The morning sun shimmered red across the delta ocean, painting the sails of the Crimson Typhoon like war banners. My boots thudded across soaked planks as I hoisted lines, braced pulleys, and helped a squad of grumbling sailors unload salted fish barrels from the lower hold. Every movement was precise, sharp, efficient—but within my gaze was a thousand-yard stillness.
"Starboard catch is loaded!"
"Gliders are buckling on the wind!"
"Sails pullin' too hard—ease the third brace!"
I heard it all…but barely. I was already tapping my mental dantian, reading the mighty guard body strengthening technique. The Mighty Guard tome opened and floated like a crimson lotus, glyphs drifting in slow motion. As I worked, I split my attention toward the flickering pages. The ''Mighty Guard'' technique taught a cultivator how to use his Intent to weave protective barriers around their vital organs made of condensed qi. The instructions came in slow trickles as I focused my comprehension. "Knit the condensed qi barrier over each vital organ the spleen, hearts, lungs, diaphragm, and kidneys."
"Use loose weave knit qi for heart, lungs and diaphragm."
All of my internal organs flashed in my mind's eye—anatomy rendered in glowing crimson outlines, slowly flushing with stabilized sacred blood essence. My heart pumped slower, each beat strong and deliberate. The spleen became a reservoir, pooling excess qi for later conversion into vestigium qi. Outside, sweat beaded down my brow as I hauled thick canvas across the foredeck.
A sailor next to him grunted.
"You got some iron in your blood, kid. Most lads are coughin' up seawater by hour three."
" Thats because I aim to please" I offered with a nod—my focus divided, yet unwavering. The Sailor didn't know I was sweating from study and cultivation and not from labor. One hand on the rope. The other in my mind turning the pages. By late afternoon, I stood at the stern, helping lash down barrels of spirit-oil and scrubbing the deck of fish guts.
The sun dipped toward the ocean, crimson waves lapping at the hull. I exhaled—long, slow, through both nose and soul. The knitted protective barriers around my Heart, spleen, liver were in place. It had taken me the better part of a day but it was worth it. "I won't be shattered in one strike next time."
Felicity's voice coiled like smoke behind my thoughts. "Ohoho~ Yes, yes. So warm. So grounded. Let your guts become stone, Ash. That's how we rise."
I narrowed my eyes at the horizon. Somewhere out there… Red-Cap was still building. Still scheming. I gripped the railing, breath even, spine steady.
"Next time… I won't just survive."
Dusk swept over the Crimson Typhoon, turning the delta ocean into a sight of molten steel. I stood near the forward rail, mop set aside, body humming with animus as I reviewed a minor bone marrow strengthening technique from the bone moirai flow tome. I combined this bone strengthening technique with the knowledge I had just attained from knitting protective barriers around my organs I started the slow process of rearranging the geometric microstructure of my bone marrow around.
My vestigium qi would ensure a good success. I guide it with my intent, letting it shape the marrow microstructures into equilateral triangles, a formidable geometric shape displacing pressure equilaterally. Breathing layered grit into my bones, weaving quiet durability into my joints and spine. A sudden crack of the crow's call shattered the calm.
"SAIL OFF THE STARBOARD! BLACK FLAG—TRIPLE WAVE SERPENTS!"
Captain Riggs was already at the helm, monocle lens ticking with Arcano mechanical speed.
"By the drowned gods…" he growled. "The Poly Wags." A murmur of curses rippled through the crew. Half the older sailors spat instinctively over the rail. One vomited.
I squinted toward the horizon. From the mist, a twisted ship emerged—The Guppy Grim, all warped hull and reef-colored sails, shaped like a massive frog skull with twin cannon ports for nostrils.
' 'FATE IS FLUID. YOUR BONES BELONG TO THE DEEP.' '
Cried a guppy grim frog man crew member.
"They weren't supposed to reach this far west," muttered Bosun Garl. "Those frog-worshipping swamp cultists are suppose to stay near the southern mud vane shallows!..." Captain Riggs shouted out orders, "Battle stations. Now."
Alarms rang across the Typhoon!
Crew scrambled. Cannons were primed and loaded. Harpoon rigs unlocked. Blood-slick sails unfurled.
I rushed toward the portside net locks, hands instinctively checking my gear: bracelet inventory full, body fortified, spirit balanced.
"Ash!" Kippa tossed me a harness rope. "You're boarding crew now! You go in first wave!"
"What!?!? What happened to swabbing decks!" I shot back.
"Welcome to real pirate life!"
The ships slammed into one another with a groaning, cracking roar!
Their hulls scraped and locked, barnacles exploding in brine as harpoons sank and boarding lines flew.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Cannon fire tore through the starboard deck!
A blast of heat and splinters sent sailors flying!
I ducked low, somersaulting over a rolling crate and rising behind a railing, vision narrowed. The Poly Wags surged aboard in droves—painted in algae, barnacle armor.
Their weapons hissed with wet venom and swamp chi.
"ALL HANDS! COUNTER BOARD!" shouted Riggs.
My eyes flashed with purple vestigium qi, I circulated sacred breath and sent a burst of qi into my legs and leapt over the side rail—straight into the invading squad.
CRACK!
My hammer—Jawbreaker—came down like judgment!
Sending one enemy sprawling into the mast rigging. Another slashed at my flank with a triple-hook blade! I deflected it with a flourish of Jawbreaker and swept the legs, finishing with a spinning hammer blow that shattered the deck beneath us. "Who the hell is that!?" one Poly Wag screamed.
My aura flared, the burning inside like a drumbeat made of thunder and blood. "Blazing Tempest Strikes!" I unleashed a hurricane of ember fire and lightening enhanced spinning strikes, upper cuts and flying windmill kicks all landing with 950 kilograms of force!
RIBBIT! ' ' Gull blimey lads they brought a bloody fire lightening user on the open waves, they must be touched!' '
Meanwhile, on the rear deck—
Captain Riggs went one-on-one with Croaker Vice, the Poly Wag clan's First Mate—a hulking woman with a bullfrog's neck sac and dual bladed spears dripping with paralytic venom.
"You again," Riggs grunted. "Didn't I kill you at Shell grave Island?" They clashed, steel shrieking, storm light flashing through the rigging. The hulking Bull-frog woman Calisto looked at captain Riggs smiling, "Poly Wags don't die, we multiply." I spun through enemies, I now understood what Felicity meant. That strength wasn't just offensive—it was how much heat I could take and keep going. A hulking Poly Wag brute charged me, swinging an anchor hook.
I rolled beneath, planted my feet, and channeled all my vestigium qi into my spine then throughout my body, focusing on the storm claw raptor lightening crystal, tapping it for my next attack.
"Hidden Dragon Lightening Wind Palm! I thrust out my palm and sent out a blast of bladed wind qi and jagged lightening arcs! The attack flash fried half of the Poly Wags on deck.
Riggs's voice echoed above the chaos, "Drive'em back! They want the Delta King's legacy—they'll choke on our wake before I let them steal it!"
After my lightning wind palm the Poly Wags retreated, leaping back into the sea like cursed toads, a final salvo of green flame burst from their ship.
Riggs slashed the air.
"Ash! Cut the mooring hooks! Now!" I grabbed a rope and raced along the side of the ship using my vorpal blade to slash the mooring ropes. With nine well-placed strikes, I freed the Typhoon. The ship lurched backward, separating with a groan and a hail of arrows. The Guppy Grim began to withdraw, damaged but not sunk, its sails burning green in the fading dusk. I leaned against a barrel, bleeding lightly from a nick at my ribs—but whole.
More whole than before.
Inside my spiritual realm, the Cultivation Matrix flared like a shifting sphere of blood glass and dream mist. Floating in the sea of red-gold anima was Felicity, her form semi-liquid, semi-humanoid—a bubbling, elegant tangle of scarlet membrane and shimmering girlhood with hints of core intent and flowing qi veins.
She coiled around the pulsing Centipede Juggernaut core, which beat with guttural glyph-light, a deep amber and moss-black sun behind translucent script. "Alright, darling... time to bond...symbiote to beast," she whispered, eyes glowing pink as a molten sunrise. She lifted the ember flare apple to her mouth—an orb of condensed solar yang essence, its skin streaked with fire-gold and deep crimson, the texture like lacquered sunstone. She didn't bite it. She absorbed it. The moment the essence entered her cultivation field, the change was instant.
WUUUUUMM—
Solar veins lit up across her body, branching gold flame surging through her semi-formed musculature, fighting against the natural cold rot and decay rooted in her core nature.
Her form spasmed. Shuddered. Twisted. She laughed. "It burns, Master Ash! Like swallowing the tongue of a Fire God! How deliciously violent!" Her bones—until now ethereal, semi-symbolic—calcified into proper lattice. Joints formed with marrow fire runes, sealing her frame.
She channeled the Yang essence deeper, forcing it into the centipede juggernaut smokey quartz beast crystal.".
GHHHMMMMMMMM...
The smokey quartz crystal pulsed with glyphs, they unfurled across its surface in mossy green and obsidian black.
Earth Qi: Defensive/Support Foundation.
A slit appeared in felicity half formed liquid state, the hand floating in the pool swam over clutching the core and inserting it into Felicitys glowing chest cavity.
Felicity grinned wide, her mouth extending into a primal, beautiful smile.
"Ahh~"
Internal Cultivation Progress
Over the course of hours:
The ember flare apple's solar yang scorched away lingering chaos rot, stabilizing her soul. Her blood membranes thickened and became heat-resistant.
The earth qi grew denser—spinning like mudstone and volcanic ash around her core. The decay qi, surprisingly, did not vanish. Instead, it evolved—refined by solar pressure into Putrefaction Marrow, a rare evolution granting her the ability to decay a targets defenses and while strengthening her hosts vitals.
Then came the berserker aspect of the centipede juggernaut core. The core inside her chest cavity opened flooding her qi with the berserker battle aura.
BOOOM… BOOOM…
Each pulse hit like a war drum. Her eyes widened. Her voice distorted. Felicity's transformation to stage one was complete.
Her corporeal progress was at 67% completion and she estimated that she would be able to manifest with Ash in real time space in seven to ten days.
She reviewed her new abilities again.
Putrefaction Marrow – corrodes a targets external defenses while reinforcing her host's internals.
Solar Flesh Fusing – uses solar qi to forcibly adapt and stabilize volatile body mutations.
Berserker Pulse (Dormant) – locked behind full sync with the Centipede core.
Emotion State: Euphoric. Hungry. Protective of Ash. Developing attachments beyond symbiote-host.
She turned, smiling, as she sensed Ash going about on the Crimson Typhoon miles above in the real world. "Soon, Master. I'll be more than your blood girl. I'll be your shield. Your curse. Your delight." She cradled the remaining ember flare apples in a spectral web of chi tendrils.
"Two more to go."
The Crimson Typhoon groaned under the slow yaw of the ocean tides. Below deck, the lanterns burned low—flickering beads of amber nestled in iron sconces. The air held a damp chill, salt-laced and perfumed with a haze of oiled rope and tarred wood. I descended the groaning stairs with practiced balance, navigating past crates of smoked eel and netted storm fruit until he reached the crew bath basin—an ancient copper tub bolted into a recessed alcove beside a steam grate. The pipes creaked above, the vents hissing cold air. No fire stones. No warmth.
I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes as I rolled my shoulders.
"Ember coil bond—ignite..."
From the center of my chest, a pulse of crimson-gold fire shimmered, spiraling up through my veins.
Not flames of destruction—but heat of will, a refined flame of qi essence, my palm hovered over the water-filled basin.
FWOOOOOM!
Heat surged from my palm. Steam coiled up immediately in rising hisses, twisting through the air like the breath of a sleeping volcano. The water trembled—then glowed faint orange. I kept my hand steady, rotating my wrist to stir the thermal flow. As I did, faint glowing runes etched from the ember coil bond shimmered along my wrist and forearm.
This was commanding martial fire. I tested the water with a finger.
"Just right."
After working all day on then in my first pirate ship battle this hot bath was over due. I stripped off and stepped in slowly, my tired muscles relaxing at the contact, each motion releasing days of tension.
The copper basin creaked slightly under my weight. I leaned back. Steam rose. Time slowed.
For a moment, there was no cursed blood river no pirate heirs, no blood phage contracts.
Just warmth.
My spiritual senses extended on instinct—not in threat, but out of habit. Below the heat and water, inside my dantian or spiritual pond, I could feel it.
The mighty guard, glowing in a ruby lotus script inside the inner library.
The bone moirai flow, beginning to anchor—still new, but promising.
And… the faintest echo of Felicity, burrowed deep, swirling with solar fire, humming a little melody inside his soul-core. She was quiet and didn't speak.
But I could feel her feeding. Growing. Preparing. I closed my eyes. "Gotta get stronger," I murmured. "Gotta hold the line. No matter how deep things gets."
The steam rose higher. Outside the copper chamber, the Crimson Typhoon drifted like a ghost through the vast ocean. I generated ember coil heat through my scales reheating my bath water, I soaked for another thirty minutes before wrapping it up and exiting the basin. It had been a long day and now I called it a night.
The Crimson Typhoon drifted, its blood-red sails billowing quietly, the battles of days past faded into memory. No new ships had been sighted. No sea beasts rose. Only a hush—a breath held by the ocean. I rose before the first call of the crow. My limbs free of ache, thanks to the hot soak. I could feel new strength in my body—layered sinewed, hard as marble. I sat shirtless near the forward cargo grates, legs folded, spine aligned.
Felicity murmured in my head—her voice like silk dragged through coals. "Ohoho~ Each thread you weave, Ash… lets me root deeper and grow wilder."
I trained on the port deck, shirt plastered to my frame with sweat, hurling heavy rig weights while circulating the bone moirai flow. My bone marrow densified.
I no longer reshaped only the bone marrow micro triangular structure—but I also began threading qi ridges along my femurs, tuning them like tuning forks for impact reverberation. Each breath I took had faint vital water essence in it. So far out at see the vital water essence was powerful here, and water was as good at building a defensive foundation as vital earth essence.
Out of the 8 elements four were considered offensive bias based, and the other four were considered by many cultivators to be defensive bias, slash support.
There were 10 known elements.
They were, poison, fire, water, Ice, Lightening, earth, wind, wood, darkness and holy. Some cultivators even speculated that there was an eleventh unknown element. Each exhale hardened my inner scaffolding.
''Below deck,'' In my blood veins Felicity floated in the red lotus pool of my spiritual realm. She devoured a second ember flare apple. Her form stabilized into a half-flesh silhouette: feminine, terrible, radiant with solar qi traced in molten gold and veined decay.
That night, I heard her voice while awake—soft, near my ear, though she was not there. "You're glowing more lately, Master. Perhaps I'll come out and say hello."
Day Three.
A Faint sigil began to appear on my skin during intense focus—one sailor dropped a box upon seeing my arms flicker crimson with animus runes.
Bosun Garl muttered, "He's got haunt-lights in him. Blood ghosts or worse."
I ignored them. In the cargo hold, I now meditated with my hammer across my knees. I packed qi into the bone joints—shoulders, elbows, ankles—building buffer zones of spirit-dense qi barriers.
Felicity, within, had begun spinning chakra pathways that pulsed with her own signature. She now possessed the ability to emulate my animus rhythm, forming the final precursor to true co-cultivation. She giggled. "Two heartbeats. Same rhythm. Same war drum."
Day Four.
The Crimson Typhoon crossed into rougher tides. Rain slicked the deck. Wind howled through the sails.
I cultivated through it all, skin steaming from the ember and raptor core bonds both of which were now nearing tier level 5. I sat shirtless in the storm, soaking, meditating as chi crackled beneath my skin like magma veins. A junior sailor ran below deck, pale-faced, swearing he saw a girl standing behind Ash in the rain—Raven hair like soaked silk, eyes glowing red. "Just your nerves," the older sailors barked. But they, too, had started avoiding Ash's meditations.
Day Five.
Felicity began bleeding through more deliberately. One sailor refused to sleep near my quarters. Another tried to banish me with salt.
I didn't let it disrupt me. Instead, I focused on my spine. The weakest element within the human body.
With each circulation of the bone moirai flow, I reforged vertebrae, giving them V-crested reinforced plating.
Day Six.
A golden mist now trailed behind me when he walked at dawn, my aura had become visible in the early morning rays. Felicity spoke aloud for the first time to someone other than me—Kippa dropped her tools when a voice rasped through the rope locker, "I'm nearly ready." I began using the bone tuning meditation, listening to internal echoes for fractures, reinforcing subtle imperfections with my qi.
That night, the Crimson Typhoon struck a dead patch of sea—no fish, no wind. Just stillness. The crew murmured of a cursed calm.
Captain Riggs called it a "Death lake."
I and the crew were forced to row several leagues until we hit live ocean currents again.
Day Seven.
Before dawn, Felicity's shadow flickered beside my own in torchlight—though she had not emerged. I stood on the aft deck, my spine a plated pillar, my skin radiant with embedded sigils and qi patterns like war tattoos of molten light dancing over crimson ember scales and cerulean feathers.
Now, with my cultivation base more stabilized than ever before, and feeling confident; I performed the spirit man projection.
My soul separated, glowing and translucent, I soared into the pre-dawn sky, blazing across the ocean like a comet. I searched, not with eyes—but with my spiritual senses.
My mental intent flared across islands, coastlines, and forgotten ruins within a 3000-mile radius. And then… I felt a ping. A match. Not the same qi—but kin to it.
Regal. Hidden. Feminine. Bound by ancient oceanic seals. It rested within a flowery coastal kingdom shrouded by reef mist and pearl tides.
A princess.
The heir to the Delta King's legacy.
My spirit snapped back into my body like a whip.
My eyes opened.
And at that same moment—
Thunder cracked across the ocean. The sea roiled. The water darkened.
A fin rose from the waves—no, not a fin. A spire. Covered in coral and blade-barnacles. A sea beast the size of a cathedral stirred beneath the ship. Its eyes opened—two sun's of abyssal gold. Captain Riggs staggered back from the prow.
"Blood of the drowned gods… that thing's from the Deep Vaults!" I stepped forward, already brimming with crackling purple qi.
"Looks like the storm came early."