Shen Qingci sat in the main cabin of the Earth-grade flying vessel, staring wide-eyed at her aunt, who was staring right back.
The interior of the flying vessel was exquisitely decorated.
The cabin walls were inlaid with solid panels of spiritual sandalwood, and the floor was layered with three sound-insulating arrays, ensuring that not even the faintest echo could be heard when walking on it.
In the center sat a low red sandalwood table, on which lay a platter of spiritual fruits and two cups of warm spiritual tea, with thin curls of white steam lazily drifting upward.
Shen Tinglan leaned sideways on the soft daybed by the window, one leg crossed over her knee. She was peeling a tangerine, leaving the table piled high with peels.
Shen Qingci stared at her for a moment.
Initially, she had agreed with her clan aunt, Shuyan, that Shuyan would accompany her on this trip to the West Sea.
But just before departure, Aunt Shuyan sent a message saying something urgent had come up, so her aunt had accompanied her instead.
It wasn't that she disliked her aunt; after all, very few Foundation Establishment cultivators in the four regions could boast of having a Void Refining powerhouse as a personal escort.
It was just that her aunt had looked restless the entire way, seeming like she was anything but willing to be here.
“Auntie, where is Aunt Shuyan?”
Shen Tinglan's hand paused mid-peel.
She stuffed a tangerine slice into her mouth and mumbled, “Shuyan? She had some business to attend to.”
“What? Is this venerable one personally accompanying you to the West Sea not good enough compared to Shuyan?”
Shen Qingci asked, “Are you not hiding from someone anymore, Auntie?”
Shen Tinglan's face instantly fell.
Wretched child, always picking the exact questions she didn't want to answer.
It was as if Ji Linlang had placed a curse on her. She had fled to her private residence in the Azure Cloud Sect's market town, but after only a few days of peace, that woman had tracked her down.
If she stayed any longer, the courtyard door would probably be knocked down.
Ji Linlang didn't force her way in, but she left spiritual plants at the courtyard gate every single day.
Frost-pistil orchids today, moon-shadow grass tomorrow, and she even went so far as to leave a scarlet-flame lingzhi the day after. That was an Earth-grade spiritual plant, an ingredient for several high-grade pills, yet it was casually left on the threshold like a mere ornament.
At first, the neighboring rogue cultivators thought some lovesick female cultivator was pursuing her wife, and they all craned their necks to watch the spectacle.
Later, someone recognized Ji Linlang's cultivation level and almost knelt right there in the alley.
Driven into a corner with nowhere else to hide, Shen Tinglan had simply taken the initiative to volunteer for the task of accompanying her little niece to the West Sea.
To the outside world, she spun a beautiful tale about how her niece was traveling far from home for training for the first time, and as her aunt, she couldn't rest easy and had to escort her personally.
In reality, she was just using A-Ci as a shield.
“How annoying,” Shen Tinglan muttered, tossing the tangerine peels onto the table. “Ask one more question and I'll throw you off the vessel.”
Shen Qingci tactfully shut her mouth.
She shifted her body to the other side of the cabin, sat cross-legged, and closed her eyes to enter meditation.
It was best not to provoke her aunt right now. If she truly angered her enough to be thrown off the flying vessel, even though Shadow One would catch her and she wouldn't die, where would the face of the Shen family's Eldest Young Lady go if word got out?
The cabin fell silent.
Outside, the Shen family guards lined both sides of the flying vessel, completely motionless.
This group had followed their two masters all the way from Qinghe County to the border of the Southern Region, and they were long used to the bickering between the aunt and niece.
The first few times, they had broken out in a cold sweat, fearing the two might genuinely have a falling out.
But after seeing them huddle together to share spiritual fruits less than fifteen minutes after an argument, they stopped taking it seriously.
They would always make up in no time anyway.
And so, they traveled onward, completing the entire journey in just twelve days.
The Shen family's Earth-grade flying vessel was inscribed with an Earth-grade Low-rank wind-riding acceleration array, making its speed several times faster than ordinary cross-border flying vessels, meaning it was far from needing two months.
The flying vessel glided smoothly. Outside the window, the clouds shifted from thick white to light gray, and the surrounding spiritual energy turned from humid to dry and biting.
They had already entered the territory of the Western Region.
After meditating for a while, Shen Qingci suddenly opened her eyes.
She retrieved a jade slip from her sleeve. It had been handed to her by Shadow One before departure, containing a compilation of all the recent intelligence regarding the Soul-Severing Cliff of the West Sea.
Sinking her divine sense into it, she went through it from beginning to end.
The Soul-Severing Cliff was located at the border of the Western Region and the Eastern Region, a group of cliffs jutting deep into the West Sea.
The cliffs were shrouded in thunderclouds year-round. For Foundation Establishment cultivators training on the cliffs, the speed of absorbing lightning spiritual energy was several times faster than in the outside world.
However, the thunderclouds also attracted large numbers of lightning-attribute sea beasts, ranging from the early Foundation Establishment stage to the peak Golden Core stage, mostly roaming in packs.
At the end of the report was an appended line: Three hundred miles southeast of the Soul-Severing Cliff lay a market town called Leiyuan Market, a trading post spontaneously established by the rogue cultivators of the West Sea.
The market town was a den of dragons and snakes, free from the control of sects or great families. There, only spirit stones were recognized, not people.
Shen Qingci put away the jade slip, already having a rough plan in mind.
The flying vessel flew for another half hour, and the sky outside grew increasingly dark and gloomy.
The Western Region was mostly desert. Wind and sand swirled through the sky, and even the clouds were tinged with a dusty yellow.
Occasionally, she could see a few oases passing below, with scattered tents pitched along their edges—settlements where rogue cultivators and mortals lived together.
Shen Tinglan clapped her hands and suddenly spoke up, “A-Ci! Once we arrive at the Soul-Severing Cliff, don't venture deep inside alone in the beginning.”
“The sea beasts there all move in packs. Even the Foundation Establishment stage single-horned lightning sharks come in dozens at a time. Your meager cultivation isn't even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth.”
Shen Qingci opened her eyes and nodded.
After a moment's thought, she fished a stack of talismans out of her storage ring, spread them across her knees, and counted them one by one.
These were the Mystic-grade Low-rank thunder-shield talismans she had asked Aunt Shuyan to prepare before departure, specifically designed to counter lightning-attribute attacks.
Aunt Shuyan had casually drawn several thousand extra, preparing enough even for the entire escort team.
Shen Tinglan glanced at the stack of talismans and snorted. “Shuyan certainly dotes on you.”
Shen Qingci separated ten talismans and pushed them toward Shen Tinglan. “Auntie has a share too!”
Shen Tinglan stared at the talismans, her eyelids twitching.
She was a Void Refining powerhouse. If word got out that she was using a Foundation Establishment cultivator's Mystic-grade talismans, people would laugh their teeth off.
Yet she still accepted them, casually sweeping them into her sleeve. “Alright, your aunt doesn't lack these little things of yours.”
Shen Qingci curled her lips, choosing not to expose her.
The flying vessel continued its journey westward.
Suddenly, a sandstorm swept outside the window. Swirling yellow sand rose from the desert below, darkening the sky and earth.
The flying vessel's protective shield lit up automatically, its pale golden spiritual light blocking all the sand and dust outside the cabin. The crackling sounds of impacts lasted for half a cup of tea's time before gradually fading.
As the sandstorm subsided, a gray-blue silhouette appeared on the horizon.
Shen Qingci leaned close to the cabin window to look out, catching sight of a distant cliff stretching across the boundary of sea and sky.
Clouds hung low over the cliff face, with purple lightning snaking and crackling through the dense cloud banks...
They had arrived!
The flying vessel descended slowly along the slope of the cliff, stopping abruptly when it was a hundred meters above the ground.
With a flash of her figure, Shen Tinglan appeared right in front of Shen Qingci.
With a sweep of her five fingers, a clever force stripped away all of Shen Qingci's storage-type magical artifacts.
Even the defensive array on her robe was sealed under a restriction, its spiritual light peeling away layer by layer, until only the faint aura of a Yellow-grade High-rank robe remained.
Shen Qingci only felt her entire body lighten.
The kind of lightness that came with having all her belongings confiscated!!!
She opened her mouth to call out to her aunt, but before she could even make a sound, her back collar was seized by Shen Tinglan.
The cabin door had opened at some unknown point, and the rushing wind and sand instantly plastered her face.
Shen Tinglan threw her out with clean efficiency.
Shen Qingci flew out of the cabin door, the wind roaring in her ears. She instinctively tried to summon Jinglei, but the moment her divine sense reached into her dantian, she remembered that both Jinglei and her storage rings were in her aunt's hands.
The wind-riding array on her robe was also sealed, leaving her unable to channel even a shred of spiritual energy. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, she actually fell straight down from a height of a hundred meters.
Below was a sandy beach. Shen Qingci had no time to cushion her fall and plunged headfirst into it.
Thud!
After a dull thud, her two legs were left sticking out of the sand, kicking frantically.
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