Seeing Lan Xiaobu’s displeased expression, Hu Youqing could only say, “How about this, Brother Lan? You can explore Xueru Dao City first, and I’ll notify you when the Listening to the Dao is ready to depart.”
Lan Xiaobu shook his head, “Forget it, a—Mmonth is fine. Take me to find a good room. I’ll stay there and wait.”
“Alright, I’ll take Brother Lan to find a room further inside, and I’ll try to get you a spacious one in the lower deck,” Hu Youqing said eagerly.
“Wait a moment…” Lan Xiaobu interrupted. “Hu, I’m paying five million five hundred thousand high-grade Dao crystals, and I only get a lower deck room?”
Though Lan Xiaobu had never been on a ruin-breaking ship, he wasn’t clueless. He knew that lower deck rooms were typically the lowest grade, while upper deck rooms were the better ones.
Hu Youqing said apologetically, “Five million five hundred thousand can only get you a lower deck cabin. The one million Dao crystal rooms at the market don’t even qualify as lower deck cabins. By the time you reach Chenji Market, only corner rooms are left, as their lower deck cabins are sold out.”
“How much for a mid-grade or high-grade room?” Lan Xiaobu asked.
Hu Youqing replied, “Mid-grade rooms range from seven million to ten million Dao crystals, while high-grade rooms are generally ten million and above. However, rooms at the ship’s edge are slightly cheaper.”
Lan Xiaobu thought to himself, he hadn’t even boarded yet, and they were already asking for more Dao crystals. He figured that once the ship started flying, moving from a lower deck to a mid-grade cabin would likely cost at least ten million.
With this in mind, Lan Xiaobu said, “Friend Hu, I only have six million five hundred thousand Dao crystals. Get me a mid-grade room. I don’t need one deep inside, just one at the edge.”
Lan Xiaobu guessed that the ship’s edge might be more dangerous during flight, which would explain the lower price. But for him, the edge was safer—if anything happened, he could escape immediately.
Hu Youqing gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, I should still be able to arrange that. Please follow me, Brother Lan.”
From below, the ship already looked massive, but once onboard, it felt even more expansive. Lan Xiaobu didn’t care about the exact cost of the ticket. He handed over six million five hundred thousand high-grade Dao crystals to Hu Youqing, who secured a jade token for a mid-grade room.
The room number was 3071, located at the ship’s edge.
“Brother Lan, I’ll take my leave. For anything else, just wait for announcements,” Hu Youqing said, bringing Lan Xiaobu to the room before hurriedly departing.
Lan Xiaobu estimated that after boarding, he’d likely have to pay another three or four million high-grade Dao crystals to reach Jiubian Sea City. He was used to such mid-journey price gouging and had mentally prepared for it when he boarded.
The room was about twenty square meters, sufficient for Lan Xiaobu. He didn’t need a large space, just one suitable for secluded cultivation.
After setting up several defensive restrictions in the room, Lan Xiaobu used void array patterns to place a monitoring array outside before returning inside.
Extending his divine sense, he could clearly see the situation outside. Except for the rooms, which had divine sense-blocking restrictions, his divine sense could freely sweep through other areas.
Inside the room, a list of ship rules was posted. The main ones were: first, no fighting was allowed on the ship; second, forcibly breaking into someone else’s room restrictions was prohibited, except for ship stewards performing their duties; third, in times of crisis, all passengers must fight to protect the ruin-breaking ship. Violators would generally be killed.
There were also rules four through ten, such as no setting up spirit-gathering arrays, no excessive noise, and no moving from lower to higher-grade cabins without permission. Lan Xiaobu didn’t pay much attention to these.
It was only a few decades, and aside from possibly visiting the chaotic zone, he planned to stay in his room. As long as he didn’t go out, how could they swindle more Dao crystals from him?
Due to the rules, Lan Xiaobu didn’t set up a spirit-gathering array. In truth, the ambient cosmic vitality here made it unnecessary.
A month of seclusion passed quickly, but the Listening to the Dao showed no signs of departing, not even a slight movement. Clearly, Hu Youqing’s claim of leaving in a month was a lie. Lan Xiaobu waited nearly three months before his divine sense detected a group of bloodied people hurriedly boarding the Listening to the Dao.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t deliberately observe them but could sense that several in the group were severely injured, with two even having damaged Dao foundations.
Shortly after they boarded, the Listening to the Dao started moving and soared into the sky.
Lan Xiaobu breathed a sigh of relief. Three months was long, but at least they were finally on their way.
Though the Listening to the Dao was in flight, there were no announcements, making Lan Xiaobu wonder if he’d been overly suspicious. Perhaps they were just trying to earn some extra Dao crystals by recruiting a passenger.
Half a year passed in a flash, and during his seclusion, Lan Xiaobu encountered no issues. When he swept his divine sense out, he found the entire ruin-breaking ship quiet, with hardly anyone walking outside. If the ship was like this, it wasn’t bad at all.
That day, while Lan Xiaobu was refining his Dao essence in seclusion, a slightly shrill voice announced, “The Listening to the Dao will soon enter the first ruin space. Breaking through the ruin requires a large amount of Dao crystals. Please place the required Dao crystals—five hundred thousand high-grade Dao crystals—in the teleportation array pattern outside your room.”
It had come, as expected. Lan Xiaobu sighed, knowing they’d demand Dao crystals, but he hadn’t expected it so soon, and at five hundred thousand high-grade Dao crystals no less.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t protest. He placed the five hundred thousand high-grade Dao crystals in the teleportation array pattern outside, but kept his divine sense monitoring the surroundings.
Sure enough, he immediately sensed waves of fluctuations, followed by a killing aura and Dao charm.
Lan Xiaobu’s heart sank. He was certain someone had refused to pay the five hundred thousand Dao crystals and was killed on the spot. Before he could retract his divine sense, his monitoring array outside the door revealed a bloodied woman staggering. Before she could act further, a blade light tore through her forehead.
Lan Xiaobu had seen this woman before—she had arrived about half a month after him. Now, for five hundred thousand high-grade Dao crystals, she was effortlessly killed, without causing a ripple. The rule against casual killing was clearly nonsense.
Lan Xiaobu took a deep breath and decided that once the ship stopped in the chaotic zone, he wouldn’t return. He had clearly seen that the cultivator who killed the woman was a powerhouse on the verge of the fourth step of the Dao, far stronger than Ou Ping. Though Lan Xiaobu wasn’t afraid of him, if he fought this person and a group of similar cultivators on the ship ganged up on him, even if he didn’t die, he’d lose a layer of skin.
The killing came and went quickly. Most people, like Lan Xiaobu, didn’t protest and silently paid the Dao crystals.
Just as Lan Xiaobu was thinking about this, he felt the ruin-breaking ship tremble. He quickly extended his divine sense and saw the ship struggling through the void, as if breaking through some kind of restriction, like an icebreaker cutting through ice, tearing apart the surrounding barriers with each step.
Was this the “ruin” the ruin-breaking ship was breaking? Lan Xiaobu’s divine sense focused on these ruins, sensing only waves of hard Dao principle fluctuations, unable to discern their exact nature. If the ship weren’t tearing through this ruin space, he wouldn’t even have noticed them.
Without hesitation, Lan Xiaobu had his cosmic model construct the dimensional structure of this ruin space. He was certain he’d encounter such spaces after leaving the ship, so he needed to understand them.
A few days later, the ruin-breaking ship broke through this ruin space, and its speed increased again. It seemed the ship was made of special materials—otherwise, it couldn’t have broken through. He needed to figure this out, as he had no intention of returning to the Listening to the Dao.
