Between Liguanzhou in the northwest and Hezhou in Beixing, there is an endless sea.
Today is a sunny day and the wind is calm on the boundless sea. Except for the occasional two huge whales turning over on the sea surface, causing a wave of white waves to roll, the rest of the time is peaceful and calm.
High in the sky, a group of birds flies across the sea from west to east. Some of them, who find themselves exhausted during the flight, will temporarily settle on the backs of some of their stronger counterparts. They use their strength to move forward and take a short rest at the same time. After a while, they will spread their wings again and join the same queue, accompanying each other and traveling across continents together.
Rays of light shine through the gaps between the thin clouds on the sea surface, like divine light from the sky, illuminating patches of light and darkness on the sea surface, as if a mottled layer has been sprinkled on the entire sea surface. The heaven and earth are so peaceful and bright. Quiet.
After an unknown amount of time, a huge shadow slowly appeared in the middle of the clouds high in the sky. Like a Kunpeng spreading its wings and flying for nine days, it blocked countless rays of sunlight falling from higher places, making the people shrouded by it A piece of sea suddenly fell into darkness, and countless birds passing through it were frightened away.
If you look closely, you will find that the shadow that covers the sky is as big as a mountain, and it is shaped like a huge fishing boat at sea, but it is flying above the clouds. There are six huge and narrow oars like city walls on each side of the hull. , moving neatly and uniformly from front to back on both sides of the ferry, going back and forth, just like rowing a boat in the water, disturbing the countless flowing clouds on both sides of the bottom of the boat, and this is one of the legendary cross-sea ferries. It is used by immortal monks to travel across continents, or to circulate materials between two continents that are tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of miles apart.
The total number of cross-continental ferries within Jiuzhou is actually not too many. Relatively speaking, the richest Dongshijizhou has the highest number, about five, and the Northwest Liguanzhou has the least, with only one. Located in the south of Liguan Continent, a third-grade sect named Dunhuang City maintains one, and the total number of ferries within the entire Jiuzhou is no more than twenty. On average, one continent can only be divided into There are slightly more than two ships, which shows their scarcity.
The reason why this quantity is so scarce is mainly because its cost is too high. The money spent on building a cross-continental ferry is completely enough to support the entire cost of an Xianjia sect with a rank of about fourth grade within one Jiazi. , including the purchase of heavenly materials and earthly treasures required for the cultivation of the disciples in the refining sect, including all the expenses for the daily operation of the sect, as well as the courtesy exchanges between the immortal sects, etc... If you are tighter, all these expenses are included in the calculation. Among them, even if you don’t eat or drink, you may not be able to make up the cost.
However, such a huge consumption is only the construction cost, and does not include the maintenance costs that naturally occur over time after the ferry is built, as well as the consumption of the ferry traveling back and forth between continents, so there has been There is a generally accepted saying that the immortal families who can afford a cross-continental ferry are all rich and wealthy top sects. It is not certain whether their fighting skills are high or not, but if they use money to hit people, then these giants will Fu Xian Sect will definitely be one of the best!
Today's cross-continental ferry was anchored and launched from Changfeng Ferry on the east coast of Liguanzhou one day ago. It headed eastward, and its destination was 160,000 miles away to the east of Liguanzhou. Beixing Hezhou, on the huge black sail of the ferry, there is an equally huge word "Xiang Wang" engraved on it, with a dragon and a snake in the pen, and an iron painting and a silver hook, indicating which fairy gate is behind the ferry. The famous Xinghezhou Prime Minister's Palace.
This ferry, named "Longxing", belongs to the Prime Minister's Palace and is also the only cross-continental ferry among the four princes' palaces. Although the other three palaces are no less powerful than the Prime Minister's Palace, they do not have cross-continental ferries available. When traveling across continents, you have to pay to take a ferry from another fairy gate.
In a luxuriously decorated Tianzi cabin on the top floor of the ferry cabin, a young man wearing a sky-blue gown sat at the round table in the center of the room. It was Chen Shi, a descendant of the Chen family of the Prime Minister's Palace, and the third Zhao Jicheng, a young man from Yanguan Town who left Liangzhou once, stood by an open window on the side of the guest room, looking up at the endless sea of clouds outside the ferry. The two of them were silent and did not talk, and the one responsible for protecting the road Chao Zong, who was enshrined in the Prime Minister's Mansion of Chen Shi, was not in this room. He disappeared without a trace after the three of them boarded the ferry. It is unknown where he went.
After the cross-continental ferry takes off, it will basically provide its own protective light shield to protect it from wind and rain and ensure the smooth flight of the ferry. Therefore, Zhao Jicheng, a young man from a small town, did not feel any discomfort even when he stood in front of the open cabin window. , only a layer of gentle sunlight comes in, making people feel like a spring breeze.
Zhao Jicheng stood by the window with a calm expression and stared for a long time. It was not until the young man of the Chen family sitting at the table behind him started to fall asleep due to boredom that he slowly turned around and walked back to sit opposite Chen Shi. He didn't close the window, but left it open. After he sat down, he finally smiled and said to the Chen family disciple: "It wasn't until this moment that I finally believed that your Prime Minister's Mansion was indeed powerful and could not put it down. That Dogwood Mountain is in your eyes."
Listening to Zhao Jicheng's words, the disciples of the Chen family woke up slightly. After hearing what he said clearly, they couldn't help but raise their eyebrows and said with a smile: "A low-level sect that can't even reach the fifth level, the strongest among them." The monk Dingtian is nothing more than an eighth realm. One person, Chao Zongfeng, can cut through his entire mountain gate to the path between the ancestral hall. If you compare our Prime Minister's Palace with it, aren't you overly flattering it? "
Zhao Jicheng raised his eyebrows after hearing this disdainful answer. Instead of saying anything, he asked another question curiously, "You always talk about the nine-grade system. I'm a little curious. Those How are the sects divided among them?"
Chen Shi waved his hand in boredom and said: "It's just the third, sixth and ninth grades in the world of cultivation, which are promoted and disdained. It's nothing new. Whoever has a bigger fist will have a higher grade, ninth grade and eighth grade. There must be at least one monk from the third level and the sixth level respectively. The seventh level and up to the fifth level correspond to the seventh level to the ninth level respectively. Although the fourth level and the third level are analogous, they also require tenth level and tenth level respectively. The Eleventh Realm is in charge, but an additional condition is added, that is, one must have military exploits against the Jiuzhou Territory in order to be promoted to the first rank. As for the second rank and above, there are hundreds of schools of thought, and other people, except for a few exceptions, basically cannot enter. go."
Zhao Jicheng nodded, digested the classification in silence, and then said: "Does the extraterritorial military exploits refer to the ghost clan?"
"Not only that, there are also some remnants of demons and monsters scattered in some small and medium-sized islands on the sea. If the Jiuzhou monks want to find some fights with these stragglers, just searching across the sea will be very difficult. It’s difficult, so it’s not easy to earn enough weight for sect promotion in terms of military exploits, it requires many people to accumulate little by little over many years.”
The descendant of the Chen family who was talking probably felt too bored, so although he was chattering endlessly to explain to others, the upper and lower eyelids of his eyes had begun to fight again.
Zhao Jicheng has long been accustomed to the behavior of the peer across the table. Except for the time in the village school where they were targeted by the two girls, one red and one white, because of the muddy leg at the east entrance of the town, this Chen Shi seems to have always been carefree and careless about everything.
Some of the stories that were novel to him, a young man from a small town, were already accustomed to this prince's son, but he did not let him fall asleep like this, and continued to ask: "Then What's going on with the four princes' palaces? Why can you be independent from the nine-level system, and why can you still make Linyuan Academy, the co-owner of Jianghu, hold its nose and acquiesce in your uniqueness?"
This topic is a bit special. In fact, the answer actually hides some secrets of Jiuzhou that are not easy for outsiders to know. So when Chen Shi heard the question, he opened his eyes again and took a closer look at the person opposite. His face was calm, but his eyes showed curiosity about his peers.
After a while, he was probably a little tired from staying awake, so he simply leaned forward and lay on the table, and then slowly said: "There are some things that are difficult to explain clearly, after all, they involve the origins of various royal palaces... I can only tell you that the four royal palaces all have their own origins, and they also have some old disputes with many immortal sects in Jiuzhou headed by Zhuzi, including the academy in the center of the Middle-earth Divine Continent. The account books are all different, but Linyuan Academy is also worried about these, so it is not easy to be too tough on us. Of course, it is certain that the four princes are not weak, but compared to those old accounts For now, it’s not that important.”
Zhao Jiazi listened to this explanation that seemed to say everything, but also seemed to say nothing, and suddenly felt a little playful: "Listen to what you said, it seems that the Prime Minister's Mansion is not on good terms with China, right? Will you still accept it? Their business?"
Chen Xi's eyes that were about to close again slightly raised his eyelids at this moment, looking at Zhao Jicheng opposite with a half-smile, and said: "You don't have to use such a roundabout way to test the intention of my prime minister's palace to accept you as my disciple. ! When you and I first met, I actually hinted at something to you. As for whether you can figure it out in the end, that’s your problem and it’s not my responsibility to answer it! If you have to dig deeper At the end of the day...you can actually wait a little longer. I estimate that someone who should have come to see you a long time ago should come to see you soon, and you can ask him then."
After saying this, the descendant of the Chen family of the Prime Minister's Palace seemed to be unable to bear the overwhelming sleepiness and fell asleep completely on the round table.
Zhao Jiazi, who was sitting opposite him, saw this, and after a slight silence, he did not choose to ask again. Then he turned his eyes and stood up again, walked to the open window, and began to look out the window in a daze.
The clouds outside the ferry seem to be slowly changing. The cross-continental ferry above the clouds is calm, but I wonder what kind of treacherous waves and clouds will usher in in the endless sea under the clouds?
——
The girl in red, Jiang Chenyu, and her senior brother Fansheng said goodbye to their master, Old Man Qin, and left Yanguan Town, Liangzhou together.
Since the master is going to be punished in Yanguan Town, and may later go to one of the coastal cities on the Sifang Sea as a punishment, then the two brothers and sisters can no longer follow him, although the little girl is very angry. Gu pouted her little mouth and was very unhappy, but after being forcibly sent away from Liangzhou by the old man Qin, she had no other choice but to follow her senior brother all the way south to the Changfeng Ferry on the southeast coast of Liguanzhou. , and then parted ways there, prosperously returning to Zhongtu Momen, while the little girl in red took a boat south to the Jiang family of Nanxizhou.
This time, the southbound ferry the little girl boarded at Changfeng Ferry happened to be the "Flying Sky" maintained by Dunhuang City in Liguanzhou.
There are less than twenty cross-continental ferries within Jiuzhou. Because they are very expensive and difficult to maintain, most of the immortal sects that own the ferries use them as merchant ships, constantly flying back and forth between the continents, collecting money from travelers. The money for shipping or the delivery money for business can be used to make up for the sect's shortfall in maintaining ships. If the business is good enough, you can make more money, which is a good source of wealth for the sect.
The shape of this Feitian ferry belonging to Dunhuang City is different from the Longxing ferry of the Xinghezhou Prime Minister's Palace. Rather than being a boat, it is actually more like a nine-story wooden building that occupies a huge area and towers into the clouds. The building is located on a huge rock like the Jinzhu Cliff in the west of Yanguan Town. When it flies into the clouds, there are fairy sounds floating around it, and there are many fairy shadows circling around, so when it flies in the middle of the clouds in the sky, it is far away. From a distance, it looks like a fairy palace or a mirage.
When the little girl saw this ferry for the first time a long time ago, she always felt that it was somewhat similar to the Daomen Immortal Palace in Kunlun Ruins, or the Buddhist pagoda in Lingshan Mountain, but the fairies were constantly flying around. The shadows are all beautiful!
The girl in red has always liked beautiful things. Looking at the fairy sisters flying in the sky, she felt that they were all beautiful, so she naturally fell in love with this cross-continental ferry that looked like a wooden building. Looking out the window of the guest room and looking out at the ferry, I was very happy.
Maybe because they were traveling on the same road, after the little girl got on the Feitian Ferry, she happened to meet a disciple named Chen Shuang from the Chen family in Nanxi who was also going south, and the one who protected him. Chen Wanke, a fat old man holding a pair of lion-head walnuts, and Chen Ji, the legitimate son of the Chen family, returned to the small town of Nanxizhou with them.
Nanxizhou Yingshan Chen family and Xuchuan Jiang family are both powerful lords of the same continent and co-owners of the mountains and rivers. They have always had a good relationship and rarely have territorial conflicts, so they are relatively harmonious neighbors. Therefore, this time After the two parties traveled together, they got along relatively harmoniously.
As for Chen Ji, a young man from a small town, he is still the nerd who, as the fat Zhu Zhen said, only cares about books, and lacks some sophistication in dealing with people.
After the Feitian Ferry left Changfeng Ferry and headed south, the three boys and girls traveling on the same journey had not yet returned to their respective cabins. They first stood in a row and lay down on the railing at the highest point of the nine-story wooden building, looking around. They looked at the endless sea of clouds outside the ferry's light shield, each thinking deeply.
After a while, Chen Shuang, who was standing in the middle, first turned his head to look at the silent young man Chen Ji, who was standing side by side on his left, and then turned to look at the girl in red, Jiang Chenyu, who was standing some distance away on the other side of him, and thought about it. After thinking about it, he smiled and broke the silence.
"Miss Jiang, if you are free after returning to Nanxi Continent this time, you can visit us in Yingshan."
Hearing this, Jiang Chenyu turned his head slightly and glanced at the smiling disciples of the Chen family, and then nodded casually, but did not speak.
Chen Shuang, who was asking for trouble, couldn't help but touch his nose, then thought about it and said: "If nothing else happens, Chen Ji's name will be written into the genealogy of my direct lineage of the Chen family in Yingshan. The two of you were in the countryside before." We should have met each other at the school. From now on, we will be neighbors and we can make friends. Maybe we can see each other again in the future and we can take care of each other."
When the young man Chen Ji heard this, he still looked expressionless and continued to look outside the ferry without saying anything or having any special reaction.
The little girl Jiang Chenyu turned around, rested one elbow on the railing, and supported her chin with her slender, green-white hand. She turned her head slightly to look at the small town boy standing on the other side of Chen Shuang.
Then, she didn't know what she thought of, and suddenly raised the corners of her lips and smiled. Her grace at that moment was as bright and radiant as a blooming peony, but she heard her voice charmingly say: "I think he It's a bit too silly, and compared to his junior brother who just started, it's not interesting enough. As for whether we will see each other again in the world, and whether we need to look after each other, it's not certain, so whether we can make friends or not is not that important!"
After finishing her sentence, without waiting for Chen Shuang, who took the initiative to talk to her, to respond, she continued to say with a smile: "I have a very good eye for making friends, and not everyone can be friends with me, so I am with him." I can't be friends, and I can't be friends with you either! So, don't talk to me about your family background, neighbors, etc. I'm not familiar with you!"
This little princess of the Jiang family, who always likes to wear red, is very popular, and always smiles when she meets everyone. Today, for some reason, she is uncharacteristically unconventional. There are a few bright spikes in her words without concealment, as if she is against that person. In fact, I didn't have a good impression of the small-town Chen family's legitimate daughter, whom I had only met a few times, and even Chen Shuang was displeased with her. So after finishing her words, the listeners clearly felt that she had the same characteristics that she had since she was a child. A willful and pampered person who was raised by countless favors.
After she finished speaking, she didn't give the other party a chance to refute, and turned around and left, as if it had nothing to do with her whether the other party would choke to death or become angry because of her part.
Chen Shuang, a young man who was still standing by the railing, grinned in embarrassment when he saw this. He also had a strange look on his face. He had always heard that the little princess of the Jiang family in Xuchuan was not easy to get along with. Today he learned the lesson. , but he didn't quite understand the reason for the other party's obvious malice.
When he turned around, he saw that Chen Ji, a young man from a small town who had always been expressionless, was also uncharacteristically no longer looking at the vast sea of clouds outside the ferry, but instead looking back at the red figure that was drifting away and disappearing around the corner. , didn’t say a word for a long time.
Chen Shuang smiled when he saw this and said, "What? Do you feel a little unconvinced by being compared so easily?"
Chen Ji withdrew his eyes from the corner where the red coat disappeared, then turned to look at the peer who asked the question, and turned his eyes outside the ferry again without saying a word.
Chen Shuang, a young man with a gray nose, felt that he had done more awkward touching of his nose today, so he smiled playfully, turned to look at the billowing white clouds in front of him, and muttered something in a low voice.
"It's true, each one is more difficult to serve than the other!"
…
