An hour later.
In the square in front of the General Affairs Hall, a slender flying boat thirty or forty feet long rose into the air and sped into the distance.
More than a dozen people stood aboard. At their head was a skeletal old man, standing motionless at the bow as he gazed into the distance.
Behind him were four Inner Disciples and eight or nine outer disciples.
Wang Yu was among them, leaning against the side of the Flying Boat as he discreetly sized up the others.
Three of the Inner Disciples consisted of two men and one woman.
The woman had slightly yellowish hair and ordinary features, but bright, alert eyes. She stayed close behind the old man, holding a disk-shaped magical artifact and tinkering with something without raising her head.
Not far from her stood a handsome young man in silver robes, with a black stone tablet strapped to his back. Beside him was an ugly giant a full head taller than Wang Yu, looking this way and that.
When Wang Yu looked over, the silver-robed young man merely gave a slight nod. The giant, however, split his mouth into a broad grin and waved a fist the size of a sandbag.
The corner of Wang Yu's mouth twitched, and he immediately looked away.
These two were none other than Senior Brother Qi, whom he had met once before, and his younger brother, a Guardian Warrior.
The last Inner Disciple was a thin man dressed in black who looked about thirty. He carried a longsword on his back, and waves of cold radiated from his body. No one dared come within ten feet of him.
As for the remaining outer disciples, Wang Yu gave them a casual glance. The oldest were in their forties or fifties,