It really was an enemy attack.
A savage gale swept over the seagoing ship, the effect of an immensely powerful spell. The formations laid on the ship in advance neutralized it, however, leaving only a bout of rocking.
The next instant, earth-shaking power surged into the sky, and an old man's voice snapped coldly, "Who dares attack a ship of our Yun Clan?"
A voice like a night owl's came from every direction over the waves. "The Yun Clan? You must be very rich..."
The voice alone disrupted the blood and qi throughout Qi Yan's body, nearly making him vomit.
From those words, were they perhaps pirates who ran rampant at sea? He wasn't sure.
Rumble! Lightning flashed and thunder roared overhead, the clash of violent forces resounding through the nine heavens.
The waves began to surge, and the ship rocked even harder. Yun Ranyi, who had just fallen to the floor, tried to get up, only to be thrown back down and roll over.
Xiao Yuan hurriedly lunged over to help her. With a crash, the porthole shattered, and several black-clad figures attacked Yun Ranyi.
Xiao Yuan suddenly spun and swept out a strike. Something like sharp claws flashed through the air, and five bloody marks appeared on the nearest black-clad man's chest before he crashed to the floor. Then Xiao Yuan moved like lightning, blurred afterimages flashing through the air with a series of swishes. Single-handedly, she brought every black-clad attacker within her range, keeping them from approaching Yun Ranyi.
Qi Yan, who had already retreated to the doorway ready to flee, was thoroughly surprised. After all that, Xiao Yuan was the powerhouse.
Every one of these intruders felt strong enough to beat several Qi Yans to a pulp, yet Xiao Yuan had pulled them all and was auto-attacking them alone...
And Yun Ranyi, who was still being tossed about by the rocking ship, rolling back and forth across the floor... really had no cultivation whatsoever.
Thud! As the ship tilted, Yun Ranyi struck her head against a table corner, tears welling in her eyes from the pain.
Qi Yan: "..."
She had taken him in, after all. Qi Yan could no longer keep looking out only for himself, and stepped forward to help.
Yun Ranyi froze for a moment, then discreetly cast a meaningful glance at the empty air beside her.
An invisible guard's mouth twitched, but the guard did not interfere.
They were fishing for prey; no one had expected Qi Yan to step in and help. Speaking of which, was he trying to help, or trying to cop a feel?
Was the young lady testing that?
Qi Yan could barely keep his own footing amid such violent rocking. How could he spare the attention for all those irrelevant considerations? He darted two steps forward, grabbed Yun Ranyi's arm, and tried to pull her up.
Yun Ranyi barely managed to stand with his support before the ship lurched again. With a cry of "Ah!" she toppled straight into Qi Yan's arms.
Qi Yan felt none of the pleasure of holding warm jade and fragrant softness in his arms. Already unsteady himself, he nearly fell from the impact. He forced himself to stagger two steps back and brace against a cabinet before managing to stop, his back aching fiercely from the collision.
Leaning in his arms, Yun Ranyi wore an indescribably strange expression.
She had never imagined that merely telling the guard not to reveal themselves too soon would land her in an embrace with a man...
Judging by Qi Yan's behavior, he really wasn't copping a feel. She couldn't detect the slightest intention of that sort. Instead, he seemed utterly exasperated... practically overflowing with a sense of, "I only wanted a boat ride. How did it turn into this?"
Sensing Qi Yan's aura at such close range, Yun Ranyi suddenly found it rather funny.
Who told you to play the hero? You could have just found somewhere to hide.
But if he really had hidden, he probably would soon have gone down with the ship and fed the fish. As things stood now... Yun Ranyi lightly bit her lower lip without speaking.
Whoosh! A strand of sword qi slipped past Xiao Yuan's interception and shot toward Yun Ranyi in Qi Yan's arms.
With someone sprawled in his arms and nowhere to retreat behind him, Qi Yan had no idea how to dodge this time. He sounded rather frantic. "Where are your powerhouses?!"
As he spoke, he wrapped his left arm around Yun Ranyi and yanked her aside, his right hand shooting out like lightning to seize the incoming sword qi.
A scraping sound like clashing metal rang out. The sword qi left only a tiny cut on Qi Yan's palm, hardly an injury at all, before vanishing without a trace.
Copper Skin Incantation.
At this hair's-breadth moment, Qi Yan tried applying the incantation to his palm alone, barely managing to cast it despite not yet having reached the Qi Refining Third Layer.
Bang! Qi Yan kicked the cabin door open and sprinted out, pulling Yun Ranyi along. "Come on! Sword qi flying everywhere in a tiny room like that is too dangerous. Let's find somewhere we can dodge!"
Yun Ranyi stared at his blood-covered palm, somewhat dazed, and did not answer.
Outside the cabin, they saw numerous guards locked in battle with the black-clad attackers. Blades and swords flashed everywhere, while the spells were merely things like small fireballs. It looked very low-level, yet every single person's aura was outrageously powerful.
Seeing Qi Yan's surprise, Yun Ranyi quickly explained, "That's the effect of our formation. It suppresses everyone's power output. Otherwise, the ship would have been destroyed long ago."
"So you could clearly have someone fly you across the sea. Why take a ship? You're just inviting trouble."
"Because, because I throw up and pass out when I fly into the sky." Yun Ranyi could only invent an excuse.
Qi Yan was truly speechless. "Then where's the best place for us to hide now? Show me the way."
Yun Ranyi was about to speak when her eyes suddenly grew deep.
The fish they were angling for had arrived.
Roar! An enormous pitch-black dragon, black mist rising from its entire body, roared out of the sea. With a single thrust of its body, it broke the ship with its supposed formation protection in two.
This time, Qi Yan couldn't keep his footing either. He fell onto the tilting deck, and Yun Ranyi toppled down with him, their heads knocking together. Then they rolled several times across the deck like a pair of gourds, only stopping when they hit the ship's railing.
Dazed from the fall, Qi Yan barely opened his eyes. A soft body lay beneath him, and Yun Ranyi's face before him was flushed scarlet with utter shame and indignation.
But Qi Yan had no attention to spare for any of that. Turning his head, he saw the black dragon open its enormous maw and lunge to swallow them both.
"Fuck..." This time, Qi Yan truly had no idea what to do.
Who could have known that even catching a ride on a Spirit Transformation-level faction's ship would lead to such dangerous bullshit? How were ordinary people supposed to go anywhere? Could this world get its act together?
He turned to look at the dragon, and so did not see the beauty beneath him, her eyes deep and rippling with something that absolutely did not belong to her "mortal" persona.
The black dragon's gaping maw froze in place, and a trace of fear suddenly appeared in its savage eyes.
The next instant, an invisible figure behind it sprang into a surprise attack, viciously stabbing its reverse scale. Then a terrifying radiance descended from the sky, crashing down and engulfing its enormous body.
The black dragon let out an agonized roar. It seemed trapped within the curtain of light, struggling from side to side, unable to escape.
At the same time, the attacking black-clad figures began suffering a crushing defeat. The original night-owl voice seemed to have been badly injured, coughing as it fled into the distance. "Retreat!"
Whether he managed to escape was anyone's guess, but how could the others who had boarded the ship get away? The Yun Clan's master and the others above now had their hands free. They flew down together and slaughtered the attackers as easily as chopping melons and vegetables.
Apart from the ship being broken in two, everything returned to peace.
Qi Yan stared at it all, dumbstruck. Feeling how steadily they were sinking, he felt as though he had fallen into some kind of movie montage.
It was over just like that?
But the fucking ship's broken!
At last, a voice came from beneath him. "How much longer are you going to keep pinning me down?"
"Uh..." Only now did Qi Yan have the attention to register the softness beneath him. Even her orchid-scented breath was right beside his cheek, making it tingle and itch.
Qi Yan's heart stirred slightly, but he dared not take liberties. He quickly rolled off and stood, grabbing the railing with some difficulty and offering his other hand to pull her up. "The ship's sinking. You have magical treasures, right?"
Yun Ranyi looked at the hand extended before her and ultimately took it, rising with his support. "We do, but they can't carry many people."
As she spoke, a small airship hovered beside them. A middle-aged man in sumptuous robes stood aboard, seemingly the master of the Yun Clan. Steward Yun stood with him, along with numerous powerful figures who looked like clan elders or retainers. Presumably, they had been the ones fighting the enemy overhead.
The middle-aged man looked at Yun Ranyi and Qi Yan's joined hands, hesitated, and finally squeezed out, "Young... Ranyi, the ship is sinking. Get aboard the airship quickly."
Yun Ranyi seemed somewhat tired. "Father, please give instructions for what to do with the sailors aboard."
The middle-aged man's expression was exceedingly strange. He kept glancing over, trying to decipher Yun Ranyi's meaningful looks. Apparently understanding at last, he coughed twice. "Launch the lifeboats and distribute some food so the sailors can go home. We've only traveled three days at sea. The return voyage shouldn't be beyond them-and of course, it shouldn't be beyond this Young Master Yue, who claims to know navigation, either."
Yun Ranyi added, "Xiao Yuan, give Young Master Yue a boat of his own. Let him decide for himself whether to continue his voyage or return."
Qi Yan: "..."
Turning to look, he did indeed see several lifeboats being lowered into the sea. The sailors recruited along the coast seemed not to have been caught in the crossfire during the disaster, and were now fleeing onto the lifeboats one after another.
Xiao Yuan guided an empty boat over beside him, looking at Qi Yan with an equally strange expression. "Hey, get in."
The seawater had already reached Qi Yan's calves, and he hurriedly jumped aboard.
Xiao Yuan clapped her hands, then sprang up with Yun Ranyi in her arms and flew onto the airship overhead.
Qi Yan stood in the lifeboat and looked up. Yun Ranyi and Xiao Yuan leaned out of the airship to look down. After they gazed at each other for quite a while, Yun Ranyi's eyes shimmered, and she said with a soft laugh, "Thank you for your help today, young master. If you ever have nowhere to go, I... will sweep my couch to welcome you."
Perhaps it was his imagination, but she seemed to put a little extra emphasis on "sweep my couch." It was rather teasing...
But Qi Yan could only stare blankly.
You're really making me cosplay the Monkey King, sailing a little lifeboat across vast oceans all by myself?
Forget sweeping your couch in the future. I'm not interested. Could you sweep out a spot on the airship and take one more person right now?
Unfortunately, the airship did not heed his thoughts and flew away.
Yun Ranyi turned to look at Qi Yan, gradually shrinking to a tiny speck far below. Suddenly, she smiled brilliantly, like a hundred flowers blooming. "Qi Yan... stay alive. We'll meet again."
Beside her, Xiao Yuan hesitated to speak.
Young lady, have you forgotten? Your original intention was to kill him if he wouldn't serve us. Now he's hugged and touched you, and never mind not killing him-what exactly are you looking forward to seeing him again for? Another hug?
Yun Ranyi glanced at her and smiled. "What's with that expression?"
Xiao Yuan said, "We had absolutely no need to hide anything from him. If he found out, then he found out. We could just kill him. Why get hugged and touched just to conceal your identity?"
"First, there was another powerful female cultivator hiding in the clouds and watching the show. She seemed very interested in Qi Yan... Until we understand her background, we shouldn't expose ourselves."
"Uh, and second?"
"Second, you don't understand human affairs. You're only a cat, after all." Yun Ranyi grabbed Xiao Yuan by the collar. "It's been ages since I petted you. Transform."