"Sooooooo. Care to tell me about how the fuck you know so much? I won't buy that you saw all of that through a vision. I'd believe it with only your reaction at first, but your actions afterwards and the fact that you didn't mention a vision to me are all suspicious."
"Wow, countering my counterarguments before I even say them huh?"
"Well, it's you. I have to do as much otherwise you would beat around the bush too long. So?"
The two were alone right now. They've just departed from the port and while the other members of the family went to explore, Siduo used their absence for a private conversation.
The only way they convinced Jianyu not to bother them was with a promise that he'll be leading them around afterwards. Right now, the boy was diligently memorising every corner of the ship so that he can be a guide later on.
"It's… connected to my old world?"
"How exactly? All I know is that you guys have different laws of nature than we do, at least when it comes to life."
"I've never mentioned this before, just because of how absurd it really sounds. But well… Just promise that you'll listen without interrupting. If you want to, just write a question down somewhere."
"Kiki, I'm at the bottleneck of Spirit Sea Realm. I might not be as good as you, but my memory is more than good enough to keep everything in mind."
"If you say so. Just don't go forgetting about it because of the shock."
"Yeah, yeah. Skip the talk. Go to the main topic."
Karni was silent for a second. Then he slowly began in an almost monotone manner.
"I don't really know how I got here. At some point I was in my room finishing my studies, going to sleep, and the next moment a golden vortexed sucked me in, and I woke up here."
He looked at her for a second. She didn't seem surprised at that. It was more like she was expecting it. In his opinion it might be something to do with the fact she knew him. If she knew this, then maybe she knew the following too?
"We never really discussed this. But I might as well ask, just in case. I assume you reincarnated from Douluo Planet. Am I right?"
Siduo nodded.
"Well. You see, before I came here I was watching a certain anime. Imagine a drawn picture moving. It works kind of like movies from here, but everything is drawn. So I'll allow you to speak this once. What do you think this show was called?"
Siduo thought about it for a moment, but she couldn't for the life of her make a connection of some show with what he was doing right now. What would that have to do with his extensive knowledge?
Seeing that she didn't think of anything, Karni understood that her knowledge of him was likely limited to his place in Douluo Planet. He gave the answer. "The show was called Douluo Dalu."
Siduo visibly flinched. Her eyes went wide.
"The show was called that, but really, it came out of a book, which got popular and turned into a show. The books are called Douluo Dalu. All of them. And the first one. The protagonist of the book is Tang San. And so far, all of the legends in regards to him are completely in line with the books."
Siduo had her hand over her mouth. Incredulity was in her eyes, but at the same time it seemed like something was clicking into place with her. Her eyes were shining, and then suddenly she looked towards Karni. Showing him that he should continue.
"Well, these books had sequels. Separating them by ten thousand years. The second one had Huo Yuhao as the protagonist. Showing his own road to godhood. The third one, well."
"Tang Wulin." Wu Siduo answered. Figuring out when he was going with this.
"Indeed. The Wu Siduo in the story while having the same martial souls… well…" He looked towards her.
"I'm not the same in the books since I didn't reincarnate… Right?"
"Yep. You're a complete unknown for me, the only thing in common between you two is some pride, but that's not really anything concrete. Also, Tang Wulin has the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King. He'll one day become one as well."
Siduo's eyes went wide again. "So it was sealed within him?"
It was now Karni's turn to be shocked. "How do you know? Doesn't that happen in the god's realm? Wait. You… did you reach the level of gods in your previous life?"
Siduo gave him a cheeky smile and a peace sign. "Though with the Divine Realm gone. It will be hard to reach that place again."
"That explains so much." Karni laughed out loud. "I would've thought you kept your divine powers though, I know that Tang San keeps them when he reincarnates later on."
"That sly bastard reincarnates?" Siduo wondered without questioning.
"Mm. Ten thousand years from now. When Tang Wulin's son is the protagonist of the time."
"By gods. So we're not even in the present yet? We're in the past?"
"Well I don't know exactly how it works. By the way, Tang Wulin is Tang San's son."
Siduo held her head. "And he has the Golden Dragon King's bloodline? That kid is going to be an absolute monster."
Then she suddenly gave him a cheeky smile. "But you said I'm different than I'm supposed to be from the books right?"
Karni looked a bit weird but nodded. "Definitely, Siduo was not reincarnated, let alone a former good. You also didn't answer me. How come you have no godly abilities?"
Siduo sighed. "It was more of a reset of my whole soul when everything went to shit. Even among the other gods, my case is… well, I reincarnated through different means. It was like my former powers were taken away by the process, leaving me only with my memories."
Karni nodded, not fully understanding, but at least understanding why she was the way she was. Rich battle experience, but weirdly limited by her own body. She had to cultivate into this form without any other powers than her battle experience. That unfortunately wouldn't allow her to automatically surpass her physical capabilities.
"In fact Kiki, both of our reincarnations are curious." Siduo smiled. "We might actually surpass him, you know? Tang Wulin."
Karni scratched his neck when he heard that. He clearly wasn't confident about it. Siduo had to wonder just how strong that guy gets for Karni to react this way, even with all of the advantages he has in regards to the future.
"You're an asshole too, you know?"
"Why? I just told you everything."
"You could've said it sooner."
"C'mon. I wasn't even sure about everything until recently."
"No, I mean even before-" She stopped herself. "Forget it. So do you have a theory about why you read books about this world? I mean, it's obviously real, I refuse to believe I'm inside of a book."
Karni nodded. "I do have some. Since I'm sure this isn't a book. There are a few differences and way too many details to things that were never in the book. It is definitely a real world. My best guess? That some dreams, our imagination, or even just certain people, are capable of looking into certain parts of history of different worlds, and well, they then write it down. Kind of like a different time encapsulating by accident in our mind."
"So it's like looking into a different dimension. But wouldn't that mean that this applies to this world as well? Douluo Plane should also get visions of other planes, no?"
"I think that is the case. Some of the stories I read here while learning your language… They're eerily similar to the ones from my world. Especially myths or hero stories. Like Don Quixote. The story is similar, just in different wording because it was someone else writing it."
"Doesn't that mean you know the whole future then?" Siduo's eyes glistened.
"I think so, but… You know that headache that I get. I've always thought that it might be some side effect of the very fact I've read all of those things."
"It might just be because of you." Siduo argued. "Think about it. You're technically part of the story now-"
"Big sis! Come! I know everything perfectly. I'll show you around!" A little boy started shouting from across the ship.
Karni finished her thought. "We'll find out about it eventually." He winked, showing that they should play along now.
The boy led the two by the arm, while the parents simply waved for them to enjoy the tour.
"This here is the room we'll be staying in. The three of us." The boy's eyes glowed with excitement. It truly felt like an adventure.
Karni and Siduo took in the room. It was quite simple. Three beds were there. There was a bunk bed and another one was put next to it in a horizontal manner. Next to the wall. Beside the other walls there were two big desks and some wardrobes.
"I'll take the one on top!" Jianyu proclaimed proudly.
"Eh? But the bottom is the cool one though?" Karni asked in confusion.
The boy looked at him, confused. No matter what, he couldn't see that being the case.
Karni took one of the blankets they were given, tied it to the top bed so it lay over the bottom one like a curtain.
"Behold. The secret base!" Karni proclaimed.
Siduo readied her attack. "And I shall destroy it!"
"No! It's mine." Jianyu shouted.
Siduo stopped before. "Darn. I was too late."
Jianyu quickly turned back to Karni. "It… It can be mine, right?"
"Mm. Of course. It's a wise decision." Karni ruffled his hair.
The boy, satisfied, led them onwards like a true owner of the secret base.
"This is where mum and dad will be staying."
"This is where we'll eat."
"This is where we store food."
"This is where our room for Mecha Engineering will be."
He wanted to move on, but Karni and Siduo stopped this time around and entered the room.
Surprisingly, it didn't feel any lesser to the equipment they had in their private rooms. Even though they brought the equipment with them, they won't need to add a lot of things here. There were three desks here, one for each of them. Appropriate tools were on the desks and there was even a little microphone-like thingy next to them.
Karni went next to it. It looked very steampunky. Like it wasn't really from this era. It had less technology and more just simple manipulation of sound through physics. He said something into it and he could clearly hear the sound travelling somewhere. Though he got no reply. Without any actual telephone towers, this was the only way to communicate with each other on the ship.
He checked his wristwatch. It still worked. It had its own node that sent out a message wave. It's just that without any telephone lines, the range that Karni and Siduo could communicate through was very limited, much like in the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Finally, the kid took them to the captain's cabin.
"Greetings. I'm your captain for the next three months. When it comes to knowing the ocean's way, I'm some of the best there is, so you can travel peacefully. I only hope you obey my commands when the sea is restless."
The man had tan skin and no other special characteristics about him. He wasn't buff, but nor was he skinny. His hair was dark, his eyes were of a very normal brown colour, and his clothes were very casual.
But Karni and Siduo were a bit surprised. Because despite this man's appearance, he was clearly stronger than the two of them. He was likely just a bit weaker than Siduo's parents. Likely a Soul Emperor. At the very least, he was at the peak level of a Soul King.
"Hmm. You kids are quite good." He could immediately tell they figured him due to the analytical eyes.
"I'm a Soul Emperor. Pleased to meet your service. The name's Wan Chaoxiang. My Martial Soul is the Seaflint Pistol."
The man summoned his martial soul. It looked like a Flintlock pistol, but based on the name, it likely had a connection to the sea instead of normal gunpowder.
The little boy started to clap when he heard everything, even though he already heard it once before.
Karni and Siduo introduced themselves in a similar manner, before leaving. They weren't knowledgeable in seafaring technology, so there wasn't much for them to see here.
In such a manner, the first day went by peacefully. It wasn't hot, but it also wasn't cold. Once they reached farther into the ocean, it became even more of a neutral temperature, though it felt colder due to the humidity.
They all took a day long break. They mostly spent it by hanging out and fishing.
The next day, Karni was holed up inside the Mecha Engineering room for the whole day. He appreciated the change of scenery, and wanted to see if he could make a breakthrough in his research.
He added a little piece of metal barely the size of a pinky finger that had a tiny soul array on it and put it onto the glasses in front of him. As soon as he did, he put a thin pitch black glass into a fitting space next to the soul array. There was clearly some projection showing on the glasses.
He put them on and went outside, looking around the ship, but at some point, he suddenly hit a wall.
He heard laughter from beside him. He put the glasses off and saw Siduo.
"Seriously. Why not actually make them see through with added layers of information. Do they have to display everything?"
Karni felt like a vein popped in his brain. He made a frustrated laugh. "You really think it's that fucking easy? Of course that's the desired final product! This is the only way I can actually test the compatibility with Spiritual Sea though! If it were just analysis this wouldn't need to be a 5-star soul tool! I need to first actually test the individual technologies! I'm having a problem exactly because I'm keeping in mind that I'll need space for those things as well!"
"Ah sorry. I see I stepped on a mine filled with more tiny mines." Siduo retreated.
"I'll show you a fucking mine!" Karni put the glasses away and chased after Siduo.
Jianyu saw them, and not knowing what they were doing, started chasing Karni.
Karni didn't expect that to happen, so he instinctively went to wrestle with Jianyu, it was a form of training they did with him. As soon as he did it, he realised what he did. His mind really was jumbled up these days.
Right now it was already late evening of the second day. It was also a very hot evening. The temperatures of the sea really liked to waver depending on where they were.
"Better?" Siduo asked Karni with a teasing smile.
Karni nodded.
"You really should come out of the room sometime. Don't spend the whole day in it. You can get weirdly obsessive at such times. Well, it really started with this project, but still."
Karni sat on the floor as there were no actual chairs outside. "You try to make a soul tool for a year without any success. I'd like to see how you'd end up."
"Kiki… you do realise that the starting blueprint was ten times easier than now right? For all intents and purposes, you've long completed that thing. It's just that you've kept discovering new things and added them to the project, until now, when you can't anymore. Really… It sounds like skill issue to me."
Karni looked at her dumbfounded. "Y- You know the meme?" He wanted to cry right now.
"What meme? Why aren't you angry? Ah, forget it." Siduo gave up, seeing his weird behaviour.
Karni felt like his soul left him. It was a coincidence. She did not know the meme.
"Anyway." Siduo stretched. "I'm beat. Let's go to sleep."
The other two agreed. It was hot. A nice cosy and cold room would be just right at the moment.
They entered the room. Their faces turned ugly. Even Jianyu looked like he finally understood what death means. It was humid inside. It was warm and sticky. The worst combination. Worst of all, there was no cooler.
The three basically stripped naked. Karni and Jianyu had only their short pants left, while Siduo had an equivalent of a sports bra that was extremely soft, created by herself.
She liked to sleep like that. She once told Karni that in her previous life, she usually slept naked. Karni was honestly a bit scared of what she was going to be like after her 18th birthday.
The group of three tried to fall asleep in their room. At least for about an hour. Jianyu obviously didn't have the defences on his secret base, those being blanket curtains put up around the bed. He didn't want to be even sweatier.
After about another half an hour, Siduo suddenly jumped off from the top bed. "I'm gonna sleep outside." She grabbed a shirt. She didn't want her parents to see her that way. They'd be annoying about it.
"I'm coming with." Karni also rose up. He had just as much trouble falling asleep as her.
"Me too." Jianyu also stood up. His eyes looked like they were asleep, but he clearly wasn't able to actually fall asleep.
They stepped outside. The temperature wasn't any different, but the wind made it a little easier to breathe even if it was very salty.
They went to the front of the deck, put down some blankets so they weren't on the floor and lay back down.
Karni looked at the bright sky. Today was hot and clear. No clouds were in sight. He wanted to look for a big dipper, only to remember that these constellations were different from what he was used to.
They were so clear that he could even notice one of the lines of the galaxy clearly. It truly looked like a beautiful row of stars. The space around them even seemed a bit purple and blue at times.
"It's beautiful." Karni commented.
"Why do the stars look different than at home?" The boy asked.
Karni looked at him. "The planet is round, so as we move and circle, we look at the same stars, but from a different location, so they look a little different. On rare nights like these where everything is so clear, you're even able to see the truly far places of space."
Thinking of this, Karni used his Purple Demon Eyes. With the Detailed realm, he could truly see many things. Stars that seemed even further away. Faraway meteors. The planets closeby. The whole sky seemed brighter than usual. His perception of light at night was far better.
He really wanted to share this with the other two, but his second ring didn't work this way. It shared predictions, not his actual vision, even though he named it Vision Bestowal.
"Oho. The kids are outside as well." Three people approached. It was Wu Jianguo, Ta Siyu and the captain, Wan Chaoxiang.
They put their own blankets on the ground and also stared at the sky, though at some point the captain rose up and brought a fishing rod. In his own words: "This is a perfect night for some fish food."
They even brought a barbecue that they had on the ship. Not long after, there was already a bundle of fish caught. Really, they were mostly soul beasts that weren't even truly 10 years old, but their power compared to a fish on earth.
They stayed up chatting merrily until late into the night. Probably going to sleep about 3 in the morning.
… … …
An island. From afar it looked quite round. It had lush golden-greenery everywhere yet was silent as the unmoving sea.
Despite everything appearing gold, the island itself became a brighter, stronger gold for a few seconds. Then the gold vanished.
Then it reappeared again. And vanished again. The island rose and fell with the light.
It felt like it was breathing, calling out to him.
… … …
Karni was the only one to wake up early. Whether it was due to the vision he just had or his sleep schedule, he was silent so as to not wake anyone else up. This was the first time he woke up calm after a vision. The first vision that didn't warn him of danger. At least it didn't show any.
He sat on the ledge of the ship and looked towards the horizon. It truly was beautiful. It felt like the sun was endlessly rising from the sea. The horizon had a truly special purple colour to it. So very clear. The worries of the vision quickly disappeared.
He could feel his spiritual energy rising faster than usual. About 30 percent faster, but still faster. This will help him greatly in these three months. At least if all of the mornings were so clear.
A sleepy body leaned on the ledge next to him while he was cultivating. It was Siduo. She had yet to gain the Purple Demon Eyes due to how much their debt was in the past, but she should be able to buy it on the Star Luo Continent. For now, she simply accompanied him in this peaceful morning.
Karni stopped as the sunrise finished. "I had a vision."
… … …
After about two months of travelling, truly dark clouds were on the horizon for the very first time. This was also the first time that the children have travelled over such a vast expanse of ocean, but they were never sea sick during the past two months.
Not until they hit this storm anyway. They had some storms, but they were soul masters, so they were mostly okay. Even little Jianyu, while not feeling too well during those times, could somehow handle it.
This storm was truly something else. The captain truly showed his competency during this time. He knew exactly how to traverse the giant waves so that the ship would survive. The poor guy had no time for sleep.
While the ship survived, the children's stomachs didn't. The storm lasted for two days straight. It felt like solid ground was just a myth made up by humans during that period.
The parents were better off. Their strength was high and even if they weren't used to such waves, they could easily handle them.
Out of the children, Siduo was the one who was best off. She only started puking towards the end of the second day.
But as the saying goes. After the rain, comes the sun.
Karni went out of the room for what seemed like the first time in forever. The only time they opened the door was for puking. It was nice to go out because they wanted for a change.
He grabbed the handle of the ledge and leaned over, looking down at the clear sea with sand in it. Then he did a double take to what he saw in front of the ship.
"Sisi."
"Mm?" She came out of the cabin all groggy.
"Did we arrive?"
"No."
"Then why are we on an island?"
"The captain probably just parked us here for some rest." She also leaned onto the ledge.
"No. I didn't." A shaken voice came from the side. Karni and Siduo turned to look at him. It was the captain.
"This island shouldn't exist."