Deep within the Sacred Land Depths, a Divine Ship a hundred thousand zhang long sailed slowly through the Spatial Turbulence. Shaped like a crescent moon, it was forged entirely from Red Copper and engraved with countless Mysterious Runes. Crisscrossing scars covered its hull, and many sections had been patched.
The Moon Divine Ship gave one impression at first glance: battered. The second was ancient.
As it flew, great swathes of Dao Patterns peeled from its hull and were swallowed by the Spatial Turbulence behind it.
The Moon Divine Ship seemed utterly lifeless. Only the control room at its center held the faint flicker of a light.
A burly middle-aged man lay on a cloud, snoring away.
Clang, clang, clang...
The Compass in the Divine Ship's control room suddenly trembled, ringing out like a great bronze bell.
The sleeping man shot upright on his cloud bed. He strode to the Compass and pressed his hand against it.
Hum!
The Compass blazed with white light, which formed a Light Screen before him. Six points of light appeared upon it.
"Those points are so bright!"
The man stared at them in shock. His name was Qin Wanli, his Dao Name Thunder Mountain, and he came from the Outer Heavens. He had rented this Moon Divine Ship there for a term of a hundred years.
There were many Moon Divine Ships like it in the Outer Heavens. Each was a Quasi-Immortal Artifact.
People like him rented Moon Divine Ships to search the Path to Heaven for Great Emperors summoned by the Land of Ending. Finding one Great Emperor would let him break even; finding two would turn a profit.
Unfortunately, Heavenly Emperor Lei Shan's luck had been terrible. Soon after entering the Path to Heaven, the Moon Divine Ship he piloted was swept into