In the end, the helmsman still ordered them to continue onward. Their destination was only ten days away, and the larger market district there had an Artifact Dao expert in residence.
Turning back would mean a shorter journey, but hiring an expert from elsewhere would take time, effort, and even more money. It was not necessarily the better choice.
When Li Chen heard this, he thought little of it. Even if the flying boat exploded, he could ensure his own safety. Everyone else, however, spent the entire voyage on tenterhooks, unable to find a moment's peace.
Ten days later, they reached Great Fortune City in the far west of the Equal Sea Domain.
A blue-and-white flying boat, its surface gleaming with a metallic sheen, slowly descended in the sunset. A moment later, it shuddered lightly and finally landed safely.
As soon as he stepped off the flying boat, the helmsman shouted in a fury, "Where's that wretched slave's family? Bring them here!"
"My lord, they're here! We received word long ago and have been waiting here."
The market district's air harbor teemed with people. Many crowded around a group of prison carts transporting slave workers, pointing and talking. What drew their attention was the way the cultivators here treated the women.
The stewards guarding them had actually threaded more than a dozen thorn-covered vines through the victims' bodies, suspending them from the cart shafts as though in a net. Gravity dragged their bodies downward, making for a gruesome sight.
They were the wife and daughter of Old Han, the slave worker aboard the boat. His mental collapse and suicidal act had implicated them. The helmsman, who held the authority to dispose of slave workers, had already resolved to punish them severely-to slaughter a chicken as a warning to the monkeys