……
Chapter 88: Qi Dang Zhou Yu
On the seventeenth day of sailing, the heavy rain and strong winds at sea finally subsided.
Under the peaceful sunlight, the deck of the ship was filled with all kinds of clothes that needed to be dried, gently floating in the sea breeze.
Xi Heng stepped back onto the deck.
The wet ground still reflected the sunlight, and in the hazy sky there was a faint rainbow in the distance.
The seven days of heavy rain were not all bad. At least they provided the ships with a lot of fresh water.
The sailors had been rowing continuously for the past few days and had consumed a lot of food.
It is difficult to make up for the loss by sea fishing alone.
Food is consumed as quickly as fuel, propelling the ship forward.
When the east wind turned into west wind, several layers of huge canvas were unfolded again, allowing the ship to gradually accelerate.
Xi Heng asked the ship's captain about the various conditions on the ship, and then returned to his cabin.
There is really too much free time on this ship.
Even though I brought a lot of books to kill time, I still often felt bored.
If I were in Jiangning City now, I could play with Senior Sister Hong Miao every day, or go out and stroll around the city, and I would never feel bored.
She has begun to miss her senior sister.
"This ocean-going search for immortals is a waste of time. Let me just let my men do it later..."
……
On the fortieth day of sailing, the ship still had not seen any land.
Not to mention crossing the Chonghai Sea, not even a small island can be seen.
The azure blue sky and sea stretch to the end of the horizon, as far as the eye can see.
"It takes forty days to sail, and the wind is favorable most of the time. Even an area as wide as the Atlantic Ocean should be crossed, right?"
Xi Heng pressed his temple.
But after the sun and the moon rotated for more than forty times, the scene remained the same as usual.
When looking around on the deck, one would often mistakenly think that the ship had remained stationary and not moved.
Only the whirring of the huge sails above and the rustling of the waves below the boat reminded her that the ship was still sailing eastward according to the Sinan command.
"How big is this sea?"
Xi Heng really wanted to know.
But in the entire Zhao Kingdom, no one has ever heard of anyone being able to cross the sea and reach another land.
Naturally, no one could tell her the answer to this question.
"There's a faint musty smell in the cabin... I really want to go to shore."
Xi Heng muttered to himself casually for a while, then slowly backed away from the porthole.
During this period of time, she read through the books about immortal traces that she brought on board from the Jingming religious altar.
The descriptions of immortals in dozens of books, some thick and some thin, are particularly desirable. I wonder when I can become that kind of immortal.
"Call the wind and call the rain, free and unfettered..."
Influenced by these books, Xi Heng tried to take out the spirit stone again, attempting to absorb the spiritual energy into his body using the breathing method described in the Taoist books.
But no matter how you breathe in and out, no matter how regular your postures and movements are, the spiritual energy will still penetrate the body directly without producing any reaction with the body.
In her lost state, she asked the Scarlet Sky Goddess who shared the same cabin with her:
"How can we lock the spiritual energy and prevent it from escaping so as to cultivate and become immortal?"
"I don't know."
This answer was within Xi Heng's expectations.
She had no expectations.
After all, if Chen Fenghuo knew how to lock the spiritual energy, there would be no need to build such a large ship and cross the sea to the east to find the legendary fairyland.
If the other party had the ability to cultivate qi and practice Taoism, she might have been the one who lost.
"It would be great if there was a spell that could absorb spiritual energy into the body." Xi Heng sighed, "Why hasn't anyone studied this kind of spell?"
"The guiding technique of the ancestor of all the laws in the world is the method of absorbing spiritual energy." Chen Fenghuo has become accustomed to Xi Heng's lack of common sense about practicing Qi and cultivating Taoism, and said calmly:
"Other methods of breathing and absorbing spirits are just based on the guiding technique to make the absorption of spiritual energy more efficient."
"Guidance? You can do it?"
“Nowadays, among the several Taoist sects in the Great Zhao world, there is the ‘Essentials of the Great Zhoutian Nurturing the Essence of the Spirit’ that can be learned. This skill is a method of breathing in and out spiritual energy that has evolved over a long period of time from the Daoyin Skill. You only need to donate a few taels of silver to them and you can hire a Taoist priest to teach you. It’s much cheaper than ordinary martial arts schools.” The other party mentioned.
"…But it's useless, right?"
After Xi Heng obtained the spirit stone, he also consulted many Taoist classic secret books and found several methods of breathing exercises. At first glance, they all seemed to have some magical effects.
But in actual use, I don't feel any benefit at all.
"Without spiritual energy in the world, the breathing method will naturally become a few pieces of waste paper. At most, it can only unclog the meridians and slightly prolong life." The other party said:
"Although you and I both have spiritual energy from spiritual stones, even if we use all our strength to breathe the spiritual energy into our bodies, it will immediately float out of our bodies and cannot be circulated and refined through our meridians to become our own."
"I knew."
Xi Heng felt that it was the same whether the other party had said it or not.
"If you want to lock up the spiritual energy, you may need the legendary immortal formation." said the other party.
"do you have?"
"No."
“……”Xi Heng took a deep breath and stopped himself from killing.
"Even if you and I have the Immortal Formation, we can't set it up."
The other party shook his head and said, "It is said that the arrangement of the formation requires the help of 'divine consciousness', and even among those who have truly embarked on the path of immortality, only a few powerful people have divine consciousness."
"Only by locking up the spiritual energy can one cultivate qi and become an immortal. Setting up the soul-locking formation requires divine consciousness, and only immortal cultivators have divine consciousness..."
Xi Heng pointed out these three important conditions one by one.
Anyone can see that these three conditions are extremely contradictory.
The path of practicing Qi and cultivating immortality through the Soul Locking Array has been blocked by an unsolvable dead loop.
“Unless we can find a powerful immortal and ask him to arrange it.” The Goddess of Red Sky sighed softly.
"We have already found the immortal, why do we still need to set up the formation?" Xi Heng complained.
The other party nodded, looked out the window, his golden hair swaying slightly, and asked softly:
"Why would God take away the spiritual energy between heaven and earth?"
"Who knows, maybe he simply doesn't want mortals to cultivate immortality."
After chatting for a while, Xi Heng stood up again and went to the window to look down.
The sailors and boatmen are still busy.
With her eyesight, she could clearly see that most people dozens of meters away had a hint of numbness and loneliness in their eyes.
It's natural, after all, I look at the same scenery every day, but I can never see the land that is my destination.
No matter how optimistic a person is, he will gradually lose hope and think that he will eventually die in the sea.
Xi Heng lowered his eyes and returned to sit cross-legged on the cushion on the other side.
Close your eyes, relax your body, calm your mind, and activate your swordsmanship.
Most of the consciousness gradually withdrew from reality and came to a pale spiritual space.
In addition to reading books, chatting with the captured Red Sky Goddess or playing chess every day, she also fights with the enemies in her heart in the spiritual space every day, trying to create new moves that match her level of transformation.
Recently, most of the moves she used were blood-line sword techniques with hidden power, but she replaced the hidden power that drove the sword techniques with the stronger transformation power.
In addition, there are things like the Sword of Yue Yin.
In the previous few months, when she and her senior sister were traveling, she had also imagined a few new moves in her mind, but she had not yet perfected them.
Now that he has a lot of free time, Xiheng wants to take this opportunity to improve himself.
As his mind moved, the pale area of the spiritual space was filled with various colors, and finally transformed into the vast battlefield outside the Jinshi City that was illuminated by flames and arc moons.
In the distance, the blurry black shadows representing the enemy were floating around.
This time, Xi Heng did not continue to use his demon-like self as a sparring partner.
The vague black shadow gradually grew larger and condensed into Tianliang Marshal Fang Tiande, who was wearing mighty general armor, carrying a dark yellow cloak, and holding a long axe.
Because he had fought with the opponent many times before while holding the sword heart state, Xi Heng had almost completely seen through all of the opponent's moves.
Naturally, he could use Kenshin to evolve this figure as the enemy in his heart.
The girl took a stance, holding the sword with both hands and holding it in front of her shoulders.
Fang Tiande jumped high at the beginning, swung the giant axe in his hand in the air, and threw it quickly with a violent fluctuation of energy -
This time, Xi Heng did not rush forward to dodge the flying axe as he did before, but turned around and slashed out with sword energy to counterattack.
Instead, he pushed forward straight ahead with forceful strength.
Clang!
The giant meteorite axe, wrapped in strong wind, fell straight onto the sword blade. The huge force made it difficult for Xi Heng, whose whole body was fully transformed into energy, to bounce away, and his feet could not stop sliding back several meters.
Xi Heng scratched his numb right hand, his eyes focused, and then rushed straight forward like the other party.
The first move she wanted to create was similar to Fang Tiande's Geng Jin Gang Sha Axe Technique, with great power and heavy momentum.
To fully create such a move, of course, you have to go head-to-head, which will be more inspiring.
In the spiritual space constructed by her swordsmanship, winning or losing does not matter; only experience and moves are important.
……
On the sixtieth day after setting sail, another rainstorm and strong winds came.
Huge waves kept hitting the side of the ship, and the ship was shaking and seemed about to capsize.
I don’t know if it’s because we sailed deep into the ocean, but this rainstorm was even more violent than the last time.
Although the previous incident was also violent, no one on the fleet was injured or killed.
But at this moment, the strong wind and huge waves directly overturned a small boat following behind.
Dozens of people on board were swept into the sea, and kept shouting for help in the turbulent sea that seemed to be boiling under the heavy rain.
Supplies also fell into the sea with the sunken ship. Due to the lack of timely rescue efforts and the harassment of heavy rain and waves, only five of the dozens of wooden boxes and barrels filled with food, dried fruits, meat and other daily necessities were finally recovered.
More than a dozen people died in this capsize. The remaining half of the survivors who were rescued by ropes were even more panicked after getting on board. They collapsed on the deck and gasped for breath like dead fish.
Thunder roared, illuminating the faces of many panting people.
At the far end, the captain kept shouting that the boat was leaking.
The repairmen dared not be negligent, as these ships carried nearly a thousand lives.
Under the doomsday-like black clouds, six ships were floating up and down on the sea, swaying and teetering on the verge of collapse.
The people on the deck had difficulty maintaining their balance, and some were even unable to move due to the strange gravity.
Xi Heng also left the cabin and went to the deck, thinking that if someone else fell into the sea, she could use her lightness skills to step off the boat and save them.
But when we got there, we could only see people clinging to the wooden poles on the deck as if they were holding on to their lives, and we could hear sounds of fear and screams.
With such caution and fear, no one fell off the boat into the sea.
A team of repairmen stumbled through the cabin with their tools and came to the breach in the bottom of the boat. After pouring away the water with wooden buckets, they rushed in with planks and materials and quickly hammered in nails.
