“Are you leaving your room?” Lan Xiaobu had barely taken a dozen steps out when a man in a steward’s robe suddenly appeared and blocked his path.
Lan Xiaobu nodded, “Yes, I was planning to look around.”
“That requires a walking fee of ten thousand high-grade Dao crystals per day,” the man said expressionlessly.
Lan Xiaobu was stunned. They charged for this too? Ten thousand a day? He immediately said, “In that case, I’ll return to my cave abode.”
“You’ve already come out, so even if you go back now, you still have to pay the Dao crystals,” the man said indifferently.
Lan Xiaobu was certain that if he didn’t pay, a fight would break out the next moment. The female cultivator who was killed earlier for not paying fifty thousand high-grade Dao crystals had been slain by someone nearly at the fourth step. Lan Xiaobu suspected she might not have refused outright but merely raised an objection.
“If I pay these ten thousand high-grade Dao crystals, can I move around freely for the day? Will I need to pay more to visit the commercial building?” Lan Xiaobu asked calmly.
“Correct, you can roam freely for the day without additional charges elsewhere. But this is limited to this deck, and you must not tamper with others’ room restrictions or enter restricted areas of the ship,” the man replied, his tone still cold.
Without further ado, Lan Xiaobu tossed a storage bag to the man and said, “Here’s ten thousand high-grade Dao crystals. Can I go now?”
The man hadn’t expected Lan Xiaobu to pay without a single objection, which was rare. Most people on this ruin-breaking ship were unaware of the rules, and those in the know typically wouldn’t board it.
Their main income wasn’t from tickets or the earlier ruin-breaking fees, but from these walking fees. They had two primary sources of profit: cultivators’ primordial spirits and their worlds. Those who could board a ruin-breaking ship were at least seventh-turn saints, with many being saints who had stepped into the Dao realm. Only those who had entered the Creation Dao Realm could be said to have truly stepped into the Dao realm. Such people’s worlds were undoubtedly valuable. If someone violated the rules and resisted, they could harvest both the cultivator’s world and their primordial spirit.
In the Great Universe, wanton slaughter was strictly forbidden. However, some cultivators relied on others’ primordial spirits and essence blood for cultivation. Unable to openly kill or absorb essence blood and primordial spirits in the Great Universe, they resorted to such covert channels. Otherwise, why would there be so many Dao pills with various Dao principles in the commercial building? Many were made by directly sealing cultivators’ primordial spirit principles.
Ruin-breaking ships like the Listening to the Dao were countless in the Great Universe. They set harsh rules, but once you were onboard, they didn’t actively kill or trouble you—they waited for you to break those strict rules.
If you violated the rules, they could kill you with legal justification. Even if the Heavenly Court investigated, they could present evidence of the violations. In reality, the Heavenly Court wouldn’t bother with such matters unless the killed cultivator had significant backing. In those cases, they just needed to show evidence of the rule-breaking, like with the female cultivator killed earlier.
People like Lan Xiaobu, who asked for clarification and paid the ten thousand walking fee without protest, were truly rare.
While the ruin-breaking fee was somewhat understandable, the walking fee was incomprehensible to most cultivators. Yet, since Lan Xiaobu paid it, they had no excuse to act against him.
Though Lan Xiaobu paid the walking fee, a killing intent stirred in his heart. He could tolerate profiteering, but charging for simply walking was not just profiteering—it was clearly a pretext for murder and robbery. This was undoubtedly a black ship. Since that was the case, why should he be polite?
However, he lacked the strength for now. Once he reached the fourth step, the first thing he’d do was rob the Listening to the Dao. They’d taken his Dao crystals, and he’d make them pay it all back.
As he walked, Lan Xiaobu began carving various Dao intent marks. Compared to the powerhouse behind Qu Peng, his marking techniques were slightly inferior. But over the years, he’d learned various marking methods. Now, the marks he placed on this ruin-breaking ship would be hard to find even for someone specifically looking for them.
Moreover, Lan Xiaobu was confident that the ship’s crew wouldn’t bother searching for his marks or even realize he’d placed many on the ship.
Each deck of the Listening to the Dao had a commercial building. When Lan Xiaobu arrived at the Listening to the Dao Commercial Building, it was nearly empty, which made sense—this black ship didn’t rely on the commercial building for profit.
“What would you like to purchase, friend?” the shop assistant asked enthusiastically as Lan Xiaobu entered.
“Do you have any records about the Moru World?” Lan Xiaobu asked.
He wasn’t actually interested in Moru World records—he’d already bought plenty. Besides, he wouldn’t buy them on this ship. What he really wanted were records about chaotic zones.
“Of course, we have all sorts of records. Here’s a catalog—choose what you need and let me know,” the assistant said, handing Lan Xiaobu a jade slip.
Lan Xiaobu scanned it with his divine sense and indeed found a large number of chaotic zone records. He handed the jade slip back to the assistant and said, “How many Dao crystals for the Taimeng Space record and the Jiuyuan Chaotic Zone record?”
“Two hundred Dao crystals in total. The Jiuyuan Chaotic Zone is the one our ship is heading to,” the assistant said with a smile, handing Lan Xiaobu two jade slips.
Lan Xiaobu was slightly surprised. Normally, such record jade slips cost at most a hundred Dao crystals each, so these were cheap. This ship should be overcharging for everything, so why only two hundred Dao crystals?
Feeling puzzled, Lan Xiaobu paid the two hundred Dao crystals, took the Yuntian Force and Jiuyuan Chaotic Zone slips, and returned to his cave abode.
He had no intention of leaving again until they reached the Jiuyuan Chaotic Zone.
Taking out the two jade slips, Lan Xiaobu immediately began constructing their dimensional model structures. He had scanned them with his divine sense earlier and found no marks. Still, to be safe, he used his cosmic model to build their structures.
To his surprise, the cosmic model confirmed that these were ordinary jade slips with no marks whatsoever.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t care about the Taimeng Space. He had bought it mainly for the chaotic zone record to learn what to watch for in the Jiuyuan Chaotic Zone.
From the jade slip, Lan Xiaobu gained a rough understanding of chaotic zones. One must never get trapped in true chaos—once stuck, it was certain death. Lan Xiaobu didn’t need the jade slip to tell him that. He had once been trapped in true chaos. If he hadn’t cultivated his own Dao, he likely wouldn’t be here now.
Additionally, one must not cultivate in a chaotic zone, as it could damage the foundation of one’s Dao.
Besides these warnings, the jade slip also listed several places in the Jiuyuan Chaotic Zone where top-tier treasures, even top-grade Dao crystals or semi-top-grade Dao veins, might appear. Lan Xiaobu paid no attention to these—he had no intention of visiting the places listed.
In the following days, Lan Xiaobu didn’t cultivate. He studied array techniques and refined his divine abilities.
In the sixth year, he heard another ship announcement. The ship was about to pass through another ruin space, and each passenger needed to pay one million high-grade Dao crystals for the ruin-breaking.
Lan Xiaobu thought to himself, they’re truly insatiable, but he had no choice but to pay. The first time was fifty thousand, the second time a million, and who knew how many more times were coming.
As he had guessed, the third ruin-breaking came soon after, in the tenth year, again requiring one million high-grade Dao crystals. This time, as the Listening to the Dao broke through the ruin, Lan Xiaobu, still in his room, felt an intense spatial oppression and a violent Dao principle rampaging through the room’s space.
It gave him an impulse to leave the room and go outside.
Then he heard an announcement: “The Listening to the Dao is passing through a ruleless ruin space. Attention, cultivators staying in their rooms: since the rooms lack the appropriate arrays, your Dao may develop cracks. The outer areas have arrays to shield you from the effects of this ruleless ruin space…”
Lan Xiaobu didn’t enter his own world or go outside. He was certain that doing either—entering his cosmic model or Longevity Realm—would be detected by others. Instead, he used his Longevity Domain to construct a survival space for himself, marveling at how cunning these bastards were. They were clearly waiting for passengers to go outside and hand over more Dao crystals. Unless a cultivator practiced their own Dao, it was nearly impossible to create a rule-bound space in their room, as he did, to avoid the external rule’s influence.
