Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

June 1, the second year of Zhenguan.

Night.

The merchant ship that Chen Mo was riding on was a converted warship. It was very large. In the eyes of some small overseas countries, it was called a giant ship. It was more than ten feet long and was a veritable thousand-ton ship.

According to Chen Mo's previous life, the displacement is about 2500 tons and can transport more than 300 tons of cargo.

But on this rough sea, it is like a small boat, swaying unsteadily.

The lights on the boat are like a firefly in the dark night.

As the ship passed by, it left a long trail of water splashes and ripples on the sea. The sparkling sea reflected the outline of the ship, like a beautiful ink painting.

The temperature on the sea surface dropped sharply at night and it was very cold. Except for the personnel on duty on the deck, everyone retreated into the room.

On the bed in the master bedroom on the second floor, Chen Mo pulled Yue Ruyan and sat her in his arms. He whispered beside her heroic and stern face, "Ruyan, it's getting late. Let's rest."

As he spoke, the hand that was around Yue Ruyan's waist reached into her skirt, went up, and stopped on the water heater.

"Be gentle."

Yue Ruyan did not refuse, and she had no reason to refuse. It was already night, and even if she refused, it would be useless. After all, she and Chen Mo knew each other well. She turned her face away and asked Chen Mo not to make too much noise, after all, there were people living downstairs.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Chen Mo blocked his mouth, and his heroic and cold face instantly turned red, like the sunset glow.

They are an old married couple, so naturally they are not as slow as a newbie.

After a brief warm-up, we entered the competition.

Yue Ruyan also had a very good understanding with him. When Chen Mo moved casually, she knew what to do next and prepared in advance.

The game was intense, just like the rough sea.

Not long after, Yue Ruyan groaned, and felt her body soften, almost unable to hold on. Chen Mo's greedy kiss on the back of her neck also greeted her. Her face was blood red, and her voice was trembling. She said shyly, "I told you to be quieter."

"Don't worry, the sound of the waves and sea breeze is so loud, they can't hear it." Chen Mo frowned, hugged Yue Ruyan motionlessly, and entered the halftime break.

Yue Ruyan also got a little respite, picked up a handkerchief beside her and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

"Wipe it for me, too."

Chen Mo played with Yue Ruyan's hair.

"How can I help you?"

Yue Ruyan was lying on the couch with her back facing Chen Mo, and immediately said something in a bad mood.

But despite what she said, she still put her hands behind her back with difficulty, took the handkerchief she had just used, and wiped the sweat off Chen Mo's face.

"Ruyan is so wise." Chen Mo kissed her cheek.

"You're disgusting, it's all saliva." Yue Ruyan pretended to be angry.

Chen Mo smiled. Halftime was over and the game continued. He said, "Ruyan, I feel like your aura has been getting stronger lately. You should be about to break through, right?"

Yue Ruyan was silent at first, then she sighed and said, "It's hard to say."

Yue Ruyan then talked about her own situation.

If the Dantian is compared to a large kettle, then her third-grade kettle is already full, which means that the spiritual energy required to break through to the third grade has been met.

However, she is different from Chen Mo. She is not dead. She can't break through just by meeting the standards.

She is now at a bottleneck and needs an opportunity to break through.

If you can't find this opportunity, you may be stuck at this bottleneck for the rest of your life.

Ninety percent of the warriors in Zhongzhou will encounter this situation.

This is also one of the reasons why I started practicing several decades earlier than you, but was overtaken by later comers.

There are many opportunities for this. It may be an unintentional remark from a passerby or a scenery. When you hear or see it, you suddenly realize it and then break through.

Of course, there is another way to break through this bottleneck, that is, "force can break it".

If you can't break it, it means your strength is not strong enough.

Let’s take the kettle as an example. If there is a huge amount of energy, it can not only fill the kettle, but the extra energy is also enough to break open the stopper of the kettle, which can also achieve a breakthrough.

To put it in the long run, Nangong Jin and Zhang Feng were at a bottleneck, especially Nangong Jin, who had been stagnant in the fourth-grade realm for decades. He happened to obtain an immortal fruit, and the huge energy of the immortal fruit directly broke open the "cork" that was blocking them.

It is important to mention here that the energy used to break through the bottleneck needs to be accumulated in one go, rather than accumulating a huge amount of energy over a long period of time and then using it to break through the bottleneck. This is not feasible.

Chen Mo understood what Yue Ruyan meant, but as a cheater, he couldn’t really empathize with her, so he couldn’t give any advice and could only say some nice words that had no practical use.

Like, don’t be discouraged, you can do it.

Yue Ruyan didn't dwell on this matter too much, and said quietly: "I just don't know if Nangong Jin and Zhang Feng's advancement into upper-grade warriors is really related to the immortal fruit."

"You'll know when you see them."

Chen Mo raised his eyebrows and his voice became a little rougher.

The blush on Yue Ruyan's face, which had mostly disappeared, reappeared again, and she knew that the race was starting to speed up.

She quickly pulled the quilt over her and buried her whole face in it.

At this moment, both of their ears pricked up.

Yue Ruyan raised her head and after carefully sensing it, her face became panicked. She patted the couch and said, "Hurry up and stop. The boat has stopped. Someone is coming."

"Wait, the game is almost over." Chen Mo put his hand in front of Yue Ruyan and covered her mouth.

Yue Ruyan's expression changed slightly when she heard this, but Chen Mo covered her mouth with his, so she could only whimper. Her body was so tense that Chen Mo couldn't help but gasp.

Vacuum cleaner
"Your Majesty, General Nangong said there was an accident on the sea ahead. Your Majesty, please go down and take a look."

The maid's voice sounded outside the house.

Yue Ruyan quickly pursed her lips and made no sound.

Chen Mo took his hand away, calmed himself down, and said, "Got it, I'll go down right away."

After a while, there was a "pop" sound, and Chen Mo pulled away. Looking at Yue Ruyan, who was lying on the bed with her face red all the way to her ears, he pulled the quilt over her and said, "Ruyan, go and rest first. I'll go and take a look."

Yue Ruyan did not respond.

When he arrived at the first floor, Chen Mo saw rows of corpses covered with white cloth on the deck outside. Nangong Xian, who was directing the people below to do something, saw Chen Mo coming and hurried over, saying respectfully, "Your Majesty."

As he said this, he bowed.

Chen Mo waved his hand and asked, "What's going on?"

"Your Majesty, come and see." Nangong Xian led Chen Mo to the bow of the ship. Under the light of the fire on the ship, they saw corpses and broken wooden boards floating on the sea below. It looked like a huge shipwreck had occurred, and the Fish Scale Guards were salvaging the corpses.

Suddenly, Chen Mo saw something and frowned, "Our people?"

Chen Mo saw a black word "Wei" on a broken wooden board, which was the language of Zhongzhou.

Nangong Xian nodded and said, "He is not only from the Great Wei, but also a member of the Maritime Customs' fleet." As he spoke, Nangong Xian turned around and lifted a white cloth, revealing the corpse underneath. It was the official uniform of the Great Wei Maritime Customs. Not only that, there was a bloody hole on the chest of the corpse.

Chen Mo could tell at a glance that this was caused by a gun.

"Your Majesty, our Maritime Customs fleet was attacked by the enemy, and it now appears that it has suffered heavy losses." Nangong Xian said.

"Aren't there pirates on this route? Who is so bold as to attack the official ships of the Great Wei?" A hint of murderous intent flashed in Chen Mo's eyes. There were no less than a hundred bodies salvaged from the attack on the official ships. This was not just an ordinary murder case, it was a slap in the face of the Great Wei.

Nangong Xian smiled bitterly. He didn't know either. And judging from the situation at the scene, it was unknown where these bodies had drifted from. This should not be the first crime scene.

"Come quickly, this person is still alive"

At this moment, one of the Fish Scale Guards who were salvaging corpses at sea discovered a "corpse" lying on a wooden board that was still breathing. He immediately shouted to people around him to come over and help.

Soon, this "alive person" who was still breathing was salvaged by the Fish Scale Guards.

Without Chen Mo's instructions, Nangong Xian called the doctor who was accompanying him to come and rescue him.

This person must have been drowning for a long time. His skin is blue and purple, his lips are black, and you can see goose bumps on his body with the naked eye. His skin is even slightly swollen.

"Your Majesty, this man is also the chancellor of the Dianke Office of the Honglu Temple." The doctor took out a badge from the man's body and handed it to Chen Mo.

"Xue Gu." Chen Mo turned over the other side of the badge, which had this man's name engraved on it.

The Honglu Temple was in charge of the Dianke and Siyi departments.

Among them, the Dianke Office was in charge of diplomatic relations and border tribal affairs.

Under him are two chancellors, who are the chief officials of the Dianke Office and are of the sixth rank.

"No matter what the cost, save him for me. I want to know what happened." Chen Mo's face was gloomy.

Since the Maritime Customs resumed operations, all fleets that set sail have returned safely and no one dares to provoke them.

After all, the fleets that set sail were all equipped with naval escorts and were armed to the teeth. Even the pirates in the Korean Ocean only caused the fleet to suffer some minor losses and a little property damage.

And the property loss here refers to the fact that the ship was attacked by sea ghosts and suffered some damage, but no casualties were caused. They did not dare to confront them head-on and could only retreat obediently in the end.

But now, it seems that not only the ship is lost, the cargo is lost, but even the people are gone.

This matter cannot be tolerated and must be thoroughly investigated.

"promise."

The doctor also knew the seriousness of the matter and felt a lot of pressure.

While the doctor was treating Xue Gu, Chen Mo asked Nangong Xian where they were and what countries were around.

Destroying a fleet on the sea is not something that mere pirates can do.

It must be the regular army of a country.

Nangong Xianming brought the sea chart and after some calculations, he said, "Your Majesty, we have passed the Strait of Kazakhstan. This place is not far from the trade route of Boliu. There are three countries around it, namely..."

"You said this place is not far from Boliu's trade route." Chen Mo interrupted Nangong Xian.

Nangong Xian was startled for a moment, then he said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty suspects it is Bo Liu?"

Chen Mo did not give a direct answer, but instead asked about the military strength of the three surrounding countries.
"This..." Nangong Xian was stunned and quickly called someone familiar to come up and answer.

As the chief officer of the Fish Scale Guard, he was in charge of the affairs of the Cangzhou Maritime Customs. He seldom went out to sea often, so it was impossible for him to be in control of everything.

Soon, a sturdy man with a dark complexion and rough and cracked skin came to Chen Mo excitedly and nervously.

Nangong Xian said: "It's okay, don't be afraid, just tell His Majesty what you know."

The strong man could not speak Mandarin and spoke with a local dialect.

After listening to the whole thing, Chen Mo got the general idea that these three countries were very weak and could not even build a decent warship. In fact, their ships were not as good as the ordinary merchant ships of Wei.

The warships of the Wei Dynasty could easily smash their ships.

It can be seen that with the military strength of these three countries, they are absolutely unable to cause such a devastating blow as the one in front of them.

Chen Mo's face darkened.

……

The next day, it was bright.

Last night, Chen Mo's fleet did not leave the sea area because they were too busy and stopped here.

When daybreak came, they were stunned.

At night, you can't see too far with just the little light on the boat.

But now, everything around me can be seen clearly.

More than 200 bodies had been salvaged last night, but now there are still hundreds of bodies scattered on the sea, broken wood boards are everywhere, and cargo is floating on the sea, swirling.

The body was white and swollen.

The reason why they did not drift away is that the water flow here is swirling.

"What's Xue Gu's situation now?"

Chen Mo said in a deep voice. Although his voice did not have much fluctuation, everyone who heard this could sense that there was a huge rage in Chen Mo's heart that was about to explode.

……

On the other side, the country of Boliu.

"Move it quickly, move it quickly, move it all up."

At the port, Zhang Feng was grinning from ear to ear, feeling very happy.

He hadn't been this happy in a long time.

"Huh? Where did you get so many goods?" At this time, Nangong Jin walked over and looked at the boxes of goods shipped from the ship. He suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart.

Sure enough, Zhang Feng’s next words almost made Nangong Jin angry and leave.

"Brother-in-law, we encountered the fleet of the Great Wei on the sea a few days ago, and I was able to vent my anger for our Nangong family." Zhang Feng had not yet realized the seriousness of the matter. He just felt good after venting his anger. He smiled and said, "These goods are all from the Great Wei. I asked someone to do a rough calculation earlier. These goods alone are worth tens of millions of taels.

We have almost made back all our previous losses.”

After saying this, Zhang Feng laughed out loud, waiting for praise from his brother-in-law Nangong Jin.

However, instead of receiving any praise, he was greeted with a loud slap in the face.

"Snapped!"

"Stupid, you're in big trouble now!"

(End of this chapter)