Chapter 556 – Golden Comb Salad

Mo Lan rode her broom away from the seaside where she had lived for several years, flying south along the coastline.

Aquina’s words still echoed in her ears. After a moment’s thought, Mo Lan switched her broom to flying carpet form, then opened her Card Magic and searched for the gourmet cards Aquina had uploaded.

Besides the Sunken Ship Treasure Platter and other gourmet cards she was already quite familiar with, there were several new ones containing dishes Mo Lan had never seen before.

The cards only briefly indicated whether each dish was sweet or savory. As for the gourmet effects, there was just a single short line at the end: “Comes with a certain surprise effect; effect details can be read after eating.”

Below that was a line of text obscured by mosaic blurring.

Since she couldn’t see the effects, she had no choice but to pick two cards that interested her based on their names and illustrations, then materialized them.

Merfolk comb branches sprinkled with edible gold powder were stuck into a suspicious mass of transparent seaweed whose original form was impossible to discern.

On a little ghost ship molded from rice, deep purple sauce was drizzled over everything, with steam blowing against cheese-slice sails.

One was called {Merfolk’s Golden Comb Salad}, the other {Ghost Ship Curry Rice}.

Mo Lan had just left a beach full of Merfolk combs and was on her way to find the Ghost Ship—these two dishes perfectly suited her current situation.

She first pulled out a gold-dusted Merfolk comb branch.

Having lived beside the Merfolk comb bushes for several years, it had never once occurred to her that Merfolk combs could be used as a food ingredient.

After all, these were tree branches that Merfolk used to comb their hair. With that level of hardness, they were utterly unsuitable for eating.

But the card did clearly state: “Everything on the plate is edible.”

She took a small bite, and the texture was surprisingly quite good.

The Merfolk comb branches appeared to have been processed—the insides had been hollowed out, leaving only a two-millimeter-thick outer shell. It was incredibly crispy, shattering at first bite, with a hint of saltiness. The edible gold powder sprinkled on top carried a faint cooling sensation. Together, it was like eating cucumber-flavored potato chips.

This gave Mo Lan very high expectations for the seaweed in the bowl.

She scooped up a spoonful and brought it to her mouth.

Refreshingly sweet and silky smooth, without the dry roughness of vegetables or the juiciness of fruit, yet wonderfully palatable. Before she knew it, she had eaten more than half the bowl.

Just as she was wondering where the “surprise” in this dish was supposed to be, she suddenly noticed that Zhizhi and Clack in front of her both looked rather strange.

They were both tilting their heads back, staring at her… head?

Mo Lan touched the top of her head but found nothing unusual. She cast a Water Mirror Technique.

In the mirror, her hair was radiating a dazzling glow, as if she had a giant lightbulb on her head—practically impossible to look at directly.

“This is the… surprise?” Mo Lan ground out those last two words through clenched teeth.

She took out the card to look at it.

After {Merfolk’s Golden Comb Salad} had been materialized, it left behind an empty card. The mosaic text at the end had become clear: “After eating, hair will be silky smooth and radiant for an entire day.”

Radiant—she could certainly see that. But silky smooth?

Mo Lan touched her hair, then touched it again. It really was incredibly silky! So nice to touch!

She loved the way it felt, but she truly did not want a giant lightbulb on top of her head! A purple-tinted giant lightbulb, at that.

She took out her Communication Card to ask Aquina.

【Aquina: There’s no way to fix it!】

Mo Lan deeply suspected whether this thing could actually sell at the tavern.

With no other option, she could only wave her hand to dismiss the water mirror. Out of sight, out of mind.

【Moira: Does the Ghost Ship Curry Rice have any special effects? It’s not going to be another “surprise” that’s all shock and no delight, is it?】

【Aquina: The Ghost Ship has a very special chili pepper captain inside it. Eating it grants underwater breathing ability for one day.】

Only then did Mo Lan breathe a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t another bizarre effect like glowing hair.

After finishing her conversation with Aquina, Mo Lan was kind enough to tell the other Sorceresses about Aquina’s newly released gourmet cards, with a special recommendation for the “Merfolk’s Golden Comb Salad.”

After finishing the Ghost Ship Curry Rice, the flying carpet had already carried her to the location marked on the treasure map from her second Sunken Ship Treasure Platter.

The underwater breathing ability from the Ghost Ship Curry Rice was still active, so she dove straight into the sea. Half an hour later, in a reef cave on the ocean floor carved with the Merfolk Tavern’s symbol, she fished out a starfish-shaped stamp.

Pressing it against her arm produced a mark reading “Legitimate Pirate.”

Mo Lan couldn’t figure out what else it might be good for, so she used her Communication Card to ask Aquina once again.

【Aquina: A stamp that prints a “Legitimate Pirate” mark? Let me think…】

【Aquina: I remember now! That’s something underwater Merfolk kindergarten teachers use to reward well-behaved little Merfolk. I traded a piece of candy from the surface for it with a young Merfolk child—it was her treasure.】

【Moira: …】

So that was the kind of treasure it was. Another half hour of her time wasted!

Sure enough, being able to pull Ghost Ship tickets from the Sunken Ship Treasure Platter had been a stroke of enormous luck—not every attempt would yield that kind of fortune.

Mo Lan tossed the stamp into a corner of her Spatial Card and continued flying toward the abandoned dock at the pearl oyster farm.

Her timing was excellent—it was just getting dark when she arrived.

Mo Lan stowed the flying carpet and stood on the only intact plank of the dock, taking out that hopelessly rusted key.

In the dead of night, she didn’t even need to use a Light spell for illumination—her hair was terrifyingly bright all on its own.

Her only worry now was that her hair was so bright the Ghost Ship wouldn’t come.

If the Ghost Ship didn’t come, how was she supposed to obtain the legendary “Heart of the Ghost Ship”—said to be a supreme restorative for undead creatures?

This was also one of the rare materials that the Book of Cards still lacked and couldn’t produce.

As for the legends about “a cabin on the Ghost Ship where the deceased can reunite” or “presenting a ticket to apply as crew on the Ghost Ship easily grants eternal life”—Mo Lan scoffed at all of them.

No matter how eerie the Ghost Ship was, it was merely a vessel carrying a living curse, loaded with undead creatures. If even Beyond Peak level powerhouses who could traverse other worlds couldn’t obtain eternal life without doing anything, how could a Ghost Ship within Valen possibly manage it?

She waited for several hours.

Just as Mo Lan was about to lose her patience, a thick fog suddenly rose over the sea, and within it appeared the silhouette of a ship.

The vessel sailing through the darkness had not a single light aboard—one look was enough to tell something was very wrong.

Before it even drew near, Mo Lan could already sense the dense aura of death and curse power surrounding it.

Soon the ship stopped before her.

At the bow was a weeping woman figurehead whose eyes could rotate, her mouth split in a grin stretching to her ears. The hull was covered in a black mucous membrane resembling whale skin, and where it was damaged, dark red flesh could be seen writhing underneath. On the rotting sails, shifting blood-colored runes continuously materialized and changed.

After staring at the ship for a brief moment, Mo Lan felt her psychic power barrier come under attack.

At the same time, a mooring rope covered in waterweeds and sludge came coiling toward her.

Mo Lan found the rope too filthy and simply leaped onto the Ghost Ship’s deck herself.