Chapter 848: Looking Afar

"The Great Ship has set sail!"

The Great Ship flew toward the sky. Countless powerhouses and elders from both worlds stood on the open ground of Huangbaijie, watching this behemoth—which had gathered the essence of Tianmo Jie—set sail. Regardless of how many calculations it condensed, how many conspiracies it was entangled in, or how many people were using it, at this moment, the voyage was magnificent, a miracle. Many old Tianmo who did not understand the mysteries behind it watched the Great Ship go, their eyes brimming with old tears.

"Goodbye, child!"

"Goodbye, homeland!"

"Children, you must live on with the hope of the world. Take root and sprout in the new world!"

Amidst the sincere blessings, the Songtian High Priest remained expressionless, looking up at the sky.

At this moment, the Songtian High Priest was not by his side, nor was the Hutian High Priest. Only three of the nine Tianyou High Priests had come this time, fewer than those who had come from the Human side. Those who were controversial, whether they were close to the Human World or hostile to it, had not come. Only three relatively neutral ones were present; besides Haotian, the other two had no presence at all on the Human side.

At this time, Qian Jian also walked up and sighed, "In any case, it has finally set sail. Congratulations."

Haotian said indifferently, "There is nothing to congratulate. It is just that the arrow is on the bowstring, and we have no choice but to fire." Both sides now had a tacit understanding not to mention previous disputes; at least before the great crisis, they would not tear off their masks or create new enemies. They spoke with room to maneuver. At most, Haotian gave a faint, sarcastic remark: "You had already chosen the children, and those young people must have known. They had already obtained the hope of life, but now it has all been cut off by your willfulness. Will there be anyone harboring resentment?"

Qian Jian smiled faintly: "Why leave one's home to defend the country instead of staying? Everyone will understand. Many children had long ago volunteered to stay. As for those who do not know what is good for them, they are not seeds of hope, so it is not a pity to abandon them. Anyway, if they can be saved, we still want to save them. We have fewer people, and they are all our own flesh and blood; we cannot bear to sacrifice them casually. We are not as extravagant as you."

Haotian sneered. In fact, Qian Jian's sarcasm was the truth, and it could not be considered malicious. Lingjie was indeed filled with the Hundred Races and was not of one mind. For instance, after the upper echelons knew there were tricks in the Great Ship this time, on one hand, they did not dare to abandon the Airship plan to appease the Evil God, but on the other hand, they quietly withdrew many of their own clansmen without informing other small and medium-sized Spirit Race groups. The one million Spirit Race spots that the humans were missing were destined to be cannon fodder, and they even enticed small tribes that originally had no spots to fill in, and even collected bribes to auction off spots, earning another fortune. This kind of upper-echelon tacit understanding to harm the lower levels existed in the Human World too, but it was something that could not see the light of day and had to be covered up; being exposed was a crime. But in Lingjie, it was not a big deal; it was very normal, reasonable, and no one had the standing to pursue it.

At this moment, a young man hurried over and said, "Your Majesties, please go to the Observation Platform."

The Observation Platform was used to watch and track the flight trajectory of the Great Ship. There were several Sky-Gazing Mirrors with great long-distance capabilities. Within tens of thousands of miles of the Great Ship leaving Huangbaijie, the Sky-Gazing Mirrors could still track its trail; this was the final layer of insurance. If something went wrong within the sight of the powerhouses, the ground could still dispatch several lifeboats or even a few Sword Saints to rush over and rescue them in time. If it broke down outside the line of sight, the Human side would neither know nor be able to help.

After all, the most dangerous time for the Great Ship was when it set sail. Once it was out of sight, everyone tacitly assumed they had succeeded, and from then on, they could rest easy—or at least have a clear conscience.

The Sky-Gazing Mirror was a technology from the Human side, modified from the telescope of Bai Yushenghui. After being modified by more powerful Talisman Sword Masters, it eventually developed to the point where it could see distances that even Tang Zhao found incredible.

As agreed beforehand, powerhouses like Qian Jian and Haotian would watch the Great Ship's journey until it was completely unobservable, performing a final farewell and final escort. There were already many people on the Observation Platform, as well as a very large mirror. The image of the Great Ship that had already ascended to the sky was reflected on the mirror, with many flickering data points around it.

Seeing the two most powerful figures come up, someone had already greeted them. A young technician, Jiang Shenyi, who was now a very important technical personnel on the Human side, walked up, saluted, and reported: "The Great Ship is now 1,100 miles off the ground, and the monitoring data is all normal."

Haotian nodded. Although he was also very unhappy with the Evil God's insatiable demands, he still trusted its strength. If he didn't truly believe it could take at least half of the passengers to a safe new world, why would he spend so much capital on this plan? In fact, even if only one million were left in the end, it would be enough.

He said, "The direction we chose is the exact opposite of that world, so it is still quite safe..."

Just then, someone shouted, "Ah, what is that?"

A small dot appeared in a corner of the huge mirror surface. At first, it was as if a speck of dust had fallen, but immediately after, the small dot gradually expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it was the size of a bean. Although the specific shape could not be distinguished, the color could already be seen.

It was a dazzling, multicolored color.

"Oh no!"

Those among the crowd who were knowledgeable were immediately terrified: Was this not that monster from the Void? A powerful monster from that world!

Even the usually calm Haotian became a bit anxious and shouted, "Can you contact them? Send them a message quickly! Tell them to watch their rear!"

The person operating the Sky-Gazing Mirror nearby hurriedly tried several times, then shouted helplessly, "It's already out of communication range!"

The crowd became even more panicked. Qian Jian said, "They will discover it; that is not the point."

Haotian understood what he meant. If that thing could be seen so clearly in the Sky-Gazing Mirror, how could no one have seen it on the scene? Discovery was not the problem; the problem was how to respond.

Although Haotian knew Qian Jian was not malicious, because there were no humans on the ship, he still felt the other party had a sense of standing aloof. He immediately said, "The Great Ship has defensive capabilities. If it were just one ship, it would not be difficult to either resist or run away."

He was not being stubborn; he was stating a fact. Although the lifeboat had been unable to break free when entangled by a monster, that was only a small ship. The weapons and shields on the real Great Ship were quite powerful. Even if it still could not fight, its speed was very fast. Not to mention that after they collected data on the monsters, they made special improvements to the ship's defense system. They really did not fear a mere...

"Ah, there's another one!"

Someone shouted, and the crowd looked on in horror as another small dot appeared in another corner.

"There... there are more..."

The observer's voice was trembling more and more, and they were somewhat desperate.

One, two, three, four...

"This is being surrounded!"

Now, not only was Haotian's face ashen, but even Qian Jian could not gloat. The Great Ship had been surrounded before it had gone very far. Did this not mean the world was already under the claws of others? Could it be that those guys were lying in wait here, intending to let not a single person from the world escape?

Was that not how those massacres that wiped out entire families were carried out? Cutting off all survivors...

"Rescue!"

Haotian stood up, his face livid as he made a decision: "Send out the elites to rescue them! At the very least, we cannot let the Great Ship be destroyed right before our eyes!"

"Wait..." Qian Jian also stood up, "Do not be reckless!"

Haotian turned his head, wanting to angrily rebuke him for watching the fire from the other side of the river at a time like this—was he not afraid of the fire spreading to himself? But considering this person was a strong ally from the opposite side, he could only forcibly suppress his angry words and stare at him fixedly.

Qian Jian met his gaze, sighed, and said, "Do not mobilize too many people; let just us few go. The Void is too dangerous, and those juniors are just going to their deaths. If we go and it doesn't work, we can at least retreat, and we might still be able to save some people."

Haotian's expression eased slightly, and he nodded, "Thank you. But I wonder if Chang Le can..."

"No!" Qian Jian immediately interrupted firmly: "Chang Le is at a critical moment. The Changjie Sword Technique is one step after another, and he has already completed more than half. To call him out now, would that not be losing the big for the sake of the small? Besides, it's too late to call him now; he won't be able to make it in time. We must rush over as quickly as possible, and we still have to rely on luck. If we go back to the old place to find Chang Le and then take him to set off, I'm afraid there will only be remnants left at the destination."

Actually, it might not be too late...

Haotian thought to himself that this might just be an excuse to shirk responsibility. When all was said and done, Qian Jian was firmly opposed to letting Chang Le come out for the rescue. Since he needed Qian Jian's strength, Haotian did not insist. If Songtian were here, he might have continued to pester him, but Haotian would not go that far.

Qian Jian made the decision, and the Sword Saints present naturally had nothing to say, but not everyone was going. Qian Jian wanted Xun Jian and Zhen Jian to stay behind to hold the fort. Kun Jian had not come in the first place, as he was guarding Chang Le. The remaining Sword Saints followed one after another.

Just as Qian Jian, Haotian, and other powerhouses were about to leave the Observation Platform, they heard someone exclaim behind them: "Eh? What is going on?"

Today's exclamation after exclamation made Haotian furious, and he wanted to turn around and reprimand them: "What is with the exclamations one after another? The first one was enough, is it never-ending? Do you believe I will punish you for the crime of disrupting military morale?"

However, he immediately realized that this sound was different from before; it did not have so much panic and fear, at most just surprise.

What happened?

He hurriedly turned back to look and could not help but be stunned.

He saw the Great Ship in the Sky-Gazing Mirror suddenly have a clear acceleration, rushing toward the multicolored monster that had approached first.

Is this an active battle?

No, is it trying to break through?

Haotian's mood was somewhat complicated. Seeing that it was about to fall into the encirclement, taking advantage of the fact that the encirclement had not yet closed to gamble on speed and break through first was actually a good decision. But the result would be known very soon, and perhaps it would not last until the reinforcements arrived.

However, what was even more surprising was yet to come.

Seeing that the Great Ship had erupted with incredible speed, it actually did not rush toward the gap, but instead headed straight for a monster. The monster actually did not react and let them pass!

When they got close, the monster tilted slightly, actually giving up space, and the Great Ship brushed past it and flew away like lightning.