Facing Chen Yan’s question, Zhou Jinyun paused for a moment, then shook her head.
“I’m only a Qi Sea Realm cultivator right now, I’m afraid—”
Zhou Jinyun said.
Not only that, Zhou Jinyun currently believed that Mirage Palace behind her could not be relied upon either.
With only her words, there was truly no way to guarantee Little Su’s safety.
Chen Yan did not respond to Zhou Jinyun. He had never pinned his hopes on her anyway; after all, she was still a child not yet twenty. No matter how clever, she could not compete with the old monsters behind her.
Neither in cultivation nor in guile.
Chen Yan had to leave something behind.
His gaze slid away from the two juniors before him and then drifted into the distance, and he spoke slowly:
“But, Senior Chen.”
Zhou Jinyun bowed and said,
“The Dao Inquiry Assembly of Chenping Continent will certainly end within five days, you should still be here then.”
“That’s right.”
Chen Yan nodded.
“I will still be here, so I want to use the time while I’m here to establish dominance over the Five Great Sects and the entire Chenping Continent.”
The handsome youth in plain white daoist robes said this calmly.
Five days later.
The Dao Inquiry Assembly of Chenping Continent had already entered its final stages.
The sect ferries of the various cultivation sects steamed away in all directions, heralding the end of this once-in-a-decade immortal gathering.
Mirage Palace invited Su Hongzhen to ride their ferry and visit Mirage Palace as a guest, but Su Hongzhen politely declined.
Still, that could not quench Mirage Palace’s enthusiasm to court Su Hongzhen, because among the Five Great Sects of Chenping Continent, only Mirage Palace currently had the closest relationship with him.
As for Shao Yuchen, the chief disciple of Weaving Dreams Tower from Mirage Palace, he was still being detained on Mirage Palace’s ferry, continuing his confinement until returning to Mirage Palace, where the palace master and the head of Weaving Dreams Tower would jointly decide Shao Yuchen’s final fate.
During this time, Shao Yuchen seemed to have completely resigned himself; he did not react to any of his misfortunes.
This puzzled some elders and supervisors within the Mirage Palace delegation, but there was really nothing more to say.
One could only say Shao Yuchen’s behavior was indeed very obedient.
Su Hongzhen did not choose to return the same way. For a champion of Heavenly Summit Mountain to leave on foot would be unbecoming.
He rented a small ferry from a nearby dock.
In principle, ferries registered to other docks had no right to land at Heavenly Summit Mountain’s dock.
But since this was the ferry rented by the champion of this session of the Heavenly Summit Mountain Dao Inquiry, the Star Heaven Sect disciples guarding the dock naturally made an exception, allowing the ferry to land at Heavenly Summit Mountain’s dock.
At the same time, when the dock’s boatmen learned that the ferry’s lessee was this Dao Inquiry champion, they immediately decided to replace that small ferry with the dock’s most impressive, most luxurious vessel.
Having the Heavenly Summit Mountain champion ride on it was the greatest honor for the dock.
Su Hongzhen sat alone on that large ferry, more than ninety zhang long, about forty zhang wide, and twenty zhang high.
Although far smaller than the flagships of the Five Great Sects, this ferry’s size rivaled the flagships of most of Chenping Continent’s top sects.
Besides Su Hongzhen, more than sixty crew members from the dock rode on the huge ferry to escort Su Hongzhen to his destination—
Liaolong.
Su Hongzhen publicly claimed his reason was to return home to visit his family.
The cultivators of the world understood; after all, he was not yet twenty and was still a rogue cultivator, so lingering mortal attachments were not unusual.
Moreover, because of his talent, the cultivators of the world were extraordinarily indulgent of Su Hongzhen’s every behavior.
Of course, at this moment, behind the scenes, winds and clouds were surging.
...
More than seven thousand zhang above the ground.
Although this altitude was about a thousand zhang lower than Heavenly Summit Mountain, it was already the ferry’s normal cruising height in Chenping Continent.
Su Hongzhen, wearing cyan daoist robes, sat alone in the cabin. Today was already the twenty-first day since he boarded the ferry. According to the crew, traveling from Heavenly Summit Mountain to Liaolong, located at the border between the Western Region and the Southern Region of Chenping Continent, would take about forty days.
So his journey had just passed the halfway point.
One had to admit the days spent on the ferry were exceedingly dull.
Su Hongzhen closed his eyes, planning to sit in meditation in the cabin to pass the time.
But just as he settled and circulated the true qi rising from his Martial Spring through his meridians for two revolutions, the ferry suddenly began to tremble violently.
The blue-robed swordsman opened his eyes and watched the teaware on the round table in front of him fall to the cabin floor and shatter.
He stood up. Despite the severe pitching of the ferry, Su Hongzhen could still keep his balance.
He stepped out of the cabin.
“Champion Su!”
Outside the cabin, a crew member from the dock hurriedly said to him,
“Please go back inside the cabin first, it’s dangerous out here now. I don’t know why, but we’ve suddenly fallen into an aura storm. Without sailing experience, even a Qi Sea Realm cultivator could get swept into the storm and torn to pieces!”
Su Hongzhen did not reply; he only stared at the gray-black vortex engulfing the ferry.
Normally, such spiritual energy storms are caused by a disruption in the flow of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.
The heaven-and-earth spiritual energy flow of Chenping Continent is stable in most cases, unless interfered with by an external cause.
A few breaths later, Su Hongzhen made his decision.
He drew the Xun-Li Sword from his waist and then slashed—
Innate Sword Intent!
The gray-black spiritual vortex was split in two by Su Hongzhen’s strike in an instant, and the heavens cleared immediately.
But it was not over yet.
A colossal palm, blotting out the sky and sun, descended from above and swooped toward the ferry.
Against the backdrop of that huge palm, the more-than-ninety-zhang ferry looked like an insect.
Its shadow completely covered Su Hongzhen’s figure, and Su Hongzhen, holding the Xun-Li Sword, simply stared at the descending giant palm with no trace of retreat in his eyes.
The next instant, a flash of Clear Light streaked through.
The massive palm vanished without a trace. In the clear sky left behind after the gray-black vortex dissipated floated several Upper Three Realms cultivators, and the palm had been swung by one of them—a peak Unity realm cultivator.
Between those Upper Three Realms cultivators standing in the high air and the ferry below hovered the figure of a young cultivator in plain white daoist robes—
It was time, to make a show of force.
That was Chen Yan’s thought.