Chapter 18: It ain’t a Xianxia if a few Secret Realms don’t collapse!

Stepping into the Immortal Boat, Xiao Hong wasted no time and made her way directly to the Private Room assigned to her. 

If she were using her Cultivation to get onto this ship, let alone a Private Room, even a shared room would be difficult to get. Such a low cultivation was not worthy of going to the Sect Mission at all. Moreover, she had no intention of drawing attention by displaying her formidable battle power at this juncture. Attention she could not handle just yet.

The room she was given was fairly spacious for a Divine Sea cultivator, which meant it was the size of a small villa.

The cultivators' strange disease of liking larger spaces with a stronger Cultivation Base had also caught up to her. Although she didn't particularly mind smaller accommodations, Xiao Hong definitely preferred larger ones. And for the life of her, Xiao Hong couldn't figure out why.

So, while this matter interested her greatly, she could only put it off for later. She had more important things to do.

"This trip should take about a week. It's not a long time, not enough for any significant progress in my Cultivation Techniques and definitely not enough time to expand my Cultivation Base; that can only be done when the Trial starts…

"Hmm…, since Chen Yu and other Alchemists are around, they're definitely gonna have a discussion about Alchemy later

"This is a good chance for me to test that."

She brought out several Jade Slips and scanned them one after another.

Half an hour later, Xiao Hong intoned while massaging the bridge of her nose, "Use Slot 1 to learn Grade 3 Alchemy."

Then,

"STATUS."

Name:

Xiao Hong

Age: 

17

Lifespan: 

750 years

Primary profession: 

Cultivator

Secondary Profession(s)

Alchemist (Grade 2)

Formation Master (Grade 2)

Inventory (27m3)

43,123 Spirit Stones

Cultivation Base:

Essence: Initial Divine Sea

Physique: 5-star Ancient Godling (5th Disaster Equivalent)

Soul: 3rd stage Red Soul (1st Disaster Equivalent)

Skills:

Heaven Swallowing Roc Breathing Method (Heaven) - Uncultivated

Spirit Transformation Art (Earth) - Novice

Dark Flame Serpent (Profound) - Great Accomplishment

Earth Shell (Profound) - Great Accomplishment

Earth Burrow (Profound) - Great Accomplishment

Star Shifting Steps (Profound) - Perfection

<Several Normal, Yellow and Black Rank Cultivation Techniques omitted>

Cultivation Method: 

Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method

Ancient God's Physique Scripture

Spirit God's Soul Cultivation Method

Battle Prowess: 

High (6th Disaster Equivalent)

Automatic Cultivation Slots: 5

Details: 212.5x of Normal Speed

Slot 1: Profession Guide Book: Alchemy [Grade 3] (51 Days)

Slot 2: Earth Burrow (40 Days  to Perfection)

Slot 3: Earth Shell (40 Days  to Perfection)

Slot 4: Heaven Swallowing Roc Breathing Method (1078 Days to Beginner)

Slot 5: Spirit Transformation Art (41 Days to Small Accomplishment)

Over the course of these three months, Xiao Hong got Qiao Guiying's help to get herself a Profession Guide Book for Array Formations. 

What surprised her was that the difficulty in learning Array Formations of Grade 1 was, astonishingly, lower than Alchemy. This was despite it being acknowledged by most cultivators as a more complex subject. She'd expected that it would take as much time as it took to learn Alchemy - perhaps more, but was very surprised when she learnt it in a much shorter time (with the help of the system, of course)!

At first, she'd thought it was because her Cultivation Base was stronger. But when she learnt the Grade 2 Array Formation much faster than she did Grade 2 Alchemy, she realised something else was going on.

She decided to try learning Array Formations by herself and was utterly shocked when she realised she actually had a smidgen of talent in Formation Mastery!

She rejoiced and nearly cried in happiness!

There was finally something other than charming people that she didn't suck at!

With renewed vigour, Xiao Hong decided to learn Array Formations.

This was also when she realised that the System only amplified the cultivation speed based on her talent. 

So, Xiao Hong thought that since her talent could affect her speed of learning, what about other factors? For example, the good old 'Dao Discussion'? Would she learn faster? Or would it not affect her at all? Perhaps, the talent thing worked because it was her own rather than something external? She decided to use the inevitable gathering of Alchemists to verify her theory.

In fact, Xiao Hong was somewhat ashamed that she didn't think of this earlier. She might've advanced in her Cultivation Techniques quicker had she requested someone's help in Cultivating her techniques - if it did work. Perhaps it was the arrogance and overconfidence of being a system protagonist that she did not think of this.

Anyway, her Physical Cultivation had advanced quite a bit. Unlike the Celestial God Essence Cultivation Method which was like an Indifferent Goddess unmoved by her efforts, the Ancient God Physique Scripture was at least receptive to her!

She was actually given the time of day by it - even if reluctantly. But it was enough to make the 'affection-starved' Xiao Hong instantly fall head over heels in love with it!

That made Xiao Hong cultivate even harder and she had finally achieved 5-star Ancient Godling.

She had also cultivated several Cultivation Techniques of the Normal, Yellow and Black Ranks to Perfection that Qiao Guiying had recommended to her. With that, she had spent all of her remaining Contribution Points.

Looking at the time needed for the Heaven-Swallowing Roc Breathing Method's completion time, Xiao Hong had the urge to kick Gu Ran in the nuts - really, really violently.

She sighed, "Haah… Forget it, he's too strong for now." She still knew her place.

After setting down her stuff, Xiao Hong decided to go look around the Immortal Ship - as it was her first time on one.

***

Like any good Xianxia Immortal ship, it was divided into levels. The topmost layer was obviously reserved for the Inner Disciple that came along: Bai Heng. Beneath that were all the Mission Leaders at the Wind-Thunder Disaster level. Lower still, the Alchemists and the Great Disaster level disciples were given lodgings. As an Alchemist, Xiao Hong was given a private Room here. 

The ones who were responsible for the lodging of the Alchemists were especially thoughtful and had even given them a Hall of sorts - for them to discuss the Dao of Alchemy.

Further below, there were the lodgings for the Elite Disaster disciples and the ordinary Disaster disciples - the ordinary Disaster disciples had to share a room whereas the Elite Disaster disciples were given a private room.

Then, the Divine Sea disciples had to share rooms on the floor further below.

Finally, there were a large number of Servant Disciples on the lowest floor that came along to make things more convenient for the ones who were gonna participate in the Secret Realm Trial.

Xiao Hong decided not to go to the lower levels where there were way too many disciples around. She was very sure that some random cultivator would pop up and try to get her attention - it had happened every time she went to exchange for pills. It forced her to exchange for pills every month instead of every week. 

She was very thankful that she built a good relationship with Deacon Lu. The old man had bent quite a few rules to allow her more materials from the Sect. Nominally, a Grade 1 Alchemist was only allowed to take a certain amount of materials from the Sect - the Materials had a shelf life after all. And no one was gonna waste a Treasure Storage Box on some low-ranked materials. There were almost no Alchemists like Xiao Hong who pumped out pills like a factory.

Thus, she strolled around, visiting various places like the Public Food Area, the Entertainment Hall (yes, there was an Entertainment Hall for a mere week-long journey), the Alchemist's Discussion Hall, Cultivation Rooms, Pill Refining Rooms etc. 

The only thing she didn't find were Training Rooms. She was surprised for a moment before it dawned on her that the majority of disciples on this Immortal Ship were Divine Sea cultivators who could cause immense destruction. Even if the Ship could easily withstand the clash of two Nirvana Experts, it didn't mean there was enough space inside for them to have a head-on mano-a-mano!

***

After a short while of walking around, Xiao Hong got to the most interesting place on the Immortal Ship - the Balcony. It sounded rather underwhelming, but this place alone took up nearly a seventh of the entire ship's volume!

This was an open balcony at the front of the ship that offered a panoramic view of the front and the sides. And it seemed as though many other disciples had the same idea as her. When Xiao Hong entered the Hall, she immediately became the subject of quite an excited stir among the crowd.

Ignoring the usual hullabaloo, Xiao Hong looked around, trying to find someone familiar and failed. 

Therefore, she decisively went to the opening while trying her best to radiate an unapproachable aura. She had learnt this trick from observing the other Jade Beauties of the Sect when they did not want to be approached. It worked startlingly well! 

The only ones immune to this were the Young Master and the Protagonist. But she didn't notice either of them so she was fine!

Xiao Hong leaned her back against the railing.

"... Ship is the Special Cruise-type Immortal Ship of the Profound Hammer Valley, right? The True Spirit Artificers Faction's flagship model? The Sect really spent a lot!"

"Uh-huh! This thing is a total beast! It can carry nearly ten thousand passengers and tremendous loads. Its top speed at full capacity is more than 50 times the speed of sound. That's almost 30 li in a second!"

"I mean, it is powered by a Grand Spirit Cycle-type engine. Plus, it is the newest iteration of the Crimson Dragon engine. That monster boasts a Dragon Power of nearly 0.021. That's the most insane Dragon Power for this level of cruise ship!"

"This ship's internals are the best part about it: It has a modular build that the user can easily customise to their liking whenever they want. If the user wanted, they could totally build a Cultivation Abode on it!

"The chassis is also quite extraordinary! It has something called a Differential WindStream Array…"

Xiao Hong was dumbfounded!

'What the heck? Grand Spirit Cycle-type engine? Dragon Power?' Her lips twitched. 'This… feels so damned familiar!'

It was only after a short while that she came to the conclusion, 'Boys will be boys, no matter the Universe!' 

Then she continued paying attention to them.

But it was only a short moment later that she noticed Gu Ran and also Qiao Xuan. Her lips twitched even more violently!

'... Fuck. This Secret Realm is done for.'