Was a bamboo raft a safe way to travel?
Hanyu's view was that it was safe. Go back a few hundred years, and people had first traveled by bamboo raft; go forward a few hundred years, and bamboo rafts would still be used for everyday water travel.
"That's been proven over hundreds of years."
Hanyu's argument was well-reasoned and clearly laid out.
But the little Artifact Spirit wasn't convinced. It had only one question, one rebuttal: "Then what are you doing right now?"
That single sentence left Hanyu speechless. A moment later, he wore a thoroughly awkward expression.
Upstream on the Bailu River, the scattered bamboo poles drifted in every direction, carried farther and farther away by the current. At first, Hanyu could still grab a few and bring them back. But after retrieving a dozen or so, he realized the rope was gone too! So he simply tossed the dozen-odd poles back into the river and let them drift away...
It all started at noon, after Bai Junya and the others had left. Hanyu had suddenly gotten the idea to build a bamboo raft, then tossed it into the Bailu River.
"Are you trying to find Bai Junya?" the little Artifact Spirit had asked curiously at the time.
"No. I'm going upstream!"
Hanyu made a bold decision. He planned to use the bamboo raft to head north, toward the source of the Bailu River.
Since he could move through the fire zone like a fish in water, surely his water-based supernatural power would work just as well in the water.
"Your water-based Supernatural Power Origin is even weaker than the fire-based one you stripped from Young Master Xiao back then. I advise you to calm down."
The little Artifact Spirit was always quick to pour cold water on him.