When the midnight dinner was over, Mei immediately went back to sleep at the front end of the boat.  Granny Arin needed to stay awake and keep ‘driving’ the ship, while the other two giants were struggling to sleep on the floor by curling up into the fetal position.  Seriously, the boat was definitely designed for ‘normal’ people, not superhuman freaks.  The wood wasn’t magical at all and every time any of them walked around, it seemed like they were going to capsize us.

By the way, if it wasn’t for the fact that those three were extremely heavy, we really would have flipped over a bunch of times.  Those oceanic waves were even more ridiculous than the ones on Earth, so if we ended up getting caught in a storm…

Anyway, whenever I thought about ghosts or Spirits in my past life, I wouldn’t have expected them to need so much sleep.  Zombies and other undead were always famous for never resting and having infinite stamina, but the reality was the complete opposite.  Humans and Beasts would need more food and more time to sleep as they got stronger, but Spirits required far more.  Elementals weren’t quite as bad, since they had a stable form to rely on.  If they went into a deep slumber, it could last for eons and their soul wouldn’t dissipate or lose mana.  Conversely though, Elementals required far more energy in order to function than normal Spirits.  Using their physical forms was similar to activating and manipulating a magical item.  Like that spectral dick that would possess swords and stab people to death with them.

The point is that although Jasmine and Scarlet Jade were both really noisy when they were awake, it didn’t take long for them to get bored and take a ‘nap’.  Of course, the last time they dozed off, eons went by… I wasn’t exactly expecting them to be very helpful anytime soon.  It would be a totally different matter if I was powerful enough to supply them with energy and ‘allow’ them to become my Spiritual Companions, but it wasn’t something that would happen in the near future.

One of things that I noticed though, was that it was pretty hot outside.  The Lunar Pendant’s air-conditioning function was basically gone.  However, it did slightly increase the mana-density around me and make it even easier for me to absorb pretty much every kind of Qi.  I mean, although it was called the ‘Lunar’ Sphere, aside from that Crescent Moon, there were still those six other symbols, which I assumed had a similar function.

Regardless of their faults, Spirits were amazing and incredibly useful.  Yet, I still felt incredibly annoyed at the bullshittery that occurred on Silver Moon Island.  First of all, what was the point in us even going there?  If I hadn’t been lucky enough to find the Lunar Sphere, I probably would have died from Yin Qi Corruption!

Di told me not to worry about other Elements and just focus on Nature, but I was starting to realize that he was way too naive.  Well, maybe he never predicted that there would be such a ridiculous turn of events?  Either way, I was stuck in a situation where I couldn’t do any sort of strength training and I was surrounded by oceans, without any methods to keep myself alive.  As long as Mei was there, she could easily help me out with the Water magic, but that was irresponsible.  Sooner or later, she wouldn’t be there anymore.  Besides, there were likely to be many situations where we would need to separate, so I needed to prepare for the future.

The reason that no one cultivates a bunch of different Elements at the same time is because they physically can’t.  Unless your Innate Talent is extremely overpowered, you simply can’t do it at all.  Other than that, there are certain body-types.  No, I’m not talking about fat, skinny or beefy people!  There are all sorts of Bloodlines and genetic traits that allow people to cultivate certain Elements more efficiently than others.  Situations can also occur, where it’s impossible for guys and girls to even sense certain Elements; much less absorb and refine them.

An added bonus is the fact that my Cultivation Method was Ranked as Eternal.  In other words, that Goddess gave me two enormous blessings, which no one else on the planet would ever have the chance to obtain.

As I stood on the bow of the tiny boat, I muttered “Maybe in the future, when I have enough Spirits, I won’t even need to worry about refining at all… No, it’s better to not rely on them.  Besides that, there’s definitely a difference…”

For example, Xiaotong was a Demonic Thunder Spirit.  The Element Chaos is as wide and varied as Nature, so focusing entirely on lightning isn’t necessarily a good thing.  It allows you to specialize, but drastically limits your potential growth and variability.  If I limited myself to only using daggers or swords, then what would happen if I suddenly found a badass spear?  More importantly, what would happen if I had to use a different weapon in the middle of a fight, without any warning?  I’d be fucked and not in a good way.  

Look at Rong Li Xia!  She was so powerful and skillful in her area of expertise, but she ‘only’ had one weapon.  If she also had throwing knives or shuriken, she could have easily killed me.  However, she chose to entirely focus on cultivating her rapier skills, to the point that she was a ‘Fencer’.  Her forte was agile movement and fast attacks in close range.  She did have some ways to shoot Qi from a distance, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive as Johan or Liara’s Archery.  Either of those two would have easily been able to kill me from a distance, before I even had the chance to retaliate!

The moral of the story is that it’s better to be a Jack of All Trades than a dead Master of One.  Besides, it’s much easier to have Spirits or Beasts to specialize in certain areas, while I focussed on abusing the shit out of my Innate Talent.

After staring up at Iah for a few more minutes, I suddenly remembered something pretty damn important.  I opened up my Extradimensional money-bag and searched for anything ‘weird’.  “It’s gone…” Yep, I kind of expected it already, but my so-called ‘Shadow Dragon Egg’ was missing.  Although, I figured that the shell would still be there, or some sort of evidence that it ‘hatched’.

Whatever it was, had jumped inside of my eye socket and when I slept for a few hours, my eye had regenerated.  It wasn’t very difficult to guess what happened, or at least make some pretty accurate assumptions.

I let out a long sigh and murmured “Well, hopefully it won’t try to eat my brain…” It was better to not think about the fact that the mysterious creature would definitely be growing inside my head.  I was mostly just praying that it wouldn’t get very large or maybe it would simply go somewhere less ‘sensitive’ within my body.  Parasites tend to move around through the bloodstream, so it wasn’t too strange of a wish.  “Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll piss or shit it out?”