Vessel of Worlds

Andy did another round of purchasing in the Penglai market, adding some auxiliary alchemy materials and two or three Yellow Heaven Thick Earth Talismans.

That talisman—reputedly the strongest defensive talisman of the Foundation Establishment level—sold for three hundred spirit stones apiece, and even Andy didn't dare buy many.

As for pills suited to the Ice-Wind Snake, there were only Spirit-Nurturing Powder and the higher-grade Spirit-Feeding Pill; he bought a large batch of both.

Then there were storage pouches. With the mass beast-hunting he had planned, he was bound to accumulate great quantities of materials, and his current pouch was already stuffed full with dozens of puppets. Clearly it was time to upgrade to larger capacity.

A pity he wasn't a Core Formation cultivator—otherwise he could have used a storage bracelet, a higher class of storage artifact altogether, far more convenient and with astonishing capacity besides. Rumor even spoke of a secret art for bonding a storage bracelet to its master: no one but the owner's own spiritual sense could withdraw anything from it, and forcibly destroying the bracelet destroyed everything inside along with it.

In an artifact shop that could only be described as colossal, Andy spent a thousand-odd spirit stones on two extra-large storage pouches, and the storage problem was solved.

He was about to leave the market for the hall on the summit when a handsome young man dressed as a scholar stopped him.

"Fellow cultivator, forgive this student's presumption—you practice a Daoist technique, do you not? Yet this student observes about you the faint but unmistakable aura of the book and the scroll. Were you to cultivate a Confucian technique, you would surely achieve twice the result for half the effort! This student would be honored to share wine and discuss the Dao with you, that we might learn from one another. Might you consent?" The young man clasped his hands and bowed deeply—the very picture of courtesy.

Andy noted the spiritual light flickering about the man—a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, no less—and dared not be rude. He returned the salute. "I have urgent business at hand. Forgive me for declining your invitation." As for this "aura of the book and the scroll" the man spoke of, Andy hadn't the faintest idea what he meant.

The young man blinked, then chuckled. "As you wish. This student's surname is Shu, given name Jiangnan. Should you find leisure someday, you are welcome at the Wenhan Sect at any time."

"Certainly, certainly!" Andy said with a smile. He had no fondness whatsoever for these vinegar-soaked scholarly types—but before late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, he wasn't about to take liberties either.

Leaving the man behind, he flew for Yuntai Mountain's summit and passed through Hall Five's teleportation formation to Island Five of the Outer Star Sea.

Andy's choice of Island Five came down to a few simple reasons.

First, it was the island he knew best. The surrounding waters—where cultivators clustered and where they thinned out, where islands suitable for landfall were plentiful and where the sea stretched empty without a single rock—all of it he knew at least in outline.

Second, Island Five's beasts suited him best: chiefly rank-fours, with a scattering of rank-threes and rank-fives. The pills refined from their cores—rank-three through rank-five—were precisely what an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator like Andy needed. Island Four had almost no rank-five beasts, while Island Six saw too many rank-sixes—too dangerous. All considered, Island Five it was.

Third, he still nursed a sliver of hope regarding Xi Feng and the others. Choosing to flee alone that day could hardly be called a fault—yet it had been an abandonment all the same, and it left a residue of regret. On Island Five, there was at least some faint chance of crossing paths with them again, or of picking up news.

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The cultivation world was treacherous beyond measure, and hearts impossible to fathom. Since leaving the Jian family, Andy had made no true friend—had not dared to—cultivating always alone and in silence. Though he had kept a hidden wariness toward Xi Feng, Di Er, and the others throughout, those four—even if they saw it plainly—had never once minded, treating him instead with genuine respect. The life-and-death bond among them, deeper than brotherhood, had moved him more than he cared to admit. Over three years together, without quite realizing it, he had come to think of them as something like friends. If any of them still lived, it would gladden him greatly.

On Island Five, Andy bought several jade slips recording current beast conditions and found that beast density seemed not to have increased these past two years. Either the slips' information updated too slowly—or the beast tide's arrival was still some way off.

After a round of discreet inquiries on the island turned up no word of Xi Feng's group, he left Island Five and flew straight north.

That flight lasted half a year.

In the first few days he encountered several cultivators daily. Some even hailed him, moving to intercept—but he ignored them entirely, tilting the Wind-Treader Dragon aside and speeding away. Whether they meant to recruit him for a hunting party or had designs on his life and goods, Andy had no interest in finding out.

After a month's flight, other cultivators grew scarce—one lone cultivator or a single team every ten days or half a month. And these, in turn, showed no interest in Andy at all, wholly absorbed in their search for beasts.

What cultivator who dared fly this deep into the sea lacked secret arts of his own? Andy might look like a mere early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, but anyone bold enough to venture here surely had real ability—and without certainty of victory, why borrow trouble? Besides, that early-stage cultivation might well be a disguise; a high-ranked cultivator could easily mask a portion of his strength before lesser eyes.

After two consecutive months without meeting another soul, Andy finally stopped. By then he had flown for half a year straight.

In all that time—apart from occasional pauses on deserted islands to meditate with spirit stones and restore his power—he had stayed aloft, covering a distance that must have run to hundreds of thousands of kilometers. He had glimpsed a few beasts along the way, but passed them by without a second glance.

His hunting methods were simply too extraordinary—he could not risk any other cultivator catching sight of them. That was precisely why he had flown to so remote a stretch of sea.

Andy selected a tiny island, only several kilometers around, as the first station of his solo hunt.

He first circled the island for several days, confirming no other cultivator was present, then deployed more than ten formation sets of every kind across it, one by one.

At the very center went the Heavenly Fragrance Beguiling Formation obtained from Yun Mengli—it took a full twelve high-grade spirit stones to lay down.

Around it he arranged the Heaven-Covering Twin Poles Formation, the Heavenly Thunder Earth Fire Formation, the Myriad Golden Rays Formation, the Mountain-Splitting Earth-Parting Formation, and several other arrays of formidable offensive and defensive power, sealing the little island tight as a drum. The net of heaven and earth was spread.

Andy himself laid one more concealment formation inside the Heavenly Fragrance Beguiling Formation. Hidden within it, draped in the mysterious semi-translucent cloak, he touched his hand to the control disc and roused the Beguiling Formation's power.

Now he had only to wait for the beasts to walk into the net.

He took out an alchemy text, sank part of his spiritual sense into it, and worked slowly through its contents.

An hour later, he produced a pill furnace about a chi tall, drew on the true essence in his dantian, and breathed out a ribbon of blue flame that wrapped the furnace round. This was Innate True Fire, the province of Foundation Establishment cultivators alone—with it one could refine pills of Foundation Establishment grade and above, as well as artifacts and spirit tools. Being flame born of a cultivator's own true essence, it burned steadier than earth-lung fire and served alchemy and forging better by a clear margin.

But Innate True Fire devoured spiritual power, and refining ran long—so Andy rarely used it.

According to the jade slip Yun Mengli had given him, the Heavenly Fragrance Beguiling Formation would take two or three days to extend its pull across several hundred kilometers. He would use that time to dig into the alchemist's art.

Andy added a dozen-odd spirit herbs and auxiliary ingredients to the furnace in careful sequence. What he was refining now was the most ordinary of Qi Condensation pills—Qi-Gathering Powder. It required only a few spirit herbs aged past ten years and a handful of cheap, common auxiliaries, and its refining method had been perfected long ago—easily bought in any text shop.