Chapter 3572: Medusa (38)
Chapter 3572: Medusa (38)
Ning Shu’s feelings toward this bird were truly complicated. She squeezed it, wanting to pinch it until it pooped.
Getting into a fight with a simpleton made her feel like she was bullying a brainless creature with a tiny head, but if she didn’t get it out of her system, she would just be holding her breath in frustration.
Ning Shu grabbed the firebird and threw it directly into the sea. The bird chirped in terror and immediately flew back up. It landed back on her shoulder.
Ning Shu massaged her forehead. What an idiot.
She let out a long breath. She had managed to escape this time by taking advantage of the situation. As a mere human, those gods simply wouldn’t take her to heart.
Who would care about an ant and delay a million-dollar-a-minute business deal? This was especially true when it came to the succession of the king of the gods.
Now that Zeus had lost his power, he certainly couldn’t remain the king of the gods. As for who would take his place, there would likely be a period of chaos. This gave her plenty of time to do whatever she wanted.
Even if a new ruler of the gods was chosen and came to deal with her later, her strength would surely be even greater than it was now. After all, she was just a lowly, weak human. How could she possibly have the power to kill Athena and Poseidon, let alone destroy Zeus’s weapon?
If a new ruler of the gods was to be chosen, Ning Shu hoped it would be Hera. The social atmosphere of a world is tied to its ruler. If a woman became the ruler, perhaps the status of women would improve.
Medusa’s beheading had marked the complete decline of female authority. Originally, Gaia, a woman, had been born from chaos. Back then, women’s status was very high, but eventually, society developed into a patriarchal one.
One consequence of this development was that when Western female politicians ran for office, images of Perseus beheading Medusa and holding her head aloft were used to attack them.
In a patriarchal society, women who had been imprisoned for thousands of years became the embodiment of demons. Even if they possessed a distinct personality, they were labeled with negative traits. For instance, Hera was ‘jealousy,’ Medea was ‘cruelty,’ Scylla was ‘death,’ and Pandora was gifted with ‘calamity.’
Men could have all sorts of personalities, but a woman’s beauty was treated as something that did not belong to her, while her ‘malice’ was forced upon her.
Without lording over anyone, even as a woman—soft, beautiful, and cute—one should not be toyed with or manipulated by men. Having an independent aesthetic experience and a spiritual personality made a woman a distinct being, separate and different from men.
Ning Shu hoped Hera would become the ruler of the gods. Hera held great prestige among the deities. Ideally, she would just treat a tiny ant like Ning Shu as a minor annoyance and let her go.
Ning Shu ate two fruits, drank some water, and returned to the beach. She looked at the chest of gold coins and gems and patted the lid. Now she could travel the world.
Along the way, she would keep an eye on which god became the new ruler. Until a new ruler was elected, she was safe. Even if ruler told everyone the truth, they would still have to find her first.
“Get big. We’re leaving,” Ning Shu told the firebird.
The firebird tilted its head and stared at her.
Ning Shu: …
Ugh, holy shit! This bird’s low IQ was a real problem!
Fortunately, after much explanation, Ning Shu managed to make the bird understand. It seemed that refining wisdom pills was an urgent matter. Communicating with a companion you couldn’t actually talk to was exhausting.
Ning Shu picked up her chest and hopped onto the firebird’s back. While they flew, she held her pen and began writing down the cultivation method for the Unsurpassable Martial Arts, along with various talismans. Most importantly, she wrote down the talismans that could resist curses.
Layers upon layers of parchment were covered with talismans and cultivation techniques. Sheepskin lasted a long time, and since the ink was magical, it wouldn’t fade. These items could be preserved for many years.
Once she had written enough, Ning Shu lay on the bird’s back to sleep. She needed to relax.
While she slept, she let her body run the Unsurpassable Martial Arts to absorb spiritual energy. She let the firebird fly wherever it wanted, so long as they could find a place to land.
When Ning Shu woke up, the firebird was still flying. Its wings were beating frantically as if it were exhausted. It would dip down and then flap its wings wildly to rise again, over and over.
Ning Shu: …
No wonder they were still over the sea. The bird had been doing nothing but moving up and down the whole time. It hadn’t actually covered any distance.
Ning Shu saw that the little firebird was indeed tired, so she released a dragon made of spiritual energy for them to ride instead. The firebird turned small and flew to her shoulder, then immediately crouched down. It was exhausted.
Ning Shu went back to drawing talismans. Even if those gods came looking for trouble, she would have enough power to protect herself.
In her spare time, she devoured all kinds of energy, constantly compressing her needles. The needles were a massive kill-weapon with violent power. Most importantly, they were small enough to be used for sneak attacks.
Now that she could condense them skillfully, Ning Shu wanted to focus on quantity. Just imagine—a sky full of densely packed needles. Even if she had to face all the gods at once, she wouldn’t feel intimidated.
The prerequisite was that she had to be able to control such a huge number of needles so they wouldn’t explode before hitting their target.
Ning Shu gradually increased the number, moving from five to eight, and then to ten. Compressing four different powers into such a tiny space while controlling so many at once was quite difficult.
If she wasn’t careful, she would blow herself up and have to run away as fast as she could.
After several days of flying over the ocean, they finally saw land. Ning Shu didn’t know where they were, but she could go anywhere.
Ideally, she would find a world origin. She was still missing three types of world origin. Finding even one in this world would be good. Even if it was a duplicate of one she already had, she could sell it.
Ning Shu stepped onto solid ground. It was a small fishing village.
The village was very poor, but in this era of slow development, desolation was everywhere. Being able to fill one’s stomach was already a blessing from heaven.
Ning Shu looked for a place to stay and eventually settled in a home shared by an old woman and her granddaughter.
The old woman was very advanced in age with white hair. Her fourteen-year-old granddaughter was busy mending fishing nets made of hemp rope.
They were poor, but they still treated Ning Shu to a bowl of boiled fish soup. Although the soup was bland, Ning Shu found it quite good. After floating on the sea for so long, she hadn’t even had fish soup.
The young girl had honey-colored skin that was a bit dry from constant exposure to the sea breeze. She was just an ordinary, average village girl.
After drinking the soup, Ning Shu rested for the night. She planned to leave the next morning; she couldn’t stay in one place for long. To pay for her stay, she gave the girl a gold coin.
The girl had never seen a gold coin before. This village was self-sufficient, and they never thought of selling their goods. Besides, the nearest town was very far away, and who knew what might happen on the road.
However, Ning Shu realized that a gold coin might be too much. What if someone came to rob this old woman and her granddaughter?
Ning Shu decided to take the gold coin back and give them some medicinal pills instead, telling them they could take them if they got sick.
Ning Shu put on her veil and flew away atop her dragon. It was time to leave. This was only a temporary stopping point.