I'm in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have one equipment slot!

You can read the latest updated chapters of "In Huangfeng Valley, I Have an Equipment Slot!" without any issues on the "Renren Bookstore" APP. Over one million books are available for free reading. Visit the APP's official website for more information.

"Is this the Chaotic Star Sea that my senior brother mentioned before?"

Han Li hovered in the air, gazing into the distance, his heart filled with awe at the vastness of this sea.

Although he was mentally prepared, seeing the ocean scenery that was completely different from the southern continent still stirred his emotions.

Zhou Yuan was right; the other end of the teleportation array really was a world dominated by the ocean.

The faint salty smell in the air, the ceaseless sound of the waves in my ears, the desolate island beneath my feet, the boundless blue sky before my eyes... everything confirmed Zhou Yuan's previous description.

"This place has little spiritual energy and is deserted, so it's obviously not a place to stay for long. We need to find an island or land where cultivators gather, or at least where mortals live, as soon as possible, to obtain a map and basic information about this place before making any long-term plans."

Zhou Yuan withdrew his gaze and calmly analyzed the situation.

Before leaving, it was natural to hide the entrance to the teleportation array again.

This is their only escape route to Tiannan, and also the key to their possible return in the future; it must not be easily exposed.

Zhou Yuan landed at the cave entrance, made hand seals, and cast a simple "Fossilization Technique" and "Object Transfer Technique" on the scattered rubble.

The rubble seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand, flying up and piling up again at the cave entrance, subtly changing its shape and color to blend into the surrounding mountain rocks.

From the outside, unless one scans carefully with divine sense, it would be difficult to discover that there was once a cave entrance here.

After doing all this, Zhou Yuan nodded in satisfaction.

"Senior Brother Zhou..."

Han Li stood to the side, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

His original plan was to part ways with Zhou Yuan after arriving at the Chaotic Star Sea and explore this new world on his own.

Avoid revealing too many of your secrets.

But now, truly standing in this completely unfamiliar, boundless sea, he couldn't help but feel a sense of bewilderment and unease. With a powerful companion like Zhou Yuan, who seemed to have some understanding of the Chaotic Star Sea, the initial stage would undoubtedly be much safer.

Zhou Yuan seemed to sense Han Li's hesitation, but he didn't point it out. He simply continued, "We know nothing about this sea area. Flying blindly could lead to danger or loss of direction. Let's just fly in one direction; we'll eventually find some people. Hmm... let's head west."

Having said that, he summoned the Divine Wind Boat once more. This boat was extremely fast and spacious enough that even with his avatar Zhou Tian on board, there was still room to spare.

Seeing this, Han Li stopped worrying about it.

He knew that Zhou Yuan's Divine Wind Boat was far faster than his own ordinary flying magic weapon, and on this vast sea, speed meant safety.

After a slight hesitation, he put away his magical artifact and leaped onto the Divine Wind Boat.

Zhou Yuan propelled the Divine Wind Boat, transforming it into a pale blue streak of light as it sped toward the western horizon.

The sea and sky blend into one, monotonous yet magnificent.

The Divine Wind Boat was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it left the deserted island behind and disappeared below the horizon.

They flew for a full half day, and apart from occasionally seeing huge shadows lurking beneath the sea and some strange seabirds flying overhead, they did not encounter any islands.

There was no sign of any human or monk activity.

This sea area seems to truly be boundless.

Just as Han Li was wondering to himself if he had flown in the wrong direction, Zhou Yuan, who had been gazing intently into the distance, suddenly twitched his brow.

"There's movement ahead."

Almost simultaneously, Han Li also noticed the abnormality and looked in the direction he was pointing.

In the far distance, on the horizon, a small black dot could be seen moving.

As the distance closed, it became clearer that it appeared to be a... ship?

"There's a boat over there!"

Han Li perked up and spoke up.

Zhou Yuan naturally saw it too.

He maneuvered the Divine Wind Boat, slightly adjusted its direction, and flew towards the ship.

As the distance rapidly closed, the ship's outline became increasingly clear.

When Han Li saw the style of the ship clearly, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

This is a rather large ship, about thirty feet long and several feet high, with smooth lines on its hull, seemingly made of some kind of dark hardwood.

To Han Li's surprise, there was not a single mast or sail on this giant ship!

How does it navigate at sea?

What stunned him even more was the scene at the bow of the ship: there were more than a dozen huge, dolphin-like but longer, strange fish with sharp teeth and blue-gray skin swimming side by side in front of the bow!

Each of these strange fish was two or three zhang long. They did not swim freely, but were bound by thick chains that shimmered with a faint spiritual light. The other end of the chains was connected to a huge winch at the bow of the ship.

At this moment, these strange fish are swimming forward with all their might, dragging the huge ship behind them through the waves!

"This...this is using sea monsters to pull the ship?"

Han Li whispered in disbelief.

Although those giant fish looked fierce and had a huge aura, Han Li and Zhou Yuan could clearly sense that there was no spiritual energy fluctuation on them. They were not cultivated demonic beasts, but just ordinary sea beasts with huge size and amazing strength.

Using so many enormous sea creatures to pull the ship... this method of navigation is unheard of in the southern region!

As a transmigrator, Zhou Yuan had long heard of the "sea beasts pulling ships" mode of transportation in the Chaotic Star Sea, so he was naturally not as surprised as Han Li, but simply found it novel.

This confirms the description I remembered.

"Let's go take a look and find out some information." Zhou Yuan smiled and urged the Divine Wind Boat to fly straight towards the strange giant ship. Soon, he arrived at a distance of several dozen feet above the giant ship and slowly reduced his speed.

Their appearance clearly alarmed the people on the ship.

Several shouts filled with panic and vigilance came from the cabin. Immediately afterwards, a large group of people, men, women, and children, dressed in various styles, poured out from several cabin doors.

There were two or three hundred people, instantly filling the spacious bow deck to capacity.

When the group of mortals looked up and saw Zhou Yuan and his two companions floating in mid-air, their robes fluttering and their demeanor extraordinary, their faces first showed surprise, and then they all became respectful.

He bowed to Zhou Yuan and the other two, chattering in a language that Zhou Yuan and Han Li couldn't understand at all.

"Senior Brother Zhou, the language these people use seems to be completely different from what we in the Tiannan region use..."

Han Li frowned.

He had previously held onto a sliver of hope, believing that there might be a universal "immortal language" in the cultivation world.

However, he couldn't recognize a single syllable in the words of these mortals below, which were clearly different from the Tiannan language system.

Zhou Yuan also couldn't understand it.

Although he knew the general situation of the Chaotic Star Sea, he had no knowledge of the local language.

He paused for a moment, then channeled his magical power, his voice calm yet clear, echoing across the deck below: "Is there anyone here who can understand me? If so, step forward and explain the situation here to me!"

The voice used was the Yue Mandarin, which was commonly spoken in the southern part of the country.

The crowd below looked at each other blankly, most of them looking bewildered, clearly not understanding what they were hearing.

Zhou Yuan was not discouraged.

He recalled some scattered records of ancient words and dialects that he had seen in the Huangfeng Valley Library, and then tried to repeat what he had just said using a few ancient words that were rarely used in the southern region but were still mentioned in some ancient books.

When he switched to the fourth one, an ancient saying that supposedly originated from a cultivation family that traded with overseas countries in ancient times.

Among the crowd, an elderly man with gray hair and a thin face standing in the front row suddenly changed his expression, and his eyes showed excitement.

He quickly stepped forward, bowed deeply to Zhou Yuan and the other two in the air, then raised his head and stammered in a heavily accented but barely understandable tone, "Immortal...Immortal Master! This old...this old man, when I was young...when I was young, I learned this...this immortal language! I can understand some of it!"

Great! Zhou Yuan felt relieved; finally, there was someone he could communicate with.

He maneuvered the Divine Wind Boat and slowly landed on the spacious deck of the giant ship.

Upon seeing this, the ordinary people on the ship respectfully stepped back, making way for an open space.

At this moment, a middle-aged man, around forty years old, with a dignified appearance, dressed in a luxurious silk robe, with jade pendants at his waist, and whose demeanor was distinctly different from that of ordinary crew members and sailors, stepped out from the crowd. He walked to the old man's side and whispered a few words in the local language.

After hearing this, the old man quickly turned around and respectfully introduced Zhou Yuan: "Immortal Master, this is Mr. Gu Donglin, the owner of our ship. Mr. Gu... Mr. Gu said that he would like to invite... invite one of the Immortal Masters to stay at our Gu Family Manor on Kuixing Island."

Mr. Gu is willing to cover all the expenses and costs of the Immortal Master's cultivation, only asking that the Immortal Master occasionally lend a hand to the Gu family's shipping business!

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yuan did not show much surprise on his face.

He knew long ago that the relationship between mortals and cultivators in the Chaotic Star Sea was far less distinct and hierarchical than in the Southern Tian region.

Here, although cultivators hold a transcendent status, they still have various interactions with mortals, and may even fight each other over mortals' commercial interests, mineral resources, and so on.

It is quite common for wealthy and well-connected ordinary families or businesses to hire low-level cultivators as retainers or advisors to protect their businesses.

However, Gu Donglin was quite arrogant, daring to say that he would "provide all expenses and costs for the immortal master's cultivation"?

How many spirit stones and cultivation resources could a mere mortal merchant like him possess?

It will probably only be able to supply some low-level Qi Refining cultivators at most.

For Foundation Establishment cultivators like Zhou Yuan and Han Li, what ordinary people consider "enormous wealth" is probably not even a fraction of their daily cultivation income.

Gu Donglin understood Zhou Yuan's meaning through the old man's translation. A hint of disappointment flashed across his face, but he quickly put on a smile, nodded repeatedly to show his understanding, and warmly invited Zhou Yuan and the other two to rest in the cabin, as their ship was about to return to Kuixing Island.

Zhou Yuan did not refuse.

Traveling on this ship allows for more natural interaction with locals, language learning, and information gathering.

For the next four or five days, Zhou Yuan and the other two stayed on the giant ship called "Sea Whale" and were arranged to stay in the best cabin.

Gu Donglin was extremely attentive, treating them to fine wine and food every day. Although these were all ordinary things, it was still quite thoughtful.

Zhou Yuan and Han Li spent most of their time observing and learning.

Cultivators possess powerful spiritual senses, which in turn grants them far superior memory, learning ability, and observational skills compared to ordinary people.

They only need to listen attentively to the daily conversations between the sailors, stewards, and servants on board, observe their lip movements, tone of voice, and context, and they can quickly understand the meaning of words and the rules of language.

In just four or five days.

With this extraordinary learning ability, Zhou Yuan and Han Li have basically mastered the language commonly used by humans in the Chaotic Star Sea.

Inside the cabin, Han Li looked out the porthole at the rippling blue sea and the crew members on deck, busy but with expressions of awe towards the direction of the cabin, and couldn't help but sigh:

"Senior Brother Zhou, the mortals here are really bold. In Tiannan, mortals tremble with fear and avoid cultivators like the plague. But here, they actually dare to invite, and even try to hire, cultivators to protect their businesses..."

He shook his head, seemingly unsure how to describe the difference.

Zhou Yuan, who was meditating with his eyes closed, opened them upon hearing this and smiled faintly: "Different places have different rules. The Chaotic Star Sea is dotted with islands, and there are many mortals, most of whom rely on the ocean for survival. Their interactions with the cultivation world are far more frequent than those on the Tiannan Continent. Over time, this has created a situation where the boundaries between mortals and low-level cultivators are relatively blurred. For them, hiring a powerful immortal master to oversee things is perhaps like a wealthy family in Tiannan hiring a highly skilled martial arts instructor—a necessary investment and a form of security."

He paused, then added, "Of course, high-level cultivators, especially those above the Core Formation stage, remain aloof and unattainable for ordinary people in the Chaotic Star Sea."

What we've encountered so far is merely a corner of the vast world's rules.

Han Li nodded thoughtfully.

These past few days of observation and learning have given him his first and most direct understanding of this new world called "Chaotic Star Sea".

This place is indeed completely different from Tiannan. It is full of unknown risks, but it also seems to contain... more freedom and opportunities that are not dependent on the monopoly of major sects.