Chapter 700 – The grand journey begins!
Moon Aiko kept training here and there with Grandmaster, while most of her time was spent on researching the Cauldron and more metals.
Mei, in the meanwhile, prepared the flying ships to leave this place.
One was completely empty since the Southern Sect was supposed to get it, but they still didn't come.
Nothing could be done about that, they just have to take the ship with them and then lend it over once they meet.
Now, here was the distribution:
One ship would have the rehabilitating Foxes and Muscle Foxes, while the other would have the Demonic Foxes and normal Foxes.
There shouldn't be any issues with this, since the Muscle Foxes really liked the mature feeling the rehabilitating Foxes had, so they were willing to go together.
Meanwhile, the Demonic Foxes kept to themselves, so there were no issues on the other ship either.
The only unfortunate thing was the capacity... It couldn't obviously fit.
In total there were 10,000 Demonic Foxes. 40,000 rehabilitating Foxes. 20,000 Muscle Foxes. 60,000 normal Foxes.
Overall, the Fox Village lost around half a million Foxes due to the shitty Elders. And there were the Foxes that had to be kicked out and Foxes that committed suicide.
It was quite unfortunate that the number of living Foxes dropped so much, but this could still be considered a miracle.
130,000 Foxes were still alive and somewhat well.
But as you might expect, with this kind of numbers it was hard to fit them with resources and other things, so Mei came up with a very simple, but dangerous idea.
Floating Stone platforms!
They would be attached to the continental flying ship and would be dragged behind it.
It was dangerous since the Foxes sitting on those platforms might lose their lives, but this was the best she could do with the limited time and materials.
She still hoped to find something when visiting the Nightmare Forest to make things easier on everyone.
"They are head on head, huh..." Moon Aiko stared at the Foxes huddled tightly together. It felt like the floor became Foxes, making it quite difficult or rather impossible to move around.
"And why does it feel like those platforms will fly away?" Moon Aiko nudged Mei.
"There is not enough weight on them..." Mei had to balance it by anchoring the Floating Stone itself, but then that also required the continental flying ship to permanently use the propeller and aim it downwards to keep it from flying away.
"So you can't just make a vessel and slap a Floating Stone into it, huh..." Moon Aiko nodded her head.
"Usually you have some kind of limits, where the flying ship is in optimal state, and anything else requires quite a lot of work for those steering the flying ships." Mei saw the flying ship being made once and it made an impression on her, but thinking back at it, that required too much thought that she didn't want to do it herself.
"But we have enough Elders to not care about that." Moon Aiko smirked.
"Even they will eventually become exhausted, so we can only take this journey in several stops." Mei sighed. It was already good enough that they would be able to transport almost everything they can.
"So, I will be taking the rest~" Moon Aiko trotted around and swiped everything with her tails.
"..." Mei pursed her lips. She shouldn't have agonised over the rest so much if Aiko would just swipe it away!
"What?" Moon Aiko tilted her head. She was being stared at by Mei a lot.
"This is less than ideal, can you take the Demonic Foxes away?" Mei wanted to make a bit of room, since it was too crowded.
"Sure." Moon Aiko didn't mind, but wouldn't that expose it?
"You don't have to worry, we have 3 flying ships." Mei chuckled. They could conceal it like that until the Southern Sect came over.
"Sure..." Moon Aiko was worried for Mei's sanity, since her expressions weren't quite right...
...
Once Moon Aiko swiped the Demonic Foxes, the Foxes on the continental flying ships had to be adjusted.
Some normal Foxes went over to the first ship, which might cause some friction, but that can't be helped.
Space was limited, so they had to bear each other even if they didn't want to.
Moon Aiko pulled out her [Unnamed Spirit Boat], since she didn't want to fly with the others huddled up like that.
"I... completely forgot you had this..." Mei groaned. There was so much stuff to do that she forgot a few things.
"I will be joining you." There were quite a few Foxes surrounding Aiko right now.
And all of them wished to board her personal ship, since they didn't need to be head on head like on the continental flying ship.
"Is that appropriate?" Moon Aiko turned towards Mei, while being squished by the others.
The Shadows Peak Elder was especially enthusiastic and so was Yuan with her partner.
Danji also came over, but there was friction between Mei and her, making things even more awkward.
"Someone needs to lead them, so it's not a matter of if it’s appropriate." Mei gestured. "With this we will be able to fly forward, scout things and make sure that we don't get lost."
"Would it even be possible to get lost?" Moon Aiko tilted her head.
"It is possible, because of the Human Sects. You never know what they might do once we leave the safety of the Array..." Mei shook her head. There was some concern due to the floating platforms, but there was nothing more that she could do without endangering Aiko further. So this would have to do.
"I think that everyone is ready." Dai Lu went all around the continental flying ships to check on everyone. Head on head, with no room to move, but at least everyone fit.
"The metals are also secured and we also have them in Spatial Rings that are scattered around the continental flying ships. We will be testing the reactions when the Spatial Rings get close." Dai Lu gestured, while also making sure to record things.
"I'm nervous..." Mei groaned again. She didn't want to mess this up, since this was supposed to liberate the few Foxes that were still untainted or willing to change.
"That's... unexpected." Danji didn't think that Mei would be nervous in this situation.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Mei growled back at her. It seemed like they would fight any time soon, making things even more complicated than they already were.
"Stop fighting." Moon Aiko enlarged her [Unnamed Spirit Boat] and stepped on it.
"You better all give me some energy since the consumption will be a lot higher." Moon Aiko didn't want to shoulder all of that alone.
"We will try, but since this is refined by you, it will be difficult to give our Beast Core energies." Mei shook her head slowly, it was uncertain if that was possible since flying boats were exceptionally rare and usually only owned by royalty.
Everyone stepped on the flying boat. From Aiko's team, to the important figures of the previous Fox Village. Of course most Elders were located in the continental flying ships, since their consumption went through the roof.
Moon Aiko had quite the company, but only one bed.
"The bed is mine, everyone else sleeps on the ground!" Moon Aiko proclaimed as she went into the cabin and closed the door behind her.
"I hoped that she would invite us..." Danji pouted her lips cutely.
"Don't do that." Mei was creeped out by that expression. "The bed is also small, so if she wanted to take us there, she would have to abandon others."
"She would prefer everyone sleeping on the floor and hating her than us hating each other?" Danji felt puzzled why Aiko would do that, but she wouldn't question it for the time being.
"We are fine on the floor." The Twins nodded their heads, but then they looked over the Elders.
"Don't look at us." Yuan took a step back. "None of us will sleep until we stop for rest." She didn't want to sleep on the ground, so she would just stay awake until their resting stop!
Hui nodded her head slowly. If they were to lay down like this, their bodies might creak once they got off, so it was better to just keep awake.
Mei gestured to the other flying vessel to increase altitude.
"I hope we didn't forget anything..." Mei was on the edge, since this would be the first time she organised something on this kind of scale.
Usually she would organise things with around 10,000 people in mind, but this time it was over 100,000! The pressure was immense!
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! You baaaaaaaaaaaaastaaaaaaaaards!"
A familiar voice shouted at them.
"Oh, it's the sloth." Moon Aiko looked down, seeing the always sleeping Fox chasing after the flying vessels.
The girl skilfully used her abilities to land on the flying boat with a few steps, leaving an impression on Aiko.
"You would leave me behind, wouldn't you!? Just because I sleep a bit you would leave me behind!" She almost cried, realising that she would be stranded in this place!
"We are not leaving this place yet..." Mei tried to divert her attention.
"I don't care! The fact that I was almost abandoned still stands!" She stomped her feet, before picking a place and plopping down with a mattress, pillow and pretty much everything that one would need for sleep.
"Whoa..." Moon Aiko was impressed as she stared out of her cabin at everyone, especially the girl who was wrapped by numerous blankets.
...
All the flying vessels slowly increased their altitude, until they were hidden high above the clouds.
"How are we supposed to know where we are going if we don't see the ground?" Moon Aiko frowned. She never flew this high, since the consumption was ridiculous and because she would get lost very quickly.
"That's where I come in." One Elder stepped forward. She was quite old, but had some kind of disc in her hands.
She threw that disc above everyone's heads, while slowly sitting into the lotus position.
The disc stopped above the flying boat and an arrow manifested itself, pointing into a certain direction.
"Follow the arrow and we should be able to make it to our destination." The Elder said slowly. Looking closely, she was quite cute.
The usual white hair, but her face wasn't all that wrinkled compared to the other Elders, so she was either young or consumed some precious Pills.
Moon Aiko thought it was the latter, since with this kind of skill, everyone would shower her with gifts.
"This is where the journey starts..." Moon Aiko paused and walked outside. She wanted to be part of this grand journey, but she still preferred the insides since this place was quite crowded...