Zhao Shenguang used to be Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi’s sidekick, once upon a time. He’d managed to climb to the seat of celestial emperor only because of his connection to them. How, then, did he dare act against the Chen Clan?

A portion of Qing clansmen were being purged as well. Taking all of his actions together, it was evident that something had happened to Qing Buyi and Chen Xiao.

Lu Yun didn’t have a particularly strong relationship with either of the two men, but they’d gone to the Endless Desert in western Nephrite to search for the fruit of the Ancient Tree of Life and he certainly hadn’t wanted them to run into any danger.

If they still don’t show up after I get the Skydragon Pearl, I’ll make a trip myself! the young man decided.

Upon the blood sea, eleven fortress ships remained, aside from Li Youcai’s. The rest had been torn to pieces by the monsters. The ships’ passengers were immortals from the Lu and Chen Clans, and the strongest among them were golden immortals. The ships weren't of good quality; in fact, they were several steps down from the one Qing Han had sailed in the beginning. These were barely first-rank treasures.

Lu Yun couldn’t just let these people die, though. The Lu ancestor had saved him from the Qing dao immortal, then backed up Aoxue when she blockaded the Qing Clan’s doors. There was no further enmity between his clan and himself.

As for the Chen Clan… when Qing Han had been shunned by his clan, when he’d been viewed as a source of misfortune by the entire capital, the Chen Clan had still called the lad one of their own and taken him in. Plus, Qing Yu was there as well!

Boom!

Lu Yun summoned a large fortress ship with a wave of his hand. The ninth-rank treasures arrayed upon it roared their might, repelling endless waves of sea monsters with blast after radiant blast.

“Get on!” he called out. Using the ship’s spirit key, he unleashed the vessel’s manifold arsenal of weaponry to cut a swathe through the bloody sea. The passengers on the dilapidated ships took to the sky on their swords, eager to avoid a brutal death at the sea monsters’ hands.

They were at the sea’s edge. Though monsters teemed here as well, they were far fewer in number compared to deeper in, and weaker, as well. They were peerless immortals, at most!

In the depths of the bloody sea lived countless dao immortal monsters. There, peerless immortals were little better than ants. If Lu Yun had dared bring out his ship there, he would’ve been torn to pieces in an instant. Here, however, the fortress ship thrived.

At the same time, he sent out the nine bloodcorpses to form a Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends out of thin air, summoning a colossal shadow that rampaged amid the waves. However, Lu Yun astutely noticed that the fiend summoned this time exhibited a strange anxiety.

Indeed, the demonic shadow that could slay peerless immortals in a single strike was afraid of the bloody sea. In these waters, it fought at only two-thirds strength. If Feinie hadn’t been its summoner, and if the Tome of Life and Death hadn’t powered the formation, the formation wouldn't have been able to call the shadow at all.

Still, a fiendish shadow that was at seventy percent was more than sufficient. His fortress ship sailed slowly through the air, headed toward the other eleven.

“That’s Lu Yun! It’s his fortress ship!” Upon a Lu Clan ship, Lu Qingshuang immediately recognized the friendly vessel. “Lu Yun disappeared for a year and three months. Everyone thought he was dead, but I guess this is where he’s been!”

Her pretty eyes flashed with gladness. Though she’d lost to him back in Xiankan, the lesson she’d received had helped her form her own sword intent and she was now a formidable swordsman in her own right. The heritage tower Lu Yun had left behind had increased her strength many times over as well, and she was now capable of defeating true immortals as a mere cultivator.

After being exiled to the bloody sea, she’d lost all hope. A sole exception in the form of a golden immortal had lived through the ordeal and brought back a connate treasure, but that was a one-in-a-million occurrence. There was no way they’d survive here!

Her ship wouldn’t have held on for much longer if Lu Yun hadn’t appeared in the nick of time. As they rode the ship that’d carved a path of corpses through Xiankan, the Lu and Chen immortals were filled with a new hope.

Rrrumble….

Wherever the ship went, the sea monsters shrieked in pain before disintegrating. More scattered in every direction in an attempt to survive.

This was the first time Lu Yun had fired the ship up to full power, and the amount of devastation it dealt had far exceeded his imagination. Of course, that had a commensurate price as well: twelve million immortal crystals were burned as fuel. The vast amount of wealth he’d accumulated from kills since he’d left Dusk Province had just gone up in flames.

“Steer your ships after me!” Lu Yun’s voice echoed through the air. He put his hands up to the sky, invoking bolt after bolt of Cleansing Thunder in all directions, scattering the regrouping monsters. The captains of the eleven other ships shook in disbelief, then directed their ships to break free of the bloody sea as best they could.

Qing Han and the others leisurely sailed on four black paper boats behind them. Under the radiance of the white lanterns, they remained unscathed by the battle.

Lu Yun’s face grew continuously paler after quite a few powerful monsters had broken through the formation and protective light shell to strike at his ship proper. Having refined the ship as his personal treasure, he felt physically ill whenever the fortress ship was attacked. Thankfully, the ship was too sturdy to actually cause him any injury from the aftershocks, and by now the coast was already visible in the distance.

……

“Hmm? Why have they returned?” A great city was situated on the coast of the bloody sea. Originally built as a line of defense against a potential monstrous outbreak from the crimson depths, the city had become more and more bustling since that golden immortal’s serendipitous find. Particularly desperate immortals sometimes traveled here in a last-ditch attempt to turn their fortunes.

Upon the nameless city’s walls, a blond man furrowed his brows. He’d spotted the dozen or so fortress ships on their way out of the sea.

“This isn’t such a bad thing though,” the man sneered. “His Majesty wanted an excuse to strike against the Chen and Lu Clans, regardless. You’re ramming yourselves onto the tip of the spear!”

“That fortress ship must be the one Chen Xiao took from the Ling Clan. Lu Yun is here too, hmm? Excellent! I’ll kill him with the rest!” The blond man waved a hand, beckoning countless troops to his side.

“Eh?!” His face colored. “What are those four boats? The ones made of black paper? Why aren’t the sea monsters attacking them?! Do they have the ability to sail the Blood Sea?”

The twelve fortress ships were airborne, while Qing Han’s paper boats were drifting along the water’s surface.