Chapter 0164 – Ghosts Inside
Chapter 0164: Ghosts Inside
Ning Cheng was not a meddlesome person, but he knew that this Zhuang Ya was not as simple as she looked. But at the moment he did not have the right to ask about her. His goal at the moment was to arrive at the Pu Bu Island. As to the others, they had nothing to do with him.
He followed Shen You and sat together with him in a beast carriage as they went towards the wharf near the Yi Xing Ocean. Although Ning Cheng had been in the waters of the Mingot sea, but he had never gone to a big dock before.
Now that he saw the Yi Xing Ocean’s piers at the Tai Wan Sea Town, he suddenly understood the meaning of the words, ‘running to the wharf’. The pier was too big, with all kinds of ships and boats densely packed and docked at the edges of the pier, along with many people hustling to and fro from them.
There were also some cultivators wearing military uniform, patrolling near the edges of the pier. Compared to the scattered forces in the Mingot City, Ning Cheng thought that the Tai Wan Sea Town was much more stable.
Xing You brought Ning Cheng right next to a large ship as he spoke, “This is our Flying Sea Ship, you see that bunch of people moving stuff on the ship, right? Your job is to go and help them, after that pile of stuff are put away, we will set sail.”
[TL Note – The author arbitrarily decided to change the name ‘Shen You’ to ‘Xing You’, please don’t get confused. I kept it as it was in the raws.]
“Then where would I live?” Ning Cheng hurriedly asked.
Xing You pointed towards the group of people moving the goods into the ship and said, “You’ll be staying together with them. You’ll also move things together with them, and also be sleeping together with them. There is a large cabin aboard the ship for you all.”
Ning Cheng quickly said, “Deacon Xing, I am the kind of person who like cleanliness, as such I am not greatly interested in living together with a lot of people in the same room, even if it is big. Can you help me get a separate room? Even if it is a small one it doesn’t matter.”
Just as Ning Cheng finished speaking his words, he saw Xing You frown, immediately he understood that his request might not be fulfilled easily, and quickly spoke up, “Deacon Xing, I do not want the 10% advance of the gold coins from my pay, also after reaching the Pu Bu Island you can take out half my pay. I would really be in your debt if you could just help me get a referral to work on board of a ship……”
Ning Cheng was just a goods-handling crew member, but actually wanted a separate room for himself. As such Xing You was originally uncomfortable with such a request. But when he heard Ning Cheng’s words, he finally gave a slight nod, thinking that at least Ning Cheng can still maintain such a behaviour in front of him.
Because of this his original impression of Ning Cheng was pretty good, since Ning Cheng had spoken like that, he also directly spoke up, “There is a cabin at the back end of the stern, but it is very windy, although the wind can be blocked when we are still, but when the ship is moving about in the sea, you will not be able to block the wind nor the sound. If you do not mind it being too loud there, and also can adapt to the wind then you can stay in that cabin.”
Ning Cheng quickly replied, “Thank you Deacon Xing. I am willing to take it.”
Deacon Xing patted Ning Cheng’s shoulder and said, “When one is going out into the sea, earning gold coins will not be easy, although you asked me to deduct your introductory fees, I won’t keep it from you. Moreover, if you are able to save enough gold, then you can safely and securely settle down in one of Jia Continent’s cities.”
Seeing Deacon Xing leave, Ning Cheng sighed in his heart. Even in such a dangerous and sinister place, there were still good people around.
Ning Cheng immediately began helping the numerous crew members to load up the goods, although he was carrying multiple goods in each hand, they were not heavy for him at all. Glancing at them with his Spiritual Consciousness, he found that some of them were food rations while the others were crafting materials. Although the grade of these crafting materials were not high, he could tell that these crafting materials were for crafting Low Level Artefacts.
No one felt that Ning Cheng joining the crew was strange, as there would always be people who would join and there would always be people who would leave.
As the piles of goods were finished being moved inside, Ning Cheng once again saw that Zhuang Ya, only this time she was not alone, but was together in a group of five people.
Ning Cheng swept a glance towards them, and found that all five people were at True Condensation 9th Level. After the five people came on board, they immediately entered the VIP cabins inside.
Just as the five people came on board, Xing You stood on the bow and shouted out, “Everybody quickly get on board, the Flying Sea will immediately set sail.”
At this time the piles of goods stacked on the docks were finished being loaded onto the ship, as such Ning Cheng followed the rest of the people without wasting any time and boarded the ship.
Ning Cheng had some doubts in his heart, as to what his work actually was after being drafted into the crew. It shouldn’t only be moving these things inside, then wait to arrive at Pu Bu Island, and move the things out of the ship, right?
Since it was Xing You’s idea, he especially brought Ning Cheng to the windy aft cabin, as he took out a piece of paper and handed it to Ning Cheng while saying, “You will live here from now on. The people on the Flying Sea have a five-day rowing cycle. You just have to remember your rotation days. Every five days, you will have to go rowing for a full day, all the instructions are written very clearly in here.”
“Do you still row a ship?” Although Ning Cheng knew that 1000 gold coins was not something easy to make for a normal person, but he had not thought that he would have to row a boat.
Xing You looked at Ning Cheng in surprise and said, “Of course you have to row a ship, otherwise did you think that 1000 gold coins was something easy to make? But you do not have to worry about it too much, there has been a downwind for months which helps in our sailing, as such the sails can fully expand, so rowing would not need much effort.”
“When have I ever rowed a boat before?” Ning Cheng spoke out with a bitter face.
Xing You laughed and said, “Although this is not the kind of boat you want, but there aren’t a lot of people here who sail a propeller driven ship. At the moment the Flying Sea Merchant Caravan does not have the strength or power to lay down an Array Formation that uses Spirit Stones to drive the propeller, as such movement and speed can only be achieved for us through human power.”
When Ning Cheng heard it, he at last came to understand his point, as he spoke, “I understand.”
Xing You nodded, “You can have your food in the pantry. You’ll be the first to live in this windy cabin for a long time, if you are really not able to adapt to it, then you can come find me, or you can directly move into the large common cabin inside.”
“Thank you Deacon Xing, I get it.” Ning Cheng quickly thanked him again.
After Xing You left, Ning Cheng was at last free to check out the windy cabin. On this ship there were quite a few of such windy cabins, this type of cabins had two purposes, one was for a more compact structure of the ship and the other was to reduce wind resistance.
The cabin that Xing You gave to Ning Cheng was equal to opening a small back door for him. The air in the cabin was generally not blocked, but since now Ning Cheng was going to live in here, it had to be blocked. Although he could adjust to the wind, but one would not be able to sleep directly in such a winds and sounds, right?
Moreover, this windy room was in the shape of an oblique triangle, and only had an area of about 5 square meters, but for Ning Cheng, it was already sufficient.
At the moment the wind in the cabin was blocked, evidently he was not the first person to live here. The ship had only just started, but the rushing sounds of the wind from outside the ship was already very loud, as such one could imagine that when the ship finally sped through the deep seas, wouldn’t the sounds of the winds inside the cabin became even louder?
But this point was something that did not affect Ning Cheng’s state of not mind, as he started to arrange an Array Formation. At first he arranged a Soundproof Array Formation, so after he finished arranging the Soundproof Array Formation, the sounds of the winds from outside the ship completely disappeared.
After that Ning Cheng started to lay down an Isolation Array Formation, he remembered that this ship had five True Condensation Cultivators, if he wanted to cultivate here, then it was necessary for him to lay down an Isolation Array Formation. As for a Spiritual Gathering Array, he did not arrange it, once he arranged the Spiritual Gathering Array, the signs of it would be very revealing. In addition to the Isolation Array Formation outside, Ning Cheng also arranged an Early Warning Array Formation outside of the windy cabin.
Although Ning Cheng was certain that no one would find him out here, he still felt that he had to be careful.
Even if all the people aboard the ship were added together, he wouldn’t care much about them, but this place he was in was definitely not a simple place. Since this place was still within the range of the cultivator army stationed in the Yi Xing Ocean. Once they found out that there was an Essence Building Cultivator hidden in an ordinary merchant ship, he would immediately be investigated.
Since that cultivator surnamed Kong was a cultivator from the Jia Continent, his status would definitely not be low, even if that was not the case, if he was really investigated, then during these few months, he would have to pass the time nervously, wouldn’t it be equivalent to wasting such precious time?
After arranging the place according to his standards, Ning Cheng for the first time after a long time took out a bunch of Spirit Stones, as he started to heal himself while cultivating.
With so many Spirit Stones, moreover High Grade Spirit Stones, when Ning Cheng started to cultivate, soon the entire windy cabin was filled with the Spiritual Mist from the Spirit Stones. Ning Cheng’s injuries also rapidly recovered and with the help of the Spiritual Qi and the Mysterious Yellow Origin, his cultivation also started to rise quickly.
As five days flashed past, Ning Cheng’s injury had recovered by more than half, moreover his cultivation was also rising steadily. He knew that today was the day that he was assigned to him for rowing, so putting away the Array Flags inside the windy cabin along with the Spirit Stones, he finally came out of the windy cabin.
Arriving at the place that he had to row the ship from, Ning Cheng knew that it would only be monotonous, but he soon found out that it was more comfortable than moving things. As long as he sat in a fixed position, he would only have to shake the handle at certain intervals of time. When he looked at it, he found that he was not the only person to row, but rather all the people there were doing the same actions.
This action for an average person, was the most boring and difficult to bear. But to Ning Cheng it really was nothing, as he began to use this time to heal himself while rowing.
……
As time flew by, soon Ning Cheng found that he had been on the ship for almost 2 weeks, moreover during this half a month of time, in addition to cultivating or rather except from cultivating, his injuries were fully recovered. Moreover, his cultivation also reached the peak of Essence Building 1st Level, because Ning Cheng had an innumerable quantities of Spirit Stones, as a result Ning Cheng’s progress was really too fast.
In another two weeks, Ning Cheng finally broke through the barrier of the Essence Building 1st Level, and advanced to Essence Building 2nd Level. As his strength once more soared again, he decided to temporarily stop cultivating, and start to study Alchemy.
Moreover, he had 3 Pill Furnaces, one of them he received from the bet he won from Gui Yutang, other than that, two of them were obtained from the ring that contained the Soul Essence.
Although there were many traces of rusts and spots on the Pill Furnace that he obtained from the bet with Gui Yutang, Ning Cheng still was not exactly sure as to what its rank was. In the end, he even wondered if this really was a Pill Furnace. Without completely refining the Pill Furnace, he would not be able to find out.
But the two Pill Furnaces that he obtained from the ring really made Ning Cheng happy, one of them was a Middle Grade Spiritual Artefact. Although Ning Cheng did not know how high was the cultivation of that Soul Essence, but a Middle Grade Spiritual Pill Furnace placed inside the ring, for him, there could not be anything better. As for the other Pill Furnace, it turned out to be a Best Quality True Artefact, but Ning Cheng was temporarily unable to refine the True Artefact Pill Furnace.
[TL Note – Weapon/Artefact/Pill Furnace Rankings in this novel till now – Mercenary (non-cultivators) > Ordinary > Spiritual > True…… Each one of Ranks are further subdivided into Low, Medium, High and Top Quality.]
But what made Ning Cheng a bit disappointed, was that there were no materials in there to study Alchemy from. Over the past five days, he could not even refine a single Level 1 Ordinary Pill, not to mention True Level Pills or Profound Level Pills. The foundations of Alchemy that he had received from the old woman, he had already gone through it many times. It even contained several details on how to refine the materials.
But even though Ning Cheng was sure that he had completely mastered the theoretical knowledge, but when it came down to actual practical refining of pill, he could not even touch upon the door. After wasting countless Spiritual Grasses, he still could not refine even a single unfinished Level 1 Ordinary Pill.
This day was one of the days that was assigned to Ning Cheng to row, just as Ning Cheng put away the things and came out of his windy cabin, he immediately felt the hull tremble, before the ship started to violently shake, and then it began to tilt.
Ning Cheng immediately swept out with his Spiritual Consciousness, he was now experienced in handling the matters of the ship for almost a month, he knew that the ship was sailing in a relatively safe stretch of sea. As such this kind of situation was something that happened for the first time in more than a month that they had set sail.
Ning Cheng soon discovered what was the problem, it turned out there were a few ‘ghosts’ inside this place. Before when the five True Condensation Cultivators got on-board, there were three more that had got on but hidden themselves under the hull inside the water. This violent shaking of the ship, that was almost enough to capsize the ship was also done by these three True Condensation Cultivators.