Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

The Skyship soared across the Basilisk Forest with little to no obstruction. A majority of the serpents and lizards of the Basilisk Forest had no flight capabilities, allowing for a safe travel.

Ying Sumian stood quietly at the helm of the ship, her expression calm and serene. There was not the slightest trace of that desperate girl from before. Yan Zaizen couldn't help but be suspicious about the entire situation. It could be that she was calm because he decided to help her family, but he didn't think it was that simple. In truth, he didn't even think it was that at all.

However, whenever he asked her about the situation, she simply responded with vague answers and reassured him that his help was essential. At first, Yan Zaizen was incredibly skeptical, and he was even contemplating taking the Sky Ship like a bandit in daylight.

Regrettably, Ying Sumian explained the ship could only be operated by using a special qi-art that needed to be taught. She would only pass it over to him after he helps. He investigated this over the course of their trip, and it was true.

He couldn't help but sigh. If it wasn't for the sheer value of the skyship, he would never have accepted. His greed got the better of him, but whenever he looked at this beautiful skyship, his mind became calmer towards accepting the situation.

The skyship had the appearance of a sea ship, except it had curved wings at its base and only two floors. The top floor was the deck, and the helm was located there. It had a sole ship mast near its stern, but instead of having a normal sail, it was a transparent film that had a myriad of different formations shaped in a square. It dazzled with a faint glow of faint blue light.

The second floor had a multitude of different rooms used for passengers, cultivation, or storage of cargo. Unlike normal ships, it merely required a lone person to steer the ship, as all of its components were interconnected and controlled from the helm with a unique qi-art.

The value of this ship ranged from five to six hundred drops of mid-grade liquid essence. If translated into low-grade liquid essence, that would be over 50,000 drops! The sheer amount made Yan Zaizen salivate with greed. It was this precise reason why he agreed to Ying Sumian's request almost instantly. It also had flight speed that rivaled Qi Unification Cultivators, and only required essence as fuel to run. Therefore, anyone could operate it regardless of one's cultivation base.

If he had this ship and enough essence, traveling to Meteorite City from the Basilisk Forest wouldn't remain a dream. It wouldn't take years; it'll take months.

He still harbored his doubts, however. Like how this ship was obtained by Ying Sumian, someone who had to struggle in the Basilisk Forest for money. She just kept getting more and more mysterious. Regardless, he had already agreed, and with his soul cultivation, he had a little confidence in being able to overcome any trial as long as it didn't concern fighting an entire army.

"How long will it take to reach Sky Titan City?" Yan Zaizen asked, his eyes staring at the shifting surroundings and thin barrier that protected the deck from rushing winds.

"Shouldn't take any longer than eighteen days." She responded.

"Eighteen days, huh?" He decided to go back to his room on the bottom floor. If he had to wait eighteen days, he may as well spend it cultivating.

His room was rather spacious, and it was completely different from any lodging he was placed in before, even in Xuanwu City. It had faint light from the myriad formations that were inlaid in it. With this, the circulation of essence was constant and made it comfortable. There was a broad, circular window which one could view to see the port side of the ship. One could see the clouds and the forest from its view.

There was a comfortable bed that seemed to be stabilized by some formation so the slight vibrations of the ship wouldn't disturb one's rest. A table and chair on the side with a set of sky-fairing books located on it. There was even a map of the Earthly Titan Territory placed on the walls. It was an educating sight. Unfortunately, it didn't have any other territory.

He sat on the bed, cross-legged, and started to contemplate his abilities. For a while now, he's never really had a focus, and this lack of focus was because of his mediocrity from earlier. Now, however, he had a soul cultivation that rivaled the Origin Core Realm, but without enlightenment and fortune chances, breaking through to the next level — Aurora Soul — would be impossible.

His Qi Cultivation has risen to the half-step Essence Formation Realm, and his qi foundation was now far more stable than before. Despite this, he possessed no means to progress besides constant condensation of his qi to qi-essence. Therefore, for both soul and qi, he was at a bottleneck he couldn't progress with time or resources. Only his body cultivation had a chance of progression in this short period of time.

Unfortunately, it took him a month to establish his Herculean Physique, and he knew even if he could progress it a bit, it wouldn't reach the minor success stage in eighteen days.

"In that case, that leaves you two." He muttered to himself, his hands clenched violently. When they opened up, it revealed a tiny white flame that shimmered with life and an orb of darkness that radiated death. They were his conceptual laws, the Unyielding Flame of Life and Siphoning Shadow of Death respectively.

The Unyielding Flame of Life had already touched upon the force concept and reached the Perfect Nascent Stage, and its stability was unquestionable. For his Siphoning Shadow of Death, it was conceptualized about four months ago and had progressed even without him doing anything. It seems it was feeding and developing off the Unyielding Flame of Life. The situation resembled the inky black wood.

It had already reached the Minor Success Stage. He felt that its aura of death had grown stronger than before. Similar to the Unyielding Flame of Life, he could use his qi to fuel the death aura, from testing, anything that comes into contact with it would have its lifeforce aura siphoned from it. It can even take the form of a myriad of shadows, from a shadow hand to a spike. Regardless, it's physical form wasn't capable of interacting with objects and therefore couldn't be used to lift things. As it came into contact with lifeforce, as it siphoned, it would also convert. The absorbed lifeforce would become deathly aura, thereby increasing its own strength and siphoning even greater amounts with each passing second.

Now, he was thinking of developing a technique to better channel these two powers. While the Unyielding Flame of Life isn't suited for offensive combat, the Siphoning Shadow of Death was. If he could devise a proper way to ensnare his opponents to death, then he wouldn't even need to take action to slay them.

He got to work, his mind formulating all sorts of ideas.