Chapter 78: Encounter with the Roaming Snow Whale
"Wait! What's that? Look! Over there!"
"What is it? Is it a beast?"
"Ah! Senior Brother! I'm scared! Hold me tighter!"
A few hours later, while training with his Qi, An heard the exclamations of disciples across the entire deck. Realizing his concentration had been broken, he opened his eyes and looked around.
Disciples stood at the railings with wide eyes of surprise, some even pale with fear, all staring in the same direction.
"Oh?" Following their gaze, he turned his head and saw, on the horizon against the setting sun, a white mass resembling a cross between a cloud and a whale, moving slowly but steadily straight toward their ship.
Waiting for it to come closer, to within a few dozen kilometers of the ship, he was finally able to make out and identify the beast. 'Hmm? Is that a Roaming Snow Whale?'
A massive creature, structurally very similar to a sperm whale, at least two hundred meters long, with six long flat legs ending in small but thick toes. Its tail was long and slightly curled at the tip. Its entire body was pure white and covered in frost and a frozen layer of ice, especially in the less mobile areas of its massive frame.
Beneath the creature's belly and legs gathered dense white clouds that, though slowly, constantly released masses of snow.
Examining the whale from a distance, An had grown tired of being surprised by the diversity of this world. But then he suddenly saw the whale beginning to open its mouth, and An immediately dropped to the deck, pressing himself as flat as possible. Activating his Qi, he created a barrier around his ears and eardrums.
Seeing the whale open its mouth, several disciples did the same as An, threw themselves to the ground and covered their ears with their hands.
Other disciples, not understanding what was happening, failed to react in time and simply stood there, looking around.
"BBBRRRRrrrr..."
Everything around was enveloped in a low, guttural song, and immediately the entire ship began to shake so violently it seemed as though it would simply fall apart. Everything around began to vibrate, even the air started to crackle.
All the clouds around vanished instantly, leaving the sky bare, exposed before the sunset.
BOOOM!
The sound from the shockwave finally reached the ship.
"Ah!"
"Aaaah!"
All the disciples who hadn't known what was happening fell to the deck, clutching their heads. Blood began to stream from their eyes and ears. Some couldn't even stay conscious, immediately passing out.
BOOM!
The second sound wave struck the ship and the defenseless disciples without mercy.
This time, even the ship couldn't withstand it. The hull and deck began to crack, and small wooden splinters flew into the air in all directions.
"H-help! Someone!"
"AaaaH!"
BOOOM!
Then came the third wave.
Lying on the deck, An turned his head, and his gaze fell on the disciples. The moment the third sound wave struck, many of the eighth-layer disciples who hadn't managed to protect themselves before the first wave began to fall to the ground with blue faces and frozen gazes. Some had their eyes burst from the pressure. One disciple, not far from him, had his skull split open by the third wave, and his brain, already reduced to a white mush, began leaking through the crack.
Lying on the deck, An watched as, in less than a few seconds, three sound attacks had killed more than two dozen disciples. Looking at the dead bodies, he turned his head toward the deck where the doors led to the cabins. Staring at the still-closed door, he could see through the Qi that both elders were moving toward it, getting closer and closer.
Suddenly, the door burst open.
"Sister Lua! Tend to the wounded! I'll handle the defensive formation!" Li Deng shot out first, immediately heading toward the bow of the ship, to the installation that controlled the defensive formation.
Lua Mou, meanwhile, hovering above the deck, cast a few glances at the massive whale in the distance, then turned back to the disciples and scanned them all, identifying the wounded. "Now we have to dispose of the bodies... Oh?"
Descending abruptly to the deck, she waved her hand twice. The first wave, all the wounded began to heal. Their wounds from the wooden splinters started closing, and their eardrums began to regenerate. The second wave enveloped the bodies of the dead, and they began to float, slowly drifting toward the cabins through the open door.
After waving twice, Lua Mou headed toward a specific disciple. Approaching him, she smiled slightly and leaned forward. "Junior Brother? Are you alright?"
Seeing Elder Lua walk directly toward Mo Fan, An exhaled, understanding that if she had time to get distracted, the whale no longer posed a serious threat.
'Still, their reaction was too slow... Couldn't they have sensed a two-hundred-meter whale approaching the ship?' Sitting back up, leaning against the railing, he raised his head and watched what Elder Li was doing.
Li Deng, standing at the formation installation, was constantly working with her hands, connecting and inscribing runes on the surface of a metal sphere. Though the distance wasn't great, he still couldn't understand what runes she was inscribing.
'Maybe I should start learning runes? Not for formations and talismans, but just to know them and be able to use them.' Watching the runes and the elder's swift handiwork, An made a mental note to study runes in the future.
Turning his gaze to the whale, he saw that the massive creature, having lost interest in them, had slightly turned its body and was slowly drifting away from the ship, 'Perhaps it was looking for a specific ship, but realizing we weren't the ones it wanted, it simply moved aside, letting us pass?'
Watching the enormous whale disappear over the horizon, An reviewed the information he had read about this creature. Even at birth, it possessed intellect comparable to a human's. Born as a first-rank beast, they break through to the second rank in less than a year.
The book stated that this species of spirit beast has no cultivation ceiling, the longer they live, the larger their size and their cultivation grow. According to unverified rumors, people claimed to have heard these whales speak in human language while still only at the first rank. This itself seems highly unlikely, so they remain mere rumors.
Most spirit beasts can begin speaking human language only upon breaking through to the third rank. Only a small minority, those with rich and pure bloodlines, can do so at the second rank. There is no documented historical record of a first-rank beast speaking human language. The reason lies in the evolution of the physical body, specifically, the restructuring of the throat and several cervical vertebrae.
First-rank beasts are distinguished from ordinary beasts only by the formation of their spirit core, and nothing more.
Take Baldi, for example: he is indistinguishable from an ordinary rooster, except for his size and intelligence, which come from constantly consuming pills and fruits rich in energy. If you placed an ordinary rooster from some mortal village at the foot of the mountains next to Baldi, the only differences would be in size and coloring, everything else would be identical.
'That attack affected me much less than I expected. It seems that through daily cultivation of my soul technique, the strength of my mind continues to grow, slowly, but the progress is noticeable...' He began scanning the disciples around him. Only a few were more or less fine, merely pale-faced. The majority had sustained mental and soul injuries. Sitting on the ground, they clutched their heads and trembled.
'What Sacred Land? If almost all the disciples have soul injuries... How are they supposed to function properly? Such injuries could take anywhere from several weeks to several months to heal...'
He saw Lua Mou, having finished speaking with Mo Fan, rise into the air. Turning toward the bow, she waited for Li Deng to fly over to her.
….
Waving her hand, Li Deng activated a barrier around both of them.
"How are things?" Casting a glance at the deck and the lying, groaning disciples, she asked Lua Mou.
"I healed their physical injuries, but many disciples' inner worlds have been damaged..." Lua Mou crossed her arms and moved closer to Li Deng, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.
"What about the core disciples and their groups?" Li Deng began scanning the crowd for the core disciples, trying to assess their condition.
"Judging by their energy and appearance, they'll have enough time remaining on our journey to recover to peak condition. As for the rest..." Shaking her head, Lua Mou, with crossed arms, surveyed the severely wounded disciples.
"The rest don't matter! They're just numbers. They'll be used as cannon fodder to achieve the main goal anyway!" With a cold gaze, Li Deng briefly glanced at the other disciples, sitting, holding their heads, or simply whimpering.
"What about their injuries?" Lua Mou turned to her and tilted her head slightly.
"The Sect Leader and the Main Council set aside resources for just such an occasion. Just distribute pills that will keep them functioning, they don't need anything more!" Li Deng raised one hand and, turning her palm toward Lua Mou, pointed her thumb at the white ring on her ring finger.
"Oh!" Seeing the ring, Lua Mou nodded.
"Hmm, what about the alchemist? Is he alright?" Li Deng, lowering her hand behind her back, cast a glance toward the stern, where An sat by the railing.
"Right, if you hadn't mentioned him, I wouldn't have even noticed him!" With wide eyes, Lua Mou followed Li Deng's gaze.
"They were right in their analysis, he really has achieved a high level in stealth techniques. Hmm... should we?" Looking at An, she tried to sense his energy. The harder she tried, the more surprised she became.
"Uh-huh! I'm surprised too. I can't sense any energy from him, it's as if I'm looking at a mortal who has never cultivated..." Li Deng, with interest, tried to use her spirit sense, but she stopped herself.
"His breathing and heartbeat are slower than even a turtle's. Still, should we... you know...?" Lua Mou looked at Li Deng with a grin. Greed flickered faintly in her eyes.
"No. A decision was made about him at the meeting before departure. The Main Council and Sect Leader Gu Bai reached a consensus regarding this alchemist... So no. There are already plans for him, we can't take him for ourselves." Without taking her eyes off him, she said slowly, with barely noticeable disappointment in her gaze.
"Sigh..." Exhaling and closing her eyes to calm her inner greed, Lua Mou opened them again and began descending toward the cabins. "I'll be inside. My mood has dropped... and it's all your fault!" Casting a playful, grinning glance at Li Deng, she muttered.
Li Deng simply smiled.
Dispelling the barrier around her, she descended lower, stopping just above the heads of the standing disciples. She rubbed the white ring on her ring finger.
"I apologize for not stopping that beast in time. We didn't think such a situation could occur. I mourn with you, we lost part of our family today. For that, I and the Elder Lua are entirely at fault... I beg your forgiveness, disciples. And seeing how you suffer, I cannot simply stand by! Here!"
Waving her hand, a vial with five pills appeared before each disciple.
"This is a Light Breeze Soul Qi pill of the second rank. Many of you versed in alchemy know that this pill helps heal wounds to your soul and inner world! And not only that! At the same time, it removes any effects from your injuries, allowing you to function at your peak!" Her expression became that of a caring mother looking at her children.
She descended to the ground, into the midst of the disciples. "Though it's not enough, it's the only thing I can do for you! You must be strong! We! Must be stronger! You and..."
….
'Hmm?' Taking the vial in his hand, An uncorked it and pulled out one pill, examining it closely, trying to study its effects and ingredients.
Completely absorbed in himself, he completely missed Li Deng's passionate speech.
'Another pill not found in any of the books I've read...' Holding the pill, he slowly began introducing Qi particles of different elements into it, observing the reaction and the Qi itself to learn everything about it.
'Hmm. This pill has a very strong side effect... Even in the Qi flows, this information is almost impossible to extract when the pill is in a resting state, that is, not interacting with a consumer's body... Interesting. Is this intentional, or a consequence of the flawed recipe itself?' Stimulating it with different elements, he discovered that when consumed, instead of helping heal the cultivator's soul, this pill worked through substitution. It takes a healthy portion of the soul and, through division, restores the damaged part, but the portion that undergoes division becomes fragile.
'If I describe this pill in simple terms: imagine two cups, one full, one empty. Instead of taking energy from outside to fill the empty cup, this pill takes two-thirds from the full one, uses one-third for transport, and the remaining third reaches the second cup. In the end, you have two cups, each one-third full.'
'What a sinister pill... Over time, from such treatment, the soul becomes fragile, and at any moment, this could lead to irreversible consequences... What idiot came up with this recipe?' Examining the sludge on his palm, what remained of the pill, he frowned.
'The only successful thing about this pill is the concept itself, nothing more. It feels like my early attempts at alchemy: throw together who-knows-what and hope for the best...' Wiping his hands clean, An tucked the vial with the remaining pills into his pouch.
….
"...And remember! Your lives are the most important thing to us! The moment you stepped through the main gates of the Sect, we became one family!" Already hovering above the deck, Li Deng slowly retreated into the cabins, leaving the disciples with burning eyes and newfound confidence.
'Oh, I missed it again... Hmm? Why do they keep talking about one big family... It gives me chills every time.' Shaking his head, An couldn't stand the new looks on the disciples' faces any longer, their confidence, their eyes boring holes into the door Li Deng had entered through.
An decided it was time to cultivate his soul technique.