Chapter 0244: The Flickering Ship
Ning Cheng carefully controlled his flight type magical weapon as he slowly descended towards this ship that seemed to cruising the ocean. He did not know the origin of this ship; as such, he was not willing to rush up to it.
But when Ning Cheng was only a thousand meters away from this ship, the ship in front of him suddenly disappeared. Ning Cheng was startled at heart, as he immediately lurched to a stop, while simultaneously used his spiritual consciousness to carefully sweep the location at which the ship had disappeared. He found that place to be empty, and did not have anything at all.
The ocean sailing ship had completely disappeared; moreover, even the surrounding water was also completely tranquil, just how could such a huge ship disappear?
A mirage? Ning Cheng immediately shot down that thought, what he had seen was certainly not a mirage. His spiritual consciousness clearly had detected the ship in its sweep showing that it was definitely made of real materials; moreover, his spiritual consciousness was also unable to seep into the ship.
If it was a mirage, then how could he possibly have such a feeling? As such, it was not a mirage, yet how could it not be illusion when he saw it disappear without so much as a hint. Although the water in this area of the ocean was not clear, but it could not block his spiritual consciousness.
Ning Cheng immediately clutched an Escaping Talisman in his hand, before he started to advance towards that location at which he had first seen the ship, but this time at an even slower pace. After he advanced a few hundred meters, Ning Cheng once again had to stop abruptly. A ship was starting to materialize at that spot, moreover it was not only huge but was also turning from obscure to clear, and at the same time, one could also make out more and more of its finer details.
This time Ning Cheng was able to get a clear look at it, and found that it was actually not something that could be considered as a ship, although the part facing him was similar in appearance to the hull of a ship, but it was actually a ship shaped island. This island looked so much like an ocean faring ship, not only was it similar in appearance, but it even had a Natural Restriction which was similar to the ones placed on ships, because of which his spiritual consciousness could not seep in.
That ship-shaped island was very quiet, without even a single trace of sound. Ning Cheng did not dare to go up to the island immediately. He did not know what the hell was wrong with this island, and was thinking if this island would cease to exist in a moment.
As Ning Cheng observed it for the time it took for an incense stick to burn, he found that apart from this island’s apparent ability to automatically conceal itself from the outside, there was nothing else that was suspicious. It even so did not give him any sort of dangerous feeling. He finally decided to go up to this island to have a look, in case there was any danger, he would immediately activate the Escape Talisman to get away.
“Wo Wo….” A sound of a horn that would make people extremely uncomfortable, that was both low and deep, rode up through the ocean breeze, which made Ning Cheng to suddenly turn vigilant. A moment ago, Ning Cheng had focussed his entire attention on the ship-shaped island in front of him, and had forgotten to keep track of his surrounding circumstances. He immediately swept out with his spiritual consciousness. This time a fuzzy image of another ocean faring ship appeared in the range of his spiritual consciousness.
His spiritual consciousness, at this moment, was already very powerful, and was much more solid when compared to the spiritual consciousness of an average Profound Core Cultivator. As such, even though there was a huge distance between them, even so he was still able to see them.
Was this like before?
Ning Cheng soon found a difference, this ship that appeared behind the ship-shaped island that he had seen a while ago, had some differences. The ship that had just emerged was actually sailing the ocean, and not only sailing, with his spiritual consciousness he could also perceive many shadows moving back and forth on it. It can be seen that this ship was really a ship, and there were real people existing over it.
There really were people here, Ning Cheng couldn’t help but call out in a soft tone. What he was most fearful was, dying in the depths of the Yi Xing Ocean, in other words, in the middle of nowhere. Since there were people coming here, it would also mean that he would be able to reach land from here.
He planned to first go up to the people on the ship and ask about the current situation first. He turned to look at this ship-shaped island once again, but when Ning Cheng turned his head back, he was startled once again. The ship-shaped island had once again inexplicably disappeared.
This kind of phenomenon was simply too strange. Ning Cheng was no longer the kind of person who had arrived at the Yi Xing Mainland for one or two days. He had seen many strange things since he had arrived here; as such, he did not particularly care about this one. After memorizing the particular location in front of him, Ning Cheng quickly left the area, as he moved towards the ship that had people on-board.
Ning Cheng’s speed was not fast. As he got closer to the ship, he continued to keep a close watch on it. After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the sailors over the ship also were able to discover his presence, and even opened the Restrictions over the deck, causing a few different spiritual consciousness swept over the body of Ning Cheng.
On seeing this, Ning Cheng also picked up his speed before finally landing on the ship’s deck.
In order to not cause a misunderstanding with the others, Ning Cheng did not use his spiritual consciousness to forcibly scan the inside of the ship before landing. Before when his spiritual consciousness had just brushed past the ship, he was able to sense that there was definitely someone people inside, and had immediately retracted it. Now that the Restriction over the ship’s deck was opened, Ning Cheng was able to clearly see the circumstances inside and was immediately surprised. Just the deck of the ship had at least one to two hundred people. Just what kind of ship was this? If just the deck itself held this amount of people, then wouldn’t it mean that there were even more people inside?
Ning Cheng had just landed and had still not yet steadied his feet, when two men immediately landed in front of Ning Cheng. One on his left, and the other on his right, as they scrutinised Ning Cheng. These two people had their cultivation in Profound Core Realm. One of them looked extremely sturdy, and had a head full of dark red hair. While the other person had short hair, and was standing with pursed lips as he stared at Ning Cheng. It seemed as if he would never speak.
In the eyes of the two, in addition to a little bit of surprise, there was not much of a vigilance. After all, Ning Cheng’s real cultivation was only in the Profound Congealing Realm, plus with how young Ning Cheng looked, they presumed that it was pretty much impossible for him to have a cultivation more powerful than their own.
Ning Cheng did not wait for the two of them to speak, as he cupped his fists and spoke, “Two friends, our ship because of an encounter with a Class 8 monstrous beast, ended up getting wrecked. I, with the help of an Escaping Talisman, was lucky to be able to escape with my life. I have been drifting for a few months already, so today when I saw a ship again, wanted to take this heaven sent advantage to ask for refuge the ship…”
Ning Cheng had already gone through the details as to what to say, covering all the flaws, that he was on a ship before, but his ship was destroyed by a monstrous beast. It was definitely not much of a strange thing. Moreover, even though there were so many cultivators on the ship, there might not even be a single person here who would recognize him. But even so, at this point, he couldn’t help but think as to what he would reply with if other asked about his origin, or about what he had come here for, how should he answer it?
The red haired male cultivator hearing Ning Cheng’s words nodded his head as he spoke, “It must have been difficult for you, especially regarding your ship, but since you were able to able to escape, it could be considered as you getting off lightly. Presumably, you must have followed the original navigational direction of your ship to come here, and should also be searching for the Mirage Ship Island. Since you already are aware of the rules on an ocean faring ship, as such I will not be speaking any nonsense. We have a few cabins available on our ship, what grade do you want?
This red haired man did not seem to be stranger to the thought of meeting people like Ning Cheng; it was obvious that he encountered many of such situations before. Not only was he not stranger to the things that Ning Cheng had spoken about, he was even too lazy to ask about his name or even his origin.
“I don’t have a lot of Spiritual Stones on me, so let’s talk about the cheapest single cabin you have.” Ning Cheng truly did not know about the several grades of cabins available on an ocean faring ship, as such could only vaguely speak a phrase.
Thinking about what the red haired male cultivator spoke about something called the Mirage Ship Island, he could not help but think back to the ship-shaped island that he had seen earlier. If it was really the same thing, then he did not know as to why there people wanted to find this island.
That male cultivator with short hair and pursed lips swept a glance at Ning Cheng and finally spoke up in quite voice, “There is a single cabin for you to live here, and is also fairly good.”
The red haired man also nodded in favour, as he took out a number plate and gave it to Ning Cheng while saying, “You can go to the 3rd Grade Cabin 219. No. 219 has been already been empty for a long time, and the price is 100,000 High Grade Spirit stones for a year.”
Ning Cheng hurried received the jade sign, and paid the 100,000 Spirit stones to the opposite party. While at the same time, he thought in his heart that this room was really quite expensive, already the cheapest and yet costs about 100,000 Spirit stones a year, if that was the case then how much would the best cabin cost?
“You can go in, you already know the rules of the ship and I will also not bother to say it.” The red haired cultivator seeing Ning Cheng pay up the Spirit stones felt very refreshed, and was also quite satisfied. What he would have hated the most was if this cultivator, who although met such a misfortune, entered the ship and started bargaining.
Ning Cheng on seeing that the opposite party not take him to the 219th cabin, also did not care to ask about it, as he cupped his fists as a thanks, and immediately moved to enter the inside of the ship.
At the same time, his spiritual consciousness swept into the jade card in his hand. The jade card turned out to be a quite an impressive and clear positional map. The top surface was marked with the location of the various cabins; Ning Cheng could not help but sigh out in amazement. Not only this jade card contained the map layout, there was also a bit of information about the different areas. The various makeshift settlements, auction markets, shops and the likes were also marked quite clearly on it.
This ship was simply extremely huge, Ning Cheng made a careful observation from one side as he walked, after the time it took for half an incense stick to burn, he finally arrived at the door marked with ‘219’.
Using the jade sign to open the room, it was not contrary to what Ning Cheng expected. This room was definitely not larger than 10 square meters, and other than a wooden bed, there was nothing else in here.
Shutting the door, Ning Cheng’s spiritual consciousness carefully read the information on the jade sign. Needless to say, it was forbidden or rather one did not have the option of spying on the rooms of other people at will. Before the fare for the passage has not expired, the tenants would have to also take the initiative to pay the fees by themselves, if it becomes known that you are staying without renewing then you will be fined even more. If you had no spirit stones, then you would simply be thrown into the ocean.
Ning Cheng put away the jade card, and arranged a simple Shielding Restriction inside his room. He did not intend to continue with his cultivation practice on the ship; as such, the restriction that he placed was also a lower level restriction.
After tidying his things up, Ning Cheng left his cabin. He first wanted to inquire as to exactly where this ship had originated from, and also why did it want to go search for the ‘Mirage Ship Island’?
……
“Fuck off.” Ning Cheng had had just arrived at the ship’s makeshift market, when he saw a shadow of a Taoist being kicked out from the inside of a shop, which was accompanied with an extremely unhappy and foul-mouthed voice.
There were many people in this makeshift market, but when these people saw this situation, none of them stepped forward to say anything.