The flying boat pierced through clouds, spiritual energy forming a faint light barrier around the hull. Yuyi sat alone at the boat's stern, gazing at the churning sea of clouds below, his heart surging with waves. Youying, Lingxiao, Liuchen and others sat in the boat's center, tacitly maintaining silence, giving Yuyi space to be alone.
Yuyi took a deep breath, his fingers gently stroking the bundle in his arms. This was what Yunzhi had given him at parting, yet now it felt as heavy as a thousand jin. He slowly untied the bundle, and a pale gray dharma robe came into view, embroidered with complex array patterns, faintly glowing with spiritual light. Yuyi's fingers traced over the robe for a long while, feeling the spiritual energy fluctuations contained within the fabric, a warm current rising in his heart.
He unfolded the robe—the exquisite craftsmanship made everyone secretly envious. Yuyi slowly removed his outer robe, carefully putting on the Battle Dharma Robe. The moment the robe touched his body, a warm spiritual energy circulated throughout. Yuyi then took out a long sword from the bundle, drawing it from its sheath. The blade was dark red, the edge flashing with cold light, dragon patterns faintly visible flowing along the blade—this was the Longyuan Sword Bixiao had given.
Yuyi set down the sword and unfolded another robe from the bundle. It was a purple War Soul Dharma Robe, superior spirit beast leather flashing with faint light under fine crafting techniques. Yuyi noticed there was also a Sound Transmission Talisman and a wooden sword made of profound wood inside the bundle.
He picked up the Sound Transmission Talisman, infusing spiritual energy. Yunzhi's gentle voice sounded in his ear: "Yuyi, these dharma artifacts are what I crafted. I hope they can protect you... The path of cultivation is long, take care. The Profound Wood Sword was crafted by an artifact crafter I commissioned. Remember you once said, one day you wanted to become an expert who could face enemies even holding a wooden sword. I hope you can achieve your wish."
Yuyi listened to Yunzhi's voice, his eyes slightly reddening. He tucked the Sound Transmission Talisman close to his body, silent for a long while, then suddenly removed the Battle Dharma Robe he was wearing, putting it back into the bundle together with the War Soul Dharma Robe, Longyuan Sword, and Profound Wood Sword.
Everyone was puzzled by Yuyi's actions. Youying held back for a long while before finally asking: "Yuyi, why don't you wear them?"
Yuyi said seriously: "My cultivation is currently low, I can't even protect myself. These precious dharma artifacts, I temporarily have no ability to guard. I've decided to store them in the Spirit Stone Pavilion after reaching Zhongzhou City. When one day I have the ability and qualification to wear them, I'll take them out. Otherwise, if my insufficient ability leads to losing these treasures, I could never forgive myself!"
Yuyi's eyes showed a slightly dazed look, then after a moment he suddenly smiled: "I definitely won't let down Yunzhi's intentions! In the future, I'll trouble everyone!"
Youying couldn't help feeling relieved. Lingxiao and Liuchen also breathed sighs of relief—they both knew Yuyi had successfully composed himself. The night deepened as everyone gradually closed their eyes to meditate. Yuyi gazed at the starry sky outside the window, murmuring: "Yunzhi, thank you. Only I know that giving me these two robes means you'll have to continuously craft low-level robes for nearly a month before having working capital to manage your Robe Workshop..."
In the night sky, a full moon hung high. The flying boat traced a streak of light through the night, heading toward Zhongzhou City.
The flying boat soon arrived at Zhongzhou City. The city walls towered into the clouds, spiritual energy dense within. Various sects' branch halls stood throughout. Yuyi made time to visit the sect manager couple, giving some spirit tea and spirit medicine as gifts before taking his leave. Today he would follow Youying's group to participate in a sect mission—this was Yuyi's first mission since stepping onto the immortal path, so he couldn't help feeling some anticipation.
Yuyi followed everyone to the sect mission hall. The hall was crowded with people, walls covered with densely packed mission bounty boards. Yuyi carefully compared options before the bounty board, then took down a mission worth a thousand spirit stones.
The mission target was to exterminate a demonic cultivator gang that had recently risen within Netherworld Pass. The gang was composed of several martial artists recruiting dozens of demonic cultivators. Within a month they had committed nine crimes, robbing tens of thousands of spirit stones, killing over two hundred cultivators, including over sixty female cultivators whose whereabouts remained unknown. Youying simply narrated the mission target to everyone: "This mission will probably be quite difficult. Everyone be careful—let's set out."
One by one, the group boarded the flying boat, heading toward Netherworld Pass.
Netherworld Pass was located at the Nine Provinces' edge. A massive city wall connected two cliff faces, surrounded by raging wind and sand—no green grass or trees visible anywhere. Array runes on the city wall flickered in the wind, guarding this barrier of the Nine Provinces. The group gave some spirit stones to the guards at the pass, learning the approximate location of the demonic cultivator gang, then walked toward their destination.
When everyone was near the target area, they stored their weapons in storage bags to avoid alerting the enemy. After proper disguise, they continued forward like merchant cultivators, chatting and laughing.
Before long, dust rose from the road ahead and behind. Moments later, three flying horses led dozens of demonic cultivators from front and back, surrounding Youying's group. The demonic cultivators radiated cold, sinister qi, their eyes flashing with greed.
"This road was opened by me, this sand was scattered by me. If you want to pass, leave your toll." The burly leader held two giant hammers, his voice like a bell reciting this ancient opening line.
Youying gave a signal to the others, her right hand channeling power into the storage bag containing everyone's weapons. The bag was shaken open by spiritual energy, the weapons inside flying to each person as if they had eyes, while she shouted: "We're looking for exactly you demonic cultivators!"
Everyone caught their weapons simultaneously, drawing swords and charging into the demonic cultivator gang. The burly leader was slightly surprised, then blocked Youying's fast sword with one hammer, laughing: "People wanting our heads come batch after batch, but all become fat sheep delivered to our door. You three little girls look tasty enough—here specially to be our stronghold wives, I suppose? Hahaha..."
After the big man spoke, another mounted man took a long spear from his horse, slapped its flank, and using the horse's charging momentum, thrust his spear. Tianyazi saw the attacker was dangerous and quickly dodged, his sword simultaneously stabbing two demonic cultivators.
At this moment, the well-trained demonic cultivators attacked in coordinated fashion. Just after dodging one row of spears, another row thrust forward. Yet they didn't dare use lightness techniques to jump high, otherwise they couldn't be confident in blocking all the archers' attacks from the periphery. When forced, they could only roll on the ground full of yellow earth and fine sand to dodge. Before long, the group's defensive circle was compressed very small.
"Everyone, looks like this battle's outcome is hard to predict, more difficult than imagined!" Youying dodged the spiritual energy from the dual-hammer wielder, shouting somewhat apologetically.
In the chaos, someone said: "How can you say such things? We live and die together—this little matter can't defeat us!"
Two mounted spear-wielding demonic cultivators' repeated charging attacks made everyone suffer. Seeing their side growing increasingly chaotic, morale dropping, Lingxiao shouted: "Yuyi, give us a plan!"
"Capture the king, break the formation, wound ourselves to intercept the enemy!" Yuyi seemed to state his thoughts without hesitation, his answer extremely concise, but everyone understood immediately.
Everyone divided tasks with great tacit understanding. Youying, Tianyazi, and Jianzi each used their power to chop at the legs of charging horses. Youying and Tianyazi both succeeded, two demonic cultivators falling from their horses unexpectedly. The two didn't hesitate, raising swords to stab.
Jianzi, his cultivation lower than the other two, was slightly slower. His sword swung, but the opponent controlled the horse to leap and avoid the sword qi, while the long spear stabbed viciously at Jianzi's back. Jianzi rolled on the ground to avoid this fatal strike.
The spear-wielding demonic cultivator's horsemanship was excellent. The horse landed, ran a few steps, then reared with a long neigh, changing direction. Jianzi had just stood firm when the cultivator thrust his spear again. Jianzi couldn't completely dodge—the spear pierced through his shoulder, throwing him into the demonic cultivator army.
In mid-air, Jianzi saw demonic cultivators below raising their spears, waiting to pierce him like a honeycomb. He endured the severe shoulder pain, shouting, flipping in the air, feet downward, using the force of spears below to kick sideways and flip backward. Just as he was about to return to his side's defensive circle, several stray arrows attacked. Jianzi swung his sword to block two arrows, letting another pierce his thigh, simultaneously falling at the defensive circle formed by Lingxiao and others. Liuchen hurriedly pulled Jianzi into the defensive circle, simply applying some hemostatic medicine.
Yuyi secretly admired—Youying's group's psychological quality was all very good. Since Jianzi encountered danger, no one had panicked or lost composure due to worry. Each held their position without any disorder.
Youying and Tianyazi respectively chopped the legs of the two demonic cultivators' horses, their rapid attacks inflicting serious injuries. Their swords pressed the advantage, ruthlessly attacking in succession. Before long, they had subdued both, sealing their acupoints and throwing them into their defensive circle. Youying simultaneously turned to pounce on the cultivator who had wounded Jianzi.
As soon as Youying pounced, her sword raised a sword qi, swiftly swinging toward the horse's neck. The demonic cultivator urgently controlled the horse trying to leap high, but Youying's movement changed—her sword thrust instead of swung, immediately piercing through the horse that had half-jumped. The horse fell to the ground, neighing in pain for a while before going still.
The demonic cultivator on the horse fell heavily and unexpectedly. Tianyazi shouted, throwing his long sword toward Youying. Youying turned without looking, catching the sword, simultaneously quickly pointing it at the demonic cultivator who was just trying to rise, shouting: "You three, immediately order the demonic cultivators to stop, or die immediately!"
Seeing the situation was bad, the lead demonic cultivator shouted: "Retreat!" Leading the remaining demonic cultivators, he quickly withdrew. Youying didn't pursue but turned to check Jianzi's injuries. Jianzi's face was pale, but his expression remained firm.
Yuyi walked to Jianzi's side, saying softly: "You worked hard." Jianzi managed a smile: "Getting injured in my first real battle, so embarrassing." Yuyi shook his head: "Coming back alive is victory."
Youying handed the three subdued demonic cultivator leaders to the sect elders, receiving the mission reward. A thousand spirit stones' mission reward was no small harvest for Yuyi. Everyone cleaned the battlefield, taking Jianzi aboard the flying boat, returning to Zhongzhou City.
On the flying boat, Yuyi gazed at the churning sea of clouds outside the window, thinking: This is just the first step. The path of cultivation is still long. The dharma artifacts Yunzhi gave lay quietly in the bundle, waiting for the day he could truly have the qualification to wear them. Night wind blew in from the window, carrying a chill. Yuyi tightened his clothes, his gaze firm as he looked into the distance.