(Third Update)
Although they encountered the enormous seagoing ship, none of them flew over to it. Instead, with tacit understanding, they remained invisible and continued onward. They had discovered that, large as the ship was, everyone aboard was an ordinary mortal, with no sign of any cultivators. Listening to a few conversations aboard with their divine sense confirmed that the direction they were heading was indeed the Great Illusion Continent. Joy welled up in their hearts, and, spirits soaring, they sped toward it. Who said immortal cultivators were heartless? They, too, felt the urgent longing to return home. (du kan,)
At last, they began encountering more and more humans. Quite a few mortals seemed to live on some of the islands, and occasionally they even encountered human cultivators.
Several days later, Li Xiaoya and the others sat in a private room in a teahouse, leisurely sipping tea and watching the busy scene of cultivators flying back and forth outside the window.
They were now in a cultivators' teahouse in a market district city operated by a mid-sized lineage out at sea. Seeing streets filled with cultivators, without a single mortal among them, and hearing the familiar Great Illusion language put their hearts at ease. If anyone could be called calmer than the rest, it was Mother Li. She was holding a book and reading, though it was not one of her books on formations, but a little Great Illusion language primer. Occasionally she exchanged a few words with them, sometimes in the Great Illusion language and sometimes in the language of the Origin Continent.
"Hehe! We're finally back!" After watching the street for a while, Li Xiaoya chuckled.
"Yes! Great Illusion food still tastes the best!" Dong Santong, that glutton, stuffed mouthful after mouthful into his mouth as he mumbled.