Before you stood a towering ship, five decks high.
With only eleven passengers aboard, every cabin was exceptionally spacious and came with its own courtyard, like a private residence in the sky.
Its appearance made no show of splendor. Instead, it followed an ancient aesthetic, elegant and dignified, with carved wooden eaves and arrays hidden throughout. Every material used was of the finest quality.
Restrained yet magnificent—such was the bearing of a great sect. A lesser sect would likely have covered it in gold and jade, flaunting gaudy colors and giving off the unmistakable air of an upstart.
Three elders were already waiting aboard.
Your divine sense stirred and swept over them unnoticed. Two had actually reached the Great Dao Golden Core Realm. Their auras were deep and unfamiliar; you had seen neither at the Star-Plucking Assembly nor on the mountain.
Without doubt, these two were among the sect master's most trusted confidants.
The third was far weaker, at the Perfected Dragon Court Stage. He was Elder Xin, whom you had briefly met at Cloud-Reaching Peak, and who seemed rather taken with Nie Qingzhu.
Power flowed through your eyes, a jade gleam flickering within them, as you quietly looked beneath the ship. Five cultivators at the Mid-Dragon Court Realm were working together to pilot it. Spiritual light coursed between their palms, faintly resonating with the great array built into the hull.
A Continent-Crossing Treasure Ship of this size naturally could not be piloted by one person alone. As far as you knew, Mount Fangcun had only seven or eight true Continent-Crossing Treasure Ships. Each was more than ten times larger than the one before you, like a moving mountain range when it crossed the sea of clouds.
Only a sect possessing treasure ships capable of crossing an entire province could