The Eastern Ocean was vast and the islands were scattered in the shape of a star.
However, most of the islands weren’t inhabited by humans and were mostly infested with snakes and rats.
A few rogue cultivators would settle and build their bases on some of the islands’ shores. Some would even secretly build a residence cave.
Although the cities were filled with Essence Power, it was extremely populated.
The islands were small, but there were enough resources for a single person.
Once the tower ship sailed past the islands, it was greeted with a view of an endless ocean.
The surface of the water was clean and calm. Not a single wave could be found.
They traveled for the next three days. When sea beasts attacked the ship, Hei Ji would slaughter them immediately.
Since all the beasts were Grade 3s, Hei Ji did not hold back.
Most corpses were turned into spirit foods for the Foundation Plane cultivators on the ship.
For example, the eight female servants were still in the Beginning Meditation Plane and still had to survive on food.
Now that they were on the water, they had been eating the Bigu Elixirs that Chen Jingzhai had made.
Although the elixir was excellent, the meats from the sea beasts were better.
Cuisines made out of meats were very nutritional for them.
And now with 12 more female cultivators from the Liu family onboard the ship with them, it would take a toll on Chen Jingzhai for making so many Bigu Elixirs.
That was why the spirit foods were important.
Fortunately, the four beautiful maids were from the Deacon Hall. Even though they had yet to master cooking techniques, they could still make decent foods.
As they kept getting attacked by sea beasts, the maids were able to practice and their cooking skills greatly improved.
The Bigu Elixirs were something to fill one’s stomach while the spirit foods were considered a cultivation resource.
In just three days, the Meditation Plane cultivation’s energy had almost doubled.
Jiang Lin had gotten bored as they traveled and decided to dive into the ocean to hunt sea beasts. However, he would only hunt Grade 2s as Grade 3s were still too dangerous for him to challenge alone.
That was where the difference between the Master Uncle and the disciple nephew could be seen.
Chen Jingzhai would’ve thought that Garde 3 sea beasts were scary as well if he had not compiled his Foundation Establishment passage. However, now, he was able to slay one without using any magic treasure.
Jiang Lin was extremely confused as to why the difference was so clear.
He still recalled that his Master Uncle was around the same level as him during the battle forum. He had to use magic treasures to win. However, after leaving the mountain, Chen Jingzhai had quickly grown and was able to fight a Grade 3 beast despite still being an Intermediate Foundation Plane cultivator.
However, Jiang Lin did not ask Chen Jingzhai about it. Even if they were close, how a cultivator cultivated was their secret and other people had no right to ask about it. Even the closest friends could become enemies because of that.
During the three days, Chen Jingzhai fed the Golden Core Sage from the Liu family to the innate money tree.
The tree seemed to despise being fed with the sage. A root moved about and suddenly pierced through the sage’s body and dragged his golden core out.
A gold-plated coin immediately formed next to the blood-patterned coin.
The former was only half the size of the latter.
Chen Jingzhai pouted as it wasn’t what he had expected.
He tried to process the sage’s soul after that but failed.
A little surprised by the result, Cehn Jingzhai guessed that it was due to the dead sage’s core being devoured by the tree. Unlike a sea beast, the essence of a cultivator was gathered in its core. Once the golden core was absorbed, the remainder of the sage was nothing more than a corpse.
Chen Jingzhai wasn’t fazed by it as the sage was just a rogue cultivator.
Even the cores of sages had different grades. The core of the sage from the Liu family was considered low quality.
The 20 male cultivators from the Liu family were also killed and turned into Grade 1 and 2 spirit bodies as their souls were too weak since they weren’t strong when they were still alive.
Like Liu Mingke, these bodies were fused into the ship’s puppet.
They would remain alive, with their memories, as long as the core of the puppet was not destroyed.
Chen Jingzhai wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a punishment for them.
The puppet was not like the spirit deities as the latter was of a higher grade.
For example, the 12 Zodiacs Puppets were Grade 2 puppets but with Grade 3 spirit deities living inside them.
Hei Ji was also a Grade 4 spirit deity living inside a Grade 3 puppet.
That was why they weren’t able to manifest their full power, but they weren’t tied down to one puppet for the remaining of their lives.
Unlike the spirit servants, they would be able to move to the body of a higher-grade puppet if they had the chance.
If not, they would stay inside their current puppets and would die if the cores were destroyed.
Chen Jingzhai valued his spirit deities more than the puppets. After fusing the spirit servants into the ship’s puppet, the ship could now sail in full auto-pilot mode which had saved him a lot of trouble.
Another two days had passed and the ship suddenly rose into the air.
With a loud splash, the surface of the water was ripped open by a huge head charging toward the ship.
It was a Grade 4 violent sea beast.
“Looks like you have a death wish!” Hei Ji scoffed and jumped off the deck, plummeting straight toward the sea beast.
Her legs which were made with ocean star black steel landed a heavy kick on the sea beast’s head and she pushed it back into the water.
Waves were thrown around as Hei Ji fought the beast in the water.
“What a violent puppet. Where did you get her?” Jiang Lin asked. “She can even fight a Grade 4 sea beast on her own. I see why she can easily defeat the Golden Core guardians now. Did the Puppet Temple repay you with this?’
No matter how often he had witnessed Hei Ji fight, he was still shocked by how powerful she was.
“There’s no way the Puppet Temple can make something like this. This is the spell that I’ve created after compiling my Foundation Establishment passage,” Chen Jingzhai explained. “I can spiritualize a soul and Hei Ji is the result of that. She used to be a Grade 4 sea beast.”
He had already prepared an explanation if anyone were to ask how he managed to obtain Hei Ji. Telling them that he had a spell that allowed him to spiritualize soul remnants was a good lie.
Technically, he wasn’t lying either as the technique was similar to such a spell.
However, the ability of the Supreme Sky Master was not to spiritualize but was more similar to apotheosizing.
Making something a deity or a god was the unique power of the Supreme Sky Master.
Perhaps because he had been absorbing Innate Qis in the grotto-heavens, that power had only fully manifested a few days ago.
However, using that would cost him a lot of spiritual power and would even wear his divine mind out.
That was why he had stopped doing that after trying it out once.
“Amazing! You can even start another branch just with this spell alone!” Jiang Lin exclaimed.
Being able to spiritualize the soul remnant of a Grade 4 sea beast despite still being a Foundation Establishment Plane cultivator showed that the skill was not hard to learn but had a lot of potential.
Chen Jingzhai was even able to start a clan in the Pulao Kingdom if he wanted to.
“It’s not that simple. How can I create a new branch when I’m not a Golden Core Sage yet?” Chen Jingzhai shook his head.
According to the rule of the Luo Sheng Sword School, if one wished to inherit a hidden branch, then they would have to at least be in the Golden Core Plane.
As for creating a new branch through the Path of Technique Creation, the requirement was the same, the Golden Core Plane.
Although a technique that could help one gather their core wasn’t rare in the clan, they wouldn’t mind setting up a new branch for that technique if it could develop into a new path.
A bitter smile appeared on Jiang Lin’s face when he heard that.
Even though the clan had treated Chen Jingzhai as the greatest talent of all time, he was arrogant.
The Master Uncle even went rampaged during the battle forum and Jiang Lin was willing to follow Chen Jingzhai only after he was defeated by his Master Uncle.
Even after leaving the mountain, Chen Jingzhai was able to grow at an insane speed despite not doing anything.
The Path of Technique Creation was considered to be very exhausting and time-consuming, but Chen Jingzhai was able to walk down that path without any hardship.
He was also able to advance to the Intermediate Foundation Plane in just three years after joining the clan.
The words talented or genius would not be enough to describe Chen Jingzhai now.
Even the best would take at least 10 years to get to the Intermediate Foundation Plane from the Beginning Foundation Plane before Chen Jingzhai had arrived. It had taken Jiang Lin 12 years to achieve that. He would not have gotten to the Advanced Foundation Plane so early if not for the rewards he had gotten from the secret zone.
Jiang Lin was frustrated after seeing the difference in growth between them.
The Wine Celestial lineage was known to be apathetic, which was how Jiang Lin should act.
However, because of his family, he was forced to join partake in the Battle of Dragon.
Fortunately, he was a disciple of the Luo Sheng Sword School and even his family had to show him a decent amount of respect.
He planned to cultivate peacefully, but the situation did not allow him to do so.
For the past three years, he didn’t train much and wasted a lot of time.
It had affected his mind. He even almost slaughtered his entire family just so he would cease any relationship he had with the mortal world.
That was why he had agreed to the clan’s suggestion for him to accompany Chen Jingzhai to the Eastern Ocean.
Cutting his ties with the mortal world wasn’t as simple as he had thought.
Unlike Chen Jingzhai who was born without knowing who his parents were and was raised in the Aspirant Cultivators Academy, the Jiang family was a northern noble family.
The family had foreseen the Battle of Dragon happening, which was why they had sent their children to the celestial clans.
He was able to become the disciple of the Wine Celestial Peak because of his family’s arrangement.
That was why he found it hard to leave the mortal world behind.
And that was probably also why the clan would let their disciples leave the mountain and head back into the mortal world for a while.
It wasn’t only training for them, but they would not be able to continue with their cultivations if they didn’t make their minds and their wishes become one.
Chen Jingzhai did not think too much as to why Jiang Lin suddenly became quiet.
He stood on top of the deck and decided to help Hei Ji.
The White Jade Sword and the Golden Flame Sword appeared in his eyes and they immediately dove into the water.
A few minutes later, He Ji emerged from the water, dragging the corpse of the Grade 4 sea beast onto the deck.
Chen Jingzhai waved his arm and absorbed the corpse into the grotto-heavens.
The two swords also turned into two rays of light before returning to his eyes.
“Thank you for your help, master.” Hei Ji knelt in front of him as the water on her body started to evaporate.
“Don’t worry about it. You are still using the body of a Grade 3 puppet after all. It’ll still be hard for you to face a Grade 4 beast alone. If we are lucky enough to find some good ingredients during this exploration, I’ll use them on you first.”
“Noted.” Hei Ji nodded and went back to standing next to her master.
If she were able to use her full power, she would’ve been able to defeat the sea beast on her own.
Even though the ocean star black steel was sturdy, it was challenging for her as it was still a Grade 3 body.
She was extremely irritated, especially so since it was a young sea beast that she had fought.
“Jiang Lin, I remember you need the spirit blood of a demonic beast to make wine, right?” Chen Jingzhai asked Jiang Lin who was still lost in thought. “What can you make with the blood of a Grade 4 beast?”
“W-what?” Jiang Lin’s eyes widened. “Are you giving the blood of a Grade 4 sea beast?”
“That’s right.” Chen Jingzhai grinned. “But, you’ll have to give me half of the wine once you are done. I’m itching to try a Grade 4 wine out.”
“I… I might not be able to brew it. The blood of a Grade 4 beast is too powerful for me to fully manufacture. It’ll be a waste.”
“Don’t worry about it. There are so many beasts in this ocean that we can waste something like this. I’ll give you some to try first. Just don’t think about it and go for it.”
“Alright! Thank you so much!” Jiang Lin nodded after a short ponder.
He didn’t want to waste the chance as he would be able to greatly enhance the wine talisman in his body as he processed the blood of the sea beast.
