Traveling the Seas

"Asleep...!"

The people in the lab were discussing their future. After giving them some instructions, Zhang Xuezhou stopped paying attention to them.

He lay back down in his small space.

When the lights in the room were turned off, Zhang Xuezhou saw Zhou Rihui come over with a beaming smile and ask him something.

This made him wave his hand, and then he lay down.

Before he could finish speaking, he had already awakened in another world.

The colors of the sky and earth changed instantly, the sound of the waves roared into his ears, and slightly salty seawater flowed from his nostrils to his lips. Zhang Xuezhou licked it and then couldn't help but turn over and get up.

"What, are we going out to sea this lightly equipped?"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at the thick wooden planks that could hardly be called a boat, while Li Shaojun and Gongsun Hong used two planks as oars to paddle.

Although the thick wooden planks weren't exactly slow for sailing in the sea, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the boat was indeed too rudimentary.

"We just capsized," Li Shaojun said sullenly.

"You're awake. We weren't very lucky. We checked the weather forecast before setting sail, but we encountered a storm after only two days at sea, and it smashed our big ship down to just a single plank!"

Gongsun Hong's face was sallow, and he kept looking around, clearly wanting to find an island with fresh water.

For highly skilled cultivators, finding food while sailing the ocean is not difficult; at worst, they can eat some raw fish. What they truly lack is fresh water.

Even the most powerful cultivators can't go without water forever.

Drinking a few mouthfuls of seawater is bad enough because it tastes bitter and astringent, but the real problem is that seawater doesn't quench thirst; instead, it makes you thirstier the more you drink, eventually leading to fluid loss, weakness, and death.

Gongsun Hong licked his extremely dry lips and then vigorously paddled the wooden board in his hand.

Are we returning to base now?

Zhang Xuezhou looked up at the vast ocean where the sea and sky met, but there were no reference points in the waves.

While one can determine east, west, south, and north by observing the sun, without a fixed location, sailing in any direction is an extremely bad thing.

This was quite a distance from what Zhang Xuezhou had imagined—standing in the Mohists's mechanical city after regaining consciousness.

If it weren't for Li Shaojun and Gongsun Hong having spare capacity, Zhang Xuezhou felt he would have been submerged at the bottom of the sea for days.

Of course, this wouldn't be too puzzling for him. As a practitioner of the Water Avoidance Technique, and having been caught in the world transfer and lacking physical activity, Zhang Xuezhou was certain that he wouldn't drown even if he stayed in the water for two days.

"Gongsun Hong said the place where the boat capsized was only a few dozen miles by sea from the island, so we rowed towards the island he remembered, but we've been rowing for two or three days and still haven't arrived," Li Shaojun said. "We can't pinpoint the exact location now, and we don't even know if we're turning back!"

"It should be only about 800 li from here to the coast," Gongsun Hong said. "If we can find an island to rest, that would be best. If not, we can row back. Just be patient and keep rowing steadily with me!"

"I want some hot food, and I want some water. I don't want to eat raw fish anymore. Damn the ocean! The ocean is the thing I hate most in this life, and I hate fish too!"

Li Shaojun cursed and reluctantly put down the wooden board in his hand. He was clearly very dissatisfied with this search journey.

Before setting sail, Li Shaojun dreamed of becoming a superior person and reaching the pinnacle of life, but the unpredictable climate of the ocean directly cooled the burning passion in his heart.

If he hadn't possessed some skill, he would have been buried at the bottom of the sea during the storm, just like those old fishermen who steered their ships.

Birds scatter when disaster strikes, and Li Shaojun and the others were no exception. They could barely protect their own lives in the storm. Even Zhang Xuezhou, who was tossed about in the sea but did not die, was only pulled back by chance.

"Don't ask me to join any more of these kinds of activities in the future!"

After listening to Li Shaojun's rambling, Zhang Xuezhou finally realized what had happened to him.

If it weren't for his abilities such as the Water Avoidance Technique, the Grain Avoidance Technique, and the Heavenly Clothing that makes him impervious to water and fire, he would have died in a daze. Even if he were to regain consciousness, he would be too hungry to support his body.

Although this situation was within Zhang Xuezhou's worst-case scenario, Zhang Xuezhou never expected to encounter it again.

The reason he said they met again was because he had previously encountered a shipwreck when he left the Tours region on a black ship.

But compared to the strenuous rescue efforts of Zhang Manqian, Ren Anran, and others, these two guys in front of him just casually gave him a hand; the disparity in team treatment was simply appalling.

Of course, the outcome was the same; he survived in the end.

As someone who loves water, it would be quite difficult for Zhang Xuezhou to die in the water.

If the distance to the coast were limited, he could take off and return to shore right now. With his Technique Within the Clouds and cloud-riding techniques, plus paddling, Zhang Xuezhou felt that crossing hundreds of miles shouldn't be a problem.

"Let's find a place to determine our location first, then plan our next step!"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at the vast sea.

He stopped flying aimlessly, lest he lose his way and become stranded at sea, unable to return.

"This is a bit difficult," Li Shaojun said with a headache. "There's absolutely no way to locate yourself in the sea. I never want to come back to the ocean again in my next life!"

Li Shaojun has the ability to come back to life, but there are many ways to counter this ability.

For example, as Zhang Xuezhou said, if you press him down under a mountain, make him die and come back to life, then press him down to die again, and then wait for him to be reborn, only to fall into death again, and so on, you can break his technique.

Being trapped at sea and dying of thirst or starvation is also a cycle; if Li Shaojun dies of thirst and comes back to life, he will die of thirst again.

Being in this situation, he was indeed a little panicked, feeling that his life was hanging by a thread.

"I'm too weak right now. I estimate I can only paddle about ten miles on a plank before I'm done for," Li Shaojun said. "We're basically finished!"

"Don't give up," Gongsun Hong encouraged. "Encountering bad weather while sailing at sea is common. I've experienced it many times in my life, but those who survive all have a strong desire for life, which is why they ultimately found a way to live!"

"That's right, you have a strong will to live, so do more work!"

Li Shaojun waved his hand, indicating that he wouldn't fall for Gongsun Hong's lecture.

He wanted to conserve his energy so that he wouldn't miss out on catching those tough-to-swallow sea fish later.

As for the work, Li Shaojun left it to Gongsun Hong. He firmly believed that what he needed was to survive, not to work. As long as he outlived Gongsun Hong, if Gongsun Hong lived, he would live; if Gongsun Hong died, he would die later.

Li Shaojun's thoughts were not hard to guess. Gongsun Hong could neither persuade him nor force him. He licked his dry lips and then fell back into the mechanical repetition of paddling.

Would you like to have a couple of sips of water first?

Zhang Xuezhou touched the water gourd on his body and took it out only after realizing that nothing was missing.

"Your gourd is full of saliva, heh... heh heh heh!"

Li Shaojun chuckled a few times in a slightly hoarse voice, which made Zhang Xuezhou glance at him several times.

"Did you go through my things again?" Zhang Xuezhou said.

"If he could open your pouch, he would have emptied your entire body," Gongsun Hong said, pursing his lips. "Your friend is a bit unreliable!"

"I was just checking if he had anything useful that could help in an emergency," Li Shaojun retorted. "Besides, you even drank several mouthfuls of water from this gourd back then. Don't pretend to be a good guy; we were all involved in this!"

A gourd of water is insignificant and worthless on land, but it is a life-saving remedy in the sea.

If people fight over water, or even cause deaths, it is perfectly normal.

The closer one is to their physical limits, the more likely their survival instinct will lead them to do such things.

Li Shaojun felt that his behavior wasn't outrageous; any normal person would do the same. He couldn't help but snort at Gongsun Hong several times, indicating that it made no difference to him.

"This is a water gourd that my neighbor Zheng Wukong has temporarily left here. The hidden compartment inside is full of water. Please drink as much as you like, it's all you can eat!"

Zhang Xuezhou shook the slightly empty gourd, and after he performed a magic trick, the gourd quickly filled with water.

Zheng Wukong once said that this gourd was filled with the water of a large lake, Zhang Xuezhou felt that he could drink from it for hundreds of years without any problem.

At least he won't face water shortages in any area.

The only drawback is that this gourd is somewhat similar to the Purple Gold Medicine Gourd, which makes it seem a bit unreliable.