The Third Realm - Chapter 34 preview (Patreon)

The midday sun beat down upon the junks, their sea anchors deployed to keep them in place. Sails furled, the ballista had been rolled out, the massive harpoons on the ships angled to point downwards at the sea itself whilst others were trained towards the outside of the ring. Additional rafts had been deployed, many with smaller catapults set-up to throw the furled nets on them, volunteer sailors floating in the dead space between the ships.

In the front of each junk, the guards stood in formation, three in the formation center whilst the other two in the squad stood watch with javelins and spears at the ready. On the floor, carefully painted formation markers surrounded the three guards within whilst formation flags were deployed at the edges, a single massive one in the centre of the group.

Chi flowed from the environment, circling the formation flags and then flowing through the formation markers before entering to the formation fully to be guided by the guards. There, the chi was gathered as the formation grew in strength, powering itself up to unleash a massive strike if necessary.

In the meantime, in the center of the water, green and blue blood floated to the center, staining the water itself. Occasionally, a limb – human and acquatic would bob to the surface, as the divers fought a desperate battle against the sea life.

Wu Ying watched the entire proceedings silently, hands clasped behind his back, eyes tracking the limbs and the water. He could not sense what lay within, his spiritual sense falling short as the sheer volume of life – plankton, tiny fish and massive demonic beasts alike – blanketed his senses, curtailing his ability to delve deep.

Beside him, Ren Fei stood, full dressed in his armour, his enchanted spear resting in his hand. He shifted impatiently, looking over at Wu Ying, the captain of the ship and the water in turn; before finally impatience won out.

“What is taking so wrecking long?” Ren Fei said.

“They said already,” Wu Ying murmured in reply. He idly tugged at the emerald green armour he wore beneath the night robe he wore, doing his best to ignore exactly how exposed he was. Whilst the armour might technically cover him entirely, it was skin-tight and clingy, outlining every inch of his muscular form. The Saint-grade armour was a prize of the province’s armoury and another part of his payment. “There are more demonic beast than usual.”

“But why?” Ren Fei growled.

“I’d assume an overabundance of food,” the captain murmured. He gestured downwards, his voice taking on a tinge of fear. “After all, at least two fleets have fallen here.”

“Just one,” Ren Fei corrected. “The first expedition only had a single ship for Master Hue had not expected trouble.”

“More fool him,” muttered the captain. Ren Fei glared at the captain and the man offered a tight smile, running a hand along the railing and spitting to the side before speaking. “No captain worth his salt ever expects anything but trouble for the ocean.”

“I think they’re done,” Wu Ying said, cutting in before the two could argue further. He understood it was a way of relieving tension, but arguing amongst themselves was foolish. Anyway, the bubbles which had been rising occasionally seemed to be coming up faster now, and within moments, heads bobbed to the top of the water.

Almost like gasping fish, the divers all opened their mouths when they rose. Yet, no hard exhalation of air occurred, each diver trained to allow the air within to escape by itself to preserve energy and allow the air to circulate. As expected, the divers bobbed for a few moments before swimming towards the waiting rafts, a single man waving to the flagship and making signs that they were ready and done.

Wu Ying waved back, then began the process of deep breathing for his own journey under the water. As he did so, he removed the robe, touching the blade at his side. It was not his Saint-jian but another weapon taken from the stores, a short sword that would be easier to wield under the water. Though the dive master and Ren Fei had pressed him to switch to other weapons, Wu Ying chose to keep to the blade.

After all, it was not the Heart of the harpoon that he had learnt.

Anyway, the shorter blade would be easy enough tow ield, and he could project his blade intent through it with the same alacrity as his own jian. And if he truly required that, he had it in hand.

Idly, he touched the rest of his gear. A trio of storage rings including his World Spirit ring. He had discarded the rest, leaving them with his belongings beneath deck, secured against potential loss below. A pair of Fifty Jin Water flasks, the enchantments within stuffing twenty and twenty three jin worth of water within the flask themselves. It amused Wu Ying that they were called Fifty Jin Water flasks, even when they carried significantly less – but names were like that. Either way, the flasks would help bring him down quickly, and properly used, were potential weapons below the water.

Goggles, enchanted for clear sight. They would also magnify the amount of light available, allowing Wu Ying to see a little deeper, though they would not work at the depths he was expecting to journey towards. He even had a few simple light talismans, stored within clear glass orbs to shed light around him if so chose; but for the most part he intended to dive using only his spiritual sense to guide him.

That had taken some getting used to, being blindfolded and gathering sightless but for his sense of touch and his spiritual senses. The months of work had expanded his spiritual senses, strengthening it significantly. In truth, Wu Ying had to admit that he might have been ignoring his spiritual senses in favour of his connection to the wind, smell and sight. After all, those had been more reliable by far.

Outside of that, Wu Ying had no other tools beyond his gathering equipment. Talismans would not work underwater, not unless they were properly set-up like the glowballs. And his goal was to locate the oysters and open them, extracting the pearls while whatever was below was left clueless.

Though, looking at the churning water before him, replete with the blood of human and acquatic animal alike, he wondered how likely that truly was.

“Cultivator Long?” Ren Fei’s spoke, gently.

“I’m ready. Watch the water for me.” Then with a light leap, Wu Ying threw himself into the air. One last time, he called upon the wind to send him upwards, forwards into the center of the ring. He spiralled high in the air, before he dropped almost straight down, tucking arms and legs tight together. His entry was fast and hard, barely rippling the water as he plunged into the deeps, disappearing from view of those above.

***

Diving was such a strange phenomena. Immediately, Wu Ying was cut-off from the wind chi that he drew upon. The constant circulation of the Never Empty Wine Pot had been turned off, the Sea Serpent’s Grace taking over even before he struck the water, helping to allow him to plunge deeper than ever into the water. His body fell through the water, the weights of the Fifty Jin Water flasks dragging him down with alacrity, leaving the sunlit surface below.

Light, at first so clear and bright disappeared with every moment, ever foot downwards. Darkness closed in on him, as colour bleached itself from the surroundings. First went the vibrancy of the world, the brighter colours of the world, leaving everything dark blue and green.

Then, eventually, even those colours began to fade, such that only black and greys were available. What little light from above faded away, even as the water pressed in upon Wu Ying’s body. He swallowed and blew out, holding his nose as he was trained again and again, clearing the pressure differential within his ears as he dropped.

A slight current took him sideways even as the momentum of his initial drop faded away, torn aside by the pressure of the water all around him. He began to kick, ever so gently, his body moving in a sinous motion trained by the cultivation exercise as he angled downwards now, headfirst.

Claustrophobic, the deeper waters of the ocean. Cold too, and growing colder with each moment as he plunged within. Occasional cross-currents caught at him, but he fought against them, always allowing himself to sink down, sight fading away leaving him only his spiritual sense to find his way.

Now the disorientation of the water became ever more apparent. Without light, without sight, Wu Ying only had his body to guide his spatial sense. Up and down fought for control within his mind, the pull and turn of cross-currents threatening to turn him about. Only the inexorable drag of gravity to the earth and the unceasing kick of his own legs gave him any sense of the world about.

That and his own spiritual sense. Deep in the waters, it expanded to its fullest extent, as gently as Wu Ying could do so. It touched upon the forms and pressure of the beings living below, so much fewer now deep as they were, than before.

The ocean was barren, in some ways, in comparison to the thriving forest of the deep wilds. There, plants, insects, floating seeds and larger animals all surrounded him, at all times. On the other hand, whilst there were numerous things growing in the water, most were so small, so trivial that his spiritual sense could discard their presence without issue. Smaller fish were abundant at the top of the ocean, but the deeper he went, the fewer there were.

In the dark, fish were less abundant, though other creatures began to take up Wu Ying’s senses. Jelyfish, krill, shrimp, anoeme’s and rays, all passed by within Wu Ying’s senses; blips that he often struggled to name and understand. Yet, none burned too brightly, none were a danger to his senses.

Deeper he fell, till the earth itself rose up around him. He adjusted his angle again, blowing at his nose to equalize the pressure as he noted the underwater canyon that was his target. All around him, he sensed faintly the anchors that the ship’s had dropped, specially crafted and brought along for this expedition itself. Too few of their ships were geared for such an oceanic exploration, certainly not to drop anchor in the middle of the ocean.

Now, he began to sense the remains of the previous expeditions. Broken hulls, shattered planks and stripped corpses, their flesh preserved by the cold but their bodies ripped and torn apart by the acquatic life. Not a single body was left unmolested, torsos and limbs scattered apart across the seabed. Flesh and weapons were scattered about, ballista bolts and cracked pottery of drinking water lying abandoned at the bottom of the ocean.

Each of those hulls were shattered, as though something large and powerful had gripped it tight, crushing the hulls with great pressure before it sunk. Other parts, near the front of the ship were torn off, the masts snapped as though bitten apart by something large and hungry.

The fate of the previous ships were here, revealed in all their shattered glory. Destroyed by something powerful enough to pull even a ship from the ocean itself. Wu Ying’s skin prickled further, goosebumps running along already chilled flesh, and he forced himself to swallow the air that threatened to escape his lungs.

He would need every iota of air he kept in his lungs.

In the canyon, the light from above cut-off further and even the goggles he wore no longer functioned at all. Darkness consumed him entirely, the water temperature dropping even further and prickling his skin. He shivered a little, for the cold of the water was unlike the cold of the northern wind, a void that sucked from his skin, his core being in an attempt to rob him of movement and sense.

His spiritual sense contracted, the chi domain within the water combatting his own soul’s extension, shutting it down further. Something slithered at the edges of his consciousness, forcing Wu Ying to draw his spiritual sense in closer; for fear of alerting those below or worse, leaving himself vulnerable.

For the spiritual sense was but the overlaying of an individual’s spirit and domain into the outside world. It was why the extension of one’s spiritual sense occurred most significantly at the jumps between stages, as one’s own soul expanded. Or nascent soul. Or domain.

In truth, the argument of exactly what the spiritual sense was and how it tied into cultivation was broad and extensive. Like most things to do with cultivation and the Dao, there were many theories with few true facts. But that a spiritual attack could be launched by another against a too widely stretched spiritiual sense was well known. Even if such attacks – and creatures that could lash out in that way – were rare and generally considered to be a ‘dark’ art.

In the canyon that rose above him, corals dotted the sides, clinging to the edges. Eels slept within the gaps, poking their heads out occasionally as a fish wandered by too close before they were torn from their lives. Sea slugs crawled along the walls, dirty glowing edges at their sides. Yet, for all the variety, there were fewer than he expected.

Even the slugs, the eels, the shellfish and crustaceans that still lingered moved slowly and with great care, cautiously verifying their surroundings before they moved onwards. Wu Ying knew those movements, for they were the movements of the fearful. Prey and even predators that knew that another, larger and more dangerous predator was close by.

Deeper and darker, Wu Ying dropped. As he grew closer, he sensed the oysters, glowing like a beacon that drew chi to themselves and their souls burning as a beacon. Angling himself a little, Wu Ying drifted forwards, heading for the oysters. Noticing nothing in his spiritual sense, he allowed himself to touch down on the sandy floor below next to the oysters.

The oysters were each nearly ten feet across, closed shut against the world as was their wont. The first oyster he touched, Wu Ying knew immediately he could harvest entirely. He extracted the harvesting tool he had brough along, inserting it into the edge of the oyster’s shell and pried it open, pulling the edges apart to peer within.

Nothing within. No bulge, no extrusion in the flesh to showcase the location of a pearl being birthed. The older oyster had not rejected the irritant placed within, another portion of oyster meat from another being. Or perhaps it had just accepted it all, and gone on.

Disappointed, Wu Ying let the shell close. With a few flicks of his hand, he cut aside the muscle gripping the oyster to the ocean floor and then stored the entire oyster away. In truth, he could do the same for all the oysters, but doing so would leave the kingdom without a bounty in the future.

Instead, he moved on, checking oyster after oyster. Those close to their expiry dates were extracted, stored away in his World Spirit ring for future use and verification. If he was lucky, perhaps he might even be able to acquire his own oyster bed.

One by one, Wu Ying moved from oyster to oyster, searching for the pearls. The first one he located, he cut it free with swift movements of the dagger, extracting the multi-coloured lustrous pearl. To his surprise, upon being revealed the pearl itself shone with a bright light that illuminated the surroundings and made Wu Ying’s eyes water. He pulled the pearl into his ring immediately, cutting the glowing light off but leaving a tingling feeling on his fingers.

The sheer volume of chi stored within the pearl, the contained energy still danced up his fingers and shot along his arms and through his aura. For a brief moment, his own aura burned with the energy before it guttered out. Then, it was over and it was time to move on.

Out of the dozens of oysters, only one in four had a pearl within. He added slices of oyster meat to those empty shellfish, again and again to set them up for future production. Then, he let the oyster shells close, hoping that they would survive.

He worked quickly and smoothly, while his time slowly ran down further. The process of holding his breath at first was easy. The tightness in his chest grew at a rate that at first he could easily ignore but as he pushed onwards, extracting oyster, meat and pearls alike, grew harder.

He was running out of time, but after hitting the fifth oyster in a row without pearls, he realized he had to make a choice. He required two more pearls to meet the minimum number but he had at most a minute left where he could easily hold his breath. Ascending would be faster than descent, but it would still be tight even if he left now. If he ran into any problems…

On the other hand, the oppressive feeling that surrounded him continued to pulse through his body, making his skin prickle and his body shiver. He could ascend, but he wondered if he might have alerted the creature below already. If he had, leaving now might mean risking a battle upon his return.

Kicking over to the next oyster, Wu Ying placed his hand upon it, debating his best course of action. Risk running out of air whilst prying open more oysters, or ascending now and risk alerting whatever creature it was that waited below?

In the end, it was all risk.