The Fleet Sets Sail

The speaker was not human—or rather, he had hidden his human form and chosen to manifest before others through a dharma form.

A single Azure Lamp stood in the very center of one of the shrine's main halls.

A deep male voice rang out from the Azure Lamp, angrily berating the three people kneeling before him.

"I made so many arrangements in advance, calculated every possible obstacle, and spent an incalculable amount of gold and silver just to seize this sliver of a sure victory."

"And yet this is the result?"

"All of you have achieved the Dragon Elephant Realm. Five of you went together, and only three came back?"

"How could you be so foolish?"

"The two Jing and Su Households didn't even have a single person capable of holding the situation together. How could a Spider Mother who was on the verge of dying of old age possibly trade one life for two!"

"Do you really think I'm about to die like that Zhi Zhou?"

"I'll give you one year. If you can't topple Crimson Pearl Island's Destiny Stove before the Year of Yin arrives, then all of you can tend my lamp!"

The three people before him were all cultivators of the Dragon Elephant Realm, yet before this Azure Lamp, they did not even dare breathe too loudly.

Meanwhile, after a great deal of commotion, a fleet finally departed from HunZhou Island's harbor and headed south.

The composition of this fleet was rather peculiar.

The lead ship was over a hundred zhang long. Its design was identical to that of the sunken ship Hun Ling Number, so it must have been built by the same master shipwright.

Behind the Hun Yi Number followed a long string of smaller ships of different sizes and varied designs.

These small ships were arranged in a ragged formation. At a glance, they looked like an amateur troupe.

However, in Hun Zhou, shipbuilding and seafaring technology were exceedingly scarce. Any ship capable of voyaging across the sea was worth a fortune.

Moreover, the people sailing this group of small ships were all direct descendants of the naval soldiers who had served aboard the Hun Ling Number a hundred years ago.

When Ling Mingji's message returned and cleared the Hun Ling Number's name, the families descended from those soldiers erupted in excitement.

A century of injustice had finally been cleared. Restored honor was secondary; the compensation owed for a hundred years was the matter that truly carried enormous consequences.

The Hun Zhou Government Office controlled countless resources, while the Maritime Affairs Office was the most powerful institution among the Three Houses and Two Directorates. It had always been generous with rewards for its naval forces.

The compensation for fallen martyrs was a colossal fortune, enough to change an entire family's fate.

The fleet of small ships was currently allowed to accompany the Hun Yi Number as a special reward from the Maritime Affairs Office.

Those accompanying the fleet had been permitted to board before the Hun Yi Number, so they could gather their ancestors' remains.

That, however, was not the most important thing. After all, the ship had lain sunken for a century and was said to have shattered beyond recognition. The odds of anything valuable remaining aboard were actually not high.

For this fleet of accompanying ships, the true reward was the privilege of accompanying the Hun Yi Number itself.

The boundless sea was rich in resources, but its dangers were just as endless!

For these small ships, every trip out to sea was a perilous venture that meant staking their lives.

They could encounter a Rank-Nine demon or ghost at any moment, risking the destruction of the entire ship.

But accompanying the Hun Yi Number was different!

This warship possessed formidable combat strength, and with a great cultivator of the Dragon Elephant Realm holding down the fort, it could contend with a Rank-Seven great demon and roam the sea at will.

Following the Hun Yi Number meant guaranteed safety, and that was more important than anything else.

During the voyage, they would advance while also searching the sea for marine resources with the fleet as the center.

The ocean teemed with precious fish and spirit medicines that could help ordinary people nourish their essence.

After returning from this trip, they would earn at least ten gold ingots. That was what the people aboard truly valued.

The voyage had only just begun, yet a large number of sailors from the accompanying ships had already descended into the water to fish and hunt.

They used extremely long steel cables to connect themselves to their mother ships, hanging from the gunwales and plunging deep into the sea.

Seen from afar, every ship looked like a giant jellyfish, its countless tentacles hanging down.

Of all the ships, only one small black-canopied boat had no one in the water.

That was because it carried only two people. Just operating the little boat already took everything they had!

A tall woman in fitted clothes stood aboard the small boat, gripping a strange fully automatic oar.

Every so often, she infused the oar with a stream of Destiny Essence Magic Power, keeping it in motion without daring to stop for even an instant.

At the stern, a half-grown boy wearing a strange mask operated the rudder, keeping close to the fleet's course.

Within the entire fleet, this was the most shabby ship of all. It had the fewest people and the poorest conditions.

Still, the woman and child worked together with remarkable understanding, and under their control, the small boat advanced steadily.

Just then, the woman suddenly spoke:

"Xiao Qian, now that the Hun Ling Number has resurfaced, I'll definitely find Grandpa's Tide Divination. Then I'll find the Tide Refinement Method for you."

"Once we collect the compensation from the Maritime Affairs Office and clear Grandpa's name, our Jing Household will surely rise again!"

"When that happens, you can focus on cultivating and won't have to work so hard anymore!"

The masked child obediently replied:

"Yes, Auntie. I'll listen to you."

Though the woman in fitted clothes spoke lightly, the worry between her brows was plain for all to see.

Their family had been forced into a dead end.

They had even dragged along her eleven-year-old nephew, who was still nourishing his essence.

Under such circumstances, could the other side possibly watch their Jing Household safely survive this calamity?

At present, the surrounding ships were crowded with people of all kinds.

Yet she saw every one of them as a hostile enemy harboring ill intentions.

Adrift on the boundless sea with nowhere to take shelter, all she could do was pray that the soldiers aboard the Hun Yi Number would lend them a hand for the sake of their shared naval lineage!

At that thought, she tightened her grip on the oar.

If the boat fell behind, the danger would spiral completely out of control!

Within the Destiny Stele Space, Jing Qian had already slain all the divine souls except the Crocodile Dragon and Snow Woman, and was currently absorbing new cultivation memories.

The ninth-grade Destiny-Setting Realm refined one's destiny pattern and nurtured one's Destiny Essence. It was a crucial stage for forging a cultivation foundation, as well as a stage when cultivators rapidly widened the gap between themselves.

Jing Qian had entered the Dao only recently, yet his accumulated White Fang Destiny Essence had already officially surpassed seven strands—a speed that could only be called astonishing.

A cultivator's accumulation of Destiny Essence had its own limit, determined by the quality of their destiny pattern.

A White Fang Destiny Pattern could bear one strand of White Fang Destiny Essence.

As cultivation accumulated and one's control over the destiny pattern gradually deepened, the amount of Destiny Essence it could bear would also increase.

A single Azure Wing Destiny Pattern could bear one strand of Azure Wing Destiny Essence, equivalent to more than ten strands of White Fang Destiny Essence.

Though both involved burning the body to set one's destiny, a cultivator who awakened an Azure Wing Destiny Pattern possessed an innate Magic Power capacity more than ten times that of one who awakened a White Fang Destiny Pattern!

On this foundation, effort alone could no longer erase the enormous gap between different grades.

By the same principle, Blue Blood, Purple Eyes, and even Golden Root—each grade differed by more than tenfold.

For those with frail destiny patterns, every tiny breakthrough in Destiny Essence was a result painfully wrung from the exhaustion of resources and mental effort, along with the sacrifice of a great deal of lifespan.

Throughout their entire lives, they could never understand why some people's Destiny Essence seemed to grow as easily as eating and drinking.

But Jing Qian had the Sumeru Destiny Pattern anchoring his sea of consciousness and supporting the skeleton of his cultivation. The Destiny Essence capacity he could bear was as vast as an abyss and an ocean, so he had no need to consider his limit for the time being!

The only things restricting his accumulation of Destiny Essence were the supply of resources and the sediment of time.

He hardly needed to waste much time painfully grinding through bottlenecks. Amid battle, by killing enemies and slaying souls, a path to heaven itself would naturally appear beneath his feet!

Jing Qian's figure flickered, and he once again escaped the Void Realm, returning to the boundless ocean.

As his Magic Power surged, he became like an arrow loosed from a bow, slicing toward the deep sea at a speed that had already surpassed five hundred kilometers per hour.

Within his mind, an unknown sea chart was gradually lighting up. Gathered upon it were the memories contributed by the dead souls of numerous Sea Demons.

The surrounding waters had opened themselves to him completely, letting him take whatever he wished!