Vexation

Li Shiwei immediately got out of bed and snapped her fingers.

But then a strange wind swirled around her, tidying her hair and clothes. By the time she stepped from the bed into the room, she had transformed from a disheveled and relaxed state into a smart and clean uniform.

That's right, she's wearing a uniform now, which is basically a tight-fitting long-sleeved robe. The overall design is probably based on the uniforms of the constables in the Tang Kingdom. She's wearing a small square hat with the merchant's logo printed on it.

This trading company was jointly established by Mount Luofu, the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom, and Li Qi, and is currently the organization that is exploring this world cluster.

Li Shiwei's duties were to act as a guard and also to maintain the security of the giant ship.

After all, a giant ship two thousand miles long couldn't be empty; it was filled with people, some of whom were individual merchants. Their civilizations and worlds were unable to build large Law Treasure to cross the outer void, but they could pay rent to board the ship and use the merchant guild's giant ship to transport their goods.

Although they are called individual business owners, these merchants generally represent their own civilization. The goods they transport are accumulated by hundreds of millions or even billions of people in their civilization. Those in charge of these business activities are the high-ranking members of the civilization, and may even be the strongest beings in that civilization. However...

There are so many small worlds like this that they seem insignificant. They are generally classified as individual businesses. There are seven or eight thousand such caravans on the giant ship. The strongest people in their entire civilization are some who are only at the ninth rank.

They may seem insignificant in the vast outer world, but they are the hope of the entire civilization.

With seven or eight thousand different races, seven or eight thousand different customs, and even different physiological states, it's impossible to avoid some friction.

Moreover, these races had various grudges and feuds with each other even before they uploaded the information, which makes the need for security personnel even greater.

Therefore, Li Shiwei's job was to manage and coordinate the security of these people, and incidentally, as a combatant, she also handled delivery matters within the world.

This was still a very proper job. Li Qi did not give his daughter any special treatment because Li Qi knew that special treatment was indulgence, and indulgence would damage a child's normal mindset, causing Li Shiwei's mentality to become skewed and no longer normal.

Maintaining a calm and composed mindset is very important.

A calm mind means being able to maintain your true self when facing different people.

One should be neither servile to superiors nor arrogant to inferiors. One should not fawn over those stronger than oneself, nor bully those weaker than oneself. Only in this way can one go far and avoid losing Dao heart.

This is something Li Qi realized on his own. He suffered because of this, and even Zhu Fengdan admitted that she had made a mistake in educating him in this regard, making Li Qi timid and losing his courage.

Zhu Fengdan neglected Li Qi, which led to Li Qi fighting a seventh-rank opponent while being a ninth-rank opponent, then a sixth-rank opponent while being an eighth-rank opponent, and finally, when he was a seventh-rank opponent, he stopped pretending and faced the Heavenly Demon directly. This crushed Li Qi's Heart Qi, making him overthink and lack courage, which is why he is now stuck at the peak of the sixth rank.

Therefore, Li Qi will definitely not make the same mistake again, and Li Shiwei has been very upright so far.

Li Shiwei walked to the door and opened it.

Outside the door stood a middle-aged man, also in uniform, but looking much more upscale.

Seeing the middle-aged man, Li Shiwei was very puzzled and said, "Ah, boss, what brings you here? What can't you do over the phone? Why come knocking on the door in person? Are you very free?"

The entire ship has a top-level security officer, under whom are five squads, each in charge of one of the five areas. The man in front of you is Li Shiwei's captain, one-fifth of the security personnel on the ship. He has achieved the seventh rank of Dao and was once a reclusive master in the Seventh Rank World, only hoping to pursue his own limits. Later, he was recruited and paid with Cultivation Method. Now he works hard every day to try to exchange for a sixth-rank Cultivation Method.

"Of course I'm not free, it's just that you seem to be quite free, working overtime," the middle-aged man said casually.

"Ugh... working overtime again? It's not those mineral races again, is it?" Li Shiwei's face fell.

"You're the only one on the ship who can communicate with them. Alright, stop complaining. This is a big client, there's a bonus. It's in Warehouse 15 of Cabin B. Both sides have Rank 7 beings facing off, so I'll go with you." The captain said, still without any emotion.

Upon hearing that there was a confrontation between seven ranks, Li Shiwei immediately became solemn. As for the captain's tone, the brat was already used to it.

At first, she thought the captain had a problem with her, but later she learned that after he reached the seventh rank, he had no one to understand him or communicate with in his own world, so he cultivated alone in the deep mountains and had been expressionless for about two thousand years, so he couldn't change it in a short time.

She understood why the team leader had personally come to ask her to work overtime.

So she nodded, then said to Zhang You in the kitchen, "Youyou, you eat first, don't wait for me. I'm working overtime, the boss personally gave instructions, a confrontation between the seventh and seventh ranks!"

"Okay! Be careful, don't get too close!" Zhang You poked her head out from the kitchen and warned.

"No problem, I'll be back in an hour!" Li Shiwei gave a no-brainer and headed outside.

Then, she followed the captain, quickened her pace, and hurried toward their destination.

After all, this ship is two thousand miles long and several hundred miles wide, with a complex interior that is larger than some small worlds. Traveling on it will take some time. Fortunately, as security personnel, they have their own dedicated passageways and do not have to take those crowded main roads.

On the way, the captain suddenly asked, "By the way, how did you communicate with those mineral races?"

Li Shiwei immediately responded jokingly, "I have my own clever plan~ What, does that mean the leader can just ask about my background? I'm a virgin, I should be mindful of my image."

The captain remained expressionless. "I'm just curious, you cultivate the Mount Luofu Cultivation Method, and so Cultivation Method I, so why can't I talk to those mineral lifeforms?"

"It's probably because you're not good enough. Even among those who cultivate the same Cultivation Method, there are differences. I'm a genius," Li Shiwei snorted smugly.

"Indeed, I need to work even harder. I used to think I had reached the top in my own world, but now I realize there are always higher levels out there," the captain continued, his face serious.

"Hey, you're not really taking this seriously, are you?" Li Shiwei frowned.

"It's true from the start, so why take it seriously?" The captain's tone remained unchanged.

This made Li Shiwei touch her head.

He's even more stone than stone. This person should be able to communicate with the life of minerals, but stones are much more understanding than him.

Yes, actually, being able to communicate with the life of minerals isn't some kind of Cultivation Method. The principle is very simple: it's about letting the stones speak.

Stone is also a typical mineral life form, and its true form is a sixth-grade Xuanjing Jade produced in the world, which is of a very high status. It can naturally suppress those mineral life forms, which is why Li Shiwei can speak effectively among them.

Of course, the stone's true form is a sixth-grade, but he himself has only cultivated to the ninth grade so far, which is actually very weak. He needs to slowly develop his potential.

Or to be more straightforward, let someone else develop it for him, that is, to refine the whole thing into Law Treasure.

Li Shiwei would definitely not do that. She would let Shi Tou grow slowly on his own. After all, it was a certainty that Shi Tou would advance to the sixth rank in the future. He hadn't even reached the level of exploration yet. At present, Shi Tou was still exploring the abilities he couldn't use.

But... forget it, there's no point in arguing with this captain. It's not good to expose the stone to outsiders, since the stone itself is quite valuable.

Chatting casually, the two arrived at the scene in about fifteen minutes.

The scene... well, how should I put it?

A pile of indescribable, dazzling gems stood facing each other, blocking the road.

Because there are two seventh-rank beings who surpass 99% of the people on this ship, everyone is hiding here.

These ores certainly couldn't be humanoid; in fact, they were all strangely shaped. As long as they could move, that was fine. And even if they could move, their movements were quite slow. They were basically just a pile of indescribable gemstones.

However, as mineral creatures, they have evolved extremely powerful divine souls and special optical supernatural Divine Ability, so they do not need to move themselves, but only need to float up using their Divine Ability.

To be honest, if you only look at it this way, it's hard to consider them as living beings.

However, the world beyond is endless, and there are always some strange and unusual things there.

"Stop, stop, don't block the road!" Li Shiwei clapped her hands and walked to the middle of the piles of gems.

But then the gems emitted a burst of spiritual energy.

They cannot speak, nor have they learned the method of making sounds by vibrating their bodies like stones, so they transmit their thoughts through their souls.

These fluctuations in spirit energy, if translated, are probably a noisy cheer?

"The Great One has arrived! The Great One has arrived!"

"Great one, they've stolen our trade route this time!"

"Our products are clearly better. This is normal competition. How can this be considered stealing? It's just that we're not competitive enough."

"Greater" is how these mineral life forms refer to beings of higher status.

Of course, her name wasn't Li Shiwei, but Shitou (Stone).

Li Shiwei flicked the stone hanging from her waist with her finger and said, "Let's find a quiet place, don't block the road here, let's go inside and talk slowly."

Then, the piles of gems suddenly rose into the air and flew up.

Then, following Li Shiwei, they walked to an empty warehouse nearby.

Li Shiwei locked the door and threw the stone out.

Then came a special kind of communication involving a bunch of inorganic substances, a method that Li Shiwei couldn't understand at all.

But it doesn't matter, as long as the problem can be solved.

She looked at the minerals, then turned to look at the door. Through the peephole, she could see the captain guarding outside, but the captain probably couldn't see inside; it was a one-way street.

Well...

There's a sense of exhaustion.

At first, she was quite happy doing these things at work, as she was able to interact with different races every day, so she was always very excited.

However, it has been more than a year, and doing this kind of thing now will no longer cause any psychological fluctuations.

Just as she had told Zhang You before, she was a little tired.

Although she wasn't directly beaten in any particularly serious incident, for a young girl who is only eighteen years old, the past year or so of work has felt like a dull knife, constantly cutting her.

It's only been a little over a year, which doesn't seem like a long time. She hasn't suffered any grievances. In fact, her colleagues are all easy to get along with. Even the team leader, who is a seventh-rank official, is actually quite good to his subordinates, even though he's as unyielding as a cement slab. For example, he was working overtime this time.

Working overtime was unavoidable, since the conflict between the mineral races couldn't wait until tomorrow. He could have just given an order, but he chose to come with Li Shiwei instead.

Such a good workplace relationship, comfortable interpersonal interactions, and a decent salary and status should, in theory, be a life that many people would envy.

But Li Shiwei still felt that this kind of life was slowly choking her, filling her throat with soil day by day.

It's only been a little over a year, and I'm already feeling a bit numb to so many fantastical landscapes.

After a while, the stone was tidied up. In order not to expose her, Li Shiwei did not directly ask him how he did it. Instead, she hung the stone back on her waist and then pushed open the door and went out.

After finishing their work, she and her team leader began their return journey.

The return journey is the same route, just in reverse.

On the way, Li Shiwei couldn't help but ask the team leader, "Boss, you've been working here for fifty years, haven't you?"

"Yes, two or fifty years short." The captain nodded.

"Aren't you annoyed?" Li Shiwei asked curiously.

"What's bothering you?" The captain didn't understand what Li Shiwei was referring to.

Li Shiwei explained, "Look, leader, you've lived for over two thousand years, two thousand of which were spent hiding your tracks alone in the corners of your own world, and now you're here doing the same thing for fifty years... Don't you get tired of it?"

As she spoke, she looked at the captain. It was said that the other person's expression had disappeared because he had lived alone for two thousand years and had lost the ability to make expressions.

"Annoyed? I don't know, I've never felt that way," the captain said with a straight face.

Li Shiwei didn't ask any more questions, because she knew that's how the captain was; if he said he didn't know, then he definitely didn't know.

I walked all the way back to my dorm.

Zhang You left her some food, and after she ate, Zhang You began her cultivation.

Li Shiwei looked out through the porthole.

Outside was an endless void, pitch black, without a single ray of light, and nothing could be seen. This outer space was even darker than the deepest darkness.

This is the case for most voyages outside the region; only in rare cases can one encounter some unusual scenery.

Looking out the window, Li Shiwei felt a sense of urgency.

She felt that life on the ship was only interesting at the beginning, but now it had become a suffocating shackle.

Li Shiwei wants to go to the Sea Hunting Realm. She's heard it's a chaotic place where she can build her own legend.