William circulated his ki according to the methods of Rotational Soul Pressure. It really was true that after some time it could advance further. He found it wasn’t much- but every little bit was better. It worked with any other technique for increasing ki cultivation and was easy to train and safe- as long as it wasn’t treated like another type that had to push past the limits.

William’s self-created technique didn’t have a name. He probably didn’t need it. He didn’t plan to teach it to anyone else. It wasn’t to prevent others from becoming stronger, but quite frankly it wasn’t that amazing of a technique. There were many others on par with it, at least for the general user. William’s own technique was created for his own use, which is what made it better for him. Beyond that, he thought it would be rather unimpressive. It would be among the top techniques for those suited, but not better than them.

The biggest advantage William had was that he had broken through the sixth level of his cultivation technique. There was something about cultivation that made each major breakthrough approximately equivalent, and as far as he knew no one else had broken through the sixth level of any technique. Even the best of the old gevai lords were only at the fifth- and the Demon King had been around there as well.

The boat rocked, reminding William of where he was. He was in the captain’s cabin for a merchant vessel, waiting to be attacked. There was someone with actual experience being a captain- but they couldn’t just let the Eternal King stay in some secondary quarters. There wasn’t much to be said about sailing. William didn’t get seasick, but he didn’t find the dried food particularly appetizing. It was… fine. He spent some time up on deck, but there wasn’t much to do.

“I hope they attack soon, eh Chris? It’s pretty boring.”

On the rocking boat, Chris’ written responses were somewhat shaky, but William still got the message. “I don’t get bored.”

“Yeah…” William shrugged, “How’s your cultivation going?” It was merely a formality to ask- because he could see that about Chris even more easily than when observing most people.

“Fairly well. I continue to advance. I am the foremost staff in the field of cultivation.” Left unsaid, of course, was that Chris was the only staff in the field of cultivation. At least, as far as either of them knew. The circumstances that Chris was created in wouldn’t come about by accident- and not many would be able to do it on purpose, and fewer would even if they could.

-----

William was worried he might have to make dozens of trips acting as bait, or that it might be too obvious- but on his trip back up the coast something finally happened. “My king! Ship spotted on the horizon!”

William hadn’t noticed it with his ki senses yet, but even as far as they extended they couldn’t compare to the visibility on the open sea. William went to the door, “Dwarven?”

“As far as we can tell- it certainly fits the description.”

“Very well. Tell the men to prepare to be attacked- they know the plan.”

“Yes, sir!” The soldier moved off to relay the orders.

William knew the soldiers weren’t exactly happy about the plan- especially the part where they would inevitably be attacked by weapons they had little experience with. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much other way to get a dwarven ship around. If everything went according to plan, the dwarven ship would pull up alongside them and they would go from there. William remained in the captain’s quarters. He would stand out as different, and though the soldiers weren’t a normal merchant crew they were still sailors.

The sound of a cannon firing told William that everything would not go according to plan. William felt the shell strike the water, but the next one would be closer. At this point, it was time to act. He grabbed Chris and went out the door. He didn’t have time to waste, especially with the next shell on the way, so he only shouted out a brief explanation. “Looks like things have changed a bit! The plan is basically the same- I’ll just be further away.”

With that, he leaped off of the ship and onto the ocean. Turning a cubic meter of seawater into ice was a very energy intensive process, but simulating the effects of such ice with ki was rather easy. That was good, because William actually needed more buoyancy than required to support an average human weight.

William started to sprint across the ocean at an angle to the two ships, his ki pressing down into the waves over a wide area- and in return pressing him up. That had the effect of flattening out the waves around him, but he didn’t stay in any one area long enough to appreciate the effect.

Within a moment he was out in front of the relatively parallel boats, then he turned more toward the dwarven vessel. There wasn’t anything for him to trip on, though he did have to concentrate to maintain his use of ki. In addition to that, he also had to pay attention to the dwarven vessel. He didn’t want to get hit by a cannon shell out of carelessness. Perhaps he would be able to protect himself, but he would rather not try it out in the current circumstances.

The important thing was, as long as he wasn’t careless, he had no chance of being hit by a cannon shell. Ships weren’t exactly the most maneuverable things in the world, and William could tell that the cannons only pointed directly out the side of the ship. This ship didn’t have to turn as far as he had to run to aim towards him, but cannons weren’t exactly made to aim at individuals moving at a sprint.

William was almost disappointed that they didn’t even try, but he supposed that their goal was the ship. Perhaps they didn’t even see one person running on the surface of the ocean… though a dozen seconds later they certainly took note.

A few moments after that, William had jumped up onto the ship’s deck. He heard shouting in a language he didn’t understand, and saw and felt a dozen or so guns trained toward him.