Revelation of the Way of Heaven

The stark white light shone on the rising steam in the river, like light shining through fog, creating two distinct beams of light, but the scene in the river was still unclear.

It eventually got dark, and they still hadn't reached the white sand beach the boatman had mentioned.

The boatman had stopped talking and had even stopped smoking his pipe. He sat at the bow of the boat, his eyes fixed on the river, afraid of encountering any danger. But in the darkness of the night, visibility on the river was very limited.

At this moment, everyone felt a sense of tension and dared not speak. Their heavy breathing formed puffs of white mist in the night. The sound of the water flowing under the boat became even louder, and almost the whole world was filled with the sound of "whoosh". Xiaoying was obviously a little scared. She pulled the clothes draped over her body tightly and leaned against Qin Xiaochuan.

Qin Xiaochuan patted her head to reassure her not to be afraid, and like the boatman, he kept his eyes fixed on the river. Just then, he noticed a dark figure drifting towards the side of the ferry.

"What is that?" he exclaimed hurriedly. Under the pale light, he couldn't make out its exact shape at all. He only knew that it protruded very high above the water, almost exceeding the height of the ferry. At first glance, he thought it was some kind of huge water monster that had suddenly jumped out of the water to attack their ferry.

Although he knew it couldn't be a river monster, the sudden appearance of such a dark shape in the tense atmosphere still made him uneasy. Just as he was about to cast a fireball, the boatman suddenly spoke up: "Oh, don't worry, it's just a boulder protruding from the water."

Upon hearing this, he blushed slightly, realizing he had been too hasty. The boatman continued, "There are many such stones in our river. These stones aren't scary; what's scary are the ones that aren't above the water. If you hit one, even an iron boat's hull will break."

Hearing the boatman's words, they became uneasy again and quickly looked into the water. There was only darkness; they couldn't see anything. The boatman continued, "But don't worry, I've been sailing around this area for decades. I know the stones in this river better than my own children. I guarantee I can avoid those stones and creeks with my eyes closed. I'm just worried about…"

The boatman's voice suddenly stopped, and Guo Shiyi hurriedly asked, "What are you worried about?"

But the boatman didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly tensed up and stared intently at something. At that moment, they also noticed something unusual. Another dark shadow appeared directly in front of the boat, but this shadow was smaller than the previous one. They didn't know why it had attracted the old man's attention.

Just as Qin Xiaochuan was about to ask a question, the boatman suddenly shouted, "It's a tree! We have to steer the boat around it!" As he spoke, the boatman turned the boat to the side.

When Qin Xiaochuan heard that the dark shape was a tree, he found it unbelievable, because the tree was so thick that it would take two or three people to hug it. Moreover, the tree was coming very fast. The boatman had just turned the bow of the boat away from its original direction when the tree was only four or five meters away from the boat. At this speed, the tree was bound to crash into the boat.

"Master, this won't do, the tree is going to crash into us!" he hurriedly said to the boatman. At this moment, the boatman was leaning to one side, pulling with all his might on the handle to control the boat's direction. Under the light of the lamp on the boat's awning, he saw that the boatman's face was deathly pale, and he could tell that the boatman was also at his wit's end.

"It's up to us now," he said to the others, who immediately understood.

"Can we destroy it?" Guo Shiyi asked Han Kexin.

"I'm afraid that won't work. This tree is too thick, and it's been soaked in water, so it's very resilient," Han Kexin said.

"Then let's pull it apart," Guo Shiyi said. "You guys protect the ferry, I'll pull it apart." As she spoke, she made a hand seal, and several vines as thick as arms sprouted from the tree and quickly climbed up to the boulder they had just seen. Under the pull of the vines, the giant tree slowly adjusted its direction.

At the same time, Zhou Bin formed a hand seal, coating the ship with a layer of silver armor, while Han Kexin also formed a thick layer of ice armor on the outside of the silver armor, which greatly reduced the impact of the giant tree.

The giant tree quickly reached the ferry. Because of Guo Shiyi's vines pulling it, the giant tree was no longer crashing head-on into the hull, so the impact force was greatly reduced. In addition, Han Kexin temporarily added a wind blade, and after the giant tree hit the hull, it slid to the side along the ice armor. Even so, the ice armor was shattered, and the ferry was shaken a lot. The waves caused by the giant tree splashed onto the ship.

When the icy river water fell on them, they couldn't help but shiver. Fortunately, the two eventually became parallel, one above the other, and they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ever since the giant tree crashed into them, the boatman had been in a state of terror. After finally regaining his senses, he looked at them with awe and said, "So you are all extraordinary people. I am very lucky to have met you."

Hearing his words, the four of them were speechless. Only Guo Shiyi said to him, "I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I still hope that Master won't tell anyone about what just happened."

"I understand, I understand," the boatman said immediately, a smile on his face as he looked at Guo Shiyi with utmost respect. "That's called 'a true master doesn't reveal their abilities.'"

"Pfft." Qin Xiaochuan and Guo Shiyi couldn't help but laugh. They were speechless at his simplicity. They figured that explaining would be pointless, so they simply said nothing and turned to look at the giant tree drifting downstream next to the ferry.

This giant tree was so thick that it was obviously very old. The outer bark was rotten. It looked like an oak tree with many branches, but all the leaves had fallen off. These branches were originally blocking the ferry's direction of navigation, but Zhou Bin cut them off with a light wave of his hand.

Qin Xiaochuan asked the boatman, "Why is such a thick tree floating on the river?"

The boatman was steering the boat back onto the normal course. Now that he was relaxed, he started smoking his pipe again. He said, "This area is all deep mountains and forests. These ancient trees are everywhere. Occasionally, one or two will drift down from upstream. It's very common. What I was worried about earlier was these things drifting down from upstream. But now it's all good. In two more minutes we'll reach White Sand Beach. After White Sand Beach, the water will calm down."

As he said, the boat soon reached the white sand beach. Once there, the water suddenly widened and the current slowed down. The ferry carried them forward for another half hour before they finally saw the lights coming from Changsheng Village in the distance. Perhaps because the river had been frozen for too long, everyone felt a warmth in their hearts when they finally saw the faint light from the village.

When they arrived at the ferry crossing in Changsheng Village, it was not yet seven o'clock, but that's how it is in the mountains, it gets dark very early, and it becomes very quiet at night, with only the sound of the river flowing between heaven and earth.

Thinking of how much the old boatman had helped them along the way, Han Kexin paid him an extra 50% of the fare. Then the old boatman went to find his relatives to stay with, while they followed their directions and headed straight for Changsheng Temple.