Close Combat Mage

Suo Jia couldn’t help but feel his emotions stir from Xiang Yun’s words. Although Xiang Yun had not sought Suo Jia’s opinion before making this declaration, it was precisely because of this reason that Suo Jia felt moved, and even grateful. If Xiang Yun had not truly treated Suo Jia as a brother, as one of his own, he would definitely not have said such things. After all…this single statement was also betting Suo Jia’s life with it!

At the same time, for better or for worse, the leader also abruptly froze. After a shudder coursed through his body, he strode back out the door. In reality, Xiang Yun’s declaration had already won over Whale’s respect!

As Suo Jia watched Whale yank the door open to leave, he laughed and said, “Since my brother is in such a mood, let me add the icing on top of the cake. Whale…you can return to your flagship. I’ll return the ship and your subordinates to you. I hope that you won’t disappoint my brother!”

Whale froze at these words, with one foot inside, and one foot outside the door. After a long while, he slowly turned around to look seriously at Suo Jia and the others. “Alright, this time, I admit defeat. However…I’ll come back looking for you all, and I will definitely return the favor for not killing me. Next time…after I defeat you, I will also let you off with the chance to live!”

After this, Whale resolutely spun back around to leave the room without looking back. The door slowly closed behind him, blocking off the scene outside.

Xiang Yun shot Suo Jia a grateful look; he was truly touched by Suo Jia’s actions. This was because Xiang Yun had actually tragically lost to Whale this time. Currently, neither Xiang Yun nor Roger could really defeat anyone in a battle at sea. In other words, Suo Jia was using his own life to pay for a bet on his brothers’ heroism!

Others might have thought Xiang Yun as foolish to not directly get rid of Whale, establishing a potential opponent for no reason instead. However, if they stood in Xiang Yun’s and Roger’s places and contemplated it there, they would realize the undeniable reason.

Losing to Whale had always been an unerasable humiliation for the two of them. If they could not properly defeat the other party once on a battle at sea, both Xiang Yun and Roger would have a seed of defeat planted in their hearts, the thorn of shame. As a result…they did not have the face to kill Whale. Only by letting him go would they be able to find themselves back in that kind of battle to smooth over the injuries of their spirits.

After a few more simple discussions, the four split off and each went to their own rooms to rest. Of course…Suo Jia didn’t have the qualifications to rest. He directly left the inn and rushed over to the mercenary guild to look up information regarding the third checkpoint.

Three days passed before Suo Jia finally got through all of the information system. Then, Suo Jia headed straight to the shipyard to order ten large-scale sailing ships, with each one costing 40 million coins. He then went to the Maritime Union to recruit mariners under his command, gathering ten captains, twenty navigators, twenty physicians, twenty senior sailors, and a thousand sailors, splitting them up evenly between the ten large ships.

Next, Suo Jia spent his remaining 1.4 billion coins on Conch Island’s specialty: warm wine, and stuffed all ten ships with it. This kind of wine was a high grade of alcohol, but since it was local to this place, it was very cheap here. However, once shipped over to other locations, it could be sold for extremely high prices.

While he purchased the warm wine for 140,000 coins a barrel, he could sell it for a minimum of 200,000 a barrel after delivering it to another island. It was common knowledge that the islands had very humid climates, so one needed to drink alcohol to dispel the moisture. As a result, this kind of product had high consumption rates on any island.

The capacity of each ship was very large; a single ship could carry a thousand barrels of warm wine. Ten ships meant ten thousand barrels, which Suo Jia had just enough money to buy. However…once he delivered them, Suo Jia would not only have gained ten ships and its crews, he would also increase his assets to two billion coins!

They did not stay on the island for long. Once the goods were packed onto the ships and all the crew went to their respective places, Suo Jia’s party of four once again boarded the ship and began to sail off to the depths of the ocean…

The days of sailing at sea were very dull and gloomy. Fortunately, everyone had things to do; Suo Jia still stayed shut inside every day to create the Divine Dragon Whip’s scales and body. Roger diligently worked day after day under Xiang Yun’s instruction to practice the leg techniques. This was to master and integrate the four sets of leg techniques Xiang Yun imparted on him with his own passed down moves as soon as possible, and creating unrivalled battle skills.

Nicole didn’t need anyone to teach her. After all…her ancestor had once been unequalled in their art. As a result, she only needed to walk down the path her ancestor had. If someone else tried to teach her, she would only get confused.

As for Xiang Yun, he was the most relaxed one, in accordance to Suo Jia’s advice. Aside from teaching Roger the leg techniques every morning, he spent the rest of his time sitting at the bow of the ship and idly fishing and drinking wine. This kind of lifestyle was truly very comfortable.

Putting aside Suo Jia’s scales creation, Roger’s progress, and Nicole’s training course, Xiang Yun was initially completely unable to focus on fishing at first. He had already been so used to focusing entirely on cultivating, and whenever he couldn’t actually catch any fish, he felt it was extremely senseless. Not only did his mood fail to calm, it grew more restless instead.

The hands on deck were all curious about Xiang Yun’s daily fishing. The journey through the sea was very boring; aside from adjusting the angle of the sails, they didn’t need to do anything and could let it run by itself. As a result, fishing was a hobby that nearly all the mariners had. It could alleviate their boredom and improve their meals.

In the beginning, all the mariners were afraid of Xiang Yun because of his status, and didn’t dare to approach him. After all, this person was one of the four great heads. These ten large ships belonged to that party of four, and they were just a small workforce. To the ordinary sailor, the party of four were the chairmen that they couldn’t possibly approach easily.

However, as the days passed one after another, everyone gradually grew closer with each other. This was especially true for Xiang Yun, who was an amiable person in the first place. Whenever he saw the sailors, he would always warmly greet them. Thus, the sailors quickly got familiar with him too.

Since they were well acquainted by then, they naturally dared to get closer to Xiang Yun. Once they saw his lousy fishing skills, they couldn’t help but feel their own hands itch, and each of them passed onto him their own fishing experiences.

It wasn’t that Xiang Yun couldn’t fish at all before. But he had only done it in lakes before, and now that he was on a sailing ship…his lake fishing skills obviously would not really be able to catch any fish.

Fishing was something that was typically hard for people to get into. But after learning it properly and being able to enjoy the pleasure of it, most people would fall in love with the feeling of fishing. Even Xiang Yun, a martial arts obsessed idiot, was no exception.

Along the way, Suo Jia’s merchant ships arrived at four islands and completed four business transactions. The fleet expanded to fifty ships, and at the same time, they had already managed to accumulate 10 billion coins!

As time passed, Xiang Yun began to like fishing more and more. At first, he was just being forced to do it, but later he truly started enjoying it. In the end, he became infatuated with it. Xiang Yun’s inner being also quietly began to transform.

As everyone knows, fishing requires patience, a tranquil mind. Someone with a short temper would not be able to fish. Without realising, Xiang Yun’s mind became more serene, and his state of mind became more placid with it. Gradually…Xiang Yun finally achieved a state of mind as still as water.

“Phew…” Finally, Xiang Yun successfully caught a fish that was proof of being an advanced fisherman: the Hegemon Fish. While he was wildly rejoicing at this, he experienced a breakthrough. Amidst his extreme joy, he suddenly sensed the bottleneck he had been trapped in for so long finally collapse with a bang. His entire body was flooded with boundless qi, and he reached the next level realm of the hegemon arts!

As Xiang Yun stared at the enormous, flailing Hegemon Fish and felt the surge of qi inside him, he abruptly tilted his head back and let out a long and wild whistle…

Sensing Xiang Yun’s surge of qi, Suo Jia immediately stood up and murmured to himself, “My god, he’s finally broken through! What a difficult feat. Looks like I’ll also have to work harder now!” With this, Suo Jia’s hands continued their movements. Endless blue qi slowly moved from his hands to the sparkling and translucent Dragon Whip. 𝘧𝑟𝘦𝒆w𝚎𝙗nov𝘦𝗹.𝐜o𝓶

Meanwhile, inside the ship’s martial arts room, Roger had just been about to roundhouse kick a sandbag before coming to a sudden halt. He enviously glanced in the deck’s direction and said, “Damn it, every time I’m just about to catch up to him, he always manages to break through first. Sh*t…screw this!” With gritted teeth, both of Roger’s legs flew up in a chain of dances and immediately…the sandbags all blew up.

On the other side, inside the gloomy hold of the ship, a pair of bright eyes lit up from amidst the darkness. Nicole’s gentle voice faintly floated out, “Awesome, he broke through? The group is finally getting stronger! Young Master’s dream might now be reachable!”