After eating, Ning Beichen stood on the deck again, motionless, as if petrified, letting the sea breeze blow through his hair.
At this moment, a crew member wanted to walk over but was immediately stopped by the couple on the boat. They made a shushing gesture and said softly to him,
"Don't disturb Mr. Ning."
The crew member nodded hurriedly. Although he didn't know who Ning Beichen was, he knew that his boss highly respected him.
Ning Beichen was not daydreaming; he was cultivating.
Since breaking through that threshold and becoming a Grandmaster, Ning Beichen had not felt satisfied. Instead, he increasingly sensed the mystery of this world and his own insignificance.
Thinking about his previous arrogance, Ning Beichen found it somewhat laughable.
Some things are like a thin film. Before breaking through it, you see nothing, like a frog at the bottom of a well. But once you break through and jump out, you discover a much wider and more mysterious world behind it.
Around Ning Beichen, a large amount of water vapor began to gather. Initially, it was just a greyish-white mist, but gradually, this mist covered Ning Beichen's entire body like armor.
If one didn't look closely, they wouldn't even see that there was a person on the deck.
After a while.
Ning Beichen exhaled deeply. He saw the mist instantly transform into raindrops and fall. As they landed on the deck, he saw these raindrops rolling around his feet like marbles, appearing incredibly magical.
"Rise!"
Ning Beichen gave a soft shout, controlling the water with his qi. The water droplets on the ground all floated up, suspending around Ning Beichen as if time had stood still.
After a while, Ning Beichen waved his hand, and these water droplets dispersed into mist, as if nothing had happened.
Ning Beichen looked quite satisfied.
Controlling qi was an ability gained only after advancing to the Grandmaster realm. Below the Grandmaster level, one could only roughly manipulate internal energy. However, upon reaching the Grandmaster realm, one could further control internal energy to their will.
To give a simpler example, before becoming a Grandmaster, Ning Beichen could catch bullets with his bare hands, which was considered the peak of skill.
But as a Grandmaster, with just a thought, he could use his qi to make bullets hover in mid-air, much like the protagonist in "The Matrix." The difference in power is naturally obvious.
If Ning Beichen had some apprehension towards the Temple before reaching the Grandmaster realm, that apprehension was now gone. He now wished the Temple would send some people for him to practice on.
However, what Ning Beichen found strange was that the Temple seemed unusually quiet lately, not sending anyone to deal with him, which made Ning Beichen feel something was amiss.
He would never believe that the old monsters of the Temple were scared off by him. If the Temple only had such limited capabilities, they would have been annihilated countless times over by now.
Yet, the Temple was still standing, which proved their strength was far from simple.
Moreover, Ning Beichen had a premonition that the Temple was plotting something.
Once they finished their scheme.
They would likely turn their full attention to dealing with him.
However, even with this premonition, Ning Beichen could do nothing. He didn't know the Temple's location, so he could only wait passively. Besides, Ning Beichen didn't have time to pick a fight with them right now.
His trip to Europe this time was to help Liu Yilin obtain the machine, but Ning Beichen knew this would not be easy.
Threats could be used, but not too often. Even as the King of Darkness, he had to abide by certain rules, much like two countries possessing world-ending weapons.
Therefore, mutual restraint became an unwritten rule. Without such rules, the Earth would have been destroyed long ago.
Furthermore, this situation was not the fault of the company. They weren't unwilling to sell the equipment to Liu Yilin; it was because Liu Yilin was under sanctions.
If they sold the equipment to Liu Yilin, they would face suppression from a certain superpower, a price a single company could not bear.
To put it mildly.
Even if this company had backbone and wasn't afraid of sanctions, a significant portion of the patents and precision components of this equipment came from that superpower.
How could they dare to disobey?
They wouldn't. If Ning Beichen were the owner of this company, he wouldn't dare either.
Because it would undoubtedly be like a moth flying into a flame.
Ning Beichen was always a planner, acting after careful consideration.
But this time, he truly had no plan.
Because this matter itself was an unsolvable problem.
Therefore, Ning Beichen had few options and could only go and assess the situation.
The cargo ship sailed slowly on the sea. Being a fully loaded freighter, its speed was not fast, and it would take about a week to reach its destination.
On the ship, Ning Beichen spent his days cultivating and fishing, as there was nothing else for him to do.
However, the couple and the crew members were often astonished, their mouths agape as they watched Ning Beichen.
It wasn't because he was doing anything absurd. On the contrary, what he did was unbelievable to them.
Because Ning Beichen fished without bait. Every day, when he had nothing to do, he would sit on the deck, cast his fishing rod into the sea without bait, and then lie back on his deck chair.
At first, the crew members and the couple, to whom Ning Beichen had been a benefactor, couldn't understand. They assumed Ning Beichen had never fished before and didn't understand the basic need for bait.
So, they enthusiastically offered him good bait and intended to teach him how to fish.
But no one expected that Ning Beichen, with an indifferent expression, would casually pull up his fishing rod in front of everyone. A large fish was hooked, wriggling vigorously.
Once or twice could be a fluke, but after multiple consecutive successes, they were speechless.
If this was luck, how incredibly heaven-defying must his luck be? Fish would actively take the bait every time, as if they were queuing up to be served.
Ning Beichen offered no explanation. While seemingly fishing, he was actually cultivating his qi. He used the fishing rod to manipulate his internal energy, control the fish, and then hook them onto the line.
Initially, Ning Beichen was not very adept, only able to control a few fish each day.
But as he became more proficient, Ning Beichen could now catch dozens, even hundreds, of fish a day if he wished.
The crew members, from initial shock, had now become numb.