Chapter 143: The Journey Beyond

Yu Yu no longer makes a sound, and that spiritual Qi vanished without a trace, but the jade quality further rose to the level of a thousand‑year warm, mellow ancient jade; if it weren't a bit small, it could surely fetch a good price. Bai Lang sighed for a while and could only place the thing against his chest, thinking "sigh, sigh—people die, birds soar to the heavens, immortal for ten thousand years; the big boss is clearly playing with you, so you can only grit your teeth and endure, perhaps there's a chance to break free."

"Fine, achieving the Innate realm is still not a waste, it's a pity that world was quite peaceful; I was hoping to stay a bit longer and enjoy myself—maybe even… never mind!" Bai Lang hired a boat to travel by water, giving him plenty of time to think slowly. What he didn't know was that when he returned, Liu Yihan had the misfortune of being struck by a dry‑sky thunder, turning him into a charcoal‑like husk with only a breath left; if medicine weren't advanced, he would have likely died.

And with the heavenly thunder, Bai Lang disappeared, which will inevitably make the relevant authorities launch a big operation—who the hell knows what's happening, whether the lingering traces can yield any results.

Bai Lang sat on the big ship, mindfully sensing the changes of primordial Qi between heaven and earth. Now that he has entered the Innate realm, he finally has the qualification to voluntarily draw in the differing elemental Qi of heaven and earth for cultivation. From the start, Bai Lang practiced an internal skill without elemental attributes, then cultivated the Golden Bell Shield Divine Skill from the outside inward; his methods never involved water‑fire transformations, and after breaking the fourth barrier he could merely incorporate a sliver of golden Qi.

Now that the Innate realm is achieved, he finally can study which type of cultivation method would suit him best. The boat Bai Lang chartered is neither big nor small, about fifty meters long from bow to stern, and as long as he stays on the second deck without disturbance, he doesn't care that the boatman continues to recruit passengers on the first deck. The boatman is very perceptive; Bai Lang's activities on the second deck are completely unrestricted and unobserved, allowing him to research at leisure.

The Internal Force of the Golden Bell Shield circulates, and the fierce Qi forms a bronze bell that envelops Bai Lang; of course he immediately perceives strands of golden‑element Qi between heaven and earth being swiftly drawn in. "Sure enough, it's not just the Golden Bell Shield…" Bai Lang feels that the White Tiger Sha Qi contributes even more; the western White Tiger governs metal, so sharp metallic Qi is naturally attracted, and the Golden Bell Shield does not repel such Qi—it simply absorbs it all.

"And it's not only golden Qi; the wind among the five elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—that may not belong to any element but still lingers, is also being absorbed by me." Around Bai Lang, beyond the Golden Bell Shield, a series of whirlwinds swirl as he cultivates, circling him. The black‑and‑white tiger in his mind leaps and roars, making Bai Lang feel he can control the external whirlwinds, making them dance at his will.

"The golden Internal Force turns into invisible sharp blades, then gets swept into the raging wind I've activated with my Internal Force; the vacuum blade plus the blade‑like qi… oh wow! This is literally a blade storm." Bai Lang squinted, trying to convert his Internal Force through the Black Tiger Fist into sharp claws, attempting to merge them into the whirlwinds he raised, only to fail miserably! He knows how to control wind, but not how to wield it; he has no skill in that area at all.

Relying on his own research means he must explore slowly; if he could obtain any martial technique for reference or get someone's guidance… sigh, for now he can only think. The big boss is toying with him, so he probably won't completely ignore him without at least tossing a few bones his way. Yet, thinking it over, the big boss Yu Yu differs from the big boss of the Adventure Hall; the Adventure Hall offers "salary," whereas Yu Yu not only skims the lamb meat from the Adventure Hall's salary, leaving only the wool for him, and seems to require that one first have good fortune to obtain anything. "Harming others without benefit to oneself, Bai is happy......"

Now it seems Yu Yu's divine abilities are a bit broader; perhaps he could lead Bai Lang to a world with special martial techniques? In any case, the Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield that allowed him to be reborn was obtained in the world Yu Yu took him to, wasn't it? It was his own drifting; otherwise, the world that followed the late Ming for a few hundred years might also have offered suitable encounters. He just doesn't know how to handle it, and in the end angered the behind‑the‑scenes big boss, prompting Yu Yu to quickly reactivate and bring him back?

In short, this explanation seems a bit more fitting; if he can think of any advantage, the big boss might be in a good mood and let him off.

"Martial arts that control wind? Martial arts that use wind? The wind among earth, water, fire, and wind? How the hell would I know what kind of martial art that is!" Bai Lang muttered, having no clue about those techniques at all. "Damned that martial‑arts list in the Adventure Hall… I never even recorded it!" Well, for now he can only grind the Golden Bell Shield and Black Tiger Fist, hoping his own martial‑arts insight can innovate.

Not every genius can create a new martial art; Bai Lang, lacking broad experience, cannot devise any at the moment—the martial‑arts level in the late Ming world is a bit low, unusable for him. This raises another issue: whether internal force and martial techniques are universally applicable across worlds. It seems they are not necessarily so. So how do the big shots who can traverse worlds ensure their power is universal?

Although Bai Lang isn't at such a high level, it doesn't stop him from fantasizing a bit.

Time passed as he traveled by water, and Bai Lang had a thorough view of Great Yan's magnificent rivers and mountains; at this point he gained a direct sense of the world's vastness. Great Yan, spanning ten thousand li, is merely one of the seven great powers on earth; it's said that Great Qi, Great Qin, and Great Chu surpass Great Yan in national strength and territory, and even Great Zhao's lands are probably not smaller than Great Yan's. In terms of the number of masters, they likely exceed Great Yan—after all, they have been at war with Great Qin continuously.

Bai Lang's insights came from the various "newspapers" he encountered on the journey, combined with the gazette‑type records he had perused in the archive back then, finally giving him a genuine, eye‑level understanding. "I've heard the world is full of demons and monsters, but… never mind, if such beings can be seen throughout Great Yan's interior, then Great Yan is surely doomed."

Bai Lang rode the boat the whole way and truly didn't encounter any of the demons or monsters mentioned in the records; perhaps he simply hasn't touched this "world" yet. He caused no trouble on the boat, and when docked he just roamed the pier area, buying food and "newspapers" and the like, naturally encountering no "jianghu affairs." Everything seemed as if it were still like the ancient settings of TV dramas; he truly met no martial‑arts masters—seems a fellow Innate Expert like him hasn't encountered another.

"That's fine too, safety is good." The boat Bai Lang hired had already sailed five or six hundred li, and now it merged into a great river whose banks could not be seen. On the river surface, boats crowded like fish crossing a stream, countless in size. Bai Lang even saw tower ships over a hundred zhang tall and lavishly decorated flower boats, and at that moment he again felt the so‑called "prosperity." "Mr. Bai, this is the Huai River, one of the two great rivers of Great Yan, a place of endless splendor along its banks," the boat captain said, "this stretch belongs to the Huai faction."