Vessel of Worlds

Inside the Hall of Inquiry on the slopes of Hanyang Peak, more than forty Qi Refinement cultivators stood in four neat columns, every face solemn.

The overwhelming majority were at the thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement, with roughly ten having reached its absolute peak. The rest were generally at the twelfth layer, and only three or four stood at the eleventh. Most were young to middle-aged, in their twenties or thirties, though a few had greying hair and looked to be in their fifties or sixties. There was not a single cultivator under twenty among them. Only five were women.

Before this assembly stood five or six Foundation Establishment cultivators. A white-haired, white-bearded old man was speaking at length to the group. After a while, his voice rose sharply, taking on a rousing, impassioned tone. Most of the cultivators listening were visibly stirred, their eyes alight with an unusual intensity.

These forty-odd cultivators were the Qi Refinement disciples who had accepted Dragon Descent Valley missions and were about to march toward what might well be their deaths. The white-haired old man was none other than Sect Master Xiong Yue.

Sect Master Xiong had begun by repeatedly emphasizing the precautions to be taken during the Dragon Descent Valley missions, then shifted to outlining the generous terms the sect was offering—whipping up their fighting spirit.

Andy was among them, of course. He noticed that the Sect Master's words were, frankly, rather empty—yet they had an uncanny power to stir the blood. Even Andy felt a surge of heat rising in his chest, which struck him as deeply strange. Then he remembered something he had read in the texts: cultivators of far superior cultivation could embed subtle illusory influence into their speech or gaze, easily manipulating the minds of lower-level cultivators without the victims ever realizing it.

The thought jolted Andy alert. He circulated his spiritual sense briefly through his body, and the feverish excitement drained away, replaced by his normal composure. After that, he listened to Sect Master Xiong's impassioned speech with detached amusement.

The speech was not long. After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Sect Master Xiong gave a booming announcement, and Andy and the rest of the Qi Refinement cultivators filed aboard the waiting Taixu Vessel, setting off for Dragon Descent Valley in Liao Prefecture under the escort of several Foundation Establishment seniors.

Looking out at the high-spirited faces of his fellow disciples crowding the vessel, Andy felt a quiet undercurrent of sorrow. He knew that of these forty-odd cultivators setting out today, only a dozen or so would ride this vessel back to the Taixu Sect. The rest—some thirty souls—would vanish from the world forever.

Among the forty, three were people Andy knew. One was Sun Ming, the senior brother he had personally defeated. The other two were Bai Chuli, who had also been eliminated from the Foundation Establishment Trial, and Jian Xin'er's close friend—Jin Ye.

All three were at the thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement, yet none had made it through the trial. Unwilling to wait another five years, they had chosen to risk the Dragon Descent Valley instead.

Andy allowed himself a brief moment of reflection, then lowered his head and sat in quiet silence.

Thinking back on his half year in Upper-Tier Forging Chamber Seven, he couldn't suppress a flicker of satisfaction.

He had successfully crafted more than twenty high-grade auxiliary talismans—Earth Prison Talismans, Earth Escape Talismans, Wood Escape Talismans, and the like—along with over two hundred mid-grade offensive and defensive talismans: Flame Serpent, Golden Shield, Wood Armor, Water Curtain, and more. The total number of talismans now stored in his pouch had reached a staggering figure.

Beyond that, using the bowl, he had effortlessly produced several dozen jin of supreme-grade Blood-Vein Silver—material with a terrifying concentration of spiritual energy.

And then, in what could only be described as an act of breathtaking extravagance, he had used this supreme-grade Blood-Vein Silver along with an astonishing number of high-grade spirit stones to attempt forging an exceptional-grade artifact.

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Because the raw materials were superb and he was only forging a single type—bladed artifacts—after wasting more than ten high-grade spirit stones and ten-odd jin of Blood-Vein Silver, he had finally succeeded in forging one exceptional-grade small sword.

The blade was roughly three cun long, gleaming with silver light, though a close inspection revealed the faintest tracework of blood-red veins running throughout its surface.

Andy named it the Fish Intestine Sword.

With this exceptional-grade artifact in hand, Andy was confident that he would be among the dozen or so who made it back alive. For Qi Refinement cultivators, exceptional-grade artifacts were the stuff of legend—impossibly distant treasures. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn't all claim to own one.

One more thing pleased him: he had used the bowl to nurture several low-grade ice-attribute spirit stones, and sure enough, the bowl had enhanced them without difficulty. It seemed the bowl's effect was not limited to the standard Five Element attributes—variant-attribute materials responded just as well. Wind spirit stones and lightning spirit stones could presumably be enhanced too.

If any high-stage cultivator learned how Andy forged his artifacts, they would have jabbed a finger at his nose and called him the most reckless spendthrift in the cultivation world. A single ordinary Five Element high-grade spirit stone was worth over a hundred thousand low-grade stones on the open market. An exceptional-grade artifact typically sold at auction for only one or two thousand spirit stones. In other words, one high-grade spirit stone could easily buy dozens of artifacts on par with the Fish Intestine Sword. Yet Andy had burned through more than ten high-grade stones to produce just this one—and the ten-odd jin of supreme-grade Blood-Vein Silver he had consumed were barely worth mentioning on top of that.

Andy could do the math perfectly well, but since he couldn't openly spend high-grade spirit stones, this grotesquely inefficient method was his only option. It was, he reflected, roughly equivalent to burning hundred-yuan bills for warmth.

With an exceptional-grade artifact, Andy's confidence soared. But he also understood that the moment he used the Fish Intestine Sword, he could leave no witnesses alive. A Qi Refinement disciple in possession of an exceptional-grade artifact that even Foundation Establishment cultivators might not own—if word got out, some jealous Foundation Establishment senior would certainly drag him in for questioning.

Andy pulled his thoughts back to the present and quietly examined the Taixu Vessel beneath his feet.

This was the Taixu Sect's signature possession—a unique exceptional-grade flight artifact. Fully deployed, the vessel stretched several dozen zhang in length, seven or eight zhang in width, and five or six zhang in height. The hull was fashioned entirely from translucent blue-green jade, its surface etched in gold wire with vivid five-clawed dragons. The prow bore a massive golden dragon's head over three zhang tall, while the stern trailed a dragon's tail nearly ten zhang long, sheathed in fist-sized golden scales. The entire vessel was enclosed in a faint green barrier, giving it the appearance of a golden dragon soaring through the sky—an image of dazzling, almost excessive splendor.

The Taixu Vessel was not merely beautiful. Even carrying dozens of cultivators, its speed far exceeded anything a Flying Plume could manage. By Andy's estimate, it covered over a thousand li per shichen—a breathtaking pace.

Andy listened to the wind shrieking past the barrier and marveled silently. Piloting a vessel this massive at such speed must require an enormous amount of spiritual power. Even the three Foundation Establishment cultivators leading the group couldn't possibly sustain it for long.

He soon found his answer. After a day and a night of flight, the vessel's speed began to drop. At that point, the middle-aged woman—the Foundation Establishment cultivator responsible for maintenance—walked to the dragon's head at the prow and tapped one of its horns. The horn shifted slightly, revealing a head-sized cavity. She extracted a nearly depleted mid-grade wood-attribute spirit stone from inside, replaced it with a fresh one from her storage pouch, and slid the horn back into position. Instantly, the vessel surged back to full speed.

Andy understood at once. The Taixu Vessel was a mid-grade spirit tool—it ran on the spiritual energy supplied by mid-grade spirit stones.

From then on, the woman replaced the spirit stone once per day. The consumption was enormous. Clearly, the Taixu Vessel was not something just anyone could afford to operate.

For the Dragon Descent Valley expedition, all seven of the Three Sects and Four Gates would send several dozen disciples each. The Taixu Sect's choice of this extravagant, ruinously expensive vessel as their transport was partly a deliberate show of prestige. As the self-proclaimed foremost sect in Jinyan Kingdom, they could hardly afford to look shabby in the details.

Andy found the posturing mildly contemptible. He spent every day trying to look poor, and here was his own sect flaunting its wealth. The irony was not lost on him.

After seven or eight spirit stone replacements, the group finally arrived at a vast desert in the heart of Liao Prefecture. Below them, several hundred cultivators in a rainbow of different robes were already gathered on the sands, looking up in anticipation.