Chapter 477: Chapter 297: The Fairies Hit the Charts

She was subtly reminding Zou Feng not to get too careless.

「Two days later.」

Zou Feng tucked Xiaolv into his robes, now fully prepared to depart.

The Gu Insect, Xiaolv, had a soft and highly flexible body. As long as he wore slightly looser clothing, tucking it inside his robes wouldn’t create any obvious, awkward bulges.

Of course, he couldn’t let Xiaolv miss out on this expedition to the Outer Realm.

When the time came to devour poisons, he could just leave the scraps for Xiaolv. He was sure there would be a high chance it could evolve again.

Furthermore, in a moment of extreme crisis, Xiaolv could also act as a sort of "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill," allowing Zou Feng to be "revived" at full health one time.

It was his Lifebound Gu Insect; by devouring it, he could be saved even if he was on his last breath.

But Zou Feng would never treat it like an Elixir unless he had absolutely no other choice.

But if his life was truly on the line, then all that time spent raising the insect would be for this one moment.

After breakfast, Zou Feng and his party set out from the Hongxing Inn.

Just as they left Qingxi Mountain, they could see a massive Flying Celestial Ship hovering over an open field in the distance.

This vessel was quite a bit larger than the one Zou Feng had ridden when he first arrived at the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect.

The aura it emanated was also stronger; it had clearly been reinforced with Arrays and all sorts of treasures.

To put it bluntly, it was the difference between a transport ship and a warship.

All around them, crowds of people were gradually gathering.

Such a sight was very common within the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect.

During the busiest times, several such ships would depart each month for campaigns in the Outer Realms.

"Younger Brother Zou, over here!"

Leng Jing spotted Zou Feng from a distance and hurriedly waved him over.

He was taking Zou Feng to join the team led by Jiang Wanzhao.

Zou Feng immediately led Gongsun Jinghong and the other women over, noticing that Su Qingyu, Bai Chen, and other old acquaintances from Biyou Palace had already arrived.

When Su Qingyu saw Zou Feng approaching with several women in tow, a subtle, almost imperceptible change flickered in her eyes.

She wasn’t surprised that Teng County and Gongsun Jinghong were there.

But the addition of an unfamiliar face, Qiu Lan, was something Su Qingyu hadn’t known about.

So she couldn’t help but tease, "Is the Hongxing Gang only recruiting women from now on?"

Zou Feng chuckled. "I can’t exactly bring a male maid with me, can I?"

This was his way of telling everyone that Qiu Lan was different from Gongsun Jinghong and Teng County.

Standing behind them, Bai Chen silently watched the scene, his eyes filled with utter disbelief.

’As a veteran simp,’ he thought, ’I can keenly sense that the Palace Master’s teasing sounds more like... jealousy!?’

’No, that’s impossible. The Palace Master severed her emotions long ago. Her years of cultivating various Poison Skills have also caused her to lose many of a normal person’s desires.’

’It’s completely impossible for her to fall in love again, and she shouldn’t have *those* kinds of needs, either.’

’An illusion. It must be an illusion. I’m just overthinking things...’

"The Ancestor is here!"

A woman floated toward the Flying Celestial Ship, surrounded by several Core Disciples at the Dao Foundation Realm.

Zou Feng looked up, finally seeing for the first time the True Disciple who had invested so much in him, Jiang Wanzhao.

Huh!?

Although it was usually impossible to tell a veteran Cultivator’s true age from their appearance, Jiang Wanzhao was a far cry from what Zou Feng had imagined.

’Forget her looks,’ he thought. ’It’s hard to imagine a woman who’s lived for centuries dressing like this. What the hell is with that sky-high pigtail?’

’And... does it look like Jiang Wanzhao is wearing makeup? Is that blush on her cheeks?’

’It’s just that her makeup skills are terrible. Or, to be more precise, the makeup she’s wearing doesn’t match her apparent age at all.’

’To put it bluntly, she looked like a little girl who had secretly gotten into her mother’s makeup and just slapped it on randomly.’

After watching Jiang Wanzhao board the Flying Celestial Ship, two more True Disciples appeared in succession.

These three True Disciples were leading the expedition to the Outer Realm.

The primary mission was exploration, but if the three True Disciples could handle what they found, it would immediately shift to a campaign of conquest.

If they couldn’t, they would gather enough intelligence and immediately call for reinforcements from the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect, after which a stronger expeditionary force would naturally be sent.

Once the three True Disciples had boarded in succession, it was finally the turn of the "Soldiers" like them to get on the ship.

Plenty of Outer Disciples went along as well; after all, cannon fodder always has its uses.

However, compared to the Inner Sect Disciples, the faces of most of these Outer Disciples were filled with tension, even fear.

After all, in an unknown Outer Realm teeming with poisonous creatures, a Poison Cultivator might feel right at home.

But for a Cultivator not versed in the Poison Dao, the probability of perishing was naturally far greater.

Once everyone was on board, Jiang Wanzhao and the other two True Disciples reappeared to begin the customary pre-battle pep talk.

Among them, Jiang Wanzhao’s speech was the most inspiring.

"I can promise you this: whatever you seize is yours. I won’t take a single thing!"

The moment she said this, almost everyone erupted in cheers.

After all, according to unwritten rules, one was always expected to offer up some of their personal spoils from a campaign in the Outer Realms.

After paying tribute, which was equivalent to paying a protection fee, you had a good chance of bringing most of your loot back to the Immortal Sect to keep for yourself—as long as you didn’t run into one of those exceptionally deranged team leaders.

In the past, quite a few disciples had indeed made an absolute fortune by getting incredibly lucky during campaigns in the Outer Realms.

With the hype-up speech finished, the Flying Celestial Ship shot into the sky.

Before long, it flew out of the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect’s sphere of influence. Then, amid a strange spatial fluctuation, it entered a chaotic void.

Zou Feng was already familiar with this kind of chaotic space.

It felt much like entering a teleportation Array.

Clearly, reaching those unknown Outer Realms wasn’t possible through simple flight. It required multiple "spatial jumps" like this one.

However, experiencing this kind of chaotic space in a teleportation Array usually caused discomfort, such as grogginess and an inability to sense the passage of time.

But undergoing spatial teleportation aboard the Flying Celestial Ship clearly offered better protection, as Zou Feng felt no discomfort whatsoever.

It was just that there was absolutely no scenery to look at in the chaotic void, which was rather boring.

Zou Feng had originally assumed that, as the target of her investment, Jiang Wanzhao would summon him for a face-to-face chat.

Apparently, he had thought too highly of himself. At this stage, at least, Jiang Wanzhao had no intention of going out of her way to see him.

After all, the gap between an Inner Sect Disciple and a True Disciple was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.

Besides, Jiang Wanzhao had a long lifespan. Having been in the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect for several hundred years, what kind of prodigy hadn’t she seen?

So, an event like the Celestial Dao Cauldron ringing in celebration, while a rarity to Outer and Inner Sect Disciples, was merely a sign of a "promising future" to someone like Jiang Wanzhao.

With nothing better to do, Zou Feng simply stayed in his room and continued to practice the Dragon and Tiger Kan and Li Skill.

As for those "top-ranking sisters" from the Tianxiang Association, he had yet to come face-to-face with those Fairies. This Flying Celestial Ship was enormous, and with tens of thousands of disciples participating in the exploration, it was easy to not see them.

Zou Feng wasn’t worried. The Flying Celestial Ship was not a good place for either side to make a move, anyway.

He could wait until they reached the Outer Realm to properly "thank" those ladies.

There was no day or night in the chaotic void, but by Zou Feng’s own estimation, nearly two full days and nights had passed before they finally emerged.

Through his window, he saw a desolate land under a dim, gloomy sky.

Looking down, he saw very few plants on the ground, and what little there was looked bizarrely shaped and utterly lifeless.

Moreover, he couldn’t see a single living creature.

This made Zou Feng begin to wonder if there was anything to be gained from this place.

"This can’t be the Outer Realm we’re supposed to explore, can it? For some reason, it feels..." Teng County said, her brow furrowed slightly.

Gongsun Jinghong picked up where she left off. "Right. It doesn’t feel like there’s much profit to be made here!"

They said this place was teeming with poisonous creatures, but the ship had been flying for a while, and a view from above revealed absolutely nothing.