Chapter 57: Cultivation

Although Bai Ya had already chosen one, to maintain his disguise, he still chose a few other battle qi techniques.

After dinner finished, it was cultivation time.

Basic battle qi cultivation was through exercising one’s body.

Bai Ya ran above deck, grabbed a wooden cutlass and a circular shield, then began to practice chopping motions, blocking motions, and other movements. 

This was different from the simple exercise during the day, Bai Ya had to focus his mind, with his attention mainly focused on following the tenants of the battle qi technique.

“There it is, I produced it again!”

Very quickly, he sensed that his body had quietly produced a thread of faint battle qi.

It looked like a whisp of smoke in a spacious ship hold.

The battle qi slowly being produced once again dissipated quickly.

“So tired!”

After practicing for a short while, Bai Yai could no longer go on, he was utterly exhausted and dripped with sweat.

He reached the limits of his body.

As the ship’s carpenter, Mu Ban had his own work cabin onboard.

The other sailors were crammed into the bottom hold, and slept in hammocks, but Mu Ban could sleep in his work room.

The trace of battle qi his body produced quickly faded away.

His heart exasperatedly sighed, but to fool others, Mu Ban still showed “high spirits”.

Lan Zao swung his arms in a sailor room.

Every time he swung his arms, the new battle qi looked like a thick fog around his arms.

He cultivated the Seagrass battle qi technique, it was ordinary, but it suited him well.

Lan Zao too could only cultivate a short while before stopping.

He was still a distance from the limit he could temper his body.

He could still continue to cultivate a bit more.

But it was unnecessary.

Lan Zao ate some magic beast meat, completely absorbed all of the magic power in it, replenishing the battle qi he had used during the day.

Dong, dong, dong.

Lan Zao shad just stopped cultivating when suddenly, there was a knock at his door.

“Who is it?”

“Lord, it is I, Xu Ma.”

Lan Zao’s brows raised, and the image of a thin and tall man came to mind.

Xu Ma had a distinctive slim look. More crucially, he took the initiative to protect Bai Ya, thus gaining more of the survivors’ attention.

Lan Zao opened the door, and saw Xu Ma bowing and nodding his head, a bottle of wine in the latter’s hand.

“Lord Lan Zao, a small token of my appreciation.” Xu Ma flattered with a smile.

“Do not address me as lord, you and I are the same, just bronze levels.” Lan Zao did not take it, his tone placid.

“We are not the same!” Xu Ma immediately shouted, “My Lord, you are an old guard of the Dragon Lion Mercenaries, one of the commander’s trusted men, and the sailor’s senior. The reason I came was to consult your Lordship about changing my battle qi technique.”

Lan Zao glanced at him, then opened the door fully and let him inside, “Come in then, let’s talk about it.”

Under the darkness of night, Tripleblade was patrolling the ship.

His cultivation had already finished earlier.

Tripleblade had an iron level bloodline.

Every time he cultivated battle qi, the battle qi that was produced looked like thick fog that congealed into water, its efficiency far outstripped the bronze level Lan Zao and took less time.

Bloodlines decided one’s limits.

Tripleblade knew he had reached his limits, and that he would be at the iron level for the rest of his life.

He spent much more energy helping Zong Ge.

Tripleblade backed Zong Ge’s decision to go independent and have a ship to himself.

“This is his Lordship’s foundation, and in the future, it will certainly expand!”

Tripleblade had great confidence in Zong Ge’s future.

He entered the ship hold and examined the cultivating dogmen.

The majority of the dogmen had already changed their battle qi technique.

“Lord Zong Ge values these dogmen.”

“I hope that some among them can cultivate the Quick Knife battle qi technique, the more of them the better.”

Zong Ge really valued how changing battle qi techniques would result in.

Anyways, as he waved his broadsword, such diverse thoughts were tossed to the back of his mind.

Whish, whish, whish.

Every sword swing created a rush of wind.

Accompanying every sword swing, the newly produced battle qi was like a vast ocean that flooded every corner of his body.

Afterwards, the battle qi was constantly condensed and compressed.

In the clear silver battle qi, there was a faint smudge of gold luster!

“Not far from the gold level.” Zong Ge vaguely sensed, “After I enter the gold level, my situation will be vastly improved.”

“I may even be capable of wresting back the position of leader.”

“But that is unnecessary.”

“These people are very good.”

Zong Ge loathed Cang Xu, knew Zi Di and the dragonman youngster had a firm relationship, and looked down on Lan Zao, Bai Ya, and the others.

Battle qi cultivation could raise one’s life level.

This was a slow process of accumulation.

Zong Ge had great confidence he could break into the gold level, and never thought he would fail to do so.

Because he had an unsurpassed bloodline.

“My future will not just be the gold level, it will only be a part of my life.”

“Like Mystifying Monster Island and my association with these people, these are just things I experience in my life.”

“Right now, my main trouble is still this injury…”

The half beastman gazed at where battle qi was condensing around his broken arm, once again, a scarlet ring formed around it.

After several days, the results of the mercenaries’ battle qi technique cultivation attempts were in.

There were 3 people that suited the Bullet Hail battle qi technique, 5 people that suited the Arrow Storm battle qi technique, 2 people that suited the Healing Light battle qi technique, and 11 people that suited the Quick Knife battle qi technique.

The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had several hundred people, but very few of them were suited for their battle squads.

The greatest perquisite for setting up battle squads was the battle qi techniques.

Only by cultivating a battle qi technique and battle skills together could quantity trigger a qualitative change.

The results were terrible.

With only two or three suitable candidates, wanting to set up battle squads was unspeakable.

But the survivors were unsurprised.

They had anticipated this outcome earlier.

Any power that established battle squads had met similar circumstances.

Therefore, battle squads needed time to be built.

Only the number of people suited to cultivate the Quick Knife battle qi technique reached the double digits.

Zong Ge issued an explanation, “The Quick Knife battle qi technique has its origins in beastmen communities. In history, all renowned Quick Knife battle squads mainly relied on dogmen.”

It’s no wonder the half beastmen decided to demand these beastmen.

11 people could form the initial form of the battle squad, and could train some of the daily training fundamentals.

The battle squad’s main training was combined assaults as a team.

Lacking this, even if they cultivated the same battle qi techniques, they would be like a sheet of loose sand and a disorderly band.

The lofty sun hung in the cloudless sky.

It was bombardment training time.

Zong Ge lead three ships through the waves that chopped through the azure ocean.

“Prepare, fire!” With oral command and flag signals, the order for bombardment was quite practiced.

Boom boom boom…...

With an orderly series of booms, ten artillery shells flew through the air and formed a barrage.

The artillery shells hit the seawater in succession, causing ten jets of water to rise up.

As the jets of water faded, the target buoys fiercely swayed in the waves.

None of them hit the target, causing the sailors who had fired to wring their hands and sigh.

According to the rules Zong Ge laid down, those that hit the target would receive a reward – usually a monetary bonus.

If the shot artillery shell did not hit in the bombardment target zone, there was also a corresponding punishment.

“Not bad.” Upon seeing the results of the bombardment, Tripleblade smiled, “We’ve made big progress!”

Hitting the buoys was considerably difficult, especially for ordinary cannons.

Compared to when Rou Zang had attacked them, the survivors’ bombardment had made visible improvement.

Previously, it was horrendous, the shelling was disjointed and completely inaccurate.

But now, it could hit a bombardment area, it undoubtably met standards.

Zong Ge was calm, “On the one hand, we have been constantly training. On the other hand, we have also increased the quality of our troops by a lot.”

After all, Tripleblade had stringently filtered the recruits, and now there were many experienced people within the sailors’ ranks.

Unlike before when they were mostly composed of fishermen.

Zong Ge faintly sighed, then said, “We still need a real gunner!”

He thought of the gold level ship cannon.

It was one of the survivors’ advantages, but without a gunner, it could not display its true might.

Previously, it was mainly able to inflict serious damage on Rou Zang because it had been a surprise and caught the other party off guard.

Now that the gold level cannon had been exposed, it was impossible to recreate the prior battle result, and would even be responded against.

Not far from where Zong Ge was conducting bombardment training, on some nameless isle, the dragonman youngster was training too.

He was standing in sea water that reached up to his shoulder, only his dragon head was above water.

The young man was boxing in the water.

Thump, thump, thump!

Every time a fist rushed forth, it would cause a small explosion.

He was refining Bursting Explosion battle qi.

The Flame Dragon King bloodline gave him a legend level aptitude, giving him astonishing battle qi refinement efficiency.

Very quickly, he had abundant battle qi within him.

Battle skill – Demolition Fist

Boom.

With a loud sound, the seawater in front of him immediately exploded, creating a half sphere gap in it 2 meters in diameter. 

A moment later, the surrounding sea water rushed in to fill it in, forming a chaotic shockwave.

The shockwave hit the dragonman youngster’s red dragon scales, but the young man remained sturdy and unmoved.

He continued to use this battle skill, creating gaps in the water from small to large, then from large to small.

He was controlling the might of Demolition Fist!

This showed that his mastery over this battle skill had gone from basic to proficient.

Through practicing this battle skill in the water and seeing the gaps in the seawater, one could more objectively evaluate the form of this fist’s power.

This was also a small trick the young man thought of for his training.

After swinging his fits ten times, the dragonman youngster’s internal Bursting Explosion battle qi bottomed out.

“Although this battle skill is very powerful, it consumes a lot of Bursting Explosion battle qi.”

“Furthermore, controlling the might of the explosion isn’t easy either.”

“This is related to the characteristics of the Bursting Explosion battle qi. If it was the White River battle qi, it would have been easier to refine, while the Bursting Explosion battle qi is much harder.”

The experience of practice was constantly accumulating in the young man’s heart.

After taking a few breaths, the dragonman youngster stopped using Demolition Fish and began to follow his battle qi technique to refine more battle qi.

He was a half dragonman, and his body far outstripped humans of the same life level, thus he could cultivate longer. And because of his bloodline giving him astronomical efficiency, he quickly had abundant battle qi once again.