Chapter 18: It Seems My Aptitude is Extraordinary |
The Deep Sea Monster Fish’s alchemy cabin.
The Deceptive Disguise formation was close to completion.
The spell formation’s outermost ring was two meters in diameter.
Inside the circle was square. Each of the square’s four points had a line that extended inwards.
The lines intersected with two other lines, crisscrossing until finally forming a small trapezoid in the center.
At this moment, the yellow crab alchemy puppets were humming at the outermost circle, expending magic power to maintain the entirety of the formation.
The most crucial person, Cang Xu, was kneeling on the metal floor, hand holding an alchemy pen as he did his utmost to trace the lines.
Grey-black liquid flowed from the alchemy pen, a refined version of the Soft Heart Stone.
This was the last step.
If this was completed, the entire spell formation would be completed.
The veins in Cang Xu’s arm and palms were visible as he bit his teeth tightly with a hard expression.
Suddenly, his body shook, and his writing came to a spontaneous stop.
The spell formation crumbled soon after.
The yellow crab alchemy puppets responsible for supporting the formation were immediately affected, causing them to fall to the ground upon receiving the backlash jointly.
Cang Xu was also unwell, blood spilling from his nose and the corner of his mouth.
The old scholar sat on his buttocks as he felt the world around him sway, as if the Deep Sea Monster Fish was being swept up in a torrential whirlpool.
It took a good while for him to catch his breath.
“Oh dear, although the Soft Heart Stone problem has been solved, I didn’t expect that the difficulty of building this spell formation would rise so sharply on the last step.”
“I still underestimated too much.”
“War Merchant…was truly worth of being called the greatest alchemist of our age.”
Cang Xu’s head throbbed, he saw black spots in his vision, and he could only think of sleep.
He had expended too much spirit power.
He actually still had plenty of magic power.
Spell formation construction only consumed Cang Xu’s spirit power as the Deep Sea Monster Fish supplemented the necessary magic power.
This was one of the convenient formations built into the alchemy ship.
Cang Xu was only an iron level magician, he could not rely on his insufficient magic power.
Furthermore, his was ill suited.
Necromancer magic power was inclined towards negative energy, while most spell formations were partial towards positive energy.
“Every failure comes at a steep price.”
“Both alchemy materials and magic power are useless.”
The Deep Sea Monster Fish’s magic power reservoir is always being depleted.”
“In the future, we will need many elemental crystals to replenish it.”
“These will need money.”
“The six pirate ships are currently drifting in the sea, everyone is waiting for this formation to be built.”
“I must do this now!”
Cang Xu knew the heavy responsibility he was shouldering.
Zi Di was not a living creature, and was not a magician.
He was the survivors’ sole magician.
Only him, they could only rely on him!
After taking a deep breath, Cang Xu stood up and abandoned the dilapidated formation dejected and impatient as he raced to build a new one.
The glowing red sunset filled the sky.
The six pirate ships slowly rose and fell with the waves.
In the flagship, the young captain watched his companions with hands clenched behind his back.
Bai Ya, Lan Zao, and the big guy were there.
They were jumping, boxing, and sitting cross-legged on the deck, all exercising their battle qi.
The pirate captives and unconscious fisher folk were in the ship hold.
These people could not be released, and for the survivor’s unanimous goal of redemption, they needed a layer of disguise to facilitate their actions.
The Deep Sea Monster Fish was too unique, it was their hidden trump card in the ocean.
They needed to establish a fleet that could be their outward identity to the world.
However, such an organization not only had higher ups and the lower class, but also the middle class too.
The middle class was the backbone, the foundation the survivors would use to control the fleet.
Everyone’s interest was aligned, their experience on Mystifying Monster Island had fostered friendship and mutual understanding between them all, allowing them all to know each other well.
There is just one problem.
Individual strength.
Extraordinary strength led the world, with individual strength being the most important indicator of that.
Take a city lord, one needed to be at least silver level, with most normally being gold level.
In pirate groups, the captain is usually the strongest among them.
Mercenary groups were also like that.
Individual strength and the ability to suppress situations were widely worshiped across all of the races of the entire world
Without sufficient personal strength, one’s underlings that were the backbone would despise them. Even if a leader was charismatic, they would be considered lesser.
Without sufficient personal strength, assassins could slay them easily, causing the organization to dissolve and be swept away by those greater.
Even with a massive force or strong bodyguards, such a person could not be protected from traitors forever.
Much of War Merchant’s valuable data had been obtained from the tower spirit.
Among them were many battle qi techniques and meditation methods.
While Cang Xu was building the spell formation, the young captain gathered his comrades to share these cultivation methods and promote everyone’s personal strength as much as possible.
“Can’t use it.” Mu Ban suddenly spoke, he was covered in sweat as he sat dejected on the deck with a raised hand, “I give up.”
The young captain nodded to him.
The world had many commonly spread battle qi techniques.
Mu Ban had tried many of them, but none of them worked.
This time, he had tried many of War Merchant’s battle qi techniques, but these too did nothing.
“I, I also give up.” Fei She also said.
He also took a seat, exhausted, his clothes sticking to his fat body due to sweat.
As a Wisteria Merchant Alliance elder, he had access to more battle qi techniques than Mu Ban.
But his many attempts also met in failure too.
The young captain was not surprised.
He shifted his gaze towards Qiao Shan.
Unlike Mu Ban and Fei She, when Qiao Shan tried the Fragrant Dance battle qi technique, it had results.
Que Shan was spinning in place, battle qi emitting from her legs and hand.
This was the main cultivation method for the Fragrant Dance battle qi technique.
Que Shan was a beauty. Her dark green eyes, delicate features, perfectly round chest, and lively stature were traits of one with mixed heritage from the imperial east and imperial west.
Presently, she was permeating with battle qi, her black hair and dark green skirt were waying accordingly, becoming a beautiful sight on the deck.
The Fragrant Dance battle qi technique was not a widely spread battle qi. It was gold level and an ordinary person like Que Shan would’ve never known about it.
This try produced results.
“I got it, I also got it!” Bai Ya suddenly yelled.
At that moment, he attracted everyone’s gaze.
The young captain stepped over to examine him.
Bai Ya was trying to cultivate the Water Grass battle qi, and there were silk strands of battle qi coming from his body.
Bai Ya’s face was covered with sweat and had gone red from excitement.
He had tried many battle qi techniques, all of which produced results. He felt that he had an impressive aptitude, as if he were a genius!
His future was bright.
He seemed to see himself becoming a knight one day.
The young captain was just about to check on Bai Ya’s situation when the big guy in the corner suddenly shook violently and dropped to the deck with a plop, his mouth foaming and his eyes rolling to white, it looked like he was having a break out of epilepsy.
The young captain jumped over to the big guy and immediately imbued him with battle qi to suppress the Riot battle qi in the big guy’s body.
“Again?”
“How many times has it been?”
“At least seven or eight.”
The others were accustomed to this occurrence.
After the battle qi was suppressed, the big guy immediately woke up.
When he saw the young captain, he whimpered, “Father, I failed again.”
The young captain consoled him at once, “It doesn’t matter, I am here. You’re already doing better, you’re very strong.”
“Father, I shall try even harder next time!” The big guy said as he coughed up blood.
He only sensed that he was after throwing up several mouthfuls, causing him to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. “Eh? I’m bleeding, I thought that was saliva.”
“My, my belly hurts a little bit.”
The young captain consoled him again, then suspended the big guy’s battle qi cultivation.
He sighed to himself.
Mu Ban and Fei She had zero cultivation aptitude, while Que Shan found a battle qi technique that suited her, but her aptitude was very low.
Bai Ya had cultivated many battle qi techniques successfully, but the battle qi produced was very small, his aptitude was the same as Que Shan, the bottom of the barrel.
On the contrary, the big guy had a decent aptitude.
Even though battle qi was not successfully circulated in his body, when he was cultivating, battle qi was being produced at the rate of a small, surging waterfall.
With this kind of result, the big guy could hope to cultivate to the gold level!
But he had an enormous problem.
He was too stupid!
The youngster had spent a lot of time and effort teaching him about the basics of cultivation.
What normal people needed to hear only twice to learn, the big guy still mixed up.
Every time he produced battle qi, he would make a mistake, causing the prior scene to occur time and again.
“The big guy has a hard time understanding the most fundamental details of battle qi techniques. It is almost impossible for him to grasp how battle qi works. “Tripleblade said, “Another thing too, Lord Captain, the big guy can also go crazy.”
“When he goes mad, he will lose all reason. When we were building the ship, he nearly destroyed it.”
“If he cultivates successfully, and becomes a cultivator, he will do even more damage when he goes mad.”
The big guy lowered his head when he heard those words, “Father, I shouldn’t practice.”
“Sooner or later, we’ll find a solution.” The young captain patted the small giant’s head as he sighed.
All of the battle qi techniques and meditation methods were made public, but there were no pleasant surprises.
In this world, there are many battle qi techniques and meditation methods that are propagated.
The main constraint to everyone’s development was bloodline.
Ah bloodlines, bloodlines!
Without this problem, the survivors wouldn’t have a problem reaching middle class.
The only one qualified to hold a middle-ranked position was the goblin, Tripleblade.
He was iron level, shaped his battle strength, and now had the battle qi technique that most suited him.
Next was Lan Zao.
Lan Zao was bronze level.
His situation was similar to Bai Ya, he had produced results with many battle qi techniques, but the results were low.
Therefore, he didn’t replace his battle qi, he was already used to using Watter Grass battle qi. His battle skills also matched his Water Grass battle qi. Changing it now was both troublesome and unprofitable.
“It’s getting late. If there aren’t any questions, then we should disperse.” The young captain took a final look around.
“I, I have a question.” Bai Ya said, his emotional voice trembling in the evening wind, “Should I pick a comparatively good battle qi technique? I tried many battle qi techniques, all of them worked!”
Everyone was silent.
Upon seeing Ba Ya’s excitement and brave eyes, the young captain couldn’t bear to strike his hopes down, “I give you the right to choose, no one knows better than you which one suits you the best.”
“Very well.” Bai Ya was somewhat hesitant.
Lan Zao sighed as he clapped the young hunter’s shoulder, “You’ll be like me, and cultivate the Water Grass battle qi technique.”
Bai Ya stared blankly, then shook his head, “No thanks. The Water Grass battle qi technique is only bronze level, I can cultivate a gold level battle qi technique.”
Lan Zao “…..”