They had been flying for days when Alexei finally looked down and noticed something was off.
The terrain below looked familiar, and not in a good way. He could have sworn they had already passed the same cluster of trees more than once.
He leaned closer to Quan, who was guiding his sword with Changgui clinging nervously behind him.
"Hey. Are we going the right way?"
Quan glanced back. "Of course we are."
Alexei frowned. "Because I'm pretty sure we've been heading away from the sect for the past few days."
"Yes," Quan said, as if that proved his point. "We were going the wrong way before. Now we're going the right way."
Alexei stared at him. "So the direction was wrong from the start?"
"Yes."
"And nobody noticed?"
"You didn't notice either," Quan pointed out reasonably.
Fair point.
"We also need to make a detour," Qingxue added from ahead. "The Jade Prosperity Immortal Alliance is on the way. We'll buy a replacement spirit boat there."
Alexei opened his mouth to ask why they hadn't just been flying toward Jade Prosperity in the first place if they knew they needed a boat, then decided he didn't care enough to pursue that line of questioning.
Since he had nothing useful to add, he stayed quiet.
The conversation ended there.
It took them five more days to reach Jade Prosperity City.
The problem was that they had spent the past week flying in the wrong direction, passing through mortal lands where spiritual energy was scarce. Every few hours, they had to land to recover their qi. During these breaks, Alexei would set up stone torches, which helped them restore their energy much faster than meditation alone.
Alexei, who had complained constantly about how slow the spirit boat had been before, now found himself missing it more than anything. At least it didn't require constant effort to operate.
"I take it back," he muttered on the third day, sitting cross-legged on a boulder as his qi slowly recovered. "The spirit boat was fine. The spirit boat was great. I would marry the spirit boat if I could."
Mengyao sat nearby with her eyes closed, smiling faintly without saying a word.
By the time Jade Prosperity City finally appeared on the horizon, all of them looked like they were one inconvenience away from snapping. A hot meal and a proper bed were no longer luxuries. They were necessities.
---
The Jade Prosperity Immortal Alliance occupied a massive complex in the city's cultivation district. The architecture was impressive in that overly elaborate way cultivation sects seemed to love, with jade everywhere, floating platforms scattered across the grounds, and waterfalls that served no real purpose.
Their group landed in the courtyard and was immediately approached by a receptionist who had clearly sensed their cultivation levels and decided they were worth the effort.
The man's smile was so wide it looked painful. "Welcome to the Jade Prosperity Immortal Alliance! How may we assist you today?"
"We need a spirit boat," Qingxue said simply.
"Of course, of course! Right this way!" The receptionist practically vibrated with enthusiasm as he led them toward a different section of the complex. "The Alliance may be modest in size, but our Artifact Hall produces some of the finest spirit vessels in the Eastern Territories. I guarantee you'll find something to suit your needs."
They followed him through several corridors and out into what could only be described as a showroom floor.
Spirit boats of various sizes were displayed in organized rows, each one hovering about a meter off the ground on their own power. Some were small and sleek. Others were massive, multi-deck affairs that looked like flying palaces.
The prices were displayed on small jade plaques beneath each vessel.
Alexei felt like he had just walked into a very expensive car dealership, except the cars could fly and were powered by magic rocks.
"This is actually kind of cool," he admitted, looking around with interest.
Mengyao and Changgui were equally fascinated, walking between the displays and peering at the various boats with wide eyes.
"What type of vessel are you looking for?" the receptionist asked, clasping his hands together. "Will you need a spirit storage compartment?"
Quan opened his mouth to answer, but Yan cut him off.
"Small class, but it needs a spirit storage compartment."
The receptionist's smile widened even further. "Excellent choice! A spirit boat with integrated storage is much faster than one powered purely by the operator's qi. Of course, it can still be operated manually if needed."
Alexei ran the numbers in his head: a basic spirit boat probably cost ten or twenty thousand low-grade spirit stones. Adding storage would push that price several times higher.
The receptionist was already calculating his commission.
"If you'll follow me, I'll show you our selection of small-class vessels with storage integration."
He led them to another section where about a dozen spirit boats were on display. These were noticeably larger than the basic models, easily twice the size of the one the Aureate Summit Sect had been using before.
"Please, feel free to come aboard and take a look," the receptionist said with a welcoming gesture. "All of these vessels were crafted by Deacon Mo. He has been building spirit boats for over five hundred years and has completed three giant-class vessels. We also offer a thirty-year guarantee. Any mechanical failure not caused by combat damage will be refunded or replaced."
Alexei approached the nearest boat and stopped to look at it properly.
It was nice. The design was sleek, the materials high quality, and it was large, maybe fifteen or sixteen meters from bow to stern.
"This model is called the Cloud Rider," the receptionist said, following as their group climbed aboard. "Total length of sixteen meters. The spirit storage can hold up to 180,000 low-grade spirit stones, giving it a range of approximately 80,000 kilometers on a full charge. Normal cruising speed is 1,300 kilometers per hour. Maximum speed, disregarding stone consumption, reaches 2,000 kilometers per hour."
Alexei did some quick mental math. Their old boat had maxed out at maybe 900 kilometers per hour. This was more than twice as fast.
"It includes three furnished private quarters, a control room, an observation deck for relaxation, and a cargo hold. The vessel comes equipped with a defensive barrier capable of withstanding attacks up to early Nascent Soul realm, plus complementary stealth, soundproofing, and spiritual signature suppression formations."
They toured the interior. The receptionist hadn't been exaggerating about the furnishings. Each cabin was around seven or eight square meters, with proper beds, desks, chairs, and storage. It was nicer than most inns Alexei had stayed in.
The previous spirit boat had been little more than a flying bench with a roof. This, by comparison, felt like a real vessel.
"So?" Quan looked at the others. "Thoughts?"
"It's good," Qingxue said simply.
"I like it," Mengyao added.
Changgui nodded enthusiastically. Alexei suspected the kid was just excited about having his own cabin.
"We'll take it," Yan decided.
The receptionist looked ready to start dancing. "Wonderful! The Cloud Rider can be yours for only 110,000 low-grade spirit stones. That's 1,100 mid-grade stones, if you prefer."
It was, Alexei had to admit, a reasonable price for what they were getting.
Yan didn't even haggle. She just pulled out a stack of mid-grade spirit stones from her storage ring and counted out exactly 1,100, setting them on the table in one of the cabins.
The receptionist swept them into his own storage pouch without bothering to verify the count. "I'll have the docking bay opened immediately. The Cloud Rider is yours. You may depart whenever you're ready."
He skipped out of the vessel, already calculating how much of that commission he was going to spend on wine.
The moment he was out of earshot, Yan grabbed Alexei's arm.
"Come with me."
She dragged him toward the spirit storage compartment at the center of the vessel.
The storage hatch was set into the floor of the cargo hold. When she opened it, it revealed a spherical chamber about three cubic meters in volume. The interior walls were covered in intricate formation patterns that were currently dormant.
"Put one of your torches in there."
Alexei blinked. "What? Why?"
"Just try it. I have a theory."
He shrugged and pulled a mid-grade spirit stone torch from his inventory, placing it at the bottom of the storage sphere.
The moment the torch settled into place, the entire chamber lit up. The formation flared to life, glowing white-hot as spiritual energy surged through it. The air inside the chamber began to hum.
"Wow..."
"The spirit integration formation is active," Quan said, staring into the chamber. "The torch is acting as a power source. Which means as long as the formation circuits aren't damaged, this vessel essentially has unlimited energy. And we could even run the defensive barrier without concern."
He was already itching to take the vessel for a spin.
---
They left the Jade Prosperity Immortal Alliance the same day they bought the Cloud Rider, but ended up staying in the city for two more days after that.
The problem was simple: when their old spirit boat had been incinerated during the battle, the storage chests on board had been destroyed along with it. Alexei's items were fine, but everything else they had purchased in the mortal territories was gone.
Which meant they had to buy blankets, dishes, and other basic supplies all over again.
By the third day, they finally set off for real, beginning the long journey back to the Aureate Summit Sect.
The route was the same as before: fly in the opposite direction first, then make a massive detour to loop back around. It added distance, but apparently that was just how navigation worked when you lived in a sect that had been flying in the wrong direction for a week.
The difference this time was speed.
With the spirit stone torch providing unlimited energy to the storage formation, the Cloud Rider maintained maximum velocity the entire trip.
Even with the extra distance from their detour, Quan estimated they would reach the sect in seven or eight days.
---
Alexei sat at a small table by one of the cabin windows, watching the sea of clouds drift past below. The view was pretty spectacular when you weren't worried about being murdered by flying cultivators.
He stretched, feeling his back pop in several satisfying places, and let out a content sigh.
In his lap, a small white fox stretched along with him, mimicking his movements almost perfectly before letting out a tiny yawn.
"You're ridiculous."
It yawned again, showing off teeth, then curled into a ball and went back to sleep.
Across the table, Qingxue sat with a small booklet open in front of her, completely absorbed in whatever cultivation manual or technique scroll she was studying. She had glanced up once when Alexei and the fox did their synchronized stretching routine, raised one eyebrow, then went right back to reading.
"Comfortable?" she asked without looking up.
"Yeah," Alexei replied. "This is way better than flying on a sword for days."
"The spirit boat does have its advantages."
They lapsed back into silence.
Alexei scratched the fox behind its ears. It made a pleased sound but didn't wake up.
----------
[POV: Ji Clan Ancestral Hall]
The main hall of the Ji Clan's ancestral compound was silent.
The family head sat at the head of the hall, staring straight ahead with a carefully neutral expression. Only the faint tremor in his fingers betrayed his unease.
Below him, the rows of chairs that normally held the clan's elders and officers were noticeably emptier than usual. Five seats sat vacant.
It had been over a week since the Grand Offering and the strike team had lost contact.
That alone wasn't unusual. Cultivators on missions outside clan territory could go days without checking in, especially if they were maintaining operational security.
But by now, there should have been confirmation.
Instead, there was nothing.
The message talismans sent over the past two days had vanished without a trace.
Unable to make contact directly, they had reached out to the family members still stationed in Jade Prosperity City for information.
The responses had been unhelpful: We haven't seen the young master's group return.
Then, two days ago, a message arrived from Jade Prosperity:
The six cultivators who were supposed to be dead have returned to the city. They flew in on swords from the direction they originally left. Their spirit boat is gone, but otherwise they appear unharmed.
The ambush had been planned days in advance. A spirit boat powered by stored stones would take about three days to travel far enough from the city for a clean strike. The return trip on flying swords, even with stops to recover qi, would take five or six.
Which meant the targets had survived the ambush, lost their spirit boat somehow, and still made it back to civilization unharmed.
Meanwhile, the Grand Offering, the Second Offering, three Nascent Soul elders, and an entire strike force of Spirit Condensation cultivators had simply vanished.
Even a fool could understand what that meant.
The family head's hand shook as he tried to lift his teacup to his lips. He made it halfway before his arm gave out, lowering the cup back to the table.
He was still holding on to hope. Some desperate part of him insisted there had to be another explanation.
Maybe the targets had realized they were being hunted and stayed close to Jade Prosperity, where any attack would draw too much attention. Or maybe the Grand Offering was still waiting for the right moment, keeping watch and holding back.
The Ji Clan only had three Offerings and seven Nascent Soul elders. Even counting every peak Spirit Condensation cultivator, they could gather at most twenty high-level combatants.
This mission had sent out nearly all of them.
If they were dead, the Ji Clan wouldn't just fail to rise to a first-rate family. They would fall all the way to the bottom of the third-rate ranks. A clan with wealth but no strength, surrounded by enemies who now knew exactly how weak they were... It would mean the end of everything his family had built over generations.
The hall doors burst open.
A man stumbled through. He tripped, went down, and slid across the polished floor on his knees for a good twenty meters before skidding to a stop in the center of the hall.
"T-the young master is dead! The Grand Offering is dead! The Second Offering… they're all dead!"
Everyone in the hall shot to their feet. The family head felt a sharp ringing in his ears as his vision blurred and split.
For a moment, he couldn't breathe. Then reality crashed back in.
His face, which had looked middle-aged and full of life just moments ago, began to age before their eyes. The color drained from his skin, and lines deepened around his eyes and mouth. His shoulders sagged.
He reached for the armrest, steadying himself before he could fall.
"I should have known. I should never have hoped otherwise."
Years ago, when he had first named his eldest son as heir, the Grand Offering had opposed it.
"Huan is narrow-minded," the old cultivator had said. "He is jealous of anyone more talented than him, ruthless to those he perceives as threats, and too arrogant to see his own limitations. He will bring disaster to this family."
At the time, the family head had been furious. What father wanted to hear his son described that way?
But the Grand Offering had been right.
And now he was dead. They were all dead. Because he had indulged his son's greed.
"I am the sinner of the Ji Clan... Our family stood for thousands of years... and I destroyed it in a single generation."
Something in his chest gave way. Warmth rose up his throat, and he tasted copper. Blood spilled from his lips as he pitched forward, collapsing onto the floor in front of his seat.
"Someone get a healer!"
"Stay with us!"
The hall erupted into chaos, but the family head barely heard it.
His last thought, before darkness took him, was:
I have killed us all.
----------
[POV: Alexei]
Eight days after leaving Jade Prosperity, the Cloud Rider crossed into the territories controlled by the Aureate Summit Sect.
According to Quan, they would arrive at the sect itself in less than half an hour.
Everyone except him had gathered on the observation deck to watch the landscape rush past below. Mountains and forests blurred together.
"I'm ready to sleep in my own bed again," Yan said, stretching her arms over her head.
"You've been sleeping in a private cabin for over a week," Qingxue pointed out.
"It's not the same."
The sect's mountain came into view ahead.
Quan angled the Cloud Rider toward the main landing platform at the summit.
"Hold on," Quan called from the control room. "I'm bringing us in."
The Cloud Rider accelerated.
"Uh," Alexei said. "Should we be going faster when we're trying to land?"
Nobody answered, which he decided wasn't a good sign.
The landing platform was getting closer. Two figures were standing in the plaza, waiting to greet them.
The Cloud Rider showed no signs of slowing down.
"Quan?" Yan's voice had an edge to it now. "Quan, you're going to stop, right?"
"I'm working on it!" Quan shouted back.
The spirit boat hit the edge of the landing platform at full speed.
The two cultivators who had been waiting to greet them immediately threw up their hands and channeled spiritual energy to brace against the vessel's defensive barrier.
The Cloud Rider kept going, shoving both men backward across the plaza as they dug in their heels and tried desperately to arrest its momentum.
They managed to stop it about three or four meters before it would have plowed directly into the sect master's hall.
The spirit boat settled with a shudder.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Zhengxing straightened his robes and cleared his throat.
"Welcome back."
Quan emerged from the control room.
"I, uh. I'm still getting used to the controls."
"So I see," Zhengxing said dryly.
Qingxue stepped forward smoothly, as if their arrival hadn't nearly resulted in property damage and possible casualties. "It's good to be back."
Proper stairs extended from the side of the Cloud Rider now that it was fully stopped, providing a boarding ramp.
Yan ignored the stairs entirely, grabbed Mengyao and Changgui by their collars, and simply flew them down to the plaza.
"Why walk when you can fly?" she said cheerfully, setting them down.
Zhengxing looked between the massive new spirit boat and the slightly traumatized expression on Quan's face.
"I take it the mission was successful?"
"Yes," Qingxue confirmed.
The other cultivator who had helped stop the boat was staring directly at Alexei. After a moment, he stepped forward and gave a small nod.
"Thank you for the spirit stone torch and lamp you provided before I entered seclusion. They were invaluable."
Alexei blinked. He had no idea who this person was.
Yan leaned over and whispered, "That's Han Cheng. He's been in closed-door cultivation for months."
Cheng continued, still looking straight at him. "If you have any questions about swordsmanship or body cultivation in the future, I'll do my best to guide you."
"Uh… thanks?"
Cheng nodded again, apparently considering the conversation complete, and stepped back.
---
The group dispersed after the brief welcome.
Zhengxing didn't ask for details about the mission, apparently that conversation would wait for a formal debrief later. Which was fine by Alexei. He was tired, and the last thing he wanted was to rehash the entire Ji Clan massacre in front of an audience.
As for why Cheng had been there to greet them: pure coincidence, apparently. Today just happened to be the day he came out of seclusion.
Cultivation world timing was weird like that.
While everyone else was busy exchanging pleasantries, Yan took the chance to volunteer Cheng as Alexei's new sword instructor. Cheng wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. Sword cultivation sounded like a lot of work for questionable results, but arguing would have been more trouble than it was worth.
He rode Qingxue's flying sword back to his courtyard, the fox curled up in his arms and making small annoyed sounds about the wind.
The moment they touched down, he spotted something that made him smile.
A sheep had respawned on the grass, standing there with a vaguely confused look, as if it couldn't quite remember how it had gotten there or what it was supposed to be doing.
He headed over to the small barn where he kept his tools, grabbed the shears from the item frame on the fence, and got to work.
Snip snip.
The newly spawned sheep went from fluffy to naked in about three seconds flat, dropping two blocks of wool that compressed themselves and flew into his inventory.
The other sheep, which had been standing nearby and watching, got the same treatment.
Snip snip.
Alexei put the shears away and pulled a couple of wheat stalks from the small plot beside the barn. He held them out, and both sheep perked up.
He fed them, and small red hearts popped up above their heads, drifting into the air. Now all he had to do was wait about a day for them to produce a lamb.
"Come on," he told them. "You have one job."
The sheep stared at him blankly.
He gave up and headed toward the house.
Behind him, Qingxue landed lightly, a bundle from the Cloud Rider's storage tucked under one arm. She glanced at the sheep, and her expression softened slightly. Then she walked past him and continued toward the building.
Alexei watched her for a moment before shaking his head and heading for the entrance that led down into the mountain.
Time to get to work.
---
The survival base inside the mountain was exactly as he had left it.
The iron farm must have been running the whole time he was gone, which meant the collection chest was probably full by now.
Still, one thing at a time.
He took out the crude black iron he had mined from the wreckage of the Ji Clan's spirit vessel and dumped it into the input chest of the furnace system.
The hopper beneath it began feeding the ore into a chest minecart, which carried it along the line and distributed it evenly across the active furnaces. Once the smelting was done, the ingots would be collected in the output chest below.
While the furnaces ran, he started organizing his inventory.
Most of his important supplies were untouched. Obsidian blocks, redstone, logs, iron blocks, and all the essentials he kept for emergencies were still in place. The only things that needed sorting were the random items he had picked up during the battle and the trip back.
Ten minutes was more than enough.
When the smelting finished, he checked the output chest.
[Black Iron Ingot ×8]
It wasn't a huge haul, but enough to test with.
He opened the crafting interface and started scrolling through recipes.
[Black Iron Block]
[Black Iron Sword]
[Black Iron Axe]
[Black Iron Pickaxe]
[Black Iron Shovel]
[Black Iron Hoe]
[Black Iron Door]
[Black Iron Trapdoor]
[Black Iron Helmet]
[...]
"Same recipes as regular iron..."
He crafted a black iron sword just to see what it would do.
The blade that appeared in his hand was darker than regular iron, almost black, with a faint oily sheen to the metal.
[Black Iron Sword:
+6 Attack Damage]
"Are you kidding me?"
It dealt the same damage as an iron sword. The only real difference he found after checking it was the durability. This one had 1,281 points, while iron only had 250.
That made it about five times more durable than iron, almost on par with diamond tools, which had 1,561.
He hadn't used a sword in combat in... weeks? Months? The trident and bow covered every situation he had run into. A sword was just dead weight.
He deconstructed the black iron sword and crafted a chestplate instead.
[Black Iron Chestplate:
7 Armor]
He kept going.
Black iron leggings gave 6 armor points, and the boots gave 3. Both were one point better than their iron versions. The helmet was the same as iron at 2 points.
That brought the total to 18 armor for a full set.
That was two points lower than diamond, which worked out to roughly a 4% difference in damage reduction.
It wasn't bad.
The problem was the weight.
According to Duan, black iron was about 1.6 times heavier than normal iron. That put a full set at around 33,000 kilograms.
For comparison, that was 3.5 times heavier than diamond armor.
A black iron sword weighed about 3,000 kilograms and dealt 6 damage. That meant each point of damage translated to roughly 500 kilograms of force.
If Thorns triggered at full strength, reflecting 16 damage, that would be the equivalent of 8,000 kilograms hitting the attacker.
His current diamond armor only reflected about 2,000.
"Okay… that's pretty good."
Then he remembered that netherite existed.
Netherite ingots were made from four gold ingots and netherite scrap. The gold alone would weigh around 8,500 kilograms. Add the scrap and the upgrade template, which required seven diamonds and a block of netherrack, and a single netherite sword would probably weigh at least 15,000 kilograms.
Netherite swords dealt 8 attack damage. That meant each point came out to roughly 1,875 kilograms.
At full strength, Thorns would reflect about 30,000 kilograms of force.
He tossed the black iron ingots back into the output chest to finish smelting and stepped away from the crafting area.
Before doing anything else, he needed to check on the villagers.
---
The village section of the base was exactly as he had left it.
Alexei stared at the villagers as they wandered around doing their villager things.
"What is your problem?"
The villagers didn't respond, because they were villagers.
"There are men and women. You have literally everything you need to make more villagers. So why are there still only 32 of you?"
One of the farmers walked past, completely ignoring him.
He had followed every single requirement. The villagers should be breeding. There was no reason for them not to breed.
"I'll figure it out later..."
He left the village area and went to check the iron farm.
As expected, the collection chest was completely full.
Stacks of iron ingots filled every slot, neatly sorted by the system. He would need to set up an auto-crafter to turn them into iron blocks for easier storage, but that could wait.
He had more important things to deal with right now.
The mob farm needed an upgrade.
---
For weeks now, Alexei had been grinding experience the slow way: killing mobs manually for a few hours each day, then leaving the farm on overnight to passively accumulate drops while he slept.
It worked, but it was inefficient.
He was getting maybe 3,000 experience per day. That wasn't going to cut it anymore.
He needed to assimilate spirit stones, Brightglow Pearlpearls, spiritual plant seeds, and dozens of magical tools and artifacts he had taken from the Ji Clan. All of it required a massive amount of experience.
Which meant he had to automate the killing.
That was where the trident killer came in.
The design was simple.
First, he modified the collection platform at the bottom of the mob farm. It had originally been a one-by-sixteen meter strip where mobs gathered before he killed them manually. He reduced it to a compact 2x2 meter platform.
Then he built the grinder, which consisted of one trident, one lever, four pistons, and eight observers.
When the lever was flipped, it activated a piston and triggered a block update. The piston extended, which activated an observer. The observer sent out a redstone signal, activating another piston, which in turn triggered another observer. The cycle fed back into itself and continued without stopping.
At the center of the loop, the trident spun continuously, cutting down any mob that dropped onto the platform.
For item collection, he placed two glass panes at the bottom of the grinder. Drops and experience orbs from the mobs would fall through the gaps, then get carried away by water streams into the hoppers below.
The items were sent into the existing sorting system. Experience orbs, which hoppers couldn't pick up, were pushed along by the current until they reached him.
He flipped the lever.
The pistons fired to life. At the center of the platform, the trident spun into a blur.
He ran a quick calculation.
The mob farm produced around 160 mobs per hour, roughly two to three per minute. With the trident killer running nonstop, without needing any manual input, he could earn close to 20,000 experience a day.
Compared to the barely 3,000 he used to get, the improvement was massive.