Vessel of Worlds

Figuring he had already paid the entry fee, Andy decided he might as well have a look around. He stepped into one of the shops that appeared slightly more impressive from the outside.

The interior wasn't particularly spacious, with display cases of various sizes scattered haphazardly about. One glance at their contents, however, and Andy's eyes went wide. Beast hides, horns, bones, and all manner of beast materials were piled across the counters in colorful disarray. Quite a few pulsed with substantial spiritual light, clearly harvested from rank-three or even rank-four beasts—and the vast majority were species Andy had never encountered.

The dazzling array made his fingers itch. He wanted nothing more than to slap down a high-grade spirit stone and buy every last piece, then forge one peak-grade artifact after another. Of course, that suicidal impulse lasted only a heartbeat.

Considering the hefty teleportation fees still ahead, Andy didn't dare spend too freely here. Each piece of beast material was priced between two or three hundred and five or six hundred spirit stones, with some exceeding eight hundred. He left without buying a single item—much to the displeasure of the shop's early-stage Foundation Establishment proprietor, a man in his forties or fifties who muttered "cheapskate" under his breath for quite some time after Andy departed.

He did find a small text shop carrying jade slips on common ocean beasts, priced at forty or fifty spirit stones apiece. Andy picked up two.

Then, following the old shopkeeper's directions, he made his way to a grand stone hall on the far side of Azure Sea Island, not far from the market.

This had to be where the teleportation formation to the deep-sea region was housed.

Andy entered the hall and found it even more cavernous than expected. At its center stood a hexagonal platform of green jade, emanating a faint spiritual glow. Strange runic symbols and six intersecting lines were carved into its surface—a teleportation formation.

Four blue-robed cultivators stood guard beside the formation, all at Foundation Establishment or above. One elderly man radiated spiritual energy far surpassing the others—a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, at minimum.

Andy clasped his fists in greeting. "I'd like to use your sect's teleportation formation to travel to West Star Island. Would that be possible?"

The white-haired elder gave Andy a measured look and said flatly: "You're going to West Star Island to hunt beasts, I take it. A word of advice: at early-stage Foundation Establishment, encountering a beast out there will most likely cost you your life. Better to stay on the mainland and cultivate. Once your strength has grown, there'll be time enough for the deep sea. Even at my level, I'd struggle to survive out there."

"He's right," a lean, dark-skinned middle-aged man chimed in. "I've been at mid-stage Foundation Establishment for years, and I still wouldn't dare hunt beasts in the deep-sea region. Run into a powerful one, and even a Core Formation senior could perish."

"Thank you both for the advice. I only want to see the place for myself—I wouldn't gamble with my life," Andy said with a smile.

"Just sightseeing? Do you know that a single teleportation costs three hundred spirit stones?" the lean man asked, clearly skeptical.

"Three hundred spirit stones? That would... clean me out entirely. I..." Andy hesitated, his expression shifting to one of visible distress.

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Seeing Andy's discomfort, all four Azure Sea Sect cultivators wore thinly veiled looks of mockery.

"Well, I've come this far—I might as well broaden my horizons. I've heard there are plenty of opportunities to earn spirit stones in the deep-sea region!" Andy set his jaw with apparent resolve, as though steeling himself for a momentous decision. He produced three mid-grade spirit stones of different colors and handed them to the white-haired elder.

The elder accepted them without expression, then looked up at Andy. "In addition to the three hundred spirit stones, non-sect cultivators using the formation require a guarantor. Which Foundation Establishment cultivator of our sect is vouching for you?"

"A guarantor too?" Andy was caught off guard—though only for a moment before he grasped the elder's meaning. He fished out a pile of low-grade spirit stones and offered them with an embarrassed smile. "I'm afraid I didn't know a guarantor was required. This is most of what I have left, but would you be willing to act as my guarantor? I'm just a rogue cultivator with no sect affiliations—I won't cause you any trouble."

The elder put on a show of reluctance, appearing to deliberate for a moment before saying: "Very well. I'll make an exception this once—but don't expect it again."

He produced a white talisman paper and handed it to Andy. "This isn't an ordinary short-range teleportation. It covers an enormous distance, and the spatial pressure during transit would be more than most cultivators' bodies can withstand. This Transfer Talisman counteracts the spatial forces. Make sure it's properly attached—it's single-use and will disintegrate afterward."

"Understood. Thank you." Andy took the talisman, stepped onto the jade platform without waiting to be told, and affixed the white talisman to his chest.

The elder nodded to the youngest guard—an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator—who immediately produced six mid-grade spirit stones and set them into the formation's nodes. The formation activated at once, and the jade platform was bathed in white light.

A formation powered by mid-grade spirit stones—no wonder a single teleportation costs three hundred. Six stones probably don't last for very many uses either, Andy reflected.

The elder formed a hand seal and intoned "Transfer." A column of white light surged upward from the formation, and Andy's figure grew faint before vanishing entirely.

"Ha ha! Senior Brother Ge, you're brilliant as always! A few well-chosen words, and the boy hands over dozens of extra spirit stones while thanking you for the privilege!" the mid-stage Foundation Establishment man laughed heartily after Andy was gone.

"Heh heh. A greenhorn like that—low cultivation and dreaming of hunting beasts in the deep sea—is probably going to his death. Letting a mark like that walk away unfleeced would be the real waste!" the elder said with a self-satisfied smile.

White light swirled before Andy's eyes, and for one dizzying instant, his vision blurred, his skull felt ready to split, his limbs went limp, and every organ in his body was crushed under unbearable pressure. Then the white talisman on his chest dissolved into a ring of light that encircled him, and the nauseating agony eased considerably.

Moments later, his vision cleared. He knew he had arrived somewhere, but his mind was still swimming. The Transfer Talisman on his chest burst into flame and crumbled away on its own. He forced a thread of spiritual sense to circulate through his mind and quickly regained his clarity.

He was inside another stone chamber, much smaller than the first, standing on an identical teleportation formation. Two mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators stood nearby, but their clothing didn't look like Azure Sea Sect garb. Beyond that, there was nothing remarkable about the room.

Andy gave both men a brief bow, then walked outside—and found himself on a bustling street lined with dozens of shops and buildings of various sizes on either side. The teleportation formation, it turned out, was situated right in the middle of a thriving marketplace.

A cursory sweep with his spiritual sense revealed dozens of cultivators at Foundation Establishment or above. Several radiated spiritual energy so intense that he couldn't pin down their exact level—they might have been at the absolute peak of late-stage Foundation Establishment, or they might have been Core Formation seniors.

Mixed among them were many people with no spiritual energy whatsoever—clearly mortals. In the Golden Flame Kingdom, mortals were rarely seen in cultivator gathering places, and those who were tended to be relatives of cultivators. Yet here in this bustling market, nearly half the people were mortals. Andy found it quite surprising.