"Ah! It looks like you really can only rely on yourself, not pin your hopes on others!"
Leaving the courtyard where the Freedom's crew was staying, Zhang Yao couldn't help sighing. Before coming here, he had thought it all through: he would join the Free Pirates, gain some experience in the unfamiliar world of Rodos, and strengthen himself. Unfortunately, things had gone against his wishes!
I wonder if Luo De will feel embarrassed now that I've left... Zhang Yao wandered aimlessly through the shadows along the wall. Faced with the unfamiliar Andal Harbor, he had no idea where to go next or what to do.
"Who's there?" As Zhang Yao wandered along, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He instantly drew the Drowned Ghost Dagger, cautiously adopted an attacking stance, and turned to demand in a low voice.
"Me!" A deep male voice rang out, and Wells's towering figure appeared before Zhang Yao.
"Captain Wells?" Zhang Yao looked at Wells in surprise.
To be honest, of all the Freedom's crew, Wells had left the deepest impression on Zhang Yao so far. Though a man of few words, he was immensely powerful; the crew's admiration for him was plain to see. Why would Wells come after him? Zhang Yao certainly didn't believe that Wells had gone out for a casual stroll in the middle of the night and happened to run into him.
"Yes. I'd like to invite you to join the Freedom. Will you?" Without hesitating, Wells stated his purpose directly.
"Invite me to join the Freedom? I'd better pass. Right now, I want to live quietly on my own for a while." Hearing Wells's words, Zhang Yao had almost opened his mouth to agree, but just as the words reached his lips, he inexplicably refused instead.
Zhang Yao didn't know how he would face everyone if he accepted Wells's offer and returned to the Freedom's crew. He had left with such a carefree wave earlier, only to come scurrying back now-what would that make him? At the thought of the ridicule he would surely face from Amelia and Guleiya upon returning, Zhang Yao couldn't help shaking his head. The less he tasted that particular flavor, the better.
"Mm. There's a decent inn just around the corner up ahead." Hearing Zhang Yao's refusal, Wells nodded as though he understood, pointed ahead, then turned to leave. After a few steps, he suddenly stopped and said softly, "Amelia and Guleiya are actually good people." With that, he strode away.
Even after Wells had disappeared from sight, Zhang Yao remained a little dazed. He still hadn't quite processed what had happened.
"Ah! What an interesting man!"
Shaking his head with a sigh, Zhang Yao started in the direction Wells had indicated. Whatever else happened, he didn't want to sleep on the streets on his first night in Andal Harbor.
The inn Wells had mentioned was close by. Following his directions, Zhang Yao walked for less than five minutes before spotting its entrance. The faint light showed that it stayed open all night.
Seeing that the inn was still open, Zhang Yao went straight inside without further ado. After paying ten silver coins, he secured a single suite with a private bathroom for two days.
Since it was already the middle of the night, the inn had stopped supplying hot water. Zhang Yao gave himself a quick wipe-down with cold water, then sat on the bed. Fortunately, with his current physical constitution, he had no need to worry about catching a cold or similar illnesses.
Sitting on the bed with his eyes half closed, Zhang Yao recalled everything that had happened since he entered Rodos. Though less than a day had passed, he felt as if he had lived through ten years, twenty years, or even longer.
"Whew!" Drawing a deep breath and slowly releasing it, Zhang Yao drove all the tangled images out of his mind and gradually entered a state of cultivation.
As he felt spiritual energy, just as dense as that in the Chosen One's Hall earlier, gradually entering his body, Zhang Yao couldn't help rejoicing. He had originally thought only the Chosen One's Hall possessed such dense spiritual energy. He hadn't expected it to be the same here.
Silently sensing the incredibly dense spiritual energy, Zhang Yao made some private calculations.
Judging by his cultivation speed in his original world, it would take at least one or two years for his true qi to reach the level required to break through his acupoints-and that would only meet the basic requirement! As for truly opening the lesser celestial circuit, who knew in what year of the monkey, in what month of the horse, that would happen?
Now, however, the dense spiritual energy around him would undoubtedly increase his cultivation speed enormously. The true qi he would originally have needed one or two years to accumulate for an acupoint breakthrough would probably take only one or two months.
The time required had suddenly been cut more than tenfold. If he hadn't feared attracting unnecessary trouble, Zhang Yao would have shouted for joy!
It looks like coming to Rodos hasn't been all bad!
Zhang Yao thought this with self-deprecating humor before entering his cultivation state.
Absorbed in cultivation, Zhang Yao suddenly noticed a slight difference from his previous sessions as time passed.
First, he seemed to be absorbing spiritual energy a little faster. Second, nine nether true qi had actually appeared around his heart, much like the qi in his dantian. Compared with the mass of nine nether true qi in his dantian, however, the qi in his heart was merely a wisp.
The apparent increase in his spiritual energy absorption speed was rather uncertain, so Zhang Yao paid it little attention. Instead, he focused entirely on the wisp of nine nether true qi in his heart. After all, that wisp undeniably existed.
This... could it have appeared because I learned battle aura? Through his own observations and deductions, Zhang Yao finally concluded that the wisp of nine nether true qi had appeared because he had learned basic battle aura earlier. What should have been there was a wisp of this world's battle aura, but assimilation by his nine nether true qi had transformed it into its current form.
After understanding the reason, Zhang Yao gradually withdrew his attention and once again immersed his mind in cultivation. This time, however, he set aside a small portion of the spiritual energy he absorbed for the nine nether true qi around his heart, rather than drawing all of it into his dantian as before.
Time passed quickly while he was immersed in cultivation. Before he knew it, the morning sunlight had fallen on Zhang Yao as he sat cross-legged on the bed. Its warmth roused him from his cultivation.
Looking at the rising sun outside the window, Zhang Yao stretched, loosened all his joints, and headed toward the bathroom.
It wasn't that Zhang Yao didn't want to keep cultivating; his physical condition wouldn't allow it. An ordinary person's dantian and meridians had limited capacity. Only through constant nourishment and tempering by true qi could they gradually grow larger, wider, and stronger. Back in his original world, perhaps because the spiritual energy was so thin, Zhang Yao hadn't noticed anything. But here in Rodos, after half a night of cultivation, he had actually felt a swelling ache in his dantian-a sign that its capacity for true qi had reached its limit!
To continue cultivating, he would have to let his dantian adapt to its current state, and that adjustment would take time.
Knock, knock.
Just as Zhang Yao was halfway through washing up, a knock suddenly came from the door.
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