Chapter 177: The True Master of the Yuzhoujiao Sect

Although Choi Sung-taek was eager to set up the occult ritual, Wu Chang held him back and told him to wait until dawn.

The faction he belonged to had just seized first place on the faction ranking; tonight was the most dangerous time, and by early morning the atmosphere aboard the ship would ease somewhat.

Judging by the past few days at sea, at least within the Shipwreck Belt, every faction more or less upheld the peace and order aboard, doing their best to ensure the passengers' safety.

This shared understanding kept the players tightly restraining the scope and timing of any conflict—matters that could be settled at night were mostly left for night.

Of course, this unspoken accord only held within the Shipwreck Belt. Had Captain Kang Jun-seok not been killed by Wu Chang, once the crew started stirring up trouble, the accord would have quickly fallen apart.

Wu Chang killing Kang Jun-seok, in a sense, prolonged that accord and also made his takeover of the Star Leap go far more smoothly.

Just as he had anticipated, tonight was far from peaceful.

The call from the deep sea had not ceased. To stop passengers from throwing themselves overboard, the secretary had no choice but to lead men outside and forcibly lock the cabin doors.

A few days earlier, such a move would have caused panic, but now that everyone's situation had been laid bare, and Wu Chang had openly taken over the Star Leap, the passengers were fully supportive of sealing the cabins from outside.

Beyond the call of the deep sea, as expected, players from other factions showed up to cause trouble.

Two groups appeared in succession, harassing and probing Xiang Jianxing and the others.

Shadow and Great White Shark were more than strong enough, and with the support of players from Li Yubin's side, they didn't run into any real danger.

Of the two waves of attack, one came from players belonging to Kang Jun-seok's faction.

Kang Jun-seok's death did not seem to have caused his faction to collapse outright; they appeared to have received orders from someone else and continued launching attacks against Wu Chang's faction.

The other wave was from the Xinyuzhou Sect, though the attack from the Xinyuzhou Sect was likely an individual act—only two or three small fry hopped about for a bit, and the ritual masters did not intervene.

Being attacked was within Wu Chang's expectations; not being attacked was what he couldn't figure out.

There were so many factions on board, and so far only Li Yubin was on friendly terms with him. In the eyes of the rest, he should have been an enemy.

Why weren't they making a move?

Wu Chang had no time to think it through. After listening to the secretary and Xiang Jianxing's report on last night's work over breakfast, Choi Sung-taek dragged him off to begin setting up the occult ritual.

The first stop on their route was the bridge.

The Star Leap's construction was extremely elaborate. According to Choi Sung-taek, the entire ship had been built to work in concert with the occult ritual—the crew's layout, the placement of key areas, all of it aligned with the ritual the Xinyuzhou Sect had laid out.

Rather than a ship, it was a mobile altar capable of sailing the seas.

The Louis and the Song of the Sea that Choi Sung-taek had ridden on before had nowhere near this level of completion.

Which meant that from the very moment this ship was built, it had been prepared for this one sacrifice.

The Star Leap's bridge was one of the ship's central hubs. The Xinyuzhou Sect had placed their ritual node here, and Choi Sung-taek had also set his sights on it.

The captain's top-level clearance card in Wu Chang's hand not only opened the control room and let the two of them in, it also caused the ritual inside to identify them as friendly and allow them entry.

The moment the two stepped into the bridge, they saw occult implements arranged throughout the room according to special orientations, and runes drawn in inks of different colors across many parts of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Those runes and arrangements gave off a powerful atmosphere, a strange kind of beauty. An ordinary crew member or passenger walking in would simply take it for an unusual style of decoration and never suspect a thing.

But in the eyes of an occult practitioner like Choi Sung-taek, this was a complex, large-scale occult ritual node.

The complexity of the ritual in the bridge exceeded Choi Sung-taek's expectations. Seeing this, he couldn't be bothered with laying out the ritual he had prepared and instead began studying the ritual node inside the bridge first.

A dozen or so minutes later, after deciphering the last patch of runes in a corner of the floor, he suddenly jerked his head up and exclaimed:

"Damn—it's an Earthly Kingdom ritual!"

Wu Chang was taken aback on hearing it. He had previously seen Park Changmin and others implant occult seeds into believers and had been guessing whether what was laid out on the ship was an Earthly Kingdom; now it was confirmed—indeed it was.

But more than the Earthly Kingdom itself, Choi Sung-taek's reaction surprised him.

"You can actually recognize this as an Earthly Kingdom? Did you inherit that from your family too?"

One had to understand, the Earthly Kingdom was no ordinary occult ritual—it belonged to the very pinnacle of occult knowledge in the Wasteland Realm.

Not only was the threshold for laying it out extremely high, requiring a master occultist to complete it, obtaining the ritual's blueprints and formation was also extremely difficult; one generally had to first establish contact with the deeper-layer deities of the abyss and receive the design as a divine boon.

For an ordinary occult practitioner, let alone identifying an Earthly Kingdom from a ritual's layout, even knowing those four words 'Earthly Kingdom' was extremely difficult.

Choi Sung-taek had said his occult knowledge was inherited from an ancestor who had served as a royal sorcerer.

An ancestor that powerful—not only able to lay out an Earthly Kingdom, but also able to record and pass down its rituals and formations?

After a brief hesitation, Choi Sung-taek explained:

"This isn't knowledge passed down in my family. It's that when I was hiding aboard the Louis, I saw the golden light of an occult ritual flare up, and after getting up close to the Dragon King, this knowledge simply appeared in my mind on its own."

After explaining the source of the knowledge, he asked back, "And how is it that you know about the Earthly Kingdom?"

Compared to Wu Chang's surprise at him, he was more surprised that Wu Chang—someone who was practically clueless about the occult—had actually heard of the Earthly Kingdom.

Wu Chang said, "I saw it when I was learning to fuse the origin of the occult into my body."

There was nothing wrong with that statement; he had indeed seen the Earthly Kingdom during the first stage of his class-change quest.

The two exchanged a calm look, then suddenly both let out sheepish smiles, tacitly agreeing not to dig any deeper.

These days, if you went out into the world without a few secrets you couldn't speak of, you wouldn't even have the nerve to greet people.

Upon discovering that what the Xinyuzhou Sect had laid out was an Earthly Kingdom, Choi Sung-taek's expression grew much more serious. He said:

"I don't know how much you know about the Earthly Kingdom, or whether you've ever witnessed the scene after one takes shape, but I need to tell you—once this ritual is completed, it will draw upon divine power. With the strength of us mortals, we cannot take the passengers back from a god's hand."

"And once a god descends, all preparations will be in vain. We will all tremble and go mad beneath the god's might, until we break apart."

Wu Chang shook his head lightly, noncommittal. Could mortals truly not stand against a god?

Setting aside himself, the Arcane Knights—who had gouged out one of Leiman's eyes—would be the first to refuse that.

But he didn't expand on the topic of resisting gods. Instead he asked, "So what do you plan to do?"

Choi Sung-taek stared at the occult node in the bridge. His eyeballs darted rapidly within their sockets, as if taking in every region at once, yet his expression was unusually calm, as if he had become a humanoid machine.

After roughly half an hour, Choi Sung-taek suddenly squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his sore eyes with both hands.

Wu Chang watched from the side, wincing. Thank goodness Choi Sung-taek had stopped—if it had gone on a few more minutes, he would have worried the old man would fling his own eyeballs out.

After resting for a few minutes, Choi Sung-taek took eye drops from his pocket, squeezed in half a bottle in one go, let out a long breath, and said:

"I've thought of a way."

Wu Chang played along and asked, "What way?"

Cui Chengze said: "I want to fuse the array that absorbs the roots of mysticism with the Earthly Kingdom, and the moment I use the Xinyuzhou Sect's hand to leave the Shipwreck Belt, I'll activate the array again and devour the entire origin of the Earthly Kingdom."

Wu Chang first nodded, then felt something was off, and pressed: "Absorbing the origin of the Earthly Kingdom — what effect will that have on me?"

Cui Chengze, whose eyes had been open, suddenly closed them, turned his face slightly to the side, and said stiffly: "No effect at all."

Wu Chang: "Look at me and say that again." Cui Chengze: "My eyes hurt, I can't open them."

Wu Chang: "Then I'll wait until you open them."

The two stalemated for half a minute. Cui Chengze was the first to break, saying: "Actually, there's really no big problem. It's just that you snatched the offering meant for the deity, so you might earn the grudge of the deity the Xinyuzhou Sect worships. As long as you turn around and wipe out the Xinyuzhou Sect afterward, and don't let them contact the deity again, there won't be any big problem."

Wu Chang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. He was holding two of Leman's eyeballs in his hand, and had ruined quite a few of the other's plans — they had long been mortal enemies. Would he care about something like this?

"That's it? I thought absorbing too much energy would give me indigestion. Now that you mention it, it really is no big deal."

Cui Chengze: …

No, buddy — compared to angering a deity, indigestion is what you find more troublesome?

Cui Chengze felt that spending too long around Wu Chang was making him strange too, so he ended the topic and focused on setting up Wu Chang's class-change ceremony.

To avoid arousing the Xinyuzhou Sect's suspicion, Cui Chengze perfectly embedded the mystical instruments he had arranged into the Earthly Kingdom's ceremony. Only with inspiration over a hundred could Wu Chang faintly detect a hint of disharmony; anyone else would have found it very hard to spot the flaw.

This single feat alone proved that Cui Chengze's attainments in mysticism surpassed those of an ordinary Master of Mysticism.

!

Wu Chang spent an entire day following Cui Chengze through the most critical nodes of the class-change ceremony. The remaining parts of the ceremony were mostly located in ordinary areas of the Star Leap, and didn't require Wu Chang's personal presence — only the Shadow needed to follow along to ensure Cui Chengze's personal safety.

After a full day of setup, when Wu Chang returned to his room, he found the last of those who had previously wanted to join his faction standing at the door waiting for him.

The two entered the study. Wu Chang sat behind the desk, sizing up the player before him.

He was a young man with dark skin, a sturdy build, and plain, honest features. His face bore the "highland flush" caused by long exposure to wind and sun. His looks were neither good-looking nor ugly — if one had to describe them, it would be two words.

Standard.

He seemed to have been born with the standard appearance of a fisherman. Regardless of gender, regardless of age, the moment anyone saw him, they would get the feeling: this must be a young fisherman.

Precisely because of this, the man's codename was Fisherman.

Among the four who had come to his door that day, Fisherman was the fourth to appear. His strength was below Shadow and Great White Shark. If it were purely a matter of ability, Wu Chang had not planned to let Fisherman join — but after seeing a certain quality in him, he decided to give him a chance.

The task he assigned Fisherman was to find the actual leader of the Xinyuzhou Sect on the Star Leap.

Park Changmin held a very high position within the Xinyuzhou Sect. When important figures from Gao Mu Nation visited the Xinyuzhou Sect, he was often the one accompanying them.

In terms of seniority and standing, Park Changmin was sufficient to be in charge of constructing this Earthly Kingdom — but there was one problem: he was too weak.

Not only was his strength weak, his presence was even weaker.

As a subordinate, his professional competence was absolutely solid, but his personality absolutely could not handle being the decision-maker for such an important event.

Simply put, even Jiang Junxi, after Wu Chang's power seizure last night — once he left the land and got his hands on power — would dare tell Wu Chang no and have a go at him.

But Park Changmin didn't have that kind of boldness. Even though Wu Chang had smashed in the heads of two of his allies right in front of him, Park Changmin didn't even dare show anger.

On top of that, Park Changmin wasn't a Master of Mysticism either, and he had no reason to be on the Star Leap — which further proved he was only a figurehead, and the true leader of the Xinyuzhou Sect was someone else.

Wu Chang leaned back in his chair and asked in a casual tone: "You came to find me, so I suppose you've got results."

"Got them." Fisherman nodded and took two photos from his pocket.

The main subject of the photos was a woman. She wore the Xinyuzhou Sect's pure white robe — the loose robe on her frame was stretched into a fitted style, and if you held the photo a little farther away, you'd think the woman had three heads.

In the first photo, the woman wore a hood and walked through the fourth level of the Star Leap, her face not visible.

In the second photo, the woman was talking with Park Changmin on the fourth-level deck. Moonlight illuminated the shadow of her hood, and half her face could be seen.

The woman's appearance was highly distinctive. In Gao Mu Nation, where looks were highly homogenized, she stood out so much that walking down the street, she would be recognized at a glance.

The woman's name was Zheng Ruiyuan, a famous educator of Gao Mu Nation. The Zheng Yong Advanced Education institution founded by her father, Zheng Taimin, had swept across all of Gao Mu Nation — eighty percent of Gao Mu Nation's female celebrities had studied English with Zheng Taimin.

Beyond being an educator, Zheng Ruiyuan had another identity: the best friend of the President of Gao Mu Nation.

When the current president's election had not yet succeeded, the two were already very close. With Zheng Ruiyuan's support, the president managed to stand out and win the general election.

It could be said that in Gao Mu Nation, apart from a few old-line chaebol, it was Zheng Ruiyuan and Zheng Taimin who held the greatest power.

A figure of such stature, wearing the Xinyuzhou Sect's robe, bypassing the boarding registration, and sneaking onto the Star Leap.

What Zheng Ruiyuan's identity was and what she wanted to do was, frankly, obvious enough.

Wu Chang looked at the photos a couple more times, and it took him a moment to suppress the curl at the corner of his mouth.

He had originally sent Fisherman to investigate the Xinyuzhou Sect only wanting him to dig up some intel on the Ritualist — he hadn't expected that while the Ritualist wasn't found, such a big fish had been hooked.

Fisherman, oh Fisherman — you were born to fish.

Seeing that Wu Chang had finished looking at the photos, Fisherman said in a slightly halting voice: "Mr. Li, although the intel was found, something went wrong while taking the second photo."

Wu Chang asked: "What happened?"

A look of shame crossed Fisherman's face as he said: "I was spotted by her, and she figured out I was one of yours."

Wu Chang frowned slightly. "And then? How did you get away?"

Fisherman said: "I didn't escape — she let me go. She said there's some misunderstanding between you two, and she wants to meet you in person, to talk cooperation face to face."

"When?" Wu Chang continued to ask.

Fisherman replied: "The day after tomorrow at eight in the evening, first-level cargo hold."

Eight in the evening the day after tomorrow was precisely the final moment of Wu Chang's faction's conversion of the home ground. The timing was somewhat deliberate.

It was as if threatening him — if he didn't agree to show up, she would find a way to sabotage the progress of his conversion of the home ground.

Wu Chang's frown smoothed out, and he nodded: "Good work. Go one more trip for me — tell Ms. Zheng I accept."

Fisherman bowed and turned to leave.

Wu Chang watched Fisherman's retreating back, a playful smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Fisherman really lived up to his name — after hooking the big fish from the Xinyuzhou Sect's side, he immediately cast a hook toward his own mouth.

What, trying to use a fishhook to catch a great whale?

(End of this chapter)