Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations

“Seagulls groan before the tempest, – groan, and race above the sea, and on its bottom they are ready to hide their fear of the storm.”

“Like a blue flame, flocks of clouds blaze up above the sea’s abyss. The sea catches bolts of lightning drowning them beneath its waters. Just like serpents made of fire, they weave in the water, fading, the reflections of this lightning.”

TL Note: This is from The Song of the Stormy Petrel, and it is a short piece of revolutionary literature written by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky in 1901.

These words could be used to describe the sight before them.

“The lousy weather. Today isn’t a good day for travel…” A short young man with wind-blown, messy hair stood on the edge of a middle-sized spiritual boat and looked out of the boat with squinted eyes.

Everyone could see the melancholy on his face.

“It was clear yesterday, and now we have such a lousy day!” A bluish-grey-robed young man who was taller and more muscular than most people stood beside the short young man, appearing to be quite ordinary.

“Erm?” The short young man asked curiously, “Mr. Fang, yesterday’s weather was the same as today, no?”

“Anyway, the boat’s owner is nice. The tickets are cheap for such a spiritual boat…” The young man murmured to himself.

This Mr. Fang was the only person that he knew on the spiritual boat since they were both ordinary guys from small and remote places who were going to a big city where cultivators lived.

Of course, the ordinary people who could travel on a spiritual boat must have some cultivation strength. Take this short young man, Zou Mo, for example. He was found to have the talent to become a cultivator in a test, and his uncle who had some savings sent him on this spiritual boat to study in the distant Morning Star Sea Realm, where cultivators gathered.

“Yeah…” Fang Qi looked at the dark sky and answered casually. Of course, yesterday’s weather had been different.

Yesterday, he had been dashing in the sky and competing with his friends to see who was better at flying, and he was teleported to this damn place after he said farewell to his friends.

“By the way, it’s said that the number of cultivators in the so-called Morning Star Sea Realm is as many as ants. Is it really so prosperous?” After yesterday’s happy outing, Fang Qi was randomly teleported to a small country with few cultivators and warriors.

If he opened a shop there, only people who were close to the level of rulers of the country could afford to play in his shop if he didn’t lower the price. Therefore, he asked around and got on board a docking spiritual boat, leaving the small country.

This boat was cheap and convenient, and he would be a moron not to take it.

“Hush!” Hearing Fang Qi’s words, Zou Mo looked scared. After looking around and seeing that no one was nearby, he said in a fearful voice, “We would be killed if the powerful cultivators heard what you said!”

“By the way.” Indifferent, Fang Qi pointed forward and asked, “Isn’t the city that we are going to in the east? Aren’t we going in the wrong direction?”

“Are we?!” Zou Mo looked forward and scratched his head, saying helplessly, “Mr. Fang, you don’t know the way…”

“You’re right.” Fang Qi walked toward the cabin. “I’ll go and rest.”

“Pooh!” At this moment, a big guy wearing a short coat walked out from the cabin, and he glared at Fang Qi with his eyes that had knife scars on them when he saw Fang Qi’s glance. “What are you looking at! I’ll dig out your eyes if you do it again!”

Fang Qi frowned and thought, This guy is in the room next to me?

…

In the artifact-making room of Wuwei Daoist Alliance.

“Look at this thing.” With the white wolf helmet in his hand, Jun Yangzi was explaining the result of their research. “I wonder what you think of when you see this thing with a charged skill. What I think of is something that most of you have heard about— Jade Rune Notes.”

“The ordinary rune notes that have rune symbols on them can only cast one spiritual spell, and they would burn and disappear automatically,” Jun Yangzi said, “However, jade rune notes can store multiple spiritual spells. Can the techniques used for making jade rune notes be used on items?”

He pointed at the wolf helmet in his hand and said, “This is what we must learn from the technique contained in this thing; it is more advanced. After we gain a total understanding of it, our rune symbols might be able to be placed on the weapons and robes instead of being contained in materials such as jade and leather. They will be easier to use and carry around!”

“The only thing that’s hard to engrave now is the properties that increase skill levels,” Jun Yangzi said, “For example, the wolf helmet has a suffix of ‘nature’ to add a level to elemental skills, but we Wuwei Daoist Alliance doesn’t have the necessary materials for making this engraving.”

“I’m confident that I can copy it if we find the substitute materials, but it will take us a long time to expand on this technique and turn the spiritual spells of all major factions into affixes and magic properties!”

“Brother Jun Yangzi!” Duan Buyi from the Liuyun Daoist Palace said, “It’s enough for now! In my opinion, we must first solve the issue of incompatibility between magic affixes and our spiritual artifacts. If we solve this problem, we can add magic properties with suffixes on each of our spiritual artifacts even if we can’t put the prefixes now! This is the top priority for now!”

…

According to the local tales and legends, whenever the night came to the Morning Star Sea Realm, and the ocean wind brought veil-like mists over, the chaotic and orderless Mist City, which had survived the ancient war, would appear.

Many things that couldn’t exist in the outside world hid there.

Lying on the bed, Fang Qi played with the communication jade in boredom, and he found that in this place, the communication jade had no signal.

“Where is this place anyway? Just where did the System teleport me to?” Bored, Fang Qi looked out of the translucent window at the darkening sky.

He watched the scattered stars that were slowly appearing in the distant sky, and a trace of veil-like night fog floated outside of the window.

“The mist came up?” Fang Qi stood up from the bed.

“This boat isn’t going to Black Dragon City! I want to get off the boat!” Fang Qi heard a yell from the next room and then violent colliding noises.

“What’s that?” Fang Qi put on his boots and got off his bed. Before he walked out, he saw a streak of blood flowing in from beneath the door.

He opened the door and saw that the big guy who was wearing a short coat was being dragged out. A cultivator who had a death-like pale face glanced at Fang Qi. “If you don’t want to be like him, I advise you to return to your room.”

The atmosphere was weird and strange.

Fang Qi was at a loss for words.

“What do you want?” Seeing that Fang Qi didn’t move, the cultivator turned to look at him.

Fang Qi asked, “No, I just want to ask one question. What is the destination of this spiritual boat.”

“Half City,” one cultivator answered impatiently.

“What city?” Not interested in the name, Fang Qi asked, “Are there many people in the city? Is the living standard there high or low?”

The white-faced cultivator was stunned by his question.