Chapter 243

Chapter 243: Naval Battle

“Little Ball, it turns out it’s so hard to wake you up.”

In the cabin, Li Hui looked at the talisman brush in his hand and smiled wryly, “With one million sheets of blank talisman paper as a base, I need to reach ten million sheets to ensure a decent success rate for creating talismans. Although I have accumulated some resources on Wan Nest Island, I can’t guarantee I can afford the expenses. Purchasing talisman ink and materials for talisman-making costs money, and high-quality talisman paper sells for an outrageous price overseas. I also plan to stockpile some overseas specialties, just the thought makes my head ache.”

“Time waits for no one; let’s set up the talisman formations first.”

After two days and nights of drawing, adjusting, and setting up, the talisman formations began to operate one by one, and the sails started to billow. The waterline of the ship slowly rose, leaving only a small part of the hull underwater in the end.

“Correct the direction!”

“Set sail!”

“Set sail!”

Once on the road, the sails danced, and the speed was unbelievably fast.

The crew cheered, but Huo Qiniang was not so optimistic.

The speed increased fivefold, but the consumption doubled. After getting rid of the original cargo on Paifeng Island and selling off plenty of Wind-Devil Copper, damaged spiritual materials, lower-tier spirit talismans, and low-level alchemy supplies, the amount of spiritual shells acquired could only support a month of full-speed sailing.

While Li Hui still had some artifact fragments left, he used the Leaves of Blood Banana Trees to draw Blood Ignition Talismans. Using the Cloud-Brush Dragon Claw Technique, he activated the Seize the Day Talisman to achieve nine times the speed, but depleted both the artifact and treasure fragments in just one morning.

The efficiency was certainly impressive, but the downside lay in the resources; even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice!

Moreover, Li Hui made a significant discovery: as long as he remained stationary, the spirit energy consumption of the Seize the Day Talisman was minimal, allowing it to be fully replenished with the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays. However, this also troubled him.

“What’s the use of nine times the time? To breakthrough and enter the Concentrating Spirit stage? My potential falls far short! The treasure cabinet requires new spiritual energy, and I need to store more of it; it feels like I’m just depleting resources without gaining any.”

“I have already mastered the Ideal Body technique; it won’t progress further at this stage.”

“The Ideal Body is heavily reliant on external items; digging deeper into it would enhance my electromagnetic power. However, I still haven’t reached the Concentrating Spirit stage; forcibly practicing will harm my body, and I still lack some timing.”

“Regardless of what I say, my cultivation level remains a limitation. If I could overcome that boundary and enter the Concentrating Spirit stage, everything would be different. At least I could gather spirit energy to transform into spirit essence and then select a cultivation method. That would require a lot of grueling effort.”

“Sigh! I’m so bored right now; what should I do?” Li Hui pondered, thinking to himself, “Forget it; I’ll practice the hand seals like I did when training with concealed weapons! Different hand seals can produce marvelous effects. The same type of spirit talisman can stack power, but can different types not overlap? If I could mutate the talisman arrays, triggering a connection between them, that would yield immense power!”

With this thought, he become unstoppable, his hands incessantly changing the hand seals, dragon horns sprouting from his forehead to enhance his focus. His hand seals became faster and more abstract, as if a dim lotus flower was blooming.

Five elements, wind and thunder, Yin-Yang, Earth and Sky, spirit lure, vitality, poisoning, the seven emotions, and six desires—all ten types of hand seals continually transformed. Li Hui easily lost himself in his world; as long as there was something to study, he immersed himself completely, feeling no tedium. Combinations two by two, three by three, four by four, the techniques became increasingly extraordinary.

When it was mealtime, Chef Zhao came to call for people but received no response.

Time passed in this fervent study; sometimes an entire day would go by with no progress, yet sometimes he would break through a barrier, gaining new perspectives like the arrival of spring amid vibrant flowers. At the same time, his understanding of the talisman arrays greatly increased, realizing the utilization of the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays was still very low.

After twenty days had passed, in fact speeding up the flow of time, Li Hui had practiced hard for half a year.

Becoming engrossed in his research made time fly; there was little difference between twenty days and half a year. The speed of his hands and the connection of the hand seals had touched some kind of bottleneck, making breakthroughs exceedingly difficult.

There was no way around it; this was due to a lack of experience and vision. Li Hui dove headfirst into old books, concentrating on studying various texts in his mind.

One day, while the Wave Breaking Cone was sailing smoothly, a sudden explosion echoed.

Countless splashes of water soared into the air, and loud explosions rang out around them. The ship rocked violently as a hundred shadows descended like giant dandelions. The crew shouted in terror, “Enemy attack! It’s the airborne pirates of Minghai Gate!”

Chef Zhao quickly activated the green scales array for full ship defense. He watched as the dropping figures “thudded” against the green light, bouncing into the sea, trying to board but finding no way in.

This scene greatly encouraged the crew, who quickly took up their bows and crossbows to shoot.

Defense protected against outsiders but not oneself, and at the same time, Huo Qiniang activated the Blood Ignition Talisman, significantly boosting morale; the crew became as ferocious as wolves, bloodthirsty and ready for battle.

“Bang, bang, bang…” The Wave Breaking Cone continually smashed through fifteen massive water columns, and it looked like it would break through the blockade, when suddenly the sea erupted, and an ironclad ship emerged from beneath the water.

“Boom!”

The Wave Breaking Cone collided with the ironclad ship; the bow immediately erupted with a burst of green light. Though the ship itself remained unscathed, its speed slowed.

“Woo, woo, woo, woo…”

A mournful tune sounded from all directions, and dozens of warships closed in. Li Hui was already on deck, activating the sky-watching array to observe the enemy situation, unable to help but gasp in cold disbelief.

The enemy was clearly prepared, anticipating their route and laying in ambush ahead of time. Despite the speed of the Wave Breaking Cone, it couldn’t outpace some spiritual birds, so being monitored was not surprising.

“Fifty-eight enemy ships, of which forty-eight are agile fast ships, and nine are heavily armed battleships as the main force. Not to mention the ironclad ship nearby,” Li Hui assessed the situation and waved his hand to release two massive figures, saying, “Chongguang, attack the big ship; Heavy Scales go for the small ships. Don’t mistake size. Go!”

“Hungry, hungry, hungry!” Ao Chonglin poked his head out and called out, and Li Hui felt an urge to kick it down, but fortunately, Chongguang understood and swiftly swam toward the big ship.

With no time to deal with those two, Li Hui made his move, pushing his hands forward to unleash a cloud of dark energy.

“Boom…” A mesmerizing green light burst forth from the ship, rapidly transforming into a light dragon that surged toward the ironclad ship, accompanied by a high-pitched dragon’s roar and a heavy impact. With a series of “bangs,” the left side of the ironclad ship caved in, blood spraying from the cracks, screams echoed from aboard, along with the roars of multi-eyed beasts.

This single strike exhausted the entire power of the Wood Dragon Array, and the spirit talismans turned to ash and scattered. Li Hui felt a sense of fulfillment; it was his first time using hand seals to catalyze talisman arrays, and it was far superior to his imagined linked battle talismans, the power was astonishing, filling him with anticipation.

Just then, ten cultivators maneuvered flying devices over, each of them conjuring large or small shadows behind them, indicating their cultivation levels in the Concentrating Spirit stage, and they joined forces to attack the defensive talisman array.

Li Hui waved his hand, releasing the Yin-Yang Nine Heads toward the sky. Without needing to say anything further, the Yin-Yang Nine Heads leaped like frogs, unleashing demonic flames to charge forward…