As I was thinking about air travel, something caught my eye. It was a large submarine rusting in the corner of the port, perhaps parked in a junkyard. Curious to learn more, I went to the junkyard and asked the owner about the submarine. He told me it was an old model used a few hundred years ago to explore the depths of the seas after the first cataclysm.
Soon, another cataclysm occurred, and the deep sea became a forbidden zone for humanity. Many of these submarines went missing, leading to their decommissioning. Now, humanity only travels on the surface or shallow depths. The owner continued to share the submarine's history, but I had already decided to buy it. I learned that it was surprisingly cheap—much cheaper than that mansion in Azure Mountain City—likely because it had become junk.
That didn't concern me; I could always ask the system and Lina to fix and upgrade the submarine. I was sure traveling in it would be an incredible adventure. After making up my mind, I struck a deal with the junkyard owner. He seemed well-off but looked at me with suspicion when I said I wanted to buy the submarine, thinking I was pranking him. However, when I showed him the cash I had brought from Azure Mountain City, his demeanor changed. He began to tell me more about the submarine, calling it a relic of the past and even describing it as an ancient artifact with magical properties. He recounted its legendary history, noting that hundreds of similar submarines were made at that time, but only this one returned from the deep sea.
Now that I had secured our means of travel, I needed to modify and strengthen it to ensure it could safely reach the Western continent. I aimed to make it sturdier than those continental cruisers. To do this, I first needed to figure out how to teleport it to the Great Fire Forest, where my disciples and I could work on it.
After buying the submarine, I asked the owner for a towboat. I needed to pull the submarine to a secluded area, away from prying eyes. Soon, a towboat arrived. I instructed them to take it outside the city's southern sea-facing walls. Once we were in the open ocean, I asked them to leave the submarine there. The towboat driver looked at me as if I were crazy, and I understood why. No sane person would volunteer to be left alone in the open ocean with a rusted submarine that could sink at any moment. But I insisted. Once he left, I transported the whole submarine back to the Great Fire Forest. This operation nearly drained my spiritual energy because moving such a large object took a lot of power.
Back at the Great Fire Forest, I placed the submarine in the lake in front of Anonymous Hall. The lake wasn't too deep, so it wouldn't sink, allowing us to work on it easily. After that, I called my disciples. They all came, and I explained my plan to ride the submarine to the next continent.
Lu Xiaoran and Roman nodded, but Lina's eyes sparkled as she stared at the submarine. I knew she was eager to work on it and turn it into a high-tech vessel. She was so focused on technology that she sometimes neglected her own cultivation. While it's fine to follow one's passion, she needed to concentrate on her internal strength as well. So I said, "Lina, I know you want to work on this submarine, but I won't allow you to touch it until you've successfully established a good foundation and reached the Foundation Establishment realm."
Her head dropped at my words about not letting her work on the submarine. However, when I told her she could start after establishing her foundation, she grew resolute and expressed her desire to break through to the next realm.
After hearing that, I took her to the cultivation hall in Anonymous Hall, where Lu Xiaoran and Roman joined us. It was a common place for my disciples to practice cultivating spiritual energy. Once there, I instructed the system to increase the spiritual energy density to ten times that of the outer world. I didn't raise it too much, as it could overwhelm Lina's current body.
Once I was sure she was ready, I told her to use the Nirvana Spiritual Refining Technique to circulate spiritual energy within her. Next, I instructed her to run the Nuclear Spirit Gathering Technique to enhance the energy inside her body. Finally, she should use the Chaos Titan Body Refining Technique to strengthen herself through the collision of spiritual energy. There were also the Void Magic Technique, Quantum Magic Technique, and the Abyss Soul Refining Technique, but she could only access those after reaching the Golden Core realm because they were advanced techniques, like the Maya Manifestation Technique, which I hesitated to use myself.
Soon, spiritual energy began converging around Lina as she followed my instructions. Sweat poured down her face as she felt pain while trying to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm. With my guidance, she eventually established a continuous loop for circulating the energy, growing stronger and stronger. Suddenly, as if a glass had shattered, Lina broke through her bottleneck and established her foundation. After half an hour, she awoke, filled with newfound strength, now a cultivator at the early Foundation Establishment realm.
When she woke, she said, "Master, I've broken through to the Foundation Establishment realm. Can I go look at that submarine?" Even after reaching this milestone, her first thought was the submarine. Sigh! My disciple is truly a tech enthusiast. Nonetheless, seeing her excitement, I replied, "Okay, Lina, let's go. It's time to modify our means of travel."