While there wasn’t exactly any ice aura around, there was plenty of water. They were in the middle of the ocean, after all. He pulled the aura towards him and into his body, cycling it through his body. He had the added step of converting it to ice mana in his system, but water was the easiest to convert, so it wasn’t that hard.

  “There must be a storm coming or something,” Aki heard Owen say.

  Aki tried to push it from his mind and concentrate on his cultivation.

  “It’s getting cold,” Owen said.

  Aki grimaced and looked over towards the boy.

  “You must feel it. I’m shivering.”

  Aki shrugged but didn’t respond.

  “It feels great. Just keep rowing,” a voice grunted behind them.

  Aki grunted and stopped cultivating for the day, though. He didn’t think he wanted to be found out by the crew. Ideally, only the captain knew if he could help it. He perked his head up when he heard steps come down the stairs.

  “Alright, cut them loose. The wind is picking up and we’re raising the sails,” Iehiko commanded from the staircase.

  “The galley is ready for them to eat,” the captain said a minute later before he went back up the stairs.

  The drumming slowed and came to a stop. There were grunts and groans all over the benches as the men and women stopped rowing and stretched out their muscles. Aki did likewise and felt the boy put the oar down on the ground in front of their feet.

  “Alright you lot, you heard the captain. Get up to the galley and get some grub. You’ve done good,” Kayden called.

  Owen walked in front of Aki and the blind man stood up and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

  “Mind leading me along? This way works a little better,” he said with a soft smile.

  Owen shook his head and then Aki heard an audible ‘oh’ in realization before the boy responded with words. “No, of course not. We’re crew mates. Follow me,” Owen said as they filtered into the throng of people, leaving the benches and heading up to the middle deck where the living quarters and such were.

  Once they got to the middle deck, Aki could smell the scents of food and he turned his head back to look at the opening of the stairwell that led down in confusion. They must have had runes or something to block the smell of the food? Wind runes maybe? To blow away the scent. Something. Either way, it was interesting to Aki.

  They walked along through the narrow walkways once more until the boy brought Aki to a room that had much more room than the rowing space. He felt tables with benches and then a cafeteria style chow line with people already lined up. Aki smelled food, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was. The food didn’t really smell like anything.

  It turned out the food didn’t taste like anything either.

  “Gods, we need to get a better cook.”

  Aki turned his head and looked at the female voice that griped about their food. He couldn’t help but nod in agreement. Even with his heightened senses, he couldn’t really tell what he was eating. He only knew what it was because Owen told him while they were waiting in line. There was boiled chicken, vegetables and chicken. None of it seasoned with anything, and the boiling certainly didn’t add any flavor to anything.

  That was life at sea for Aki. Rowing and then eating and sleeping. Sometimes, during downtime, there would be a bit of drinking and gambling with dice. They learned quickly to not try to cheat Aki when they were playing dice.

  “You think I can’t tell what numbers I rolled just because I’m blind?” He had asked before he slapped a much larger man with the cup they used upside the head.

  It had almost broken out into a much larger fight, but Aki didn’t hit the man hard enough to really do any damage. It was the much larger muscular guy who woke him up on that first day to tell him it was his turn to row. The cultivator figured he could have hit the less than bright individual with a brick without causing much damage to him. It had taken three or four others and one of the oar masters to settle Braiden down enough.

  Overall, it was a peaceful life on the sea and he could see what drew people towards it. You knew what to expect day in and day out. They did have to fight their way through a storm and Aki used a bit more strength than usual when he was rowing to help keep the ship going in the right direction.

  The only bit of trouble they had was when the ship accidentally went too far south and invaded some waters that were inhabited by the suiko. They were dangerous water creatures that had taken a few of the crew in the middle of the night.

  After two nights, Aki sat on the steps of the main deck that led up to the pilot’s cabin and wheelman’s platform.

  “Not tired are ya?” the one steering the ship called down to Aki.

  Aki shook his head and held his cane. He pointed his head to the ground in front of him and meditated. Reaching out with his senses and aura feeling around. There had been three people taken off the ship in the previous two nights and Aki wanted to put a stop to it. At this point, he still wasn’t sure what was going on, but he and the captain had talked a little and agreed it had to stop.

  “It’s too bad you’re blind then. I’d give you the wheel and let you steer. You probably could anyway. It’s not like the waters are rough and we’re just going straight,” Nicholas continued, and Aki could feel him shrug.

  “With whatever is going on, it’d be nice to be below deck,” the man continued, and Aki just nodded.

  “It’s a chilly night. I might have to run and get my cloak,” Nicholas said and then cursed.

  Aki just smirked and continued to cultivate.

  “You know, those other folks probably just fell off the ship. They were probably drunk and fell over the railing into the depths,” he continued.

  Aki just nodded along as he tried to ignore him.

  It wasn’t until he felt the morning rays start to hit him that he felt the captain walk up on the deck in front of Aki. The captain’s quarters were below deck at the rear of the ship, so he had to walk up to the main deck.

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  “Nothing huh?” Captain Ishikawa asked.

  Aki shook his head. “Wait,” he said, and then looked up and stood.

  Iehiko turned. “I feel it too.”

  The captain then tried to give the man steering the ship some orders. He gave them slowly but firmly. He was trying to not scare away whatever was approaching the ship.

  Nicholas nodded his head and got a bit of rope. He tied one end of the rope to the banister and the other to the handholds on the large ship’s wheel. This would hold course as much as possible and then Aki could hear Nicholas’s footsteps go towards the steps to go below deck.

  He had only made it to the top step when three creatures jumped from the ocean and landed on the deck of the ship. Aki could feel their scales and fins. They felt almost like goblins if goblins had lived in the water and were fish creatures. They stood upright like men and had webbed feet that looked more like flippers with skinny arms and hands that matched their feet.

  As soon as they landed, Aki reached into a sleeve and pulled one of his obsidian enchanted needles. He threw it towards one of the creatures and it landed in the thing’s neck. A garbled shriek and the creature stepped backwards and tumbled overboard. The beggar frowned. That meant he lost one of his most treasured items.

  He heard Iehiko draw his saber from the metallic sheath the man carried and Aki did likewise. The blade came from the cane and he held onto the cane sheath in one hand and the sword in the other.

  “I should have known.”

  Was the last thing Aki heard Iehiko say before they both charged the last remaining sea monsters. The things moved unnaturally fast even not in the water but only had their limbs to fight with. They didn’t seem particularly magical outside of their looks and not particularly powerful, either. Still, though, they weaved in and out of both of the cultivator’s attacks.

  Aki could knock one of them in the head with his wooden cane sheath, not that it seemed to slow the thing down. The creature moved before Aki could swing anywhere. Able to weave around his strikes, the thing could move in and strike at Aki’s sides and back. The cultivator was able to weather the attacks fortunately since it didn’t have that much strength behind the blows. He knew the thing could wear them both down if they didn’t deal with them.

  Aki reached out with his spirit and exercise his mana in the aura surrounding them. The particles of the air slowed and froze lightly. If anyone came above deck and looked, all they would see was fog as he chilled the warm summer sea air. If they squinted or got close, they might see the outlines of the captain and the beggar fight two other odd figures.

  “Wait, no, Aki, dammit!” Iehiko cursed.

  Aki just smirked. “Your eyes can fool you. Use your spirit to sense them out. They’ll start to slow.” Aki called back to the captain.

  Or well, Aki hoped it would cause the creatures to slow.

  They continued the fight and more and more of the captain and Aki’s blows hit. Aki could smell the salty scent of the creature’s blood. A thrust of Aki’s short straight sword towards the thing and he finally landed a killing blow. He heard a bubbling, gurgling noise and the body fell limp to the deck.

  A turn and he kicked out and kicked the other one towards the captain. Iehiko’s saber was positioned so that it would slice the creature across the throat, resulting in another disgusting gurgling noise before the thud of a limp body.

  The captain was panting, and Aki grinned and released his control over the air in their immediate area. It didn’t take long for the fog to dissipate with the hot, wet air of the morning.

  “If I get out the stones, does this mean I don’t have to row anymore?” Aki grinned and looked towards the captain, who was cleaning his blade off with a towel he pulled from his pocket.

  Aki followed suit and just used the bottom of his robes to clean his blade before he slid it back in the cane sheath.

  “Are there more of them?” The captain asked and ignored the question.

  Aki took a minute and stretched his spirit as far out as he could, like a net encompassing the ship and waters immediately around it. He looked towards the sky and felt out in concentration.

  “I don’t think so,” he said after a few minutes. “It seems we might have gotten too close to somewhere we shouldn’t be.”

  Aki felt the captain nod his head.

  “Yeah. I’ll have to speak with the navigator and wheelman that was on duty,” the captain replied.

  Aki felt mildly concerned that they might have gotten too close to the water kami Enyo’s domain. Hopefully not. Maybe a water dragon that claimed the area, and these were his sentries?

  “I guess we’ll find out how bad it is if any storms come,” Aki said with a shrug.

  “We’re almost to Ilian. Another couple of days and we should be there. I don’t think we traveled near anything too bad. You’re still needed at the oars. Besides, the men might miss you. You’ve been keeping it cool for them. That crew has gotten us further than they ever have,” Iehiko said, and Aki could feel the grin in his voice.

  Aki sighed. “Then you get the stones,” he said and walked away, gripping his cane tightly.

  Iehiko began shouting orders to Nicholas, who was waiting just below deck. The wheelman gave a loud ‘Aye Cap’n’ before he went to wake some of the men to deal with the mess and collect the spirit stones.

  Aki didn’t think the stones would be particularly powerful or large, considering how weak the creatures were. He didn’t care for the money it might bring him, even though rightfully he had a claim to one, if not both of them. Instead, he just went back below deck and found the empty hammock he should have been sleeping in.

  It didn’t take long until he was being woken up by the burly man. Though, ever since Aki knocked him upside the head with the dice cup, the man had been more respectful towards Aki.

  “It’s your turn to row. The captain said we’ve been making good time and the crow’s nest reported land sighting. We may be at port today,” the guy told Aki once Aki was sitting up awake.

  Aki nodded his thanks and climbed down from the hammock. He wasn’t that tired. Since he was a cultivator in the spiritual realm, he didn’t need as much sleep as the mortals who made up the rest of the crew. Sleeping and resting were nice, of course. He just didn’t need to do it as much. His time on the ship might have been the best and most he had slept in a long time when he thought about it.

  “Maybe I’ll miss this ship a little,” he said to himself with a smirk.

  “What’s that, sir?” Owen asked as he put Aki’s hand on his shoulder to lead him down.

  “Hm? Oh nothing, I was thinking about how good I’ve been sleeping on the ship,” Aki explained.

  Aki couldn’t see, but he felt the look of incredulousness the boy gave him. He felt the kid shake his head, unbelieving of the words the beggar told him. Aki knew the boy didn’t sleep well. He slept only a few spots down from him and the beggar could feel the boy toss and turn and grunt and groan when he should be sleeping. He didn’t press or ask the boy why. He figured Owen would tell him if there was anything to tell. They had grown a sort of friendship while they were on the boat, and Owen had helped teach Aki how to be a decent sailor.

  They only had to row for a few hours listening to that slow steady drumbeat from the woman on the large bass drum in the front.

  “Alright, ease up. We’re almost there. They’ll coast us in with the bit of wind there is,” Kayden called when he came downstairs.

  He had gone above to check progress and sounded happy to report that we were finally on the continent of Ilian. They all slowed with the drumbeat and eventually stopped rowing.

  “Come on, if we hurry, we can make it up to the deck before everyone else. I love watching us…” Owen paused and then Aki could feel him stare at the glasses he wore.

  Aki grinned. “Go on, I’ll follow. I could do with some fresh air.”

  That was the boy needed, and he jumped over Aki’s legs and he heard him run up to the top deck. Aki followed closely behind, but he went a bit slower but ahead of the rest of the people who were on duty.

  The blind man climbed up the stairs and then followed the boy towards the front of the ship where Owen stood, holding onto the railings.

  “This view. It’s my favorite,” Owen explained when Aki walked up behind him.

  Aki just nodded his head and smiled behind his beard. “I can imagine.”

  He let his spirit out once more and saw the land getting larger in front of him. Looking backwards toward the ocean, he held onto the banister. He’d miss the ocean air he thought the free feeling living out on the ship gave him. Most of all, he’d miss knowing where everything was without having to expel his aura.

  He looked back towards the land as the glittery bits of aura played in his head, showing him what laid in front of him. He saw the coast and the docks and the town just behind them. Aki grinned and tugged at his beard as they made their way.

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