Fellow Stowaways

Unlike the endless mountain range he had seen in his previous life, Li Fan now found himself above a vast ocean! Boundless and endless, with no shore in sight.

"What's going on? Why did I emerge somewhere different this time?" Li Fan was utterly baffled.

Taking out the map he had drawn from memory, Li Fan tried to locate the ocean on it.

Yet after comparing it again and again, he found nothing.

"Forget it. I can only take things one step at a time." Not knowing where things had gone wrong, Li Fan put away the map and sighed. "Good thing I have the Taiyan Boat for travel. Otherwise, I'd probably be trapped here until I died. I just don't know whether I can find somewhere inhabited before the spirit stones inside the Taiyan Boat run out."

Not one to wallow in self-pity, Li Fan quickly sprang into action.

Choosing a direction, he piloted the Taiyan Boat onward while searching everywhere for traces of a city.

The sea was truly boundless. Li Fan flew for seven days and seven nights without seeing a single sign of human habitation.

Fortunately, the Taiyan Boat had ample food supplies, so he did not need to worry about survival.

Another dozen or so days passed. The Taiyan Boat grew slower and slower, clearly nearing the end of its power.

Just as he had reached the end of the road, Li Fan finally spotted the faint silhouette of a ship upon the sea ahead.

Overjoyed, Li Fan immediately lowered the Taiyan Boat and slowly approached.

But when he drew near, he was left speechless.

It was indeed a ship—but one on the verge of sinking.

It seemed to have suffered some kind of attack. A huge hole had been torn through its hull, and two-thirds of it had already sunk beneath the water.

Several dozen people struggled in the waters around the ship. They were clearly all passengers from aboard.

Most of them could not swim. They could only barely cling to broken planks and float on the surface, keeping themselves from sinking.

Li Fan was hesitating over whether to reveal the Taiyan Boat and save them when he heard one of the surviving men shout with difficulty, "Don't be afraid, everyone! I've already sent a signal to an Immortal Master! He'll be here soon to save us! Hold on a little longer!"

Li Fan's heart stirred at those words.

Putting away the Taiyan Boat, Li Fan leaped into the sea and quietly swam toward them.

Silently blending into the crowd, Li Fan also pretended to be on the brink of death, barely struggling to survive.

After some time, a streak of light flew in from afar and stopped above the crowd.

"Immortal Master, save me!"

"Immortal Master, save us!"

Seeing hope, the people cried out for help one after another.

"Quiet!"

The voice sounded male, but his clothes and face seemed veiled by a layer of gauze, making them impossible to see clearly.

The man snorted coldly. Li Fan did not know what spell he had cast, but suddenly found himself unable to make a sound.

The others fell silent in an instant as well.

The Immortal Master then flew to the side of the sinking ship. With a light lift of his hand, he raised the ship, most of which had already sunk beneath the surface, back out of the water.

Then, with another flash of light, the gaping hole in the hull was repaired in an instant.

Afterward, he looked at the people floating in the sea, snorted coldly, and lightly reached out into the air before him before lifting upward.

Li Fan and the others felt as though an invisible hand had seized them and carried them toward the repaired ship.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In an instant, the rescued people were roughly tossed onto the ship by the Immortal Master like dumplings dropped into a pot.

Unable to speak, they could only let out muffled groans.

Yet every one of them wore an expression of reverence and joy at having survived, not daring to voice the slightest complaint.

Once everyone had been saved, the Immortal Master flew above them and asked in an unfriendly tone, "Who sent me the signal?"

The man who had earlier reassured everyone hurriedly dropped to his knees.

With a wave of his hand, the Immortal Master lifted the spell from him.

The man kowtowed as he said, "This lowly one is Su Changyu..."

But the Immortal Master cut him off directly. "You understand the rules, don't you? Once you arrive, everything has nothing to do with me. I've never seen any of you, and I don't know who you are. Understand?"

Su Changyu kowtowed again. "This lowly one understands. Before I came, the elders of my family had already instructed..."

Before he could finish, his voice vanished again.

The Immortal Master had nodded in satisfaction, then casually silenced Su Changyu once more.

Ignoring the mortals, the Immortal Master went to the bow. Li Fan did not know what spell he used, but the ship swiftly sailed in a certain direction.

At the sight, most of the mortals revealed shocked expressions.

A few others still seemed unable to recover from the earlier disaster. They merely slumped on the deck, trembling as they curled up, seemingly weeping in secret.

The ship fell into an eerie silence.

More than half a day passed. Only after night had fallen did they finally see faint flickering lights in the distance.

It was a rather prosperous-looking island. Though they were still some distance away, they could already faintly hear human voices.

More than a hundred large ships were docked at the island's harbor, a magnificent sight to behold.

Yet the ship Li Fan was on did not head toward the harbor. Instead, it circled halfway around the island and arrived at a sparsely populated area on the far side.

The ship quietly followed a waterway into a natural cavern.

After traveling through the cramped cave for some time, it finally came to a stop.

Once the ship had steadied, several burly men in black came aboard to receive them.

The men in black acted as if they could not see the Immortal Master at all. They merely held weapons as they drove the people from the ship.

From beginning to end, they did not utter a single word.

After leading everyone into a spacious hall, one of the black-clad men finally spoke.

"You will rest here tonight. The hall has enough food prepared; take it yourselves. Tomorrow, someone will take you to complete the procedures for your identities. Also, do not make noise without cause." After sweeping his threatening gaze across the room, the black-clad man turned and left.

The hall fell silent for a time.

Only after a long while did the Immortal Master's silencing spell wear off. Then, the people in the hall began discussing things in twos and threes.

"We really had rotten luck this time, running into a sea monster attack. There were nearly a hundred of us when we set out, but now fewer than half have survived."

"Seeking what Dao? Cultivating what immortality? Sigh, I really don't know what my father was thinking, insisting on sending me to this great world to cultivate immortality. If you ask me, cultivating immortality is nowhere near as enjoyable as listening to music."

"Exactly. Back where I came from, I was at least the son of the Zhennan King. What glory, wealth, and pleasure could I not enjoy? What's so good about this damned place? That—" Before he could finish, only muffled whimpers remained. The quick-eyed companion beside him had covered his mouth.

At that moment, the man named Su Changyu spoke up. "What's the point of saying such things now? Which family did not pay an enormous price to send you all here? Rather than complain, you should cultivate patiently from now on. If you truly become an Immortal Master, not only will longevity be within reach, but you may also have a chance to return home and bring your clansmen out as well."

Hidden in the shadows, Li Fan listened to their conversation and had already vaguely understood who these people were.

They were likely, just like Li Fan, mortals exiled from the Immortal Forsaken Land.

Only, in the Immortal Forsaken Land where they lived, the existence of the Cultivation World apparently was no secret.

And they had even developed a mature "smuggling" route? Li Fan stroked his chin and fell into thought.