Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Zhao Sheng looked up and saw a radiant, charming face before him. The person was tall and statuesque, with a voluptuous figure and long, fiery red hair that cascaded down like flames, matching her fiery personality.

Hai Lan'er, the precious jewel of Captain Hai Dafu and Zhao Sheng's creditor.

"Sister Lan'er, do you believe me when I say I just saw nothing?"

"Hehe, I don't believe you!"

"I'm telling the truth, whether you believe it or not, I believe it!"

Slap!

"Speak human language!"

Though Zhao Sheng could have dodged the slap, he chose to endure it to avoid further torment.

After a bit of roughing up, Hai Lan'er finally vented her frustration, considering she was still a virgin, she couldn't let someone take advantage like that.

If Zhao Sheng knew what was on Hai Lan'er's mind, he definitely would have something to say, "Knowing that you're still a virgin, yet you dress so scantily and run around the ship every day. It's because..."

Hai Dafu spoils his daughter like crazy. Because of Hai Lan'er, all the crew members had experienced the painful ordeal of the captain's torment.

As these incidents accumulated over time, Hai Lan'er became the Emperor of the Da Fu ship. The crew members, seeing her, were like mice seeing a cat, either holding her in high regard or avoiding her entirely.

Seeing Zhao Sheng acting meekly, Hai Lan'er uninterestedly pouted, stretched out a slender, fair hand, and said righteously, "It's time to pay this month's interest. Two hundred Spirit Stones!"

Here!

While mentally grumbling about her being a money-grubber, Zhao Sheng deftly pulled out two mid-grade Spirit Stones and handed them over to Hai Lan'er.

Three months ago, after Hai Dafu "rescued" Zhao Sheng onto the ship, he immediately declared that such a life-saving favor could not go unrewarded, then conveniently announced that the favor could be repaid with ten thousand Spirit Stones.

At the same time he "thoughtfully" lent Zhao Sheng ten thousand Spirit Stones, the interest, honestly speaking, was very low, just two percent.

However, there was one condition: until the debt was fully repaid, Zhao Sheng was required to work on the Da Fu, with a monthly salary based on his Cultivation Realm. Being at the third layer of Qi Refinement, he only earned thirty Spirit Stones, not even enough to cover the interest.

Facing his "life-saver," Foundation Establishment Cultivator Hai Dafu, what could Zhao Sheng do, honestly he was helpless!

What made Zhao Sheng even more helpless was that Hai Dafu had actually assigned Miss Lan to collect the debt.

This decision was hardly his idea,

perhaps it was a certain Miss who spotted a new toy... no, a newcomer on the ship and suddenly became interested.

Hai Lan'er happily accepted the Spirit Stones, and with her other hand patted Zhao Sheng's shoulder, encouraging him with a smile, "Young man, you must work hard in the future!"

With that, she turned and nimbly climbed up the ship's ladder and left, inadvertently giving Zhao Sheng a break.

As Zhao Sheng watched her swaying figure disappearing, he thought to himself, "Young man? Hmph, if I told you how old I am, saying it out loud might scare you to death!"

Only after Hai Lan'er disappeared from the ladder did Zhao Sheng climb up.

Shortly after, he walked across the deck and entered the Spirit Stone cultivation room located beneath the second deck.

On a side note, the Shattered Star Sea is not quite what people imagine.

This ocean has a very uneven distribution of Spiritual Energy. In areas like the Inner Star Sea, the average concentration of Spiritual Energy far exceeds that of the Central Continent. Yet, most regions of the Shattered Star Sea have sparse Spiritual Energy, almost to the point of being desert-like.

Cultivating in a Spiritual Energy desert is like squeezing milk from sand, you can imagine the difficulty.

Therefore, spirit cultivation and Food Cultivation are prevalent in the Shattered Star Sea, and the prevalence of Spirit Gathering Arrays is much higher than in other realms of the Tianzhu Realm.

The Da Fu whaling ship is a second-tier Treasure Ship equipped with three mini Spirit Gathering Arrays and matching Spirit Burning Arrays, making full use of the Spiritual Energy within the Spirit Stones.

With the experience from his previous life, Zhao Sheng's cultivation rate is at least twice as fast as other cultivators with three spirit roots.

Though it had only been three months since his breakthrough to the third layer of Qi Refinement, he had already vaguely touched the edge of the fourth level. With another half a month, he would break through to the Qi Refining Middle Stage.

Moving from the third layer to the fourth level is a not too big, nor too small threshold; leaping over it, a cultivator's strength would see a significant jump.

For Zhao Sheng, once he reached the Qi Refining Fourth Level, even common cultivators at the Qi Refining Seventh or Eighth Level would not be his match once he used all his methods.

Time flashed by, and half a month had passed.

Zhao Sheng walked calmly out of the cultivation room, unknown to anyone that he had successfully advanced to the Qi Refining Fourth Level.

Chen Laoer was leaning against the Dragon-shooting Crossbow. Upon seeing Zhao Sheng, he immediately exclaimed excitedly, "Little Tian, you've come out of retreat. That's great, it's just your turn to take over!"

Zhao Sheng stepped forward, smiling, "Brother Chen, you go rest. I'll keep watch here, rest assured!"

"Be extra careful, lad. We've already crossed the Second Island Chain and are truly deep into the ocean. This place is fraught with danger and unexpected threats can arise at any time. If something goes wrong, remember not to panic but rush back into the cultivation room to hide."

After several months of interaction, Chen genuinely admired Zhao Sheng and, risking the captain's reprimand, revealed the "truth."

Zhao Sheng sincerely felt his heartfelt concern.

Without saying much, Zhao Sheng nodded and said solemnly, "Hmm, I got it!"

After Chen Laoer left, Zhao Sheng looked towards the sea surface.

This was the open sea, where the wind was strong and the waves were high, and the water below was pitch black.

Zhao Sheng knew this signified that the depth of the sea was beyond imagination, at least thousands of fathoms deep, and even tens of thousands were not unusual.

As the saying goes, deep mountains and great swamps give rise to Dragon Serpents; only a mysterious and magnificent Outer Sea like this could breed giant beings like the Spirit Whale.

Three days later, the weather was sunny and the sea calm.

On the Da Fu, a group of sailors ran to one side of the ship, looking at the sea surface tens of miles away, pointing and discussing.

There, the waves surged, and foam spiraled upward. From time to time, large spouts of water shot high from the sea surface, and soon after, gigantic creatures leapt from the water, crashing back down and throwing up waves as big as mountains.

Hearing the distant sounds of thunderous roars, Zhao Sheng's expression was grave; he was encountering creatures bigger than Cloud Dragons for the first time in his many lives, other than Mountain Dragons that had died.

The Spirit Whale was one of the largest types of sea beasts in the Shattered Star Sea, with an average length of over fifty fathoms when mature, roughly the size of the Da Fu.

To be precise, the keel of the Da Fu was forged from the spine of a mature Spirit Whale.

Once a Spirit Whale reached maturity, it became a Second-order Demon Beast and a particularly powerful one at that.

Afterwards, living just a few hundred more years would allow its size to grow to seventy or eighty fathoms, easily making it one of the top Second-order Demon Beasts, a match only for Golden Core cultivators.

Occasionally, those with outstanding talent could exceed a hundred fathoms in size and advance to a Third-rank Demon Beast without surprise.

If it weren't for the Spirit Whale's gentle and non-aggressive nature, they could have dominated a territory of the ocean just like the Sea Dominator Octopus or Dragon Serpents, instead of becoming targets for cultivators.

But that said, even the gentle Spirit Whale, when faced with the danger of being killed, would show a brutally violent side.

Whaling was an extremely dangerous job!

Each year, nearly a hundred Treasure Ships from Whale Island went out to hunt whales, and only eighty percent managed to return safely.

Keep in mind that each Treasure Ship capable of killing a Spirit Whale had at least one Foundation Establishment Cultivator on board, yet the loss rate was still over twenty percent.

The peril was imaginable.

Of course, as great as the danger was during whaling, the profits afterward were equally substantial!

On the second deck, Hai Dafu observed the frolicking group of Spirit Whales in the distance with a very serious expression.

The Da Fu had the capability to kill a Spirit Whale, but it certainly wouldn't dare confront a group of them.

At that moment, Hai Lan'er turned and asked, "Dad, shall we put out the bait?"

Hai Dafu stroked his beard, waving his hand, "No rush, let's observe for a few more days. It won't be too late to make our move after spotting an isolated one!"

Three days later, a sudden thunderstorm struck.

That day, the opportunity Hai Dafu had been anxiously waiting for finally arrived.