Great Ming Treasure Ship

Ghost and God Domains often possessed unpredictable might, but they also had distinctions in strength. Some Ghost and God Domains could merely cause the alienation of cultivators in the Golden Core Realm, and upon encountering those who had cultivated a Nascent Soul, they would fail to alienate them.

Yet there were other Ghost and God Domains where even formidable experts of the Body Integration Realm would be alienated upon entering!

Li Jindou was already in the Spirit Transformation Realm, a formidable expert who had cultivated a Primordial Spirit. He had never expected to fall into a trap in this seemingly unremarkable kiln workshop, which could truly be called capsizing in a drainage ditch!

He was immensely anxious, speaking to the two of them repeatedly, gesturing and explaining at the same time. Yet after being porcelanized, his vocal cords were no longer flesh and blood, but ceramic, and the sounds he emitted were akin to bird chirps, impossible for outsiders to comprehend.

Seeing this, Chen Shi felt a slight ripple in his heart. He retrieved paper and brush from his book basket and handed them to Li Jindou.

The porcelain doll that Li Jindou had transformed into was only slightly taller than the brush. Holding the brush, he wrote and drew on the paper, and the two of them finally understood his meaning.

Li Tianqing said rapidly, "Xiao Shi, my Grandpa has fallen victim to the alienation of a Ghost and God Domain. It will take some time for him to suppress the alienation and recover his true form. The longer the delay and the deeper the alienation, the harder it will be to restore him. Let us hurry back to the village!"

Chen Shi's eyes shone brightly, and he proposed, "As long as you are willing to spend a bit of money, I can help your Grandpa recover his true form."

Li Tianqing hesitated for a moment and consulted Li Jindou.

Li Jindou wrote and drew on the ground once more, and Li Tianqing said with a sheepish expression, "My Grandpa doesn't believe you."

With a dark face, Li Jindou thought to himself, Though Tianqing is intelligent, he has one flaw—he blurts out whatever is on his mind.

Chen Shi simply let them be, leading the two out of the mountains.

"What did Senior Li encounter in the kiln workshop?" Chen Shi inquired.

The porcelain doll that Li Jindou had transformed into was currently hiding inside his book basket, poking his head out to look around. Hearing this, he wrote and drew inside the basket, and after a moment, he held up a sheet of paper.

Scrawled upon the paper were the words kiln worker, kiln cave, origin, and the like.

A slight ripple stirred in Chen Shi's heart. Li Jindou must have gone to the kiln workshop to search for the origin of this Ghost and God Domain, only to be hunted down by the kiln workers.

Judging from his writing, it was as if he had been caught by the kiln workers and thrown into a kiln cave, yet managed to escape.

"Did Senior Li find the origin of the kiln workshop?" Chen Shi pressed.

Li Jindou nodded.

"What is the origin of the kiln workshop?"

Hesitating for a moment, Li Jindou drew on the paper, sketching for a good long while before he finally finished.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing leaned in together to look, only to see that what was drawn on the paper was a statue with eight arms and four faces. The statue was seated in full lotus posture, every single hand grasping a weapon.

The expression on the statue's face was brimming with compassion, possessing a profound sense of universal salvation. Yet falling into the eyes of the two, they somehow felt that something was rather eerie about it. Far from being compassionate, it actually made one's hair stand on end.

"What kind of statue is this?" Chen Shi asked in puzzlement.

Li Tianqing said, "The Eight-Armed Mother Bodhisattva."

Chen Shi was entirely clueless about this sort of thing and was about to ask when Li Jindou held up another sheet of paper. Written on it were the two characters porcelain.

The two of them understood. The Eight-Armed Mother Bodhisattva statue wasn't a sculpture at all, but a piece of porcelain.

Li Jindou retracted the paper and held it up once more, the words very tall and very large written upon it.

"A huge porcelain Bodhisattva statue is the origin of this Ghost and God Domain?"

As the two were pondering, Li Jindou held up the paper again, with the words movable written upon it.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing were each frozen in place. What did movable mean?

Did it mean the Bodhisattva statue was movable, or that the Ghost and God Domain was movable?

"Both are possible," Li Jindou raised the paper and wrote.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing exchanged glances, their expressions turning grave.

"This Ghost and God Domain and the Bodhisattva statue are simply a colossal evil sui."

Li Tianqing muttered, "If it were to move, wouldn't everything living in its path be transformed into porcelain?"

Chen Shi could not help but shiver. If this Evil Bodhisattva moved, he feared the first to suffer would be Huangpo Village!

"Fortunately, this Evil Bodhisattva has never moved before," he forced a smile, though his heart was truly lacking in confidence.

Never having moved before did not mean it would never move in the future.

Just as many people believed that the True God from Beyond the Heavens remained forever unchanged, yet hadn't the sky grown dark an hour early just a few days prior?

Li Jindou had originally intended to go to the kiln workshop to search for clues regarding the True King's Tomb. While he hadn't uncovered the whereabouts of the True King's Tomb, discovering the origin of the kiln workshop's Ghost and God Domain was also a tremendous harvest for Chen Shi.

He had originally wanted to ask if they had seen any other porcelain dolls, but Li Jindou was as tight-lipped as if words were gold, so he didn't dare to ask too much.

Presumably, those porcelain dolls had been caught by the kiln workers and tossed into the kiln caves to be melted down.

Upon returning to Huangpo Village, Li Jindou hid in the west wing, using his Primordial Spirit to suppress the porcelanization in an attempt to recover his true form. Li Tianqing went to take care of him, only to discover he couldn't be of any help at all, and had no choice but to retreat.

The duration of Li Jindou's porcelanization had been short, and his personal cultivation was exceptionally formidable. By the time of the evening meal, he had already refined the porcelanization from his head, transforming it back into the crest of six yang.

Once he had his head, reversing the porcelanization became much simpler, save for the fact that his tiny body was topped with a normal person's head, appearing indescribably comical.

Yet at the same time, it was extremely dangerous. With the slightest carelessness, his neck might tilt, and his head would likely snap the ceramic neck and tumble right off.

He dared not turn his head, and he dared not lower it even more.

In the dead of night, when all was quiet and deep in slumber, even Li Tianqing had fallen asleep, only Li Jindou was still hard at work.

At that moment, whispering voices drifted from the courtyard. They sounded vaguely like Chen Yindu's voice.

The moonlight is truly fine today, I really want to eat people!

Black Pot, you smell so fragrant! Black Pot should be eaten first.

Raising a grandson protects against hunger; we should start with a bite of Xiao Shi first!

No, I cannot bask in the moonlight... But they smell so fragrant, and my neighbors smell so fragrant too! There are guests today, it's not good to go out... The guests smell fragrant, too.

Li Jindou was so frightened that he shivered, nearly snapping his neck.

With this momentary distraction, his head rapidly porcelanized once more, and he hurriedly steadied his mind to suppress the transformation. Only, this time recovering his true form would likely require considerably more time.

The next day, Li Tianqing got up to check on his condition, only to see that Li Jindou was no longer sitting in the full lotus posture, but lying on the bed. From the chest up, he had already recovered his flesh-and-blood physique, but from the chest down, he was still porcelain.

It was just that his upper body was that of an adult, while his lower body was the diminutive physique of a porcelain doll, looking unspeakably bizarre.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, Li Tianqing hurried outside and shouted, "Xiao Shi, Xiao Shi! I might have found a clue to the True King's Tomb!"

Dragging Chen Shi along, the two of them ran outside, laughing as he said, "Once we find the True King's Tomb, I can go back and report for duty without even needing to capture you!"

Following him, the two arrived in the vicinity of the kiln workshop.

Inspecting the surroundings closely, Li Tianqing's eyes suddenly lit up. "Found it!"

He strode forward, coming to a patch of open ground outside the kiln workshop where only scattered weeds grew, devoid of trees.

Walking along the open ground, Li Tianqing was quite excited. "This is a road! A road leading out from the kiln workshop!"

Chen Shi did not quite understand.

Walking along this rugged mountain path, Li Tianqing explained, "When the road was built back then, they tamped it down with large stones, smashed the mountain rocks to pieces, and poured rice soup over it. Through constant treading, it has prevented vegetation from surviving for thousands of years. Look at how other places have dense forests, yet only sparse weeds grow here. That alone proves this is an ancient path!"

Chen Shi looked around, indeed noticing the unique features of this place.

However, the path was narrow, and both sides were covered by low bushes. Without careful observation, one wouldn't be able to distinguish it as a mountain path at all.

Chen Shi asked in puzzlement, "Why are you looking for this road?"

Li Tianqing said, "When the True King was buried back then, the fired porcelain and pottery had to be delivered into the True King's Tomb. That is to say, as long as we clear out this road, we can follow it to find the True King's Tomb!"

Filled with admiration, Chen Shi praised, "Tianqing, you know so much."

Li Tianqing smiled. "Whenever I have free time in the Li Family, I read. The more books I read, the more I know."

Observing his surroundings, Chen Shi said, "However, this road is not the way to the True King's Tomb. I've been to the True King's Tomb quite a few times; I'm very familiar with it."

"Not the road to the True King's Tomb?"

Extremely puzzled, Li Tianqing asked, "Then where does this road lead?"

Looking around, Chen Shi also wore a bewildered expression.

He had walked almost the entirety of Ganyang Mountain following Grandpa, but he had never been here.

Seized by a playful spirit, the two proceeded along the path. The road was not entirely clear; in some places, the path broke off, turning into a cliff face, presumably caused by an earthquake.

Chen Shi searched for green vines to climb down, and Li Tianqing boldly followed behind him. Before long, the two reached the base of the cliff and continued forward along the broken path, only to find that the road was growing broader and broader.

Suddenly, a dry riverbed in the valley ahead came into view.

The riverbed had been dry for who knows how many years, yet resting right upon the riverbed was a massive ship.

A colossal ship turned to stone!

Chen Shi was filled with astonishment. This was his first time coming to this strange place as well, unaware that there was such a grand river hidden within Ganyang Mountain.

Though it had dried up, the scale of the river back then could still be discerned from the width of the riverbed.

Such a gigantic ship was something he was seeing for the very first time.

Before long, they arrived in the dried-up riverbed and walked upstream along it.

The contours of the riverbed could still be made out; the water surface had been several dozens of zhang wide. The river water seemed to have dried up rapidly, and at the bottom of the riverbed, there were even the skeletal remains of some large fish that had also been petrified.

The bodies of the giant fish were exceptionally massive, their maws filled with ferocious, sharp teeth. The two of them could even pass straight through the mouths of the giant fish and emerge from their throats.

Gazing at these peculiar, giant fossilized fish skeletons, Chen Shi suddenly realized, "This great river is the Dejiang River!"

Li Tianqing was rather perplexed. "How do you know this great river is the Dejiang River? The Dejiang River should be on the other side of the mountain."

"Because this kind of fish is a unique giant fish found only in the Dejiang River, called the gun, and it loves to eat people. Some accident must have happened back then that caused the Dejiang River to change its course."

He recounted the story of Granny Sha using him as bait to fish, listening as Li Tianqing's eyes widened in excitement. "That sounds fun! Xiao Shi, borrow Granny Sha's fishhook and hang it on me to try!"

Chen Shi thought about it and shook his head. "No, it's too dangerous. You could easily die."

Li Tianqing had no choice but to drop the matter.

The two continued onward along the riverbed. Within this river were not only the skeletal remains of giant fish turned to fossils, but also the fossils of all sorts of other aquatic creatures, bizarre and grotesque.

Arriving before the enormous multi-storied vessel, they saw that this towering ship was forty-four zhang long and eighteen zhang wide. The hull was petrified, yet the wooden grain was still visible.

"A petrified wooden ship? How could there be a petrified wooden ship? This defies reason."

Walking around the massive ship, Li Tianqing muttered, "This ship was petrified by someone using a peculiar spell. If the petrification were undone, it could still cross oceans and brave the wind and waves. Wait, the style of this ship resembles the legendary Treasure Ship of Great Ming..."

With a dazed expression, he murmured, "The Treasure Ship of Great Ming! So there really is a Treasure Ship of Great Ming in this world! Was this Treasure Ship of Great Ming left behind by the True King? Could it be that this ship still holds the method to return to our ancestral land?"

Utterly baffled, Chen Shi inquired, "What kind of place is the ancestral land?"

"The ancestral land is Great Ming, it is Divine Continent!"

Li Tianqing said excitedly, "It is the place where our ancestors came from! Do you know where our ancestral home is? Do you know why this place is called Xinxiang, and why it's called the Western Ox Continent? Our Li Family's ancient texts record this history!"

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he began to narrate it in a smooth, flowing stream.

That was countless years ago, when a eunuch named Sanbao, acting on the orders of Emperor Chengzu of Great Ming, led a fleet composed of Treasure Ships of Great Ming—a force of twenty-seven thousand men—into the high winds and choppy waves of the Dark Sea.

After seventeen years of drifting through the tempest, floating in the lightless ocean for seventeen years, the fleet finally discovered an unfamiliar continent amidst the sunless depths.

A continent that no one had ever set foot upon before.

The terrain here was vast and devoid of human inhabitants, teeming with countless rare beasts and exotic creatures.

The twenty-seven thousand Great Ming soldiers felled trees and cleared forests along the coast of this unfamiliar continent, building cities and docks that they named Xinxiang.

Meaning, a new hometown.

Xinxiang opened its port and built its city, becoming the very first foothold of Great Ming in this land.

Sanbao the Eunuch sailed back to report to Emperor Chengzu. Emperor Chengzu was overjoyed, bestowing upon this new continent the name Western Ox Continent.

From that time onward, the people of Huaxia came in an endless stream, immigrating to the New Continent, opening up new territories, and Great Ming unified the Western Ox Continent.

Every single person alive today was a descendant of those immigrants of that era.

"We have lost contact with our ancestral land for a very long time. Since the fall of the True King and the reign of the Jiajing Emperor, no new king has been sent to rule the Western Ox Continent for over six thousand years."

--Launching at twelve o'clock tonight, the first day of the new book's launch, urgently needing everyone's support! There might be a slight delay in the review of VIP Chapter One.