Chapter 1 The second day of the second lunar month in the Daxuan calendar
The Daifuku passenger ship anchored at Kirishima for a day, loaded up the last batch of passengers, sailed away from the port driven by the strong westerly wind, and headed towards its destination, Ruiguang, the capital of Dongting Protectorate, through the waves.
In a single detention room on the middle floor of the ship, a man wearing a cloak and a hood sat cross-legged. From the face exposed under the shadow, it could be seen that he was a young man.
The narrow flap underneath the detention room opened, and several newspapers were stuffed in from the outside.
Zhang Yu listened to the footsteps walking away and reached out to pick up the newspaper in front of him. Years of breathing exercises have made his body far stronger than ordinary people. Even if the light here is dim, it does not prevent him from reading.
He glanced at the date first.
"The second day of the second month of the Daxuan Calendar."
His eyes paused on it for a moment, and then he looked down.
Compared with the Xiangdao News three days ago, this newspaper only has some changes in the price trends of some goods. The other parts are almost the same, and the news is all ten and a half months ago.
This is understandable. Although there are frequent exchanges between the islands in Tenghai Sea, they are limited by the relatively backward transportation and communication methods. After all, they cannot be compared with the Skynet that enveloped everything in his previous life.
But compared to the dead world in the previous life where everyone relied on nutrition cabins to sustain life and only consciousness could still move, everything in front of you was at least alive.
He folded the newspapers neatly, put them aside, and continued to breathe.
During the few days when his activities were restricted, he had an unexpected harvest due to maintaining a long period of silence.
He could feel that somewhere on the ship, an object was emitting strange energy, and as he breathed, it was absorbed bit by bit.
Before that, he could only do such a thing through direct touch.
He thought happily: "No wonder the teacher often said, 'When the spirit exists, the emptiness will come.' It really makes sense. It seems that I can absorb all the source energy before reaching the capital."
He does not do this continuously, but pauses every once in a while. This is a trick he has figured out during this period, because only in this way can he be more efficient.
Just after he stopped again, the loud voices of many children could be heard faintly outside, which should have come from a lower cabin. He looked carefully and found that they were reciting a poem.
Although the voice was immature, it was neat, clear and powerful, and the content was exactly what he was familiar with.
This is a song called "Summer Wind".
As a Tianxia native in this life, he has heard it countless times.
"The Great Dao is a mysterious and chaotic universe, and millions of clouds are coming from the heavenly city."
"The glorious divine light shines in the sky of Han Dynasty, and the brilliant summer colors build the Chinese stage!"
"The scorching sun is about to turn red and steam the Qinghai Sea, and the morning dawn is too white in the east."
"This is the inheritance of mankind's fortune, and it will be praised and praised by generations to come!"
This world has experienced the changes of several eras, with the invasion of outsiders and the resurgence of ancient powers. Each time, new civilizations will rise from the ruins, and then go from prosperity to destruction, so that the earth is covered with artifacts from all eras.
Ancient ruins are filled with all kinds of monsters and gods.
And all this changed one day three hundred and seventy-three years ago.
Summer is coming!
It is said that at the beginning of Tianxia, the floating celestial city that blocked out the sky and sun hung on the top of the sky, so that it could be seen from every corner of the known world at that time.
And this poem is used to praise the scene at that time.
After Tianxia entered the world, in order to re-establish a new order in the broken and chaotic world, fierce conflicts inevitably broke out with the gods, monsters and natives.
Tianxia, which has many practitioners, did not encounter any decent opponents at the beginning. However, as the war dragged on and the territory it ruled expanded, more and more problems emerged.
In order to adapt to the changing situation, Tianxia's upper management improved the original cultivation methods, but differences and contradictions also emerged.
Since then, Tianxia cultivators have been divided into two groups.
Practitioners who believe in the new method are called "Xuanxiu", while those who still use the original method of cultivation are called "old cultivators".
And his former teacher was an old practitioner!
Five years ago, when he was twelve years old, his adoptive father hired a teacher for him to teach him the practice of the old method.
However, things are unpredictable. Due to some reasons, he was not able to go very far on this road, and then he embarked on the path of the New Law.
However, he has just entered the door now. This time he went to the capital of the Protectorate because he wanted to learn new and higher-level methods there.
Just when he was immersed in his memories, bursts of musket roars suddenly sounded outside, and then, a long and dull echo floated over along with the sound of breaking through the waves, and it was approaching rapidly.
After only a brief silence, he felt the boat beneath him shake violently, as if it had been hit hard by something. Fortunately, he stabilized his center of gravity in advance and did not fall.
Sporadic wailing and shouting sounded outside.
He thought for a while, stretched out his hand to hold the door panel, and with a slight push, the door bolt was broken with a click. He stretched out his hand to hold the door frame, and walked out of the detention room.
He stood at the door, tightened the scarlet gloves on his hands, then quickly walked through the long cabin and climbed the stairs to the outside.
The deck was in chaos, with people screaming in pain everywhere. Broken monster corpses were scattered around, and the floor was covered with stinky blood. The ship guard was running in a hurry, and from time to time there would be scattered musket sounds.
.
He looked at the corpses of those monsters and recognized the thing's name as Shui Ying, or "Water Monkey" in the folk name. It was the most common water monster on the sea and in inland rivers.
He walked to the side of the ship in a few steps and looked into the distance. There, a huge back was exposed on the sea, with a layer of colorful light covering it.
This is the culprit that nearly overturned the Daifuku, a sea monster with extraordinary strength and huge size.
A spiritual creature.
He thought for a moment, then walked towards the uppermost balcony of the Dafu. The escort team was rescuing the wounded under the command of a captain, and no one paid attention to him for a moment.
When he came to the top, he saw Captain Shi Dongliang talking to a middle-aged man in well-tailored clothes. He seemed to be arguing about something. There were five or six women with exquisite make-up beside him, who were sobbing softly.
"Stone bow, there are artillery on the ship, why don't you fire?"
"Mr. Helian, this is a salamander, a rare spiritual monster. It has a spiritual coat on its surface. Guns and guns are useless at all. They will only aggravate it. What we need to do now is not to deal with it, but to find it."
The reason it attacks us!"
Zhang Yu heard this and said: "Stone bow, maybe I know the reason."
The middle-aged man turned his head and asked in surprise: "Who are you?"
A guard glanced at Zhang Yu for a few times, then looked tense and pointed at him: "He, he seems to be the person locked up in the detention room!"
"People in the detention room?" The middle-aged man looked panicked and shouted: "Guards, Guards!"
The guard captain below heard the call and reacted quickly. He immediately rushed up with a group of people, surrounded Zhang Yu, and pointed blazing guns at him.
Facing the black muzzle of the gun, Zhang Yu stood calmly.
Shi Dongliang patted the guard captain in front of him on the shoulder and motioned for the latter to get out of the way. He looked at Zhang Yu and said, "Are you the Zhang Shaolang who was detained for trading prohibited items with the heathen cultists?"
Zhang Yudao: "Yes."
The middle-aged man was still very nervous and said: "Forbidden objects? What forbidden objects? He's not an important criminal in the Duhu Mansion, is he? You, take off your hat."
Zhang Yu glanced at him, took the brim of his hat with both hands, and lifted it back.
"Oh..."
Everyone present, regardless of male or female, exclaimed in surprise from the bottom of their hearts the moment they saw his face.
It was hard for them to imagine that there could be such a good-looking person in the world, and everyone was staring at him intently.
Zhang Yu faced the gaze of everyone with a natural expression, without any embarrassment.
His teacher's evaluation of him was that he was "qingqingqingshenxiu, banished to the appearance of an immortal", which was not only due to his natural appearance, but also because he had undergone a major change in his temperament after practicing breathing skills for five years.
Shi Dongliang couldn't help but look at him several times, but he quickly calmed down and said solemnly: "Zhang Shaolang, you said you know the reason why this monster came to us?"
Zhang Yu nodded and said: "When I came over just now, I saw the bodies of many water babies on the boat..."
Before he finished speaking, the middle-aged man shouted: "Yes, it's the water babies! It must be for these water babies!" He shouted at the guards: "Why don't you drive them away? It's you
Attracted this monster!"
The captain of the guard suppressed the anger in his chest and said: "Mr. Helian, the water baby is a man-eating monster, and we, the ship guard, have the responsibility to eliminate all things that pose a threat to the lives of passengers!"
Shi Dongliang made a gesture to stop the argument between the two, and said in a deep voice: "Let Mr. Zhang finish his words first."
Zhang Yudao: "My major is ancient natural history, and I know the habits of many monsters. After monsters like the axolotl gain spirituality, they will consciously train their cubs, and they will drive the water babies driven by them into a
He allows his cubs to hunt for prey. In the process, the water baby not only acts as a guard for the cub, but also serves as its food when it gets into trouble."
Shi Dongliang suddenly raised his head, looked at Zhang Yu, and said: "Zhang Shaolang is saying that this monster may have placed its cubs' preying place on the Dafu this time?"
Zhang Yu nodded and said: "This is most likely. The newt itself does not feed on humans. This monster must have heard the sound of firecrackers and was worried about the safety of its cubs, which is why it rammed the Dafu.
If we can find the cub in time and return it to the sea properly, we will have a chance to avoid a direct conflict with this monster."
"Look for it quickly!"
Shi Dongliang immediately issued the order.
The guard captain said: "Father, I'm going!" As soon as he finished speaking, the man was already rushing downstairs.
After ramming the Daifuku once, Yaoyoro did not perform similar actions again, nor did it leave. Instead, it kept swimming around the ship, but it could be seen that it seemed to be getting more and more anxious.
Everyone waited in fear, fearing that the monster would rise again, and wondering if the Dafuhao would still be able to withstand it at that time.
About half an hour later, with the sound of urgent footsteps, the guard captain rushed back with a crew member, who was holding something wrapped in a cloth in his hand.
The middle-aged man grabbed it, and the two asked anxiously: "How is it? Did you find it? Is this the one you have?"
The crew member nervously opened the wrapping cloth in his hand, revealing a little thing with a lizard tail, a naked body without scales, and a deep purple color, struggling hard at the moment.
The guard captain said: "We found this little thing in the utility room."
The middle-aged man was overjoyed. He waved his hands and urged: "Great, hurry up, throw it into the sea!"
But at this moment, the cub suddenly twitched a few times, and its long tail that was swinging back and forth suddenly tightened. After a few breaths, it suddenly relaxed, and its head drooped downwards, motionless.
The crewman's body stiffened. He swallowed and said in a trembling voice: "It, it seems to be dead."