Above the sea, a huge vessel that seemed to almost eclipse the sun roamed the skies, leaving only a long, solitary shadow cast upon the waters.
Yet, in the vast ocean, even the imposing flying ship of the Infinite Dao Sect was no more than a tiny dot within its immensity.
Setting aside the smallness of that sect before the world, an interesting scene was unfolding on the lower deck.
On both sides of the ship, there were enormous rectangular openings that ran from one end of the vessel to the other along its hull, offering a broad view of the sea. What truly drew attention, however, was what was happening within these two great openings, surrounded by a crowd of disciples who watched attentively as the elders—among whom two in particular—argued with each other.
"Ha! I caught a big one! Old Lie, you'd better prepare the salary we bet on!"
It was Bao Hui who spoke, laughing cheerfully as he extended his hand toward the sea and forcefully pulled with his spiritual energy, hoisting a huge octopus-like sea beast from the turbulent waters.
The beast thrashed fiercely, emitting powerful fluctuations of a mid-stage Fourth-Level beast, yet it was completely powerless to escape the grasp of Old Bao, who had money to win.
He then dragged it into the ship and casually tossed it behind him, over his head, making it fall where a circle of disciples was already waiting.
The moment the prey touched the ground, the disciples did not hesitate. They lunged at the monster and began to fight it with all their strength.
During this time, to the silent shock and great admiration of the disciples, the hundreds of elders who were fishing and throwing monsters into the crowd still managed to find time to observe them, give individual tips on how to improve in combat through sound transmissions, and even protect them in moments of danger. The efficiency was downright absurd.
But in truth, this posed no great problem for Aotian. With his numerous spiritual senses and minds, he could monitor everything.
With his 1,319 elder-level avatars—of which only two hundred still remained at the Golden Core and were hidden in the sect's mountain, not participating in the journey, and another five hundred stayed behind to manage the Infinite Dao Empire—he still had 619 avatars present on the vessel, plus five ancestors and the sect leader.
Of these, just the 619 elders, all of whom had reached the Soul Formation realm through the use of the dew and the techniques he had synthesized over the past few months, granted Aotian a total of 3,714 minds. In addition, he could still use minds from avatars that were not present, allowing him to have more than twice that number.
Considering that he could pay attention to multiple things at the same time with each mind—since they were not only numerous but also powerful—and that he had also organized a rotation of disciples in training on this occasion, he managed to oversee and instruct around fifty thousand disciples simultaneously without much difficulty.
By deliberately reducing the speed of the journey to increase combat time, gather more materials from the sea, and train both old and new disciples in real team combat, Aotian decided to extend a crossing that normally took only a few hours into a seven-day voyage across the ocean. In this way, each of the roughly 360,000 disciples would have approximately a full day of training.
Unlike the new disciples, the old ones who had already reached the Golden Core would not participate in the rotation and would train for all seven days.
Aotian made this decision because their realms were higher, their foundations more solid, and their numbers smaller, making them easier to manage and more effective in training. Furthermore, the beasts they could defeat would be converted into more powerful and useful resources.
The beast thrown by Bao Hui went straight to Lei Yun, Bai Yan, and the others, who immediately surrounded it, fought fiercely, and then killed it.
Afterward, they retrieved the tentacles that had been cut off and lost during the battle, processed the entire body, stored the materials in storage rings, and only then handed them over to the elder so that their contribution points could be calculated later and divided among them.
Elder Lie Zheng grumbled when he saw his rival come out ahead and turned his gaze back to the sea in search of a new target.
There were not many Nascent Soul beasts in the region, but the area was flooded with those at Golden Core and below. Only on rare occasions could one encounter a Fourth-Level beast like that octopus roaming the depths of the sea.
Only in the area between the mid-continents and the central continent did a large number of more powerful beasts exist, ranging from Nascent Soul to Soul Formation and even Void Refinement, as the intensity of spiritual energy in that region was several times greater.
As for the area between the desert continents and the mid-continents, where the sect's ship was currently located, if there truly were many Nascent Soul beasts, it would have been impossible for cultivators of that realm to travel to the deserts in search of talents as normally happened.
That was why Bao Hui displayed such pride, for after he and his rival Lie Zheng had publicly bet on who would capture the larger prey, he was finally in the lead.
Thus, battles unfolded all across the ship, as various elders scattered about pulled in First-Level, Second-Level, Third-Level, and even, on this occasion, a Fourth-Level sea beast, captured by the beloved Elder Bao.
In this way, an unusual sight—possibly never before seen in that sea—was playing out. Where one once had to fear that beasts would gather and drown cultivators with their numerical superiority, now it was the cultivators who became the hunters, exploiting their advantage in numbers.
Of course, the sect's ship still possessed protective shields that prevented the beasts from sensing it and being drawn in great quantities. Not because Aotian feared a large number of weak beasts, but because it would be tiring even for him to protect the disciples if the number of beasts gathering reached billions, or even trillions, given enough time.
If such numbers were to gather, even the Infinite Dao Sect, with all its power, would have to flee in desperate fashion.
Slowly, amid intense and exhausting battles, the disciples accumulated experience and insights, refined their techniques, improved their control over spiritual energy, and deepened their understanding of their own realms and cultivation. As a result, their foundations grew increasingly solid, allowing them to advance with greater ease.
Even Lei Yun, the former Mahayana, who despite possessing extremely profound insights, could still receive some guidance from Aotian through his elders, since in lower realms Aotian's knowledge was far more in-depth than that of the reincarnated old cultivator.
Shen He was also fighting intensely at that moment, alongside other fellow disciples.
His target was a monstrous shrimp, which swung its legs like scythes in all directions, its tail like an axe, and its whiskers like sharp whips.
["Behind you! A whip is coming from your blind spot!"]
His master's voice sounded in his mind, warning him.
But at the same time, another voice also manifested.
["Watch your back! Crouch, twist your body, and swing the sword upward! Your spiritual sense is too concentrated, which allows you to have better vision in a place of energetic interference caused by the beast and the people around you, but it prevents you from reacting quickly enough when the strike is already above your body. Spread your energy in the following patterns I'm going to explain, and that will allow you to have a broader view, even if it isn't as detailed. First, you must…"]
Shen He immediately crouched, following the order as if it weren't the first time—and it wasn't. He then swung his sword upward, and the whip deflected slightly, missing his body and striking the shrimp beast itself, which was the source of the attack, shattering part of its scaly armor and making it let out a sharp squeal of pain.
But the boy didn't stop there and began to follow the elder's instructions, whom he grew more and more admiring of.
Soon, his mind, through the feedback of the spiritual energy he spread in the patterns suggested by the elder, began to better perceive what was around him, even with the energetic interference generated by the battle.
Although it wasn't as clear as when he concentrated his spiritual sense within just one meter around him, now that it was spread out, it allowed him to have a much better grasp of what was happening compared to before. And because it wasn't simply dispersed haphazardly, having precise patterns, there were no blind spots in his vision that could be dangerous to him.
His master also heard the elder's transmission, but didn't comment on it, remaining only secretly admiring.
Although that tip was useless to Old Liu, who possessed a very high realm, for cultivators of low and weak realms it was an extremely excellent method. He had to admit, with some embarrassment, that he would never have thought of that perspective, nor developed something so precise for lower realms.
In teaching disciples of lower realms, he had to acknowledge that he still fell behind the Infinite Dao Sect.
Thus, the mobile arena… err, the floating ship of the Infinite Dao Sect continued on its way, leaving a long trail of blood wherever it passed… figuratively speaking, since the blood of the beasts was an excellent material for the creation of talismans and therefore was not wasted.
At the end of that day, the battles slowly came to a halt, and fifty thousand exhausted new disciples were gathered by the elders in a large square on the ship, while the sides of the hull slowly closed the massive openings that stretched from one end to the other.
The order in which the disciples would participate in the battles over the next days was by no means random. It had been organized according to the order of approval in the recruitment.
"Everyone! Attention! From now on, we will distribute your uniforms, techniques, and initial sect items. Line up in order and come forward. We will call the names, and each one will come to us!"
An outer elder shouted, explaining the process. Soon after, two hundred others lined up side by side, each holding crystal balls identical to one another.
The new disciples were a little confused about what those objects were, but the old ones rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
"That… that isn't one of the sect's greatest treasures, the Crystal Library? Why… why am I seeing two hundred of them?!"
The old former-toothless one, Cong Bong… err, Old Hui Lang rubbed his eyes, stunned, muttering in disbelief.
"Well… they look the same. Speaking of that, what other great treasures are there?" Bai Yan, beside him, also nodded, feeling something strange, and soon had another doubt.
"I don't know. Maybe senior sister Xiao Ling, as the main disciple of the Treasure Pavilion, knows something." Hui Lang shook his head and looked at Xiao Ling, who was close to them.
"I've never heard of anything besides the Crystal Library," she denied naturally and continued observing the initiation process of the new disciples, as if she didn't care about the matter, although deep down she was thinking about it.
Aotian, who was nearby, lightly broke into a sweat upon hearing their doubts.
'Ugh… you've never heard of it because I haven't invented it yet.'
He had merely watched all the events of the day, being the only one standing idle while everyone else fought. Even Rihai had participated in the battles this time and received tips along with the others.
Aotian did this because, besides such battles being pointless to him, he preferred to maintain an air of mystery around himself—and because entering combat would force him to interrupt his constant cultivation, which he maintained even while standing or walking through his numerous minds.
Thus, it was strange to see the "lazy" Aotian sweating for no apparent reason, but no one noticed it.
And none of the old disciples found it strange that he didn't participate in that combat exercise; after all, he was the strongest.
So, amid the discussion of the old disciples, the new ones looked anxiously toward the elders, for they knew—whether through rumors or confirmations from their senior brothers of the sect—that the techniques they were about to receive would change their lives.