Chapter 99 - Unable to Escape
In a particular station of the Adjacent Sea Guard that was in charge of the coastline that spread four hundred kilometers, a Connate False Core realm cultivator, Daoist Golden Elegance sat cross-legged on a cloud, sensing his surroundings.
"Oh?" Golden Elegance suddenly opened his eyes and looked in a particular direction. "Something that flies at such a speed can"t be a bird. Is it that person named Qin Yun?"
Qin Yun was flying with his family on his flying sword.
Previously, when he left Grand Dominance City, he had maintained peak speed but that resulted in rapid drainage of his Quintessential Essence. Now, Qin Yun was maintaining thirty percent of his maximum speed. In this way, the recovery of the Quintessential Essence was more than the expenditure. It also allowed the Quintessential Essence in his body to gradually increase.
As he did not dare take the shortest distance out of the East Sea for fear of being stopped, Qin Yun deliberately took a detour at night. He circled a huge round towards the north. By the time he reached the coastline, the sky was dimly lit.
"We will see the sea soon." Qin Yun said to his family with a smile.
"The sea?" Qin Liehu, Changlan, Qin An and his wife looked down at the spa.r.s.e clouds as they overlooked the distant sea carefully.
"I can barely see it now. All of you will have to wait a while," said Qin Yun with a smile. Suddenly, his expression changed.
Phew.
Ahead of him, a biological creature that was flying slowly had suddenly accelerated. Qin Yun found the acceleration amiss as no normal bird could move that fast! The other party directly stopped in front him.
"Qin Yun!" The golden-robed youth, Daoist Golden Elegance, was standing above a cloud. He immediately ascertained their ident.i.ties when he saw Qin Yun bringing a group of people of all ages. "I never expected to chance upon you."
"Daoist Golden Elegance?" Qin Yun"s expression sunk. He shouted, "That County Governor Gongye Bing is a spy for the fiendish demons…"
"Shut up," Golden Elegance said coldly. "As ordered by Lord Prefecture Overseer, you are to be apprehended. As for whether there are any grievances, Lord Prefecture Overseer will present the justice you deserve once he finishes his investigations."
Qin Yun was incensed.
He could not even find the evidence that the county governor was a fiendish demon, so how could the imperial government find it? He did not have any confidence in them.
"Then, don"t blame me for being heartless." Qin Yun said. His Intrinsic Flying Sword had already appeared in front of him. He released his Quintessential Essence to wrap his family to leave them temporarily floating in the sky.
"You? I cultivate in the Daoist sacred land, Spirit Treasure Mountain, and am stationed in Adjacent Sea Guard to fend against the Water race demons. I urge you not to court death and give up any resistance." Golden light began to emit from behind Golden Elegance.
"Out."
Qin Yun did not dare hesitate. He was afraid that his obstructor would have means to contact the military, causing more cultivators to rush to him.
"You are overestimating your abilities! Heaven Man Unity! Repression!" Golden Elegance bellowed coldly. The golden light behind him expanded greatly as golden streams of light shot out. Dozens of golden light surged out crazily as it came charging at Qin Yun.
Qin Yun commanded with his mind.
Instantly, his Intrinsic Flying Sword transformed into numerous trajectories at extremely fast speeds. It was as though a gigantic spider web came enclosing over.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Under the envelopment of the spider web, the dozens of golden streams were warded off. The flying sword that Qin Yun used had managed to generate a thousand trajectories with every one of them being real! They easily held back the golden streams, revealing their true forms. They were golden needles! Other than intercepting the golden needles, one of the Intrinsic Flying Sword trajectories circled around Golden Elegance a few times.
Golden Elegance"s expression changed drastically as his clothes tore apart completely, revealing his skin.
The sixth level of the "Gossamer Setting Sun Sword Art"—Wispy Thousand-knotted Heart.
This strike absolutely had the strength at the peak Connate True Core realm! The corresponding area attack and speed were excellent. Other than its might been slightly weaker, there were no flaws. Besides, Golden Elegance"s body was incapable of resisting a flying sword.
"Daoist Golden Elegance, I implore you to not continue your pursuit." With a thought, Qin Yun commanded his Intrinsic Flying Sword to fly back, expand and appear under his feet.
Phew.
Qin Yun brought his family and rapidly left on the sword.
Golden Elegance stood on his cloud, watching from afar. His expression changed constantly as he muttered under his breath, "There is always someone better in this world, mountains beyond mountains! I am a disciple of a sacred land and have just grasped Heaven Man Unity. I dare say that my strength matches the Connate True Core realm. I never expected to be directly defeated by that Qin Yun… What an impressive sword immortal. Really. If he had not shown mercy, I would have died today."
Looking at his clothes that had slits everywhere, each revealing his skin, Golden Elegance felt somewhat embarra.s.sed.
"Phew." With a thought, Quintessential Essence surged to wrap his body. With light swirling around him, it was hard to tell his appearance.
And elsewhere, Qin Yun had maintained his top speed again while leading his family away. Looking down, the scenery was changing rapidly. It went from ground to sea and it was daybreak. The sea appeared dark.
"The sea." Qin Liehu, Changlan, Qin An and his wife looked down. Momentarily, they watched in a daze. They too understood that their future days required them to live on a particular island in the sea or a tiny foreign country.
During the flight, Qin Yun flew at his maximum speed for about fifty kilometers. It drained his Quintessential Essence rapidly so he immediately reduced his speed to thirty percent.
He flew slowly.
The oceanic scenery was beautiful in the beginning but it turned stale after a while.
After flying for more than a thousand kilometers into the sea, Qin Yun suddenly saw a boat beneath them.
"There"s a boat. Let"s go down and take a rest," said Qin Yun.
"Alright," Qin Liehu and Changlan nodded immediately. They had not gotten a chance to rest properly while flying on the sword. They were already somewhat exhausted.
Phew.
While casting an Invisibility Spell, Qin Yun brought his family downwards. They landed on the deck of the large boat before revealing themselves.
"Everyone, come out." Qin Yun stood on the deck and controlled the Heaven and Earth powers, grabbing everyone inside the merchant boat, moving them to the deck.
"Ah, what"s happening to us?"
"We are flying!"
The people on the merchant boat floated out and their struggles were to no avail. Soon, the deck was filled with a great number of people.
Qin Yun looked at them and with a thought, about two hundred people fell to the deck.
"Which one of you is the leader of this merchant s.h.i.+p?" Qin Yun said indifferently as his voice resounded in everyone"s ears.
Immediately, many sailors looked towards a youth.
The color in the youth"s face drained somewhat as he hurriedly said, "I"m Fu Yunbo from Adjacent Sea County"s Fu family!"
"Oh?" Qin Yun nodded. "Where are you heading on this voyage?"
"We are going to Golden Silver Island in the East Sea," answered the youth immediately.
Golden Silver Island was a huge island with a tiny country on it. It was one of the important trading centers in the sea.
"Then, continue your voyage to Golden Silver Island." Qin Yun instructed. "Quickly arrange for three excellent rooms and good food. If anyone of you has any malfeasant thoughts, hmph!"
Qin Yun waved his hand.
Boom!
In the distant sea beside the boat, the water in a thousand foot radius suddenly sunk.
The people on the boat turned pale upon seeing that. If this strike had hit the boat, the entire boat would be doomed.
"I understand, I understand." The Fu family youth said immediately.
"This is a banknote. I will not take advantage of all of you." Qin Yun casually threw a banknote over. It was worth a thousand taels of silver.
The Fu family youth"s eyes lit up the moment he saw it. He was not from the direct line of the Fu family. Now that he had grown up, he had been chased out after being allocated some of the family wealth. He was taking a huge risk doing trading out at sea. It would be a good thing if he earned two or three thousand taels of silver. Yet, he had a banknote worth a thousand taels of silver appear in front of him at the very moment.
"Immortal, don"t you worry. I will definitely arrange for people to serve all of you well," said the youth.
"Alright." Qin Yun nodded.
Qin Yun enveloped the entire merchant s.h.i.+p with his perception. There were no cultivators that had knocked open the gate of immortality so he naturally wasn"t worried.
The wind blew at the sails.
"Woosh~"
The merchant boat cruised across the sea.
Qin Yun stood at the bow of the boat as he watched the vast sea with mixed emotions.
He still remembered the day he had separated with Yi Xiao.
"Let"s meet again next year on 25th February at Windblast Pavilion."
"See you there."
The duo"s appointment was still ringing in his ears.
Yi Xiao left on a crane and turned to look down… Qin Yun stood by the riverbank and looked up…
Although both of them never said a word, they could vaguely sense the existence of love.
"It was agreed upon."
"We would meet again on the 25th of February but now, I"m burdened by a crime and being forced to be a fugitive." Qin Yun murmured. "I really wonder when I"ll be able to return to land on this voyage. When will I be able to meet you again? But when we meet again, is it possible that everything else remains the same except the people?"
At that moment, Qin Liehu walked over.
"Yun"er," Qin Liehu came to his side. "People have to look ahead. No one knows what tomorrow brings. What we can do is to face everything and not collapse."
"Alright." Qin Yun nodded.
Regardless, his family still relied on him!
"Yi Xiao, forget it. I"ll treat it as a dream," thought Qin Yun.
Everything was over before it even began.
"What"s that?" Qin Liehu pointed to the distant horizon.
Qin Yun looked up and over.
He had extraordinary vision. He could see a dazzling golden flying boat charging out from the clouds in the distant horizon. The flying boat was extremely fast as it whizzed through the air. In a blink of an eye, it covered several kilometers. Qin Yun discerned a robed elder with white hair standing on the flying boat"s bow. He was looking down at the merchant boat, right at Qin Yun, with his robes fluttering in the wind.
"Palatial Lord Essence Charm?" Qin Yun"s expression instantly turned pale.
It was the Connate Golden Core realm senior, Palatial Lord Essence Charm, who he had previously met. Back when the imperial government dealt with the numerous demons of Grand Dominance County, Palatial Lord Essence Charm was the one that presided over Grand Dominance"s security!
"Yun"er?" Qin Liehu panicked. "Cultivators. Leave! Quickly leave!"
"We have been caught up. There"s no way to escape." Qin Yun did not move because he knew that there was no way he could escape.
Against the famous Palatial Lord Essence Charm, it was pointless escaping.
"Father, I"m sorry to you and Mother. I"m sorry to brother and his family." Qin Yun was ashamed. By being caught, he might eventually be beheaded according to the law. It was fine with him dying but the Qin family would also be implicated.
Qin Liehu"s body was trembling as he said with a deep voice, "Yun"er, you have already tried your best. Really. Having you as my son is my greatest pride."
Qin Yun nodded as his eyes filled with tears.
He turned and looked at Palatial Lord Essence Charm that had flown over. Behind Palatial Lord Essence Charm were two cultivators who were similarly powerful.
"Senior Essence Charm." Qin Yun went forward and spoke respectfully.
He could accept his fate of dying but he had to think of means to save his family, as well as his brother"s family.
Palatial Lord Essence Charm came with two people on a cloud. From afar, Palatial Lord Essence Charm said loudly, "Qin Yun, by order of the Inspector Heavenly Alliance, I hereby invite you to join the Inspector Heavenly Alliance to become an Inspector Heavenly Amba.s.sador. To become one of us!"