Chapter 00029: The Walnut Boat
# The Walnut Boat
Chapter 29
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 29: The Walnut Boat
The wooden boat wasn’t massive in size, but it was more than enough to fit seventy or eighty people.
There were three such boats, which meant they could easily accommodate the entire group.
Everyone looked up in awe, letting out a long, collective "wow."
Even though they already knew that Sun Fuping was the Imperial Preceptor and had extraordinary methods, seeing this still left them stunned.
He Lingchuan, however, overheard Zeng Feixiong mutter softly, "So that’s what a Profound Crystal looks like? First time seeing one."
His voice was filled with amazement.
"It’s green, just a low-grade Profound Crystal," He Lingchuan replied casually, as if it were no big deal.
This caught Nian Songyu’s attention, and he immediately turned to ask, "Do you have a mid or high-grade one?"
"No, of course not!" He Lingchuan laughed it off.
If he admitted to having one, it would probably be confiscated, right?
But the truth was, he did have one.
Inside his storage pouch lay a Profound Crystal, a deep green one, slightly better in quality than the one Sun Fuping had used to power the walnut boat.
Profound Crystals were solidified forms of the world’s spiritual energy, usually formed during periods of intense spiritual energy eruptions.
Once collected by humans, they could be purified, refined, or combined with other materials to create various grades of Profound Crystals.
These crystals had countless uses—they could replenish the spiritual energy of mages or demons, power mechanical puppets, or activate formations.
Though the three walnut boats looked unremarkable, the cost to power them was anything but cheap.
It had been a long time since the last major spiritual energy eruption, and as Profound Crystals became rarer, their value skyrocketed.
Sun Fuping casually used them to power the boats, while He Lingchuan only had one, a gift from an envoy of the Northern Demon Kingdom for a favor he had done.
One used luxury items as tools, while the other treated them as treasures.
The difference in their status and wealth was clear.
As He Lingchuan observed, Nian Songyu turned to the bandits and asked, "Do you have any tricks that could help us out?"
Situ Han, who was also admiring the walnut boat, shook his head.
"There are too many of us. Our crude methods probably won’t work."
Nian Songyu had asked out of curiosity, not expecting much.
But He Lingchuan chuckled, "Didn’t you bring your incense balls?"
"We did," Situ Han hesitated, glancing at Sun Fuping, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"But they’re not exactly... refined!"
"When it comes to survival, refinement doesn’t matter," He Lingchuan said.
Nian Songyu asked Situ Han, "Are they useful? Effective?"
"Usually, yes," Situ Han patted the boat.
"How do we get this thing moving?"
Nian Songyu didn’t hide it.
"Profound Crystals."
Every second burned money.
Situ Han thought for a moment.
"If we’re lucky, maybe the two of you won’t have to use Profound Crystals."
This piqued even Sun Fuping’s interest.
"Oh?"
Profound Crystals were rare, and if they could save them, they should.
These things were priceless, and even with money, ordinary people couldn’t buy them.
Situ Han humbly emphasized, "If we’re lucky!"
"Let’s give it a try," Nian Songyu said indifferently.
"If it doesn’t work, you’ll be thrown off the boat to feed the demons."
Why did I open my mouth? Situ Han wanted to slap himself.
"Then everyone, cover your noses."
Cover...?
He Chunhua saw his eldest son and the bandits pulling up their scarves to cover their noses and mouths, so he followed suit.
Situ Han gave a command, and the bandits brought out a box.
Inside, on a soft cushion, lay a bloated, bubble-like object.
Nian Songyu looked at it, puzzled.
"What is this?"
"Have you never seen a pig slaughtered?" He Lingchuan laughed.
"This is a pig’s bladder. You can blow it up like a balloon. It’s not fully inflated yet."
Seeing his smugness, He Chunhua couldn’t help but think to himself.
This kid had grown up with the best of everything in Blackwater City, a standard rich second-generation noble.
Logically, he shouldn’t have seen a pig’s bladder.
But he was too mischievous.
As a child, he loved filling pig bladders with water and hanging them from old trees on the main street.
When someone he didn’t like walked under the tree, he’d throw a metal spike at it...
Nian Songyu, who had always lived in luxury, had never seen such a thing.
He rarely even ate pork, considering it low-class.
He frowned in disgust.
"What’s it for?"
"It’s airtight, otherwise we’d hurt ourselves first," He Lingchuan explained as the bandits brought out a large piece of cured meat, tied with a thick rope.
They then untied the bladder and poured its contents onto the meat.
It was a thick, dark green liquid, bubbling and occasionally emitting a wisp of white smoke.
As soon as it was exposed to the air, everyone’s sense of smell was assaulted.
The stench was like a severe case of athlete’s foot left in a sealed boot for a month, mixed with the body odor of someone who hadn’t bathed in half a year, and topped off with the unique aroma of rotting fish and shrimp piled in a dark corner of a smuggling dock for years.
It was a symphony of stench—fishy, musky, and rancid—reaching new heights of foulness.
Soldiers who hadn’t covered their noses in time immediately vomited.
The worst part of the smell was that once you smelled it, your body would remember it forever.
Even those who had been holding it in couldn’t take it anymore, doubling over and vomiting.
Luckily, the bandits quickly threw the meat into the sand and covered it with a few handfuls of sand.
The strong desert wind soon dispersed the stench.
Everyone gasped for air, never having appreciated breathing so much.
Nian Songyu’s face turned pale.
"Ridiculous! What’s the point of this?"
He felt nauseous, barely holding back from vomiting.
But when he turned and saw He Lingchuan’s gleeful expression, he couldn’t help but suspect that this little brat was using this to mess with him!
Who wouldn’t be affected by such a stench?
"Just watch," He Lingchuan said calmly, pointing at the sand pit where the meat was buried.
Everyone looked and saw that from the pit, lines of disturbance spread out in the sand, varying in depth but all moving outward rapidly.
Clearly, there had been many creatures hiding beneath the sand, and the stench had sent them fleeing in panic.
Not only was it effective against humans, but it also had a powerful effect on mutated beasts and demons.
In fact, since their sense of smell was more acute than humans’, the spiritual and physical damage they suffered was even worse.
"It can drive away mutated beasts. Not bad. What else can it do?" Sun Fuping was somewhat surprised.
Poison gas attacks hadn’t been part of his plan, but it seemed the crude methods of country folk could be quite effective.
"This alone is far from enough!" Nian Songyu cracked his knuckles.
Were these bandits and the He family teaming up against him?
Seeing Nian Songyu’s expression darken, Situ Han was confused.
"Wait, just wait. The key to crossing the desert is coming!"
Coming? What’s coming?
(End of Chapter)