There was never a shortage of vacancies on the Thorn Demon, which was both a good thing and a bad thing.
Take the room assigned to her, for example. She could clearly tell from some of the details of the furnishings that it originally belonged to another woman, but when she asked the sailor who led the way where the other woman had gone, the look in his eyes when he turned around... well...
All in all Madeline regretted asking the question.
When she reached the door of her original room, Madeline didn't knock, but squinted at the floor.
There were no lights in the corridor, and most of it was dark. A conspicuous dim light shone through the gap between the door and the floor, indicating that someone had been working inside all night.
Or fell asleep during a night's work.
Before Madeline could hesitate whether to knock on the door to confirm, the door opened and Xia Yibing appeared there with her hair loose.
"What are you here for?"
"Come and see what's going on." Madeline said reflexively, then frowned and sniffed.
She smelled a magical smell. It was stinky at first, but when the smell reached the back of her nasal cavity, it actually began to transform into a fragrant smell, giving her the strange illusion that "this stinky smell is quite pleasant."
"What's that smell?" she asked in surprise.
"It smells like stinky socks." Xia Yibing said this deliberately, and as expected, she saw her subordinate showing a constipated expression.
"You're so cute, Neon." She laughed and patted the other person's shoulder, looking back casually, "Of course... I don't doubt that she can do it, but what she is doing now is very complicated, and I can't tell how much material she added..."
Are perfume makers such scary people?
Madeline was tense all over. She had always looked down on perfumers, thinking that it was just mixing fragrant things together and she was not capable of doing such a stupid job.
But now she discovered that the perfume maker was so bizarre that he could actually change the aesthetic taste of ordinary people and make the smells that they originally thought were disgusting emit strange fragrances.
Madeline didn't want to fall in love with a perfume or ointment that actually used the smell of stinky socks as a selling point, but the intoxication she felt just now made her understand that perfumers have this ability.
She decided to be more careful with Hitzfeld in the future.
...If Hitzfeld knew about this conversation, she would tell the two people that sometimes the perfume-making process is not necessary because many people like the smell.
That's why she wanted to complain before that those people were real perverts.
We were busy until the gray fog rolled up and the outline of the dock could be vaguely seen without the help of lights, and the entire process was declared completed.
When Xia Yibing came in, she saw that she was already cleaning up the mess, taking down some cans and bottles from the makeshift wire rack. At the very edge and corner were two glass bottles similar to ink bottles, both filled with some transparent liquid.
She also saw a small lid dripping with liquid in the middle of the table, and guessed that the strong smell in the room must come from this, so she went over to pick it up, put it under her nose and took a deep breath.
...I almost sent her away.
"Are you sure this will work?"
After finally recovering from the shock, Xia Yibing pinched her nose and threw the thing away. "It's true that it doesn't stink anymore...but isn't this smell too strong?"
"Too strong for us, just right for them." Hitzfeld pursed his lips and smiled, "Didn't I explain to you why you were doing the questionnaire? You deserve to be stinky."
"Now that you mention it... I think it smells pretty good now." Xia Yibing stood there and savored it for a moment, "It's become lighter... but it's still condensed... It's like there are many different scents mixed together, but there's one main note, and the other scents don't take over..."
"You have a talent for being a perfumer." Hitzfeld nodded. "Indeed, I have used almost everything I bought yesterday."
"Is this okay?"
"I'm 100 percent sure."
"My Aisuen is really amazing..."
"It's essentially a trick... It's not purely based on skills, but on a perfume-making concept that is beyond understanding." Hitzfeld has always been modest in this regard. She doesn't think this kind of thing is worthy of praise. "It's just taking advantage of the backward perfume-making concept of the locals. When they realize the essence of the smell, someone will definitely surpass me in terms of skills."
"That's pretty impressive too." Xia Yibing walked around behind the table and pressed her chest against her back like she did yesterday, hugging the girl's neck with both hands.
"Xia...it's very heavy."
"I like it." Xia Yibing muttered in a low voice, "I don't want to be a perfumer... I only want to smell you in my life."
She especially liked hugging Hitzfeld like this, one reason being that her touch was so comfortable, the girl's body was so soft, and the height difference between them was just right for her to hug her hair, and every breath she took was filled with fragrance.
This experience was not so obvious in Wayne Port, but on the Sea of Blood, she counted on this job every day.
How come she always comes up with such weird words...
Hitzfeld was a little dazed, and felt numb from his heart to his body, as if he had been electrocuted.
Xia Yibing was keenly aware of the change in atmosphere. She tried to tilt her head to sniff the girl's neck. When she was not rejected, she took the initiative and opened her mouth to bite her earlobe...
"What are you doing?"
The two of them separated as if they had been electrocuted, and looked up to see that it was Billie standing there in amazement.
"What were you doing just now?" Billie obviously had no common sense in this area and looked very shocked.
It’s not that she had never seen this before, but the problem was that she had never seen same-sex people being so intimate.
"Children should stay out of adult affairs." Xia Yibing recovered her breath, glared at her fiercely, and pushed a bottle with less stock over the table.
"Take it!"
"Didn't you say that we should send it to the Governor's Office for inspection first?"
"Don't say we didn't care—"
……
There are no specific time periods during the day in Port Inian. Whether it is early morning, noon or afternoon, the atmosphere is always depressing.
Passing through a thick layer of smog, a carriage made of redwood was guided into the Governor's Palace. After it stopped, a tall middle-aged man got out. Just by looking at his eyebrows, one could get a glimpse of his former elegance.
The servants came up respectfully and put their coat on him. Two maids knelt down and wiped his leather shoes with their aprons...Finally, someone came up with a long wooden box and let the man open it.
After opening it, a black wooden cane appeared in the wooden box.
The bottom is wrapped with silver metal, the middle part has a metal ring as an embellishment, and the head is carved with an animal head of an unknown creature. This thing can actually speak.
"You're finally back, old man... If it weren't for the tax collection, how long would you have left me here?"
"Please stop arguing." The man sighed, took out his cane, and gently stroked the beast's head. "I only arrived in the afternoon and it's already late. The Governor must be waiting anxiously. Don't throw a tantrum at this time."
"I think you came to me just to test for drugs!" The beast head continued to complain, "You have a woman outside! You are disgusted by your old friend harassing you!"
"What can I do then?" The man smiled. "After all, it's you who can't turn into a woman. Otherwise, why would I go out and suffer?"
"Ha! You talk as if you're at a disadvantage!"
This magical pair argued as they walked, and soon came to a room filled with various gift boxes.
"Here they are, sir," said the servant. "It is perfume and ointment—all sent over from outside."
"You can go out now."
Waving his hand to dismiss all the servants, the man first took off his coat, loosened his collar to relax himself, began to wave his cane, and unpacked the boxes one by one to inspect the gifts.
This is a necessary process.
There is a saying that every process that seems strange must have a reason behind it.
The reason why this had to be done, and why he had to do it with a beast-headed cane, was that someone had previously tried to murder the governor in this way.
…That’s how the previous governor died.
"no problem!"
"That's no problem!"
It is said that he is doing the work, but in reality all the man has to do is to open the boxes, take out the bottles of perfume and ointment, and bring them to the animal head without breaking their seals for it to taste.
Hey, he's just a tool to drive this guy.
"The quality is so low!" The beast head sniffed more than a dozen bottles and started complaining again, "What low-quality stuff are they giving away! The officials of the Kingdom of God have worse tastes every year!"
"How can this stuff be so high-end?" The man said disapprovingly, "It's good enough that it can be used. You don't understand at all. Any bottle of this stuff can be sold for tens of thousands of bone ropes..."
As he spoke, he opened another box and took out a small glass bottle.
He exclaimed, because he found that the gift box looked too shabby both in terms of packaging and the actual container.
"I take back what I said." He was silent for a while, "Their level has indeed become lower."
The animal-headed cane laughed loudly, urging him to bring the bottle, and then it took a deep breath there -
"..."
"..."
The atmosphere seemed to be frozen, and the cane didn't speak for a long time.
"What?" The man raised his eyebrows.
He even waited for a while. What happened? It was not in line with its character at all.
"Farrel."
After a while, the cane uttered these words.
"The quality of this thing...hmm..."
"I'm afraid I have to retract my prejudice."
--------
There is another chapter around dinner time.
Chapter 98 Dinner Party 1
Captain Xiu De couldn't sleep all night. Everyone could see that he was worried that the perfume he sent would not be approved - then he would not be invited to the dinner at the Governor's Palace.
For a guy of his status, who had never come into contact with someone of that level before, there was no way he could sneak in without an invitation.
As it concerned his future destiny, he was ultimately unable to let it go. From yesterday afternoon until this afternoon, he completely locked himself in the room smoking... According to the sailor who delivered the meal, the smoke inside was so thick that it felt like a fire.
Hitzfeld saw all of this, and out of courtesy and concern for her partners, she found Billie and asked Captain Shude if the situation was serious.
"Don't worry about him!" Billie was the one who truly "let go". She looked at him with some resentment, mourning in her heart that her bedroom had been occupied. "He likes to do this every time he has important troubles. It doesn't matter!"
"But we noticed that he didn't even eat or drink much." Xia Yibing said, "Can his body hold up..."
It would be fine if the native residents of the Corrupted Blood Kingdom were strengthened by the Blood of Salvation as in the myth, and possessed physiques far beyond the ordinary, but based on her observations during this period of time - and that "inherited experience", excluding the blood butchers and blood mages, they were no different from the most ordinary Sara people in terms of physique.
"Did you see a kind of red fruit when we were shopping in the market yesterday?" Billie asked.
Xia Yibing nodded, indicating that she had indeed seen it.
"That's blood essence." Billie said, "It's made by a blood mage. After taking it, it can directly replenish a large amount of blood and energy, enough to make up for the physical deficiency caused by this kind of willfulness."
This surprised Hitzfell. She had always thought that the blood mage was just another type of blood killer. Now she saw that there was a difference between the two. The suffix "mage" was not added randomly.
The uses of blood essence are certainly not limited to this. The most direct use is that it can be used as a "blood medicine" to make up for the lost blood, energy and vitality during battle - this is something that can save lives.
"This thing will be very expensive, right?" Xia Yibing was also surprised. You know, her inherited experience does not include blood mages. No matter how long ago that memory happened, she had never seen such a thing in those fragments.
"It's not expensive... Blood essence is divided into different grades. Even commoners can afford the lowest grade three blood essence if they grit their teeth. It would probably cost them half their family's wealth. I personally think it's very cheap."
"And you don't know, right? The church and the Blood Mage Guild have always had many conflicts over this matter."
Billie had obviously been alone for too long, and once she started talking, it was hard to stop. In addition, she had the experience of "fighting" together before, so she was closer to these outsiders and was more willing to share her experience with them.
"Is it because of faith?" Madeline gave the answer before she could say anything.
Billie's eyes turned bitter, but she still insisted, "Yes... this is the source of their conflict. Level 3 blood essence is a derivative product of blood and flesh experiments for blood mages. They don't take it seriously. In fact, there are certain side effects if you eat it... But dying people can't care about these. With the hope of blood essence, they can't give everything to the church wholeheartedly. But the church thinks: It's easy for blood mages to restrict blood essence from entering the market."
"Let me ask you something." Xia Yibing interrupted, "What are the effects of level 2 blood essence and level 1 blood essence?"
"Level 2 can almost help people reattach their severed limbs. Level 1 can allow a person who has been one-armed for 20 years to grow another arm."
Hitzfeld and Xia Yibing looked at each other and said, "Then this contradiction is not small at all."
If nothing else, the Church has been training Sisters of Salvation.
Regardless of whether the process of treating injuries is really that disgusting, it is still treatment and help. For those who are in desperate need of such help, this treatment is priceless and they may really have to pay everything for it.
But now there is something called blood-sperm on the market. They used to have to pay "everything including faith", but now they only have to pay "a huge price".
Whatever they choose, at least they have a choice.
This is the core contradiction... All forces that have this kind of contradiction will eventually fight. Even if the Corrupted Blood Kingdom finally has a "Human King" who suppresses everyone and forcibly slows down the process of fighting, their relationship will get worse day by day.
Hitzfeld suddenly felt that he could no longer understand the Kingdom of Corrupted Blood.
According to the portrait we saw before, the king of the Kingdom of Corrupted Blood is Sina.
She had used the last bit of divine blood ink to copy the sword of the Sun King. Hmm... Of course, she knew the name of the sword after experiencing the underwater flashback. Even if it was a copy, its power was shocking enough. It could actually kill Xena and the Death Tree out of thin air through the connection between the latter.
