The immortal realm didn’t seem all that different from the Immortal Continent. Other than squirrels and strange fruits that I didn’t know the name of but still ate anyway, I hadn’t really encountered anything different. Mm, it’s only now that my brain is clear of impurities that I can see how different the two places really are. The fact that this sight is incredible and probably not able to be seen anywhere else is also playing a big part. “Slayer Junior, look at that flying eel!”

“That’s a dragon,” Slayer Junior said. He was standing next to me, but unlike me, he had a rope tied around his waist, and the other end of the rope was tied to the boat’s mast. It only took a week of the ruler’s exposure therapy to fix Slayer Junior’s fear of heights. Well, mostly fixed. His lower half still trembles like a leaf on a branch on a windy day.

Mm, anyway, there’s not just a dragon that’s in the air. There are birds too and floating boats and floating purple boats and massive animals flying all around. I’m going to use the necklace Ilya gave me to record a video of this. If I show this to Sophia and Softie, I won’t even have to use violence to convince them to come to the immortal realm—not that I’d ever use violence on Sophia. As for Softie…, noogies don’t count as violence, do they? Of course not. Anyways, who wouldn’t want to see views like this? I always thought nobles were a little dumb for paying lots of gold for paintings to decorate their homes. Maybe those paintings were supposed to capture a little bit of this feeling I’m having right now. If so, those painters weren’t that great.

“We have a nice view, don’t we?” the ruler asked, appearing by Slayer Junior’s side. She nudged the trembling squirrel closer to the boat’s railings before walking over to me. “Those boats over there are owned by humans. Their individual emblems and sect colors don’t matter because squirrels have an ongoing truce with them. Actually, we have ongoing truces with everyone present; they just differ in the degrees of friendliness we show. That’s why we don’t attack anyone first, but if anyone’s hostile towards us, it’s okay to rip their heads off and shred their souls.”

We don’t attack anyone first? That perfectly follows my policy! As long as someone targets me, then they’re a bad person, and it doesn’t matter what I do to a bad person because karma will label my actions as good. Mhm. I knew my logic made sense somewhere. There simply weren’t enough squirrels around in the Immortal Continent. I wonder if my ancestor died there. Hmm. Whatever happened to him? I’d ask the ruler, but that might bring up bad memories, and I don’t want her to be upset while on a trip with me. What if she turns unreasonable like Durandal and forces me to fight with handicaps, so she can watch and enjoy my suffering? Right, it’s best to ask something like that later. Besides, it doesn’t really matter what happened to my ancestor … unless he left behind a big inheritance for me. Which I don’t think he did because I certainly didn’t grow up with one.

“Those boats over there are owned by the demons,” the ruler said. “Purple is their holy color. Generally, if something is purple and is emitting spiritual energy, then it’s an item that’s related to, or will benefit, demons. Keep in mind, even though there are less boats on the demon’s side compared to the humans, they still brought out an equal amount of combat power. Their boats hit harder and move faster, but they’re much more expensive to make.”

Why is the ruler telling me this? Is she trying to point something out? I’m really not sure, but I think she’s telling me to rob demons instead of humans in the ancient ruins because their items are worth more…. Mm, that must be it. Ah? Ask her to clarify? And have her think I’m stupid? No way!

“That flying whale over there is a popular form of transportation that dragons like to employ. They live deep within the sea,” the ruler said and nudged me with her elbow. “Another reason why we didn’t go to the dragon clan to capture a void dragon. As for why the whale can fly and be perfectly fine despite being out of water, it’s not actually a whale. It’s a flying boat crafted in the shape of the whale.”

So…, don’t bother hunting the whale to eat it because it’ll taste like metal and wood. Got it.

“I bet you know what race the group of individuals waiting inside that carriage are,” the ruler said and pointed at a floating carriage that had wheels which obviously didn’t do anything because the vehicle was in the air. What made even less sense was the red fire burning underneath the carriage. Maybe the people inside are cold and heating the carriage like that helps them relax on a cold day, but the problem is, it’s not even that chilly out. Then again, I haven’t felt chilly ever since I got good at manipulating my qi—not that there was ever a time I was bad at it, okay?

Anyways, the ruler’s right. It’s quite obvious who’s inside the carriage. “Vermillion birds.”

“Although that’s a reasonable guess, it’s not right,” the ruler said and beamed at me. Was she happy I was wrong? “That carriage belongs to the blazing spider race.”

No wonder why I was wrong. The answer made no sense. Why are spiders so…, what’s the word? Everywhere? They’re good at growing mushrooms. They’re good at taking care of homes. They’re good at removing people’s brains and helping them regrow. Now, they’re good at driving flying carriages that’re on fire?

“Pfft.” For some reason, it sounded like the ruler was holding back a laugh. “I’m kidding,” she said and patted my head. “That carriage belongs to the vermillion birds. There’s no such thing as the blazing spider race. They existed tens of thousands of years ago, but they went extinct during a spider war.”

…Did the ruler just play a prank on me? Masters are allowed to do that to their disciples? No wonder why Ilya likes reading instruction manuals and rulebooks. I need a list of things disciples and masters are allowed and not allowed to do to each other!