The rest of the journey to the cove passed without incident, much to Sen’s relief. While his physical wounds had all healed and he’d recovered much of the qi he’d spent fighting that spirit beast, he could tell that something was still healing. The fact that he couldn’t find or identify what that something was proved an ongoing concern. Not that it would necessarily prevent him from fighting. He thought that anything he considered a normal fight wouldn’t prove problematic. There was a lingering cloud of uncertainty about fighting something on the level of monstrosity again any time soon. Of course, he’d avoid fighting something like that again if he could. Sen had challenged things over his level more than once, but he’d succeeded more on luck and the weight of an unearned reputation than true ability. He was closing the gap between his actual abilities and what people thought his abilities were, but he wasn’t there yet.

“Do you need us to stay?” asked the captain. “We can delay for a few days.”

The captain had, much to Sen’s relief, mostly reverted to how he’d acted before the battle. The man was a little more polite and respectful, but nothing that made Sen automatically uncomfortable. The rest of the crew was a mixed bag. Some of them seemed afraid that they might accidentally offend him, while others seemed determined to elevate him to some kind of semi-divine status that did make him automatically uncomfortable. A very few simply treated him as a person and automatically became Sen’s favorite people in the crew. For his part, Sen did his best to treat all of them respectfully. Of course, none of that stopped Sen from taking advantage of that deep well of respect they all had.

Since none of them wanted to question his actions, he found it laughably easy to work a variety of formations into the very structure of the ship. It had been a way to ease himself back into cultivation after healing up, while also forcing him to challenge himself a bit. For all the time that he’d spent out in nature, he didn’t use wood qi all that often. He knew that it could be a devastating weapon in the right hands, but he’d built his combat style around other types of qi. He was much more apt to use it in tiny, controlled doses during alchemy than out in the world. With a ship made entirely of wood, though, it had forced him out of the comfortable areas he knew best. Since he had nothing but time on his hands for several weeks, though, he was able to work through the process slowly, carefully layering the formations one on top of the next. By the time he was finished, the entire ship would be harder than steel if anything tried to attack it.

He knew it wasn’t a perfect defense, but there were no perfect defenses. He’d needed to work primarily with water qi because the ship was already saturated with it and surrounded by it. It would prove weak against direct fire qi-based attacks and lightning attacks to a lesser degree, but Sen doubted the ship was likely to run up against too many fire cultivators with a grudge. Minimally, it would make the ship all but unsinkable in normal circumstances and provide potent protections against any cultivators operating below Sen’s own cultivation level. He’d given a lot of thought to offensive formations but found that they’d interfere with the qi-gathering aspects of the defensive formations.

He could create ones that used beast cores as fuel but the cores would lose potency too fast with no cultivators aboard to keep them in a storage ring. Sen had heard about other kinds of storage treasures that anyone could use designed to prevent that problem, but he’d never looked for any of them. Sen did have more success integrating a minor wind formation around the sails. It wasn’t much, but should help the ship be a little swifter. The hard part had been figuring out a way to ensure that it would turn off if the winds grew too fierce. That had taken days of thought. While he wanted to do more, he’d have to content himself with the current measures until he had time to find one of those other storage treasures. Sen realized that the captain was giving him a quizzical look. He’d gotten lost in his own thoughts again.

“No,” said Sen. “There’s no need for that. I can make my way back from the cove. Besides, I need to return to where I’ve been staying. You’re headed the wrong way.”

The captain frowned but gave a grudging nod. “If you ever need us again, just send word. I’ll come as fast as the winds will carry me.”

“About that, I put in some minor formations that should slightly improve the durability and speed of the ship. They shouldn’t require any maintenance from you.”

The captain gave Sen a startled look. “Is that what you’ve been doing all over the ship?”

Sen smiled. “Just my selfish way of helping to ensure that you’ll be available the next time I need your services.”

Captain Chen gave Sen a look that said he knew exactly what the cultivator was doing, but the older man just shook his head.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well, selfish or not, you have my gratitude.”

“Think nothing of it. I used it as an opportunity to develop my cultivation. However, I don’t want people to think I’m an inattentive benefactor. So, take this,” said Sen, handing the captain a pouch. “I think it’s high time that you expanded your business ventures. Perhaps you can find some younger people interested in taking one of those long journeys to the far side of the continent. Or maybe you’d like an additional ship for this coast. I’m sure a man like you can find some practical use for that money.”

The captain stared down at the pouch in his hands like he couldn’t decide if it was a miracle or a trap. The man finally looked up at Sen’s small smile.

“Why?”

“Why not? You’re a dutiful man. Perhaps this is simply Karma rewarding you,” said Sen with a shrug. “At any rate, I wish you safe travels, captain.”

Captain Chen gave Sen an almost comically deep bow. “My deepest gratitude. Safe travels and fair winds until we next meet, benefactor.”

Almost as one, every sailor on deck mimicked the captain’s bow. Sen nodded to them and then leapt over the railing. Sen conjured a qi platform that carried him over the water and settled him on the beach. He patiently watched as the ship moved back out to sea and disappeared from sight. He was only a little surprised when a massive turtle rose from the cove's water and plodded over to stand next to him.

“Elder Bo,” said Sen in a rigidly flat tone.

“I think you’ll discover that was a very good investment in time. That captain has a touch of fate around him. Just a small touch, but that’s more than enough for a mortal to achieve greatness.”

Sen eyed the divine spirit beast before turning his gaze back to the horizon. “I see.”

Elder Bo watched Sen with inscrutable eyes the color of deepest night. “No questions for me?”

“No.”

“Most cultivators would jump at the chance to seek advice from a divine spirit beast.”

Sen gave the turtle an icy, hostile look. “The last time I took advice from you, it almost killed me. If this meeting had happened six months ago, I would have done everything in my power to murder you and turn you into turtle soup. So, no, I don’t want any more advice from you.”

Elder Bo looked genuinely shocked, or at least that was how Sen interpreted what happened to the turtle’s face.

“I don’t understand. How did my advice almost kill you?”

“Do you know how many copies of the Five-Fold Body Transformation manual there are?”

“I can’t say that I do.”

“Two that anyone knows about. One of which is trapped inside a space treasure that’s been locked from the inside. The other was in the hands of a nascent soul cultivator who did not want to be found. I spent years trying to find a copy of that manual. I was dying an inch at a time, my own body cultivation turning against me, while searching the wilds for that nascent soul cultivator. I was moments from death when she found me.”

“But you did survive. Look at how powerful you’ve become.”

“Powerful,” snorted Sen. “I almost died fighting a spirit beast a few weeks ago.”

“A spirit beast that no other cultivator at your advancement would have even considered fighting. And you killed it.”

Sen glared at the divine spirit beast. “Was that your doing as well?”

“No. But very little happens in these waters that escapes my notice.”

Sen could feel the doubt on his own face, but he pushed it down. “Why am I here, Elder Bo? Is it merely to sate your curiosity?”

The turtle made a noise that Sen thought might be a sigh and settled onto the ground next to him. “I suppose it was partly to sate my curiosity. You are uniquely suited to the method. I thought that it might enhance you in ways that it wouldn’t enhance less suitable cultivators. Of course, there was no way to know for sure before you did it.”

“And has it enhanced me in special ways?” asked Sen, unable to resist that piece of bait.

“It has,” said Elder Bo. “At least, I think it has. It’s hard to tell since you’ve diverged from the method all on your own.”

“What? What do you mean that I’ve diverged from the method?”

“You didn’t know? Interesting. Well, assuming you don’t do anything else to change things, you’re going to end up with a Six-Fold Body Transformation.”

“What does that mean?” Sen demanded, barely able to restrain himself from screaming at the turtle.

“I don’t know how it happened. Somewhere along the line, you suffused your entire body with frankly absurd amounts of divine qi.”

Sen stared at the turtle in dumbfounded shock. He remembered doing that and then waking up in the middle of a fight with demonic cultivators. There’d been so much else going on that he hadn’t given it much thought when nothing terrible had happened to him.

“Yes,” confirmed Sen.

“You didn’t think that did nothing to your body, did you?”

“Well,” Sen hedged.

“Young people,” muttered Elder Bo. “Most people at the foundation formation and core cultivation stages get divine qi in minuscule bursts. They use it to ignite an advancement or achieve some kind of insight. It looks like someone dumped a lake’s worth of it on your head. I’m honestly curious which heavenly beings you seduced to get that much divine qi all at once.”

The turtle gave Sen a long, expectant look that said it wasn’t a joke. Sen rolled his eyes in frustration.

“I didn’t seduce anyone. I just had an epiphany.”

“About what?”

“Something about not rushing into things when other people were involved.”

Elder Bo gave him a look that Sen was pretty sure meant the turtle was disgusted by that answer.

“That’s it? Your monumental, world-shaking, absurd levels of divine qi-generating insight was not to be an ass?”

“It was a little more nuanced than that,” said Sen, feeling very defensive.

“Okay, seriously, I need to know. Who was it? Was it that goddess of death? She likes them pretty.”

Sen’s face dropped into his hands as he thought, I wish that stupid spirit beast had killed me.