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Chapter 459: Straw-Hat Appears!

A loud clamor emerged from the rift, and then a head, which tumbled down and landed with a thump on the ground. It tumbled a few times before coming to a stop with the face on the bottom.

A host of garments flew into the air and floated curiously over. The head struggled to rise to an upright position, but was too weak. However, this head was the father of a heavenly dao, and couldn’t be bested by a simple difficulty like that. It eventually stuck out its tongue and pushed hard against the ground, tipping it upright. Once in that position, it looked around.

“Garmentfolk?” The head was, of course, the Captain. He immediately felt excited upon realizing that he was, indeed, back in Sea-Sealing County. “Hey, I have a good friend who's a Garmentfolk!”

His energy fluctuations had already caught the attention of a lady’s glove, which flew over and danced happily in front of him. It was none other than Lady Fivefingers. 

The Captain laughed heartily upon recognizing her. He was about to say something when, all of a sudden, a group of hats flew in his direction, struggling with each other to be first in line to reach him. The Captain’s expression flickered.

Thankfully, he had a good friend here. She flew over to the hats and, using whatever unknown means of communication the Garmentfolk favored, explained something to the hats. They ended up flying a few circles around the Captain before reluctantly leaving.

The Captain breathed a sigh of relief. Next, the glove grabbed him by the hair and flew up into the air so he could get a better look around. A pleased expression filled the Captain’s face.

Ha HA! Things really went well this time. I wonder how little Ah Qing is doing. The brat’s no simpleton, so he should be fine. Right now I need to focus on growing my body back. Then I can worry about other things.

It took some effort, but he managed to twist around and look at Lady Fivefingers. Licking his lips, he quietly said, “Say, little Righty, do you Garmentfolk have any food around here? I’d love to try it.... Also, is there anything fun to do in this place? I’d also love to expand my horizons a bit.”

One of the glove’s fingers bent down a few times in a row as if nodding, then flew off into the distance with the Captain, whose eyes shone brightly.

***

A few provinces away was the very same desert the Seven Blood Eyes’ flying ship had flown over on their way to the county capital. It was a place of scorching sun and burning flames. There was no vegetation anywhere, just rippling heat waves as far as the eye could see. There were no humans in this desert. There was only occasional patches of smoke that indicated the presence of lightscrags or Smokewights. 

At a certain point, a 300-meter-long dharmaship appeared in that desert, flying along. It was roughly oval-shaped, and had a very unique design; it had a dozen or so semitransparent sails that resembled both sabers and wings at the same time, and glittered with cold light. The ship itself was dark violet, and at the prow was an evil ghost totem. That was the soul body created by dharma aperture souls which had been suppressed with balefire. Because of all that, the dharmaship radiated the aura of the Gold Core level.

In the cabin of the dharmaship, Xu Qing sat cross-legged, recuperating. He was back in human form.

Three days had passed since he had been teleported into this desert. Despite the vile climate, and the incredible heat that even cultivators couldn’t endure for very long, he hadn’t run into any dangers here, which had been a relief. He had immediately taken out his dharmaship and used it to escape the heat. And he had taken advantage of the past three days to assess how he had benefited recently.

My cultivation base rose from the five-palace level to the eight-palace level. And I even made some progress with my ninth heavenly palace. Big Bro Kong has ten-palace battle prowess and can kill early Nascent Soul cultivators. I could probably do the same thing if I went all-out....

His eyes glittered.

And even ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility! Now, I only have my ninth, tenth, and eleventh heavenly palaces to complete. That’s only three. Once they’re all materialized, then I can make an attempt at a Nascent Soul breakthrough!

Then he started thinking about the other things he had acquired.

3,142 dao fruits! A life lamp! All sorts of pill concocting and equipment forging ingredients, all of them bursting with spirit resonance! And I invested in a heavenly dao!

Feeling very pleased, he took some time to organize everything.

I wonder how Qing Qiu is doing.

He thought back to the teleportation event, and felt a bit anxious about her safety. That said, she wasn’t some weak little girl. Only remarkable people could survive the opening of the god’s eyes. After some consideration, he decided there was no reason to be worried.

He didn’t spend any time thinking about Ning Yan.

As for the Captain.... Xu Qing had the feeling that even if he himself died, the Captain probably wouldn’t. Even though the Captain only had his head left, he would surely be hopping and skipping soon enough.

I don’t need to worry at all about Eldest Brother. He won’t have any trouble getting back to the county capital. What I need to do is make haste there myself.

He looked down at the symbols Arch-Immortal Plumdark had painted onto him. They were rather large, and they had started out being bright red. But now they were pale and dull, so much so that they weren’t easy to see unless you looked closely.

The three-month period isn’t even up yet.... He sighed. Though the symbols seemed like they would expire early, it made sense. When that heavenly dao appeared, and he was infused with so much of the energy of heaven and earth, the symbols had eroded significantly. They obviously wouldn’t last much longer.

I need to get back as quickly as possible! Xu Qing looked out at the lands outside the dharmaship and mused that the events in Holytide territory had been nothing short of monumental. The Holytides would definitely be looking for them.

Though he was back in Sea-Sealing County, it wouldn’t be long before the concealment effect vanished, and that made Xu Qing feel very uneasy. The feeling came from his sixth heavenly palace. It made him frown. Due to the distance from the county capital as well as the environment, he couldn’t send messages with his command sword. Therefore, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture and pushed down onto the dharmaship, causing it to accelerate. It also became partially invisible as it raced through the sky.

Feeling slightly more at ease, he closed his eyes and focused on regulating his breathing.

In that manner, three more days went by. At that point, the last of the concealment symbols vanished.

It was dark outside when it happened. Though there was no sun, it was still incredibly hot, and that heat even reached the interior of the dharmaship. Opening his eyes, he scanned himself, then rose and walked out of the cabin.

Once outside, the heat caused beads of sweat to appear on his forehead. In fact, he was quickly sweating from head to toe. Ignoring that, he examined the dharmaship’s surroundings, his expression dour.

Something's off. The uneasy feeling I’ve had isn’t going away. It’s actually getting stronger. And once the concealment symbols wore off, I started feeling even more jumpy.

Within his sixth heavenly palace, his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon swam back and forth anxiously, a nervous look on its face.

This wasn’t the first time he’d experienced an early warning sign from his heavenly dao bluegreen dragon. He clearly remembered the day he and the Captain had left the county capital for their big job. He’d experienced the same sensation back then. 

It had stayed with him, though the feeling wasn’t very intense. But just now, that uneasiness had skyrocketed.

He looked in the direction of the county capital. It was still quite a distance away, such that at his current speed, he would need about a month to get there. That said, he could actually move faster without the dharmaship. If he did that, the travel time would be reduced significantly.

“Ten days,” he murmured. Then he looked in a different direction in the vast desert.

Thinking back to his swordsage training, he remembered that the desert filled this entire prefecture. Because the high heat made it unsuitable for humans, there were few human organizations here. There was a Swordsage Court, but it was located on the distant prefectural border. If he just kept traveling in a straight line, it would take days to reach the county capital.

Eyes narrowing, he stepped off his dharmaship, put the dharmaship away, and then started moving in a different direction.

The nearest human teleportation portal was too far away to be useful. But the uneasy feeling within him was getting so intense that he didn’t want to just fly the rest of the way to the capital. He would go by a different route. He would do something unexpected and attempt to use a nonhuman teleportation portal.

After all, he was still in Sea-Sealing County, which was human territory. Therefore, it seemed unlikely that the inhabitants of this desert, the Smokewights, would cause unexpected trouble.

With that plan in mind, he sped across the desert.

He searched until dawn was nearing. Around then, he found a Smokewight city. When he neared, smoke rose up from within the city, and numerous streams of hostile divine sense locked onto him.

Without any hesitation, Xu Qing took out his swordsage command sword and clasped hands politely. 

“Your humble servant is a human swordsage from the Corrections Division. I’m on an important military mission, and I can’t afford any delays on the next leg of my journey. Therefore, I humbly request permission to use your Smokewight teleportation portal. I’ll pay whatever fee is required, and will of course take note of the favor and inscribe the details in the Swordsage Palace records. I hope the Smokewights can be accommodating!”

The streams of Smokewight divine sense scanned his command sword. A moment later, a voice spoke.

“Wait!”

Xu Qing respectfully bowed his head and waited.

After a bit more than two hours passed, and light was seeping over the horizon. Being very respectful, he inquired about his request.

“Keep waiting!” was the cold response.

“Might I ask how much longer it will be?” he said politely. “I’m really in a big hurry. I can’t afford any delays.”

“Unknown.”

At that point, Xu Qing decided he couldn’t wait any longer. Turning, he sped off feeling very irritated. It wouldn’t have been surprising for them to refuse his request, and he would have understood. But to make him stand there waiting actually made him wonder if they had malicious intentions.

Taking a deep breath, he tapped into all the speed his cultivation base was capable of. The boost of speed from the red life lamp caused a red glow to spread around him. Accelerating dramatically, he became a beam of light that disappeared over the horizon.

Six days passed.

He used the hellspirit bloodwing lamp and didn’t hold back from burning the spirit energy within him. As a result, he now only needed four more days until he reached the border of the county capital.

That six days of travel revealed how deep his reserves were, as he was still in top condition. The only exception was that he felt mentally fatigued because of the deep sense of unease. On a few occasions he considered finding a place to hide, thinking that the uneasiness might pass. But whenever he thought about that, the bluegreen dragon caused him to feel even more intensely uneasy.

When he was only about two hours away from the prefectural border, that uneasiness had not declined in the least bit. As he accelerated, he suddenly saw a figure pop up in front of him.

Someone was blocking his path!

It was a figure in a woven rush raincoat and a straw hat, with an icy cold aura.

“If you got any further you might have escaped,” a voice said, deep and full of strong killing intent.