Strange Beautiful Woman

He took the Storage Pouch in hand, injecting a thread of true essence into it, and immediately sensed a space—square, about ten fang in size.

The feeling was hard to describe, as if an extra room had appeared in his mind. Whenever he wished, he could casually place any object he touched into this space.

Inside the Storage Pouch, there was currently a thick book, a full foot in depth. Beside the book lay a finger-length talisman—a Teleportation Talisman.

The talisman paper was covered in dense, extraordinarily intricate patterns. Some of these patterns flickered with faint spiritual light, clearly in the process of being charged.

Su Shi'er glanced at it out of curiosity, then simply gave up. The patterns on it were far too profound; he couldn't understand them at all.

Hanging the Storage Pouch at his waist, he calmly stowed away all the small items on his person.

Only the White Mist Sword remained strapped to his back.

After a moment's thought, he took out a few more talismans and carefully hid them in his sleeve.

Having done this, he continued to wait.

This time, the wait was not long.

As the sun rose, another resonant bell toll came from the center of the sect.

"Move out!"

At the front of the square, Lu Mingshi barked.

With a wave of his hand, a miniature flying boat was tossed from his embrace.

The boat grew with the wind, quickly expanding to a length of five or six zhang.

It hovered less than a meter above the square, its hull carved with dragons and phoenixes—massive yet exquisite, a truly spectacular sight.

As soon as the flying boat appeared, the entire square fell silent.

Every pair of eyes fixed on the vessel, stunned beyond words.

Su Shi'er was no exception. This wasn't his first time seeing the flying boat. When he first entered the sect, the Peak Master of Tianhua Peak had used one to bring the newcomers back.

But only now, having truly become a Qi Refiner, did he understand how precious this thing was.

Forging a flying boat was even more complex than crafting offensive or defensive magical tools. And a vessel of this size could only be afforded by the sect itself.

"One day, I will have my own flying boat too!"

Su Shi'er lowered his head, his thoughts churning in secret.

As the flying boat descended, Lu Mingshi led Han Yu and Xiao Yue, riding the wind, and landed first at the boat's bow.

"Everyone, come aboard. There's still some distance to the Teleportation Array for the trial. My flying boat will save us a lot of time," Lu Mingshi called down to the crowd in the square.

As his words fell, the others one by one cast the Wind Calling Technique and leaped onto the boat.

Then, Lu Mingshi gathered his true essence and drove the flying boat forward.

The vessel trembled slightly at first, then shot into the air, carrying nearly a hundred people westward.

At the same time, from the other six main peaks, similarly enormous flying artifacts soared into the sky.

Their speed far surpassed that of the boat Su Shi'er was on.

The flying boat traveled for half a day before finally setting down in a valley.

The valley was surrounded by mountains, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, its location extremely secluded. Before they even landed, Su Shi'er noticed a vast crowd of miscellaneous disciple standing in the open ground at the valley's center.

At a glance, it was a sea of heads—no less than four or five thousand, if not ten thousand.

These disciples, led by the Peak Masters of each peak, were divided into five groups of varying sizes.

Among them, Tianhua Peak had the largest number, over a thousand people, standing out conspicuously.

The other peaks each had around five hundred.

The most eye-catching was Tianyin Peak, the only peak in the sect that accepted only female disciples.

The area where Tianyin Peak's disciples stood was packed with thousands of women, all fair-skinned and beautiful, a chorus of chirping songbirds.

These beauties gathered together were like a hundred flowers vying for attention, drawing the gaze of everyone present.

Among them, one woman was especially stunning.

She appeared to be in her thirties, with Ice Muscle Jade Bone, skin whiter than snow, and eyes like a clear stream. When she glanced around, she exuded an air of elegant aloofness.

She wore an ice-blue Disciple Robe, with tassels draping over her shoulders, and her long black hair was tied into a soaring fairy bun. This only heightened her otherworldly aura, like a legendary ice palace Fairy.

Even Su Shi'er, with his indifferent temperament, couldn't help but take a few extra looks at her. But as he looked, he noticed something off.

At first glance, she seemed like an ordinary disciple, yet the other female disciples around her were clearly keeping their distance on purpose. Their expressions and movements carried a hint of restraint and reverence.

"This person is suspicious!"

Su Shi'er instinctively activated the Heavenly Eye Technique and looked at her. What he saw was a field of surging spiritual energy—everyone present carried some amount of spiritual power.

However, the spiritual energy around the miscellaneous disciples was mostly scattered and thin, a sign of their low cultivation.

But that stunning woman's spiritual energy was condensed and restrained, clearly extraordinary. Almost as soon as Su Shi'er examined her, her spiritual energy suddenly scattered, making her look no different from the others.

Hm?

Su Shi'er froze for a moment, but the next second, he saw that woman suddenly turn her head to look at him.

Their gazes met in the air. Her eyes were icy and indifferent, filled with a warning.

Su Shi'er felt his heart tremble. He hastily averted his gaze and looked elsewhere.

After a moment, he turned his head again toward the Tianhua Peak crowd.

Half a year ago, the Meng Tianyi he had killed was a disciple of Tianhua Peak.

In the first few days, his heart had been uneasy every day, worried that Tianhua Peak would investigate.

But as the days passed, he realized that no one cared at all.

Now, seeing so many miscellaneous disciple here, he finally understood. To the sect, miscellaneous disciples were plentiful—one more or one less didn't matter at all.

"They say the Great Dao is merciless, and it's true. People don't care about the life or death of ants. Perhaps, in the eyes of those powerful cultivators, people like us are nothing more than ants."

Su Shi'er felt a pang of realization and silently sighed.

Just then, before the flying boat had even landed, a voice came from the direction of Tianhua Peak.

"Martial Brother, what's going on with your Luofu Peak? Clearly, there aren't many of you, yet you're always this slow." Among the crowd, Tianhua Peak's Peak Master, Fu Boren, grinned and called out to Lu Mingshi.

"Hmph! You old bastard, what do you know? Important people always show up last. Haven't you noticed that Tianshu Peak's Sect Leader Junior Martial Brother hasn't arrived yet?" Lu Mingshi's eyes widened, his beard bristling as he shot back without restraint.

"The Sect Leader hasn't come because Tianshu Peak's strength is genuinely not lacking. But what does Luofu Peak have? No people, no strength. Martial Brother, a man needs to have some face!" Fu Boren smiled, teasing him.

"Face? Old bastard, if I remember correctly, you still haven't given me that Purple Lightning Stone you lost to me in a bet three years ago! I'm just wondering, a faithless little man like you has the nerve to talk to me about face?" Lu Mingshi snorted coldly and continued.

Fu Boren coughed lightly and quickly said, "Ahem, that Purple Lightning Stone, I had other uses for it. I'll find another one for you later."

"Pah! Other uses, don't think I don't know—you used that Purple Lightning Stone to refine a low-grade Spirit Artifact." Lu Mingshi rolled his eyes, controlling the flying boat as it slowly descended, speaking with dissatisfaction.

Fu Boren clearly couldn't save face. His mouth twitched slightly, and he was visibly red-faced.

This was his dark history!

Fortunately, his skin was naturally reddish, so it was completely unnoticeable.

His eyes darted around, sweeping over the flying boat behind Lu Mingshi, and he said with a smile, "Not bad, that Purple Lightning Stone was indeed used by me to forge a Purple Lightning Sword."

As he spoke, Fu Boren raised his hand and pulled out a purple-blue longsword. Spiritual energy swirled around the blade, and faint lightning flickered. As soon as it appeared, it released a startling pressure.

A low-grade Spirit Artifact?

For a moment, almost everyone in the valley couldn't help but turn their gazes toward it.

Even the other Peak Masters, who had been largely indifferent, cast surprised looks.

A Spirit Artifact—a treasure far more powerful than a Dharma Artifact. It contained a trace of spiritual nature and could only be activated by cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage.

Even among Foundation Establishment cultivators, most used Dharma Artifacts. Those who possessed Spirit Artifacts were not many.