A light knock on the cabin door drew Zhang Tie's consciousness completely out of his cultivation in the elemental realm.
Still holding half an earth-element crystal in his hand, Zhang Tie glanced at it. With a thought, he placed the earth-element crystal into the Castle of Black Iron.
"What is it?" Zhang Tie asked aloud.
"Elder Mu Shen, there is a welcoming party sent by Huaiyuan Hall in the skies ahead. Would you like to come out and take a look?" The airship captain's voice came through, respectful and cautious.
A welcoming party for me? Zhang Tie froze. When he had taken out that earth-element crystal an hour ago, they had still seemed quite far from Sun River Prefecture—at least seven or eight hundred kilometers away. How had Huaiyuan Hall's welcoming party appeared here already, and in the sky at that?
"All right, I'll come take a look!" As he spoke, Zhang Tie had already risen, opened the cabin door, and followed the airship captain respectfully into the airship's command cabin.
The sight before him in the command cabin left Zhang Tie speechless for a long while.
In the sky ahead, countless Gale-class airships were arranged in two neat columns, linked nose to tail and forming two lines in the air. Like soldiers standing solemnly along a road, they left a passageway through the sky to welcome his arrival.
Colorful banners of welcome streamed from the massive Gale-class airships. From the two leading airships hung two broad red banners, each character on them dozens of meters tall, dazzling as they hung in the air.
The banner on the leading airship to the left read—THE TIGER OF YOU PROVINCE, HIS FAME SHAKES YOU PROVINCE!
The banner on the leading airship to the right read—ELDER MU SHEN, THE PILLAR OF THE FAMILY!