Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Cultivating by the Sea

As the moon shone down, the giant crocodile’s body was covered with a layer of moonlight. Looking from far away, the boat almost seemed as if it had come to life, absorbing the essence of the moon as if it was breathing.

As it absorbed, the moonlight grew richer, as if being attracted over, overflowing and exposing a cold glow.

Xu Qing stared at the boat for a long time.

Whether it was when he was living in the slums or his time in the scavenger camp, aside from the house Captain Thunder had bought for him, most of his residences had been very simple.

Under the moonlight, this crocodile-like dark awning boat seemed clean and tidy. It gave off a sharp aura, and Xu Qing couldn’t help but squat down to touch it.

It was cold and hard under his fingers.

But most importantly…

“It’s mine.” Xu Qing whispered softly. He was about to step on board, but suddenly stopped. A cold light flashed through his eyes, and he felt a faint malicious gaze coming from the surroundings.

However, the other party had hid themselves very well, and Xu Qing couldn’t locate them for the time being. Thus, he restrained the coldness in his eyes, returning to his previous calm, and pretended to look down at his shoes.

His straw sandals were very worn out and covered with mud and dried blood. His dirty toes were peeked out through sandals’ gap.

After a moment of silence, Xu Qing took off his shoes and looked at his dirty feet. He sat down to the side and plunged his feet into the sea water, rinsing them until his fair skin was revealed.

During the whole process of washing his feet, he appeared to be calm and oblivious on the surface. However, he was secretly observing his surroundings the entire time, waiting for the owner of that malicious gaze to appear. Unfortunately, the other party seemed to be very cautious. Even though Xu Qing sat there carelessly, they never revealed themselves.

Xu Qing’s expression was normal. He stood up and stepped onto the boat, glancing up at the dark awning.

The area under the dark awning wasn’t much, and the inside was very simple. There was a single bed, a single futon, and a place to wash himself.

In addition, the dark awning was a little low. An average person couldn’t fully stand up under it, but it was just fine for sitting down.

After glancing at it, Xu Qing didn’t step into the area beneath the dark awning. Instead, he sat down on the deck outside, listening to the waves and feeling the rocking of the boat.

In this relative quiet, his expression became a little dazed, as though his thoughts were slowly drifting away.

Xu Qing remembered the slum life full of struggles, and the cold nights he spent hiding away. Every winter, he went to sleep wondering if he would see the sun the next day.

Because every winter, people would freeze to death.

Thus, he was very afraid of the cold. Perhaps he wasn’t even afraid of his body being cold, but of those memories.

As he sat silently on the boat, Xu Qing looked out at the dark night and the bright moon hanging high in the sky. He recalled the first person he’d ever killed, many years ago.

Back then, that person had tried to eat him, but Xu Qing cut off his head with great effort and placed it at the door of his hideout. After that, everyone had changed the way they looked at him.

The boat continued to rock.

Xu Qing’s thoughts seemed to be drifting far away, but deep in his mind, he muttered some words.

“Shall I place one here, too?”

The moment he muttered these words internally, Xu Qing’s body suddenly leaned back, and a cold light whizzed past him.

As soon as he dodged that cold light, Xu Qing’s dazed expression immediately disappeared. It seemed that everything earlier had been fake, and the coldness hidden in his eyes erupted forth at this moment!

“You finally showed up!”

The next moment, a figure suddenly rushed out of the sea water next tot he boat with a splash. The figure charged straight towards Xu Qing, and a sharp and cold light was shining in its right hand.

It was a dagger that shone with a green glow under the moonlight. It had clearly been laced with poison.

With the help of the moonlight, Xu Qing could clearly see his assailant. It was a disciple wearing a gray Daoist robe, and he didn’t even bother hiding his face. He appeared to be in his thirties, and his cultivation seemed to be at the fifth level of Qi Condensation. However, Xu Qing sensed something strange about him and felt a hint of danger.

At that moment, that disciple had a ferocious expression, and his eyes were filled with killing intent.

His speed was so fast that he approached Xu Qing in just a moment, the dagger in his hand fiercely stabbing out towards Xu Qing’s chest.

Xu Qing’s eyes were ice-cold. Ignoring the dagger, he stretched out his right hand at an even faster speed, firmly grabbing his opponent’s arm. With the explosive power of a body refiner, he twisted his body and lifted his assailant into the air.

To his opponent’s astonishment and disbelief, Xu Qing directly smashed him down onto the boat.

With a boom, a fleshy tentacle suddenly drilled out of the assailant’s body among a splatter of blood, quickly charging towards Xu Qing. The energy contained within the tentacle had surpassed the fifth level of Qi Condensation and reached the sixth.

Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change. The Chief Shadow suddenly manifested behind him, directly suppressing the tentacle.

With a bang, the tentacle instantly stopped moving and collapsed.

Having lost the tentacle, the enemy cultivator spurted blood. His complexion instantly turned pale and he started to struggle, but in the next moment, a dagger appeared in Xu Qing’s left hand and he held it against the cultivator’s neck.

The dagger was extremely cold and cut the cultivator’s skin. With just a little bit of force, it could slice open his throat.

The cultivator's body trembled, and he looked at Xu Qing with fear in his eyes.

“How did you conceal yourself? And what was the tentacles that came out of your body just now?” Xu Qing looked at the cultivator in front of him and spoke coldly.

“I transplanted the Sea Order Hand into my body. It can increase my combat power, and it also allows me to conceal my aura in the sea. Many of the sect’s disciples to this. Junior brother, I’ll find a way to make it up to you, I don’t have enough contribution points right now, but I accepted a mission, tomorrow-” The cultivator spoke quickly, but before he could finish speaking, the dagger in Xu Qing’s hand flashed.

The cultivator’s eyes widened immediately, but before he could scream, Xu Qing pressed his hand on the cultivator’s mouth. The enemy’s whole body convulsed, and blood gushed out of him, staining the magic boat’s planks red.

After a few breaths, his body became motionless.

Xu Qing looked at the blood-stained magic boat and frowned. Taking out the Corpse Scattering Powder, he sprinkled it on the corpse and waited for it to melt into blood. No Seventh Peak disciples came over to investigate.

It seemed that everyone was used to such occurrences.

At that moment, the sea breeze blew over, carrying the scent of the sea mixed with blood into Xu Qing’s surroundings. Xu Qing picked up the corpse’s leather bag, but it was pretty much empty with nothing valuable.

“This person hunted me because I have a magic boat.” Xu Qing recalled what the round-faced cultivator had said earlier – Every month, some disciples disappeared for no apparent reason.

Thus, he touched the sharp iron skewer, and his eyes flashed coldly before taking out the brocade box. Opening the box, he pulled out the jade slip that recorded the functions and features of the boat and read it carefully.

After a long time, Xu Qing slowly put down the jade slip and looked at the boat with a strange light in his eyes.

"This boat... is amazing." As he muttered, Xu Qing lifted his right hand and slapped the boat deck beside him. The spiritual energy in his body burst out, and using the method in the jade slip, he turned his spiritual energy into a mark that he imprinted on the boat.

The entire boat shook and made a buzzing sound, as if some kind of device had been activated.

Xu Qing immediately bit his finger and squeezed out a drop of blood, carefully drawing a simple rune onto the boat’s deck. After he drew the rune, the boat shook again, and Xu Qing suddenly felt a connection with the boat appear in his mind.

This was the method of taking ownership that was recorded in the jade slip. After finishing everything, Xu Qing felt like he had become one with the boat.

His mind moved, and a protective barrier suddenly appeared around the boat. After it finished covering the entire boat, Xu Qing finally felt a sense of security.

Lowering his head, he continued to read the jade slip. He repeated its contents many times to firmly imprint it into his memory.

The Seven Blood Pupils’ magic boat did indeed have high growth potential.

The four aspects that could be improved were speed, defense, attack, and speciality. Disciples could improve these four aspects according to their own needs and desires. They could choose to go all-in on one aspect, or improve all four equally. It all depended on their wealth and preferences.

The first three aspects were simple and easy to understand. As for speciality, it referred to special abilities that the boat could have beside standard spells. For example, the boat could gain the ability to dive to the bottom of the sea or fly in the sky. It could even gain the ability to transform into something other than a boat.

But no matter whether it was speciality or the other three aspects, everything originated from the material of the boat’s hull.

Generally speaking, Seventh Peak disciples would go in one of two directions when choosing a hull. The first direction was building one artificially.

They would constantly add and replace higher-level materials that could carry stronger array formations, allowing the boat to become more powerful that way.

This route required cooperation with the Second Peak, which excelled in array formations. There would also be limitations to the artificial route in the future, but it was still the number one choice for many disciples.

After all, this route didn’t involve much danger, and it was enough for them to improve steadily step-by-step.

"As for the second direction…"

“It’s to use the body parts of a mutated beast to form the hull. No array formation is needed.” Thanks to the jade slip, Xu Qing knew that all the body parts of mutated beast contained natural array formations.

These array formations were created by heaven and had impressive power. They were called restrictions.

The body parts of different beasts contained different restrictions and possessed different abilities.

“But both directions consume a ridiculous amount of resources.” Xu Qing looked down at the jade slip in his hand and once again realized how terrifying Seven Blood Pupils was.

As a brand new disciple, the boat he had bought was only a rank one boat.

The boats of the Seventh Peak were divided into four major levels: boat, ship, warship, and wheel ship[1]. Each class was divided into ten minor ranks.

And the jade slip also mentioned an even higher level of boat beyond the wheel ship.

It was called the Greatwing[2].

“To improve it level by level, the amount of resources I need is…” Xu Qing had no way to calculate it in detail, but his preliminary estimate still made him inhale sharply.

Putting down the jade slip, he fell into a daze. Whether it was his leather bag or storage bag, the resources inside were just too little.

“It seems I have to find a way to make money. After this month, I’ll also have to pay rent for the dock.” After a while, Xu Qing pulled out another jade slip and started to study it.

This jade slip recorded the Seventh Peak’s cultivation technique, which was called the Sea Transforming Scripture.

As a peak-level power in the South Phoenix continent, the cultivation techniques of Seven Blood Pupils’ peaks were all extremely valuable. Whether it was the ability to separate heterogeneity or the power one could gain from them, they were completely incomparable to the techniques of smaller forces.

It could be said that at the same level of cultivation, the gap was like that between a firefly and a torch.

After studying carefully, Xu Qing exhaled deeply. He finally understood why all the Seven Blood Pupils disciples he’d seen on the way here gave him a sense of crisis despite their apparently mediocre cultivation bases.

It was because of the difference in their cultivation techniques.

For example, this Sea Transforming Scripture had a total of ten levels that corresponded to the ten levels of Qi Condensation. When cultivating, one had to be close to the sea, and it would be even better if they were out on the sea itself.

Each level of cultivation required absorbing the aura of the sea and increasing the size of the spiritual sea within the body by ten meters. After cultivating to the tenth level and reaching the peak of Qi Condensation, the spiritual sea could reach a maximum diameter of one hundred meters.

Because of this, cultivators of the Sea Transforming Scripture could fight for a long time, and the spiritual energy in their bodies was several times higher than others of the same cultivation. By coordinating countless spells together, their battle prowess was naturally shocking.

In addition, when they attacked, the aura of the Forbidden Sea contained in their spiritual sea also formed a mental deterrent that weakened their opponents.

The Qi Condensation Realm was just the accumulation of spiritual energy in the body, and the aura of the Forbidden Sea contained in cultivators of the Sea Transforming Scripture could give a strong shock to anyone with weaker spiritual energy.

“The Sea and Mountain Art is a body refinement technique, and the appearance of the Chief Shadow represents a body refiner at the peak of the realm. It’s the same as the peak of Qi Condensation, but because of the level of the cultivation technique, compared to higher-level cultivation techniques like the Sea Transforming Scripture, it’s much weaker.”

“However, because I don’t have any heterogeneity in my body and I also have the purple crystal, the Chief Shadow appeared when I’m only at the seventh level, and my battle prowess is comparable to the peak of the Sea and Mountain Art.”

“But ultimately, the Sea and Mountain Art is still incomparable to this Sea Transforming Scripture. One is in the body refining class of cultivation techniques, and the other is magic arts style…” Xu Qing’s heart stirred as he recalled the words that the round-faced cultivator had said on the mountain previously.

After a while, his eyes revealed decisiveness. He also noticed that the jade slip mentioned that the so-called upper limit of the spiritual sea formed by the Sea Transforming Scripture wasn’t fixed.

Everyone was different, and the amount of heterogeneity in their bodies was also different.

The less heterogeneity was in his body, the greater the upper limit of the spiritual sea would be. Until now, the Seven Blood Pupils’ record was from sixty years ago, when a cultivator at the peak of Qi Condensation formed a spiritual sea 270 meters wide.

And that person was the current peak master of the Seventh Peak.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. His body was completely free of heterogeneity…

“Then, after I reach the peak of the Sea Transforming Scripture, how wide will my spiritual sea be?”

Xu Qing felt a strong sense of expectation in his heart. He felt that if his upper limit wasn’t gated by heterogeneity, then it would all be determined by how much his body could endure.

And his body’s recovery ability was astonishingly powerful, so his endurance was naturally amazing as well.

Xu Qing’s eyes shined unprecedentedly brightly.

At the same time, he noted that the Sea Transforming Scripture was a magic arts cultivation technique, not a body refining one. After the battle with the Vajra Sect, Xu Qing obtained a deep understanding of the flaws of purely refining his body.

Thus, after carefully memorizing the cultivation technique, he immediately closed his eyes and started cultivating the Sea Transforming Scripture without hesitation.

As he cultivated, the air around the dark awning boat suddenly became windy. The sea seemed to sparkle as countless wisps of spiritual energy that contained the aura and rich heterogeneity of the Forbidden Sea surged towards Xu Qing’s boat.

The boat’s light barrier blocked spells, but it wouldn’t block these wisps of spiritual energy. The spiritual energy poured in, forming silk-like threads as it drilled into Xu Qing’s body.

His body had no heterogeneity at all, and after repeated refining, all of his meridians were clear like crystals, allowing the spiritual energy to rapidly enter him without any hindrance.

Xu Qing was like a dry sponge, instantly absorbing the spiritual energy and slowly gathering it in his dantian.

As he cultivated, Xu Qing had the vague feeling that his Sea and Mountain Art seemed to be attracted by the Sea Transforming Scripture and instinctively wanted to circulate it. However, the Sea and Mountain Art required the use of different meridians, so he suppressed the urge.

But as time passed, the urge to circulate the Sea and Mountain Art only became stronger. After thinking about it, Xu Qing decided to simply let it circulate.

In the next moment, as he stopped suppressing the Sea and Mountain Art and circulated it freely, the spiritual energy pouring in from all directions suddenly increased by several folds.

The spiritual sea forming in his dantian instantly swelled up with majesty.

This discovery made Xu Qing feel a little disbelief.

It seemed like the two cultivation techniques had merged together. The Sea and Mountain Art didn’t compete with the Sea Transforming Scripture but assisted it.

His qi and blood surged, and the Chief Shadow manifested behind him.

As soon as it appeared, the Chief Shadow raised it head to the sky and let out a silent roar. Unexpectedly, it stretched out its hands as if to move the sea, and the Forbidden Sea’s spiritual energy suddenly surged forth like a raging tide.

To Xu Qing’s shock, the spiritual sea in his dantian directly widened to ten meters.

The first level of the Sea Transforming Scripture was complete.

Xu Qing’s body shook, and before he could think too much, he immediately continued to cultivate. After a short time, the second level was also completed.

“So fast!” Xu Qing immediately started on the third level without hesitation.

The spiritual sea in his body kept expanding. Twenty-one meters, twenty-two meters, twenty-three meters…

Outside the dark awning boat, the erupting spiritual energy formed into a vortex. The wind picked up, and waves rose on the surface of the sea, attracting the attention of the shore guards.

Their expressions changed as they looked at each other.

“Which monstrous disciple is cultivating?”

"This speed of absorbing spiritual energy…"

As they stared in shock, the vortex suddenly roared and expanded once again. The surface of the sea by the dock became incredibly turbulent, and the huge waves caused many of the boats to rock back and forth violently. Many disciples walked out and coldly looked over in surprise.

"What’s going on?”

The vortex continued to expand!

Inside the boat, Xu Qing’s body was trembling violently. The spiritual sea in his body had surpassed 30 meters and reached 37 meters.

It continued to grow.

38 meters, 39 meters, until finally 40 meters!

Xu Qing’s eyes flew open, shining with dazzling purple light that drowned out his astonishment.

“The fourth level of the Sea Transforming Scripture!”

[1] Wheel ship is probably this

[2] This

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