Chapter 179 - 152: Star Plunder Plan

Chapter 179: Chapter 152: Star Plunder Plan

Yan Jiulin, leading the group, was haggling with the pilot of the Immortal Ship.

"We just want to go up and borrow some Spiritual Qi to cultivate for half a day and hopefully achieve a breakthrough. Your price is too high," Yan Jiulin said.

"This is the Nineteenth Heaven we’re talking about. Level Seven Spiritual Qi concentration. It’s thirty Level-Four Spirit Coins per person. Not one coin less," said the pilot.

Immortal Ship pilots had their ways of making money on the side.

They would treat people as cargo, smuggling them to the higher levels of the Floating City and letting them cultivate while the Immortal Ship was docked.

It was far more cost-effective than going up through official channels.

And the higher the levels an Immortal Ship pilot worked, the more they could make.

Every trade had similar unwritten rules. As long as people and greed existed, there would be loopholes; it was impossible to eliminate them completely.

Yan Jiulin argued with the pilot for a long time, eventually managing to haggle the price down by Five Spirit Coins per person.

He seemed to thoroughly enjoy getting into character.

When acting as a key member of the Ascetic Order, he had the air of a compassionate savior, wanting to liberate all of humanity. As the boss of True Source Technology, he wore the worried expression of a factory owner.

Now, playing the part of a "snakehead" smuggling people, he adopted the stingy demeanor of someone from the bottom rungs of the gray market.

He was a natural at any role he played. No wonder he had so many different personas.

With the price settled, the group successfully entered the cargo hold and was led to a cramped compartment.

It was incredibly stuffy and hot inside, with thin air. The compartment was close to the Immortal Ship’s reactor; anyone at the Qi Cultivation Realm would surely develop problems from the oppressive heat if they stayed for long.

With a loud RUMBLE, the fully loaded Immortal Ship began to move.

Traveling through the Immortal Ship’s dedicated channel, Zhang Ji and the others ascended toward the Seventeenth Heaven, moving even faster than they would on a normal sky-lift.

They could clearly feel the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the outside world increasing.

It soon reached a Level Six concentration of Spiritual Qi.

At this concentration, a cultivator wouldn’t lack for Spiritual Qi, even when breaking through to the Golden Core realm.

Normally, one would have to be at the Tenth Heaven or higher to find Spiritual Qi of this concentration.

The Immortal Ship continued its ascent. After an unknown amount of time, it came to a stop.

Puppets and machinery arrived to unload the cargo and haul it away.

After the cargo was gone, the pilot walked over with a slight bow. "You’d better start cultivating. We’re only stopping for six hours."

With that said, he left, looking pleased with himself.

Now that he had his money, he was naturally going to find the "good sisters" at Silk Tree Technology and spend a little. How else could he justify all their pining for him?

.....

"We move according to the plan. Regroup here within six hours," Yan Jiulin ordered.

In the next instant, the group concealed their auras and swiftly disembarked from the Immortal Ship.

Under the cover of darkness, Zhang Ji followed Yan Jiulin, moving rapidly toward their target: a warehouse belonging to Eternal Steed Immortal Ship Technology.

Kong Jue and the others followed close behind.

Security around the warehouse was tight. Yan Jiulin sent out a ripple with his Divine Thought, and several team members Zhang Ji didn’t recognize sprang into action. They took out Array Plates one after another, installing them in the surrounding area.

On Yan Jiulin’s command, the local Spirit Net signal was instantly severed.

The moment the Spirit Net signal went down, the entire area’s alarm system kicked in.

A crimson beam of Spiritual Power shot skyward, an emergency flare, but an Ascetic Order member intercepted it mid-flight, releasing a bag that swallowed it whole.

A deafening alarm that should have been audible for miles blared, but the Array Plates blocked the sound, preventing it from spreading.

The automated flying swords and patrol Puppets began to search, quickly encountering the members of the Ascetic Order.

"I’ll handle it!"

Huo Chuan spoke, and the flesh and bone of his chest split apart. A swirling black hole opened near his lungs, generating a ferocious suction that pulled in all the patrol swords and Puppets. Vaguely, one could see flesh and sinew within, grinding the metal bodies to scrap before consuming them.

With his Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivation, these Puppets and automated swords—at best equivalent to Early-stage Golden Core—were nothing to him.

With Huo Chuan clearing the way, the group advanced without pause, easily cutting a path to the warehouse entrance.

VMMMM!

A yellowish-brown energy membrane materialized, blocking their path.

It formed a semi-elliptical dome over the entire warehouse, its surface covered in a dense web of Spirit Patterns.

"It’s a nested array with three layers inside," Cui Wei said. "Breaking one layer is useless; we have to break all three simultaneously. Given our time limit, cracking it quickly will be difficult."

"Leave it to me," said Kong Jue.

He flew forward and threw open his robes. A dense swarm of Spirit-Devouring Ants, each shimmering with white spiritual light, poured from his body, forming a storm that rushed toward the array.

As the Spirit-Devouring Ants gnawed at it, the array began to flicker. Within a few breaths, its Spirit Patterns had dimmed and its operations grew sluggish.

"That makes things much easier," Cui Wei said with a smile.

He immediately stepped forward and, channeling his Spiritual Power, began to reverse-engineer the grand array.

No matter how advanced, every array requires energy to function.

The Spirit-Devouring Ants directly disrupt the flow of Spiritual Power, so no matter how formidable the array, flaws will inevitably appear.

This was also the most direct method of breaking an array.

This was the same principle the Ascetic Order would later use when they attacked the Nine-Turned Quantum Furnace, cutting off power to the Xuanji Array of Ten Thousand Transformations beforehand.

"Who goes there?! Such audacity! You dare cause trouble at my Eternal Steed Immortal Ship Technology?!"

A thunderous shout echoed across the area, accompanied by a surge of immense Spiritual Power and pressure.

"Nascent Soul Peak! It’s that old bastard Yu Kang!" Kong Jue’s eyebrows shot up; he seemed to recognize the person who had arrived.

"Stop him! Buy us time to break the array!" Cui Wei said via a mental transmission.

"We’ll handle him," Yan Jiulin replied.

Yan Jiulin then signaled for Zhang Ji and Huo Chuan to follow him. The three of them moved to intercept the approaching expert.

Before they saw the person, Zhang Ji and the others first spotted a streak of golden light.

The light was moving at incredible speed, arriving before them in an instant.

It resolved into an old man dressed in blue-gray robes. Not far behind him, more streaks of light were approaching, and other members of the Ascetic Order moved to intercept them.

The old man before them was Yu Kang, the Golden Sword True Monarch of Eternal Steed Immortal Ship Technology, a grand cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

Even in the Floating City, he would be considered among the experts just a tier below the absolute top.

This was the kind of deep foundation and hard power a major faction needed to establish itself in the Nineteenth Heaven.

Without a word, Yan Jiulin and Huo Chuan attacked at almost the same instant.

Spirit Patterns on Yan Jiulin’s skin flared to life as Spiritual Artifacts of various colors materialized around him and shot in a volley toward Yu Kang. Huo Chuan, meanwhile, simply clenched his fist and charged, throwing a punch straight at the old man.

Yu Kang’s expression remained unchanged. With a wave of his hand, six golden swords materialized around him. Two of them shot toward Yan Jiulin and Huo Chuan as immense Spiritual Power erupted skyward. Amid a flash of golden light, the attacks from both sides collided.

The Sword Gang from the golden swords shattered most of Yan Jiulin’s Spiritual Artifacts before they could get close. Huo Chuan’s iron fist clashed with another golden sword, sending out fiery sparks of Spiritual Power as he was forced back.

’The power of those golden swords is truly extraordinary,’ Zhang Ji thought. ’One of them could probably match my own full-power palm strike.’

’In a world with such a well-developed Extraordinary System and long history, the upper limits of an expert’s strength are indeed far greater than on a barren place like Origin Star.’

Most of Yan Jiulin’s Spiritual Artifacts had been destroyed, but he himself was unharmed. He opened his mouth and spat out a cone-shaped Spiritual Artifact that clashed with the golden sword. A massive wave of Spiritual Power erupted from the impact, and the violent aftershock that spread through the air was terrifying to behold.

"Hurry up and help! It’ll be trouble once everyone else gets here!"

Yan Jiulin shouted at Zhang Ji, who was just watching the show. At the same time, he unleashed another beam of spiritual light at Yu Kang.

Seeing this, Zhang Ji stopped holding back. He raised a hand, sent out a palm strike, and joined the fray.