Chapter 702 - 697: Exploring A Pirate Ship
Wei Wuyin was taken aback by this development. He gently waved his right hand, receding the saber formation that suppressed the alchemic manifestations upon successful completion. The saber formation condensed into a tiny saber, entering Wei Wuyin's palm with a flicker. Its aura was incredibly subdued, like a sheathed saber. If a cultivator wasn't using their eyes, some weaker spiritual senses might not even notice it.
He kept the tiny saber for later in his spatial ring. Since his time in the Myriad Monarch Sect, he had been continuously nourishing and refining this spiritual formation, making it exceptionally powerful. He called it the Divine Edge Suppression Spell, but he never used it except to suppress the alchemic manifestations.
With the spell formation kept, Wei Wuyin got a clearer view of his location and where he was. A spacious storage area filled with a dozen other voidships that were either inactive or half-destroyed. Furthermore, they were bound by thick, long chains tethered to notches on the walls.
The destruction on these ships were fairly consistent, likely inflicted by the same enemies or armaments. When Wei Wuyin noticed this, his expression darkened slightly. He walked to the edge of the railing and noted that his ship was bound by chains too.
"Void Pirates?" There was a note of frustration on his face. He was aware that, even in the Aeternal Sky Starfield, Void Pirates were a constant danger. They were a group of ragtag cultivators, oftentimes rouges or disgraces, that would operate in unregulated locations of a starfield's Dark Void.
When he learned of Void Hunters, those who operated mostly in the void-blank space, the area between starfields, for resources and treasures, he was curious about the other occupations. Wu Yu had told him about Void Pirates then. However, they typically avoided Ascended or voidships with advanced designs.
This supported his thoughts because most of the voidships bound were low-quality, might even be piloted by just Realmlords or less. There were low-end transport ships without a single combat capability. These ships carried low-cultivation passengers across planets or lunar satellites, unable to afford the cost of Void Gates.
How unfortunate.
He could see dried blood stains from here.
Void Pirates weren't Evil Cultivators exclusively, just cultivators who seek to prey upon the weak, helpless, and poor. In fact, according to Wu Yu, the stronger ones were even devised by some higher level forces to regulate their territories and rid themselves of disliked individuals. While this could be construed as a conspiracy, most knew this was the case.
"…" Wei Wuyin lifted right sleeve, realizing his Karmic Luck Value remained unchanged. This meant he hadn't received a deduction while unconscious, so this wasn't a lucky chance. It was likely just a result of bad luck. He didn't have a full crew of cultivators overseeing things, and he essentially placed it on autopilot, so these Void Pirates must've thought it was an abandoned ship with a functioning barrier.
The Saber Edge Suppression Spell didn't have any active offensive or defensive abilities, designed to seal off manifestations produced by the Alchemic Dao and the aura inside. But they might not have known what it was, so they assumed with the surface-level inactivity, there was no one on board. A ghost ship.
Wei Wuyin's thoughts were correct, hitting the issue on the nose.
"Are there Ascended here?" While Void Pirates often lacked genuine Ascended as leaders, there could be exceptions. But Ascended were heavily desired by any power, this type of reckless and low lifestyle wasn't very suitable when one can live like a monarch instead.
He used his spiritual sense to sweep across the entire ship. When he did, his expression changed. This was a much larger Voidship, roughly ten thousand times larger than his own. It was almost the size of a tiny-sized lunar satellite!
"So big?" There was a concealment formation engulfing the giant Voidship, allowing it to soar through the Dark Void unnoticed by conventional sensory means. It wasn't very high-level, however. While there was mystic energy flowing through it, it lacked certain mystic qualities that the Shadow Egg had in spades.
It might be at the level of a quasi-mystic formation. This was still an exquisite formation, but Wei Wuyin could easily notice this ship with his Celestial Eyes. But there were no auras that resembled genuine Ascended here. Still, his curiosity was stoked.
He frowned a little, turning back to the door and realizing that Yao Houyi was still cultivating. With a flick of his finger, he left behind a protective spiritual spell. Unless a Starlord arrived, they wouldn't be able to disturb Yao Houyi.
And if they did, Bai Lin would notice and deal with it. She may be a little sleepy after she awakes, but genuine Ascended had been refined by her flames. Those mortals, no matter how developed, were not threats.
With that settled, he leapt off his Voidship and landed on the ground. There truly were a dozen voidships all around. This was the first time Wei Wuyin experienced a pirate's voidship, so he was bound to be a little curious.
He walked forward with his silver eyes observing the walls. Soon, he arrived at the gate that led into the ship's interior, and the living quarters of the crew. It wasn't guarded, shocking him. This pirate crew isn't very diligent, huh? What if someone was hiding here?
When he thought about it, he was amused. They hadn't even inspected his voidship, just reeling it on, trapping it, and leaving it alone. Perhaps they intended to dismantle it for parts later, or wait for the formation to exhaust its energies before intruding, fearful that it'll retaliate.
When he entered through the gate, walking towards the interior, he met several crew performing all sorts of jobs. Some were maintaining formation stability and function with their spiritual strength, others were replacing essence stones when they were exhausted. They were focused on their jobs.
He saw Qi Condensation Realm and Astral Core Realm cultivators, but mostly these low-level crewmates were at the Qi Condensation Realm. Those at the Astral Core Realm were only in the lower-stages, the World Sea, Sky Ruler, or Soul Idol, with only one thus far being in the Soul Idol Phase.
When Wei Wuyin had inspected the ship's auras, he hadn't observed a single Starlord, but sensed two Timelords. Both male. One of their auras was very active at that time, especially his yang aura. Seems someone was enjoying themselves.
These low-leveled cultivators looked at him, and sensing his purposefully emitted Gravity Emission Phase cultivation base, they lowered their heads and kept their attitudes stern and focused, as if not trying to attract attention.
Wei Wuyin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. These men didn't even know his face, and while some were flabbergasted and stared at his face strangely, they avoided questioning or approaching him due to his cultivation.
"There's at least a crew of two million. How massive is this operation?" Wei Wuyin was intrigued, but he recalled the Shadow Egg. It was roughly the size of a tiny-sized planet and had tens of millions of experts inside, not counting the imprisoned and restrained.
The interesting detail was that this was just a pirate crew headed by two Timelords. His mocking thoughts, however, were forcefully dispelled by himself. Due to his exposure with Ascended, even having four at his beck and call, he had forgotten that Temporal Eye Phase cultivators were high-level.
They were a single stage away from the peak of the Mortal Dao. It would be insulting to consider them low-leveled cultivators. He didn't want to forget that cultivation was an arduous, strenuous task filled with difficulties, dangers, and death. Cultivation was difficult. That was a fact he could never deny.
He spent roughly an hour walking through the ship, speeding up at times, pausing at others, and saw things from the propulsion array's core, all of its central formations, and the network of energy distribution. This was a marvelous feat of cultivator's ingenuity.
When he stopped, he was in a large, intricate room that was filled with Astral Core Realm cultivators. They were actively adjusting specific arrays, monitoring screens, and feeding information to each other or transmitting it through special tools. The entire room was littered with activity.
At the center was a throne-like seating arrangement where a single figure sat. This person was the other Timelord, the one not busying himself with women and pleasure. He was tall, slim, yet carried a commanding presence. His thick eyebrows, dark-brown skin, and short-styled hair gave off a clean and imposing presence.
"Is this the control room?" Wei Wuyin briskly walked in, bypassing a cute young woman that sped past him. He glanced at her leaving figure, noticing she had a firm, petite little butt. She went to input some spiritual energy into a screen, and then sighed with relief.
There were others that seemed to oversee entire arrays and their interconnected formations. They sent orders and adjusted certain things at a moment's notice, taking in all the available and given information.
Wei Wuyin arrived at a meter-sized, square-shaped screen, leaning over the shoulder of a Soul Idol Phase cultivator that was speaking vigorously into a tool that converted it into spiritual energy and then transmissions downwards, traveling and splitting into different areas of the ship.
"What?!" The man was startled by the abruptly appearing handsome face.
"Sorry," Wei Wuyin pulled back with an apologetic smile. These were all things he'd never come across, so he was naturally curious. Sometimes, he felt like a country bumpkin in a futuristic city. Fortunately, his cultivation and knowledge was high enough to instantly understand the functions of all these tools.
Just as he was just enjoying all these new things and sights, a voice sounded out behind him.
"Who are you?!"