Huh? Are they all real?...

But the woman continued speaking to the man:

"That's enough for you to feed many children."

The man's color remained unchanged, still that pure white that women both loved and hated.

But he did hesitate.

It wasn't for wealth, but for the little girl in front of him and his own child.

He knew this pearl could change his child's future, and he also knew that the benefactor before him would certainly not want to continue taking care of this little girl.

After struggling to open his mouth, the man lowered his head in distress and said:

"It still can't, sir."

This time, the woman was also surprised, but the little girl breathed a sigh of relief. She was just a child, so she was afraid of the man's face, which had been burned by the fire.

"Why? This is a treasure that I personally think is worthwhile."

The man shook his head and said:

“Sir, I am just a fisherman. According to the law or anything else, I cannot possess such wealth. Therefore, I cannot raise this child. That would only harm her and my family.”

The woman stood up, her face showing both boredom and pity, and put the pearl away.

“I understand. I will take this child to find the next person who is willing.”

"Thank you, my lord."

The man slammed his head deeply into the ground.

"No need to thank me, you did nothing wrong, respected fisherman. Also, you can find a suitable wife in the future. I believe your children will be happy too."

After saying this, the woman took the little girl and left the beach.

And then the fisherman looked up.

The surrounding fishermen exclaimed in surprise.

Because the fisherman's face, which had been burned in the fire, had been healed!

The woman's arrival and the fisherman's miracle have become the biggest talking points in this fishing village these past few days.

They all said that it must be an extraordinary being from the Old World.

He might even be a noble demigod!

But a few days later...

The fisherman's hut was forcibly kicked open.

This greatly alarmed the fisherman who was having dinner with his son.

After seeing clearly the person standing in the huge white light because the door was suddenly opened.

The fisherman instantly withdrew his hand from the harpoon and hurriedly knelt on the ground with his son.

"Father, what brings you here?"

The priest, dressed in a navy blue church robe, walked up to the man with a blank expression.

Behind him were two knights dressed in magnificent armor.

The armor is adorned with the emblem of the holy lance and the dragon.

They are regular knights of the Church of Storms.

After glancing at the half-eaten salted fish on the table, which reeked of fish, the priest covered his mouth and nose in disgust and arrogantly stuck out his foot to hook the man's chin.

After examining it for a moment, the priest smiled and said:

"Your face is really healed."

The man, covered in sweat, said:

"Thanks to you, Father."

The priest shook his head and smiled:

"Thanks to me? No, no, you're thanks to the great Lionheart and the Storm Goddess!"

"Yes, yes, yes, it's all thanks to the protection of His Majesty the two Emperors, Your Excellency!"

Sweat poured down the man's forehead.

He didn't know why the church had sought out an ordinary fisherman like him.

The priest, who had just been smiling, suddenly changed his expression and kicked him hard in the face.

"Then how dare you refuse that pearl? It is a blessing from the two emperors to you, and it is also a reward that the two emperors want to give to our church through you to recognize our hard work, so how dare you refuse it?"

The priest's kick wasn't very powerful; his extravagant lifestyle, coupled with endless indulgence in wine and women, had long since hollowed out his body.

But being kicked in the face at such close range is not something an ordinary fisherman can tolerate.

The fisherman was immediately kicked in the face and fell to the ground.

But he dared not wail; he simply pressed his son down and made him kneel again before the priest, kowtowing repeatedly:

“Father, Father Hal, that’s not a gift that a nobody like me can accept, so I dare not ask for it. It belongs to that noble person!”

The priest continued to kick him a few more times.

The man dared not dodge; he could only press his son down beneath him while using his own body to block the other man's feet.

But after only three or four kicks, he was already panting heavily.

He casually untied the offering ring around his neck, a symbol of the clergy's integrity and poverty.

Then he leaned against the cabinet next to him and said:

"This damn lousy place, it's so far away and there's not even a decent road. Damn it, and you too, you idiot."

“I don’t care about the nonsense you’re spouting. All I know is that you’ve caused the church enormous losses. If you had just agreed, you could have earned the church more wealth than your entire village combined could have in hundreds of years.”

"So, all of this is your fault. You have offended the church; you have committed blasphemy!"

The man looked up in terror and said:

"Father Hal, you must see this clearly! I am a loyal subject of both His Majesties. How could I possibly be blasphemous? This, this, this really can't be blamed on me!"

The fisherman had no idea what to do. All he could do was keep explaining and begging for mercy.

The priest responded with a spit.

The fisherman, sprayed in the face, quickly lowered his head and dared not say another word.

“You damned lowly commoner, how dare you argue? If you were truly a loyal subject of the two emperors, how could you refuse? Do you know how much that costs? Such a large pearl, with such vibrant colors, it must be from a Leviathan clam.”

"Those are deep-sea treasures that the entire church sees only a handful of each year!"

After saying this, the priest, noticing the bloodstains on his feet, disgustedly searched for something to wipe his shoes.

"You should be glad I didn't want to dirty my shoes for an idiot like you. Otherwise, I would have made sure you, this blasphemous scoundrel, knew what divine punishment was!"

"Forget it, take this guy away and throw him into hard labor to mine. Honestly, we should arrest all these fishermen and make them mine so they can hand over a lot of money."

The grumbling priest directly determined the fisherman's fate.

The fisherman broke down, kneeling on the ground and clinging to the priest's leg, saying:

"Sir, Father, I can't go to hard labor, I can't go! I still have to support my child. Look at him, how old is he? He won't survive without me!"

Upon hearing this, the priest couldn't help but look at the boy who had been staring at him fiercely.

Then he sneered:

"That's simple, just arrest him too."

The fisherman felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

An endless stream of confusion and anger welled up in my heart at this moment.

He didn't understand what he had done wrong.

He wanted to vent his anger, he wanted to make this true blasphemer pay the price, but just as he was about to get up, he saw two knights dressed in magnificent armor.

The dragon on the other person's chest was so realistic and ferocious.

This moment instantly drained the man of all his vitality, causing him to kneel back down.

He had no way to resist.

But the two knights suddenly whispered a few words to the priest.

This made the sneering priest frown slightly and ask the boy:

"Hey kid, how old are you?"

The boy didn't answer, he just stared at him with eyes blazing with fury.

This displeased the priest, but the man, as if grasping at a straw, hurriedly said:

"Seven years old, he's only seven, Your Excellency!"

"Seven years old?"

“Yes, Your Honor, I swear to the gods and kings, he really is only seven years old!”

The priest frowned, glanced at the fisherman, and then spat at the boy, saying:

"Consider yourself lucky, you damned little devil. Just you wait, when you grow up a bit more, I'll definitely drag you out for hard labor to atone for your sins."

"Let's go, take this lowly commoner with us."

The two knights immediately stepped forward, grabbed the fisherman, and carried him away from the house.

Before being led away, the fisherman looked back at his son.

He wanted to say something, but after seeing the neighbors around the house, he could only change his mind and say:

"You know how to take care of yourself, child. You know where I keep the food. You must take good care of yourself, because you'll be all alone from now on."

Facing his father, the boy showed no more ferocity; he simply stood at the door, gritting his teeth and nodding repeatedly.

In front of the man, the priest kicked another man to the ground.

And he muttered curses:

"You only did what you were supposed to do, and you dare ask me for a reward? You damned lowly commoner, do you also want to do hard labor?"

The other party hurriedly waved his hands and crawled away.

Watching the man flee, the priest clapped his hands with amusement. Well, that saved him a few silver coins.

Finally, still feeling unsatisfied, the priest turned back to look at the fisherman who was strung between the two knights.

Then he suddenly grabbed a sharp piece of gravel from the ground and slashed it across the man's face.

“That’s much better. I almost forgot that someone like you who offends the church can’t have a nice face. Your face is a gift from God, but you haven’t received any blessing to offer to us!”

The intense pain caused the man to break free and fall to the ground.

The knights stood by, enjoying the view.

In the very end, the man lying on the ground still spoke to his son:

"May the two empires bless you, my son."

This time, the boy who had been holding back his tears finally cried.

He didn't understand why his father would pray to those two beings who couldn't protect any of them at all.

Didn't Father know that those two so-called supreme beings were the source of all their misfortunes?

Why does my father still cling to that ridiculous belief even after all this?

A new chapter has begun, four thousand words so far. I'll go organize the outline for the rest.

Chapter 278 I am the Lord of the Abyss (4k)

The fisherman was taken away by the church so casually and carelessly.

The fishermen all remained silent about it.

This was the first time such a thing had happened in their village, but it was the umpteenth time in their area.