"Ah! So this is what freedom feels like!"
Sophia stood at the bow, arms spread toward the blue sky and white clouds, letting the boundless sea lift her spirits.
Before the collision, Huang Ji had told everyone to close the watertight valves in eight compartments of the Glory.
Sure enough, those were the eight compartments breached by the impact. But because their valves had already been shut, the compartments merely filled with water. The ship did not sink.
As a patrol ship, the Glory was meant for coastal waters, not ocean crossings. A fierce storm might well have capsized her.
Yet with Huang Ji navigating, they sailed under clear skies and through calm weather the entire way.
"Ten straight days of good weather. Incredible. I didn't know you were such an excellent navigator, too..." Sophia marveled.
"Basic weather forecasting." Huang Ji basked in the gentle sunlight. Predicting the weather was simple for him.
If he sensed rough seas ahead in one direction, or a storm coming in a few hours, he simply steered around it.
And so the battered Glory drifted this way and that under Huang Ji's guidance, sailing safely for ten days without incident.
From the first day, Huang Ji had been teaching everyone his Inner Canon on the deck.
After ten days, the most gifted had begun to find their rhythm. Lin Li had also reached the second stage, which sharpened his nervous system's sensitivity.
The technique was so powerful that it was extremely difficult to learn, and talent mattered a great deal.
That did not mean the less talented could not master it. Anyone could, but someone with little talent might get a movement right only once in a hundred tries. At that rate, they might still be practicing more than a decade later.
Someone highly