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After taking a tour of the Holy Beasts Sect, my horizons have been broadened. Not. These people are just as backwards as every other sect I’ve visited: They live in holes and don’t know how to cook. There’s really nothing to differentiate them from any other sect except for the fact they live in an area that has more abundant qi. While it’s true cultivators don’t need to eat anything other than a single grain of rice a month or need fancy houses to live in, it’s an undeniable fact that they live like animals. What’s the difference between them and rats? Ah, well, whatever, it’s not my problem.
“So, what do you think of our sect?” Gwey asked. He was in charge of showing me around. Even though I invaded the Holy Beasts Sect with bad intentions, they’re not treating me like a prisoner. If anything, it seems like they’re trying to recruit me into their sect by showing off its grandeur. And I’ll admit that it’s very grand—for a wilderness. The only signs of civilization are the few pagodas that appear here and there.
“It’s big.”
“That’s right,” Gwey said and puffed his chest out. “Of the whole Immortal Continent, our sect is the largest. We occupy the greatest amount of land and have the highest population of cultivators. If you wanted to, I’m sure the elders would let you stay as a guest.”
“I’ll consider it.” Tying myself to the strongest sect isn’t a bad idea. As long as I resolve this peacefully and withdraw all my forces intact, I can always try to conquer them again later, but I’ll start from the weaker sects in this region first.
“That’s great! You—”
Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
What the hell is that sound? It sounds like the most obnoxious whistle in the world. I turned to look at Gwey, but he wasn’t saying anything. Instead, he was looking up at the sky with a dazed expression. Moments later, black cracks formed amongst the clouds, and a floating island appeared amidst the turbulence. The signs of broken space disappeared, and without any elegance, the island succumbed to gravity, plummeting straight into the ground.
“That’s the sect’s gathering signal,” Gwey said. “Everyone, no matter their cultivation level, has to head towards the sect’s main plaza. That’s where the island fell.” A floating rowboat appeared in front of him, and he gestured for me sit.
It was a pretty nice boat. It could use a few modifications, but the formations inside served their purpose just fine. I got on the boat, and Gwey sat across from me. Contrary to the boat’s appearance, no one needed to row the oars for it to move. And Gwey didn’t seem to be flustered. “Does this happen often?”
“The alarm? No.” Gwey shook his head. “However, I’ve seen islands fall from the sky a couple of times. Whenever a fellow disciple travels and sees a nice piece of land, they’ll inform the elders. If the elders deem the land worthy, they’ll transport it back to the sect. Usually there’s an entrance to a pocket realm or rare herbs that can’t be uprooted the normal way. The thing is…, I’ve never seen a piece of land this large being transferred before.”
Well, I guess islands falling from the sky is quite different from other sects. It’s not a bad idea really. Instead of having to set up a teleportation formation to a specific area, why not teleport the area back to the sect? Depending on how many times the teleportation formation was going to be used, it’d save a lot of resources just teleporting the giant mass once. Maybe this is why there’s so much empty space in the sect. Instead of building things, they need places to store these islands. Collecting places of interest like this is pretty greedy though. I like it. The more I think about it, the more appealing it seems. There’s just one thing that’s off. “Why gather everyone in the sect?”
“Usually, formation masters gather when an island appears,” Gwey said with a furrowed brow. “They stabilize the land and lock in any special characteristics. The snow mountain that we visited earlier contains the natural qi of the northern lands despite being transported here thanks to the formations underneath it. There’s a secluded elder from the moon race in our sect that’s an expert in formations; he’s the one that created the mist-wall formation … that you destroyed. This signal may have rung just to summon him.”
“Is that so?”
“What’s wrong? You seem a little pale.”
I’m not sure. There’s just something that seems off about this…. I don’t get bad premonitions often, but when I do, they usually involve Lucia. However, Lucia should be with Softie, doing those good deeds I sent them. Yeah, she might get bored or hate doing good deeds because of her personality, but I don’t think she’d have something to do with this. Then, where’s this unsettling feeling in my chest coming from? Maybe…? “That area where the island fell. Is that where my followers were being held?”
Gwey shook his head. “They’re being held in our sect’s punishment hall. None of them should’ve been close to the plaza.”
Then it wasn’t a loss of my personal property. Why am I feeling so uneasy? As the rowboat flew closer and closer to the fallen island, thousands of other boats came into view. They were flying and surrounding the piece of land. The island seemed small from far away, but it was actually massive. The bottom of the island was cracked and flattened, but before the impact, it must’ve had a curved shape as if it was part of a sphere. In fact, the clouds above it were different from the ones around it, and there were a few with rounded edges as if someone had carved them up with a spoon. Not only was the land transferred, but the sky in the region above it was transferred as well. And in that sky, there was a very conspicuous boat. All the other boats were personal rowboats. This boat was a large galleon, and it looked a lot like the one I left for Softie….
“Holy crap! That was scary! Mrs. Feathers, where are we?”
That voice, I’d recognize it anywhere. …Fuck.