“…Do turtles live in the Yangtze River too?”

Yi-gang muttered without realizing it.

He had of course heard of sea turtles, and there were land turtles as well.

But did river turtles even exist?

The turtle blinking its eyes was fairly large. It looked a little bigger than a small child.

Come to think of it, there were turtles that lived in ponds.

So a big turtle like that might exist too.

Yi-gang was not the only one wondering about this.

Even the water bandits who had spent their whole lives at sea were curiously examining the turtle from every angle.

“How’d something that big get in here?”

One of the bandits muttered.

Whether turtles lived in the river or not, the most surprising thing was that this turtle was under the hold of their ship.

“You sure there isn’t a hole somewhere?”

“If there was, we’d have sunk long ago.”

The bandits whispered among themselves as they poked the turtle with sticks.

“Suspicious.”

“I don’t think it’s an ordinary turtle.”

For a turtle, it was huge.

Yi-gang nodded at Dam Hyun’s words.

It did look suspicious somehow.

Of course, there was no chance that that simple-looking turtle was some spy of the Evil Cult, but it didn’t seem ordinary.

“It’s definitely a little strange.”

The moment Yi-gang said that.

Among the people surrounding the turtle was Ha Jun as well.

When Ha Jun heard his older brother mutter, he acted at once.

“Hey, hey…!”

He pushed through the hesitating crowd and hoisted the turtle up.

It was a hefty turtle that must weigh a full hundred pounds, but Ha Jun easily lifted it over his head.

Whether it was struggling or just docile, the turtle only waved its limbs very slowly.

Without a word, Ha Jun climbed the stairs leading up to the deck.

The bandits and onlookers hurriedly followed after him.

They immediately understood what Ha Jun meant to do.

He walked with firm steps toward the stern.

And he was about to hurl the turtle into the river without hesitation.

“Whoa, whoa! Don’t!”

“Wait! Wait!”

Several people rushed at Ha Jun in a panic.

Ha Jun was flustered to see everyone trying to stop him.

Yi-gang was shaking his head as well.

“I was just going to let it go into the river.”

“That thing doesn’t live in water. Can’t you tell by the shape of its feet?”

The one who got the angriest was none other than Dam Hyun.

He did not even bat an eye at seeing several people die, but he practically had a fit at the idea of tossing a land turtle into the river.

“You heartless bastard!”

Startled by Dam Hyun’s murderous expression, Ha Jun set the turtle down.

Dam Hyun was not the only one blaming him.

“Turtles are spiritual creatures. If you drown a spiritual creature in the river, the river god will be enraged…”

Whether on sea or river, sailors were always sincere about superstitions.

The bandits of the Yangtze Waterway Stronghold were no exception.

They were delighted simply by the fact that a turtle was aboard their ship.

“It’s a good omen, a good omen.”

“It’s definitely a good omen. Namu Amitabha.”

One bandit even mumbled this while fingering his completely worn-out rosary beads.

Yi-gang stood a step apart from the commotion.

Together with Nezha, who had his arms crossed, he watched the turtle.

「Hmm…」

Yi-gang glanced at Nezha.

‘Is it a spiritual creature?’

「It’s not an ordinary turtle. But it is nothing you humans need to be wary of.」

Nezha spoke with a mocking air.

In an age where yokai had grown numerous, spiritual creatures had as well.

In the past, Yi-gang might have seriously considered catching it to take its core, but he no longer had any need to obsess over cores or elixirs.

That was when Cheongho, who had been lazily watching the water’s surface, approached.

Cheongho swished his tail lightly as he observed the turtle.

The turtle, which had been looking around, also met eyes with Cheongho.

Cheongho was the first to move closer.

With wary eyes, Cheongho examined the turtle this way and that, then pricked up his ears and sniffed at it.

Then he acted boldly.

Someone let out an exclamation.

Cheongho had climbed up onto the turtle’s shell.

The sight was rather dignified and also quite cute.

“They say spiritual creatures recognize their own, haha!”

“How cute…”

The bandits were delighted.

In truth, Cheongho had been introduced to them as a spiritual creature, not a yokai.

The bandits did not know the precise difference between yokai and spiritual creatures, but they had a strong desire to avoid anything ominous.

The blue-glowing fox yokai, the Heavenly Thunder White-Tailed Fox.

Cheongho was still in the form of a cub, but as long as he did not bare his belly and cause a ruckus, he looked rather noble.

In any case, Cheongho was not an ordinary animal.

Seeing such a being sitting amicably atop the turtle’s shell eased people’s hearts.

It was the same for Yi-gang.

“We’ll have to feed it grass, but will it eat fish too? How are we supposed to raise it…?”

As Yi-gang listened to Dam Hyun fret, he turned his body.

Nezha walked alongside him.

「Human.」

Yi-gang looked back at Nezha.

「I have suddenly had a whim. I shall give you a precious piece of advice.」

「All those cheap tricks you use. Swinging a blade without lifting a hand, calling down lightning to electrocute things, that sort of thing.」

He pointed at Yi-gang arrogantly.

「Throw away those useless little tricks.」

Yi-gang looked at Nezha for a moment, then ignored him and turned his head.

Nezha bristled.

「You will regret it if you do not listen to me!」

‘Weren’t you beaten by those “cheap tricks” of mine?’

「Hmph. You don’t truly think that was your victory either.」

Yi-gang did not argue.

It was not that he was ignoring him this time. Nezha was right.

Yi-gang did not delude himself into thinking he had defeated the heavenly god Nezha.

「Those three you intend to face are all beings that are not human. Do you really think you can face them with human techniques?」

The three Nezha spoke of were the Cardinals.

Yi-gang had heard from Zhang Sanfeng that the Evil Cult’s Cardinals were beings distinct from humans.

「I shall teach you how to fight a heavenly god.」

After pondering, Yi-gang asked.

‘Why would you?’

Nezha neither liked humans nor was particularly kind. Why would he go out of his way to help Yi-gang?

The answer was simple.

「I am saying I will teach you what you need. Are you really that curious about the reason?」

Yi-gang did not think too hard before answering.

‘I’m not that curious, no.’

「Good. Come out on the deck at daybreak.」

With that promise, the two parted.

Even when night fell, the ship did not stop.

They still needed people to handle the sails and steer the ship at night.

So even on the deck before dawn, there were people moving about.

Even so, the upper deck where Yi-gang was remained quiet.

Smelling the briny river mist, Yi-gang was circulating his internal energy and controlling his breath.

They said that after becoming an Absolute master one spent more time meditating than on circulation, yet he still cultivated the Immortal Divine Art and the Wisdom Mind Art.

For a martial artist who had learned energy circulation, it could not be helped.

Dawn was slowly brightening. It was nearly daybreak.

Perhaps because of the river mist, the torches had gone out, but even without light his field of view began to clear.

To Yi-gang, who sat with his eyes closed, Nezha’s jibe drifted over.

「That too is a useless trick.」

When he opened his eyes, the blue-skinned boy’s form was there.

「Stop doing things like that as well. It’s pointless.」

“Try saying something that makes sense.”

He was a martial artist. If a martial artist abandoned martial arts, what was he supposed to fight with?

「Humans flail their hands and feet with things like internal energy and cultivation arts. I, however, do no such thing. Have you ever heard that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, or Erlang Shen, trained in martial arts?」

As Nezha said this, he mimicked Yi-gang’s hand-and-foot techniques.

The movement was not completely clumsy, but it could not be called skillful either.

「If anything, this is somewhat better.」

Then something astonishing happened.

Nezha produced a dagger from somewhere.

What radiated from the dagger was clearly…

‘Sword energy?’

「That is what you call it. How foolish.」

There was a clear difference between Nezha and the spirits Yi-gang had met up to now.

Nezha exerted physical force far too easily.

Even the great Zhang Sanfeng could only manage things like moving objects, but everything Nezha did looked extremely easy.

「Only those who cannot use pure power resort to such complicated and pathetic means.」

The dagger he tossed away hit with a clatter, and from his back Nezha drew out three more pairs of arms.

Flames rose from his hands, and his eyes blazed with a blood-red glow.

He even floated his body up into the air.

These were things no human could imitate.

Nezha thus belittled human martial arts as useless and cumbersome.

He meant that heavenly gods did not fight that way.

‘So that is why you hide behind treasures?’

「Treasures are a far more refined and fundamental power than martial arts.」

In truth, martial artists looked down on relying on weapons or hidden weapons instead of one’s own skill.

The logic was that depending on external objects was a shallow tactic.

Nezha’s view was the exact opposite.

‘Are you telling me to use treasures?’

「Hardly. There is no way you will obtain a proper treasure. If treasures were so common, they would not be precious.」

‘You did not call me here just to mock me, did you? I have no intention of abandoning martial arts just because you say so.’

「It is not as if there are none like you. Immortals who were once human cling to martial arts to the end, especially.」

Lu Dongbin1 was like that, and so was Zhang Sanfeng.

Zhang Sanfeng had spoken of the limits of humans, yet he had not told him to give up martial arts.

Yi-gang felt the same.

「Take up your sword. I will show you how a heavenly god fights.」

Nezha assumed a strange stance.

He lifted one leg like a crane and brought his eight hands together in a bizarre posture.

「This is what could happen if you meet those three lords without any defenses.」

“Are you sure this is okay when you are not even fully descended?“

Yi-gang asked this as he drew his sword.

Nezha was in a state where he could not use his full power. He should be far weaker than when he possessed Dam Hyun.

To Yi-gang, the current Nezha was not threatening.

「Try cutting me down. With all your strength.」

Speaking so, he must have been confident.

That was Yi-gang’s judgment.

And the instant an Absolute Realm master decided to swing his sword.

It took only a split second for that intent to turn into an actual sword strike.

He stepped in, raised his sword, and cut down in the same motion.

The blade, tracing a perfect arc, should have cleaved Nezha in half.

That was how it should have gone.

But the problem began from the very moment he stepped in.

It felt as if the temperature in the air changed past a certain point.

Yi-gang’s body twisted strangely.

The sword that had been coming down instead went up, and his upper body turned to the left.

Naturally, the sword did not cut Nezha.

Yi-gang spun and twisted violently, like a silk cloth caught in a storm, and was flung away.

He crashed to the floor and rolled, barely managing to regain his balance.

“…What was that?”

With a wary expression, Yi-gang raised his sword again.

Seeing this, Nezha let out a sound of admiration.

「To think you would regain your balance and retreat.」

“What was that just now?”

「That is what is called Domain.」

Nezha stretched out his foot and drew a line around himself.

The moment Yi-gang crossed that line, his sword strike had failed.

「It is a basic application of divinity.」

Domain.

It was the sort of word used in phrases like a typhoon’s domain or a tidal wave’s danger zone.

「It means becoming the master of this area. That is why I can even control the direction of force.」

Yi-gang kicked a water bucket rolling at his feet.

The bucket flying toward Nezha entered his domain and immediately bounced away, splashing water in all directions.

Nezha had not blocked it. The laws of physics themselves had been warped within his domain.

Nezha spoke triumphantly.

「Those who do not understand Domain can never break through one. As you can see…」

“Once more.”

Yi-gang did not lower his sword.

“Let me try just once more.”

「What…?」

Yi-gang readied his sword strike again.

Nezha hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

「You are doing something pointless. …Very well. Try it.」

1. TL/N: One of the Eight Immortals ️

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep