Chapter 1018 – Mo Lan’s Laid-Back Daily Life 2

Open the door, step through, close it, then open it again—and she arrived at the seaside cottage in Tidewhisper Forest.

The pink mermaid-comb shrubs shimmered with a pearlescent pink luster under the sunlight. When the sea breeze blew, the branches rubbed against each other, producing a soft rustling sound. Among the shrubs, blue tidebell flowers lay scattered like seashells, rising and falling in rhythm with the sound of the waves.

Further ahead stretched the gradient-colored beach where moonlight moss and seawater blended together.

Mo Lan took a deep breath of the seaside air and glanced at the time on her bracelet. “It’s still early. We haven’t gone looking for that treasure map from the Sunken Ship Treasure Platter we ate last time! Let’s go check it out!”

Zhizhi was thoroughly uninterested.

The treasure maps from the Sunken Ship Treasure Platter had been getting worse with each passing season.

Clack patiently produced a delicate little shovel, ever uncomplaining. It was always infinitely patient with everything.

Mo Lan summoned her flying carpet and sat down on it first. Zhizhi hopped up beside her feet, and Clack quietly settled behind her.

“Let’s go!”

The flying carpet rose steadily into the air, soaring over the pink mermaid-comb shrubs and heading toward the waters marked on the treasure map.

A little over an hour later, they found what appeared to be a rather ordinary fishing boat. Its hull had already snapped in two, covered in thick layers of coral and seaweed. Several brightly colored reef fish darted in and out through gaps in the cabin.

Mo Lan compared the markings on the treasure map with the shabby-looking shipwreck before her and let out a soft sigh. “Looks like another ‘surprise.'”

She approached the hull and located what should have been the captain’s quarters.

The wooden planks had already rotted through and fell apart with the gentlest push.

Inside, there was only a barnacle-encrusted table with a single shell resting on top.

A palm-sized white scallop shell with natural spiral patterns on its surface, gleaming with a pearlescent luster in the dim depths of the sea.

It was too clean, utterly out of place amid the surrounding decay—clearly not an original part of the shipwreck.

Mo Lan cautiously picked up the shell, and the instant she touched it, it opened on its own.

Inside lay a neatly folded piece of parchment that still looked quite new. Written on it in elegant handwriting was a single line:

【To whoever comes after: The real treasure isn’t at the bottom of the sea, but on your way home. —A fellow treasure hunter who was equally disappointed】

Mo Lan was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“Melis is truly Aquina’s daughter through and through!”

Melis was Aquina’s daughter, though when it came to culinary magic, Melis was rather lopsided in her interests—she only liked researching all manner of strange and unusual spirits.

After Aquina had planted her Witch Tree and raised Melis, she departed for the Well of the Sky. After that, the Merfolk Tavern had been closed for a long, long time. The tavern’s old regulars all said the harbor had lost half its soul.

It wasn’t until Melis, who had grown up in the tavern since childhood, graduated and came here that the Merfolk Tavern reopened its doors.

The food at the tavern was still the same few dishes from when Aquina had been around, but the drinks were a different story entirely. New creations appeared as frequently as once a week or as slowly as once a month.

New offerings could only be tasted at the tavern itself; they wouldn’t appear in the Card Shop’s tavern section for at least a year.

Every time a new spirit was released, Mo Lan would bring Zhizhi and the others to try it.

By the time they returned to Moon Harbor, the last traces of the sunset’s afterglow had completely faded.

On the massive reef stage, a merfolk songstress crooned softly, while guests in the surrounding starshine giant shells were immersed in the performance. Mo Lan immediately spotted Shana’s mother in a starshine giant shell in the front row. She was sitting with Melis, watching the merfolk songstress on stage while exchanging quiet words about something.

The two were several hundred years apart in age, yet had become close friends through their shared appreciation for merfolk music and beauty.

Mo Lan descended directly onto that giant shell.

Shana’s mother smiled and beckoned to her, and Mo Lan felt a tendril of psychic power wrap around her collar.

She didn’t resist. Her entire body was pulled forward, and she sank into the soft sofa, landing perfectly between the two of them.

“Why are you here so late?”

“I took a detour to follow a treasure map from the Sunken Ship Treasure Platter.” Mo Lan took out the shell.

The moment Melis saw it, her eyes curved into little crescent moons. “Oh my! It’s a special Easter egg! I placed more than thirty treasures like this in total—congratulations on finding one of them.”

Shana’s mother opened the shell and glanced at the message on the parchment. “Melis, compared to Aquina, you really are much kinder!”

Mo Lan looked over in confusion. “Kinder? When Aquina was around, I actually found real treasure following those maps!”

“What real treasure?” Melis asked curiously. She had always assumed that the treasure maps her mother hid all led to junk—and she herself had contributed quite a few pieces of that junk!

“A ticket to a ghost ship! Clack ate the ghost ship’s heart and advanced on the spot!” Mo Lan said.

“A ghost ship crawling with undead and curses—how is that real treasure?” Shana’s mother’s face took on a nostalgic expression.

“I found a ‘note’ treasure once too. It said, ‘Please put this note back where you found it so the next person can enjoy this surprise too.’ I didn’t put it back. And guess what happened? I got hit with a little curse on the spot—a ‘taste inversion curse.’ Soup tasted bitter, candy tasted salty, and wine tasted like day-old fish broth. I went to Aquina to have it dispelled, and she said she had just started studying Curse Magic, that her talent in that area was mediocre, and she didn’t know how to break it yet. The curse didn’t wear off naturally until a whole month later!”

“Pfft!” Mo Lan laughed so hard her shoulders shook. “When you put it that way, Melis really is much kinder!”

Melis seized the opportunity to wipe away the tears that had formed from laughing, then cleared her throat. “Ahem, well then… to express my ‘kindness,’ tonight’s new release is on me!”

She summoned a merfolk waiter, and each of them was served a glass of Moonrise Whisper.

Mo Lan noticed the merfolk waiter’s gaze kept drifting toward Shana’s mother several times and couldn’t help asking, “Mom, do you know him?”

Shana’s mother’s expression stiffened slightly. “He’s been courting me, but I haven’t accepted.”

She loved listening to the merfolk songstresses sing, which was why she could never quite let go of Moon Harbor. After surpassing the Peak level, she had even lived in the Merfolk Kingdom for a time.

But… every single time, she would encounter merfolk who pursued her, making it impossible to stay for long.

She only liked appreciating the merfolk songstresses’ singing. She did not enjoy merfolk wooing her with love songs.

“If Hector is bothering you, I’ll dismiss him!” Melis said.

Shana’s mother was a Mind Witch. Even without using Psychic Magic, she naturally drew people around her to develop feelings for her.

The love of the merfolk was too devoted, too obsessive. If Shana’s mother didn’t want to give it a try, the best course of action was simply to have Hector leave.

“No need! On my last trip to the Well of the Sky, I obtained a new material.” Shana’s mother produced a card as she spoke.

“Amnesia Water?” Mo Lan exclaimed in surprise. “Does it mean what I think it means?”

Shana’s mother nodded. “If he still won’t give up, I’ll just slip it into his drink!”