Waiting for the Ship

At this moment, Jing Qian had four White Fang Destiny Essences in his possession!

Judging by his true age and the fact that he had been promoted to Destiny Fixation less than seven days ago, his progress was already astonishingly fast.

However, even with the extraordinary power of the Sumeru Destiny, which allowed him to slip into other dimensions and fly through empty space,

it was utterly impossible for him to catch up with a Great Peng's flying speed.

As he deepened his understanding of the Sumeru Destiny, the Magic Power he needed to travel through dimensions beyond the Void Realm steadily decreased.

Four White Fang Destiny Essences were enough to carry him ten miles through the outside world.

Fortunately, the Great Peng had not gone far. Instead, it was beating its wings and hovering three thousand meters in the sky, conversing with a human cultivator.

Only then did Jing Qian manage to reach them before exhausting his Destiny Essence and Magic Power.

This human cultivator was quite peculiar as well. A pair of metal wings was strapped to his back, helping him maintain flight.

Such a wondrous device appeared to possess an astonishingly high level of technology!

Its intricate construction and exquisite design would have been extraordinarily difficult to replicate even in his previous life!

Then he heard the human cultivator speak:

"Director Mingji, your Magic Power is impressive. With the military merit from these two Blue-Blooded Great Demons, your Military Affairs Office will have enough to live on for the next ten years!"

The Great Peng then spoke in human language:

"Driving the Fulong Spirit Machine consumes a great deal of Lifespan, so I'll return to Hun Zhou City first."

"This giant clam swallowed a Golden Dragon Carp and now has a faint chance of advancing. I must suppress it as soon as possible!"

"There absolutely cannot be a demon advancing to the Sixth-Rank Purple-Eyed stage within Hun Zhou's territory!"

"As for this crocodile-dragon corpse, I'll choose someone to deliver it to the Craftsmen Directorate later and leave it for you to handle."

The human cultivator nodded after hearing this and said:

"The emergence of the Dragon Gate Grass Ball has unexpectedly brought to light a long-unresolved story."

"A hundred years ago, the naval fleet's treasure ship, the Hun Ling Number, went to sea on behalf of Lord Zhi Zhou to seek a Crimson Scale Dragon Carp. It vanished at sea three months after leaving the island, without sending back even a shred of news."

"The ship's captain, Jing Chuan, a Dragon Elephant Realm cultivator, and the soldiers aboard were suspected of having been improperly handled and lost in a maritime disaster. They were consequently condemned, and their posthumous pensions were never confirmed."

"Now that the wreckage of the Hun Ling Number has surfaced, it is clearly the work of a Great Demon. There can be no further dispute."

"After you return to the city, please report this to the Maritime Affairs Office and have the martyrs' pensions confirmed as soon as possible!"

"Also, the Yin Ji Wood used in this remaining half of the treasure ship, along with this Seventh-Rank Earth Anchor, is extremely useful. It is enough for the Craftsmen Directorate to refit them into multiple Eighth-Rank and Ninth-Rank treasure ships. Please notify the Maritime Affairs Office as well and have them send people to haul them back!"

The Great Peng did not refuse when it heard this. Instead, it said:

"That is only right and proper. I'll make the arrangements."

Then the winged human cultivator spoke again:

"Before we came out, the Government Office received a distress message from Crimson Pearl Island. Do you want to go take a look, Director?"

The Great Peng replied:

"There's no need to concern ourselves with it. Qi Zhi Shi Island has paid off the Maritime Affairs Office. This matter should be decided by the Maritime Affairs Office itself."

"The inheritances of the Jing and Su families are unstable. No Prolonging Life cultivator has been born among them for thirty years. Such a calamity is only to be expected!"

"I'll be going. Take care on the road."

With that, the Great Peng spread its wings and soared into the heavens, plunging into the clouds and racing northward.

The human cultivator then tossed a strange magical object into the sea beneath him.

The object plunged rapidly downward, heading straight for the half-wrecked ship.

It activated upon touching water and gradually expanded. Before long, it had transformed into a gigantic lotus leaf.

The lotus leaf was connected to the wreck beneath and spread branches above, swaying in the wind and neatly marking the wreck's location.

Afterward, the human cultivator flapped his metal wings and drifted northward as well.

Although he could also fly through the air, he relied entirely on the strange magical artifact on his back. His flying speed was more than ten times slower than the Great Peng's.

It would take him several dozen days of meandering travel to return to HunZhou Island.

What he did not know was that on the other side of the dimension, an invisible little rascal was holding a huge Iron Skewer and gesturing at his brow, looking eager to stab him to death with a single thrust.

The human cultivator and the eagle before him were both mighty cultivators of extraordinary cultivation and profound backgrounds.

The one who had transformed into the Great Peng manifestation was named Ling Mingji. He was the director of the Military Affairs Office under the Hun Zhou Government Office, and his cultivation had already reached the peak of Prolonging Life.

In Hun Zhou's territory, where the Lord Zhi Zhou had mysteriously vanished, his strength after driving the Fulong Spirit Machine was already far ahead of everyone else. He was a core combat force supporting the Government Office's position.

The winged man, meanwhile, was the supervisor of the Craftsmen Directorate under the Government Office. His name was Wu Liuyuan.

His cultivation was only at the Great Accomplishment of the Dragon Elephant Realm, and he had yet to advance to Prolonging Life, making him far weaker than Ling Mingji.

However, he had become a Hundred-Refined Craftsman fifty years ago. He was the foremost master craftsman in all of Hun Zhou, and his status was in no way lower than Ling Mingji's.

The two had come because of the disturbance caused by the Great Demons' aura, and now they had returned with their hands full.

Within the Void Realm, Jing Qian did not know the identities of the two men. He only knew that the several Great Demons he had considered terrifying were actually no match for them at all!

After witnessing the true strength of great cultivators, his drive to cultivate surged once more.

That winged human cultivator was obviously a fat sheep.

Unfortunately, Jing Qian's strength was too weak. Even with a surprise attack, he could not take down his enemy at all and could only let him leave.

However, from the conversation between the two cultivators, Jing Qian had already received extremely crucial information!

It gave him decisive guidance for his next actions.

For a time, the entire battlefield fell utterly silent.

Jing Qian crossed the dimensions, returned to the Void Realm, and sent his divine sense leaping into the Destiny Stele Space.

Outside the Safe Zone, he saw the enormous soul of a crocodile-dragon coiled in the very center.

Even Snow Woman's soul had been pushed to one side!

As for the souls of the remaining two cultivators, Bamboo Pole and Stone Roller, they had been squeezed tightly against the Safe Zone and did not dare move at all.

Inside the Safe Zone, Jing Qian excitedly rubbed his hands together. He looked just like a hamster that had stored enough food for winter, and his spirits were soaring!

Getting a Seventh-Rank Blue-Blooded Great Demon's soul for free had far exceeded his expectations.

He only hated that his arms and legs were so thin and his strength so pathetic that he could not move the Great Demon's soul in the slightest.

Still, good food was worth waiting for. Now that he had loaded it into the Destiny Stele Space, it would sooner or later become nourishment for his advancement!

Jing Qian's desire to improve his own strength became even more urgent!

At this point, everything in the outside world had faded away, and he was completely free of distractions.

Facing the tall and thin soul and the short and stout soul—both forced aside and left with no room to struggle—he no longer held back. He directly shot out a strand of thread and wrapped it around the short and stout soul's neck.

He had already made up his mind. There was no need to keep wandering across the empty ocean.

He only needed to wait beneath this enormous lotus leaf for a ship to come pick him up!

This period would be just enough for him to deal with these two souls, which no longer posed any threat, and wipe them out completely!