"That monk is a real expert!"
Quinn grunted, his body suddenly shuddering and shifting into the Fire Star Lord form: bull head, human torso, hooves stepping on twin fire dragons. He ran the Overlord Three‑Core Art according to the Fire Luminary True Fire method, his cultivation surging as he braced himself against the crushing pressure from above.
A third bull eye opened at his brow, firing a blazing beam upward. There was a muffled boom above—the golden Buddha's sun-halo was pierced and shattered by the fire, the Buddha vanished, and revealed a young monk in its place.
The pressure on Quinn eased dramatically; flames roared around him, flowing across the ship like water and melting the ice from its hull.
The treasure-ship shot forward, diving into the clouds. In midair, the burly young monk stood on one leg, gripping a nine-ring staff, while his other foot dripped blood as he scanned the surroundings.
Moments ago, he had unleashed the Invincible Vajra Overcoming Art to clash head-on with Quinn's Drill Sword Form. The leg that blocked Quinn's sword strike was now mangled and bloody—the Invincible Vajra Overcoming Art hadn't fully withstood the Drill Sword Form.
Quinn’s Fire Star Lord form broke through the monk’s Invincible Vajra Overcoming Art, shattering his Buddha manifestation and forcing him to withdraw.
"There!"
Suddenly, the burly monk’s eyes lit up. He burst into a sprint, bounding across the cloud tops. With each step, a white lotus bloomed beneath his feet, supporting him and letting him unleash even greater speed.
Within the cloud sea, the treasure-ship flickered in and out of view. Quinn glanced back to see the monk rapidly closing in, his speed anything but slow.
All those hunting him were experts—Drake Dandy and the woman surnamed Qiu were both Seven Stars–level divine ability users, and that scholar and the young monk were no less formidable.
The scholar had his Sword Pill split open by Quinn’s Grand Guardian’s Sword. Even without his spirit weapon, he caught the blade’s attack barehanded. Though his clothes were shredded, he was completely unharmed.
The Grand Guardian’s Sword was once the personal blade of a top imperial official. Quinn couldn’t unleash its full power, but its edge was peerlessly sharp. The fact that the scholar could defend himself spoke volumes about his strength.
The burly monk was also absurdly strong—he took Quinn’s Drill Sword Form head-on and only injured his leg. Clearly, his body was tempered to a ridiculous degree.
If Quinn hadn’t realized that the sun-halo behind the monk’s head was the weak point of his Invincible Vajra Overcoming Art, the treasure-ship would probably have been crushed out of the sky!
Even if these two weren’t Seven Stars–level experts, they were at least at the peak of Six Directions realm.
Though the monk’s leg was injured, his speed was astonishing—he was on the verge of overtaking the treasure-ship.
"Lina, faster!"
At Quinn’s command, Lina the Spirit Fox increased the ship’s speed, gradually pulling away from the monk. Seeing the gap widen, the burly monk stopped chasing and exclaimed, "What a fast ship!"
Quinn saw this and felt a grim weight in his heart. The monk and scholar had chased him with full strength, which meant they were confident he couldn’t escape their encirclement.
In other words, there were more experts lying in wait ahead on the road!
After a short while, the treasure-ship began to slow again. Their medicine stones were running low, and burning them at full furnace power would waste the last reserves—there wasn’t enough fuel to reach the Great Ruins.
"As long as we break out of the cloud sea, we’ll be inside the Great Ruins. From there, the village is only a little over a thousand li away."
Quinn dropped his Fire Star Lord form and walked to the bow, peering ahead. The cloud sea still stretched on without end.
The treasure-ship was still moving fast, and the biting cold was bearable. Just then, he saw something strange over the brilliantly lit cloud sea: more than ten li ahead, multicolored light spun and radiated in all directions.
As the treasure-ship drew closer, Quinn saw the light came from towering ice pillars—each like a gigantic ice sword. Sunlight struck them, scattering rainbows across the cloud sea.
Each ice sword was so massive that it would take over a dozen people linking arms to encircle one.
If someone wielded these as swords, the wielder would have to be a giant of unimaginable size.
The ice swords seemed to grow straight out of the cloud sea, but what was odd was that they hung there, spinning upright and refracting sunlight into every color. Clearly, this was no natural phenomenon.
Quinn’s expression shifted. He immediately spun the rudder hard to starboard, tilting the ironclad tower-ship until the deck was nearly vertical to the cloud sea, carving a screaming arc past the ice pillar forest.
"Lina, full furnace power!"
Quinn’s order echoed through the ship. Lina the Spirit Fox grumbled from below deck, "Young master, you always want full power. If this keeps up, we really won’t make it back to the Great Ruins. We’re nearly out of medicine stones…"
Quinn ignored her, spun the rudder, and leveled the treasure-ship. Glancing left, he saw the gigantic ice swords suddenly move—like a many-armed giant drawing blades, each sword slicing through the air with a thunderous boom, hacking straight for the ship!
The treasure-ship shot ahead. Quinn steered desperately, dodging the swinging ice swords by a hair’s breadth. Glancing back, he saw a beautiful but icy young woman in a blue skirt walking among the towering blades.
Her yuanqi was water-blue, manifesting as more than a dozen extra arms. Each swung and thrust in sword forms, and the colossal ice swords mirrored her every move!
"At least she can’t catch up to me…"
Quinn had barely thought this when the blue-skirted woman suddenly accelerated, racing across the cloud tops.
She dashed forward, casually waving her arms. Quinn was startled—then, a deafening crack sounded from below, and the treasure-ship lurched and tumbled through the air, nearly throwing him off!
Clinging desperately to the rudder, Quinn waited for the ship to steady. Looking out, he saw new ice swords sprouting from the cloud sea, piercing up through the mist. The ship had crashed into one—shattering it, but also taking heavy damage in the process.
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"This woman’s strength is extremely high—she’s even stronger than that monk from before, and much faster!"
Quinn maneuvered the treasure-ship to dodge the ice swords, but more and more swords kept sprouting from the cloud sea, making it harder and harder to evade.
Quinn shouted angrily, "Nethervault Demon King, where are you?"
"Why are you calling me?" The Nethervault Demon King strolled out of the cabin lazily, looking as if nothing could make him exert himself.
Quinn’s temper flared at the sight, and he barked, "Still want to kneel and lick my toes? If you don’t want to, then get over here and help!"
"You think I’m afraid of you?"
The Nethervault Demon King sneered, but still walked over. "I am, after all, the ruler of Nethervault. If you want me to save your life, you’d better say please."
A vein popped on Quinn’s forehead. "Please!"
The demon king smirked. "Even you have a day when you bow your head to me…"
Seeing Quinn about to explode, he quickly dropped the act and began chanting in resonant demonic language. As the chanting grew louder and faster, the eight-armed, four-faced demon king raised his arms, and a black mirror appeared above the tower-ship.
A thick beam of black light shot down from the mirror with a buzz, striking the cloud sea. The clouds turned as if ink had been poured into water, rolling out black fog that spread for over ten li, engulfing the blue-skirted woman chasing behind.
Within the black fog, the woman groaned, her heart thrown into chaos. All kinds of stray thoughts surged up from deep inside—even her crystal-clear Dao-heart couldn’t withstand it and was polluted by the fog.
Her Heaven-Severing Sword Formula was always about suppressing desires and stray thoughts to make her Dao-heart as flawless as her sword-heart. But now her sword-heart was stained black as ink, and her inner demons raged, flooding her with desire.
"What a pity. If I had enough time, half a day would be enough to turn this iceberg-like woman into someone licking my toes," sighed the Nethervault Demon King.
From within the demonic fog, Buddha-sound echoed—the burly monk had arrived, immediately swinging his nine-ring staff. The golden rings blazed, cutting through and dispersing the demonic fog.
The monk had just dispersed the fog when a fiery body threw itself into his arms, nearly shattering his Buddha-heart. It was the cold, icy woman from Leaving-Love Palace, now half-undressed and nearly naked.
He quickly pushed her away, shouting, "Senior Sister Jade, you’ve been struck by demonic arts! Snap out of it!"
The blue-skirted woman, Yu’e Jade, was jolted awake by his Buddha-sound, her inner demons scattered. She blushed, hurriedly covered herself, and said, "Shameful. I was bewitched by demonic arts and let them escape."
"Cult Master Quinn Shepherd is a master of demonic arts, best at corrupting hearts and ruining Dao cultivation!"
The young monk shook his staff, the golden rings clanging as he helped suppress her inner demons. "But with me here, he won’t be able to cause too much trouble!"
Yu’e Jade shook her head. "His ship is too fast—once he escapes, there’s no catching up."
"Don’t worry, Senior Sister Jade. He can’t get away."
Behind them, the young scholar caught up. "Bluefeather of Principle-Seeking School, disciple of Master Qiong. Greetings to Senior Brother Halfcrazy and Senior Sister Jade. We’re not the only ones hunting the Cult Master—almost every jianghu faction is mobilized, laying a continent-wide skynet. He can’t escape."
Halfcrazy Monk was about to speak when a tide of insects surged in, flying this way. Amid the swarm, a giant red serpent rode on demon qi, moving at incredible speed and quickly arriving.
"That’s Senior Sister Qiu Yue of Three Marvels Fortress and Drake Dandy, heir of the Dragon Tamer Sect."
Bluefeather glanced around. "Drake Dandy’s temperament is strange and vicious. He likes handsome men—he chased me for half a day once. Let’s not run into him."
Just then, countless sword-lights flashed in the distant clouds, dazzlingly bright. Halfcrazy Monk’s eyes lit up. "Which sword sect master is blocking the Cult Master? Let’s hurry!"
The group rushed after him, seeing a figure leap like an ape across the cloud tops, chasing the treasure-ship.
"That’s a master from the Ape Duke Sword Sect—the young swordsman Victor Yuan!"
Bluefeather recognized him and called out, "Senior Brother Yuan, the Cult Master can’t escape—let’s join forces to capture him!"
Victor Yuan stopped and waited for them to catch up. "The Cult Master has a precious sword. He destroyed my Sword Pill. His ship is strange—not made of wood, but iron. I stabbed it hundreds or thousands of times and still couldn’t break it."
"It’s forged from black iron."
Yu’e Jade said, "The ship crashed into a Leaving-Hate Ice Sword and didn’t break—instead, it shattered the ice sword."
"An ironclad ship flying in the sky?"
Everyone stared at each other—how could something so heavy fly?
Bluefeather glanced back, his expression shifting. "Drake Dandy is coming—let’s go!"