Mythical Three Kingdoms

While Chen Xi and his companions were striving forward in Fenggao, Gan Ning’s large ship had once again started its journey at sea. Gan Ning had cursed Lul Jun numerous times—ships from the Lul Family were basically using him as a guinea pig, improving through trial and error, which scared Gan Ning from venturing too far from the coast.

Initially, touched by Gan Ning’s righteous assistance, Lul Jun modified a half-finished tower ship from his workshop and gifted it to Gan Ning. Gan Ning, who could only afford small sailboards, was ecstatic and couldn’t find his bearings. He happily sailed the tower ship down the Yangtze River under sunny skies. With his adequate command skills, everything went smoothly until they reached the Yangtze River Mouth, where a gust of sea wind capsized the ship...

Gan Ning, ashamed, went to the Lul Family to admit he had underestimated the sea wind and needed another ship prepared, as he still needed to go out to sea.

Once the Lul Family craftspeople learned what happened, this time they modified a batch of small boats for Gan Ning to test the waters. But, as luck would have it, he encountered a whale. Can you imagine what a Qi Refining to Gang Level whale signifies? It even had Cloud Qi...

As the strongest, Gan Ning seeing that gigantic whale was like a mosquito against it. Naturally, Gan Ning’s naval legion was defeated; there was no way to prevent it when a single wave from the opponent capsized half of Gan Ning’s ship. Fortunately, they were less than a hundred miles from the Yangtze River Mouth, so the group managed to swim all the way back.

For Gan Ning, coming across the mythological Kun and facing defeat was to be expected; a glorious defeat, of sorts. So, he once again visited the Lul Family, and this time, after confirming that the ship was flipped by a wave, the craftspeople began another round of improvements, thereafter sending out another set of ships.

The third time, Gan Ning got smart. Before entering the sea, he formed a formation with his well-trained water pirates and slowly moved into the ocean under Cloud Qi’s cover to strengthen the ship’s defense. Naval battles are most troublesome in this respect—move with a formation, and you’re slow; move without one, and a single powerful enemy can annihilate you.

With Cloud Qi’s blessing, the ship’s defensive power increased significantly. After all, adding Cloud Qi, Inner Qi, and such to a physical object greatly enhances its strength and even nurtures the enhanced item. Take Guan Yu’s Green Dragon Crescent Blade, for instance: previously just a weapon forged from refined iron, it has improved in quality with Guan Yu’s use, becoming more and more suited to him. However, this generally requires a high quality of Inner Qi and a nurturing time counted in decades—lifeless objects have this disadvantage.

Let’s return to how Cloud Qi can counteract Inner Qi. Inner Qi’s destructive power is immense, and without Cloud Qi, someone fierce like Guan Yu or Zhang Fei could easily face ten thousand opponents alone without any pressure.

For instance, during the early Han dynasty, when a meteorite first landed and no one understood these concepts, Xiang Yu alone battled and defeated Liu Bang’s thirty thousand elite soldiers. The reason was simple; at that time, no one knew about Cloud Qi, and Xiang Yu was the sole practitioner of Inner Qi Manifestation, like a protagonist blessed with the Mandate of Heaven. While others were still figuring out how to transform their Inner Breath into Gang Qi, he had almost reached the end of the Martial Arts path, just like Lyu Bu had reached the ultimate extreme!

When Inner Qi encounters the Qi of Heaven and Earth and life’s Essence Qi, which are unknowingly emitted and combine to form Cloud Qi, the outwardly released Inner Qi is greatly nullified!

This is also why, even though the city gates are made of wood, Guan Yu wouldn’t attack them. It’s very simple: the collective Cloud Qi from the large group of people atop the gatehouse is mainly bestowed upon the gates. Attacking the gates with released Inner Qi would be ineffective; one might as well use the blade’s edge. That being said, it’s still safer to attack the stone walls with Inner Qi than to rush over and chop at the wooden gates with a blade.

Similarly, ships are subject to the same situation: the more people on board and the better the arrangement of the ship formation, the higher the resistance to experts. For instance, a tower ship that could carry nearly a thousand people would be very difficult to damage even if Zhao Yun exerted all his strength for a strike. Of course, if there weren’t all those people onboard, Zhao Yun could sink an entire fleet in minutes.

More importantly, since ships are on the water, their formation and the circulation of Cloud Qi are not only for defending against Inner Qi but also for the waves. For example, while Zhao Yun might not be able to crush a tower ship, he could create huge waves to capsize it. A good formation is designed to prevent this by dissipating the massive force onto the water. So, if your Naval Command is truly excellent, taking a tower ship out to sea isn’t impossible...

Gan Ning, who was in high spirits steering the military formation, hadn’t capsized even in the raging seas, although he did drift with the waves a bit—a significant improvement from his initial sea outings where he would flop the moment he hit the open sea.

Then, Gan Ning encountered the legendary creature again—the same Kun that had forced him to swim back last time. Gan Ning was the type to hold a grudge, and though his opponent was a legendary creature, he thought he had a chance to take it down.

The rest unfolded as such: Gan Ning’s ship got halfway sunk, and then he dragged the Kun back with him. However, on the way, he was robbed by a group of even more ferocious fish and returned with nothing but a skeleton.

As embarrassing as it was for Gan Ning, he shamelessly traded that skeleton for a new ship. Naturally, he didn’t forget to address the issues with the ship, such as a fragile prow that needed a ram and the overall lack of sturdiness and poor wave resistance.

Lul Jun, with a grand wave of his hand, assured that all was well and went on to renovate those ships that had returned, as well as those created the last time, before reassigning a new fleet to Gan Ning, signaling that he could go play.

After four or five trials, even with his lesser intellect, Gan Ning figured it out—the Lul family’s seafaring shipbuilding expertise was half-baked at best. It seemed they were using him more as a guinea pig to experiment and work out the kinks!

With this suspicion, Gan Ning paid close attention and came to the conclusion that sometimes ignorance truly is bliss...

Having suffered so many setbacks, now whenever Gan Ning set out to sea, he first prayed that the Lul family’s ship wouldn’t have issues this time, then cursed the Lul family’s bad luck. But it seemed that after sinking five times, they had accumulated experience—the ship had been sailing for three months with no problems, both on the open sea and on the Yangtze River. Gan Ning had also tested it a few times against pirates, winning every encounter. The quality of this sixth-generation tower ship had won Gan Ning’s approval.

Although Gan Ning was sure that the quality of the seventh generation would be even better, he no longer wanted to go through ordeals like being chased by a school of sharks for nearly a hundred miles at sea. That row of teeth had made it clear to Gan Ning that the Yangtze River was truly feeble in comparison.

For this reason, Gan Ning, who had flopped several times at sea, looked back at the Yangtze River with disdain—it was nothing but a small canal. Zhou Tai, Jiangh Qin, you two scum, come to the sea, and I’ll teach you how to behave in minutes! Alright, Gan Ning, who had been toyed with by the ocean several times and still lived, was starting to get a bit cocky. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian ) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)