He knew the ship like the back of his hand, guiding Chen Shi, Li Xiaozhen, and others through its towering pavilions.
Chen Shi looked around and saw that the ship was forty-four zhang long and eighteen zhang wide. On deck stood huge crossbows with bolts as thick as arms and heads as big as basins. The tails of the bolts were tied with black iron chains—though slender, they were heavily coiled on the crossbows.
What fearso prey were these bolts intended for?
Li Tianqing led them briskly into a building, down a flight of descending stairs, around several bends, and into the ship’s cabin.
The sailors and Great Ming soldiers resided on both sides of the cabin, in room after room, with a corridor for going below deck. Stone figures in a multitude of postures adorned the corridor.
Li Tianqing quickened his pace, weaving through the Stone People. Chen Shi followed, stealing hurried glances into the rooms where the sailors and soldiers lived, and couldn’t help but be astonished, "The internal space is so big?"
The rooms he glimpsed were surprisingly spacious, nearly as large as his own courtyard.
However, judging by two adjacent rooms, the interior space should only accommodate one room-sized area, slightly cramped. Yet what he actually saw was about ten tis larger!
Chen Shi casually slapped a room’s wall, and imdiately concealed talismans appeared, revealing a huge Taotie pattern on the inner wall. The mouth of the creature, spread wide open on the ceiling, coincidentally made the sailor’s room entrance.
"So that’s it!"
Chen Shi realized that the Taotie was a mythical creature known for its gluttony, always eating without expelling, its belly holding an imasurable space to eat endlessly.
Great Ming’s Talisman Masters had engraved Taotie talismans within the cabin, expanding the originally cramped space, allowing more people to reside!
"Little Ten, keep up," Li Tianqing called back.
Chen Shi hastened his steps, and suddenly the space opened up to a grand council hall with eighteen zhang in both length and width and a height of four to five zhang. In the center hung a gigantic White Tiger pelt, with seven seats and armchairs arrayed neatly on each side.
The seven armchairs were carved from stone, toweringly huge—they walked closer, not even as tall as the legs of the chairs.
Star charts hung behind each armchair.
"Watch out for the tiger pelt!"
Li Tianqing warned swiftly, "Do not make eye contact with the eyes on the pelt. Otherwise, the White Tiger will resurrect: tiger head on a human body, having cultivated its Primordial Spirit, ferocious beyond asure. If roused, from each armchair will erge the seven Divine Beasts under the White Tiger’s command: Kui, Lou, Wei, Mao, Bi, Zui, and Shen, unleashing a massacre from which no one can escape!"
Chen Shi did not dare to look up at the White Tiger pelt, instead sweeping his gaze across the floor. Nurous petrified limbs and gnawed remains indicated that so had ventured here, only to awaken the ferocious tiger and et a tragic death.
Li Tianqing led them through the West Palace White Tiger Hall and into the East Palace Canglong Hall, where dragon bones—real or fake—were on display, surrounded by another seven armchairs, presumably for the Eastern Constellations.
Chen Shi thought, "With Eastern and Western Halls, there must surely be Northern and Southern Halls; taking other paths would likely lead to these two Halls."
They dared not linger and moved on from the East Palace Canglong Hall to pass through a patch of farmland.
Indeed, within the Great Ming Treasure Ship, there lay a patch of farmland!
Chen Shi’s eyes widened as he saw the lush greenery, surprised to find it brimming with all manner of fruits and vegetables!
The farmland stretched over a hundred ridges, each three feet six inches wide and fifty to sixty zhang long!
Chen Shi picked a radiant red tomato, took a bite; it was both tart and sweet, instantly moistening his taste buds and sliding down refreshingly.
To his astonishnt, the fruits and veggies in this field were edible!
Looking up, he beheld a massive Primordial Spirit head suspended above this ship space, adorned with a swallow-tailed beard, hair bristling fiercely in all directions, and eyes like two giant fireballs shining down on the farmland, in place of sun and moon.
"In six hours, the Primordial Spirit’s eyes will turn to moonlight, and it will be extrely dangerous!"
Li Tianqing warned urgently, "Bathing in the moonlight of this Primordial Spirit’s head could result in dire corruption!"
Beyond the farmland lay more crop fields, sown with corn, potatoes, wheat, rice, and other produce.
Running past the crops, they heard the sounds of chickens, ducks, cows, sheep, pigs, and horses—arriving at a pen where nurous animals were kept, amazingly, still alive!
These few places had shocked Chen Shi far more than the encounters with the Canglong and White Tiger Halls on the way.
Finally, they entered the heart of the Great Ming Treasure Ship—an ancient temple residing within the ship’s cabin.
The temple aboard the ship was majestic and imposing.
As they walked on the temple’s stone steps, they felt insignificant in stature.
Following Li Tianqing, Chen Shi climbed the steps to the temple entrance, looking up at the temple door’s lintel.
"The Stone Rock Lady Temple!"
Collecting his spirits, he followed Li Tianqing into the temple.
The main hall housed the True Body of the Stone Rock Lady. Before even stepping in, Chen Shi involuntarily grunted, his Divine Soul trembling, his True Qi growing heavy, and his thoughts nearly frozen stiff!
An overwhelmingly terrifying aura of divine and demonic force wafted out from the temple, making him feel the austerity of the True God, the grandeur of the temple’s gods and demons. In their presence, he was but a speck, insignificantly trivial.
Even the most unshakable of faiths could shatter under such abyssal disparity!
At that mont, Li Xiaozheng’s presence enveloped them, shielding them from the aura of the Stone Rock Lady. Chen Shi’s mind returned to normal, but observing Li Xiaozheng’s complexion, it was evident that bearing the temple’s pressure was no easy ordeal.
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