Boarding the Ship

Sect cultivators arrived one after another to claim their people, and fewer and fewer remained.

Yu Xiaodie followed a female cultivator from Hundred Flowers Valley away. Before leaving, she said goodbye to Lu Ye.

In less than half an hour, nearly a hundred people had vanished without a trace, leaving only Lu Ye standing alone.

After waiting for over another hour, there was still no sign of anyone from the Crimson Blood Sect. Who knew what they were busy with?

With nothing else to do, Lu Ye found a clean spot, sat down cross-legged, and tried to open his second aperture.

His first Spiritual Aperture had long since filled to capacity, and he had thoroughly studied the Golden Cicada Free and Unfettered Art he had obtained from Steward Yang. Yet he had never managed to locate the second aperture, so his cultivation progress had been delayed.

Yu Xiaodie had told him that this was common among cultivators who had just begun cultivating. Cultivators like them did not have enough Spiritual Power within their bodies, making it difficult to precisely locate their own Spiritual Apertures. There were two ways to solve this: one was to slowly feel around and leave it to chance; the other was to ask a cultivator of the Cloud River Realm or above for guidance.

A major reason Lu Ye wanted to join a sect was precisely this.

He had explored several times in the Mine Cave without finding the location of his second aperture. If he could join a sect, he could ask one of its seniors for guidance and save himself a great deal of trouble.

But the Crimson Blood Sect people still refused to show themselves. Since he had nothing better to do, at worst he would merely waste a little Spiritual Power. If luck favored him and a blind cat stumbled upon a dead rat, he would strike it rich.

More than an hour later, Lu Ye opened his eyes, his expression rather gloomy. Luck truly had nothing to do with him; his latest attempt had ended in failure once more.

Fortunately, he had been eating well these past days, and the Qi and Blood Pills had nourished him. His blood and vitality were abundant, and after refining some of it, he replenished what he had lost.

More cultivators were coming and going through the valley. Many were gathering on a large scale. From the looks of it, they seemed to be preparing to withdraw from this place.

Come to think of it, before Steward Yang died, he had told Lu Ye that the Vast Sky Alliance could not hold this place indefinitely. They would withdraw in one or two months at most. Judging from the situation now, that was indeed the case.

So, if Steward Yang had managed to kill Lu Ye and hide in that Dark Path, he would still have had a good chance of escaping disaster.

Unfortunately, he had never imagined that an ordinary mortal like Lu Ye would dare plot against him, luring him into a place shrouded by the Primordial Magnetic Field, where his cultivation could scarcely be brought into play. He had died without ever understanding why.

A shout suddenly rang out from not far away. Lu Ye looked toward the sound and saw a middle-aged cultivator floating in midair, Spiritual Power surging around him as something flew from his palm.

They were some distance apart, and before Lu Ye could make out what it was, a sight he would never forget appeared before him.

The object flying from the middle-aged cultivator's palm swelled in the wind, transforming into a colossal behemoth in an instant and stretching across the sky.

It was a huge ship!

A huge ship floating in midair!

The ship had three levels and was nearly a hundred zhang long. Its hull was pitch-black, forged from some unknown material. Its lines were sleek, while the strange objects fixed to its body gave off an air of chilling menace.

Lu Ye had never seen anything so bizarre before, and he stood rooted to the spot.

There was more than one huge ship. After the middle-aged cultivator somehow brought out one ship, several more appeared in succession.

Then someone shouted, "All sects, board the ships!"

The cultivators from the various sects who had long gathered together turned into streams of multicolored light and surged toward the ships one after another. From afar, the sight was truly magnificent.

After his brief shock passed, Lu Ye's heart surged with excitement.

He had been here for over a year. Although he knew this was a world of cultivation, he spent every day among ore, and the people around him were all lowly Mine Slaves whose lives could be snuffed out at any moment.

He had never imagined that cultivation would unfold before his eyes in such a dazzling, colorful fashion.

This had already surpassed the limits of his understanding, making him realize even more clearly that this world was completely different from the one he had come from.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Just as he watched the scene in a daze, utterly captivated, someone suddenly spoke beside him.

Lu Ye answered instinctively before coming to his senses. Turning his head, he saw that a somewhat aged old man had appeared beside him at some point.

The old man smiled as he stroked his beard, gazing at the several ships floating in the sky. Slowly, he said, "These are the Vast Sky Alliance's Flying Dragon Ships, weapons for storming cities and uprooting strongholds. They are not deployed lightly."

Looking at the old man's profile, Lu Ye recognized him as the old man who had brought him out of the Mine Cave. Recalling how others had addressed him earlier, he hurriedly bowed. "Old Man Tang."

Old Man Tang gave a faint smile in response and called out, "Let's go."

"Where?" Lu Ye asked in confusion.

Old Man Tang raised a hand and pointed. "We're boarding!"

Lu Ye hesitated. "But I need to wait here for the Crimson Blood Sect's senior brothers and sisters..." As he spoke, he vaguely realized something. "Old Man Tang, are you from the Crimson Blood Sect?"

There was no reason for Old Man Tang to suddenly come looking for him, let alone tell him to board the ship, unless he was from the Crimson Blood Sect.

"I had some matters to handle and was delayed for a while. You haven't been waiting anxiously, have you?" Old Man Tang asked kindly.

He really was from the Crimson Blood Sect!

"No, no." Lu Ye was somewhat excited. Though the people who had come to claim others before had all been handsome senior brothers and gentle senior sisters, the Crimson Blood Sect had sent an old man. Still, this old man was a very good person.

One could tell from how he had helped Lu Ye open the restriction lock on Zhou Cheng's Storage Bag. Lu Ye did not know how high Old Man Tang's cultivation was, but if he had truly wanted Zhou Cheng's Storage Bag back then, Lu Ye had no right to refuse.

Yet the old man had only taken a bottle of Dragon Tiger Pills as payment before returning everything else to Lu Ye.

"Let's go." Old Man Tang smiled, rose into the air, and Lu Ye felt a gentle force wrap around him. Then he followed Old Man Tang as they flew toward one of the Flying Dragon Ships.

Upon reaching the Flying Dragon Ship, Old Man Tang headed straight into the cabin, with Lu Ye following closely behind.

There were many rooms inside the cabin, and cultivators from the various sects were bustling back and forth. Whenever the cultivators approaching from ahead saw Old Man Tang, they all bowed respectfully, leaving Lu Ye clicking his tongue in wonder.

The Crimson Blood Sect was only a Ninth-Rank Sect. According to the knowledge Yu Xiaodie had imparted to him, Old Man Tang should only be a Cloud River Realm cultivator, because if the Crimson Blood Sect had a True Lake Realm cultivator, it would not be merely ninth-rank.

It seemed that although Old Man Tang's cultivation was not high, he was still greatly respected. Perhaps it was because of his age?

They went all the way to the innermost area, where the old man and the youth stopped outside a room. Old Man Tang waved his hand, and light immediately flashed across the door before he pushed it open and entered.

Lu Ye followed close behind and casually shut the door.

Once inside, Lu Ye looked around and discovered that it was a very simple cabin room, its furnishings exceedingly plain. There was no bed, not even a table—only a meditation cushion on the floor.

There was a window, but it could not be opened. The round window was sealed by something transparent, like glass, through which the scenery outside could be seen.