Chapter 24
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Chapter 24: The Invitation
"Silence"
A cold voice came from the upper levels of the ship, and then one person soared into the air to confront the two, blocking them mid-air. It was the "Elder Feng."
The three of them began to confront each other in the air.
‘Overclock’
Wang Yu quietly thought to himself, his senses suddenly heightened many times over. Everything around him seemed to move at an unusually slow pace. As he focused his full attention on the three people high in the sky, he gradually began to hear their clear words.
"…No, since you have bought the tickets and already boarded the ship, you are our Treasure Pavilion’s guests. We cannot allow outsiders to search the ship freely," Elder Feng said sternly.
"Friend, don’t you really care about the Huang family’s reputation? If we can just take the person we want, we will leave this ship immediately and won’t disturb anyone else." A middle-aged man in half-armor said with a frown, clearly wary of Elder Feng.
"Hehe, if this were just a private matter, I would certainly respect the Huang family, but as the protector of this ship, if I let you break the rules, it would ruin the reputation of the Treasure Pavilion. I cannot take on such a big responsibility," Elder Feng replied firmly with a chuckle.
"What? Even though your Treasure Pavilion is powerful, this place still belongs to Yellow Stone City’s jurisdiction. Don’t you think you are going too far?" Another younger man in a white scholar’s robe could not help but interject.
"What do you mean? The Treasure Pavilion has always acted like this! Is it the first time the Huang family is hearing this? If you don’t want to cooperate with us, I can report this and remove our branch in Yellow Stone City. Our magic ship will no longer come here," Elder Feng said coldly with a huff.
Upon hearing this, the expressions of the two men opposite him turned terrible. After a quick whispered conversation, they could only leave angrily and turn to fly towards the dock.
Wang Yu, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, finally felt relieved and thought to himself, "What a lucky escape."
Although he could not yet be sure if these two Huang family cultivators were after him, it was certainly best that they couldn’t even board the ship.
The expensive boat ticket, which costs seven spirit stones, was definitely not a waste!
At this moment, Elder Feng flew back to the top of the ship, while the giant boat quickly sailed away along the river, soon leaving the dock far behind.
Wang Yu turned off the hyper synchronization, left the deck, and walked through the passage to his cabin.
For the next seven or eight days, Wang Yu diligently practiced in his room, relying solely on a small bottle of Shadow Spirit Qi instead of spirit stones, making his energy absorption much less efficient. He focused mainly on practicing the four forms of "Wolf Running Picture" and learning a new spell.
Compared to the slow practice of the Yin Water Skill, he clearly felt that his physical body still had room for further improvement. Each time he practiced, he began to faintly sense the stirring of his bloodline, which seemed very similar to the signs of a complete awakening described by Taoist Chongyun. This made Wang Yu even more dedicated to practicing this Body Refining Technique.
The speed of understanding the new spell "Gather Water" was about the same as Firefly, but creating the Spell Imprint was much harder than the Firefly technique. After seven or eight days, he had not succeeded even once.
This left Wang Yu feeling a bit frustrated. One day, he finally opened his room door, ready to go to the deck for some fresh air.
But just as he opened the door, there was a "creak" as a door across the hallway also opened at that moment.
Out bounced a girl in a green dress, looking around thirteen or fourteen years old, with a round face and big eyes, holding a handful of nut-like snacks and repeatedly stuffing them into her mouth, her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel.
The girl raised her head and saw Wang Yu, and let out a huge scream of "Big Brother," throwing the snacks from her hand and turning around to dash back to the door behind her.
"Mother, hurry… hurry out, I saw Big Brother… really, he’s right outside…"
The girl’s voice faintly came from behind the door, while Wang Yu outside was completely puzzled, not knowing what was happening.
"Qin’er, how could your big brother be outside? Are you seeing things!" A soft voice from the room across came, and then a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties appeared, following the girl in the green dress.
When she saw Wang Yu, her eyes widened for a moment, but then she realized something and a hint of a bitter smile appeared on her face.
"You silly girl, this young man only looks a bit like your brother, he is certainly not your brother! Quickly apologize; you must have startled him just now." The beautiful woman scolded her daughter and turned to Wang Yu with an apologetic expression.
"Look at his nose, mouth, and eyes; he looks exactly like Big Brother! It’s not just a few similarities; it’s at least seven or eight parts alike, only he is a bit taller. How could I be wrong?" The girl in the green dress also realized she had mistaken him for someone else, but she was still somewhat unconvinced, occasionally sneaking glances at Wang Yu.
"So this young lady has mistaken me for someone else. That’s alright, I have something to attend to, so I will take my leave." Wang Yu finally understood what was happening, but he didn’t want to explain further. He nodded at them and turned to leave, but behind him, the woman’s voice continued to scold her daughter:
"When will you stop making me worry? You’re so grown up yet still so careless. Oh, what will happen when you get married in the future?"
"Mother, I do not want to marry. I want to…"
After Wang Yu turned a corner, he could no longer hear the words of the mother and daughter. He did not think too much about this small incident and went up to the deck.
At this moment on the deck, besides a few busy crew members, there were also several passengers taking fresh air and walking.
Among them was a young couple, dressed in fine clothes. The man had thick eyebrows and big eyes, a strong build, and wore a long sword at his waist. The woman looked elegant, with delicate features and smooth, fair skin. They were quietly talking to each other.
Near the young couple stood a tall young man, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. He carried a long, narrow package in one hand, and half of his face was covered by a black mask. He seemed to be gazing at the rushing river, but he occasionally looked coldly at the beautiful woman from the corner of his eye.
The young couple clearly noticed the man’s behavior. The husband had a face full of anger and pressed his hand on the long sword at his waist, while the beautiful woman looked anxious, tightly holding onto her husband’s arm to keep him close.
The young man with the package gazed at the woman with even bolder eyes.
The three of them knew each other, and there seemed to be some past grievances among them.
Seeing this situation, Wang Yu quickly made a simple judgment in his mind. He ignored the three of them and walked to the other side of the ship where no one was, looking out toward the distant shore.
This stretch of the Red Water River is about three or four miles wide, with the desolate landscape of abandoned mines visible along the banks. There are truly no signs of life; occasionally, large herds of unknown creatures that resemble horses and cows can be seen drinking by the water’s edge.
The river water here is murky and red, surging and swirling, and one can see many whirlpools appearing from time to time.
The "Iron Arrow Ship" encounters some small whirlpools and, relying on its massive size, ignores them and crushes through. When it faces a larger whirlpool, it skillfully steers away, keeping the ship moving straight and steady.
While Wang Yu is lost in thought, he suddenly sees splashes in the river nearby, as several dark shapes rise above the surface, then quickly disappear beneath the water again.
Wang Yu is taken aback and quickly opens his eyes wide to look closely.
The surface of the river stirs, and one by one, dark shapes emerge—it turns out to be long black fish, each with sharp teeth and heads adorned with spiraled horns of different sizes.
As soon as these strange fish surface, they rush toward the giant boat. But before they can get close, a sudden noise comes from below the ship.
A swarm of crossbow bolts shoots out from the raised part of the ship, killing most of the strange fish in an instant. The remaining fish quickly dive back into the water, leaving only a pool of blood on the surface and the bodies of the fish floating upside down.
These are the fish-beasts of the Red Water River; they don’t seem to be frightening at all.
Wang Yu looked at the scene before him and felt amazed.
"These horned fish are just the most common creatures in the Red Water River. They have many of them, and they only use their horns to hit their prey; there is nothing special about them."
Suddenly, a rough-sounding man’s voice came from behind him.
Wang Yu quickly turned around and noticed a thin man standing there, wearing gray clothes and smiling at him. He looked to be in his forties.
"Who are you, sir?"
The fact that the man could come so close without being noticed made Wang Yu a bit cautious, so he asked slowly:
"You must be an Immortal Master. My name is Gao Qi. My master, Yu Bintian, is from a wealthy family in Tong Prefecture and is also an Immortal Master. He loves to meet talented young people in the cultivation world. If you don’t mind, could you join us for dinner at the number three hall on the upper deck? There will be other Immortal Masters there as well. My master has reserved this place." The thin man skillfully handed him an invitation.
Isn’t Tong Prefecture the place this ship is heading to in Wu Kingdom?
Wang Yu took the invitation with confusion and looked at it. He saw that the surface was covered in gold leaf, one side had a silver character ‘余’ (Yu) printed on it, and the other side had the newly written black characters ‘甲三’ (A3).
Is it the gathering of wandering cultivators mentioned in Taoist Chongyun’s notes?
"Since there is an invitation from a fellow cultivator, I will attend," Wang Yu said, holding the invitation, and nodded thoughtfully.
The thin man saw Wang Yu accept the invitation, exchanged a few more polite words, and then left.
Wang Yu had no desire to stay any longer and planned to return to his room, but before leaving the deck, he still saw that young couple and the tall young man carrying a long package, lingering on the deck.
Back in his single room, Wang Yu practiced the Four Styles of Wolf Running Picture until evening before he left his room again and arrived at the "A3" room on the highest level of the ship.
In front of this hall, two strong men stood guard at the door. When they saw Wang Yu approaching with the invitation, they immediately bowed and opened the door.
Wang Yu slowly walked inside.