Decree of the Bronze Ship's Master

Li Weiyi looked back with concern. Only when he confirmed that Li Ling hadn't pursued him did he relax slightly. The Bronze Ship, the Golden Crow carcass, and the Black Flood Dragon carcass were all treasures. If she learned about them, she might well bring over every expert from the entire Cangling Tribe—indeed, the entire Jiuli Clan. Yet he was also secretly puzzled and alert: why had Li Ling not dared to follow him? She dared to traverse a terrifying place like the Mist Domain of Departed Spirits; she could never be measured as a normal teenage girl. "I can only go forward, not back. Why overthink it? In this sea of coffins, I haven't run into any real danger." Li Weiyi leaped down from the plank pier and rushed into the boundless "landmass" of floating coffins. The stench of blood and decay rapidly intensified. Where he had come ashore earlier was different from the Coffin Dock ferry port; now, he could only track down the Bronze Ship's general direction. At the same time, unlike Li Ling, he harbored no dread—he felt the Blood Sea Coffin Dock merely looked grim and eerie, while in truth it was remarkably calm and tranquil. Thus, after sprinting tens of li, he began calling into the mist, shouting Zhao Meng's name, or Old Liu's name, "Liu Bing." He continually shifted directions and positions, calling out again and again. Half a day later. Li Weiyi no longer knew how far from shore he had traveled. With every shout met by silence, his anxiety mounted. He worried deeply that the Bronze Ship had already set sail again, bound for some distant horizon. If that was truly the case, what would happen to the expedition members aboard, lacking food and water? What would become of his senior brother? Another half-day passed. By now, Li Weiyi had likely traveled nearly two hundred li from shore. Floating coffins stretched without end beneath dense, gloomy fog. The entire world felt lifeless, devoid of any living creature save himself. A wave of unprecedented panic washed over him, chaotic thoughts swirling through his mind as he stood at a loss. The Bronze Ship might... truly have sailed far away. Through the gloom in the distance came a familiar voice: "Weiyi, is that you?" "Brother Weiyi, it's Qin Ke." *** Resting on a four-meter-long jade coffin, Li Weiyi felt his spirits surge, and he bolted at top speed toward the sound. Before long, the floating coffins rocked violently on the water, and a colossal figure emerged from the fog. The figure stood nearly two stories tall. His head was as large as a water vat, his mouth wide as a platter, and his legs thicker than Li Weiyi's torso, bursting with explosive power. A thick beard covered his face, and he wore nothing but a patched pair of oversized shorts, moving with formidable presence. In his left hand he held a white yin streamer; as he swayed it, scripture drifted across its fabric, casting radiance dozens of zhang into the mist. In the palm of his right hand rested an old blue-and-white porcelain jar that resembled an ash jar. "Haha!" The reunion between fellow disciples was naturally joyful. The two stopped a zhang apart. Zhao Meng's laughter boomed like thunder from his roaring voice. Li Weiyi stared dumbstruck, craning his neck all the way back just to see Zhao Meng's face. Both overjoyed and incredulous, he asked, "Senior Brother... what happened? How did you get so tall?" "This is just the start—who knows, I might grow even more in the future! The path I'm taking involves continuously ingesting the blood of ancient immortal behemoths. My constitution is quite extraordinary, you know!" Zhao Meng stood six meters tall, his skin approaching a golden sheen, with patches of black scales growing along his arms. Numerous jars and flasks hung strapped across his body. The yin streamer in his hand was over three meters long. At its top were nine skulls with rubies set into their eye sockets, each spitting a white pennant inscribed with indecipherable scripture. Li Weiyi had seen this yin streamer before in the Bronze Ship's Sea of Graves and Forest of Steles, planted atop a burial mound. How had his senior brother managed to activate it? "Senior Brother, have you cultivated dharma power... meaning you've opened a spring orifice?" Back on the Bronze Ship, Li Weiyi had shared his method of opening springs with Zhao Meng. Given that Zhao Meng had also practiced the Yuxu Breathing Method for years, opening a spring orifice in short order wouldn't be surprising. "Opening a spring isn't that easy! Do you think everyone has talent like yours? Master said my talent only reaches your knees." Zhao Meng glanced at the yin streamer in his hand. Reading the confusion in Li Weiyi's eyes, he explained, "Its glowing has nothing to do with me. Did you find land? Where's Gao Huan?" "I found it, of course, but that's a long story..." Hearing rustling, Li Weiyi turned his gaze behind Zhao Meng. Carrying a foot-tall spirit tablet in both hands, Qin Ke emerged from the mist, followed by Old Liu and Old Guan bearing a stone coffin. Both Old Liu and Old Guan were members of the engineering technical team, but Li Weiyi could no longer recognize them. One had drunk Golden Crow blood and sprouted an enormous avian head. The other had drunk Black Flood Dragon blood and grown a flood dragon head covered in black scales. Two members of the mutant race! Seeing no one else approaching, Li Weiyi asked in confusion, "Where are the others?" "All aboard the ship. They've already departed." Zhao Meng appeared utterly relaxed, not in the least concerned for their safety. He plopped down and gave Li Weiyi a detailed account of what had happened aboard the Bronze Ship over the past two days. Li Weiyi listened enraptured, his mind full of questions. Interrupting halfway through, he asked, "Did the Bronze Ship's master show Himself?" "Not really. At least, I never saw His true form. After the Golden Crow blood and Black Flood Dragon blood were purified by the immortal glow's energy, anyone could drink them. A single drop staves off hunger for days, and your physical strength grows. The expedition members won't starve. Following the Bronze Ship's master, they might become extraordinary beings in the future." "He" represented mystery, awe, and the unknown. Zhao Meng's gaze suddenly grew solemn. "But it's not all good news! He handed down a decree, commanding the master of the Daozu Taiji Fish... well, that's you, to reach the Changsheng Realm as soon as possible. There is a task you must carry out, and His time is running short." Li Weiyi froze, then didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What does that mean?" Zhao Meng said, "It seems our sect promised Him something in the past, sowing a karmic bond that the master of the Daozu Taiji Fish must shoulder and fulfill. What it is exactly, I don't know either. Regardless, once your cultivation reaches the Changsheng Realm, He'll come looking for you, and we'll find out then, won't we? Worst case, we brothers will face it together." "I don't even know what the Changsheng Realm is," Li Weiyi chuckled. An aged, hoarse voice sounded: "The Yongquan Realm, the Wuhai Realm, the Dao Seed Realm. The fourth major realm that follows is the Changsheng Realm. Count your blessings, lad! To share a karmic bond with the Bronze Ship's master, to serve Him, and to have the three of us dispatched as your guides—such fortune and privilege would make countless people die of envy." Zhao Meng had studied this world's language and writing under their Eldest Senior Sister and was more familiar with it than Li Weiyi, so he understood the meaning behind the aged voice. He nodded vigorously. Even he felt the master of the Bronze Ship was a being of immense power; doing His bidding meant having a patron in this strange, foreign realm. Even if this patron had only just awoken, had urgent business to attend to, and seemed not to pay much mind to insignificant folks like them, there was still the reassuring feeling of a towering tree sheltering overhead. Li Weiyi searched around for a while before discovering that the aged voice had actually come from the ash jar in Zhao Meng's hands. Looking at Zhao Meng, he whispered, "Another anomaly?" "By order of the Bronze Ship's master, this old man shall henceforth be your guide along the path of dharma-martial cultivation." The lid of the ash jar bounced as the voice spoke. From the spirit tablet in Qin Ke's hands, a middle-aged woman's voice chimed in: "I am your guide along the path of spirit-soul cultivation." From the stone coffin carried by Old Liu and Old Guan came a low, measured voice: "My background is eclectic; I know a bit of everything. I am responsible for planning your cultivation path. Two years for Yongquan, three years for Wuhai, five years for the Dao Seed—you must attain Changsheng within ten years. Ten years. You have only ten years!" "You may treat this as a decree from the Bronze Ship's master, or you may view it as a transaction, but do not ignore it under any circumstances. For ten years from now... or perhaps slightly longer, what will unfold will also engulf you and those around you." Li Weiyi ran his fingers over the Daozu Taiji Fish, thoughts racing. His expression grew serious as he realized his senior brother, the Bronze Ship's master, and these three anomalies were not joking. Moreover, there seemed to be no possibility of shirking or refusing. He was indeed still clumsy and ignorant regarding cultivation, with far too many unknowns. Having renowned masters and experts guide him was naturally something he would leap at. Yet... Too many questions lingered in his mind. Li Weiyi clasped his fists and asked, "May I ask how I should address you three seniors?" The old man in the jar replied, "The three of us were once renowned figures across this land. But now, this old man is reduced to a jar of ashes, while this married couple has one remnant soul lodged in a spirit tablet and the other reduced to a mutilated corpse. Were it not for the Bronze Ship's master, we wouldn't have even preserved this sliver of soul and consciousness. Reduced to such pathetic states, there is no need to dwell on the past." The middle-aged woman in the spirit tablet said, "Agreed." "Agreed," said the voice in the stone coffin. The old man in the jar added, "Just call me Senior Jar." "Senior Tablet." "Senior Coffin." All three introduced their appellations. Were they really this casual and down-to-earth? They were completely different from Chanhai Guanwu and Yu Tuonan. Perhaps it was due to the Bronze Ship master's will. Li Weiyi's eyes swept over the ash jar, the spirit tablet, and the stone coffin, and he asked outright, "Do you three seniors know what karmic bond exists between the Chan Sect and the Bronze Ship's master? Why must I reach the Changsheng Realm as soon as possible? And why only ten years? I've heard that ten years is only enough for a cultivator of superior talent to open four springs." "And how many springs have you opened now?" Senior Jar asked. "Three springs." "How long did that take?" "Less than half a month," Li Weiyi replied. "Isn't that that, then? Superior talent, inferior talent—you are different. You are the one chosen by the Bronze Ship's master," Senior Jar said. The voice of Senior Coffin in the stone coffin remained calm and measured: "No, I do not share his view. Li Weiyi, you are not someone chosen by the Bronze Ship's master; you can only be yourself. Only when a cultivator understands what he truly desires and what he seeks can he forge an unshakable dao heart over the long years of cultivation ahead. Therefore, what the karma is does not truly matter to you right now." Li Weiyi pondered deeply. Senior Coffin continued, "I will ask you only two questions: at this stage, what are you pursuing? What do you want? No need to rush your answer; let us return to the Lingxiao Realm of the Living first." Li Weiyi parted his lips, but in the end did not reply immediately, wishing to think it through first. The party set off toward the shore. Zhao Meng was pondering those two questions as well, though he felt quite relaxed about it: "Anyway, at this stage, I just want to find Eldest Senior Sister. She definitely belongs to this world." Half an hour later, Li Weiyi pulled himself from his contemplation, recalling that Li Ling might still be at the Coffin Dock ferry port, and that Shi Jiuzhai and his disciples might be lying in wait at Dragon-Slaying Pass. "Since you three seniors know of the Lingxiao Realm of the Living, I presume you were from here in life? Do you know if there is another way back, aside from the Mist Domain of Departed Spirits at the Coffin Dock ferry port?" Li Weiyi asked. Senior Jar piped up eagerly with a chuckle: "You're asking the right person! When it comes to the Blood Sea Coffin Dock and the Mist Domain of Departed Spirits, no one knows them better than your Senior Coffin. He's from the Jiuli—" "Shut up." The voice from the stone coffin broke in: "Is there danger at the Coffin Dock ferry port?" "It's hard to say if it's danger, but I'd prefer to avoid it if possible," Li Weiyi said. The voice inside the stone coffin said, "There is indeed another path, though it requires a detour. From here on, I shall borrow the Nine Emperors Streamer to divine our bearings and direct the way. Bearer of the streamer, walk in front!" The Nine Emperors Streamer was the white yin streamer in Zhao Meng's hands; the rubies set into the eyes of the nine skulls supplied it with esoteric energy akin to dharma power. The scripture and radiance emanating from the streamer guided the group's course. They were too far from shore. Even moving swiftly, night had completely fallen before they could reach dry land. Finding an area among the floating coffins where a gigantic coffin blocked the chilling wind and the footing was stable, they prepared to rest for the night. Following Senior Coffin's instructions, Zhao Meng planted the white yin streamer into the crevice between two coffins. The streamer could suppress souls, and departed spirits dared not approach within its radiant perimeter; it had been a treasure of Senior Coffin during his lifetime. Li Weiyi fetched food from the evil camel bell and distributed it to everyone. They had barely finished eating when— Thump! Thump... The blue-and-white ash jar bounced out from a corner. "Cultivation time! Time to cultivate! Everyone together! And you, Li Weiyi—stop mulling over Old Coffin's useless questions! Always getting bogged down in profound, ethereal nonsense. What's practical matters most! You must open your fourth spring orifice as soon as possible. All of us are relying on your protection right now. We can't have some random five-spring or six-spring fellow popping up and wiping us all out in one swoop—then you can kiss the Changsheng Realm goodbye!" Li Weiyi said, "Senior, opening a spring orifice shouldn't be something one can just do on a whim. It has to be done step by step." "Nonsense! With the vigorous blood qi of Golden Crow blood, the Chan Sect's supreme breathing method, and this old man guiding you, the first four springs carry no danger at all. With your bloodline and talent, you can blast through with ease! But once you reach the fifth spring, there is a degree of risk—you'll have to get a spring-opening needle from a great provincial city to open it quickly." Senior Jar was an impatient sort. A man of immediate action, he wasted no time guiding Li Weiyi to forcefully surge toward the fourth spring in the palm of his left hand.