Liu Xing willed Tide Walker closer to him. The shark obeyed easily, choosing to press its belly to his head as if it were pretending to be a hat. Liu Xing did not mind. He willed the gun to spread its invisibility over him, his shark, and the shield he used to float in the air. Then, he waited for the ship to arrive.

  From the jade slip, he knew that the people riding the flying ship in the Wild Tide Region were likely from the Boundless Ocean Sect. Although they did not display their sect's banner or flag, their origin was easily confirmed because a renowned disciple of that sect was aboard the ship.

  Liu Xing narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the flying ship in the distance. Although he had chosen to become invisible, he wondered what he should do. His first impulse was to attack the ship, but he knew it was stupid. This idea came from the fact that his life had recently been full of fighting. A better option was to leave and avoid getting tangled up with them. He needed to remember that they were not normal cultivators. Disciples from great sects could contend with those in higher realms—Liu Xing was an extreme example of this—but that advantage was negated when fighting those from other great sects. This meant that Liu Xing, who was currently in the third stage of the Core Splitting realm, had to be careful when choosing opponents from other great sects.

  As the ship drew closer, Liu Xing noted that it was fast, though not exceptionally so. The flying ship was small. According to the report he received, the flying ship ridden by disciples of the Boundless Ocean Sect could accommodate a hundred people. This one was not. At most, it could accommodate twenty people, and it actually reminded him of a fishing vessel. It was a muted brown color and had only one big sail.

  Liu Xing pinched his chin as his mind tried to work this out, and his qi sense tried to determine the cultivation of those on the ship. As soon as he focused his qi sense, he felt as if he were suddenly surrounded by the cold of a deep ocean, one ancient and never disturbed by mortals. He realized that this qi originated from the ship itself. It was a flying ship and obviously something precious, but it seemed its appearance did not do it justice.

  From that alone, he was eighty percent sure that it truly belonged to the Boundless Ocean Sect, and he decided that he would not fight the cultivators inside, nor would he try to flee. Instead, he intended to observe it up close. Perhaps he could gain some valuable information from them.

  Liu Xing tried to slow his qi and lessen his presence even though he was already shrouded by his gun's invisibility, and soon, the true size of the ship could be seen.

  It was indeed small. In fact, it was smaller than he had thought. And he could see, as well as sense, that there were only two people on this little ship.

  One man stood at the very front of the ship. He looked young, with black hair tinged with blue and spots of white light glittering on his hair as if it were a dark sky filled with stars. The man had thin, sharp eyebrows and an expression of utter focus. He stood with his hands behind his back as he looked straight toward the island where Liu Xing had wreaked havoc. To his side was another man. His hair was long and red, tied back, making it look like a majestic tail. He also looked at the island with focus, though instead of emitting an aura of discipline, he seemed relaxed, like a lion that knew it was unchallenged in its territory. Both of them wore cultivator robes; one was dark and had a dark sky and stars pattern, while the other was a maroon robe with a sun pattern. Neither of them was wearing the robe that the Boundless Ocean Sect was known for; however, their auras conveyed that they were not ordinary.

  They were both at the Core Splitting realm. After comparing the amount and intensity of their qi with his own, he guessed that they had at least two cores each. If they were from the Nether Lotus Sect, he would see them as prey. However, as he was fairly certain they were from other great sects, he saw them as opponents worthy of his caution. Those accepted into great sects—even if they remained in the outer sect—were geniuses among geniuses. That is why only five sects were considered great in this world which was as big as the sun in his past life.

  Liu Xing stood still as the ship came to the island. Soon, the ship arrived near the edge of the base that Liu Xing had destroyed, and the man with red hair and a maroon robe threw an anchor that landed on the ground. The two of them looked at each other before they jumped from the ship and landed near their anchor.

  As they walked, they began to chat.

  "It seems that we're late," the man with red hair stated. "Someone destroyed this base before us. What a shame," he said, shaking his head.

  "I don't mind," stated the man with black hair tinged with blue and glittering spots. "Our mission is to destroy this communication relay. If someone has beaten us to it, that's a welcome development. That means we won't need to expend our energy to finish our mission."

  "But don't you feel an itch to fight?" The man with red hair smiled wide, like a wild beast.

  "Not really," he said, shaking his head, "but even if I did, I wouldn't expect a worthy opponent here."

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  "Haha, true, true," the man laughed. "Then, should we go back to the ship and head to our next destination?"

  The man with black hair shook his head. "We need to check the destruction of the formation on this island. I suspect it's already done; however, it is good to be thorough. We don't want to invoke the wrath of our elders."

  "And don't forget, the wrath of that girl," the man with red hair grinned, as if he were trying to tease his companion. The man with black hair snorted, as if he disdained whatever the other man implied.

  Soon, they arrived at the center of the destroyed base, with Liu Xing hovering in the air straight above them. As he observed them, listening to their chat, Liu Xing's heart beat steadily, yet also slightly faster than usual.

  They both looked around. Then the man with red hair lifted a giant piece of rubble from the ground, revealing a hole leading deep underground, and both of them descended without any hesitation. After they were lost from sight, Liu Xing could not help but sigh. His invisibility was potent enough to conceal him from the disciples of another great sect, yet he also knew that it was because they did not suspect anyone was there from the start. If they had, perhaps they would have had a way to detect him.

  As he looked down, he considered following them. Listening to their conversation might provide some information, but soon, he had a better idea.

  Liu Xing glanced at the ship anchored not too far from him. Then, with a soft kick to his shield, he glided through the air toward the ship. He dismissed the shield, and it vanished. As Liu Xing approached the ship, he began to wonder whether it would have some kind of formation to detect intruders. He hesitated for a single moment before dismissing the thought. While his concern was not wrong, he knew that he needed to face some risk if he wanted to gain anything. Who knew, perhaps the ship was filled with treasures.

  As he landed his feet in the center of the ship, his heart drummed against his ribs, and he waited for a second, preparing for the worst-case scenario. After a moment, with no alarm blaring and the two men not rushing back to the ship, he concluded that he was safe.

  Liu Xing took a few steps as he looked around. It was truly a small ship. In front of him was a door that he assumed led to the main room of the ship, and either inside this room or behind it, there had to be a door to descend into the depth of the vessel.

  Noticing nothing interesting aside from the door in front of him, he approached it and twisted the knob. He expected the door to be locked, but to his surprise, it opened. Liu Xing pushed the door, expecting perhaps a study, a bedroom, or a control room. Instead, what he saw was a white room, and filling this room were… ghosts, at least in appearance.

  They looked like humans, but they were see-through and made from colorful light, as if they were illusions. Each of the ghosts was moving inside the room and they were overlapping with the others. As he looked at them, his mind tried to come up with an explanation. Despite their appearance, Liu Xing was sure they were not ghosts, but they were not something normal either.

  At the edge of the room, between the packed, overlapping humanoid figures, stood a table with a stack of paper, writing utensils, and a rolled scroll. It seemed like a table where a person would sit and write a report, and he thought that if there were any information he could get, it would likely be inside that scroll.

  Liu Xing hesitated for a bit before finally deciding that he wanted to get that scroll. However, he did not want to enter the room. They looked and felt like illusions. They did not feel dangerous, nor did they feel like a security measure. But he knew for a fact that they must have some function, and carelessly entering a mysterious room was foolish. What if he was trapped?

  Liu Xing took a step back. He projected potent qi in the shape of a bubble from his forehead and then pushed the qi into the room. The moment his potent qi entered the room, while most of the figures were still doing whatever they did—some walking around, some writing, some chatting, and many more—those near the door instantly snapped their eyes to his bubble of qi. Then, one pointed at the bubble of qi and tapped the shoulder of another illusion. "Look," a sound came from its mouth. It sounded a little muffled, but it was loud and clear enough. "Do you think it's a prank?"

  At that moment, Liu Xing instantly knew what they were. They were not illusions. Not really. Instead, they were real people projected from a faraway place. They were holograms, and it seemed this room was a hub for communication.

  As he began to think about how they could differentiate each other, and how they could avoid being distracted if they wanted to talk with specific people, and he thought there must be some mechanism to control the display, he realized that his bubble of qi must be projected and could be seen by everyone. It shot forward as fast as a bullet, piercing the people's projections since they were incorporeal. Soon, the bubble of qi arrived right in front of the scroll, intending to swallow it. But the moment his potent qi touched the scroll, it suddenly lost its normal color. Instead, it turned into a colorful light, maintaining the scroll's shape, but distorting it slightly as his potent qi pierced through.

  "It seems that there's an intruder," a man said leisurely, as if he were not surprised by it.

  Liu Xing pressed his lips together. At a glance, the ship's security measures were lacking. He, an outsider, could land and open a door inside the ship without raising an alarm, and an obvious scroll that contained information looked to be left out carelessly. Yet, it seemed there was, of course, a security measure to guard the scroll. That scroll was also an illusion. An illusion that could perhaps still be filled with reports that everyone could read, yet it was incorporeal and could not be stolen. No wonder the door was not even locked.

  A rumble suddenly sounded from behind him, and Liu Xing knew for a fact the ship's alarm was being sounded remotely from afar.

  Liu Xing kicked the floor hard, propelling himself into the air. While in the air, he summoned his shield, kicked it, and propelled himself horizontally. Looking behind him, he saw the ground of the base explode and two Boundless Ocean Sect disciples emerge from underground. He pressed his lips together and gripped his weapons tightly.

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