Chapter 193 | Boarding the Flying Spiritual Ship

Chapter 193: 193 | Boarding the Flying Spiritual Ship

Dawn had not fully broken when the Inner Sect began to move.

Lights lit one courtyard after another. Disciples in travel robes hurried along the stone paths with storage rings, weapon cases, and jade tokens ready. The Regional Tournament was no longer a distant announcement. It was leaving time.

Lin Tian stepped out of Cloud-Sea Pavilion in simple dark robes. The Profound Void-Yang Blade rested across his back, wrapped and quiet. To most eyes, he was still the same newly risen junior who had caused too many headaches in too few days.

He joined the flow of disciples heading south.

By the time he reached the southern landing platform, the place was already full. Outer disciples lined the edges for a glimpse. Inner disciples stood in ordered groups. Core disciples occupied higher ground near the elder platforms. Conversations overlapped in every direction.

"The fifth slot really went to Lin Tian."

"He beat Wei Chang and Gao Chen. Even if his realm looks low, no one can call him ordinary now."

"On the ship it won’t matter. Other sects won’t care about our internal rankings."

Lin Tian ignored the voices and stopped at the representative assembly line. His jade token rested against his palm, cool and steady.

A wave of disciplined pressure passed over the platform.

Instructor Qing arrived first among the key figures. Her crimson martial uniform was neat, her hair tied high, her expression cold enough to silence the nearer disciples. As Chief Martial Arts Master and Head Referee, she came only for duty. She moved along the participant lines, checking order, tokens, and boarding groups with sharp efficiency.

Not long after, a heavier presence settled over the platform.

Elder Liu walked out from the Alchemy Peak path in formal emerald robes. Her public face was calm, distant, and flawless. Every trace of the woman who had clung to Lin Tian in a sealed chamber the night before had vanished. Today she was only the Master of Alchemy Peak, carrying the authority of a Core Formation expert and the weight of her position. Disciples lowered their voices when she passed.

From another direction came Elder Bai, accompanied by two formation elders. Her gaze moved less over the crowd and more over the sky above the platform, as if already calculating the structure of the vessel that had yet to appear. She looked elegant and detached, the kind of elder who measured the world in patterns rather than noise.

Lin Tian saw all three of them.

He kept his distance from all three.

On this platform, under so many eyes, distance was the only safe language.

A deep hum rolled through the air.

Light gathered above the southern grounds, first as a thin circle, then as layered formations unfolding one after another. The Flying Spiritual Ship revealed itself from the clouds like a moving fortress of white spirit wood, dark metal ribs, and glowing blue array lines. Its hull was long enough to cast a shadow over half the platform. Multiple decks rose in clear ranks, each marked by different formation barriers. Elder deck occupied the top, core disciples held the middle, and representatives filled the lower sections.

Even silent, the ship pressed on the surroundings with the dignity of a traveling branch of the sect.

"Boarding begins by rank!" a deacon shouted. "Elders first!"

The upper path opened.

Elder Liu boarded without looking left or right. Elder Bai followed with the formation group, her eyes briefly tracking the main flight arrays running along the ship’s side. Instructor Qing remained on the platform a while longer, directing participant lines with short commands.

"Representatives with jade tokens to the second formation gate."

"No pushing."

"Keep your cultivation restrained."

When the representative line began to move, Lin Tian stepped forward. The disciple ahead of him kept glancing back, clearly unsettled to be walking in front of him. At the gate, a steward checked Lin Tian’s token against a glowing board. The jade lit once, accepted.

"Rest chamber seventeen, representative deck," the steward said. "Do not enter elders or core sections without summons."

Lin Tian nodded and boarded.

The inside of the ship was broader than expected. Spirit lamps lined the corridors. Array veins pulsed faintly beneath the floor panels, carrying power toward the main flight core. From the open side deck, disciples could still see the sect grounds below, filled with those staying behind.

His rest chamber was small but clean: one rest platform, one low table, one sealed window, and a basic privacy formation. It was enough. More importantly, it was watched. Every corridor he had passed carried patrol marks and detection lines. Random movement through the ship drew immediate attention.

Lin Tian ran his Insight Eye briefly across the chamber walls. The privacy formation was standard Tier-3 work, adequate for blocking casual divine sense but thin against a focused Core Formation scan. The detection lines in the corridor outside were layered twice, meaning any attempt to leave after curfew would trigger a silent alert to the nearest steward.

He filed the information away. Useful. Not urgent.

Outside his chamber, the last boarding calls echoed.

Lin Tian returned to the rail of the representative deck just as the final groups entered. Instructor Qing was among the last important figures to board, still giving orders until the platform gate began to close. Elder Liu was already nowhere in sight, absorbed into the upper section. Elder Bai stood far ahead near an array pillar with two stewards, speaking quietly and pointing along a line of runes.

Three women shared one ship, and no free path connected them.

Further down the boarding line, Gao Chen stepped through the gate with his long sword sheathed at his hip. His expression carried the same quiet focus he had worn during their spar. He glanced once toward the elder deck above, then settled his gaze forward and disappeared into the representative corridor.

A deep bell rang through every deck.

"All boarding complete!"

"Seal outer gates!"

"Activate main flight arrays!"

The blue lines along the hull brightened in sequence. Wind rose around the vessel, then was pressed flat by formation force. The Flying Spiritual Ship lifted with controlled power, first above the platform, then above the roofs of the Inner Sect, then above the whole mountain range that held Crimson Nimbus Sect.

Disciples crowded the outer rails.

Some looked excited, some nervous, and some simply stared back at the shrinking home grounds in silence.

Lin Tian remained where he was, one hand on the rail, eyes steady.

Behind him, lower-deck disciples still whispered his name. Above him, elders occupied spaces sealed to his rank. Somewhere on this same vessel were Elder Liu, Instructor Qing, and Elder Bai, each locked into their public roles by rank and necessity.

The sect had been a board of local politics, hidden rooms, and controlled secrets.

The ship was narrower.

Fewer places to hide, more eyes in less space, and every approach would need a proper reason.

Lin Tian studied the main flight arrays as they hummed to full power beneath the hull. The energy routing was efficient but conventional, a standard sect-grade formation that prioritized stability over speed. Whoever maintained these arrays had chosen safety above all else. The patterns were clean, predictable, and easy to read.

He memorized three key junction points out of habit. An engineer’s instinct. Nothing more.

The Flying Spiritual Ship turned toward the distant tournament route, gathering speed as the last lights of Crimson Nimbus Sect fell away into the morning haze.

Lin Tian watched until the mountain vanished.

Then he left the rail and walked back toward rest chamber seventeen.

The journey had begun.

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