Chapter Sixty-Eight: Seventh-Rank Officer of Pure Waters, The Four Seas Exorcism Talisman

The sun in the sky had shifted its course.

Wang Cheng scarcely paused for a single moment, snatching just a few bites for meals, working tirelessly from the first morning until the following day’s dawn.

Twelve full hours were nearly at an end.

He stood atop a small boat, gripping a pole nearly two zhang in length, equipped with a tough silken fishing line, an oversized hook, and live bait.

Suddenly, the fishing line went taut.

With a fierce shout—

“Rise!”

The muscles of his arm bulged, and with the extraordinary control of his mind’s eye, he borrowed the force of the waves beneath his feet. The hefty fishing pole became as a long spear in his hands, with which he wrested the hooked behemoth from the sea.

In the next instant, a giant shark over four meters long burst from the water, and with a deft flick, Wang Cheng hurled it onto the deck of the Zhang Fushun.

As the first ray of sunlight spilled across the horizon, the day’s challenge came to its end.

Wang Cheng cast aside the fishing rod and leaped onto the Zhang Fushun alongside the shark, where a ceremonial altar had long been prepared according to ritual requirements.

Mountains of precious catches—fish, turtles, shrimp, crabs, a hundred thousand treasures of the sea, and gigantic oceanic creatures—were heaped around the altar.

Two days prior, his third senior brother Zheng Qian, on their master’s orders, had brought the most suitable talismanic object for Wang Cheng’s induction as a Whiteshore Officer: the Erlang Blade.

It was a three-pointed, double-edged blade descended from the traditional oar-knife.

Like the Heart-Calming Golden Hoop taken from the Monkey, it bore the same mythic resonance.

But Wang Cheng chose not to use it.

After all, his master’s lineage specialized in Court Service; the Erlang Blade held no particular significance, nor would using it or not hinder his future as an inheriting disciple.

Wang Cheng determined to use the Craftsman’s Silver to open his own branch of the ritual path.

He would first purify the talisman with Daoist energy, paving the way for his humble crew members.

Objects such as gold, silver, copper coins, or jade ruyi could communicate with the divine and were widely adaptable, suitable for all thirty-six halls of the water order.

Wang Cheng accepted the Craftsman’s Silver from Zhang Wu, presented in a lacquered box inlaid with shell and decorated with fish and aquatic plants.

He placed it solemnly upon the altar.

Lighting incense and bowing, he intoned the incantation:

“Heaven aids impartially, the celestial image perceives the subtle. No darkness is too deep, no feeling is unknown. Bearing the talisman, the divine weapon answers my call. My path is supreme, ascending the immortal capital—by this decree!”

A blue radiance burst from the Craftsman’s Silver, sweeping over the surrounding treasures worth thousands of silver taels, dissolving them in an instant.

Brilliant light mingled with azure smoke and vanished into the void, forming a fragrant path between heaven and man…

Wang Cheng, having witnessed Han Shushu perform such rites, knew the process was flawless and braced himself for the baptism of Daoist energy.

But at that moment, the Four Seas Treasure Coin that had long lain dormant in his mind suddenly blazed to life.

Together with the Craftsman’s Silver, it resonated with the Celestial Water Gold Toad’s Vital Breath from the heavens above.

Before he could react, the coin’s aperture in his pupil widened sharply, and the scope of his “Rare Goods at a Premium” detection stretched to its utmost under the surge of Daoist energy.

Wang Cheng’s perspective soared upward.

In an instant, he pierced through the coastal defense lines formed by garrisons, crossed a broad buffer zone inhabited only by boat-dwelling people…

He saw, upon the vast ocean, a ray of golden light leaping from the boundary between sky and sea, forming a serpentine golden wall that stretched from north to south across the Eastern Sea of the Grand Zhao Dynasty—like a mountain, a forest, a dragon.

Upon the wall, countless bricks of incense, yellow flags, shrines, altar-cities, and temples were piled high.

Phantom images of ghosts, folk gods, officials, boy attendants, protectors, monks, princes, dragon kings, and the Heavenly Empress sat each in their shrines, subduing this mountain-and-sea prohibition.

Some formed seals, others wielded steel whips, divine maces, or scepters—each exuding awe-inspiring divine might.

Two divine entities, in particular, drew his gaze.

The Heavenly Empress was without doubt supreme, her dharma form enshrouded in golden light and benevolent radiance—a goddess of tender mercy.

She was the only first-rank earth deity among the water order, not ascended through cultivation in life but deified in death, safeguarding the sea border and step by step elevating her divinity through the vast incense-wish power of the coastal peoples.

“Yun Xiao said she had already petitioned the Empress. While expecting the goddess herself to intervene in worldly affairs is unlikely, it should not be difficult for her to command the closely allied Mountain-Sea Society to send reinforcements.”

The other was his own father, Prince Jing, one of the rare few to reach the second rank in life, and upon his return, had attained a status second only to the Heavenly Empress.

Should he manifest his divine presence, he would assuredly become the leader of the Prince’s lineage.

Though divine officials seldom aspired to literal ascension, instead seeking a secure posthumous deification—a “death without extinction”—who would willingly submit to the harsh, relentless disciplines of the ghostly gods, molding themselves into mere forces of nature?

How much better were they than those malevolent spirits born only of folk legends, lacking even a self?

Only living, sentient beings could create infinite possibilities!

No wonder every emperor through the ages succumbed to temptation, dispatching fleets to the sea in search of the elixir of immortality.

Beneath this illusory wall of prohibition, there was a bloodstained, foul sea-eye, mirroring above, in which many ghosts and gods suppressed evil spirits.

This time Wang Cheng saw more clearly than when he had sent off the King’s Ship.

The former shipmasters were now half-human, half-dragon, clad in scales and horns, most of their eyes vacant, their reason gradually eroded by endless struggle with evil spirits.

Even if the Dragon Heir devoured them face to face, they might not even resist.

Wang Cheng felt a pang of sorrow and grimly resolved never to sink into such a fate, worse than death.

His “Rare Goods at a Premium” vision reached the boundary of the mountain-sea prohibition, and, unexpectedly, pressed onward, piercing the radiant golden barrier.

“Could it be—?”

Wang Cheng’s heart skipped a beat.

He knew well there must be something extraordinary beyond the mountain-sea prohibition, enforced since the First Emperor, and he also understood that burying one’s head in the sand solved nothing—diversion, not blockage, was a proven solution.

He had always longed to see the world outside the wall with his own eyes: to discover, to resolve, to know both self and foe and remain unbeaten.

He was also deeply curious why every sovereign through the ages believed the secret of immortality was hidden in the depths of the ocean.

At last, his sight pierced the golden light cast by the mountain-sea prohibition.

Before he could make out what lay beyond, a torrent of information from “Rare Goods at a Premium” flooded his vision:

[Rare Item: Crimson Pearl Immortal Herb, five hundred years of maturation
Effect: Revives the dead, restores flesh to bone, can save the newly dead within a quarter hour.
Value: One hundred thousand incense talismans…]

[Rare Item: Scarlet Ganoderma
Mainly treats chest constriction, benefits the heart and spirit, improves memory and wisdom, taken over time brings lightness and longevity.
Value: Sixty thousand incense talismans…]

[Rare Item: Northern Dipper Ship of the Celestial Treasure Fleet
One of the seven treasure ships lost with their mariners in the vast ocean…]

Just as Wang Cheng’s eyes widened, eager to see more, a speck of golden-red radiance appeared in the depths of the azure sky, drawn by the light in his own heart, and crashed into his brow.

In a heartbeat, Daoist energy descended, bearing the spiritual sign of the Otter Sacrificing Fish, entwining into a golden-red talisman as intricate as dragons flying and phoenixes dancing.

It sank into his heart, fusing with his own resolve as the wick of his heart’s lamp.

Blessed, prosperous, long-lived—triple flames shone brightly, bathing the entire fishing boat in gentle, warming winds, sweeping away the lingering chill of early spring.

On the surrounding sea, great schools of fish emerged, circling the Zhang Fushun, swimming swiftly, predators and prey in peaceful company.

As they swam, they blew streams of bubbles as if calling his name.

Some of the boat-dwelling crew, excited beyond measure, swore to their companions they had just heard the fish say:

“Boat People Rise, Wang of Fortune!”

Without doubt, Wang Cheng, newly entered among the seventh-rank Whiteshore Officers, already possessed a spiritual cultivation nearly equal to veterans of many years.

In sheer ceremony and effect, he was clearly among the most outstanding of all the water order candidates.

But Wang Cheng’s uniqueness went far beyond that.

He had no time to ponder whether the visions outside the wall were real.

He focused his mind on the talisman in his heart, but his expression quickly turned to surprise:

“I received a seventh-rank Four Seas Demon-Slaying Talisman?

But isn’t the talisman for Whiteshore Officers supposed to be the River Diagram Life-Preserving Talisman?”

He had studied the secret scrolls his master provided and realized his talisman was unlike that of any other Whiteshore Officer, or any officer among the thirty-six halls.

One was of the Four Seas, one of the River Diagram; one to slay demons, one to preserve life—their very essence worlds apart, each word exuding a commanding spirit no ordinary fisherman could possess.

Before Wang Cheng could further ponder the differences in his talisman, his vision blurred.

When he looked again, he found his consciousness had been drawn into the eye of the Four Seas Treasure Coin.