Resolution

He shouted desperately, “What are you still fighting for? Get out of here!

While there is life, there is hope!

A bad life is better than a good death!”

The flying boat suddenly accelerated, carving a wide arc through the air.

It swung the black-faced male cultivator right into the path where the boat would have originally been.

At that exact moment, three waves of water arrows coalesced simultaneously.

They appeared at the flying boat's original position, at the black-faced male cultivator's current position, and at the position where the flying boat would have been if it had flown vertically upward.

The black-faced male cultivator was riddled with arrows, failing to escape the same fate of being shot into shredded meat.

However, thanks to its unpredictable maneuvers, the flying boat narrowly escaped disaster.

With the last of the pursuers eliminated, Gu Ningyun did not linger at low altitude for even a second.

The flying boat seemed to lose control, constantly changing direction as it wove through the rain and water arrows, but every movement pushed it higher and higher.

The water arrows followed closely behind, exploding right at the tail of the flying boat several times.

But not once did they actually land a hit.

The sea level suddenly dropped dozens of meters as a towering wave surged toward the boat.

The flying boat executed a series of square, arc, and serpentine maneuvers, skimming the edge of the wave as it flew five hundred meters up, finally returning to a distance outside the two-faced whale's reach.

Only after reaching seven hundred meters did Gu Ningyun slow down slightly. She pulled out a mysterious-rank low-grade defense array plate from her storage ring.

Mu Chenze grabbed it immediately, placing spirit stones into the slots and installing the array plate at the center of the flying boat.

With a flick of her finger, Gu Ningyun set the array's concealment function to its maximum. Only a Golden Core stage cultivator would be able to see through the boat's position now.

At this moment, the only Golden Core stage cultivators present were the captain, the first mate—whose status in the shipwreck was unknown—and the rank three late stage two-faced whale, which was as powerful as a late Golden Core human cultivator.

The two-faced whale could not attack from this high up.

As for the captain and first mate, they were from Four Symbols Shipping, so the chances of them attempting a robbery were slim.

Even if they did want to rob them, a few little Qi Refining disciples wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway. Defense would be useless, so Gu Ningyun and the others didn't bother worrying about it.

With the array's concealment active, Gu Ningyun maneuvered the flying boat through a few more position changes before finally coming to a halt at an altitude of six hundred and seventy-two meters.

She had calculated this height carefully. There were other cultivators higher up to attract lightning, and the captain was below them as a shield. Even if the two-faced whale exerted itself, it wouldn't be able to reach them. It was currently one of the safest altitudes possible.

After bringing the boat to a halt and letting it hover on its own, Gu Ningyun finally stopped her control and collapsed onto the deck.

She clutched her head, her sea of consciousness throbbing with waves of pain.

Although a mysterious-rank top-grade flying boat could use spirit stones instead of spirit energy, the difficulty of controlling it was no less taxing on one's divine sense than any other mysterious-rank magic tool.

The effort of maneuvering the boat at full capacity just now had nearly emptied her sea of consciousness.

If she hadn't experienced an epiphany before, which made her primordial spirit and sea of consciousness more refined than a typical Qi Refining cultivator, her mind would have certainly sustained permanent damage from such forced operation.

At the very least, she wouldn't have lasted this long and would have succumbed to unconsciousness.

While she had exhausted her divine sense, Wen Xuan and the other three had exhausted their spirit energy.

To neutralize the attacks from the toxic Old Woman and the Cane Old Man—or at least mitigate the damage to the boat—the four of them had used every trick up their sleeves.

They had exerted themselves to the limit, even consuming over forty Spirit-Replenishing Pills between them.

If they hadn't previously tempered their bodies with heavenly tribulation, their meridians would have snapped under the strain of being suddenly drained and then violently refilled with energy.

Currently, the spirit energy in their dantians was depleted, and their meridians throbbed with pain—a clear sign of overexertion.

In this state, they could no longer take pills like the Spirit-Replenishing Pill that provided rapid replenishment.

Each of them took a gentle Return-to-Spring Pill and lay on the boat, silently waiting for their meridians to recover.

Before settling down, Jiang Yao suddenly crawled up and produced a black, finger-wide wooden piece.

Patterns were carved into the wood, though the material itself was unrecognizable.

He gently lifted Gu Ningyun's hand, placed the wooden piece against her forehead, and then pressed her hand back down to hold it in place.

The moment the wood touched her skin, Gu Ningyun felt a soothing sensation radiate from it.

This calming energy entered her primordial spirit and flowed through her sea of consciousness.

Her primordial spirit relaxed, and the recovery speed of her divine sense instantly quickened.

Soul-nourishing wood!

This must be a magic tool Jiang Yao had crafted from soul-nourishing wood to soothe the primordial spirit and accelerate the recovery of divine sense.

Thinking of the Golden Core captain not far away, Gu Ningyun closed her fingers, hiding the small wooden piece more securely.

After about fifteen minutes, the four of them finally sat up.

Gu Ningyun's sea of consciousness no longer hurt, and her divine sense had recovered significantly.

She gave a lazy wave of her hand, indicating that the four of them should meditate to recover their spirit energy while she stood guard.

Seeing Gu Ningyun's lethargic state—clearly the result of mental overexertion and a total lack of desire to think or speak—Wen Xuan couldn't help but chuckle.

She gave Gu Ningyun's hand a reassuring squeeze before crossing her legs to recover her spirit energy.

Once the four had recovered their spirit energy and Gu Ningyun had sat up to return the wooden piece to Jiang Yao, Jiang Yao pushed eight storage bags into the center of the group.

The storage bags were still stained with blood and bits of shredded meat.

The five of them held their breath and cast several Cleaning Techniques until the bags were finally clean.

Reflecting on their narrow escape, their hearts still raced with lingering fear.

Time had been so tight that Gu Ningyun only had the chance to send them a four-phrase transmission.

“Join the black-faced man, fake a mutiny, use the whale to escape, and grab the loot.”

There had been no time for a thorough discussion; the entire strategy had been condensed into those sixteen characters.

They didn't have time to decide who would play the traitor, nor did they have time to hesitate or prepare.

They had to rely entirely on their understanding of Gu Ningyun and their mutual chemistry to start the act.

Jiang Yao had already cursed the three Foundation Establishment cultivators for being shameless, so a sudden surrender from him would have been too suspicious.

Thus, Mu Chenze took the lead, feigning a surrender to the black-faced male cultivator.

Jiang Yao maintained his role as the one who hated evil, jumping out to stop him.

Wen Xuan was too close to Gu Ningyun.

If she had also turned, she could have immediately interfered with Gu Ningyun's control of the boat or even sabotaged the control center.

It wouldn't have been realistic for her to side with Mu Chenze.

So, Jun Luo stepped forward, pointing out the “reality” of their hopeless situation to assist Mu Chenze in seizing control of the flying boat.

Wen Xuan took the opportunity to resist, shielding Gu Ningyun behind her.

In this way, the four of them successfully staged an internal conflict, dragging Gu Ningyun into it.

They made it look like she had lost her composure due to the “betrayal,” causing her control of the flying boat to become erratic.

In the end, she even made it seem as though she intended to plunge into the whale's mouth so they would all perish together.

The four of them had put on a brilliant performance, but in truth, they had been terrified.

None of them knew how Gu Ningyun intended to use the whale to escape.

The two-faced whale was a rank three late stage demon beast; it wasn't something a few Qi Refining disciples could just “use” as they pleased.

Gu Ningyun hadn't known what the four were thinking.

She herself hadn't had the time or energy to feel a single shred of emotion.

All of her focus had been poured into controlling the flying boat, observing every detail of their surroundings, and sensing the movements of the wind.