Chapter 545: Bored

Li Shiwei immediately got out of bed and snapped her fingers.

A strange wind swirled around her, beginning to tidy her hair and clothes; by the time she walked from the bed to the center of the room, she had transformed from a messy, relaxed state into a sharp, clean uniform.

That's right, she was now wearing a uniform, essentially a tight-fitting, long-sleeved robe. The overall design seemed to be inspired by the Tang Nation's constable attire, complete with a small square hat bearing the merchant guild's emblem.

This merchant guild was jointly established by Mount Luofu, the Lingxiao Kingdom Lord, and Li Qi, and it is currently the organization responsible for developing this cluster of worlds.

Li Shiwei's duty was as a guard, and she was also responsible for maintaining security on this massive ship.

After all, a giant ship two thousand li long couldn't be empty. It was filled with people, some of whom were independent merchants. Their civilizations and worlds were unable to construct large Spiritual Artifacts to traverse Outer Void, but they could pay rent to board the ship, using the merchant guild's massive vessel to transport their goods.

Though called independent merchants, these merchants usually represented their entire civilization, carrying goods accumulated by hundreds of millions, or even over a billion, people from their civilization. The high-ranking officials of the civilization, perhaps even its strongest individuals, were responsible for such business activities, but…

There were too many such miniature heaven and earths, making them seem insignificant. They were generally categorized as independent merchants, with seven to eight thousand such merchant teams on the giant ship. The strongest individuals in their entire civilizations, some were even only Rank Nine.

They seemed inconspicuous in the vast Void Beyond, yet they were the hope of their entire civilization.

With seven to eight thousand different races, and seven to eight thousand different customs and even physiological states, it was impossible to avoid friction.

Moreover, these races often had various grievances and animosities even before boarding, which further necessitated security personnel.

Therefore, Li Shiwei's job was to manage and coordinate the security of these people, and also to serve as combat personnel, moonlighting in world-side delivery matters.

This was a very proper job; Li Qi did not give his daughter any special treatment, because Li Qi knew that special treatment was indulgence, and indulgence would damage a child's Dao Heart, causing Li Shiwei's mindset to become skewed and no longer normal.

A normal Dao Heart is very important.

A normal Dao Heart means maintaining one's true self when facing different people.

Neither humble to superiors nor arrogant to inferiors, not fawning over those stronger than oneself, nor bullying those weaker than oneself. Only then can one go far and avoid an imbalanced Dao Heart.

This was something Li Qi realized himself; he had suffered losses in this regard, and even Zhu Fengdan admitted that she had made mistakes in his upbringing, making Li Qi timid and lacking courage.

Initially, Zhu Fengdan let Li Qi fend for himself, leading to Li Qi fighting Rank Seven as a Rank Nine, then facing Rank Six as a Rank Eight, and later, when he was Rank Seven, directly confronting Heavenly Demons without pretense, which shattered Li Qi's spirit, making him overly cautious and lacking courage, to the point where he is now stuck at Rank Six Peak.

Therefore, Li Qi certainly would not make this mistake again, and Li Shiwei has also grown up very upright so far.

Li Shiwei walked to the door and pulled it open.

Outside the door stood a middle-aged man, also in uniform, but looking much more high-class.

Seeing the middle-aged man, Li Shiwei was very puzzled and said, "Ah, leader, why are you here? Is there something you couldn't say over the communicator that you had to knock on my door in person? Are you very idle?"

The entire ship had a highest-Rank security officer, with five major teams under him, each managing five areas. The man in front of her was Li Shiwei's captain, responsible for one-fifth of the ship's security. He had reached Rank Seven in the Dao and was once a reclusive master from a Rank Seven world who only wished to pursue his limits. He was later recruited, with cultivation method as compensation, and now worked diligently daily to exchange for a Rank Six cultivation method.

"Of course I'm not idle, but you seem quite idle, so, overtime," the middle-aged man said indifferently.

"Ah… overtime again? It's not those few Ore races again, is it?" Li Shiwei's face fell.

"You're the only one on the entire ship who can communicate with them. Alright, stop complaining. These are big clients, there's a bonus. They're over at Warehouse 15 in Cabin B, with Rank Seven beings confronting each other, so I'll go with you," the captain said, still emotionless.

Hearing about the Rank Seven confrontation, Li Shiwei immediately became serious. As for the captain's tone, the rascal was already used to it.

At first, she thought the captain had an issue with her, but later she learned that after he reached Rank Seven, he had no one in his world who could understand or communicate with him, so he cultivated alone in the deep mountains, becoming expressionless for about two thousand years, which is why he couldn't change it back in a short time.

She understood why the captain would personally come to find her for overtime.

So, she nodded, then said to Zhang You in the kitchen, "Youyou, you eat first, don't wait for me. Overtime, the leader personally approved, Rank Seven confrontation!"

"Okay! Be careful, don't get too close!" Zhang You poked her head out of the kitchen and warned.

"Minor thing, I'll be back in an hour!" Li Shiwei made an 'okay' gesture, and casually headed outside.

Then, she followed the captain, quickening their pace towards their destination.

After all, this ship was two thousand li long and several hundred li wide, with intricate internal structures, larger than some miniature heaven and earths. Traveling still required some time, but fortunately, as security personnel, they had their own exclusive passages and didn't have to take the crowded main routes.

On the way, the captain suddenly asked, "By the way, how do you communicate with those Ore races?"

Li Shiwei immediately joked in response, "I have my own secret methods~. What, leader, can you just casually inquire about my background? I'm a virtuous maiden, mind your influence."

The captain still had that expressionless face: "I'm just curious, you cultivate the Mount Luofu's cultivation method, and I also cultivate Mount Luofu's cultivation method, so why can't I talk to those Ore beings?"

"Probably because you can't. Even with the same cultivation method, there are differences. I'm a Genius," Li Shiwei hummed, saying proudly.

"Indeed, I still need to work harder. In my own world, I thought I had reached the Peak, but now I know there's always someone better," the captain continued, poker-faced.

"Hey, you're not taking that seriously, are you?" Li Shiwei frowned.

"It's already true, so how can it be 'taking it seriously'?" The captain's tone didn't change.

This made Li Shiwei rub her head.

He's even more like a rock than a rock. This person should be able to communicate with Ore beings; rocks are far more reasonable than him.

Yes, in fact, being able to communicate with Ore beings isn't about any cultivation method; the principle is very simple: let the stone speak.

The stone is also a typical Ore being, and its true form is a Rank Six Mountain Xuan Jade produced in the world, holding a very high status and naturally able to suppress those Ore beings, which is why Li Shiwei's words are effective among them.

Of course, the stone's true form is Rank Six, but he himself has only cultivated to Rank Nine so far, so he is actually very weak. He needs to slowly develop his potential.

Or, to be more direct, have others help him develop it, which means refining him into a Spiritual Artifact.

Li Shiwei certainly wouldn't do that. It's better to let the stone grow slowly. After all, it's a foregone conclusion that the stone will advance to Rank Six in the future. He hasn't even reached the stage of development yet; currently, the stone is still unearthing abilities he can't utilize.

But… forget it. It's no use explaining to this captain, and it's not good to expose the stone to outsiders, as the stone's true form is still very valuable.

Chatting idly, the two spent about fifteen minutes arriving at the scene.

The scene… how to describe it?

A pile of indescribable, unidentifiable brilliant gems were heaped on the ground, confronting each other and blocking the path.

Because there were two Rank Seven beings, surpassing ninety-nine percent of the people on this ship, everyone was avoiding the area.

These Ores, of course, couldn't be humanoid. In reality, they were all strangely shaped; as long as they could move, it was fine. And even if they could move, their movements were quite slow, essentially just an indescribable pile of gems.

However, as Ore creatures, they had evolved extremely powerful Spirit Souls and special optical Divine Abilities, so they didn't need to move themselves, only float using their Divine Abilities.

To be honest, if you just looked at them, it would be hard to believe they were living beings.

However, the worlds in Outer Void are endless, and there are always some strange and wondrous ones.

"Stop, stop, don't block the way!" Li Shiwei clapped her hands and walked into the middle of the gem piles.

The gems emitted a wave of Spirit Soul fluctuations.

They couldn't speak and hadn't learned the stone's method of vibrating its body to produce sound, so they communicated through Spirit Soul transmitting their thoughts.

Translating these Spirit Soul fluctuations, it was probably a cacophony of cheers?

"The Great One has come, the Great One has come!"

"Great One, they stole our trade route this time!"

"Our goods are clearly better, this is normal competition, can this even be considered stealing? They're just not trying hard enough."

Great One is the term these Ore beings use to refer to high-status beings.

Of course, they weren't calling Li Shiwei, but the stone.

Li Shiwei flicked the stone hanging on her waist with her finger and said, "Find a quiet place, don't block the road here, go inside and talk slowly."

Then, the piles of gems suddenly lifted into the air and flew up.

They then followed Li Shiwei into an empty warehouse nearby.

Li Shiwei locked the door and threw the stone out.

Then, it was a special communication between inorganic matter, a method of communication that Li Shiwei couldn't understand at all.

But it didn't matter, as long as the problem could be solved.

She looked at the minerals, then turned to look at the door. Through the peephole, she could see the captain standing guard outside, but the captain probably couldn't see inside; it was one-way.

How to put it…

There was a sense of fatigue.

At first, when she started working on these tasks, she was quite happy, able to interact with different types of races every day, so she was always very excited.

However, it had been over a year, and now doing this kind of thing no longer caused any emotional fluctuations.

Just as she had told Zhang You earlier, she was a little tired.

Although she hadn't been directly beaten down by any particularly major event, for a girl who was only eighteen years old, this year of work felt like a dull knife, constantly cutting at her.

Just over a year, it didn't seem long, and she hadn't suffered any grievances. In fact, her colleagues were all easy to get along with, even the Rank Seven captain, who, despite being as emotionless as a concrete slab, was actually quite good to his subordinates, for example, this overtime.

Overtime was unavoidable; after all, the conflicts among the Ore races couldn't wait until tomorrow. But he could have simply given an order, yet he chose to come with Li Shiwei himself.

This kind of good workplace relationship, comfortable interpersonal interactions, and decent salary and status should, by rights, be a life many would envy.

But Li Shiwei still felt that this life seemed to be slowly choking her, filling her with dirt day by day as time passed.

It had only been a little over a year, and so many fantastical sights already felt a bit numbing.

After a while, the stone finished mediating. To avoid exposure, Li Shiwei didn't immediately ask him how he did it. Instead, she re-hung the stone on her waist, then pushed the door open and walked out.

Task done, they began their return journey.

The return journey was the same route, just in reverse.

On the way, Li Shiwei couldn't help but ask the captain, "Leader, you've been working here for fifty years, haven't you?"

"Mmm, two years short of fifty years," the captain nodded.

"Aren't you bored?" Li Shiwei was a little curious.

"Bored of what?" The captain didn't understand what Li Shiwei was referring to.

Li Shiwei explained, "Look, Leader, you've lived for over two thousand years, two thousand of which you spent alone, hiding your tracks in the remote corners of your world, and then you've been doing the same thing here for fifty years… Don't you feel bored?"

As she spoke, she looked at the captain. It was said that his expression had disappeared because he had lived alone for two thousand years, thus losing the ability to make expressions.

"Bored? I don't know, I haven't felt it," the captain said with a poker face.

Li Shiwei didn't ask again, because she knew that was just how the captain was. If he said he didn't know, then he truly didn't know.

They returned to the dormitory.

Zhang You had left food for her. After eating, Zhang You began cultivating.

Li Shiwei looked out the porthole.

Outside was the boundless Void Beyond, a pitch-black expanse with no light at all, nothing visible. It was a Void Realm even darker than the deepest darkness.

Most Void Realm voyages were like this; only rarely would they encounter strange and wondrous sights.

Looking out the window, Li Shiwei felt somewhat impatient.

She felt that life on the ship was only interesting at first; now it had become a suffocating shackle of sorts.

Li Shiwei wanted to go to the Hunter Sea World. She heard it was a chaotic era, and she could build her own legend there.