Book 4, Chapter 14: Talu

Once Chen Chuan got the news and asked for more information, he checked out, went to the sheriff’s house, and was enthusiastically brought to a private port.

There was a sailboat anchored there, and the sailor was a tanned, built man with wrinkles all over his face. He looked old, but his physical body made it clear that he was less than forty years old.

According to the sheriff, the sailor was originally from Mistlight Island. His entire family had moved to Luowang Island, but the sailor knew Mistlight Island like the back of his hand, so Chen Chuan had nothing to worry about.

Chen Chuan took note that the sailor didn’t seem like he wanted to go back, but was even more scared of the sheriff, so it was clear that he had been forced into this.

He smiled, went to the sailboat, and sat down.

The sheriff removed his hat, waved at him, and wished him a safe trip.

Chen Chuan nodded as thanks.

Since he was a foreigner, Chen Chuan was prepared to get scammed and had contingencies ready for when it happened, but the sheriff didn’t pull any tricks.

It was normal for the islanders and government officers to scam foreign tourists to the point where it would be strange if they didn’t scam them. The sheriff didn’t do it simply because he didn’t dare to scam Chen Chuan.

The sheriff had been in his position for a long time and had seen plenty of tourists, so he was a great judge of character. He could immediately tell that Chen Chuan was a powerful martial artist.

While the sheriff didn’t mind scamming a regular person, he might get his entire family killed if he scammed a martial artist.

This wasn’t a joke. The previous sheriff had died exactly because of this, so the current sheriff had learned this lesson and did his best not to offend martial artists. Besides, Chen Chuan had paid him.

The sailboat set sail, and a chirp came from the sky. It was Dawncall signalling that it was following.

Around half an hour later, Luowang Island became a dot behind them. Right away, the sea started raging. The sailboat jerked, scaring the sailor so much that he threw himself down on the deck and started chanting. “Eru, Eru.”

In the two days Chen Chuan spent on Luowang Island, he had come to learn that Eru was a legendary sea monster Ahena kept suppressed, but the sailor didn’t call for Ahena. Instead, he called out for Eru, which puzzled Chen Chuan.

Either way, the sea had started raging far too abruptly. It didn’t seem like it was an earthquake, and the wind was normal too.

Did it come from the seabed?

Chen Chuan stared at the water for a while with a contemplative look on his face.

A few minutes later, the sea calmed down. The sailor got up, though he kept on chanting Eru’s name. After a while, he wiped off his sweat and continued sailing forward.

There were plenty of rocky reefs and small islands around Luowang Island, along with other boats sailing about. Just then, Chen Chuan saw a number of rowboats moving back and forth near a small island, as if they were looking for something.

“What are they doing?” he asked.

“Search ring,” the sailor answered in the broken language of the Great Shun Republic.

Chen Chuan asked a few more questions and learned that a tourist had dropped his wedding ring into the ocean and had promised to pay fifty thousand devs to whoever found it, so plenty of people had come to try their luck.

Fifty thousand wasn’t a small sum. It was a lot of money even in Central City, so it wasn’t a wonder that so many people had been attracted to the place. With a smile, Chen Chuan asked the sailor, “Don’t you want to try?”

“It’s been more than twenty years, and Ahena has never blessed me,” the sailor said coolly with a shake of his head. Then, he stopped talking.

The sailboat left a little past 5 a.m.. By 10 a.m., Chen Chuan saw a volcanic island on the ocean.

The sailor pointed at it. “Mistlight Island.”

Chen Chuan stood up and looked ahead. He saw a cone-shaped crater, along with thick fog. From the distance, it looked like the volcano had erupted. It was no wonder why no islanders wanted to come.

But this was his destination.

When the sailor saw how steadily Chen Chuan was standing, respect showed up in his eyes. The rocking from the sailboat didn’t affect him at all. At around 12 p.m., the sailboat finally neared the island.

At this point, Chen Chuan could see it clearly. The seawater around the island was clear, and under the bright sun, colorful corals shone in the water. Further away, the volcano was surrounded by lush, green plants.

Once they got close, the sailor lowered the sails and started rowing the boat instead. He anchored the sailboat at a beach covered in sand and rocks.

When they stopped, Chen Chuan grabbed a stack of bank notes and handed it to the sailor. “Thank you. I’m going to be staying here for some time. Please go back.”

The sailor was stunned, clearly not expecting Chen Chuan to pay him, since this was a task the sheriff had forced on him. A sincere smile appeared on his face. After some thinking, he said, “Sir, walk along white stone path. If no path, follow signs. You can find islanders. They can point you to right way.”

Chen Chuan thanked him again and jumped off the boat. When he stood on the beach, a strong wind blew, bringing with it the refreshing chill from the forest in the distance. It was pleasantly cool.

After taking a look around, he noticed the white stone path the sailor mentioned around one kilometer away.

He didn’t head there immediately. Instead, he made a sign and waited for a while. Then, he heard the flapping of wings. Dawncall descended from the sky, landed in front of him, and hopped over.

Chen Chuan patted it and grabbed a tube of nutritional paste from his pocket for it. Then, he took out a custom-made bottle to give it some water. After resting for a while, Dawncall took flight again.

Chen Chuan took a few tubes of nutritional paste himself and had some water before heading to the white stone path. The road signs the sailor mentioned were there as well.

They were made from polished bones bound together. The sharp ends pointed to a direction deep into the forest.

Chen Chuan followed the signs while carrying the Frost King Saber in his hand. The stone path was broken, but he could always see road signs, so he never deviated from the correct path.

After around eight kilometers, he saw a grassy corridor. A young man with tanned, shiny skin walked out of it. Since his torso was bare, his beautiful muscles were on full display.

He was walking with a staff covered in paint. After taking a good look at Chen Chuan, he spoke fluently in the national language of the Great Shun Republic. “You’re approaching private property, sir. If you’re here on a holiday, you can’t head there.”

He pointed to another direction with his staff. “There’s a village there that will receive you warmly.”

“I’m here to see Talu,” Chen Chuan responded.

Talu was the purity faction member and the successor of Single Flow School, one of the old twenty-one martial arts schools of the island nations. According to the mega alliance’s rules, if no martial arts master appeared over the course of three generations—equivalent to sixty years—in a martial arts school that had existed since the old era, it would no longer be acknowledged by the mega alliance.

Then, this martial arts school would have to hand over all its training resources for Third Limit martial artists and above to the mega alliance. Of course, the mega alliance would pay them the corresponding amount of money and resources as compensation.

The governments and companies continued upholding this rule even after the mega alliance collapsed.

Single Flow School had no martial arts masters in more than a hundred years, which was even before the mega alliance was formed. According to the school, it was because the gap they possessed since the old era had vanished, so their martial artists couldn’t inherit the school’s advanced secret techniques.

But that wasn’t the case. The gap hadn’t actually disappeared. It had simply shifted locations, though this alone led to the decline of the entire school. Things only took a turn for the better when a successor of the school relocated the gap through sheer determination. This person was Talu’s master, who joined the purity faction and willingly offered the gap to any purity faction member worthy of help.

When the young man heard Chen Chuan mention Talu, he became wary. “You know Talu?”

“Please tell her that Mr. Zhuan sent me,” Chen Chuan replied.

The young man sized him up before whistling. After a while, a thin and small, but agile teenager ran over. The young man pointed at Chen Chuan and whispered some things to the teenager in the local language. The teenager then nodded before running into the forest. Soon, he vanished.

Chen Chuan waited for around ten minutes before an old man wearing a headband and loose canvas clothes walked over. The young man quickly bowed. “Mr. Gan.”

The old man approached Chen Chuan and greeted him with a fist-and-palm salute. Then, he spoke fluently in the national language of the Great Shun Republic. “Sir, you know Mr. Zhuan? Do you have any proof?”

Chen Chuan retrieved the pig-dragon jade token from his pocket. The old man’s expression turned respectful, and he bowed. “Please come with me.”

He took a step to the side and gestured at Chen Chuan to follow.

Chen Chuan nodded and walked after the old man. They passed by a stream and went up a gentle slope. In just a few hundred meters, they reached a spacious clearing.

There was an ancient building made of stone there. It should have been built quite a long time ago, since most of the paint had peeled away. It had some decorative openings, but they had since been filled with broken, rotten wood. However, based on the patterned stone tiles and eroded stone statues, this place had been magnificent in the past.

A tall woman of around twenty-eight years old stood in front of the building. She was fit and had rosy cheeks, which made her pleasant to the eye.

She wore a white martial arts uniform and had tanned skin, while her eyes were incredibly lively under her thick eyebrows. At that moment, she was teaching a group of students. Most of them were teenagers and children.

She had to be the person.

Talu was actually a title. Each successor of Single Flow School abandoned their original name and adopted this title.

Chen Chuan didn’t interrupt. He moved to a shaded corridor and waited. Gan Guo gave him coconut juice and local melons, and Chen Chuan took them with gratitude.

After around half an hour, Talu ended her lesson. She put her thumbs together, then pressed her palms flush against each other, and let out a clear shout. Everyone performed the same stance and shouted before bowing to her and leaving.

It was only after they left that Talu walked over to Chen Chuan.

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