World-Crossing Golden Ship

The painted pleasure boat took flight from Chonghua Immortal City, heading toward the Realm of the Great Void. Aboard the vessel, Xu Ying gazed ahead, his chest surging with emotion. He could feel the reverence and worship flowing from countless Qi Refiners, immortals, and gods; his incense qi flourished by the day, and his divine power grew ever stronger. Suddenly, he leaped from the pleasure boat and plummeted from midair. Uncle Xiao startled in alarm and moved to rescue him, but Yuan Weiyang raised a hand and gently shook her head. Xu Ying fell swiftly through the sky, when abruptly the incense qi behind him transmuted into divine power, coursing through every corner of his body. He stomped down hard, sending a booming tremor through the sky, and sprinted through empty air, charging upward from below to soar aloft once more. *Whoosh!* As Xu Ying sprinted forward, his fists and feet unleashed a relentless barrage. Executing martial arts techniques of every kind, he resembled a thousand-armed divine demon locked in combat with invisible foes, tearing heaven and earth asunder! For the past few years, he had been devoid of all magic power, without even a trace of vital qi in his body. He could only cultivate the martial Dao, attempting to carve out a path to survival using this most primordial of roads. Over these years, his martial arts had been honed to consummate mastery. Unleashed now, it was more dazzling than fireworks. His fists and kicks were fierce and domineering, puncturing the void, until the sky over this fringe of the Immortal Realm shook violently beneath his blows, faintly revealing traces of another world. "The Other Shore of the Martial Dao!" Yuan Weiyang exclaimed. The other shore loomed faintly, drawing seemingly closer and closer to Xu Ying. With countless punches and kicks puncturing the void, Xu Ying crossed the expanse in the flesh, steadily closing the distance to the Other Shore of the Martial Dao! "Follow him!" Yuan Weiyang urged at once. Uncle Xiao hurriedly spurred the pleasure boat into pursuit, his heart full of shock and doubt. *Is entering the Realm of the Great Void really this easy?* He was an Earth Immortal, yet traveling to the Realm of the Great Void was immensely troublesome even for him; it required Yuan Weiyang's formidable divine consciousness to locate the Realm of the Great Void and pull the pleasure boat inside. Without divine consciousness of that caliber, one could only determine the other shore's coordinates via a Nuo ancestor cave-heaven and cross through it into the Realm of the Great Void. Nowadays, however, let alone those who cultivated Nuo ancestor cave-heavens, even those who practiced cave-heaven methods designed for leek-harvesting had been harvested clean by the Immortal Emperor. What circulated throughout the world today consisted solely of orthodox Qi Refinement arts and the New Dao. The third way to enter the Realm of the Great Void was via Weixu, but Uncle Xiao did not know how to get into Weixu either. Yet Xu Ying had actually punched straight through the void to reach the Realm of the Great Void purely through his martial arts attainment! Such martial talent paired with the Leakless Golden Body was truly terrifying! Suddenly, the heavens shook violently. The barrier between the Immortal Realm and the Realm of the Great Void was finally blown open by Xu Ying's fist, leaving a breach over a hundred zhang across. Standing tall, Xu Ying stepped into the opening and set foot upon the Other Shore of the Martial Dao. The breach was already closing; Uncle Xiao hurriedly steered the pleasure boat through before it could shut. It was their very first time setting foot on the Other Shore of the Martial Dao. The moment they entered, an extraordinarily potent surge of pure masculine vigor rushed over them, buffeting their minds and stirring their souls. It was as though mighty martial masters were still here, contemplating new heights of the martial path and branding the martial spirit into the very void! Yuan Weiyang curiously took in their surroundings. The Other Shore of the Martial Dao was a marvelous realm outside the Six Great Other Shores, yet an unremarkable other shore within the Realm of the Great Void. To be precise, the Other Shore of the Martial Dao had not originally existed in the Realm of the Great Void. A martial master of immense comprehension and perseverance had entered the Dao through martial arts, holding back with his martial cultivation alone the heavenly tribulation that had blocked cultivators for forty-eight thousand years. Surviving the tribulation, this Great Emperor of the Martial Dao had carved his way through the void in the midst of heavenly lightning and unexpectedly arrived in the Realm of the Great Void, carving out half of an other shore in the void and naming it the Other Shore of the Martial Dao. Yet because he had cultivated only the martial Dao, his cultivation remained incomplete in certain aspects; failing to comprehend the Dao of Yin and Yang or cultivate the Two Qis of Yin and Yang, he remained unable to transcend the heavenly tribulation. This man was named Shen Luo, revered as the Commoner Emperor Wu. Xu Ying walked upon the Other Shore of the Martial Dao, the divine power churning around him gradually subsiding. Having no vital qi in his body, he had just fueled his martial arts with divine power to shatter the void. Compared to vital qi, divine power had many shortcomings. Divine power was an energy condensed from incense qi; only gods or immortals who practiced divine paths could condense it. But attaining godhood through incense carried an innate defect: the prayers of sentient beings were vast and chaotic, spanning every conceivable desire—praying for marriage, sons, wealth, official rank, and even malicious wishes from those of wicked heart. A Dao Ancestor, however, was different. The reverence Qi Refiners, immortals, and gods offered to a Dao Ancestor was the passing of the torch, gratitude for the bestowal of mantle and teachings. When Qi Refiners offered incense, it was out of gratitude to the Dao Ancestor, often with no requests attached. This variety of divine power was exceptionally pure. Even so, compared to magic power tempered through countless trials, divine power possessed major vulnerabilities. Once belief was lost, the divine power was severed from its source. When worship turned to condemnation, divine power would decline, and the god would wither and perish. Nevertheless, divine power also possessed advantages that vital qi lacked. When the Dao weeping erupted in ancient times, countless cultivators died from it, yet many immortals and gods who cultivated the divine path survived, precisely due to the effects of divine power. Xu Ying arrived at the martial training grounds left behind by Emperor Wu Shen Luo and his contemporaries. The place was permeated by a potent innate true qi, teeming with vitality—a powerful energy born from the void, which could hardly be properly termed an immortal medicine. It was unlike the other Ten Sights of Taixu, which were Qingxuan's Dao realms. Nuo Masters opened cave-heavens that connected to Taixu and refined the Dao power within those realms into immortal medicine; all those immortal medicines originated from Qingxuan's Dao realms. In contrast, the innate true qi of the Other Shore of the Martial Dao came directly from the void. Once martial experts opened the other shore, their innate true qi would become exceptionally dense, granting them extraordinary power! "And yet, this is also similar to a cave abyss," Xu Ying suddenly realized. Emperor Wu Shen Luo had only ever seen the Six Great Other Shores, leading him to believe they had all been forged by human hands. Thus, he had resolved to blaze his own path, forging an other shore to benefit all practitioners of the martial arts. Within the void, he had forcibly pounded out an Other Shore of the Martial Dao. But had he laid eyes not on an other shore back then, but rather on Xu Ying's New Dao cave abysses, he could have created a martial cave abyss! For the cave abysses of the New Dao, the immortal spirit qi produced by their immortal mountains all came from the void! The innate true qi in Shen Luo's Other Shore of the Martial Dao also came from the void. Though there were no immortal mountains here, the land beneath their feet served the exact same role. *Emperor Wu Shen Luo possessed peerless talent. He simply lacked good fortune, falling half a step short of becoming a Dao Ancestor. He could well be counted as the Dao Ancestor of Martial Arts,* Xu Ying mused. The reason it was called half a step was that Emperor Wu Shen Luo had never completely opened the Other Shore of the Martial Dao. Even pooling the strength of Wu Tianzun, Zhai Wuxian, and others, they had been unable to complete the endeavor. Only later, after Little Celestial Venerable obtained the mended Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art from Xu Ying, did he fight his way into the Other Shore of the Martial Dao and finish opening it. *If he had formed a martial cave abyss, Shen Luo would not have been merely Emperor Wu, but Martial Ancestor. Still, Ergou could probably count as the other half of the Martial Ancestor,* Xu Ying thought. Shen Luo and Little Celestial Venerable could undoubtedly go very far! Shen Luo in particular had created an other shore out of nothingness even earlier than Xu Ying had pioneered the new immortal Dao. He had simply stopped one step short, failing to establish the New Dao's most crucial core ahead of Xu Ying, which resulted in Xu Ying receiving the merit of the New Dao's Dao Ancestor. Naturally, had Shen Luo divided his focus to study paths of cultivation outside the martial Dao, he would never have achieved something so astonishing. Xu Ying returned to the pleasure boat and smiled. "Let's go! We seek that dragon multistoried ship!" He had finally glimpsed a glimmer of hope: to unlock his own other shore through innate martial arts, forming a martial cave abyss to heal his Dao wounds and return to his peak! The pleasure boat traveled through the void. The void was simply too vast, boundless and without end. Even the Ten Sights of Taixu, grand as entire worlds, appeared tiny and insignificant within it. The pleasure boat was by no means slow, yet in such an expansive void, its pace still seemed sluggish. Fortunately, they were not the only ones in the Realm of the Great Void. Many immortals had arrived from Weixu to temper themselves and seek treasures. These immortals traveled to the Ten Dao Sights to harvest the Two Qis of Xuanhuang, Chaos Qi, and other treasures to forge magical treasures, while others chose to cultivate within those Dao sights. For most unaffiliated immortals, this was a supreme holy land of cultivation. Naturally, Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang also saw many perfected immortals piloting all manner of treasures, attempting to pursue that gigantic multistoried ship rampaging through the Realm of the Great Void. There were plenty who recognized quality; they were hardly alone. Many had realized that the multistoried ship inside the Realm of the Great Void was a rare treasure and sought to claim it. "That multistoried ship is ahead of us!" Uncle Xiao pointed forward, sounding excited. Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang looked over to see the colossal ship barreling through the void. The vessels piloted by the perfected immortals chasing it were exceedingly numerous, densely packed, and far faster than their pleasure boat. They left Xu Ying and company far in their wake, speeding away. The pleasure boat was a magic treasure refined by Uncle Xiao. As an Earth Immortal, his realm was the highest among the three, yet the speed of the treasure he refined was far inferior to the others', leaving them to chug slowly along in pursuit. As the chase went on, the multistoried ship and the throng of perfected immortals vanished from their line of sight. Uncle Xiao persevered, spurring the pleasure boat onwards in hot pursuit. After more than twenty days like this, Yuan Weiyang suddenly spoke: "Uncle Xiao, stop chasing!" Uncle Xiao said, "Young Miss, are you giving up?" Yuan Weiyang went to the stern and said, "That multistoried ship has already circled the Realm of the Great Void and come up behind us." Uncle Xiao froze. He turned his head and saw that the giant ship was indeed rushing right toward them. Behind it, scores of immortals were using all sorts of divine arts and casting chains in an attempt to drag the vessel to a halt, yet they could not slow it down in the slightest. The giant multistoried ship trailed over a hundred vessels and precious chariots of varying sizes, roaring along like mad. Countless ships and carriages had been shaken to pieces, and those that had not fallen apart collided with one another, battered and ruined. Many immortals had already clung onto the outer hull of the ship, crawling upward with difficulty in an effort to board it, while many others leaped from their respective rides and dropped toward the deck. Suddenly, sword light swirled within the multistoried ship. A flurry of blood erupted above it, and before those immortals could even enter the ship, they were struck dead! They were peerlessly sharp golden swords flowing across the sky above the multistoried ship like a golden cloud. When Xu Ying had visited this place before, he had also planned to claim the ship, only to be driven back by these golden swords and forced to abandon the attempt. The ship bore down on the pleasure boat; at this speed, it would utterly smash them to pieces! "Weiyang, cast me!" Xu Ying called out suddenly. Hearing this, Yuan Weiyang did not hesitate to cast Xu Ying forth. His figure soared into the air, flying toward the multistoried ship as ancient, monumental buildings flashed beneath him. Many buildings bore the style of the Dragon Court era, valuing grandeur as beauty and venerating dragons, adorned with countless dragon patterns! *I guessed right. It truly is the World-Crossing Golden Ship built under the Sky-Stealing Plan of the Dragon Court!* Xu Ying rejoiced internally. As he dropped downward, countless sword rays shot forth from the ancient dragon structures, stabbing toward him in unison! *Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!* A dense series of crisp metallic clangs rang out. In an instant, Xu Ying was turned into a golden hedgehog of a sphere nearly a zhang across. Yuan Weiyang called out nervously, "Ah Ying, how are you?" No sooner had she spoken than the golden swords impaling Xu Ying's body suddenly shattered with a crash, each sword breaking into fine powder! Uncle Xiao gasped, "Master Son-in-law's body is this tough?" Yet Xu Ying had not resisted all the golden swords. A golden sword was lodged into every single one of his pre-existing wounds—twenty-seven golden swords in all. Even if he hadn't been turned into a porcupine, the pain made him tremble. The Leakless Golden Body was originally impervious to these golden swords, but the twenty-seven wounds remaining on his body had allowed them an opening. Fortunately, aside from these twenty-seven golden swords, there were no other flying swords left. Yuan Weiyang and Uncle Xiao rushed over. Yuan Weiyang extended her slender hand and pulled out one of the golden swords. The dragon scales upon the sword's blade rattled loudly, and sword light filled the sky in an instant, turning to strike at her! Its might was fiercely domineering, the roving sword light like a colossal dragon stretching its head down to blot out the heavens, suffocatingly oppressive! Were this blow to fall, it could likely obliterate both her and Uncle Xiao! Yuan Weiyang was alarmed. Even after tens of millions of years, upon falling into her grasp, this sword could still erupt with such startling power. It was truly formidable. When freshly forged, the might of every sword here had probably rivaled a Golden Immortal treasure! She poured her magic power into the sword to suppress it, immediately quenching the terrifying sword qi. She followed suit, pulling out each of the other immortal swords one by one. Blood gushed from Xu Ying's wounds, and he hastily mobilized his divine power to seal them. The three landed on the ship. Yuan Weiyang looked around at the towering, magnificent structures. The brilliance of the Dragon Court era was readily apparent in these buildings; even in flight, their golden ship remained resplendent, radiating a grand and wild aesthetic! "A colossal ship like this, possessing its own ecosystem, is practically a miniature planet. Weren't they supposed to flee this universe and head for the other shore?" Yuan Weiyang murmured, "Yet why did they return? And why are they trapped in the Realm of the Great Void?" Enduring the pain, Xu Ying urged swiftly, "Weiyang, quick, refine the ship's control center!" Just then, a strange yet familiar aura surged toward them. Xu Ying's expression changed abruptly, and he shouted in warning: "Watch out! This ship has been to the other shore!" Scarcely had his words fallen when faint, ghostly sounds of Dao weeping drifted over...