Chapter 338: Jade Merchants

Chapter 338: Jade Merchants

It was not too bad. The road Gerald took had a blue sea on one side, and nice cozy coastal towns and villages on the other.

Even going slowly with the Rockslide, he should reach his destination by the end of the day. New novel chapters are published on

Not much happened on his way. He met a few people, but he simply passed them by. A group of travelers was even attacked by a pack of wolves, but before the guards protecting them could even do their job, the beasts got spooked and ran away.

That's when Gerald came rumbling by, his massive figure sitting on a throne of stone, as he passed them by at the speed of galloping horses.

A few more actions like that and he might even become an Earthen God in the folklore.

"Hehe, yeah" Gerald chuckled, "A god" Wouldn't that be nice? He wondered if Cultivation could allow one to become something akin to a god.

The world had gods in the past, even if they weren't 'true gods.' He would have to try that Cultivation thingy again. It might be simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

At least he couldn't make it work on a first try.

Towards the evening he arrived at another port town. He wasn't aware of the name since he came from the seaside, but it wasn't important anyway. It seemed much bigger than Port Dera in any case. Perhaps he would have more luck finding a ship here.

He visited the docks right away. Many dozen large wooden ships were bobbing up and down on the water there, some even seemingly ready to depart.

It was good that he came straight to the docks. After asking around he came to know that a few ships were indeed departing any moment now, and they belonged to the famed Jade Islands' merchants.

They were going towards the Jade Islands where they would store some goods and load others, before taking them over to the other side of the sea to the lands of sand and stone.

It could have been a good story for a novel, of two hopeless lovers that Probably not. Disguising as an unassuming man when traveling was safer, most of the time.

Then there was a group of five older men with stout bodies and rough looks. They appeared as seasoned warriors at a first glance. Probably because they were.

Gerald honestly didn't care about any of them. They didn't bother with him, and he would ignore them, as simple as that. They won't ever see each other again anyway, so why even bother saying hello?

He found a pile of thick rope on the deck and used it as a seat. He wanted to try that Soul-refining thingy once more. 'First step to becoming a cultivator, huh?' he mused and closed his eyes, slowly entering a meditative state.

Gerald cut off all his senses, completely turning his focus inward. He even used Magic Eyes to look inside his own body.

For the first hour nothing happened, but this time he persisted, not giving up that quickly. In the middle of the night, amidst complete silence, his mind's eye suddenly opened and he became aware. Aware of his own Life Force, Aura, Soul, or whatever it was called.

This was the first time he truly 'saw' it. It was like mist. Visible from a distance, but intangible and fleeting, like smoke. In this state, he tried controlling Mana.

It worked. His misty Soul coiled around it as it pushed the energy out of his body, creating a spell. But, just as the Soul pushed Mana out of his hand, at the moment they both left his body, the great part, perhaps even 90% of Mana, just slipped through his grasp, leaving only a small part of it behind to create a flame.

Gerald stared at his hand where the tiny fire tongue flickered. He cocked his head to one side, observing all that wasted Mana flowing away from him. He never noticed it before.

Well, he actually thought that's how it should be, a spell draining some Mana, but not completely exhausting its energy.

In a way, it didn't really matter. Low efficiency or a high amount of wasted resources, the results were the same in the end. Wasteful magic spells.

It was time to change that!