Chapter 5: Arrival at Water Sheen

“So I’m pretty famous in the Boundless Sect, then?”

Night Demon was quite curious about the state of affairs as she followed Chang He and Ye Fenghan behind.

“Well, you could say that,” Chang He said quietly. After all, he was never much for talking.

Chang He would never tell her that her reputation amongst the Boundless Sect was great only because Sect Master Su Chen had specifically mentioned that a ditzy, airheaded young lady was going to come looking for him. She would even openly declare her identity without bothering to bring along any official identification.

He had anticipated her arrival a long time ago, but didn’t bother waiting for her and left.

Yes, Su Chen had left early on purpose.

Well, not early. He knew that she was going to be late, but didn’t bother waiting for her and left on his own first.

Because he knew exactly what Night Demon was here to talk with him about.

There was nothing surprising about this. The Origin Bone Scepter’s predictive abilities were astounding. A small prediction about someone like Night Demon was not a problem at all.

As such, Su Chen had no intention of delaying once he realized that Night Demon was coming. He had merely arranged a few things with a few sentences and then left.

“So Su Chen’s gone? I sent him a letter earlier telling him to wait for me, since there was important business for us to discuss, but he just left anyways!” Night Demon was enraged.

Ye Fenghan pretended not to hear anything, while Chang He played along. “Miss Night, you misunderstand our Sect Master. Our Sect Master has too many things going on at the same time right now and really doesn’t have the time to wait for people. And it seems that Sect Master already knows about what you came to talk about - he wanted us to tell you that he is in control of the situation and that you don’t need to worry about him. Miss, it would be best for you to return where you came from.”

“That won’t do at all. What does he mean, in control of the situation? He needs to at least give me a yes or no,” Night Demon said as she put her hands on her hips. “I didn’t come all this way just to hear him tell me ‘he’s in control of the situation,’ okay?”

“This......” Chang He’s expression was filled with embarrassment.

Ye Fenghan said frostily, “The Sect Master has already left. If you aren’t happy about it, you can go look for him yourself. We have already fulfilled our duty by relaying his words to you.”

After he finished speaking, he turned around and left, not glancing at Night Demon a single time.

“Hey, what are you trying to say?” Night Demon glared at him.

Ye Fenghan was totally unperturbed.

Chang He hurriedly attempted to make amends. “This...... He just meant that we cannot stop you if you are insistent on trying to search for the Sect Master. But we have many things to attend to as well, so we cannot accompany you.”

As he spoke, he also turned around to leave.

Unexpectedly, Night Demon appeared to have recovered from her initial shock. “Absolutely not! You must bring me to meet Su Chen.”

“How can we do that?” Chang He said bitterly. “We have our own missions to complete as well. None of us have the time to accompany you.”

“That’s easy. I’ll help you complete your missions, and then you can take me to go look for Su Chen,” Night Demon said with extreme self-confidence.

“This...... Is this really appropriate?” Chang He glanced at Night Demon, then at Ye Fenghan.

Ye Fenghan frowned and was just about to reject her proposal when Night Demon continued, “If you don’t agree, I’ll just keep following you around and make sure that you won’t be able to do anything right.”

……

Miss, can you not be so unreasonable?

Ye Fenghan harrumphed and flew into the air.

Chang He was momentarily taken aback before he followed suit, shooting into the sky.

“Want to get rid of me?” Night Demon didn’t appear agitated as she laughed coldly. “There’s been many bastards who have tried to leave me behind so they can do things on their own, but which one of them succeeded?”

She shot into the air, chasing after the two people.

Even though she was dim-witted and couldn’t even fly properly, she was really fast.

Ye Fenghan and Chang He tried a few different evasion techniques, repeatedly increasing their speed, but found that all of their efforts were to no avail.

She even had the spare energy to chirp, “It’s not going to be of any use! I’ve learned three different kinds of high-quality body techniques, and one of them was even specifically created by your Sect Master for me to use! There’s no way anyone at my cultivation level will be faster than me.”

The two of them groaned when they heard this.

Sect Master, how could you treat us this way?

Even so, the reality was that they were completely unable to leave Night Demon behind.

After nearly a day’s worth of flying, they found that Night Demon was still on their tail.

At this point, they were exhausted and needed to rest, while Night Demon was still bouncing around, full of energy.

It wasn’t that her energy stores were more abundant than theirs, but simply that she had more pills she could consume.

When the two of them saw the round pills in her possession, they immediately knew that the Sect Master had given those to her as well.

They groaned, cursing their misfortune. How could they have been unlucky enough to run into them?

Most importantly, she was the friend of the Sect Master. There was no way they could attack her just because they couldn’t shake her off.

Chang He could only admit defeat. “Are you sure that you will help us complete our mission first?”

“Yes!” Night Demon nodded.

“Hey, I think we don’t have any choice,” Chang He said to Ye Fenghan.

“Her? Really? Are you sure she won’t hold us down?” Ye Fenghan was still a bit worried.

“She’s still a Light Shaking Realm cultivators. Three is still better than two.” Chang He attempted to smooth over the situation with some simple logic.

Ye Fenghan had always felt that this logic didn’t really make much sense.

His intuition was correct this time around, but he had no idea how badly his analysis was going to be off.

After a moment’s thought, he finally agreed even if he felt like she would only slow them down.

“That’s more like it!” Night Demon laughed when she heard.

But based on how excited she appeared, and the Sect Master’s “escape”, Ye Fenghan couldn’t shake that uncomfortable feeling rising in his heart.

“They’ve probably met at this point,” Su Chen muttered atop the boat.

Since he could predict that Night Demon was going to come looking for him, he could also predict who she was going to run into.

Ye Fenghan and Chang He were two pretty good kids. With them around, Night Demon would be in good hands. But their missions were probably going to be affected. Naturally, Su Chen would send other people to fill in that gap.

It was, of course, best, if they could complete their mission, but it wouldn’t affect the overall situation much.

Actually, no single mission would affect the overall situation much, because the entire Boundless Sect had been called into action.

This was something Su Chen had learned after his exchange with Eternal Night.

Back then, Su Chen relied on his own skill, but he was only a single powerful individual. Now, however, he had become a skilled commander.

Much of the knowledge and experience had been given to him by Eternal Night.

On the one hand, they were enemies, but on the other hand they also had a master-student relationship.

Even though Su Chen believed that he had lost to Eternal Night, Eternal Night never felt like he had accomplished something great as a result.

Even though Su Chen believed that he had lost to Eternal Night, Eternal Night never felt like he had accomplished something great as a result.

It wasn’t just because he had been pushed to such an extent. Most importantly, Su Chen could still learn from him and continue to advance, but he would never be able to learn what Su Chen was proficient in, and his research would never elevate the strength of his entire race.

This was why Su Chen was so valuable.

They were both formidable opponents in each others’ eyes. Even Eternal Night couldn’t help but wonder whether sparing Su Chen in exchange for regaining Sky City’s mobility was a mistake.

In any case, under Eternal Night’s influence, Su Chen’s strategic arsenal had expanded significantly, and that also resulted in a different style of doing things.

He was no longer operating alone, but by relying on the might of his entire sect.

The dragon boats flew for twelve days straight.

After twelve days, they arrived at Water Sheen.

This was where the border of Water Sheen and the Oceanids lay.

The land north of the sea was part of Water Sheen territory. This territory was heavily veined with rivers criss-crossing in all directions, which was why it was also sometimes known as Marsh Country.

The Desolate Beast, Luo You, had relied on these rivers to get deep into human territory and unleash its massacre.

Both Water Sheen and the Oceanids needed to fight back against the might of these Sea Beasts. For this reason, they were on quite good terms; after all, they were facing off against a common enemy.

Upon arriving at Water Sheen, it became obvious that most of the buildings were constructed in elevated locations out of wooden materials. This was because every Sea Beast attack was accompanied by a tsunami.

The elevated position allowed them to avoid the tsunami, while the wooden houses allowed them to be quickly converted into boats.

Water Sheen’s boat-making skills were unparalleled. Their boats were incredibly nimble and agile and were genuinely meant to operate on water, unlike most Origin Qi Scholars’ boats, which could fly.

Building boats meant for water was much cheaper, and because Water Sheen was constantly under attack from the Sea Beasts, they had dug their rivers much deeper so that even large boats meant for open waters could navigate on the surface of these rivers.

As such, tall, multi-storied boats could be seen everywhere.

The network of rivers and the large boat sizes meant that transporting cargo across the country was incredibly easy, and the transportation network was incredibly well-developed. Even without the influence of the Desolate Beasts, this ability to do business with incredibly low overhead was quite valuable.

Perhaps this was also why flying boats were quite a rare sight across most of the country.

When the Boundless Sect’s shuttles descended from the sky, the bystanders watching all found themselves quite enraptured as they sighed in amazement.

Just as the emperor guards the country, Water Sheen’s capital was located right next to the sea.

After four more days of travel, the Boundless Sect’s fleet finally arrived at Mengxiang City.

This city was built on top of the water, giving it a strange, unique kind of charm. Two-thirds of the city’s surface was water, and many of the buildings were actually houseboats that floated on top of this surface. The octagonal city was surrounded on all sides by ocean, but the walls of the city extended all the way down into the seabed. The four main waterways leading into the city were packed with boats coming in and out of the city. One-third were fishing boats, one-third were merchant boats, and the remaining one-third were military vessels.

In that sense, it was quite obvious how this country was different than the others.

This country both took from and gave back to the sea.

The sea provided them with an abundance of resources, but it also served as a brutal survival test.

A group of people covered in scales could also be seen walking through the city.

Those were the Oceanids.

However, unlike the Ravagers, the Harpies, or the Astrals, the humans tolerated their presence.

“Wu......”

The deep sound of a bugle echoed throughout the sky.

A boat carrying a group of people began to ascend to the fleet of dragon boats in the sky.

The person at the very front was Jiang Xishui himself.