The Second Day of the Second Month of the Great Xuan Calendar

The Great Fortune had remained moored at Mist Island for a day, taking on its last batch of passengers. Then, pushed by a strong west wind, it unfurled its sails and left the harbor, riding the waves toward Ruiguang, the capital of the Eastern Protectorate.

In a single-occupancy holding cell on the ship's middle deck, a cloaked figure sat cross-legged, wearing a hood. The face visible beneath its shadow belonged to a young man.

The narrow hatch at the bottom of the cell opened, and several newspapers were pushed inside.

Zhang Yu listened as the footsteps receded, then reached for the newspapers before him. Years of breathing exercises had made him far stronger than an ordinary person, and even the dim light here did not keep him from reading.

First, he glanced at the date.

"The second day of the second month of the Great Xuan Calendar."

His gaze lingered there for a moment before he looked further down.

Compared with the Fragrant Island News from three days ago, this paper showed changes only in the prices of some goods. Nearly everything else was the same, and the reports were already ten days or half a month old.

That was understandable. Though the islands of the Soaring Sea were in frequent contact, their relatively backward means of transportation and communication could hardly compare to the omnipresent Celestial Net of his previous life.

Still, compared with that silent world in his previous life, where everyone relied on nutrient pods to sustain their bodies and only their consciousness could move, at least everything here was still alive.

He neatly folded the newspapers and set them aside, then resumed his breathing practice.

These past few days, with his movements restricted, he had kept himself tranquil for long stretches at a time—and made an unexpected discovery.

Somewhere on the ship, he could sense an object radiating a strange energy. With each breath, he drew it toward himself, absorbing it thread by thread.

Before this, he had needed to touch something directly to do that.

He thought happily, No wonder my teacher often said, "When the spirit is held within, the void itself will come." There's truth in that. It looks like I'll have absorbed all this Source Energy before we reach the capital.

He did not do this continuously. Instead, he paused for a while after each bout. He had figured out this trick over the past few days: this way, he was more efficient.

Just as he stopped once again, the loud voices of many children drifted in from outside, apparently from one of the lower-deck cabins. He listened closely and realized they were reciting a poem.

Their voices were young, but they were perfectly in unison, clear and spirited. The words were familiar to him, too.

It was a poem called "Summer Wind."

As a Celestial Xia person in this world, he had heard it countless times.

"The Great Dao, Mystic Chaos, bears heaven and earth; a million Sky City towers split the clouds and come."

"Brilliant divine light shines across the Han skies; radiant Xia hues build splendid towers!"

"The proud sun seeks to redden the steaming blue sea; dawn opens in the east, revealing Venus."

"Now the human way inherits heaven's fortune; for ten thousand ages, its praises resound: glorious!"

This world had passed through the rise and fall of several eras. Outsiders had invaded, and ancient powers had awakened. Each time, a new civilization had risen from the ruins, only to pass from prosperity to destruction. As a result, ancient relics from countless eras littered the land, and all manner of monsters and gods were everywhere.

Then, one day, three hundred and seventy-three years ago, everything changed.

Celestial Xia had descended!

They said that when Celestial Xia first arrived, its floating Sky City blotted out the sun and hung at the very top of the heavens, visible from every corner of the known world.

That poem had been written to praise the sight.

After entering this world, Celestial Xia had sought to restore order to its shattered, chaotic lands. Conflict with the gods, monsters, and natives had been unavoidable.

At first, Celestial Xia, with its many cultivators, had faced no worthy opponents. But as the fighting dragged on and its territory expanded, more and more problems emerged.

To adapt to changing circumstances, Celestial Xia's upper echelons had reformed the old cultivation methods. But disagreements and conflicts had followed.

From then on, Celestial Xia's cultivators had split into two groups.

Those who followed the New Method were called Mystic Cultivators, while those who still practiced the old ways were called Old Cultivators.

And his former teacher had been an Old Cultivator!

Five years ago, when he was twelve, his adoptive father had hired a teacher to instruct him in the Old Method.

But life was unpredictable. For various reasons, he had not gone far down that path, and eventually had turned to the New Method instead.

He had only just begun to learn it, though. His trip to the Protectorate capital was to study more advanced New Method techniques.

As he sank into his memories, the booming of firearms suddenly rang out outside. Then a long, muffled rumble drifted over, accompanied by the sound of waves being split apart. It was drawing rapidly closer.

After a brief lull, the ship beneath him lurched violently, as if something had slammed into it. Fortunately, he had braced himself in time and did not fall.

Scattered cries and screams rose outside.

He thought for a moment, then reached out and rested a hand against the door. With a light push, he snapped the bolt with a crack. He placed a hand on the frame and stepped out of the cell.

Standing in the doorway, he tightened the vermilion gloves on his hands, then hurried through the long passageway and up the stairs to the open deck.

The deck was in chaos. Injured people cried out in pain all around him, and mangled monster corpses lay scattered across the boards amid pools of foul-smelling blood. The ship's guards rushed about, while the occasional firearm shot rang out.

He looked at the monsters' corpses and recognized them as Water Infants, commonly known as "water monkeys"—the most common water monsters in the sea and inland rivers.

He crossed to the ship's rail and looked out. There, a massive ridge of a back broke the surface, covered by a layer of shimmering, multicolored light.

This was the culprit that had nearly capsized the Great Fortune: a sea monster of extraordinary power and immense size.

A spiritual creature.

After a moment's thought, he headed for the top deck of the Great Fortune. The guards were busy tending the wounded under their captain's orders, and no one had time to stop him.

When he reached the upper deck, he spotted the captain, Shi Dongliang, speaking with a middle-aged man in a well-tailored outfit. They seemed to be arguing. Five or six elegantly made-up women stood nearby, softly sobbing.

"Captain Shi, the ship has cannons. Why aren't you firing?"

"Mr. Helian, this is a Yao Salamander, a rare spiritual monster. It has a spiritual cloak around its body, so firearms and cannons are useless. They'll only provoke it. What we need to do now isn't fight it, but find out why it attacked us!"

Hearing this, Zhang Yu spoke up. "Captain Shi, I may know why."

The middle-aged man turned, startled. "Who are you?"

A guard studied Zhang Yu, his expression tightening. "H-he looks like the person locked up in the holding cell!"

"The person in the holding cell?" The middle-aged man panicked and shouted, "Guards! Guards!"

The guard captain below heard him and reacted quickly, charging up with a squad of men. They surrounded Zhang Yu, and every firearm pointed at him.

Faced with the dark muzzles, Zhang Yu stood calmly.

Shi Dongliang patted the guard captain on the shoulder, signaling him to move aside. He looked at Zhang Yu and asked, "Are you Young Master Zhang, the one being held for trading Forbidden Items with followers of the Other God Cult?"

"Yes."

The middle-aged man was still extremely nervous. "Forbidden Items? What Forbidden Items? He isn't some wanted criminal from the Protectorate Office, is he? You—you, take off your hood."

Zhang Yu glanced at him, then grasped the brim of his hood with both hands and pulled it back.

"Oh..."

Everyone present, men and women alike, let out a gasp from the depths of their hearts the instant they saw his face.

They could hardly imagine that anyone in the world could be so handsome. Every one of them stared at him without blinking.

Zhang Yu met their gazes naturally, without the slightest hint of unease.

His teacher had once described him as "clear of spirit, radiant of countenance, with the bearing of an immortal banished from heaven." Some of that came from his natural looks; the rest came from the great change in his bearing after five years of breathing practice.

Shi Dongliang could not help sizing him up a few times, but quickly composed himself and asked solemnly, "Young Master Zhang, you said you knew why this monster came after us?"

Zhang Yu nodded. "When I came over, I saw quite a few Water Infant corpses on the ship..."

Before he could finish, the middle-aged man cried out, "Yes, the water monkeys! It must be here because of them!" He shouted at the guards, "Why didn't you drive them away? You're the ones who brought this monster here!"

The guard captain kept his anger in check. "Mr. Helian, Water Infants are man-eating monsters. Our ship's guards are responsible for eliminating anything that threatens the lives of our passengers!"

Shi Dongliang raised a hand to stop the argument and said gravely, "Let Young Master Zhang finish."

Zhang Yu said, "My specialty is Ancient Natural History, and I know the habits of many monsters. When a Yao Salamander becomes spiritual, it deliberately trains its young. It drives the Water Infants under its control to a certain place, where its young can hunt them. During this process, the Water Infants both protect the young and serve as food if it falls into trouble."

Shi Dongliang jerked his head up and looked at Zhang Yu. "You mean this monster may have chosen the Great Fortune as the hunting ground for its young?"

Zhang Yu nodded. "That's the most likely explanation. Yao Salamanders don't normally prey on people. The monster must have heard the firearms and feared for its young's safety, which is why it rammed the Great Fortune. If we can find the young one and return it safely to the sea, we may be able to avoid a direct confrontation."

"Find it at once!"

Shi Dongliang immediately gave the order.

"Father, I'll go!" the guard captain said, and was already hurrying downstairs before the words had left his mouth.

After ramming the Great Fortune once, the Yao Salamander made no further attack, but it did not leave. It kept circling the ship, and it seemed to grow more and more agitated.

Everyone waited in fearful suspense, afraid the monster would erupt again. They did not know whether the Great Fortune could withstand another blow.

About a quarter of an hour later, hurried footsteps sounded, and the guard captain returned with a crewman, who was carrying something wrapped in cloth.

The middle-aged man rushed toward them. The two of them asked in a flurry, "Well? Did you find it? Is that the one you're holding?"

The crewman anxiously opened the cloth. Inside was a small, deep-purple creature with a lizard's tail and smooth, scaleless skin. It was struggling with all its might.

"We found the little thing in the storage room," the guard captain said.

The middle-aged man was overjoyed. He waved both hands, urging them on. "Wonderful! Quick, throw it into the sea!"

But just then, the young creature suddenly convulsed a few times. Its long, thrashing tail stiffened abruptly. After a few short breaths, it went limp, its head drooping downward. It lay motionless.

The crewman froze and swallowed. "I-it looks like it's dead."