The one speaking was not a man, or rather, he had concealed his human form and chosen to reveal himself as a Manifestation.
In the shrine hall, at the very center, stood a green lantern.
From within that lantern came the deep, resonant voice of a man, berating the three cultivators kneeling before him.
"I made all those preparations in advance, calculated every obstacle, and spent untold amounts of gold and silver, just to win this one chance at certain victory."
"And yet this is the result?"
"All of you have already cultivated to the Dragon-Elephant Realm, and five of you set out together, yet only three return?"
"How could you possibly be so foolish?"
"The Jing and Su clans don't even have anyone worth calling a leader. That half-dead Spider Matriarch, how could she possibly take down two of you in exchange for one life?"
"Do you think I'm like that, Zhizhou, on the verge of death?"
"I'll give you one year. If before the next Yin Year arrives, you cannot topple the Fate Furnace on Jiangzhu Island, then all of you can take my place as lamp-bearers!"
Before this green lantern, the three Dragon-Elephant Realm cultivators scarcely dared breathe.
Meanwhile, on the other side, a fleet of ships had finally set out from Hunzhou Island's harbor after much delay, heading south.
The fleet was a strange sight.
The flagship stretched over a hundred zhang in length, its design identical to that of the sunken Hunling, clearly the work of the same shipwright master.
Behind this Hunyi warship followed a long trail of smaller vessels, differing in size and shape, strung out unevenly like a ragtag troupe.
But in Hunzhou, where shipbuilding and seafaring skills were scarce, even the smallest seaworthy vessel capable of long voyages was worth a fortune.
All of the smaller ships were crewed by the direct descendants of sailors who had once served aboard the Hunling a century ago.
When Ming Ji's transmission returned and restored the ship's honor, the families of those fallen sailors erupted with emotion.
A century of injustice had at last been cleared away. The restoration of honor was one thing, but more importantly, the compensation owed for a hundred years was a fortune that could reshape the destinies of entire clans.
The Hunzhou Maritime Office, master of countless resources and the most powerful of the three great departments, had always been generous with its rewards to its naval forces.
For families of fallen heroes, the pensions were vast enough to change their fate forever.
Now, this fleet of small vessels had been permitted to accompany the Hunyi, a privilege granted as a reward by the Maritime Office.
Those aboard were allowed to board the wreck of the Hunling first, to recover the remains of their ancestors.
But that was not the true prize. After all, a shipwreck lying shattered on the seafloor for a hundred years was unlikely to hold much of value.
For these families, the real reward was the chance to accompany the fleet itself.
The boundless ocean, though filled with resources, was also fraught with dangers.
For these small ships, every voyage was a gamble with death. Encountering even a single ninth-rank sea demon could doom the entire vessel.
But traveling with the Hunyi was different.
That warship possessed formidable battle strength, and with a Dragon-Elephant Realm cultivator overseeing it, it could even contend against seventh-rank monsters sailing the seas unchallenged.
To follow the Hunyi meant safety, and that was more precious than anything.
During the voyage, the fleet advanced while fanning out to search for ocean resources.
The seas teemed with rare fish and spirit herbs that could nourish mortals' vitality.
A single trip could yield no less than ten gold in profit, exactly what the sailors valued most.
The journey had only just begun, yet already many sailors from the smaller ships had plunged into the waters to fish and hunt.
Each of them remained tethered to its vessel by long steel cables, dangling like countless tendrils into the sea.
From afar, every ship looked like a giant jellyfish, with trailing tentacles streaming into the depths.
Of all the ships, only one small, black-canopied skiff had no divers.
For on that boat were only two people, and even keeping the skiff moving was already pushing them to their limits.
On the skiff's bow stood a tall, strong young woman in tight-fitted attire, gripping an unusual automatic oar.
Every so often, she would channel a surge of life essence into the oar, keeping it in motion without pause.
At the stern, a half-grown boy in a strange mask manned the rudder, carefully steering to stay with the fleet.
Within the entire convoy, theirs was the poorest, most pitiful vessel, few in number, lacking in tools, and pitifully shabby.
Yet the woman and boy worked in harmony, guiding the skiff smoothly forward.
At last, the woman suddenly spoke:
"Xiao Qian, with the Hunling resurfacing this time, I'll find Grandfather's Tidal Wave Turtle Divination and secure the method of cultivating the Tidal Wave for you."
"Once we also claim the Maritime Office's pension, and restore Grandfather's name, our Jing family will finally rise again!"
"By then, you'll be free to focus on your cultivation, without all this hardship."
The masked boy answered softly and obediently:
"Yes, Aunt. I'll listen to whatever you say."
The woman in tight-fitting clothes spoke lightly, but the sorrow in her brows and eyes overflowed without disguise.
Her family had truly been driven to a dead end.
So much so that even her nephew, only eleven years old and still in the stage of nourishing his vitality, had been dragged into this.
Under such circumstances, could anyone truly believe the Jing clan would safely weather this calamity?
On the surrounding ships, crowded with people of every sort, everyone looked to her like a potential enemy with hidden malice.
Adrift on this vast sea, there was nowhere to take refuge. Her only hope was that the soldiers aboard the Hunyi warship, for the sake of their shared naval heritage, might offer them some aid.
At the thought, she gripped the oar even tighter.
If their boat fell behind, the danger would spiral completely out of control!
Inside the Fate Stele's inner space, Jing Qian had already slain all the souls except the Crocodile Dragon and the Snow Maiden and was now absorbing fresh cultivation memories.
The Ninth Rank of Fatebinding was the stage of refining Life Patterns and nurturing Life Essence, a critical foundation for cultivation and the stage where cultivators widened the gap between one another most rapidly.
Although Jing Qian had only recently entered the Dao, the White Fang Life Essence he had accumulated had already surpassed seven pieces, an astonishing pace.
A cultivator's accumulation of Life Essence was determined by the quality of their Life Pattern, each with its upper limit.
A single White Fang Life Pattern could bear one White Fang Life Essence.
Later, as cultivation deepened and one's mastery of a Life Pattern grew, the number of Life Essences it could hold would also increase.
Meanwhile, a single Azure Wing Life Pattern could hold one Azure Wing Life Essence equivalent to more than ten White Fang Life Essences.
Thus, cultivators who awakened an Azure Wing Life Pattern were born with more than ten times the mana capacity of those with White Fang.
At that level, sheer effort could no longer bridge the gap between the different ranks.
By extension, Blue Blood, Violet Eye, and even Golden Root each represented exponential leaps every rank ten times greater than the last.
For those with weak Life Patterns, each sliver of progress in Life Essence required exhausting every resource, pouring heart and soul into it, even burning away their lifespan, yet still achieving little.
Such people could never comprehend why, for others, Life Essence grew as easily as eating or drinking.
But for Jing Qian, with the Sumeru Life Pattern anchoring his sea of consciousness and supporting his cultivation framework, the capacity for Life Essence within him was as deep as an ocean. For now, the upper limit was not even something he needed to consider.
The only things that could restrain his growth were resources and the passage of time.
He barely needed to waste effort on grinding through bottlenecks. In battle, as long as he slew enemies and severed souls, the path to the heavens itself unfolded at his feet!
With a flicker of movement, Jing Qian slipped once more out of the Void Realm and returned to the endless sea.
The power of the Tidal Wave Life Pattern surged to life, and he shot forth like an arrow loosed from a bow, cutting through the deep sea at speeds surpassing five hundred kilometers per hour.
In his mind, a new sea chart gradually lit up, formed from the memories of slain sea demons.
The surrounding waters now lay completely open before him, free for the taking.
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