Yefutidaolu

Chapter 270 Enemy
The wreckage of the flying ship lies in the Red Sea.

“No man’s land, huh?” Gao Jian glanced at the people around him.

A woman, the steward of the airship, in charge of the maids, waiters, cooks, and the like, at the fifth realm, is now severely injured, her entire body burned beyond recognition.

Liu Xin, an elder of the Baiyun Sword Sect, at the fifth level, had a broken hand and some burns, but it wasn't serious.

Wang Huanglong, the sixteenth-generation disciple of Lingshan Temple, was the most severely injured, almost unable to move or even speak, but he was the only one who possessed the ability to use the technique of transmitting messages over thousands of miles.

And the captain of this airship, who should be the most familiar with the terrain, is the second most seriously injured and is also on the verge of death.

Also, Gao Jian himself was the only one still at his peak.

The injuries to the others are a bit more complicated.

Not everyone has an abnormal physical body like a martial artist who has opened the gate of essence. For these cultivators who do not mainly focus on physical training, the damage to their physical body is too great to recover from.

There are gains and losses in everything.

Although martial artists are crude and find it difficult to use various wonderful techniques, their physical strength gives them a significant advantage in such situations.

And these practitioners at this moment
"So what should we do now?" Liu Xin frowned slightly. "It's a no-man's land, and it spans a full four thousand miles! Gao Jian, how's your footing?"

“If I were to travel on foot, I could cover about a thousand miles a day, which would take eight days round trip. Eight days, can you handle it?” Gao Jian asked.

At this moment, I especially miss walking the dragon.

However... thankfully they didn't take the dragon with them, otherwise it would have been turned into mincemeat.

“Eight days is definitely not enough. The airship crash was not an accident, which means someone is watching us. After you leave, not only might we be silenced, but Brother Gao, you are also vulnerable to being attacked alone,” the captain said, leaning on his horse.

But after saying only a few words, he immediately started coughing violently again.

Gao Jian immediately squatted down, examined his injuries, and frowned, saying, "You're coughing so badly because of the metal energy entering your body. That sword energy... it pierced through your defenses and then broke the flying boat's formation?"

The captain hesitated for a moment, but nodded nonetheless: "Yes."

"Then why didn't you say so just now?" Gao Jian pressed.

"I just told you, I told you, I saw sword energy," the captain said.

Gao Jian remained silent for a while.

Then, he wiped his face and said, "Then in the future, don't speak in such a dramatic way, just speak more directly."

At this moment, Liu Xin, the sword cultivator, spoke up: "If it's a minor wound, I might be able to help. I'm also a sword cultivator. When sparring with my fellow disciples, it's inevitable that we'll get accidentally injured. Martial arts practitioners can make medicine for tendons and bones, and we sword practitioners also have some medicine for minor wounds."

As he spoke, he took out a pill from his mustard seed bag.

"Thank you. After we get out, I will pay the price... cough cough cough." The captain propped himself up, coughed again, took the pill, and swallowed it in one gulp.

After taking the pill, the surging golden energy within his body was indeed suppressed by the pill's power, and his coughing decreased significantly.

He didn't just wait there; instead, he began to regulate his breathing, combining it with his cultivation techniques to straighten out his damaged inner world, stimulate his own vitality, and allow himself to turn from 'deterioration' to 'improvement'.

Often, whether an injury worsens or not is due to these things.

Seeing this, Gao Jian looked at Liu Xin again: "Then, Mr. Liu."

"What's wrong?" Liu Xin looked at Gao Jian. "Do you have any thoughts on this?"

"I want to leave for a while. I left my knife outside, probably about thirty miles away. I'll be right back, it shouldn't take long," Gao Jian said.

Yes, he just threw the rusty knife away...

Given the state of the airship at that time, if it had crashed into the ground at full speed, the explosive force would probably have been too much for even Gao Jian to withstand. So in that split second, Gao Jian made a decisive choice and threw out his rusty knife, which broke off the stern of the airship, causing it to lose speed and fall to the ground.

But a problem arose: this thing didn't have the ability to automatically retrieve itself; he had to pick it up himself. According to the direction of the flying boat, the rusty knife was about thirty miles away, and he remembered its location.

“Thirty li isn’t far, but… Brother, you must have heard what the captain just said.” Liu Xin seemed somewhat reluctant as he said, “If you go out now, we will lose a combatant, and you yourself will be at risk of being surrounded. You should think it over carefully.”

"I wield a sword. Without a sword, my fighting strength is reduced by more than half. I might as well take advantage of the fact that I have just landed to scout the surrounding area so as not to sit and wait for death, and to retrieve my sword."

“You’re a rogue cultivator… never mind, then go ahead.” Liu Xin thought for a moment, then finally nodded.

Gao Jian didn't hesitate much, and he wasn't asking for the other party's opinion, so he left the wreckage of the airship directly.

-----------

After Takashi left—

The few people who remained behind began to talk.

After Gao Jian left, the captain spoke up: "Everyone, this person is not a rogue cultivator... I couldn't say anything when he was here, but now that he's gone... I can tell you all that he is a student of the Imperial Academy."

"A student of the Imperial Academy?"

"Imperial Academy..."

"what--!"

Each of the three let out a different exclamation, and at the same time, they all realized something.

They looked at each other, bewildered.

These words sounded as if he had suddenly heard a high-ranking leader standing next to him.

In fact, this was the status of students at the Imperial Academy.

The four people present were all of high status, and their cultivation levels were already among the highest in the Divine Dynasty.

Look, the woman who has cultivated the art of seduction has already taken up the position of steward on the flying boat. In reality, she is already a senior executive on the flying boat, similar to the head of the housekeeping department in a hotel.

Liu Xin is a fifth-realm sword cultivator and an elder of a mid-level immortal sect.

But compared to the students of the Imperial Academy, they were like roadside fish.

"He's a student of the Imperial Academy?" Even Wang Huanglong, who had just been seriously injured and was on the verge of death, managed to sit up and couldn't help but say, "This year, one of our Lingshan Temple's disciples has also been admitted to the Imperial Academy. I've met that senior brother before; he's incredibly talented, and I have no hope of ever being able to match even a fraction of his abilities. But this person is just ordinary... Why?"

Lingshan Temple is a first-class immortal sect of the Divine Dynasty, and can be considered one of the most powerful sects among the top immortal sects. Precisely because of this, it is only a sixteenth-generation disciple who is neither a true disciple nor a secretly cultivated genius, yet he was able to reach the sixth realm.

“I also thought he didn’t seem like it, but that’s the truth. This person is not only a student of the Imperial Academy, but also one of the top students. Have you heard about what happened at the Imperial Academy this year? The one where they blocked the gates?” the captain said.

"Blocking the gates of the Imperial Academy? I've heard of that," Wang Huanglong said immediately. After he finished speaking, his expression changed visibly, as if he had realized something.

The woman from the Hundred Flowers Sect hesitated for a moment, then nodded, a hint of fear slowly creeping into her eyes.

Only Liu Xin looked blank, seemingly unaware of what "blocking the gate of the Imperial Academy" meant.

Liu Xin was not from the capital city; he boarded the flying boat on the road, so he was not very clear about what was happening in the capital city.

Seeing that Liu Xin didn't know, the captain gave a brief introduction: "This man is called Gao Jian. He once challenged the entire Imperial Academy in the capital, defeated twenty people in a row, and left without any consequences."

Upon hearing this, even Liu Xin felt a sudden dizziness.

Even if he wasn't from the capital, he was at least from the Qiyun Divine Dynasty and a cultivator at the fifth realm, so he clearly had a concept of the Imperial Academy.

how to say……

Any student of the Imperial Academy could wipe out his sect with a mere wave of his hand.

The White Cloud Sword Sect is a newly established immortal sect, and its strongest member is only a sect leader at the sixth realm...

The fact that he was a student of the Imperial Academy was already surprising enough, but then... suddenly it was said that he was not only a student of the Imperial Academy, but also blocked the gate of the Imperial Academy and defeated twenty students of the Imperial Academy.
is that a lie?

The captain didn't stop, but continued, "That's why, as soon as he boarded the ship, the owner sent me a message, asking me to treat him well. I observed him for a day and knew that he didn't like noise, so I didn't disturb him along the way... Now that he's gone, I can finally explain things to you."

"In that case, wouldn't we be saved? When such an important person is in trouble, someone will probably come to our rescue soon, right? Maybe there's even a seventh or eighth realm protector by his side," the woman from the Hundred Flowers Sect said happily.

"Foolish woman." Liu Xin's expression turned somewhat gloomy: "Your flying boat is of good quality, and his status is so noble. Do you really think that sword energy that shattered the formation was aimed at us?"

The woman from the Hundred Flowers Sect was slightly taken aback after hearing this.

The Taoist priest, Wang Huanglong, also nodded with a wry smile: "We've probably suffered an undeserved calamity because of him. I'm a hermit, usually detached from worldly affairs, and I'm all alone, so it's no big deal for me. But... Mr. Liu Xin... you've brought your family with you, haven't you?"

Upon hearing Wang Huanglong's words, Liu Xin's expression darkened even further.

"Yes, I brought my family with me. My wife and son are all on the boat." Liu Xin nodded.

There was a moment of silence around them.

Because of this important figure's involvement, everyone on the ship died, including Liu Xin's wife and children. No wonder he looks like this now.

"Ahem, let's not talk about that now. Let's wait for him to come back. If we want to get out of here alive, we still have to rely on him. Even if no one is targeting him... this place is still very dangerous." The captain coughed twice and said.

"why?"

“This is the Red Sea,” the captain sighed. “You probably don’t know, but this is a deadly place. We all depend on it. Maybe… the person who did this is thinking the same thing.”

"The person who made the move deliberately chose the Red Sea, wanting us all to die here."

These words caused silence to fall over the room once again.

----------

Meanwhile, outside, Takami walked through the black and red iron sand.

Takashi has now almost discovered that this place is actually similar to an 'ancient battlefield,' a special zone created for some special reason.

If the ancient battlefield was like the autumn air from the heavens crashing down to the ground and lingering, then this place is like the chilling golden energy surging from the earth, annihilating all life on the ground and leaving only this stretch of iron-sand desert.

But it's not surprising that such places exist.

After all, this is Liangzhou.

Gao Jian had already searched his mind and found that he didn't know what this Red Sea was, which meant that it was something that had only appeared in the last eight hundred years.

Ancient battlefields that existed three thousand years ago are places that Gao Jian clearly understood and described well in books. But for landmarks that have emerged in the last eight hundred years, he can only rely on luck.

But one can sense that this place is absolutely a dead end. Not only are there no living creatures around, but Gao Jian has already had his body cut open several times here.

The iron shot here is extremely sharp.
Moreover, the iron filings are polished to the point that they are covered with razor blades, so sharp that they are ridiculously sharp. Although they shatter at the slightest touch, the sharp edges can still leave a cut on your body when they break.

Even stepping on this ground would feel like stepping on a mountain of knives, and there was no way to fly away, because there was wind all around, and the wind would blow iron sand that would hit you and scrape against you. It can be said that all travelers would be cut by the sharp iron sand.

If one had the skill of controlling one's internal energy, one could create a protective shield for oneself, but since one lacks this skill, one can only tough it out.

Fortunately, his physical body has a strong ability to recover and is also resilient enough.

But there was no way to deal with his clothes. Gao Jian hadn't bought any particularly powerful robes, so his clothes quickly turned into rags.

But it's alright, as long as it covers my body, that's fine. Gao Jian doesn't care whether it's torn or not, since it's in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing else around.

Gao Jian had traveled about thirty miles along the canyon carved out by the flying boat, and soon saw the area where the flying boat was about to crash and land.

There was a large pit filled with magma, which was gradually solidifying. The iron sand had turned into iron plates, and the surrounding heat caused the wind to carry heat as well. The violent storm blew away a lot of the iron sand, so much so that the ground in this area was a level lower than other places.

There was nothing around, and the rusty knife should be nearby.

This is a good thing; if there's nothing there, it means it's easy to find.

The red and black iron sand stretched as far as the eye could see, seemingly without boundary.

However, at that moment... Takami suddenly remembered something.

Wait a minute, the iron filings here all look like rust.

It is obvious that the rusty knife is also rusty, and it is also blackish-red rust.

"Okay, I should have thought of that." Gao Jian rubbed his temples.

But at this very moment—

A voice suddenly came from the horizon.

"Are you looking for this?"

Gao Jian looked up and saw a cultivator dressed in a black robe with a white banner fluttering behind him, floating in the air. The cultivator was holding a rusty knife and showing off his cultivation without any restraint.

This is……

Seven Realms.

(End of this chapter)