Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Girl's Laugh May Hide Unfathomable Intentions

When the sea is calm, it resembles a gracious and refined lady. Far as the eye can see, there is only a pure blue expanse of ocean, and anyone standing amid such a scene will, to some degree, feel as though his own heart has merged with the sea itself, boundless and beyond heaven and earth.

Beneath Shen Lian’s feet was a plank of wood floating on the water, yet it did not drift aimlessly with the current. Instead, it moved straight toward Azure Profound.

In the sea, there were dark currents and bright currents. As yin and yang exchanged places, the waters began to flow.

Shen Lian firmly seized the force of motion created in the brief instant of that interchange. With only a little help, he could guide the plank beneath his feet and cross the ocean.

This was not some divine power, but rather a result of understanding the surrounding world. The difference between man and beast lies in mankind’s ability to make use of nature’s strength and forge tools from it. Just as a man may not know how to swim, yet can still borrow the power of boats and ships, such skill in using outside things is not dependence upon the world, but an exercise of one’s own wisdom.

The Buddhist scriptures speak of the path of truth as it is, cutting off afflictions. What one attains is in fact supreme wisdom. With wisdom comes limitless wondrous power, allowing free passage through the three realms, unconstrained by the eight trigrams or the five elements.

Shen Lian did not dwell deeply on this supreme wisdom. He merely grasped a general direction and continued his cultivation in steady, unhurried fashion.

Even without the next technique, that did not mean his progress would stagnate.

He could study talismanic arts, control vital energy, observe the flight paths of birds, feel the leisurely flick of fish tails beneath his feet, and sense where the wind came from, how the hidden currents beneath him formed when cold and warmth met.

Cultivation was everywhere; it did not lie only in shutting oneself away among mountains and waters.

What Shen Lian truly treasured from cultivation was, more than anything else, all that he had experienced in his past life during the age of information explosion. There has never been an era with more information, more impact, than the internet age.

All it took was a network cable and a device that could go online, and one could converse with the minds of billions. What it brought was not direct benefit to cultivation, but the repeated shattering of one’s old understanding and the formation of new understanding.

In this, it held a subtle affinity with breakthroughs in cultivation. Shen Lian was not only cultivating, but also thinking.

The Secret Explanation of the Primordial Treasure Supreme Purity Natural Heart-Sealing and Spirit-Settling Method provided him with an ample foundation. It was much like a great mathematician, who must possess extraordinarily powerful memory in order to retain countless numbers and formulas.

A great cultivator, likewise, must possess a spirit soul capable of perceiving all things more keenly.

Shen Lian’s expression shifted slightly. Then, all at once, he heard a strange song, a melody belonging to no mortal world. Immediately afterward, waves rose behind him in surging succession.

Such a thing defied reason, for the waves had appeared abruptly, with no warning at all.

His robe billowed as he was about to mobilize the energy of heaven and earth and ride the wind through the waves.

Yet the vital energy that had once been so intimate with him now seemed like a stranger. It paid no heed to his summons and instead gathered toward some unknown place.

Before he could even think it through, he was struck head-on by the waves, and the plank beneath his feet shattered into fragments.

He, too, was swept down into the trough of the spray and fell into a silent undercurrent.

*****

When Shen Lian opened his eyes again, he was already drenched and standing upon a sea island.

He saw, far out in the sea, a pillar of water shooting into the sky. Beneath that pillar of water was something like a huge, smooth black rock, like a sandbar several acres across.

That massive black stone rose and fell, and then huge waves crashed against the shore.

Water once again began to gather beneath Shen Lian’s feet.

He still heard that strange song. Very quickly, Shen Lian understood that the enormous black stone was in fact the back of some giant creature, and that the water column had been喷 out by it.

Perhaps that song was the creature’s breathing.

Even more terrifying was that as the sea monster sang, the vital energy nearby converged toward it in clusters, allowing it to inhale and exhale as it pleased.

With a body so immense, the quantity of vital energy it breathed in and out was naturally vast. Even if its realm were low, its destructive power far exceeded Shen Lian’s by tenfold or a hundredfold.

This sea monster somewhat resembled a whale, or perhaps it was simply a whale that knew how to cultivate.

Shen Lian did not rashly enter the sea again, and moreover, the power within his own body seemed to faintly fluctuate in resonance with the monster’s song.

He decided to avoid it for the time being and wait until the sea monster left before making further plans.

As he ventured into the island, the scenery proved pleasant enough, and waves of floral fragrance drifted into his nose.

There was only one kind of flower here, each blossom bearing exactly five colors, no more and no less. The trees inside were especially tall and imposing. As Shen Lian walked deeper and deeper inland, the sea monster’s song was blocked by the trees, and the response it had stirred in the world’s vital energy returned once more.

The song of that sea monster must have been a far more subtle way of communicating with vital energy than the talismanic arts he understood at present.

If he had not been ignorant of its origins, Shen Lian would have wanted to study it carefully.

However, he soon discovered that even if the sea monster was mysterious, this island itself was no less unusual.

Along the path he had taken, there were absolutely no traces left by other humans, not even the footprints of beasts.

Flowers were in bloom, yet there was no fluttering of butterflies or industrious hum of bees. The entire forest held an eerie stillness.

A scene in the distance caught Shen Lian’s eye: it was a tree, its trunk so thick that it would take more than ten people to encircle it.

Then suddenly came a soft, delicate voice, like a yellow warbler’s trilling song, carrying a languid allure within it. Though he had not yet seen the speaker, he already felt an immense sense of favor toward her.

“Has the young master also come to admire the flowers? It seems we share the same whim, this humble one and you.”

Shen Lian did not move rashly. He turned his head toward the source of the voice. Deep in the flowers, a beautiful woman in multicolored robes came strolling forward with graceful steps. Her features were flawless, beyond any hint of defect. This was not the first such woman he had seen; the first had been Xin Fourteen-Daughter.

Unlike Xin Fourteen-Daughter, whose bearing was proud and clear as cold snow, this multicolored woman could be described as enchanting and seductive. Her figure was nearly perfect, making it difficult to tear one’s gaze away from her.

A strand of her jet-black hair lay across her snowy neck from time to time, all the more alluring.

The woman looked at Shen Lian with great boldness, seeming especially interested in the refined and handsome youth before her.

She was a little taller than an ordinary woman, yet still slightly shorter than Shen Lian. Her enticing scent drifted in faint wisps, unlike the fragrance of flowers and unlike powder, yet it slipped one thread after another into Shen Lian’s nose.

It caused ripples to spread through his otherwise calm eyes. To speak plainly, a flame had ignited in Shen Lian’s heart: desire.

He did not hurry to dispel it, but returned her smile and said, “And from where does the young lady come?”

The woman’s bright eyes flowed with hidden charm, never leaving Shen Lian’s face. With a gentle smile she said, “This humble one was originally the concubine of Young Master Sea. He has gone elsewhere to visit friends, and when I saw the flowers here in full bloom, I did not wish to go with him. So I stayed here to wait for him. I was feeling bored, and never expected to meet a figure like you, young master, so I could not resist coming out to see you. If I have been abrupt, I hope you will not blame me.”

If a man had said this to a woman, it would have seemed perfectly ordinary. Yet coming from her lips, it carried more than a hint of deliberate teasing.