Chapter 247 - 245: Bygones of the Vast Sea

「Eight months ago.」

Vast Sea, near the coast of Yanhua.

An unremarkable sea vessel was slowly making its way across the endless azure waves.

It was a small-to-medium-sized fishing boat, its hull streaked with rust, the CHUG CHUG CHUG of its motor never ceasing.

It was primarily used for catching deep-sea fish and could, at most, handle Sea Beasts under twenty meters long. Because of this, it never strayed more than 1,000 kilometers from the Yanhua coast.

Of course, it was still a grueling job. They often circled for days on end searching for a catch, with each trip lasting at least twenty days, sometimes even a month or two.

Due to the size of the Sea Beasts and the demands of operating the equipment, the average crew member had reached the Bone Training level. It was considered a particularly tough line of work for "Low-tier Martial Artists."

On the ship’s rail, two men were chatting. Lei Yiming offered a cigarette, then pulled it back.

"Forgot you quit again. You’re ruthless. They say you can never be friends with a man who can quit smoking. You’re not gonna stab me in my sleep, are you?"

Yang Wen laughed and cursed, "Bullshit. You just can’t quit yourself, so you feel insecure and have to bad-mouth those who can."

Lei Yiming lit one for himself. "Your kid Shen is in his third year of high school, right? Trying to save some cigarette money to buy him Supplements?"

Yang Wen leaned against the railing, gazing out at the sea he had long since grown tired of.

’If not for my livelihood and family, who would ever like a place like this? Let alone venture out into it time and time again.’

"Yeah... The kid’s liberal arts grades were always good, but he started pushing hard on Body Forging in his second year, and his academic performance just plummeted."

"He’s not without talent. He has a real Spirituality for fighting. It’s me, his uncle, who’s not capable enough... Every little bit I save helps. Maybe he can get into a Martial Arts College?"

Lei Yiming thought of his own two children and felt a wave of uncertainty himself.

At their age, they no longer liked to dream their own dreams.

But sometimes, they dreamed their children’s dreams for them.

Yang Wen clapped his old friend on the shoulder. "You should start saving too. It’s not a long-term solution for Lei Lv and Lei Yi to stay in the village, with their schooling so intermittent. You need to plan for their future."

Lei Yiming shifted uncomfortably. "Actually... I started trying to save a couple of years ago."

"And?"

"I don’t know where it all went... I feel like I’ve been living so frugally, but my savings haven’t grown at all."

"That’s what you call ’not knowing where you spent it’! The moment we dock, half a month’s work goes down the drain! Which port doesn’t have one of your old flames?"

"Sigh... After messing around for half my life, the most valuable thing I own is my insurance policy."

"You’re nuts..."

The two joked around for a bit before a shout called them over to haul in the nets.

They worked nonstop for three hours to complete a single haul. Their luck was average—just ordinary fish, no Sea Beasts.

Martial Artists were strong, but fishing was still manual labor. The equipment couldn’t completely replace human effort. Out of breath, Yang Wen and Lei Yiming leaned against the deck for a short break, staring blankly at the night-fishing lights overhead.

"It’s about time to head back. We’re almost out of fuel. Let’s grab a drink together when we get to shore."

"Let’s drink at my place. I’ll have your wife cook a few dishes. The more the merrier."

Just as he spoke, another sailor pointed into the distance. "Huh? There’s a boat approaching. What are they doing here?"

It wasn’t strange to see another boat on the vast sea, but for one to get this close was dangerous, especially at night.

Normally, if someone had business, they’d communicate by radio first. Approaching silently like this was unsettling.

Then, they heard a strange THUMP-THUMP sound... None of the Low-tier Martial Artists recognized it. It wasn’t until the sound grew closer that the captain realized. "It’s a Martial Artist!"

Sure enough, a figure was sprinting across the surface of the water toward them. He was barely visible in the darkness but moved with incredible speed.

To be able to run on water, one had to be at least an Innate Martial Artist—far beyond what they could handle. In an instant, alarm bells went off in everyone’s mind.

In the time it took them to stare in shock, the person had already leaped high into the air and landed on deck. He was holding a metal device that looked like an iron box.

The man was young, perhaps in his twenties, with a completely blank expression. His pupils were as hollow as a doll’s.

This was not the behavior of an honest person. The sailors scrambled to their feet nervously. The first mate brandished a fishing harpoon defensively, and someone else even fetched a gun from the cabin.

The young man wasted no words. A metal object slid from his sleeve into his palm, and with a slight adjustment, it transformed into a Long Staff. He then began attacking all the sailors.

The sailors were a tough bunch, but the absolute gap in cultivation level made them no match for him. The Bone Training sailors couldn’t even fight back before they were swiftly struck down.

A few scattered gunshots were useless, their reports drifting away on the wind over the dark sea.

In the chaos, the captain ran back to the pilothouse to try and call for help, only to find the radio was dead.

’The box in his hand... it must be some kind of jamming device.’

The young man soon rushed into the pilothouse as well, subduing the captain, who was in the early stages of Marrow Refining.

A dozen or so minutes later, the other boat slowly approached, came alongside the fishing boat, and extended a gangplank. More people swarmed aboard.

Even more bizarre... several sizable Sea Beasts circled their ship, apparently under their command.

Soon, the entire crew was bound and crowded onto the foredeck. Some had even had their legs broken.

The captain, beaten horribly and barely breathing, gasped, "We’re just a fishing boat... What do you want..."

None of the intruders paid any attention to the crew, as if they were merely lambs to the slaughter.

They just talked amongst themselves. "Should we take them with us?"

"No need. We’ll do it here. Leave the bodies, then have the Sea Beasts ram the ship a few times. We can make it look like a Sea Beast rampage."

One of them, surrounded by the others, stepped forward and took out a small box.

Inside were peanut-sized insect eggs.

He then pinched the sailors’ mouths open and forced one down each of their throats.

No... not all of them. The old and those with low cultivation levels were simply thrown into the sea, hands and feet still bound. The circling Sea Beasts immediately rushed in to tear them apart, staining the water red.

The sailors were plunged into absolute terror... One of the more well-traveled and experienced sailors recognized their methods!

"It’s Witchcraft! They’re from the Si Realm!"

"Don’t eat that bug! Don’t eat it!"

But their struggles were meaningless. Even if they dislocated their own jaws, the men would just toss the eggs into their mouths.

Yang Wen was no exception...

He fought with all his might, but the arm-thick ropes binding him were impossible to break free from.

A sharp pain shot through his jaw as an egg was shoved down his esophagus.

Despair, terror... and an infinite longing for his family, all trapped within the thick ropes.

After feeding them the eggs, the group didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave. The sailors could feel something hatching in their stomachs, gnawing at their flesh and blood.

Probably assuming there would be no more surprises, a few of them started chatting casually in front of the sailors.

"Is this method even going to work? With just these weaklings at the Bone Training stage..."

"If they were at the Marrow Refining or even the Innate stage, the Soul-Devouring Gu might not be able to hatch. I think this is perfect. We take advantage of the Sea Beast rampage that bastard caused, grab a fishing boat, and frame the beasts. It’s much more convenient than abducting people on land."

"This is our last attempt. That monster is growing far faster than we predicted. It’ll be completely out of control soon. If this doesn’t work, decades of research will be all for nothing."

Yang Wen felt the Gu Insect inside him growing more and more active, but the pain was getting fainter.

Eventually, he couldn’t even feel the pain. He just felt drowsy, his eyelids heavy... and then he lost consciousness.

After that, Yang Wen entered a strange state. At times, he felt like he had a good night’s sleep. At others, his head felt like it was splitting open, and his consciousness was like a slideshow.

Occasionally, there were even fragments from the perspective of an insect being held in someone’s palm.

There was no sense of time, no clear memories, only a constant churn of flashbacks and confusion.

At one point, Yang Wen felt his consciousness merge with many others. Driven by instinct, they began to attack each other. He couldn’t feel his own limbs, but that’s what it seemed like was happening.

And among those many consciousnesses, Yang Wen’s own seemed to be the strongest.

This continued until Yang Wen sensed a familiar aura. He reached out, and the two of them joined forces, trusting each other as they fought back against the inexplicable attacks.

By the time he regained his vision in a true sense—or rather, when his consciousness finally cleared—he had no idea how much time had passed.

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself in the endless darkness of the seafloor...