Chapter 24

"Quiet."

A cold voice came from the upper level of the building ship, and then one person also soared into the sky, directly meeting the two people opposite and intercepting them in mid-air; it was that "Elder Feng."

The three of them stood in direct confrontation and spoke in the air.

"Overclocking."

Wang Yu silently chanted in his heart. His five senses were amplified countless times, everything around him became abnormally slow, and after he focused all his attention on the three people high in the sky, clear words gradually reached his ears.

"... No, since they purchased tickets and have already boarded the ship, they are guests of our Hundred Treasures Pavilion. We absolutely cannot allow outsiders to board the ship and search at will," Elder Feng said coldly and sternly.

"Does the fellow Daoist really not give face to our Huang family? We only need to take the person we are here to capture, and we will leave this ship immediately. We will absolutely not disturb anyone else." A middle-aged man wearing half-body armor opposite him frowned and said, clearly very wary of Elder Feng.

"Hehe, if it were just a private matter, how could this old man not give face to the Huang family? But as the person protecting this ship, if I let you break the rules, wouldn't that ruin the reputation of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion? Such a great responsibility is not something this old man can afford to bear," Elder Feng chuckled and replied stiffly.

"Even if your Hundred Treasures Pavilion is powerful, this place still belongs under the jurisdiction of Huang Shi City. Don't you think what you are doing is too much?" Another younger man wearing white Confucian robes opposite him could not help but interject.

"What? Our Hundred Treasures Pavilion has always been like this. Don't tell me your Huang family only just found out? If you are unwilling to deal with our pavilion, I can report it to those above, and we will withdraw the branch in Huang Shi City, and at the same time, the dharma ship will no longer come to this place," Elder Feng snorted and said unceremoniously.

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the two people opposite became abnormally ugly. After a burst of whispering, they could only leave with a flick of their sleeves and turn to fly back toward the pier.

Wang Yu, who had been eavesdropping on the three's conversation, finally felt relieved again and secretly called out "lucky."

Although he could not yet be sure whether these two Huang family cultivators were targeting him, it was naturally best that they could not even board the ship.

The high-priced ticket of seven spirit stones was truly not spent in vain!

At this time, Elder Feng flew back to the top level of the building ship, and the giant ship sailed rapidly along the river toward the distance, soon leaving the pier without a trace.

Wang Yu deactivated the overclocking synchronization, left the deck, and followed the passage toward his single room.

Over the next seven or eight days, Wang Yu practiced honestly in his room. However, without the assistance of spirit stones and relying only on that small bottle of Yin Spirit Qi, the efficiency of absorbing spiritual energy naturally dropped significantly. He could only focus on practicing the four forms of the "Wolf Run Chart" and learning new spells.

Compared to the slow cultivation of the Yin Water Art, he clearly felt that his physical body still had room for further enhancement. Even after each cultivation session, he began to vaguely feel a restlessness in his bloodline, which seemed very similar to the signs before the bloodline fully awakened as described by Master Chongyun, which made Wang Yu practice this body-refining technique even more diligently.

The speed of comprehending the new spell "Water Gathering" was about the same as Firefly, but the difficulty of condensing the spell imprint far exceeded that of the Firefly spell. After seven or eight days, he had not succeeded in condensing it even once.

This made Wang Yu somewhat depressed. On this day, he finally opened his door, preparing to go to the deck to get some air.

But the moment he opened the door, a door on the opposite side of the corridor also happened to open at this time.

A young girl in green clothes jumped out from inside, looking about thirteen or fourteen, with a round face and large eyes. She was holding a handful of nut-like snacks, which she was continuously stuffing into her mouth, her cheeks bulging like a squirrel.

The girl looked up and also saw Wang Yu, but she screamed "Big Brother" as if she had seen a ghost, threw away the snacks in her hand, and turned to rush back into the room behind her.

"Mother, quickly... come out, I saw Big Brother... really, he's right outside the door..."

As it turned out, he only found a few taels of broken silver and some copper coins on the four masked men's corpses, with nothing else of value.

"Qin'er, how could your Big Brother be outside? Are you seeing things!" A soft woman's voice came from the opposite room, and immediately after, a beautiful woman of thirty-five or thirty-six followed the girl in green out.

The moment she saw Wang Yu, her beautiful eyes widened slightly, but she immediately discovered something, and a bitter smile appeared on her face:

"You silly girl, this young master only looks a bit like your Big Brother; how could he be your Big Brother? Apologize quickly; I'm afraid you disturbed this young master just now." The beautiful woman scolded her daughter twice and apologized to Wang Yu.

"Look at the nose, the mouth, and the eyes; they are exactly the same as Big Brother's. How is it only five or six parts similar? At least seven or eight parts similar. It's just that he's a bit taller, otherwise how could I have mistaken him?" The girl in green also realized she had mistaken the person, but she was still somewhat unconvinced, stealing glances at Wang Yu from time to time.

"So this young lady mistook me for someone else; that doesn't matter. I have something to do, so I will take my leave." Wang Yu finally understood what had happened, but he did not want to say anything more. He nodded to the two of them and turned to walk away, but the sound of the woman scolding the girl still came from behind:

"When will you let your mother worry less? You're so old and still so careless. Sigh, what will you do when you get married in the future?"

"Mother, I'm not getting married, I want to..."

After Wang Yu turned a corner, he could no longer hear the words of the mother and daughter. He did not take this small episode to heart and arrived on the deck.

At this time, besides a few busy crew members, there were a few other guests on the deck, also getting some air and strolling.

Among them was a pair of young husband and wife. The two were dressed gorgeously; the man had thick eyebrows and big eyes, a sturdy build, and wore a long sword at his waist. The woman was dressed like a young matron, with delicate features and fair, tender skin. The two were whispering to each other continuously.

Near the young couple, there was another slender youth of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, holding a long, thin parcel in one hand. Half of his face was covered by a black mask. He appeared to be leaning against the side of the ship, looking out at the rolling river water, but the corners of his eyes would occasionally look coldly at the delicate young matron.

The young couple clearly also noticed the youth's actions. The husband's face was full of anger, and he pressed his hand against the long sword at his waist, while the delicate matron had a panicked expression, clutching her husband's arm tightly and not letting him leave her side.

The youth carrying the parcel looked at the matron even more unscrupulously.

The three of them knew each other, and there should be some grievances between them.

Seeing this situation, Wang Yu had a simple judgment in his heart immediately. He ignored the three of them and walked to the other side of the ship where no one was, looking toward the distant shore.

This section of the Chishuihe was three or four li wide. Faintly visible on the shore was a desolate, mineral-rich landscape. Indeed, there was not a trace of human habitation, and occasionally one could see large herds of unknown beasts resembling horses or cattle drinking water on the shore.

This section of the river water was turbid and crimson, surging and turbulent, and one could see whirlpools of various sizes emerging from time to time.

When this "Iron Arrow" encountered small whirlpools, it relied on its massive size to crush through them regardless, and when it encountered whirlpools that were too large, it would steer far away to avoid them, allowing the building ship to always sail forward steadily.

Just as Wang Yu was watching intently, he saw water splashing in the river not far away, and several black things emerged from it, only to sink back into the river in a flash.

Wang Yu was startled and hurriedly widened his eyes to look carefully.

There was a commotion on the river surface, and one black shadow after another emerged; they were black fish half a zhang long, each with a mouth full of fangs and a spiral horn of varying sizes on its head.

As soon as these strange fish surfaced, they swarmed toward the giant ship, but before they could get close, a clapper sounded from beneath the building ship.

Dense crossbow bolts shot out from the protruding parts of the building ship, killing most of these strange fish in a short time. The remaining fish that escaped the net dived into the water, leaving only rolling blood and the corpses of strange fish floating belly-up on the water surface.

These are the fish-beasts in the Chishuihe; I really can't see what is so terrifying about them?

Wang Yu watched the scene before him and exclaimed in his heart that his horizons had been broadened.

"These horned fish are just the most common fish-beasts in the Chishuihe. Besides being numerous and using the horns on their heads to ram prey, they have no other strange qualities."

A hoarse man's voice came from behind him.

Wang Yu hurriedly turned around, only to discover that at some point, a gaunt man of about forty, dressed in gray clothes, had appeared behind him, looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Who are you?"

The fact that the other party could get so close without being discovered made Wang Yu feel a bit alert, and he asked slowly:

"Young Master is an Immortal Master, right? I am Gao Qi. My master, Yu Bintian, is a wealthy man in Tongzhou and also an Immortal Master. He likes to make friends with young talents in the cultivation world most in his life. If Young Master doesn't mind, would you like to gather at Hall A-3 on the ship during dinner? At that time, several other Immortal Masters will also be there. My master has already booked this room." The gaunt man reported his background and skillfully handed over an invitation.

Isn't Tongzhou the place in the Wu Nation where this ship is going?

Wang Yu took the invitation suspiciously and looked at it. He saw that the surface was covered with gold foil, with a silver "Yu" character printed on one side, and the black characters "A-3" seemingly newly written on the other.

Could it be the loose cultivator exchange meeting mentioned in Master Chongyun's notes?

"Since a fellow Daoist has invited me, Wang will attend." Wang Yu held the invitation, and not knowing what he thought of, he nodded calmly.

Seeing Wang Yu accept the invitation, the gaunt man exchanged two more polite words before leaving.

Wang Yu had no intention of staying any longer and prepared to return to his room, but before leaving the deck, he still saw the young couple and the slender youth carrying the long parcel still standing in a stalemate on the deck.

Wang Yu, having returned to his single room, practiced the four forms of the Wolf Run Chart until nighttime, when he left the room again and arrived at the "A-3" room on the top level of the building ship.

Outside the door of this hall, two men in sturdy attire were guarding. Seeing Wang Yu walk over with the invitation, they immediately bowed and opened the door.

Wang Yu walked in slowly.