It had already been five months since the five great Dragon Elephant cultivators of Tsushima Island led a surprise assault on Jiangzhu Island.
With careful planning against unprepared defenders, the war had progressed smoothly. The Jing and Su clans were almost completely slaughtered.
Though two Dragon Elephant cultivators had fallen in the fighting, provoking their island lord's fury, the gain of a new Life Furnace outweighed the losses. In the long run, it would greatly benefit everyone's cultivation.
Of course, this was only true if they managed to topple the original furnace and rebuild it before the next Yin Year arrived.
But none of them had expected that Jiangzhu Island's defenses, weak as the clan had been, would be so incredibly strong when it came to protecting the furnace!
The bloodlines of the two clans had intertwined to form a blood-ritual seal. As long as their bloodlines weren't completely extinguished, the seal remained unshakably strong.
Tsushima Island had wiped out ninety-nine percent of the Jing and Su clans, yet each had a single surviving heir. Because of this, the three Dragon Elephant cultivators could only grind away with brute force, pouring their power into slowly eroding the seal.
A day passed, their mana severely depleted, but the seal showed almost no sign of weakening.
At that moment, a black raven descended from the skies and landed before Sakema Maru.
A message pulsed from the raven into his mind.
His hoarse voice rasped:
"The Su clan's direct daughter has also slipped away. Someone is hiding her. We searched all of Hun Prefecture's markets and found nothing.
The island lord is coming in person. He's already on the way."
The two others beside him shuddered violently.
To Shin-dō, who wielded the Dharma Form of Jiaotu, quickly asked:
"Why is the island lord coming so soon?
Didn't he give us a full year?
It's only been five months!
Give us another six months and we're sure we can break this seal!"
But Sakema Maru shook his head.
"The next Yin Year has arrived earlier than expected. The lord can't wait.
Still, this means we may yet survive."
A single Longevity Realm powerhouse had strength enough to smash the seal by sheer force.
Yet none of the three Dragon Elephants dared slack off. On the contrary, they pushed themselves even harder, desperate to prove their effort before their master arrived.
...
Meanwhile, aboard the Dingyuan, Su Min'er felt like the heavens were collapsing.
She had tied herself to the deck with her spider-silk cloak, trying to pin her body down.
But the ship never stopped lurching violently, tossing her about like a dead fish in a washing barrel. She was battered and swollen, her once pretty face bruised black and blue, sorely in need of someone to "restore her beauty with one punch."
At this point, she was sure: the lunatic outside wasn't a member of the Jing clan.
He might not even be human!
From outside, a voice shouted over the roaring wind:
"Little Su, get ready! Watch my new invention, the Skimming-on-Water Technique!"
"Ahhhhhh! Can't you just stop already!?" she screamed.
On deck, Jing Qian crouched low, arms wide, pouring his mana into the waves.
Since leaving the Hun River and returning to the open sea, he had completely cut loose.
With his Tidal Wave Life Pattern unleashed to the limit, Dingyuan's top speed broke a hundred kilometers an hour!
When he added the Dragonswimming Technique, the ship doubled its pace, surging past two hundred.
And with the seventh-grade Lesser Spiritwind Rudder fully activated, the speed jumped another thirty percent!
To imagine a ten-zhang-long warship thundering across the sea at such terrifying speeds, it was like some primordial beast had awakened.
And Jing Qian, at the helm of such raw power, felt only one thing: sheer exhilaration.
This was even better than streaking through the deep sea at a thousand kilometers per hour!
As his control improved, he discovered ever more flamboyant, explosive ways to sail.
And when he warned Su Min'er of impending death, he made good on his words, unleashing his so-called Skimming-on-Water Technique.
At the moment the Dingyuan struck the waves, the force of impact, drag, and tension all melted into the sea under the Tidal Wave's power.
The ocean itself became a colossal trampoline, gathering all that energy and hurling the ship skyward!
With a thunderous launch, the massive vessel was hurled more than five hundred meters above the water, as if truly flying.
"Phew… okay, maybe that was a little much," Jing Qian muttered.
Jing Qian quickly realized he'd launched the ship too high. If the Dingyuan slammed down at that angle, little Su in the cabin might actually die from the impact.
While the vessel was still gliding midair, he dashed into the cabin. Amid Su Min'er's shrill screaming, he fired off a barrage of silk threads, wrapping her into a tight ball. Then he strung up ten springy cords from the ceiling, suspending her in midair in an improvised shock-absorber rig.
Only once she was secure did Jing Qian return, satisfied, to the helm.
The Dingyuan plummeted toward the waves once more. At the last moment, he unleashed the full power of the Tidal Wave Pattern, conjuring an even stronger "water trampoline." The ship bounced skyward again!
The whiplash from that rapid descent-into-ascent made even Jing Qian's head spin.
In the rear cabin, Su Min'er nearly blacked out.
But Jing Qian wasn't finished. As the ship dropped again, he pushed himself to the limit and forced a third bounce.
Three consecutive launches and landings, he had literally played a triple round of "skimming stones" with the Dingyuan!
By the end of it, the ship had shot nearly thirty li forward, storing up massive momentum. But this time, Jing Qian knew he was at his absolute limit. One more attempt and he risked losing control of the vessel entirely.
So, when the Dingyuan fell again, he cut the trick short.
Instead of another trampoline, the waves softened into a cushion of water, absorbing the impact.
Like a perfect Olympic dive, the warship slipped beneath the surface with barely a splash.
Guided by the Tidal Wave Pattern, the Dingyuan transformed into a submarine, tearing through the ocean a thousand meters down.
After racing nearly a hundred li underwater, Jing Qian finally brought it leaping back up to rest on the surface.
He hurried below to free Su Min'er.
The Su family's proud young lady lay limp as a rag, face ashen, her breath thin as a thread.
Alarmed, Jing Qian injected several strands of White Fang Life Essence, pure primordial energy, into her body.
"Little Su, your foundation in Nourishing Yuan is really lacking. You'll need to toughen up," he scolded lightly.
Then he tossed her onto the deck and dove straight back into the sea.
Revived by the energy infusion, Su Min'er quickly recovered some strength. She fished a pill from her sleeve and swallowed it, regaining a healthy flush of color.
At that moment, a massive crab claw was flung up from the waves.
Jing Qian vaulted out of the sea behind it, a White Fang Crab Pearl glowing in his hand. He jabbed a finger at the claw with a grin.
"Tonight, we're having crab!"
He'd been underwater for less than three minutes and had already slain a ninth-grade sea crab.
Su Min'er hardly even flinched anymore. To her, the madman's routine was clear: if he wasn't playing with ships, he was slaughtering sea monsters.
In less than a month, he had killed more than forty ninth-grade sea beasts.
Every single meal was fresh demon-beast sashimi. She was eating better than she ever had back home.
Gnawing delicately on a chunk of crab meat, she finally asked:
"How far are we from Jiangzhu Island?"
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