Chapter 245: Section 33: Bloodline Mutation
“998, 999, 1000!” Bai Ya counted silently with each chop of the wooden sword in his hand,
Under the scorching sun, the deck baked a crew of pirates, each drenched in sweat.
“Finally finished!” After swinging 1000 times, Bai Ya immediately dropped the wooden sword, turned, and ran to the ship’s railing, then with a plop plunged into the sea.
The instant he hit the water, the abrupt change from hot to cold made his body shiver violently.
But the young man remembered the training content and gritted his teeth to surface, took a deep breath, and started swimming around the Little Bird with all his might.
“Faster, faster, faster!” Sanda’s urging voice came from above the railing.
The other pirates were tossing wooden crates, barrels, and the like overboard, following Zong Ge’s rule that the more pirates hit by objects in the water, the higher their training score would be.
Bai Ya had to breathe and also dodge the relentless barrage of falling barrels.
Luckily, he wasn’t alone; many pirates before and after him shared the burden of the onslaught.
Bai Ya quickly found a rhythm.
To dodge the falling debris, he had to time it right. He needed to dive deep enough to use the water surface to weaken the impact of the barrels and other objects.
But not too deep because he still had to breathe and compete with the other pirates in swimming speed.
This tested his observation, control over his physical abilities, and maintaining calm in the chaos.
After a tough round swimming around the Little Bird, Bai Ya completed the underwater training.
He had to climb up a rope to get back on the deck of the Little Bird.
By the time his hands grasped the rope, his arms were so sore and swollen, and he was gasping for air as his whole body trembled slightly.
Pulling on the dangling rope, he hoisted his upper body out of the water. The young man took the opportunity to look around and saw some had already climbed onto the deck, while others were halfway up.
“I’m falling behind! I must catch up to them.”
Bai Ya started to grow anxious and immediately began to climb.
But the next moment, his arms gave out, and he slid back into the sea.
“Damn it, I’m drained,” Bai Ya’s heart sank.
In the end, he managed to climb onto the deck, but it took far longer than he had imagined; he was one of the last few.
Bai Ya had been a mountain hunter, and climbing was one of his strengths, but swimming was not. During the swim, he had used up too much energy and had also been hit a few times. Once, the pain was so intense he almost passed out on the spot.
Overwhelmed by frustration and a sense of failure, Bai Ya collapsed on the deck, momentarily unable to get up.
Xu Ma walked over and reached out to pull Bai Ya to his feet.
Bai Ya looked at the successful ones and, after mentally comparing himself, couldn’t help but shake his head in dejection.
This competitive training starkly revealed the gap between individuals.
Even the old men at the Bronze Level had far greater physical conditioning than he did. Even if he were proficient in swimming, he wouldn’t stand a chance against them.
And the remaining ordinary folks actually had much stronger Fighting energy cultivation than Bai Ya; they just hadn’t undergone the qualitative change to reach the Bronze Level.
“If only I could become a Bronze,” he thought.
“Is everything Xu Ma said absolutely correct?”
“Do I really have no hope?”
Despite his discontent, Bai Ya still held onto hope.
The morning was for training hand-to-hand combat on boarding, and the afternoon was for cannon shooting training.
On the crowded cannon deck, Zong Ge, with a stopwatch in hand, kept barking orders. Bai Ya and the other pirates moved back and forth from one side of the ship to the other, positioning cannons, loading gunpowder, placing bombs, and pulling ropes to fire.
But Zong Ge was still unsatisfied. The Half-Beast roared, “Your speed is too slow, too slow! The next training session, you must reduce the time for a round of cannon fire to within two minutes!”
Night fell.
The pirates ate their dinner, clanging their wooden spoons against bowls.
“Training, training, all day long it’s training!”
“I almost think I joined a military barracks, one of those elite Imperial regular armies.”
“When will we finally have a chance to make a score?”
“After making a score, I’m leaving this ship! This place is not for humans.”
“Kid, move aside, don’t you see this is where I sit?” A Bronze Level petty officer roughly shoved Bai Ya.
Bai Ya stumbled, nearly falling to the ground.
With Xu Ma not around, Bai Ya didn’t want to start trouble and silently moved away.
Zong Ge had already boarded the Justice.
In the captain’s quarters.
He and the knight youth sat around the desk, both fixing their gaze on the stack of Sea Charts spread out on the table.
“How are the training effects?” The knight youth asked, keeping his eyes on the Sea Charts.
“The cannon firing training has improved nicely, but there is still much room for progress. As for boarding combat…” Zong Ge shook his head in dissatisfaction, “These recruits are not of high quality.”
“This isn’t a barracks, after all,” the knight youth said, smiling in reminder.
He knew on Mysterious Monster Island that Zong Ge was an ex-soldier.
The Half-Beast nodded: “Indeed. How many days has it been? These men are already growing restless; although I’ve kept them suppressed, their anger is mounting. They need a good outlet.”
The knight youth sighed: “I know. According to the intelligence, we should have seen the Rapids by yesterday.”
The Rapids pirate ship was the young man’s targeted prey.
The intelligence came from the Empire’s sources and should have been reliable.
But when they arrived in this sea region, they found no sign of the Rapids.
That was a possibility.
Because although the Rapids often pillaged passing merchant ships here, it was constantly moving; at times, it might chase a merchant ship or for other reasons stray far from this region.
The knight youth traced an arc on the sea chart with his finger, “Tomorrow our course will be like this.”
The end of the arc, where the knight youth’s finger paused, was a small island.
“If we don’t encounter the Rapids, we’ll rest on this island. The Empire’s sea chart marks it as having an ample supply of food and fresh water,” the knight youth said.
Zong Ge nodded.
He was an excellent commander and understood that the morale of his subordinates indeed needed some easing. Forcing them too hard could incite rebellion and chaos, which would be troublesome.
Such a large ship couldn’t be handled by Zong Ge alone.
The next day, there was still no sign of the Rapids.
The Justice and Little Bird sailed for a day, docking at Nameless Island at dusk.
The knight youth arranged for some people to stay on the two ships, then led the majority to spend the night on the island.
Pirates, long confined within the cramped confines of the ships, cheered exuberantly as they set foot on land.
The knight youth divided the people into many teams, pointed out their directions, and instructed them to explore the island as much as possible, agreeing to set sail the next afternoon.
And in the dead of night, everyone who had escaped from Mysterious Monster Island secretly gathered in a valley.
“Summoning everyone here, there are three main issues. The first is the secret contract,” said the knight youth, raising his hand to show the scroll in it.
“I believe that by using the ‘Secret Scrolls’, we can trust each other more. These have all been purchased from the Empire, and now they’ll supervise each other and use up their scrolls together. If anyone has objections, now is the time to raise them.”
The crowd exchanged glances and then shook their heads one by one, expressing approval of their leader’s decision.
The glow of the secret scrolls began to flicker.
Ordinary people have difficulty using secret scrolls on their own, but with help from others, everyone made use of their scrolls.
The atmosphere seemed to become more harmonious.
“The second matter—distributing pearls,” the knight youth signaled to Cang Xu.
Cang Xu stepped aside and took out a bag filled with Pearl Bubbles.
For each person who came forward, he distributed several pearls to them.
During the distribution, the knight youth continued, “The production of Pearl Bubbles is dwindling and won’t last forever. From the current situation, we have about a month left before they run out.”
The faces of the crowd turned grave.
They were already aware of this situation.
“Didn’t we discover the temple of Mei Lan?” someone spoke up.
The knight youth nodded, “To this point, we need to thank Mr. Cang Xu. Because of him, we found clues to the temple of Mei Lan. Perhaps in this temple, we can find a way to replenish the Divine Power for the ‘Mermaid’s Fairy Tale’ Divine Artifact.”
“So, our next target is the temple of Mei Lan!”
“Of course, before that, we need to spend all our funds and arm ourselves to the best of our ability to upgrade our combat power.”
“Does anyone have other suggestions?”
The crowd expressed their agreement.
Fat Tongue then added, “We also need to hurry and wake up, my clan’s Chairman. Only then, can we reach out to the Clan Leader of Hundred Needles.”
The knight youth nodded at him, “Trust me, I haven’t forgotten this and will do everything in my power to awaken Zi Di. We wouldn’t have been able to escape Mysterious Monster Island at the last minute without Zi Di’s help.”
Fat Tongue was reassured and fell silent.
The rest remained quiet.
Everyone had complex feelings toward Zi Di.
On one hand, she was responsible for the shipwreck. On the other, she had rescued them on Mysterious Monster Island. And importantly, Zi Di had a close relationship with the youth leader…
“The third matter is good news. Cang Xu, go ahead and tell them,” the knight youth said with a smile.
Cang Xu, with an indifferent expression, calmly announced the exciting news that they could use the Alchemy Array to help their own people assimilate Soul Crystals.
The crowd became agitated.
“What exactly is a Soul Crystal? How can it help us?” Bai Ya asked Lan Zao beside him.
Lan Zao shook his head, “I’m not entirely sure, but it seems like something that can enhance our spiritual power.”
Cang Xu continued with the talk about trading Soul Crystals.
Soul Crystals were precious, and it was wasteful for ordinary people to use them to enhance their spirituality.
It made more sense for Transcendents to use them, which could better help the team improve their overall power.
And ordinary people could trade with Transcendents, exchanging their right to use Soul Crystals for things they wanted.
This proposal received almost unanimous approval.
Only Bai Ya felt a surge of resentment.
With both Beast Meat and Soul Crystals, as an ordinary person, he felt discriminated against.
But then he brightened up, saying to Lan Zao, “Can I sell my Soul Crystals to you in exchange for Beast Meat?”
Lan Zao glanced at him and hesitated before saying, “Yes, that’s possible. But you’ll have to eat the Beast Meat in moderation, not too much. Your foundations are a bit weak, and overeating could actually harm you.”
“Sir, if I continue to eat Beast Meat, can I break through to the Bronze Level?” Bai Ya asked nervously.
Lan Zao was taken aback for a moment and then realized Bai Ya had come to know the harsh truth about his own potential.
He didn’t want to lie to Bai Ya but also didn’t want to crush his hopes.
Seeing Lan Zao’s silence, Bai Ya’s expression quickly dimmed.
“Do I really have no hope?”
“You do,” Lan Zao patted his shoulder, forcing a smile. “Have you heard of a Bloodline breakthrough? Even the offspring of Nobles often have weak Bloodlines, and it’s possible for their descendants to suddenly experience a Bloodline breakthrough, gaining strong Bloodlines.”
“But I’m just an ordinary hunter.”
“Who knows. Nobles have many illegitimate children. Maybe even your parents or grandparents don’t know. This happens often with those who experience Bloodline breakthroughs.”
“Bloodline breakthrough…” Bai Ya murmured the words to himself, etching the term into the deepest recesses of his heart.