The jade-like seawater continuously beat against the hull of the massive ship.

The sea wind howled.

The Tianci fleet, arranged in a V-formation like flying geese, sailed straight for the depths of the Jade Sea.

By now, the number of people on deck had dwindled, with only a few sailors remaining on watch.

Lin Hui, his skill giving him courage, still stood by the ship’s rail, gazing out at the distant sea.

As he gazed out, he was also attuning himself to the changes in the surrounding environment, all while cultivating at the same time.

With him were Xia Si and the newcomer, Su Yaping.

The three of them stood together, occasionally drawing respectful gazes from the sailors bustling about.

They had been watching like this for at least three hours.

"You three, we’re about to enter a restricted sea zone. It’s best if you head inside the cabin to take shelter. Our crew will also be heading in shortly to seal all external entrances and exits," the captain said, emerging from the cabin entrance. He tried to persuade Lin Hui’s group.

The captain of their ship was a remarkably strong, dark-skinned man.

It was impossible to tell if he’d been born so dark or had been tanned by the sun, as his complexion was just a shade lighter than charcoal.

He looked to be in his early thirties, with a short buzz cut. He wore a thick, dark brown leather coat and pants, with two Curved Sabers—one long, one short—hanging from his waist.

Unlike the other sailors, he exuded a strong, unidentifiable incense fragrance as soon as he drew near.

The rest of the crew mostly reeked of a mix of fish and sweat.

"A restricted sea zone? Captain Nong Zhuo, can you tell us what that means?" Lin Hui spoke first.

If he didn’t speak up, neither Su Yaping nor Xia Si would.

"Is this your first time at sea? Alright then. We’ve still got about an hour before we reach the restricted zone, so I can tell you a bit about it." The captain exhaled, pulling a black metal pipe from a pouch on his hip. With a flick of his hand, a spark somehow appeared and lit the tobacco.

He took a deep drag and blew out a smoke ring.

"This Jade Sea is relatively safe in the coastal areas. At worst, you might encounter some Sea Beasts, but we have Sea-Repelling Flags from the Moon Tower. They’re coated with something Sea Beasts really hate, which basically guarantees the fleet won’t be attacked while sailing. So that’s manageable."

"But the real danger of the Jade Sea doesn’t come from the Sea Beasts. It comes from its extreme natural environment."

"How so?" Lin Hui’s interest was piqued.

This was his first time leaving the mainland. The Jade Sea was vast and expansive, its surface as beautiful and green as jade, making him instinctively want to understand it more deeply.

"I’ll explain them one by one." The dark-skinned captain flicked the ash from his pipe, letting it be carried away by the sea wind over the rail.

"In the restricted sea zones deep within the Jade Sea, the most common danger is the toxic acid rain. That’s the area we’re about to enter. Within that zone, this poisonous rain can fall every twelve hours or so. If even a drop touches you, your skin will ulcerate, you’ll find it impossible to breathe, and then you’ll be paralyzed and suffocate, unable to move until you’ve completely dissolved into a pool of ooze."

"Can Inner Strength block it?" Lin Hui asked, surprised.

"It can’t," Su Yaping chimed in from the side. "I’ve gone to sea to test it before. Inner Strength is useless against it. Only Void Power can block it, but not for long. This toxic rain seems to contain more than just ordinary toxins; there are some unusual components as well."

"This guest is absolutely right. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to warn you three." The dark-skinned captain nodded in agreement. "The toxic acid rain is the First Layer of danger. After that, there will be a second: the temperature."

"Temperature... I’ve encountered that before, so it’s manageable," Su Yaping nodded, indicating she knew what he meant.

"It seems this guest is quite experienced. Let me first explain that the Federation uniformly uses ’rings’ as the unit for temperature. A normal human body temperature is defined as being within the normal range of 8 to 10 rings. And what we typically use to measure air temperature is this."

The captain took a small, black box shaped like a radio from a sailor who had approached.

On the surface of the box was a round dial with a pointer. A complex circle of red numerical markings was inscribed on it, all in units of rings.

"This is a thermodetector. It can measure all temperatures from -20 to 100 rings," the captain explained. "And one of the dangers we’re about to face is the temperature rapidly climbing to over 90 rings within a two-hour period."

"..."

"..."

Aside from Xia Si, who had no concept of what this meant, both Lin Hui and Su Yaping fell silent.

Lin Hui quickly did a mental conversion of the temperature unit.

’A climb to over 350 degrees Celsius in about two hours...’

He found it hard to believe. It was just too exaggerated.

"I can tell by your expression you don’t believe me. That’s fine. In a little while, if you three think you can handle it, you can try to endure it. If it gets to be too much, you can always take shelter in the cabin," the dark-skinned captain said with a sigh.

"Alright... I’ll give it a try." Lin Hui decided he had to experience it for himself.

His Inner Strength was now endless, and thanks to his Body Tempering, his physique had reached a level he himself could no longer estimate. This was a perfect opportunity to test his limits.

A true master should be flawless in every aspect.

Seeing he couldn’t persuade the trio, the dark-skinned captain sighed and turned to leave.

「Time flowed on.」

Outside the ship, the jade-colored sea remained unchanged.

The sea’s surface rose and fell, occasionally slapping hard against the ship’s hull and sending a tremor through it.

WHOOSH...

Suddenly, Lin Hui’s gaze sharpened, and he looked far off to the front-right.

There, on the surface of the sea, a blue humanoid figure was riding a large black fish, speeding past the fleet.

The figure wore only a simple blue three-point bikini, and from the curves of its body, it appeared to be female.

She had flowing blue hair and a nimble posture. Where her ears should have been were a pair of fins, similar to those of a seahorse.

The figure shot through the mist and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"There are humanoid races in the Jade Sea, too?" Lin Hui asked curiously.

"Yes, there are sea-folk tribes living in the Jade Sea, but they are all coastal groups. They don’t dare venture into the deep sea either. Some of them even have deep trade relations with the Federation’s cities," Su Yaping, who knew a bit about this, explained.

"I see..." Lin Hui recalled a leader of the Wanhua Sect he had once seen, who lived inside a water tank.

In the time that followed, some massive sea fish would occasionally appear alongside the fleet.

But gradually, the surrounding temperature began to climb, and the sea fish became scarce.

More and more water vapor began to rise from the sea’s surface.

The mist rose into the air, transforming the surroundings into a thick blanket where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. It was far, far denser than the fog from before.

"Teacher, I smell something strange. It’s very fragrant," Xia Si suddenly said from the side.

"Which direction?" Lin Hui couldn’t smell anything. He looked at Su Yaping, who also shook her head slightly.

"Over there!" Xia Si pointed toward the distant sky behind the ship.

Lin Hui followed her finger with his gaze.

The thick mist completely obscured his vision; he couldn’t see a thing.

He was just about to activate his Typhoon Swordsmanship to try and disperse some of it when he suddenly sensed something, and his pupils contracted.

WHOOSH!

The mist behind the ship thinned slightly, influenced by some unknown power.

Vaguely visible in the distant sky was the blurry figure of a woman in a long, crimson dress. From this distance, her body appeared to be at least a thousand meters tall.

This female figure was flying by at high speed in the distance, the train of her red dress spreading out behind her to become a crimson Yunxia that covered almost half the sky, moving along with her.

Although the female figure was immense, the contrast with the boundless red dress spreading out behind her to cover most of the sky was still enormous.

If not for Xia Si pointing, Lin Hui might not have noticed the leading female figure at first. He would have only seen the vast expanse of red Yunxia spreading across the sky.

"The temperature is climbing after all!" Su Yaping said in a low voice. She was also shaken by the recent discovery.

"The sky has turned completely red... What in the world is that...!?" Lin Hui stared at the sky.

After the giant female figure passed by, it was as if a curtain in a theater had been slowly drawn, raising the curtain on the rising temperatures.

The red sky was soon obscured by the mist again. But judging by the persistent, hazy red glow, the sky had not returned to its previous gray-white color.

"I’m starting to understand why the Fog God Sect is so rampant and impossible to stamp out..." Su Yaping sighed.

"...I feel the same," Lin Hui nodded.

The sky was dyed red by the passing of a woman’s dress. Who wouldn’t be mystified after seeing that?

Lin Hui suddenly thought that if even terrifyingly strong experts like the Fog People could only huddle in their cities, then this world must contain horrifying existences far more dangerous than them.

The three of them continued to wait.

As time passed, the deck gradually emptied until only the three of them were left.

Earlier, people from the Lin Mansion and Qingfeng Dao had come to ask about their intentions. After confirming they planned to stay on deck, they too had no choice but to retreat into the cabins.

The sky was still red, but it had slowly faded from a bright crimson to a pale red.

The temperature climbed higher and higher.

Lin Hui gradually held his breath.

The air had become completely filled with superheated water vapor. It was impossible to draw in any oxygen.

He simply stopped breathing altogether.

He had never stopped breathing like this before, but he had an instinctual feeling that he no longer really needed oxygen.

It was like the instinct to blink, to cry, or to stretch one’s limbs.

And things were indeed as he expected.

After he stopped breathing, his body spontaneously began to absorb a continuous stream of an oxygen-like essence from the back of his head, compensating for his body’s consumption.

’Is this my Wind Disaster Affinity?’ Lin Hui sensed a familiarity in the essence and identified what was helping him. It was the new, special organ connecting him to the Wind Disaster—his hair.

He looked at Xia Si and Su Yaping. They were close enough that he could easily tell they were simply holding their breath, receiving no additional essence to compensate. They were purely enduring it with their body’s own reserves.

The temperature grew even hotter.

Then, something unexpected happened.

The clothes on all three of them began to burn, bursting into open flame.

Speechless, Lin Hui suppressed the flames on his body with a pulse of Inner Strength, isolating and extinguishing them. Combustion required multiple factors; as long as he removed the oxygen, the fire would go out.

However, this left the three of them looking slightly charred and disheveled.

By now, the world outside had completely transformed into a red water vapor, and nothing was visible.

In the tedious wait, Lin Hui simply closed his eyes and began to cultivate, passing the time.

Xia Si and Su Yaping followed his lead, and for a time, none of the three spoke.