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Chapter 297: Boarding the Ship
🕑 Added 2024-10-06 05:09:31 +0000 UTC"Waste of energy?"
"Yes," Liao Pantu explained. "When you absorb spiritual energy from a spirit stone for cultivation, you can't absorb every bit of it. A lot of energy dissipates."
Liao Pantu paused and then added, "Now that you're in the cultivation world, let me give you another tip: don’t exchange your mid-grade spirit stones for lower-grade ones, especially not in any stores."
Hearing this, Lin Xiao immediately understood—it would be a bad deal to make such an exchange—so he quickly agreed to avoid it.
For some reason, Lin Xiao’s thoughts drifted to Liao Pantu’s hidden abode. The ceilings there seemed to be made of ordinary spirit stones rather than mid-grade ones. Lin Xiao blinked, thinking to himself, "Even someone as wealthy as Senior Liao wouldn’t waste mid-grade spirit stones on roofing."
Returning to the inn, Jiang Youfu and Lin Xiao brought the spiritual food to Yuan Qing’s room. After making sure he ate, they returned to their own room.
The next morning, before dawn, the three of them set out for the boarding area outside Yuanling City.
Last night, when Yuan Qing saw that Lin Xiao had brought spiritual food for him, he was quite surprised. After all, there weren't many places in Yuanling City that sold spiritual food.
Lin Xiao explained that they had come across a street vendor selling the food for a reasonable price and had decided to buy some for him to try.
Smelling the enticing aroma of the food on the table, Yuan Qing, though doubtful that there were many people in Yuanling City who could make such high-quality spiritual food, didn’t question Lin Xiao’s explanation. He immediately sat down and started eating.
At this point, Yuan Qing would probably believe anything Lin Xiao told him—even if Lin Xiao claimed to be the sect master of Tianxuan Sect, Yuan Qing wouldn’t hesitate to trust him. So, a story about street food in Yuanling City was easy to accept.
Not long after eating, Yuan Qing fell asleep from exhaustion.
When Lin Xiao woke him up the next morning, Yuan Qing realized that his body had recovered more in one night than it had in the past several days combined. He was able to move normally, though he still couldn't use spiritual energy yet.
Yuan Qing didn’t think too much about it; he just felt increasingly grateful to Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu. He assumed that the spiritual food had exceptional healing properties. What he didn’t know was that Lin Xiao had only given him one of Sun Yigao’s healing pills when he was gravely injured and unconscious. The rest of the healing had come from Yuan Qing’s own stash of pills.
His slow recovery was due to his severely depleted energy. Now that Sun Yigao’s pill had stabilized his condition, Jiang Youfu’s spiritual food helped consolidate the effects, allowing for a faster recovery.
The sky was just beginning to brighten when they arrived at the boarding point. A considerable line had already formed.
Lin Xiao remembered the voice from yesterday reminding him that the ship would depart at the hour of Chen (7–9 AM), so they had made sure to arrive early.
On the west side of Yuanling City, a massive spiritual ship was docked in an open space, its hull shrouded in a protective barrier. Only a small entrance remained open for passengers to board. There were two guards stationed at the entrance, but no one was checking tickets manually.
Each passenger simply held their purchased ticket and walked toward the small opening. Much like paying the entrance fee to enter Yuanling City, the ticket was absorbed the moment the passenger passed through the opening, preventing any attempts to board without a valid ticket.
Not long after Lin Xiao and the others boarded, they heard one of the guards call out to those still waiting:
"The passenger quota for this trip has been filled. Please come back five days later."
The voice was loud enough to carry to everyone standing in line. Lin Xiao, still wandering around the ship’s deck, clearly heard it.
"What? Didn’t the ship usually depart at the hour of Si (9–11 AM)? Why so early today?"
"Yeah! This is outrageous!"
"And there are clearly fewer people than usual on this trip! I missed the last ship, too. Back then, the ship didn’t fill up this quickly."
The crowd that hadn’t been able to board began grumbling, but the two guards ignored them. After turning away from the crowd, they quickly sealed the entrance and went inside the ship.
Lin Xiao realized that no one had reminded him of the departure time when he bought Yuan Qing’s ticket yesterday. Unlike three days ago, there had been no voice warning him.
As for the departure time, it was actually printed on every ticket. A cultivator could simply use their spiritual sense to read it. For Qi Refining cultivators who had only recently gained spiritual sense, they could press the ticket to their forehead to check the time.
The passengers left behind could only grumble, but they didn’t dare curse too loudly. Everyone knew that in the Southern Spiritual Domain, these spiritual ships were jointly operated by powerful sects.
Moments after the entrance was sealed, the giant ship began to lift off and smoothly flew into the distance.
Standing on the deck, Lin Xiao watched as the scenery below gradually receded. The speed of the spiritual ship was impressive.
There were still many passengers wandering around the deck. Some cultivators were making small talk, while others were trying to sell various goods.
The ship had plenty of empty cabins. There were five levels of cabins, all relatively small and unnumbered. Passengers were free to choose any available cabin as long as it hadn’t been sealed from the inside.
Although the ship’s speed was fast, the journey would still take several days due to the long distance. No one wanted to spend the entire time wandering the deck, so Lin Xiao, Jiang Youfu, and Yuan Qing chose two adjacent cabins to stay in.
Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu shared one cabin, while Yuan Qing had one to himself. Lin Xiao lent Yuan Qing a barrier formation for protection, then settled into his own cabin with Jiang Youfu to cultivate.
There wasn’t much else to do on the ship, and roaming around too much could attract unwanted attention, so it was better to stay in the cabin and focus on cultivation.
A few times, people came by to knock on their door. Lin Xiao had noticed that many other passengers had left their doors open, so he did the same to avoid drawing attention.
Before they departed Yuanling City, all three of them had already disguised themselves using advanced face masks provided by Senior Liao. These masks were said to be so effective that even Nascent Soul or Soul Formation cultivators would struggle to see through them.
Among those who knocked, some were trying to sell items, while others were simply looking to make friends and travel together.
Lin Xiao coldly rejected all of them.
Following Liao Pantu’s advice, he had learned that if you appeared hesitant or soft, people would sense that you could be persuaded, and you might end up with endless trouble. It was better to put on a cold and distant demeanor, which would help avoid unnecessary problems.
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