Chapter 40: Helping Each Other

The Deep Sea Monster Fish, the alchemy cabin.

In a radiant alchemy formation, the young captain bathing in the light opened his mouth wide and gasped for breath.

He was drenched in sweat, his body already exhausted to its limits due to him continuously squeezing his stamina,

At that very moment, his heart was thumping like a large drum, seemingly causing all of his flesh to throb.

However, success brought him happiness.

“Finally…the change is done.”

With the help of the alchemy formation and yellow crab puppets, he constantly discharged his old battle qi, then cultivated a new battle qi. Besides what was absolutely necessary, he did not rest nor relax during the entire process.

He couldn’t afford to lose a moment, and made every second count in order to switch his battle qi.

The obsolete habits were purged away, now even if he wasn’t cultivating, his body would now produce the new battle qi.

Bursting Explosion battle qi!

A radiance reflected against alchemy cabin’s golden walls as it spread out across the young man’s red dragon scales, he attentively sensed how different this new battle qi felt.

He bowed his head, reflecting as he looked down on his hands.

Or to be more precise, a pair of sturdy and powerful dragon claws.

Despite being tired and aching from head to toe, the dragonman youngster still sensed the new battle qi hidden within his body, it had changed him somewhat.

The new battle qi produced a sensation, as if his back was bent and his elbows were curved, ready to strike with his fists.

He grew restless.

The new Bursting Explosion battle qi erupted with power the White Ri could never compare to.

Whoosh.

The dragonman youngster punched again.

The simple and straight punch caused a rush of wind.

The new battle qi was refined by this movement.

The fist, forearm, and upper arm all produced Bursting Explosion battle qi. The closer one boxed to the center, the more battle qi was produced.

The young man then tried to use a bit of battle qi.

Ding!

The fist rapidly accelerated, as if it was being boosted by gunpowder.

The air in front of it was blown apart.

“Excellent, now that I have this battle qi, the next step is to store up on it and constantly train. My actual combat abilities are bound to jump leaps and bounds.” The youngster said to himself.

Although the Life Scorching Dragon Breath was powerful, it took too long to cast. The young man understood that this was a great weakness. It would be difficult to replicate his prior victory over Rou Zang.

“White River battle qi is cultivated through swimming, thus Bursting Explosion battle qi is more convenient to cultivate.”

“It really suits the dragonman form, and when I break through to the gold level in the future, it will be boosted greatly too.”

After sensing how different the new battle qi was from the old, the young man was deeply moved by the Bloodcore once again.

“The Bloodcore is just so practical!”

Generally, fighters selected their battle qi technique based on their bloodlines.

As far as everyone was concerned, bloodlines were innate and could not be altered, therefore they had no choice but to pick a battle qi based on them.

Only battle qi that suited the bloodline could display their full benefits. 

Normally, after fighters selected their battle qi, they would never change it. Even if there were many other battle qi that suited them, they wouldn’t ever change theirs.

Take Lan Zao for example, there were many battle qi techniques that were compatible with him, however, he persevered in cultivating the Water Grass battle qi. Because changing one’s battle qi technique was very costly, and after changing it, the battle qi would usually give a similar amount of benefit to the bloodline, it was completely unnecessary to squander resources doing this.

Because of this, battle qi techniques weren’t rigorously kept secret.

Even if a battle qi technique was spread, if one didn’t have a compatible bloodline, they could not cultivate it, or perhaps, expend twice the effort for half the result.

Many people even circulated parts of their battle qi techniques themselves.

Because they could be used to detect others with the same bloodline, or perhaps allow other fighters to reveal their talents and be convinced into joining the circulator.

People gathered these battle qi techniques, battle skills, meditation methods, and other such things quite easily.

Of course, secret parts that involved the highest levels of the technique were still kept confidential. For example, some hidden skills like the Bai Zhen Clan’s Piercing Needle Explosion was kept under tight wraps. Another example was that a profound part of a battle qi technique was controlled and treated as a benefit to be distributed to strengthen an organization’s rule.

“Eat something.” Zi Di smiled, a pot of meat in her hands.

Smelt rat meat.

The dragonman youngster was hungry, thus he expressed his thanks, sat down, and began to eat.

He opened his mouth, and with sharp teeth, easily chewed the smelt rat meat.

The smelt rate meat was rare, and as the dragonman youngster chewed, blood dribbled from his mouth.

The dragonman youngster swallowed, and his face lit up happily.

Compared to normal humans, dragonmen had better digestive capabilities. Their sense of taste was also different, they found raw meat tastier.

Quickly, fire attribute magic power appeared in the young man’s body. As he digested, more and more magic power spread throughout his body.

The ghost girl calmly watched the dragonman youngster eat, her warm gaze revealing her love.

For a time, the alchemy cabin filled with a warm aura.

“Perhaps I should learn how to roast magic beast meat.” The girl suddenly said as she looked at her beloved.

The dragonman youngster was surprised, “I think you had better become a magician as soon as possible.”

“I know.” The girl rolled her eyes, “Anyway, you know processing magic beast meat also belongs in the domain of alchemy.”

“A wise chef made meal will have harmonious magic power that is easy to absorb. Even more, they can magnify the consumption value of the food.”

“You can look at these dishes as eatable magic medicine with peculiar shapes.”

The dragonman youngster contemplated, “Indeed, we are not on Mystifying Monster Island. Next, we will all need three meals of magic beast meat a day. If we had a magic chef helping us make dishes, we could reduce magic beast meat consumption and increase the value of our food. Over a long period, our fighters will benefit considerably.”

“However, the most important thing now is that you become a magician, then we can use the magic formation to improve your bloodline.”

“Yep. I understand.” The ghost girl sweetly smiled.

The dragonman youngster’s battle qi had successfully changed, next was to make Zi Di a magician again.

This was also part of the plan they had discussed.

The two did not want to sink into a sorry state at the same time, after all, the value of War Merchant’s inheritance was too astonishing.

Wealth moved the mind, like what happened to Jia Sha.

The young man and lady trusted their companions, however they also did not think it was necessary to risk testing their humanity.

Like on Mystifying Monster Island when they helped each other, they helped each other now too.

After Zi Di adjusted her condition, she entered the meditation room.

The dragonman youngster personally guarded the cabin door.

Time passed, and the sun rose from the sea.

The bustling market pier soon became sparse once again.

On the deck of a ship, Zong Ge and Tripleblade were focused on training sailors.

They divided into pairs and fought each other in close combat with swords blunted by thick cotton cloth.

“Ah!” A sailor fell to the ground, causing him to let out a mournful yelp.

Although the sword was wrapped, getting hit by it still hurt. The fallen sailor’s face quickly turned dark purple.

This was a common occurrence.

Zong Ge snorted coldly with annoyance, “Stand up, continue fighting.”

“If you fear pain, when death approaches, what can you take out to resist its coming?”

“Don’t stop!”

“Continue! Continue!

Intimidated by Zong Ge’s might, the sailors could only lower their heads with trembling bodies, clench their teeth, and continue training.

The training persisted for a time longer until Zong Ge’s expression changed.

“Rest!”

A moment later, the training sailors seemed to lose their bones as they slammed limply onto the deck.

Tripleblade, who had been drilling during this time, walked over to Zong Ge, “My Lord, these are the elites we have filtered out from the rest. However, now it seems their physical strength has become a problem. Before, when we were dealing with Rou Zang, we did not conduct a wide scale war. If our entire troop goes into battle, these people…”

When he said that, Tripleblade shook his head.

He was once a mercenary group commander, therefore, he also had the ability to conduct drills and see the problems in these sailors.

Zong Ge shook his head, his voice low, “Stamina can be nurtured, however they lack killing intent. They have not endured pain and pressure, all of these people will flee in terror on their first battlefield.” 

Tripleblade sighed, “Those pirates aren’t bad, however, the fisherfolk are all incompetent.”

Currently, the survivors’ troops mainly consist of two groups.

One was recruited from Da Zhao’s pirate group.

The other was the Stone Egg Island fisherfolk they had saved.

Tripleblade’s tone changed, “Anyways, with enough time, we can improve their situation with constant training.”

“All of these people are good at swimming, with enough drills. They will be qualified naval mariners.

But Zong Ge replied, “Time is exactly what we lack the most.”

“Good luck has never been on our side.”

“If Rou Zang pursues us, he won’t give us a third chance.”

Zong Ge understood that opportunities on the battlefield were fleeting. He had to value time, grab ahold of every chance, and expend the greatest effort to use them to strengthen himself as best as he could.

“We need people of a certain quality.”

“These people need more talent and abilities, at least enough to be worth the energy it takes to train them.”

“They will be our common members.”

Tripleblade’s eyes shined upon hearing what Zong Ge was implying.

Zong Ge always regarded the survivors’ team as a doomed prospect, and determined that the layers of contradictions in it made harmony hard, and no matter if their redemption was successful or not, this team would inevitably collapse.

Zong Ge originally wanted to go to the Wilderness Continent to accomplish his goals. 

Now, he was beginning to prepare for that future.

He planned to build his own army.

Besides his individual strength, he was also a skilled battle commander. 

When he reached the Wilderness Continent, what else could help him better accomplish his goals than an army?

Tripleblade was also somewhat excited.

Zong Ge was his lifesaving benefactor, however he did not follow him solely because of that.

Zong Ge was a half beastman, and suffered discrimination on Mystifying Monster Island. As a goblin, Tripleblade resonated with Zong Ge’s awkward situation.

To some degree, Tripleblade had entrusted his own aspirations to Zong Ge.

He immediately began to calculate what Zong Ge was planning.

“My Lord.” Tripleblade suddenly said, “I have thought of a way.”

He pointed at a few ships nearby.

“Those are slave transport ships.”

“They sailed in yesterday, there are many imprisoned beastmen on board.”

“It is a small transport fleet.”

“Intelligence shows that these ships have a large amount of beastmen. Most of them are cowmen, the rest are dogmen. To be more accurate, they are shiba inu-men.”

“We can purchase some slaves to cultivate and train.”

Zong Ge gazed at the slave transport ships with rapt attention, “I also intend to do this. After today’s training is finished, you will ask what the price of them is.”