Chapter 102 - Oceanic Assault

It had been about two weeks since they left Rainbow Island. After the initial enthusiasm, Hei and the others had discovered that there was very little to do on the ship since they were there only as passengers. Thus, not wanting to disturb the work of the sailors, Hei stayed most of the time with Lian and his little sisters in his cabin to cultivate.

During the events at Crossroad Lake, the two young martial artists had reached the seventh stage of spirit apprentice rank. The struggle against the big sects’ coalition and the pain of losing Bao Bei had stimulated their potential, helping them to overcome, without fail, the bottleneck that separated them from the seventh stage.

But now they had to consolidate their foundations. Then they should prepare themselves to gradually increase their spirit power for the bigger bottleneck - that towards the rank of spirit soldier. It had to be remembered that the difficulty between ascending from the seventh stage of the spirit apprentice rank to the first stage of the spirit soldier rank was even greater than the difficulty in reaching the seventh stage spirit apprentice starting from the first stage.

Many people had been stuck on that bottleneck for years. Making a breakthrough depended not only on talent and perseverance but was often due to luck. Obviously, it didn't mean that consistently cultivating every day didn't help raise the chances of success. And if you had pills or other medicines, the process could be facilitated.

Since Hei and the others were also wary of strangers and were still a bit down for the death of Bao Bei, they didn’t exchange many conversations with the sailors. Just some greetings in the morning or to thank them for their meals.

The sailors, in turn, didn’t pay much attention to them. The captain had expressly ordered them not to bother the two passengers in any way. And since he was a seventh stage spirit apprentice, while they were only in third-fourth stage spirit apprentices, they would certainly not contradict his order.

Consequently, after a rapid analysis, it could be said that the journey in these first two weeks had been quiet and without excitement. It helped to find calm, but at the same time, it was dangerous because it led to a rethinking of the past.

"It's been two weeks now. According to the captain's estimates, it takes about three months to reach Dream Island. But the time will likely dwell more because they have to dock at various cities. They also have to be careful of the weather and the sea tides. Not to mention any attacks by aquatic spirit beasts."

‘Only two weeks have passed? I seem to have spent much more time. Who much I would like to have some meat, we've only been eating fish for two entire weeks.’ Ye complained as she rolled over on the bed provided to Hei.

At her side, Ye was weaving a silk blanket because the one provided by the captain was dirty, and even if they washed it, it would still emit a strong salty smell.

‘We can't do anything about it. Being locked up here, the sense of time is lost. Besides, I think there is nothing but fish around. Rather than slacking, come and help me and hold this side of the blanket.’

Ye looked up at Xing but was too lazy to move. However, when Xing began to tap with her legs on her black scales, Ye eventually gave in and finally got up and helped Xing with her weaving work.

Two weeks weren’t enough to heal the wound caused by the loss of Bao Bei. But they were sufficient to get them back to life. It was surprising that no matter how much the world might appear to be about to end, little or nothing would change for other people the day after you woke up. It was just your conception of how you perceived what was happening around you that changed.

With their mother now dead, the little two divine beasts, Xing and Ye, had to be strong and tried to go on following their way of being, according to the teachings of their mother. Hei had also changed since that day. He was more determined and confident, and even though he didn't know what the future held for his family, he was sure he could overcome everything with the help of Lian and his little sisters.

On another bed next to Hei's one, Lian was reading a book about the study of formations. On her neck was the first silk ribbon that Bao Bei had given her.

Initially, she had tried to give it to Hei because it was a memory of his mother, but he had refused.

"Mother gave it to you, so it is yours to keep. If it's you, then it's fine. So take care of it for me, Lian, please."

Hei had said so as he took the silk ribbon and wrapped it around Lian's neck like a scarf. From that day on, Lian had always kept the ribbon wrapped around her neck to remember Bao Bei and keep her promise to Hei.

But while the sweet family was enjoying this little moment of tranquility, suddenly the ship made a loud noise while braking abruptly, making fall all those present on board.

‘What!?’ cried the two little divine beasts as they fell from the bed before being caught by Hei a few millimeters from touching the ship's floor.

Lian, fortunately, was sitting on the bed, and because she had a ‘bigger’ body than Ye and Xing, she hadn’t been easily startled.

"We stopped," said the young blue-haired girl after the shock had subsided.

"Strange, yet we are in the middle of the ocean. There should be no islands nearby for several more days," Hei commented as he placed his little sisters on the bed.

‘What if it was due to an attack?’ (Xing)

‘Let's get out! Let's go see!’ (Ye)

The two little divine beasts were quite excited about it. After two weeks of calm, they needed to let off steam with a good fistfight.

"Agree. Then we go. Don’t forget, however, no reckless actions. Until I tell you, no attacks, we have an understanding?"

'Yes, yes! We understood! But let's go now.’ Ye and Xing said together as they sneaked in their big brother’s robe.

Hearing their response, Hei laughed and took Lian, who had placed her book in her space ring by hand. By now, if something unexpected happened, for Hei, it had become a habit to hide his little sisters on his body and take Lian's hand. Somehow, it reassured him to have the three of them within reach during sudden situations. Only when he had ascertained what was happening would he let them go, free to act freely.

When they came out of their cabin, they could see several sailors running on the hold as they took swords and bows. From their voices and agitated faces, Hei immediately realized that the situation was dangerous.

"Spirit beasts! They are attacking us! And they aren’t weak! ”One of the sailors shouted when Hei tried to stop him so he could understand what was going on.

Hearing the words spirit beasts, Hei quickly snapped onto the deck of the ship, followed by Lian. When he finally reached the sunlight, he was welcomed by the sight of a giant octopus of about 8-9 meters long that was wrapping itself up to the ship.

Looking at the impressive spirit beast, Hei couldn't help but be nervous. His mother had explained to him that the power of a spirit beast was, in part, linked to its size, but at the same time, it wasn’t. In fact, after the initial astonishment, Hei realized that the giant octopus was still at the first level, comparable to a sixth stage spirit apprentice.

After all, it was very reasonable after thinking carefully. In the wilderness, there were animals with imposing dimensions, without them having been magnified by spirit power. Therefore, if they had awakened their spirit power and become spirit beasts, it was evident that they would start from a considerable size. Furthermore, not all spirit beasts grew out of proportion as their strength increased. Some chose to block their body growth, preferring a less bulky stature but still possessed high power.

On the deck, the various sailors were fighting against the octopus tentacles, terrified of being wrapped and thrown into the sea. It was because aquatic spirit beasts would have had an overwhelming advantage if they had moved the fight into water. Not to mention that the octopus wasn’t the only spirit beast that was attacking.

A Great White Shark of about 5-6 meters was ramming the sides of the ship, crashing at high speed. From above, a five-meter Manta was hovering and attacking the sailors engaged in holding the octopus’s tentacles, before diving back into the water to regain momentum.

Captain Fu was trying to protect his men, and although he had managed to avoid losses among his men so far, it was clear that he couldn't keep up the pace even though he was stronger than the spirit beasts in theory.

This was happening because the reached cultivation stage wasn’t enough to dictate the victory. The spirit beasts were attacking in three while Captain Fu was just one person. Furthermore, he was consuming his energies to protect his men and the ship.

"Stop! Stop attacking!” Hei shouted. However, he wasn’t addressing the human beings who were defending themselves, but the spirit beasts that were attacking.

They, hearing an unknown human speak their language, were so disconcerted that momentarily stopped the siege on the ship.

"If we have disturbed you, we would like to apologize for crossing your territory. We're just passing through. We'll leave immediately."

In the meantime that Hei was trying to calm the spirit beasts, Captain Fu and his sailors looked with astonishment at the scene before their eyes. A young boy stood fearlessly before those terrifying spirit beasts.

Upon hearing Hei's apology, the Manta began producing various noises to answer him. And its message wasn’t positive at all.

Basically, it had said that they had been ordered by their master to destroy every ship that approached their position and to kill all the humans on board, without sparing one. And to them, it was a task that they didn’t dislike because they could have eaten human flesh to satiety. The octopus, in turn, addressed Hei's mocking words, telling him that he would become an excellent snack for starting the day. Lastly, the great white shark was even more vulgar, pronouncing obscenities even more disgusting.

"I see. If this is how things are, you don't leave me any other choice. YE! XING! LIAN! Attack!"

With that battle cry, the three females at his side moved with lightning speed.

Xing used the tremendous force of her legs to jump up, coming before the Manta and clinging to the creature's body. Ye instead slipped directly under water, directed towards the great white shark while increasing her size. Among them, she was the most skilled at fighting in the water. Lian instead activated her spirit power together with Hei. Then the two youths took out their weapons and hurled themselves against the octopus.

Lian brought out two long silk ribbons wrapped around her body. These ribbons, similar to vines, tied together with the various tentacles of the octopus, preventing the powerful creature from attacking. Hei instead waved his purple lance with red veins.

Slash!

In one fell swoop, the tentacles tied by Lian's ribbons were cut cleanly, falling with a thud on the deck of the ship before the incredulous eyes of the sailors who until recently were struggling desperately against those tentacles.

However, Hei hadn’t finished his offensive. Using the ship's railing as a support point, Hei jumped out of the ship. His landing point would be nothing but the face of the octopus.

Seeing the little human swoop down on it like that, the octopus was puzzled. But it immediately recovered and instantly hurled more tentacles. It happened that the previous cut tentacles weren’t all the tentacles it had available, but it had others. But Hei didn't care about those things.

By concentrating his spirit power on his spear, he could hear his mother's pulse resounding in the weapon, and that made him euphoric and full of vigor.

"Spear Intent! Spider Thrust."

The purple lance flashed and again cut off the octopus tentacles. At that point, the giant spirit beast was seized by fear and tried to withdraw underwater. But how could Hei let the enemy escape?

"Law of Poison, Poisonous Thread."

Suddenly, from Hei’s hands came out a very thin thread similar to that of a spiderweb. However, instead of using it as an attack, Hei tied him to the end of his spear. Then with all the strength he had, Hei threw the spear straight at the octopus that was descending into the water.

Swoosh! Thrust!

With a strong penetrating power, the spear went to thrust deep into the head of the octopus, which twisted with pain. But it wasn't over here. Hei used the thread he had created to recall the spear he had hurled. Meanwhile, Lian had tightened one of her ribbons and was keeping Hei suspended in mid-air. From that position, the young martial artist attacked, repeatedly throwing his spear until the octopus died out definitively.

Xing meanwhile was fighting in the air against the Manta. She tied part of her body to the enemy so that she wasn’t shaken off and then she started impaling the body of the Manta who crashed onto the deck, in the grip of convulsions due to the toxic poison injected by Xing.

Ye instead used the ferocity of the great white shark to her advantage. Taking advantage of it wanting to bite her, she made herself be swallowed on purpose. Then from inside its body, Ye had started to dig through the flesh until she came out of the shark's backside. On her mouth, she held a small blue sphere, meaning the spirit core of the great white shark.

Amazing! Unbelievable! Frightening! Horrifying!

These were the emotions of Captain Fu and his men when watching those two youths and that couple spider and snake fighting. Before long, they had succeeded in wiping out three spirit beasts comparable to three or four martial artists with a sixth stage spirit apprentice cultivation. And the most surprising thing was that the two youths, despite their young age, were already in the seventh stage. Meaning, they were equal in power to Captain Fu, yet their fighting strength was higher than that of the captain.

"So young and yet so strong... what the hell kind of monsters have they asked me to carry?!" Captain Fu wondered to himself as he had a half-smile of disbelief on his face in front of Hei and Lian's performance.

Since they were VIPs, he thought they were the children of some noble who wanted to travel the world. Never would have imagined that they were two martial artists of such great talent and power.