I blinked several times while looking out at the wooden ship sailing over the waters. There was a ship in the distance. With no curvature to the horizon, I could see as far as the air allowed me before things became too blurry due to the air itself blocking my vision. There were figures moving on board. I couldn’t make out if they were human, and I didn’t sense any energy, which meant they were most likely no threat. I wouldn’t rule anything out. It was a wood ship with cloth sails, not a metal one, indicating they lacked any serious advances in technology. Combined with the no energy environment and not being able to sense any energy, it was doubtful the ship or beings on it were a concern. What was a concern was whoever or whatever made this place and if these beings had backers. Again, it was highly unlikely but still a possibility. I began rowing towards the wooden ship. It was traveling at an offset angle to me, but I was well rested and began rapidly making my way across the salty water. Thankfully I had not been caught in a major storm on the waters so far. As I got closer, I made out more details and it quickly became clear that these were human shaped beings. A sense of tension and unease left me. Humans meant cultivators most likely. While there were other groups of humans out there, for reality itself was infinite, this was a very good sign. If they were octopus or beast people, or some weird mechanical monstrosity, it would be a lot more difficult to get answers. I was finally spotted, and the ship loosened it sails to slow down, allowing the wind to slip free, so I could catch up. The closer I got I noticed more details. The lack of refinement in their clothes. How dirty these people were. Their skin was a lot whiter, almost albino I would say, to the point I could see the reddish and bluish hue of their blood pulsing beneath their skin. Finally, the fact that their eyes were a bit too big for their faces. Not enough to be completely weird, but it was a clear difference between the people on board the ship and myself. They looked human enough, but the differences were disturbing. Children that weren’t capable weren’t kept around for the most part. And the humans grown from vats were similar enough to make cultivators very similar. With the long lives of cultivators, they wouldn’t except huge shifts of genetic divergence with people looking different from them. Here that was clearly not the case. These humans, if they were humans, had clearly been altered initially or there had been genetic drift, with their large eyes, and super white skin. Probably the lack of light from the white star. Bigger eyes would make it easier to see in the twilight of this place. Pale skin, since the light from the white star didn’t trigger melanin in their skin. Once I reached the wooden ship, a rope ladder was tossed over the side. I grabbed the rope ladder and put away my small boat in my spatial ring. I heard gasps of shock and shouts above me as I climbed up. The sailors quickly backed away. “Cal resh, ner sertek mon vormant.” A better dressed and cleaner looking man spoke up. Probably the captain. A foreign language, which would be a problem, but at least they could speak. My translator device worked off of ambient energy. I could give it energy, but it would be a waste, but I also wanted answers. “Yes,” I replied and Captain Li Meifeng nodded at this. “A long distance then.” They had navigation charts with the distance already worked out based on the angles. The ship drum was beaten multiple times, and we exited the navigation room onto the deck. The bell meant changing of the shifts, land sighting, or a Levithan. Since it was beaten multiple times, that meant land or a leviathan. Since we were another ten days or so away from land, that meant a leviathan had been spotted. I went to the edge of Voyager with the Captain as he looked out over the water. “There, Captain. It is headed for us.” “Don’t they ignore ships?” I asked. “Most of them. But some think we are pray. Cultivator Yuan Zhou, will you assist us? This is an exploration vessel, not a hunting vessel,” the Captain replied. “What would you do if I wasn’t here?” I asked. “Fight, there is no other choice. But you have a smaller craft on which you could flee. If you assist, you would be granted half of the harvest.” With very few metals, the massive leviathans of the oceans of the Great World were considered extremely valuable. There were dedicated hunting vessels, but without metal weapons it was very hard to break through their scales, which is also what made them valuable. Normally explosive barrels were tossed into the creature’s mouth in a hope to kill it, and then the corpse would be harvested. But since this was an exploration ship, not a hunting ship, they didn’t bring along a large number of explosives. They would have some as a last resort, but the ship itself did not have a thick, reinforced hull. This ship was built for speed, not combat, trade, or hunting. These people had helped me out, but one of the massive sea creatures was an actual threat, even to me, due to their sheer size. I also disliked fighting. While I had hunted beasts before, there had been no other option. I could flee, but that would leave a bad taste in my mouth, when Captain Li Meifeng had been so helpful. “I will fight.” Several of the crew members listening in relaxed and smiled at that statement. “Thank you. Get those sails trimmed. Get the barrels to the aft of the ship. I want those ballistae strung. Move it!” The captain thanked me and then began issuing orders to his crew. The crew rushed about making preparations for the upcoming fight. We only had a couple of minutes before the leviathan was upon us. I stood at the edge of the ship, looking out over the waters at the approaching leviathan. It was causing a surge of water in front of its body as it made for Voyager. The crew continued to make preparations behind me as Captain Li Meifeng began spinning the ship to turn away from the creature. I made my way to the rear of the ship. “Isn’t this risking the rudder?” I asked the Captain, as multiple cord were lit on a pallet of barrels roped togeather and tossed over the side. “A rear collision we might live. A front or side collision will shatter the entire ship,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. We watched as the leviathan reached the floating barrels, just as the fuse burned out. The massive, scaled creature surged out of the water. The barrels exploded in the creature’s face. There was some red blood and some of the scales had been blown away, but it just made the leviathan more angry. I drew my sword as I considered how I should strike the creature. It would be like poking a human with a toothpick. It would hurt a lot, but difficult to get deep enough or deal enough damage to kill the leviathan. There was also the matter of leverage. I was on a wooden ship. Not solid ground. I would have a harder time leveraging a powerful strike. The leviathan dove back under the water as it closed in on the Voyager. “Hard to port!” Captain Li Meifeng yelled out. The wooden ship swung to the left. The massive leviathan, larger than the ship itself surged out of the water, impacted the other side of the ship, shattering a portion of the starboard hull. The entire wooden ship tilted opposite of the leviathan, several sailors went overboard. Others tried to shoot their bows and crossbows. The scales of the giant sea snake easily shrugged off the attacks. I rushed forward, across the tilted the deck. My boots easily finding purchase as sailors went tumbling past me. The leviathan’s bulk began to tilt towards Voyager. It would split the ship in half by crashing through it. I leapt into the air, parallel to the large creature and swung. “One Swing To Sperate Heaven And Earth,” I muttered the words etched onto the blade as I focused and while rushing past the leviathan’s bulk. The blade didn’t slow down at the scales, as I focused a slight amount of energy into the blade. Blood poured out like a waterfall from the massive cut. A large roar sounded over the ship, as I landed back on the deck as the leviathan tilted to the side, and fell towards the front part of the ship, not the middle. Another large section of the starboard side was ripped away. There was shouting going on all around as the ship tilted back in the other direction. I could see the shadow of the leviathan in the water as well as a massive blood trail as it circled around. I quickly ran over to the port side of the ship. The leviathan surged back up, rushing towards the ship to bite it. I recalled my training from the Cloudy Moon Sect so long ago. If the ship took another blow it was going to sink for sure. It was centuries ago, but I still remembered the training I had received from Elder Yi Meifeng and had practiced. The Parting Cloud Style of sword fighting. Even with the tilting ship, I was sure of my footing. I brought my sword back, and channeled in a tenth of energy reserves into the blade, bring my sword up from pointing at the ground towards the sky in one fluid motion. The first form of the style. The water parted as the leviathan lunged for the ship. My blow struck it head on. A large portion of its head and jaw split in half. The massive creature collapsed back into the water as the sailors fired arrows and bolts at the leviathan. The screams and shouts quickly died off and there was a resounding cheer from the crew as well as Captain Li Meifeng. I was more pleased that the technique worked properly in this environment. I had tested it before while traveling with Yang Heng, but not in this bubble of reality, with no energy. The expenditure of energy to use such an attack was immense. Unfortunately, it was the only way to save the ship, before it took a second impact and completely shattered apart. “Fish out the survivors, get to work on patching up the damage, and let’s get harvesting!” Captain Li Meifeng called out as I sheathed my sword. The second attack had vaporized any traces of blood on it. After a couple of minutes of making sure his ship didn’t sink, the crew that went over the side were pulled out, and the leviathan was being harvested, he came over to me. “Thank you, Cultivator Yuan Zhou. Without you, would have all died,” he replied. “You have been pleasant company Captain. Will you be able to harvest all of it?” I asked while gesturing at the floating carcass in the water, that sailors were already pulling hand sized scales out of. “The scales and teeth yes. A small portion of meat as well. A few of the bones. We can only stay half a day at most, before the carcass will draw in another leviathan. Even hunter ships, would not take on two such beasts in rapid succession,” he replied. “Really? It would seem like if you had multiple ships you could do such a thing?” I asked. “They already hunt with multiple ships. Set up a small ship with bait as a decoy, get four ships around it to target the leviathan that is attracted. Even four ships would struggle to harvest a single creature. We will be lucky to get all the scales, since we also have to work on the damage,” he replied. “We won’t sink?” I asked since Voyager was clearly listing to one side. “The ship is designed to stay afloat even if the lower portion of the hull fills up with water. We will be limping back to port. Most of the other half of the harvest will be spent paying for repairs,” he said with a heavy sigh. “You wouldn’t purchase a new ship?” I asked. This was an entirely new culture I needed to understand. In the Forever City, it was easier to just toss stuff away. Sure, there was some recycling, but very little effort to repair items on a large scale. “The wood of these ships is made from a special water resistant tree, that is also lightweight, poisonous, and incredibly strong.” While these people didn’t have much metal, their wood skills and tree breeding was top notch. “If properly treated, the wood repels marine life from latching on.” “It isn’t poisonous to people?” I asked, slightly concerned. “Not unless you eat the wood. The wood is treated to lock the poison into the wood itself. The tree grows closer to the Life Light, which means it all has to be imported. It is expensive, but far cheaper than purchasing an entirely new ship,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. We turned back to watch the crew harvesting the massive creature. Scales were pried up and yanked out, before being hauled up to the deck of Voyager in buckets. There were empty barrels that the scales were dumped into before the buckets were lowered again. The idea was to get as many materials off the leviathan as possible before we had to leave. There was another crew working near the head, hacking away around the teeth to pull them out. There were bits of flesh attached to the scales and teeth. Captain Li Meifeng explained they could be cleaned off once we left, but it was important to get as much as we could right now from the creature. I stayed to watch carefully looking for any sign of energy, but there was nothing that I could spot. “How long does it take a leviathan to grow to this size?” I asked. “About 1 to 2 years. They grow quickly. See, they have a second set of teeth, behind the first set. They use those flatter teeth to filter and trap smaller fish. They aren’t valuable at all, since they easily break apart, unlike their more jagged teeth in front, which are made into weapons.” “A bit large for weapons, each of those teeth are about the size of my arm,” I replied. “Bone swords and spears are quite popular, since they hold their edge very well. It takes a lot of skill to work with leviathan parts. When we dock, this will be all sold off to a trader to take to a port with hunting ships,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. “We aren’t going to the capital?” I asked and he shook his head. “The capital for the Kingdom of Wu is quite far. There is no canal either, connecting the Emerald Ocean to the Sapphire Ocean.” This place was built into kind of rings like I had suspected. “Further on there are canals that connect the oceans. But there isn’t enough trade this far out to justify building one. Only at the edge of the Empire of Flame, will you run into a canal,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. “You talked about bringing me to the Kingdom?” I asked. “To the governor who controls the port we will be stopping at. They can assist you much better than I can and can speak to the King. You will have to cross the land to reach the capital at the edge of the Emerald Ocean. There are no known trade routes on the Sapphire Ocean, just explorers like us and hunter ships. Building a canal isn’t cheap. While there is talk to make a route direct route through the Great World, it is never easy. Especially with the lack of people and civilization out this far.” “So, a canal is being built?” I asked. “Possibly. New lands means new chances at finding metal, but it is very hard to grow anything beyond the Emerald Ocean. Beyond the Saphire Ocean, it is even harder. The temperature is quite harsh, along with the snowstorms, which can kill everything in their path.” I nodded at this. The snowstorms were quite rough. “There has been work on aqua farms, but they take a lot of resources to set up and protect from the cold.” “But it takes time to build,” I replied. While this place might be millennia old, the outer portions of the Great World were just too barren to grow stuff in and maintain a steady food supply. It would be like investing in a place like Alaska back on Earth. While there might be lots of metal and other resources in Alaska, there weren’t that many resources out here, with the lack of metal. “A lot of time and investment. A Kingdom also has to defend it boarders, contribute to its Empire, and the distance makes things even more difficult,” Captain Li Meifeng explained. I looked back at the sailors who had gone up and down the length of the carcass, harvesting scales. Now they were rotating the creature slightly.