It was already noon, yet the fog had not dispersed; it had even grown thicker. From several miles apart, only the faint outlines of ships could be seen. The "Green Pouch" aboard one of them found an opportunity to slip away in secret. As for how those on the ship would react after discovering one person missing, he did not care in the slightest.
At this time, the struggle for the Heavenly Purple Bright Pills on Sky Beam Mountain Island had entered a stalemate. Across a region hundreds of miles wide around the lake island—above the skies, within the waters, and upon the island—the various cultivators who could band together had already formed camps. Those who had not joined forces could only hide with their heads tucked in, or be driven about like dogs.
It was said that there had been nine Heavenly Purple Bright Pills in all. Seven had scattered into four different camps, while the other two had fallen into the hands of Rogue Cultivators. The camps were negotiating, intending to settle matters peacefully for the moment, while urgently searching for the whereabouts of the two lost medicinal pills.
Under such circumstances, the great ships and colossal vessels upon the lake grew ever more overbearing, beginning their final clearing operation.
So-called clearing meant deliberately ramming into the vessels of those minor sects and small households. Every moment, people fell into the water; every moment, people were crushed into sprays of blood.
Though someone had once judged them to be "half a bucket of water," every colossal warship forged by a sect had been meticulously considered and rigorously constructed, whether for ordinary people and living creatures, or aberrations and ghosts.
Sects with relatively good reputations, such as the Azure Wave Water Mansion and Chunyang Sect, generally arranged formations like