved about daily using boats.

Gao De had no boat, but in a slum like this, nothing was beyond the reach of money.

He spotted a dark-skinned man rowing a small boat nearby and waved urgently.

The man heard his call and saw his gesture, slowly rowing over.

He was shirtless, his skin sun-darkened and glossy, his face a mix of suspicion and curiosity.

Gao De pulled out two silver dragon coins from his pocket, waved them before the man, then unfastened his cloak to reveal his Sea Sentinel uniform. "I've taken the water beast expulsion mission—to clear out devil octopuses and foul water salamanders. Be my guide for the day, and these coins are yours."

The man's eyes lit up at the silver coins, but after greedily glancing twice, he waved his hand respectfully. "Master Mage, you come to rid us of water beasts—how could I possibly take your money?"

"Just get on board. I'm at your service."

Gao De leapt onto the boat and shoved the two silver coins directly into the man's hand. "It's only right."

The man trembled with fear. "Master, you're shaming me!"

"Set off. Where have you recently seen water beasts? Take me there first." Gao De waved dismissively, cutting off the topic and getting straight to the point.

Seeing he couldn't refuse, the man said no more and began rowing, guiding Gao De deeper into Marco District.

From the moment he boarded, Gao De activated Mandora's Magic Eye and cast 【Detect Magic+】, carefully scanning the water's surface for signs of water beasts.

As he observed, he chatted with the man, learning about Marco District.

The man's name was Sha Ma; he was born and raised in Marco District.

Since its founding, Marco District had never been planned; the waterways formed spontaneously, so they varied from narrow to wide, crooked and twisted—the narrowest barely allowing one small boat to pass, the widest no more than a few zhang.

Here, the kind of boat Sha Ma piloted—slightly wider in the middle, tapered at both ends—was the district's primary transport.

Yet even so, daily traffic here was extremely congested.

No sooner had Sha Ma rowed a short distance than they encountered two "traffic accidents," both caused by narrow waterways and colliding boats.

The second accident capsized a boat entirely, dumping its occupants into the foul sewage; Gao De grimaced.

But the people who fell in didn't care—they cursed, flipped the boat upright, climbed back aboard as if nothing had happened, seemingly oblivious to the filth clinging to them.

Sha Ma watched this calmly.

In Marco District, capsizing and falling into the water was perfectly normal.

"Falling into this water—won't you end up swallowing some of it?" Gao De thought of the scene and felt nauseous, his stomach churning.

"Master," Sha Ma said with utter calm, "in our district, no one has ever avoided swallowing this water."

"Marco District children grow up drinking this sewage."

Gao De raised an eyebrow—his first thought was that drinking water teeming with microbes, parasites, and bacteria should leave people sickly.

Yet the residents all looked robust, showing no signs of illness.

Then he understood: human adaptability was powerful. Those raised here must have evolved an extraordinary immune system—nearly immune to all poisons.

In other words, if Gao De jumped into this sewage and drank deeply, his 【Self-Adaptation】 ability would grant him the same immunity as a local in moments.

But Gao De shook his head violently, refusing to imagine the scene—he felt a chill.

Sensing Gao De's curiosity about Marco District, Sha Ma enthusiastically pointed out local landmarks along the way.

"You mean, that's your latrine?" Gao De asked, pointing to a crude shack nearby, his brow rising instinctively.

"Yes," Sha Ma nodded seriously.

According to his explanation, the shack served as the sole latrine for forty to fifty households—over a hundred people—with no flushing system, as waste emptied directly into the water below.

Meaning, the surrounding waters floated countless feces.

Structurally, it resembled Venice, Gao De's world's famous water city—same aquatic community, same boat-based transport.

But where Venice was a water metropolis, this was a water metropolis of shit.

What stunned Gao De most was that he saw, right beside this latrine, a child of about five or six emerge from the sewage, grinning brightly.

"He's just playing in the water?" Gao De asked Sha Ma for confirmation.

Sha Ma nodded firmly.

Gao De couldn't describe his shock—everything here exceeded not just his understanding, but his imagination.

Beyond the water latrines, he'd seen makeshift schools, restaurants, clinics—even taverns.

Of course, all were crude.

For example, the school: according to Sha Ma, Marco District's two hundred thousand people had only two schools, together accommodating two hundred children.

"How do you make a living?" Gao De couldn't help asking.

"Collecting trash and fishing," Sha Ma replied.

Collecting trash was easy to understand—Lagos City dumped all its sewage and waste here.

Among the vast piles of trash, some items discarded by the wealthy were still usable, recyclable "treasures."

Gather these, transport them to land, sell them, and use the money to buy bread, clothes, and other essentials.

But this work is usually done by children and women.

Men's main occupation is still fishing.

"Fishing? Are there fish here?" Gao De asked, pointing at the churning brown-gray wastewater.

"There aren't any here, but if you row farther out, to areas beyond the shanty district, you can catch fish," Sha Ma explained.

"There, those little fish." As he spoke, they passed a shanty where a woman was smoking fish outside.

In a large oil pot, small fish linked head to tail were fried golden, sizzling softly.

"After smoking them, we take them ashore to sell—one sells for one copper shi coin," Sha Ma said.

Seeing the familiar "squid rings," Gao De nearly vomited.

But the next moment, he forgot his nausea; his expression turned serious, a flash of sharp light in his eyes.

In Gao De's unique vision, a speck of magical luminescence drifted through the murky wastewater ahead.

Without doubt, it was a water beast.

Gao De's heart stirred; his magic surged, swiftly traveling along the newly formed magical pathways to reach the Spell Star Sea, activating the spell model.

Yet no visible magical phenomenon appeared on the surface.

"Stop," Gao De called out to Sha Ma, who was still rowing, unaware.

"My lord, what is it?" Sha Ma instantly stopped rowing, though he asked instinctively.

But he soon froze.

The water ahead churned as a dark green, lizard-like creature surfaced.

"Stinking salamander," Sha Ma said, his voice trembling as he pointed at the "lizard."

Had Gao De, clad in the robes of a Sea Sentinel mage, not been on board, he would have already been screaming and shitting himself.

For ordinary folk like Sha Ma, these supernatural water beasts were terrifyingly dangerous.

But Gao De remained calm.

And the surfaced stinking salamander made no move—only surfaced, motionless, as if unusually "friendly."

【Arcane Chorus+】.

This was the spell Gao De had just cast.

(End of Chapter)