A long sea voyage should, by all accounts, require meticulous planning. One simply couldn’t afford to be careless.

This meant gathering skilled hands, stocking up on supplies, charting a course, and preparing for any potential dangers along that specific route.

’Then again, perhaps I’ve underestimated this Heavenly Dragon Gang.’

’A faction that survives on the Fallen Immortal Sea must have something special about them.’

’As a complete novice when it comes to sailing, I’m in no position to tell a group of professionals how to do their job.’

Still... he had his own preparations to make.

"Boss Luo, tomorrow... is a little too soon. I need to make some preparations of my own. How about we leave in two days?" Zou Feng mused.

Luo Kai had no objections and readily agreed. "Of course. Fellow Daoist Leng, you’re the client, so you call the shots. We’ll set out first thing in the morning two days from now."

"Then I’ll have to trouble Boss Luo to handle the arrangements. Please take these forty Middle Grade Spirit Stones as a deposit."

"Upon successful completion, I will pay another one hundred Middle Grade Spirit Stones as the final reward!" Zou Feng declared magnanimously.

Hearing this, Luo Kai beamed. "Of course, of course..."

After a few more pleasantries, Zou Feng excused himself on the grounds of needing to make further preparations and left the Heavenly Dragon Gang’s headquarters.

Once Zou Feng was gone, Luo Kai stared at the forty Middle Grade Spirit Stones on the table, his expression turning melancholic once more...

Meanwhile, Zou Feng left the Heavenly Dragon Gang and immediately rushed off to find another coastal faction.

He stopped anyone he came across to ask for directions.

Finding other coastal factions this way wasn’t difficult at all.

Zou Feng clearly had his own reasons for doing this.

This whole venture—leaving the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect to return to Great Yan—had, up to this point, gone... ’smoothly. Far too smoothly!’

Not only had he encountered no danger on his journey, but he had also gotten news of Great Yan the moment he arrived at the Fallen Immortal Sea.

And now, it seemed highly probable that he would soon be returning to Great Yan.

’While such a smooth journey should be a good thing, the problem is...’

’...hasn’t it all been a little too easy?’

He had to remember that Lu Guanghua, a Golden Core Realm expert, had laid this trap as his final, desperate gambit.

’A man willing to detonate his Golden Core at a moment’s notice, and this pathetic deathtrap is the best he could come up with for me?’

Zou Feng mulled it over, trying to put himself in Lu Guanghua’s shoes.

’In this life-or-death struggle, this all-out effort to kill me, what would Lu Guanghua fear the most?’

’Obviously, his greatest fear would be that I’d turn out to be a heartless bastard, that I’d ignore whether Tian Yun and Bian Yixia lived or died and just... stay put. That I’d just turtle up and hide!’

If that happened, no matter how intricate his schemes were or what deathtraps he laid, it would all be for naught.

Therefore, the most crucial part of his plan was to give me hope, to make me believe I could win—that I could definitely save Tian Yun and Bian Yixia.

And he had to admit, Lu Guanghua had succeeded in that.

By using his own self-detonation as a threat to pin down Jiang Wanzhao, that bastard had also pinned himself down.

In exchange for being unable to act personally, he had ensured Zou Feng wouldn’t hesitate too much before deciding to leave the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect and rush to Great Yan’s aid...

’Besides, Fu Jiaming is the former vice president of the Purple Cloud Association and a Dao Foundation Realm expert. He can’t be completely useless, can he?’

’Of course, there’s another possibility: the real killing blow isn’t meant for the journey. The true danger will only reveal itself once I reach Great Yan.’

’In fact, Fu Jiaming probably never even planned to ambush me en route.’

’Instead, he’s dead set on going to Great Yan to make his first move against Tian Yun and Bian Yixia...’

Fortunately, even for a Dao Foundation Realm expert, crossing the Fallen Immortal Sea was no simple task.

Without knowing the exact coordinates, it was unlikely Fu Jiaming could get there before him.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Zou Feng found himself before the stronghold of another faction.

Zou Feng immediately went forward and called out, stating the reason for his visit.

Soon, another half-hour had passed.

Zou Feng left that stronghold and immediately headed for the next faction’s location...

Two days later, they were back at the port belonging to the Heavenly Dragon Gang.

Luo Kai and a group of the Heavenly Dragon Gang’s finest were already prepared and waiting for Zou Feng’s arrival.

Zou Feng did not disappoint them; he arrived right on schedule.

However, the Zou Feng who appeared this time was no longer dressed in the black, standard-issue Daoist robe of the Pinnacle Celestial Immortal Sect.

He had changed into a sleeveless Martial Attire. The new outfit made him look leaner and more formidable, and his entire aura had shifted.

He looked as if he had just slaughtered a great number of people, brimming with killing intent and radiating an aura of pure evil.

In truth, this was the real Zou Feng.

He was, at his core, an Evil Cultivator whose killing intent could flare up at any moment. His usual affability was nothing but a facade.

To put it bluntly, a dog that’s truly ready to bite doesn’t just bark for show.

This new image, so drastically different from before, made Luo Kai deeply uneasy.

"Fellow Daoist Leng!"

Luo Kai immediately went forward, cupping his fists in greeting. "Please, take a look. This is our vessel for the journey... the Dragon Soaring!"

’What a name...’

Zou Feng looked where Luo Kai was pointing and, just as he’d expected, saw the largest ship docked in the harbor.

Luo Kai was clearly taking this voyage seriously. Not only was he personally leading the expedition, but he had also pulled out all the stops for everything else.

Of course, the old man surnamed Liu—the one with extensive sailing experience who had once been to the former Great Yan Dynasty—was also among the crew, ready to depart.

"I appreciate the effort." Zou Feng was quite satisfied with the arrangements.

"Shall we set off then?"

"Of course!"

Luo Kai immediately gave a hand signal, and everyone began boarding the ship in an orderly and efficient manner.

Soon, the Dragon Soaring had pulled away from the port, heading out into the depths of the Fallen Immortal Sea.

It was worth noting that the Dragon Soaring was no ordinary vessel; it could be powered by Spirit Stones.

The ship was also equipped with various Spiritual Artifacts for dealing with the giant Demon Beasts of the sea, as well as other emergencies.

In truth, encountering giant Demon Beasts wasn’t the most dangerous part of sailing the Fallen Immortal Sea.

After all, even if you couldn’t defeat or drive away such beasts, the chances of escaping with your life were quite high, thanks to certain acceleration-type Spiritual Artifacts on board.

The true dangers of the Fallen Immortal Sea came in two other forms.

The first was encountering the "Sea-Folk," highly intelligent beings with advanced Spiritual Wisdom who traveled in groups.

These Sea-Folk existed in great numbers throughout the Fallen Immortal Sea, living in tribal societies.

Some tribes maintained friendly relations with humanity, but others were locked in a perpetual, life-or-death struggle against them.

Encountering one of the tribes that were deeply hostile to humans was a catastrophe of another order entirely.

The second danger was the extreme weather conditions at sea.

This extreme weather was far more than just monstrous waves or violent rainstorms.

It meant "Thunder Dragons" that devoured ships, underwater volcanoes that "washed" vessels in lava, or entire stretches of the ocean’s surface suddenly transforming into corrosive "Poison Domains" for a myriad of reasons.

When facing these most perilous situations, a captain’s experience and preparation were even more critical than a cultivator’s individual power.

It was precisely because he knew all this that Zou Feng hadn’t simply taken his Flying Celestial Ship to search for Great Yan alone.

Of course, as for why he had visited so many coastal factions only to end up choosing the Heavenly Dragon Gang... Zou Feng had his own calculations for that as well.

Standing at the ship’s bow, Zou Feng gazed out at the seemingly endless horizon, his thoughts a swirling tempest.

This rescue mission for Tian Yun and Bian Yixia was something he absolutely had to do.

If he did nothing and simply allowed the two women to perish, the blow to his mental state would be catastrophic.

Bian Yixia, Miss of the Black Flood Dragon Gang, and Tian Yun, Master of the Heart Meeting Martial Arts Hall—his experiences with them marked the crucial, formative stage of his journey on the Martial Dao.

Therefore, to him, the two women weren’t just Dao partners.

If something truly happened to them, the devastating blow—the regret, the self-blame, and all the other emotions—was not something he could simply offload onto his "big brother."

It would undoubtedly plant a massive, hidden seed of instability in his future cultivation.

However, if he did everything in his power to save them and still failed, while the pain would be inevitable, at least his conscience would be clear.

That way, given time, his state of mind would at least not suffer any major long-term damage.

Ever since he had first set foot on the path of the Martial Dao, and now that he walked the path of an immortal, Zou Feng had never believed in the power of prayer.

Yet, at this very moment, he prayed with all his heart that Tian Yun and Bian Yixia would hold on until he arrived, that nothing terrible would befall them...

PS: I sincerely wish everyone a Happy New Year! May you all be healthy, safe, and sound, and may you make a fortune in the coming year!