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The Sea King’s guess had been dead on. From the very beginning, Lu Yin had expected Frostwave Weave to be in the worst-case scenario. He was not arrogant enough to believe that he alone could save Frostwave Weave. The Sea King’s reputation was his trump card, and if things really took a turn for the worst, then he would hand the entire Great Yu Empire over to the Sea King. He was certain that nobody would want to go up against the Sea King just for a tiny Great Yu Empire.
However, that would also mean that he’d have nothing left. Then again, that would be better than having the empire be divided up between the other organizations.
With no news about Feng Mo and the Bo Duo, Big Pao and Little Pao still had no choice but to remain at the Sea King’s Dome. Given Lu Yin’s current status, Feng Mo and the others wouldn’t dare to attack him. Even if they did, he had plenty of ways of getting away. Thus, Lu Yin was not worried at all. Hai Qiqi, on the other hand… The Sea King’s confident tone had not left Lu Yin with much of a choice.
The next day, at the port, Hai Qiqi arrived even earlier than Lu Yin. She stood aboard a huge ship, looking incredibly excited as she stared towards the Starfall Sea’s entrance with sparkling eyes.
She only noticed Lu Yin after he walked up behind her, causing her to roll her eyes. “You didn’t make any sound.”
“How does nobody recognize you? Aren’t you the Sea King’s daughter?” Lu Yin was very curious about this. Hai Qiqi was standing at the ship’s bow. Logically speaking, there should be a lot of people staring at her, but the area below them was completely empty.
Hai Qiqi’s gaze dimmed, and she haughtily replied, “Precisely. I’m the Sea King’s daughter. Not just anyone can meet me.”
Lu Yin thought nothing of her statement.
At this point, a voice rang out from behind the two of them. “The spacecraft is ready, Princess Qiqi.”
The voice was unexpected and startled Lu Yin, because that person had spoken from right next to him.
He unconsciously shifted a few steps away and looked over to see an old man who had suspiciously appeared out of nowhere.
The old man looked at Lu Yin and gave him a kind smile.
“Okay. Got it,” Hai Qiqi answered before excitedly running into the ship.
The old man watched on as she left before turning to look at Lu Yin. He smiled again. “Take care of Qiqi, kid. While the words she speaks aren’t very nice, she’s very innocent and kind.”
Lu Yin nodded.
The old man kept smiling. “I saw your fight. Not bad at all! Keep working hard, and hopefully someday, we’ll be able to go against the current.”
After saying that, the old man left.
Lu Yin watched the old man’s figure move away, not understanding what he had just said. At that moment, Hai Qiqi yelled out, “Hey, what are you two doing? Let’s go!”
The spacecraft that the Sea King had provided them was a very unique one. The manufacturer was Aurora Enterprises. It was a collapsible small spacecraft that could carry three people, but when not in use, the vessel could be collapsed into a form small enough to be stored in a cosmic ring.
The moment he saw the spacecraft, Lu Yin told himself that he was definitely getting himself one later. He’d already lost quite a number of spacecraft and had even left an Aurora back on Deep Crimson Planet.
However, the cost of a collapsible spacecraft was, in Hai Qiqi’s words, “something Lu Yin would never be able to afford.” However, Lu Yin did not agree with her opinion at all. Over the course of his entire cultivation journey, he’d spent nearly twenty thousand star essence. This was just a spacecraft, and an ordinary radiant-grade spacecraft only cost ten star essence.
However, when Hai Qiqi told Lu Yin the price, he realized that he might have been a bit too arrogant. It was indeed a fact that he couldn’t afford such a spacecraft. This collapsible, radiant-grade Aurora carried a preposterous price of twenty thousand star essence.
“Why is this thing so expensive?” Lu Yin asked in shock.
Hai Qiqi rolled her eyes at him. “Calling you ignorant would be a compliment at this point. Have you ever heard of a collapsible spacecraft being sold? This is cutting-edge technique. The features of a collapsible spacecraft isn’t just limited to its ability to be stored—it also has to meet certain standards in terms of speed, defenses, completeness, and so on. That alone is incredibly valuable. Besides, do you really think that twenty thousand is too much for a radiant-grade spacecraft that you can take out at any moment and use to flee?”
Lu Yin was speechless; that wasn’t considered expensive? It was way too expensive! It suddenly made sense why he’d never heard of anyone using such a thing before. Even the rich young masters from large organizations whom he knew couldn’t afford such an expense, and only those who were comparable to Hai Qiqi could disregard such a cost. However, what she had said also made sense. If Lu Yin had possessed such a spacecraft back then, then he wouldn’t have been stuck and could have fled at any moment. It very well could have saved his life.
Even then, such a spacecraft wasn’t worth such a price, and it was mostly this expensive because it was rare. What was being sold was not just the product, but also a status that most people could only aspire towards.
“I’ll tell you one more thing. There aren’t a lot of spacecraft like this one in the Outerverse. Every year, Aurora Enterprises builds a limited number of such products. Just having money doesn’t qualify you to buy one,” Hai Qiqi stated arrogantly.
“Are you saying that even the Mavis family can’t buy one?” Lu Yin joked.
Hai Qiqi’s expression changed. “What’s this got to do with the Mavis family?”
“Their name is synonymous with money.”
“Don’t get confused. I never said anything about the Mavis family—I’m talking about you. Someone like you wouldn’t be able to buy one even if you had the money for it.”
“How would you know if I have the means to buy one? We’ll be splitting all of our individual assets properly before we get married.”
Hai Qiqi gritted her teeth. “Pfft, I don’t care about the tiny bit of money that you might have, you poor fool. Wait—who said I’m going to marry you?”
Lu Yin pretended to sigh. “That’s great. I’m actually very rich, and I’ll be even richer in the future.”
Hai Qiqi snorted and promptly ignored him.
The radiant grade Aurora was very fast, but even so, it would still take it more than two months to travel from the Sea King’s Dome to the Outerverse’s Frostwave Weave. The Starfall Sea was located at the westernmost part of the Innerverse, quite close to Endless Weave, while Frostwave Weave was located in the eastern quadrant of the Outervese and was close to the Astral Beast Domain. In terms of the Human Domain, one was in the southwest while the other was in the northeast. The two were just too far apart. If they had to change routes halfway through their journey, then they might not be able to arrive even after three or four months.
However, they had pretty good luck and did not run into any trouble along the way, nor were they washed away by the waves. The things that they had been worried about, such as Feng Mo and Undying Yushan’s enemies trying to take revenge, did not occur, though that was possibly because of the Sea King’s emblem on the side of the spacecraft.
This was basically a game of intimidation. Lu Yin believed that in Spirit Seal, Daynight, and Chaos Flowzones, nobody would dare attack a spacecraft that belonged to the Sea King. These three flowzones were close to the Starfall Sea, and the people there would naturally recognize the Sea King’s emblem. Outside of the Innerverse, though, the situation would be different.
Lu Yin and Hai Qiqi did not make any stops anywhere, and they quickly passed through the entrance of Starfall Sea and Chaos Flowzone before reaching the Astral River. After crossing it, they would be in the Outerverse. Then, they would need to pass through dozens of more weaves to finally reach Frostwave Weave. Just the thought of it made it apparent to Lu Yin how far away his destination was.
Lu Yin sometimes wondered how powerful Mister Mu was. The man had been able to instantly move Lu Yin from Tempest Flowzone to Zhengyang Flowzone, and such a distance was comparable to the distance between the Astral River and Frostwave Weave. Such a thing was simply terrifying, because this distance covered half of the entire Human Domain.
The moment they left the Starfall Sea, Hai Qiqi’s excitement reached a peak. She had never left the Starfall Sea before, and she nearly scared the Ghost Monkey out of Lu Yin’s arm when she screamed in exhilaration. This prompted the monkey to let loose a string of curses for the next ten minutes, but unfortunately, only Lu Yin could hear his ranting.
As they travelled further into the darkness of space, Hai Qiqi’s excitement began to fade away. “Hey, look! That planet’s so colorful! It looks interesting. Can we go and take a look?”
“No. We’re in a hurry.”
“Hey, look! There’s a monster over there!”
Lu Yin was startled and took a look—it was an Explorer level astral beast. Astral beasts did not only live in the Beast Astral Domain, and there were many of them in the Human Domain as well, though they were usually culled by the nearby organizations. They were rarely ever dangerous to humans, and so, such creatures could be spotted every once in a while.
That Explorer beast merely glanced at the spacecraft before flying away.
“Chase it down! I want it to be my mount!” Hai Qiqi was exhilarated.
“No. We’re in a hurry.”
“Hey look, there’s a fleet over there. It looks so big. Let’s go and say hi!”
“No. We’re in a hurry.”
…
Hai Qiqi finally exploded and glared venomously at Lu Yin. “What’s up with you? I’m the daughter of the Sea King! You should be listening to me!”
Lu Yin rolled his eyes. “Didn’t the Sea King tell you that you needed to listen to me before we left?”
“No,” she answered, still furious.
Lu Yin could only explain, “There’s a war in my hometown, so there’s no time to waste.”
“Then let’s part ways,” Hai Qiqi answered.
The suggestion sounded pretty strange, and Lu Yin frowned. “No, you need to come with me, or else I’ll send you back to your father’s place.”
Hai Qiqi grew frustrated and even started grinding her teeth, looking like she was about to bite Lu Yin.
Lu Yin eyed her warily, “Don’t bite me. You’ll break your teeth.”
“Duh, of course that’ll break my teeth! You might be ugly, but you’re clearly very thick-skinned. There’s no way I’ll be able to bite through that!” Hai Qiqi retorted viciously before turning away to look at the viewing port and ignore Lu Yin.
Lu Yin heaved a heavy sigh of relief. Everything would be fine so long as she didn’t create a fuss. He really was in a hurry to return to Frostwave Weave and if it were anyone else trying to delay his return, he’d have rendered them unconscious long ago. However, he couldn’t do such a thing to Hai Qiqi.
The Astral River had a scenery that was completely different from what one could see in the Starfall Sea. While it was called a river, it was far larger and expansive than the Starfall Sea. One of the most unique characteristics of the Starfall Sea was that it truly was a sea with water, whereas the Astral River was formed from all kinds of liquefied energies.
In the past, Lu Yin had assumed that there was only one Astral River Ark in existence, but it turned out that there were actually three. They were located to the east, west, and center of the barrier that separated the Innerverse and the Outerverse. This actually made a lot of sense; otherwise, it would be nearly impossible for anyone from the Outerverse to enter the Innerverse.
Hai Qiqi sighed in praise as she gazed upon the Astral River. She’d only seen it on the network before, so this was her first time seeing it in person.
“Hey, I want to go fishing,” Hai Qiqi suddenly stated, staring up at Lu Yin in anticipation as she blinked innocently.
Lu Yin pursed his lips. “No.”
Hai Qiqi blustered, “How dare you! It’s going to take some time for the ark to reach the other side. You’re not to poke your nose into my business during this time, or else I’ll get mad!”
Lu Yin nodded. “Okay.”
Hai Qiqi froze and tried her luck again. “Really? You can’t meddle in my affairs.”
Lu Yin seriously answered, “Okay.”
Hai Qiqi was in disbelief.
Lu Yin used the status he enjoyed with his Honor Points to quickly board the Astral River Ark, not bothering to join the line as he had in the past. They could board early with special treatment, though the emblem of the Sea King on the hull of their spacecraft startled even the Astral River Envoy.
Their spacecraft was quickly allowed onto the track where it rested in line like the other spacecraft. Just as Lu Yin was wondering why they hadn’t been placed on a private, VIP track, somebody appeared outside of their spacecraft. It was a Cruiser.
The Cruiser was there to ask Lu Yin whether or not they wished to switch to a VIP track. This passage was isolated from the rest of the spacecraft and still offered all the necessary facilities inside of it. There was everything they could need as well as servants to wait on them.
Lu Yin decided against it, but he still made sure to inform the Cruiser that Hai Qiqi was an important person from the Sea King’s Dome.