Landing

The Endless Sea, day seven.

Jiang Lin stood on the raft, holding the simple compass in his hand.

The needle was still spinning wildly, but the speed was slightly slower than in previous days.

“The magnetic field is returning to normal,” he judged.

“It should be usable in a few more days.”

Little Black lay at the edge of the raft, looking at the sea with boredom.

In the past few days, they had encountered several more sea beasts.

There was a giant octopus over thirty meters long, a sea turtle covered in a hard shell, and an eel that could discharge electricity.

However, Jiang Lin had easily dealt with them all, and they had become delicious meals on their table.

“Where exactly do you think we're drifting?” Little Black asked.

“I don't know.”

Jiang Lin put away the compass.

“But if I haven't misjudged, we're heading west.”

Little Black was silent for a moment and sighed.

“I hope so.”

Jiang Lin nodded and continued to circulate his breathing technique.

Just then, a dark shadow appeared on the distant sea.

Looking closely, it was a broken, half-sunken ship.

The hull was tilted, the mast was broken, and the canvas was in tatters, drifting slowly in the waves.

Jiang Lin narrowed his eyes as his Phantom Step · Shadow Wind perception quietly expanded.

There were no signs of life on the ship, only the salty smell of seawater and the scent of rotting wood.

“A shipwreck.” Little Black saw it too. “Will there be good stuff inside?”

“Let's go take a look.”

Jiang Lin had the crimson claw-wings change direction, pushing the raft toward the shipwreck.

The shipwreck was larger than expected.

It was about fifty meters long, built of black wood with complex magic runes carved on the surface.

Most of those runes were already blurred, with only a few still barely recognizable.

“It should be a ship from the demons or the elves.”

Jiang Lin recalled the knowledge he had learned from books and made a judgment.

“Looking at the style of these runes, it's at least several hundred years old.”

Jiang Lin jumped onto the shipwreck, stepping onto the tilted deck.

The deck was slippery, covered in a thick layer of seaweed and barnacles, and the air was thick with the smell of brine and decay.

He walked to the cabin entrance and pushed the door open.

Behind the door was darkness.

Jiang Lin raised his hand, and a wisp of holy light lit up at his fingertip, illuminating the interior of the cabin.

This was a captain's quarters.

The room was not large and the furnishings were simple: a fixed wooden table, an overturned chair, and a scattered map rack.

A faded sea chart hung on the wall, marked with text that Jiang Lin could not understand.

He walked to the map rack and picked up the scattered sea charts.

The chart was very large, covering almost the entire tabletop when spread out.

It marked vast areas of sea and land, with one piece of land circled in red ink, next to which a line of text was written.

“What script is this?” Jiang Lin frowned.

Little Black leaned over to take a look.

“Ancient Demonic tongue. It means ‘New Continent’.”

“New Continent?”

“It's a block of land they just discovered. From the map, it should be to the east of this sea area.”

Little Black pointed its claw at the land circled in red on the map.

“Looking at this map, if we set out from the demon territory, at the speed of this raft, we'd be drifting for at least two or three years.”

Jiang Lin was silent for a moment before storing the sea chart in his spatial ring.

“Let's keep going.”

He turned and walked out of the cabin, returning to the raft.

Little Black jumped onto his shoulder.

“Which way do you think we're going?”

“West.” Jiang Lin looked up at the sun. “At least the position of the sun tells me we're heading west.”

“And what if we're actually going east?”

“The general direction of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west shouldn't be wrong, right?”

“I hope so.”

The Endless Sea, day thirteen.

The weather suddenly changed.

The originally clear sky was covered by dark clouds within half an hour. The sea breeze turned from a breeze into a gale, and the waves turned from ripples into giants.

“A storm is coming!” Little Black's fur bristled as its four claws dug desperately into the edge of the raft.

Jiang Lin looked up at the sky, his golden eyes reflecting the rolling dark clouds and flashing lightning.

“It's not an ordinary storm.” He frowned. “I can feel magic power fluctuations in the wind.”

“What do you mean?”

“Something is controlling this storm.”

Before he could finish his sentence, a thick bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking directly toward the raft!

Jiang Lin raised his hand, the Eight Extremities Holy Sword condensing in his palm as he blocked with the blade.

BOOM!!!

The lightning struck the blade, erupting in a blinding light.

Jiang Lin's body swayed, and the raft beneath his feet shook violently, but he ultimately remained steady.

“Such strong lightning magic.” He shook his numbed arm. “At least at the 6th-rank level.”

“6th-rank? Can you beat it?!”

“This lightning magic isn't aimed at us; this is just the outer periphery's aftermath.”

Jiang Lin looked toward the center of the storm with his perception, only to see that the originally endless and flat sea surface had now formed a waterspout due to the violent wind.

Vaguely, he seemed to see two dark shadows in the sea so massive they were terrifying, seemingly colliding with each other.

Those were two sea beasts—at least 8th-rank or even 9th-rank sea beasts!

In the next moment, massive waves spread outward from the center of the collision.

The height of those waves was at least several hundred meters!

Jiang Lin put away the Eight Extremities Holy Sword and pulled a wooden board from his spatial ring, handing it to Little Black.

“Hold on tight.”

Little Black took the board, its four claws clutching it for dear life.

“What are you going to do?!”

“Accelerate.”

Jiang Lin raised his right hand, palm facing down.

A blood-red rift appeared out of thin air, and dozens of crimson claw-wings swarmed out. They flew directly above the raft, their bone wings unfolding like a giant sail.

“Full speed ahead!”

The crimson claw-wings flapped their wings simultaneously, and a gale erupted from beneath them, pushing the raft across the sea at high speed.

The speed was more than ten times faster than before.

But the storm's reach spread even faster.

Small-scale giant waves surged from all directions, some dozens of meters high, like moving mountains.

The raft tossed on the crests of the waves, nearly capsizing several times.

Little Black held the wooden board tightly, its eyes squeezed shut as it muttered something under its breath.

Jiang Lin stood at the front of the raft, his long golden hair flying in the gale.

His perception was fully expanded, capturing the trajectory of every wave and every wisp of wind, commanding the crimson claw-wings to adjust their direction and weave through the gaps in the giant waves.

One wave, two waves, three waves...

When the largest giant wave, hundreds of meters high, rushed toward them, Jiang Lin knew they couldn't dodge it.

“Hold on!”

He shouted, the Eight Extremities Holy Sword condensing once more, its blade wrapped in deep blue ice soul power.

Eighth Style · Extreme Cold.

A point of ice-blue light at the tip of the sword collapsed rapidly, transforming into a ring of ice that expanded outward.

Everywhere the ice ring passed, the surface of the giant wave began to freeze. From the crest downward, frost spread rapidly.

But the wave was too large—so large that even the ice soul power could not completely freeze it.

BOOM!!!

The raft collided head-on with the giant wave.

Jiang Lin only felt an indescribable force surge from beneath his feet, throwing him into the air.

He instinctively grabbed Little Black beside him while simultaneously channeling all the magic power in his body to form a thick shield on his surface.

At the same time, he pulled the raft into his storage space and ended the summoning of the Blood Demons.

One wall of waves after another crashed down, pushing him further away.

The aftermath of the fight between the two 9th-rank sea beasts was like a moving mountain, spreading in all directions with the power to destroy everything.

Jiang Lin didn't know how far he had been washed away.

He only knew he had been tumbling in the water, like being stuffed into a washing machine—his head was spinning, and he completely lost his sense of direction.

Little Black struggled desperately in his arms, its claws digging painfully into his chest.

“Meow-w-w-w!!!”

Little Black's scream sounded exceptionally pathetic amidst the wind and waves.

Jiang Lin gritted his teeth, injecting magic power into the shield on his surface to keep himself and Little Black from drowning in the seawater.

Time passed minute by minute.

After an unknown amount of time, the waves finally gradually subsided.

Jiang Lin poked his head out of the water, gasping for breath.

“Cough, cough, cough...”

He spat out a mouthful of seawater, wiped his face, and looked around.

The sky was still gloomy and overcast, but the storm had moved far away.

The sea surface had returned to calm, with only scattered ripples glistening in the sunlight.

“Little Black? Are you still alive?”

“Meow...”

A weak sound came from his arms.

Jiang Lin looked down to see Little Black slumped in his embrace, soaking wet. Its amber cat eyes were half-open, looking as if it were about to breathe its last.

“It's good that you're still alive.”

Jiang Lin breathed a sigh of relief, pulled an inflatable lifebuoy from his spatial ring, and put it on for himself and Little Black.

“I... I feel like I'm dying...” Little Black said weakly.

“You're not going to die.”

As Jiang Lin treaded water, he looked around.

The sky was still gloomy, but the dark clouds were dispersing. Sunlight spilled through the gaps in the clouds, casting golden pillars of light on the sea.

In the distance, toward the center of the storm, the two massive dark shadows had disappeared. He didn't know how far they had been swept away.

“Those two sea beasts... were at least 8th-rank, maybe even 9th-rank.”

Recalling the scene he had just witnessed, Jiang Lin felt a chill in his heart.

If he had been any closer at that time, he probably wouldn't have even had a chance to run.

“Is this the Endless Sea...”

He took a deep breath and pulled the simple compass from his spatial ring.

The needle was still spinning, but much slower than before, occasionally pausing to point in a certain direction before continuing to spin.

“The magnetic field is recovering,” Jiang Lin judged.

“It should be usable in a few more days.”

He put the compass back into his ring, then pulled out the inflatable lifebuoy and wooden boards to reassemble the raft.

The ropes in his hands wrapped and knotted around the edges of the boards, fixing the waterproof cloth to the four corners.

Then he raised his right hand, palm facing down.

A blood-red rift appeared out of thin air, and several 3rd-rank peak crimson claw-wings emerged from it.

“Go. Push the boat.”

The crimson claw-wings silently swam behind the raft, pressing their heads against the lifebuoy and beginning to push forward.

The speed was much faster than before.

Jiang Lin sat cross-legged on the raft and began to circulate his breathing technique.

For the next few days, the sea remained very calm.

There were no storms, no giant waves, and no sea beasts.

There was only the endless seawater and the occasional seabird flying overhead.

What Jiang Lin did every day was very simple:

In the morning, he would use the compass to judge the direction and adjust the raft's course.

At noon, he would catch a few fish from the sea and make fish soup.

In the afternoon, he would sit cross-legged on the raft, circulating his breathing technique and trying to break through to the 4th-rank on his own.

At night, he would look at the stars to determine his position and then continue with his breathing technique.

Little Black, on the other hand, lay at the edge of the raft every day, looking at the sea with boredom. Occasionally, it would reach out a claw to catch a fish, only to get a face full of water from the fish's tail.

“Where exactly do you think we're drifting?” Little Black asked.

“West.” Jiang Lin didn't even look up.

“Are you sure?”

“The compass tells me we're going west.”

Jiang Lin pulled out the compass, and the needle pointed steadily north.

“The magnetic field interference has disappeared. The compass is usable now. We've been heading west.”

Little Black was silent for a moment and sighed.

“I hope there's land to the west.”

“There will be.”

The Endless Sea, day twenty-one.

In the morning, Jiang Lin woke up from his meditation and habitually pulled out the compass.

The needle pointed steadily north.

He looked up at the sun, then back at the compass, and nodded slightly.

“The direction is correct.”

He put away the compass and was about to catch some fish for breakfast when suddenly...

“Meow! Land! I see land!”

Little Black suddenly jumped up from the edge of the raft, its four claws pointing forward, its amber cat eyes wide.

Jiang Lin looked in the direction it was pointing.

Where the sea met the sky, a blurry green line was faintly visible.

It was land.

“Finally...”

Jiang Lin stood up, his golden eyes reflecting the increasingly clear green line.

“Accelerate.”

He raised his right hand, and the blood-red rift appeared once more. More crimson claw-wings swarmed out, pushing the raft forward at high speed.

The outline of the land became clearer and clearer.

It was a vast land with a continuous coastline, with rolling mountains and dense forests in the distance.

The sky was bluer than over the Endless Sea, the clouds were as white as cotton, and seabirds circled overhead, letting out cheerful cries.

“We're finally here!!”

Little Black collapsed on the raft, four claws in the air, looking as if it had just escaped death.

“I thought we were going to drift at sea for the rest of our lives...”

“Not quite.”

Jiang Lin brought the raft to the shore and stepped onto the soft sand.

The sand was golden and felt very comfortable underfoot.

The sea breeze carried a salty scent, but it was much fainter than at sea, replaced more by the fragrance of vegetation.

“Where is this?”

Little Black jumped off the raft, its four paws stepping onto the sand and leaving shallow prints.

“I don't know.”

Jiang Lin looked around, his gaze falling on the dense forest in the distance.

“But at least we have land.”

Stepping onto land again gave him a special feeling.

After drifting at sea for so long, he realized for the first time how wonderful it was to stand on solid ground.

He put away the raft and the lifebuoy, picked up Little Black and placed it on his shoulder, and walked toward the forest.

The forest was denser than imagined.

The trees were tall and lush, their canopies obscuring the sky, with only scattered sunlight spilling through the gaps to cast dappled shadows on the ground.

The ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves and moss, feeling soft like stepping on a carpet.

The air was filled with the fragrance of vegetation and the scent of earth. Occasionally, the clear and pleasant chirping of unknown birds came from the canopy.

...