The First Immortal of Destiny

Several days later, Lady Scarlet, driving a top-grade magic ship, appeared outside Shen Mo’s cave mansion.

The impact of the dramatic changes in heaven and earth was not confined to the Red Flame Zone alone. The Sound Transmission Talismans and Teleportation Arrays in the Heaven Patrolling Zone had also ceased to function.

This territory was thousands of times larger than the Red Flame Country, making it even more inconvenient.

Of course, cultivators had various methods at their disposal and found other ways to deal with the various difficulties caused by the environmental change.

For example, with Sound Transmission Talismans out of order and communication becoming difficult, some people thought of using Flying Swords, puppets, Spirit Pets, and the like to directly deliver letters written on jade slips.

Of course, these methods also had numerous problems.

Items such as Flying Swords and puppets, unless they reached the Spiritual Artifact level, would lose control and fall after exceeding the cultivator’s control limit.

Spirit Pets possessing some wisdom, especially flying birds or demonic beasts with innate escape Skills, were relatively more convenient. However, before reaching the Golden Core Realm, a cultivator could only subdue one Spirit Pet, and the chances of encountering misfortune midway were not small!

The aforementioned methods had another fatal flaw: they were easily intercepted, causing the information recorded on the jade slip letters to be leaked.

Overall, they were not as convenient as Sound Transmission Talismans and other magic artifacts!

If the current situation were to continue for tens to hundreds of years, perhaps such methods would continue to be iterated and improved, eventually forming a relatively cheap, safe, and rapid communication system.

As for the problem of the Teleportation Arrays failing, poorer cultivators could only diligently practice Escape Skills, while those with substantial assets would generally choose to add a conveyance magic artifact to their collection.

The ”Fleeting Boat” Lady Scarlet was riding, for example, had been built at great expense in recent years to handle long-distance travel.

Its form, structure, and size were almost identical to the Black Canopy Magic Boat of the Yuan Family of the Riverside Sect. However, the grade and escape speed of this magic ship reached the level of the Bronze Phoenix Cart in Shen Mo’s possession!

Even though it couldn’t compete with the Heaven Patrolling Boat, her ”Fleeting Boat” was already considered quite good as a private magic treasure.

Many rogue cultivators in the Red Flame Zone with tight finances couldn’t even afford a high-grade magic ship.

For them, purchasing or forging a conveyance magic artifact not only required a vast amount of resources but also meant its speed was no better than using their own Escape Skills to travel.

Normally, an early-stage Golden Core Realm cultivator, flying non-stop for a day and a night, could cover a full one hundred thousand li.

Yet, even top-grade conveyance magic artifacts like the Bronze Phoenix Cart and the Fleeting Boat could only travel about fifty thousand li a day; only the Heaven Patrolling Boat could reach seventy thousand li a day.

However, it had to be said that even Golden Core Realm experts dared not fly at full speed without reservation, always needing to retain some energy to cope with unexpected situations.

Conveyance magic artifacts, on the other hand, did not have this concern; as long as there were enough Spirit Stones, they could travel at maximum speed!

In addition, traveling with such magic artifacts hardly affected activities like cultivation or Alchemy.

If one felt the speed was too slow, they could put away the magic ship or cart treasure, personally use their Escape Skill to fly a certain distance, and when their True Yuan was somewhat depleted, they could summon the conveyance magic artifact to continue the journey and take the opportunity to recover.

So, in the end, it all came down to whether one had sufficient assets!

Lady Scarlet owning a ”Fleeting Boat” indirectly proved her considerable wealth, showing she had the spare resources to afford such a magic treasure.

Shen Mo had no intention of revealing his Bronze Phoenix Cart in the Heaven Patrolling Zone. After all, its form, structure, and forging techniques were not in the style of this region. If noticed by someone observant, they could deduce he was from a Foreign Zone.

Now, he was more than happy to travel on Lady Scarlet’s magic ship.

...

Aboard the magic ship, besides Shen Mo and Lady Scarlet, one other person had already boarded.

This person was named Song Han, an early-stage Golden Core Realm cultivator. He was one of the friends Lady Scarlet had invited and also cultivated on Wangxian Mountain.

As such, Shen Mo recognized him, though they had only met a few times and were not close friends.

Shen Mo only knew that Song Han had also started as a cultivator scavenging treasures by the River of the Dead. After reaching the Golden Core Realm, he hadn’t abandoned his old profession. Instead, he monopolized several thousand li of ”riverbank,” with tens of thousands of treasure-scavenging cultivators living at his mercy.

Within the range he controlled, treasure-scavenging cultivators, whether they found scrap or treasure, had to offer a portion of their earnings to Song Han as tribute after processing their finds.

He also provided these treasure-scavenging cultivators with basic security and helped them resolve conflicts between themselves; sometimes, when in a generous mood, he would even offer them some guidance in their cultivation.

Thus, his annual income was quite astonishing, not much less than what Shen Mo earned from Alchemy.

The only downside was that such actions would attract jealousy and hatred, and his substantial income would also draw covetous eyes. Therefore, Song Han had to engage in bloody battles with others almost periodically.

In the more than half a year Shen Mo had stayed on Wangxian Mountain, just from what he knew, Song Han had fought with experts of the same Realm as many as three times, each causing quite a sensation.

Other overt and covert struggles, large and small, that Shen Mo was unaware of, were even more numerous!

Due to frequently engaging in life-and-death battles, Song Han possessed rich combat experience, and his repertoire of magic Skills was also polished to be quite formidable.

Shen Mo had once observed Song Han battling a rogue Golden Core Realm cultivator from another region and knew his combat prowess far exceeded that of an ordinary early-stage Golden Core cultivator; he even had the strength to contend with a middle-stage Golden Core cultivator.

Indeed, if not for Song Han serving as a precedent, Shen Mo might have been tempted to seize a stretch of the River of the Dead’s bank and become a ”river bandit and road tyrant” himself.

But after some careful thought, he decided against it!

On the one hand, he had just arrived and preferred to keep a low profile to avoid attracting the attention of the Heaven Patrolling Temple, which would make his future actions more convenient. On the other hand, acting in such a way would attract too many problems, which he found quite troublesome. Moreover, he might provoke an existence he couldn’t handle, which would be far from ideal.

Seeing Shen Mo board the ship, Song Han paused his absorption of nature’s spiritual energy and made a salutation towards him, ”Fellow Daoist Shen, boundless longevity and fortune!”

”Boundless longevity and fortune!” Shen Mo replied with a smile, returning the salutation.

After Shen Mo boarded, Lady Scarlet guided the Fleeting Boat, heading straight north.

Only after picking up three more friends from a rogue cultivator gathering place, twenty thousand li away, did she turn the magic ship around and head southeast.

The newcomers, two men and one woman, were all Golden Core Realm experts.

Through Lady Scarlet’s introductions, Shen Mo also learned their names and general backgrounds.

The one with the highest cultivation among the three was named Fu Jianghuo, a middle-stage Golden Core Realm cultivator and an Elder of the Clear Heart Sect, a major immortal sect.

The remaining two were biological twin siblings. The elder brother was named Peng Lexiao, and the younger sister Peng Leyao. Both possessed early-stage Golden Core Realm cultivation.

Originally, like Song Han, they were rogue cultivators who started out by scavenging treasures.

The difference was that the Peng siblings had a Master with extraordinary attainments in artifact forging, who later became an alien minister of the Clear Heart Sect.

The two siblings benefited from this, entering the Clear Heart Sect to cultivate. After achieving the Golden Core Realm, they also obtained the position of Elder. After their Master passed away due to lifespan depletion, the brother and sister took over most of the Clear Heart Sect’s artifact forging duties.

Lady Scarlet’s Fleeting Boat was, in fact, the masterpiece of the Peng siblings!

Additionally, Lady Scarlet also secretly informed Shen Mo via her sense...

Fu Jianghuo’s former Dao companion had perished in a calamity many years ago. He now intended to form a Dao companion bond with Peng Leyao, and Peng Leyao had not refused. It was likely that after they returned from the ancient battlefield of immortals and demons, the two would prepare for their bonding ceremony.