Fun with the crew.

"So… I need your blood."

Extending her hand towards him, she said "Here."

Taking Jörmungandr Marcus touched Xiao Mei palm with it. And as the tip came in contact with it, blood showed on her palm.

Taking a drop, he put it on his own palm.

Es, make an analysis. Find a suitable cultivation technique. And… take into consideration that there is no Qi in the air.

"Yes Host."

A few minutes later Es give the results to him with a list of suitable techniques. Unlike Liu Yang, Xiao Mei is a genius, this means that there are more techniques that she can practice.

Still, at the top of the list, there was one that he was very familiar with. Basic Energy Gathering.

But there was a note beside it. Xiao Mei has no connection to the Void Dimension. Not yet at least. She has to establish one before she can practice Basic Energy Gathering.

In this case, Marcus was exceptional, because his Aptitude was at the maximal possible level he formed the connection to the Void Dimension naturally. But to make a connection to the void dimension you don't need that much aptitude, you just need… a lot of it.

With Xiao Mei talent, she has more than enough of it to establish a connection. All she needs is a way to do it.

And he has it. Well, Es has it.

But there is a problem. Before he can give her Basic Energy Gathering, he has to know what type it needs to be. For example, he is using Basic Energy Gathering (Lightning), because his gate changes the void energy into the lightning attribute energy.

So he needs to give her a technique that will be suitable for the energy that her gate will be making.

So first he needs to give her a technique for connecting to the void dimension and then one for actually practicing. This means he will have to use two Knowledge Crystals. And this will mean that he needs more Energy and more time to gather it.

Es, is there any other technique that won't require her to absorb the Qi from the air?

"There is a few, but none of them will be as good as Basic Energy Gathering."

Got it. Thanks. I hope she won't go crazy on me.

Remembering how she was when he gave up during the competition, Marcus shivered.

"So… there is good news, bad news and good news."

"Always start with the good news Marcus."

"Right, I will keep that in mind. The first good news is that I can get you a cultivation technique, very similar to the one I'm using. It is a bit slow, but you will never face bottlenecks. Not to mention that it's powerful. The second good news is that there are another cultivation techniques, but they will be worse than the other one."

"... It makes no sense. Can you talk like a normal person."

"You wanted the good news first!"

"Just talk."

"The bad news is that I will need a few more days."

"I will wait."

"You will… wait? Great I will first give you a technique that will let you connect to the Void Dimension. Then when you make a connection, we will know how your gate is changing the void energy, and I can give you the Basic Energy Gathering technique."

"Now, explain why where you so surprise when I said I'll wait, and what was all that blabbering just now."

"..."

After calming her down a bit, Marcus learned two things, never assume anything about a woman, and never try to reason with her about your assumptions. Especially when her body is stronger and can easily overpower you physically.

While he was explaining all about the Basic Energy Gathering, he bought a Knowledge Crystal and transferred the way of connecting to the Void Dimension. He had a quick look at it, and as everything connecting to the Void Dimension, it was simple… too simple.

In the next four days, Marcus continued to practice, Es told him that the space fluctuations will be gone in a week or so, and Xiao Mei successful connected to the Void Dimension.

And with another sample of her blood, Es started to analyze.

"What do you think it is?" Xiao Mei asked. Since he explained to her how the Basic Energy Gathering works whenever he had the time she would come to him, asking questions after questions, some that he never thought of and had to ask Es about.

"Whatever it is, be prepared to be disappointed."

Minutes later the results came back, and it was Fire! Plain and simple as always.

And with Xiao Mei having the same reaction as Marcus had months ago, and when she got the Basic Energy Gathering (Fire), she only said two words before going off to practice.

"Too simple."

---

"Captain Czerwobear, do you think you can take care of your crew, I don't want to kill them."

Long Jiao was on a ship for a few days now. He spent most of his time in his cabin, cultivating and waiting.

But now he was facing the whole crew of this ship. It would be easy for him to kill them, but then he wouldn't have a crew to drive this ship. And he wasn't planning to get stuck in the middle of the sea.

Somehow some idiots got the news that there is a huge bounty on his head and gather up more idiots. And here we are now, they want to kill him, the captain is trying to talk some sense into them, and I'm trying to not kill them all now.

"Get your shit together people, stop being unreasonable and put your weapons down, there is no need for any of you to die!"

"Captain, this guy is worth hundred thousand gold! We can kill him. Don't stop us or we will cash out your bounty…"

Crack.

Before the smuggler finished speaking, his neck was broken by the captain hand that grabbed it.

"You fellas are forgetting why I'M THE CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP!"

Throwing the body out of the ship the captain looked at the crew with fire in his eyes.