The Tides

This giant crab had advanced to the Ninth-Rank White Fang stage, and more than a hundred years had already passed.

In other words, this treasure ship had also lain here for over a hundred years.

As far as the eye could see inside the cabin, everything was wrapped in thick coral and seaweed.

Jing Qian held an iron pick, poking east and scraping west as he searched for anything that might still exist.

Yet such a massive ship was completely empty. After tossing and turning for more than half a day, he had only pried out a little over seventy Red Copper Knife Coins and two tiny Destiny Silver Ingots.

He had already searched eighty percent of the entire cabin. In most places, aside from the hull itself, everything had completely rotted away.

Whether dead objects or living creatures, nothing could withstand the erosion of time and seawater, along with the giant crab's gnawing and destruction.

However, the timber used for the hull was an exceptionally strange material. It had not decayed after a hundred years in the water, and not even the seawater had seeped into it in the slightest.

When Jing Qian touched it with his Destiny Essence Magic Power, he found that he could not easily break through the hull's defenses either.

It was no wonder that giant crab had treated this ship as its lair.

Fortunately, a cabin deep inside the ship had unexpectedly survived!

This cabin lay at the very deepest part of the ship, at the end of a corridor.

The space here was narrow enough that the giant crab's claws could not reach inside, leaving it free from outside interference.

Moreover, the cabin's wooden door was tightly shut, so the things inside should not have been lost.

Jing Qian stepped forward and turned the enormous wooden winch above the cabin door, slowly shifting open a crack in the gate that had been sealed for a hundred years.

Then he calmly walked inside.

His spiritual sense had already swept through the place beforehand. There were no living creatures and no trace of Magic Power.

Inside the cabin were only a narrow bed and a desk.

Jing Qian had ample reason to believe that this cabin belonged to the ship's captain.

Aside from its special location, it was because the entire ship had only this one cabin luxurious enough to be a private room.

Jing Qian searched this cabin even more carefully.

He even temporarily put away the iron pick in his hand and released two strands of filament, meticulously sweeping over every corner without overlooking even the various cracks and gaps.

And sure enough, his patience was rewarded!

At the lower right corner of the bed, there was actually an extremely hidden storage compartment, seamlessly integrated with the entire bedframe.

The compartment could isolate the aura within from the outside. If Jing Qian had not used those miraculous filaments to burrow everywhere and touched the compartment's seam, he absolutely would not have discovered the secret hidden there!

He controlled the two filaments and slowly threaded them inward through the compartment's seam. Every movement was exceedingly gentle, for fear of causing unnecessary damage.

Then he used the filaments to hook the storage compartment and slowly tug it outward.

As a burst of bubbles scattered in all directions, the storage compartment opened just like that!

And in the very next second, Jing Qian and everything inside the compartment vanished from the depths of the dark sea.

Needless to say, he had already entered the Void Realm.

Jing Qian was worried that the seawater would damage the things inside the compartment.

So he immediately moved everything into the Void Realm.

Here, everything was under his control. He finally relaxed completely and began carefully studying what he had obtained.

There were only two things in the storage compartment, and both had remained imperishable through a hundred years.

The first was a complete tortoiseshell the size of a palm, densely carved with seal script.

After carefully identifying it, Jing Qian discovered that this was yet another method for refining a Destiny Matrix:

Destiny Matrix: Singing on the Waves

Rank: White Fang

Sing upon the waves, dance upon the tide!

Refinement Method: At the crests of waves upon lakes and marshes, collect Ninth-Rank White Fang magic materials bearing the Kui Water attribute. Refine talismans into them with Magic Power, rise upon the surging waves, and carve the talismans into the soles of your feet.

Aside from the refinement method for the Singing on the Waves Destiny Matrix, a considerable section had also been engraved with various methods for developing and utilizing it.

Normally speaking, for Jing Qian, who possessed one golden and one azure Destiny Matrix, a White Fang-rank Destiny Matrix should not have attracted much attention.

But this Singing on the Waves Destiny Matrix had practically been designed specifically for those who lived upon the sea!

Once a cultivator refined this Singing on the Waves, the ocean would no longer be a danger or an obstacle.

Instead, it would become his absolute home ground!

Whether controlling water and manipulating waves or roaming beneath the water, he would be no different from an aquatic creature. None of it would pose the slightest difficulty.

For Jing Qian at present, it was simply the most perfect functional Destiny Matrix!

With Singing on the Waves, he had no idea how much convenience his activities at sea would gain.

Thus, even though this Destiny Matrix was only White Fang rank, he felt a trace of an urge to refine it.

The bright-yellow Crab Treasure he had just obtained could be used as the magic material for refining this Singing on the Waves Destiny Matrix.

He was confident that he could refine it swiftly!

Unfortunately, Singing on the Waves was only White Fang rank. For an ordinary Rogue Cultivator, it might count as an impressive inheritance.

But it still fell short of Jing Qian's requirements for himself.

He temporarily put away the tortoiseshell and turned his attention to the second item.

This was another peculiar object!

It was a unique pellet resembling a green ball, giving off a faint fragrance of fresh grass.

A tiny slip of paper was affixed to the green ball. A short passage had been written on it, but after being weathered by time, the paper was already crumpled and extremely blurred.

Jing Qian gently peeled off the slip, flattened it, and held it before his eyes for a careful examination.

Once he moved closer, he finally made out the writing on the slip:

Dragon Gate Grass Ball

Grade: Azure Wing

This is the Crimson Scale Dragon Carp's favorite object. It can attract Crimson Scale Dragon Carp within a three-thousand-li radius.

Usage: Peel off this sealed slip and place it into the seawater.

Jing Qian was speechless!

What a loss!

After finally digging out an Eighth-Rank Azure Wing treasure, he had actually used it directly because of his carelessness!

Without the slip's seal, the Dragon Gate Grass Ball in his hand had already begun trembling.

Jing Qian did not dare delay. He hurriedly flashed out of the Void Realm and threw the grass ball into the sea.

This strange grass ball swelled upon contact with water and immediately began expanding!

Jing Qian could not predict the effect of this magic object, so he hid back inside the Void Realm and observed the changes in the real world across the void.

He saw the Dragon Gate Grass Ball growing larger and larger. Before long, it had grown into a huge grass ball over a meter long on the seafloor.

A stream of pure Azure Wing Destiny Essence radiated from the grass ball, slowly spreading in all directions like ripples in the water.

This force of Destiny Essence carried an indescribable power of attraction, as though it were a call from the depths of the sea, bearing a fatal temptation for certain creatures.