Chapter 884 – First flight!
With everyone on the continental flying ship, Moon Aiko and her entourage could finally depart from this place.
"So, what are we testing? Defence, offence, speed?" Moon Aiko was curious what Mei had planned for this trip, especially since she messed up all the plans with the Ancestral Beasts.
"Defence, we will need that the most, offence comes in terms of Dai Lu and those who still can use their techniques above the oceans." Mei gestured towards them. The Elders that were not part of the old shitfest, and Dai Lu among them.
"They don't look all that strong..." Moon Aiko pursed her lips.
"They don't have to. The main deterrent is the ability of this ship to be able to defend itself." Mei chuckled. "Most aquatic lifeforms are tougher than your average Beast or Human Cultivator, so defeating it is out of the question. However, you also need enough damage so that you don't just annoy it, but deter it."
"So complicated, can't we just fly really high in the sky?" Moon Aiko rolled her eyes.
"If we don't hit the ceiling of the Mortal World, we can try, but it's usually better to fly lower, especially since storms can be quite nasty." Mei shook her head.
"Disaster Clouds or whatever?" Moon Aiko tilted her head, she was a bit tired of those things.
"En, especially those and the Heavenly Lightning when an aquatic Beast is undergoing evolution or breakthrough." Mei nodded her head, happy that Aiko understood the dangers.
"Gosh, that's a complete banquet over there, huh?" Moon Aiko snorted unhappily. With the number of aquatic monsters, the ocean must be one big party of lightning and disasters.
"We can't avoid it, at best we can try to go around it." Mei sighed. There were simply too many of them, so the journey would be impossible to finish with everyone uninjured.
"I feel like taking the ocean is more dangerous than establishing the Movement Array." Moon Aiko was quite unhappy about that part.
"Well, they definitely can do that. It would be expensive, but possible if you make it large enough." Mei agreed with Aiko that moving through the ocean was bullshit idea.
"..." Moon Aiko stared at her for a while. "... What?" She couldn't believe that was possible.
Moon Aiko expected there to be some kind of limit on the Movement Array, so that was why they didn't construct one, but it turns out they were perfectly capable of creating one and using it!
"Yeah, something about it being vulnerable and possible invasion from the smaller continents." Mei shrugged. She didn't get it either, since nobody cared about such stuff in the Immortal World.
"Incredible..." Moon Aiko breathed out like she was on her last legs. "Why don't they just admit that they are too lazy to create one?"
"It's certainly not easy to create one... You know what? Never mind." Mei was just about to defend them, but she decided against it. There was no reason why she should defend them.
"Oh? We are starting to levitate?" Moon Aiko quite liked the smooth feeling of this.
"En, we already did the most basic tests, and it turns out that the more Floating Stones you have, the smoother ride you will experience." Mei smiled. She was quite happy that she could use so many of them.
Most Sects would rather destroy Floating Stones than let others pillage and use them, which was a shame.
"I wonder if I could create an artificial Floating Stone..." Moon Aiko narrowed her eyes. This would be on her agenda later on, once she is settled on the mainland.
"Don't even think about it. I don't want to be chased around the Mortal and Immortal World just because you were crazy enough to be able to make one." Mei sighed. Those Human Cultivators would lose their minds if Aiko would actually accomplish that.
"You say that like it's some kind of bad thing." Moon Aiko shook her head. "You should look at it like this: They are bringing their Treasures to us, so why reject them?"
"..." Mei shook her head. Aiko's train of thoughts was truly laughable, but what was actually scary about that is that Mei actually believed that Aiko would be able to accomplish both things.
"Just... give me heads up if you want to do something crazy. We have other Foxes following us, and they don't have small numbers, so..." Mei pursed her lips. There were around 200+k Foxes with them and most of them were quite enthusiastic about this whole affair, so Mei wouldn't want to hurt them or make them uncomfortable when it could've been prevented.
"Fine, fine." Moon Aiko waved her hand. "I wonder if Nero will be able to follow..."
"I can see her over there." Mei pointed at something that was kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
"Oh, but there are quite a few fallen tree-" Even before Moon Aiko could finish that, that little wolf bulldozed through the trees like they were made out of sticks.
What was even more flabbergasting was that similar things happened to rocks or rather anything that got in her way.
Beasts? Would you like to go bowling? Rivers? How about some running on water? Boulders? How about some gravel?
It was hilarious how little she cared about the path as she made a path herself.
"..." Mei's lips twitched.
Moon Aiko suddenly turned towards Mei. "I will accept your apology now."
"What?" Mei was taken aback by Aiko's sudden sentence.
"I'm not crazy enough to wreck the path like that." Moon Aiko pointed down at the dust/gravel/water cloud.
"..." Mei just raised her eyebrow, looking at Aiko dubiously, but she didn't voice her opinion. In situations like this it was better to stay silent so that she wouldn't be chased by Aiko around. Mei was supposed to do the chasing and teasing, not Aiko!
"... Rude." Moon Aiko puffed up her cheeks.
"I have not said anything." Mei leaned against the railing.
"That's the problem." Aiko clicked her tongue. "Oh, there is some flying ship?"
"Seems like they are part of the Northern Sect, judging by the design, that should be probably an older model." Mei was impressed by how quickly they were discovered.
"Don't you think our flying ship is too big to be concealed?" Moon Aiko chuckled.
"Well..." There could be several reasons why the Northern Sect was able to find them so quickly, but it was hard to say which one it was.
"But isn't it nice? Test subjects are at our doorsteps. We just have to peek at them." Moon Aiko hummed happily. With those guys around, Mei should be able to conduct enough tests and ensure that the journey over the ocean will go smoothly.
"I supposed." Mei pursed her lips. It was scary that she thought the same thing that Aiko did.
"Let's greet them." Mei called over Dai Lu.
"I'm not sure if I can keep the flying ship intact." Dai Lu shook her head when she saw what Mei was thinking.
"That's fine. But it would be better if you could do that in the future." Mei didn't mind if one flying ship was lost, but if there were too many of them, that would be a loss of Floating Stones, which she didn't want.
She already got used to the exceptionally smooth flight that this continental flying ship performed, so she wanted to make a few normal flying ships with similar designs.
"So I should use them to test my techniques and see how much I will have to adjust my strength?" Dai Lu nodded her head. Now that her tails were healed, the destruction she can cause is seriously big.
She already had grasp over her technique when it came to individual battles, but flying ships, especially the old ones, were difficult to not destroy.
"Gently..." A sword floated next to Dai Lu as she was aiming at the flying ship.
"Try to take the tip first." Mei gestured so that Dai Lu wouldn't aim at the middle of the flying ship.
"It can't be that fragile, right?" Dai Lu raised her eyebrow. She didn't believe that the flying ship would go down with just one sword.
"If you take it down in one hit, you won't be able to test your strength against inanimate moving objects." Mei sighed softly.
"Very well..." Dai Lu didn't believe it, but since Mei wished this, she would oblige.
Her sword was coated with her Qi, not even Sword Qi or Sword Intent. Just good old basic Qi.
Dai Lu used her outstretched hand as a marker to guide the blade towards her target. She could also very easily adjust the trajectory with her fingers if necessary.
The flying sword suddenly left Dai Lu's side, blasting from the continental flying ship, towards the flying ship for tests.
*Boom*
"Huh?" Dai Lu stilled when she saw what kind of destruction she caused.
The tip of the flying ship was completely obliterated, but that was not all, the other parts of the flying ship also cracked and some even crumbled!
It felt like that flying ship might just disassemble itself any moment!
"This is ridiculous." Dai Lu pursed her lips. She could feel her sword going through Defensive Arrays, but there were no Inscriptions on that flying ship.
"What is?" Mei tilted her head. She expected this amount of damage, so she was not surprised.
"No, there are no Inscriptions on the flying ship." Dai Lu pursed her lips.
"Eh?" Mei was also surprised. "Don't tell me that they tried to throw a makeshift flying ship, without the expertise of the Inscription Cultivator..." She felt speechless at this ridiculous situation.
"I believe they did..." Dai Lu kept her lips pursed. Nobody was stupid enough to fly a flying ship without Inscriptions, as those made everything 100 times easier!
"..." Mei's lips twitched. "Don't tell me that we already destroyed all their flying ships and this is the best they can do..."
"Doesn't that sound plausible?" Moon Aiko tilted her head.
"Usually a Sect has some spare flying ships that they can use, in case of emergency, but all of them would have Inscriptions as it not only lowers the energy consumption, but it also strengthens the flying ship." Dai Lu explained briefly.
"En, en." Mei nodded her head. Only an idiot would take a ship, slap a Floating Stone inside and try to fly it!
"So, do you think the others will join them?" Moon Aiko was curious if the Eastern and Western Sects would join them.
"Unlikely. Everything before was pretty much the work of the Northern Sect, so it's unlikely that we will encounter others." Mei shook her head, but then she felt Aiko tugging on her clothes.
"There are flying ships over there." Moon Aiko pointed at the horizon, about 80 degrees to the right from where the Northern Sect came from.
Both Dai Lu and Mei paused, rubbing their eyes to see if they were really that stupid...