The pirate ship landed ashore, literally crashing against the sand because nobody was on the front deck to make sure that the boat set its anchors. Oops, now they could never get back unless they found an airship or helpful giant bird like in a fun JRPG.

For the remainder of the trip since their really sensual sex scene, Xi Guo Lee and Nan Gua had sort of been staying away from each other. It was a bit awkward and they thought it best to just kind of stay out each other’s hair so that nobody else on the ship got suspicious.

All that conscious avoidance did give Xi Guo Lee a ton of time to cultivate, so he had gotten all the way back up to Level 17. Hopefully he was far past the level of his younger sister Hei Mei, whose fandom at this point had grown out of control, to the level of a minor anime idol. Just... Ugh. Leave her alone, already.

Kiwi and Budou were arguing, like usual. It was the kind of Tsundere-and-a-cute-boisterous-character that made a really powerful Shipping Dynamic for all the BL fangirls, but unfortunately, both of these very male, very straight characters were extremely heterosexual and displayed no outward interest in each other.

These four (and the giant army of likely treacherous mercenaries they had recruited with the captain named Long John Silver) stepped off the crashed pirate ship and walked off the beach. They went into town, or whatever the nearest town was. I’ll name it... Mi Hou Tao. Whatever. It’ll never come up again I’m sure.

The continent of Chicken Coop was basically the exact same thing as Alabaster. There was mostly grassland and mountains, with a dry desert oddly to the northwest, a volcano in the center, and far to the north an icy wasteland. There was a swamp to the southeast and the southwest was the only nice beach part of the entire continent.

The monsters, though, were a lot higher level than on Alabaster, and there were a ton of EPIC fight scenes where everyone almost died.

Xi Guo Lee had a feeling they had been roped into something they didn’t exactly plan on...

Kiwi, however, remained ecstatic the entire time. “ADVENTURE!!!!! YEEEEEEAAAAAH!!!”

“If I threw you a really far distance with my incredible strength,” Budou said, “I could call it ‘Kiwi’s Delivery Service.’”

“Oh, I like the sound of that. I could be like a witch boy deliveryman. Cute and helpful.”

“Who said you were cute?”

“The readers, of course! ;)”

“There’s no such thing as readers, Kiwi. It’s a myth. There’s nobody watching us, and there’s nobody ruling over our lives like all-seeing Gods.”

“Other than the Babylon Sisters.”

“Well, yeah, obviously, other than the Babylon Sisters.” Budou grumbled. “You and your technicalities. I’m ninety percent right. Isn’t that enough?”

“I’m not so sure you are...”

On the other end of the spectrum (not on the Kinsey Scale but just like, on the other end of our two duos that were conversing), there was also Xi Guo Lee and Nan Gua, walking side by side, holding hands but in that awkward teenager way. Their personalities were both so fleshed out and interesting that this scene was intensely romantic for almost anyone reading. Those who failed to be captivated were simply not trying hard enough.

“S-so, do you like me?” Nan Gua asked.

“I love you.”

“But do you like me?”

“Yeah, sure, I like you,” Xi Gua Lo said. “I like you a lot.”

Nan Gua shifted uncomfortably. “But do you ‘like like’ me?”

“I... That’s a hard question to answer, he said.

“It’s just a yes or a no.”

“Can I give a maybe?”

“NO!”

“Well then...” Xi Gua Lo gulped. “Yeah. I do. I like like you.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder and continued walking beside him but basically let the weight of his body carry her along. I’m not sure if this is cute or just weirdly described. “That’s nice.”

“I do have one question for you, though,” Xi Gua Lo asked.

“Oh?”

“How do you use vine magic? Can you teach me?”

She turned her masked face to him and, presumably, gazed deep into his eyes. He couldn’t tell because she didn’t have eyes that he could actually see.

“Yeah? Nan Gua?”

“Call me Nan-chan.”

“I’m Ghebvillian, not Japanese.”

“Okay then, call me Nan Gua.”

“Okay, Nan Gua. Can you teach me vine magic?”

“Yeah, why not? Let me just betray the entire culture of my people by letting an outsider learn how to use our sacred techniques, all while we are going to try and find the Vine Root artifact that will erase the entire magic system to begin with.”

“You’ll really do all that for me?” he asked.

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Oh...”

“But actually... Maybe I’ll do it after all. Since you’re so cute.”

And that was the day that Nan Gua betrayed her people because she was really thirsty for men.

Straight girls crazy.