Fly Away

A few days after the wedding, a crowd of people had appeared at the harbor of Sun city. Buses could be seen driving, dropping loads of cultivators and beastkins, and leaving before a new bus arrived.

Xun Bao was looking out the window of the bus he was riding as it pulled up to a location near the harbor. He saw crowds of people cheering and cameras flashing as others walked down a path towards a humongous flying ship that was floating in the sea. His bus moved forward, the doors opened, the people in front of him stood up, and exited the bus. He followed after the others, and when he left the bus he heard the noise of the excited crowd. Xun Bao and the others smiled and waved as they headed towards the ship until the reached the loading ramp. He saw Captain Long was standing at the ramp to welcome to crew and passengers.

As Xun Bao approached the ramp, he performed a bow with cupped hands.

"Welcome aboard, Daoist Xun", Captain Long said as he made it to the ramp, "All ready to go?"

"Of course, Captain", Xun Bao replied, "She's a beautiful ship, like a Flying Fortress."

"It's our home for the foreseeable future", Captain Long replied, "Anyways, do not block the way and report upstairs."

Xun Bao laughed, entered the ship, and made his way to his assigned room. After settling his room, he left and made his way to the bridge. Several others were already there when he entered, and he made his way to his seat as he nodded towards their direction. Xun Bao activated his station, and went through the checklist required before flight. Once everything was confirmed operational, he activated a holographic projector that showed the world. He also removed a scroll from a special special bag, tore the seal, and read the captain's orders. Once every was taken care of, and the route was set, Xun Bao began speaking with the other crew on the bridge.

After a few hours, the bridge had everyone present with the exception of the captain. Just then a door opened, and a woman yelled, "Captain on deck!"

Everyone stood and turned to salute Captain Long, as the latter made his way to his chair.

"Please be seated", Captain Long ordered, "All sections report your progress."

One by one, each section of the bridge reported that they had completed the pre launch check and everything was ready. Eventually it was Xun Bao's turn, "Captain, this the helm. Course is set, all systems are green, and control has already given permission to take off."

"Excellent", Captain Long said to him, "There is nothing holding us back then. Helm initiate the engines."

"Aye, Captain", Xun Bao responded, and started making hand signs.

Outside, the crowd was patiently awaiting grew excited when a shield appeared between them and the flying ship. All the members of the audience who could sense the air felt the rise in power, before seeing the flying ship rise from the water. The ship with 'Explorer' painted on the side continued to rise before stopping to avoid crashing into the Grand array formation.

Xun Bao loved flying ever since the first flying ships were made, and he qualified to pilot one. It was also his skills as Captain Long's helmsman during the 'zodiac' stone battles that gave him an advantage when he volunteered for this assignment. He was currently wearing the pilot mask required to fly the ship, and his view now displayed the island's protective formation in front of him. After a minute, a circular hole large enough for him to fit through appeared, so he advanced through the space created to the other side.

"It will be awhile before we can return home", Xun Bao heard Captain Long say over a ship wise announcement over the intercom, "But just as we handled dangers in the past, so shall we do in the future."

As the captain spoke, Xun Bao was slowly advancing the ship into position to launch towards its first destination.

"We are the sons and daughters of Sun & Moon island and the three continents. No matter what happens, remember the courage it took to volunteer, and in a few months we will see the new land with our own eyes. Prepare yourself."

Arrays activated both inside and out the ship as it moved into position.

"Helm, take us out of here", Captain Long ordered.

"Aye, Captain", Xun Bao said while smiling.

He made a few hand signs, and the ship smoothly moved forward as it accelerated more and more.

From the ground, the crowd watched until the ship disappeared over the horizon.

On the Wu continent, a different set of scenes were taken place as several frigates and a cruiser from Sun & Moon island were hunting the unorthodox sects. Though Captain Zhuo had led several successful offensives against unaware sects at a rapid pace, word still got out and the next several battles became more difficult. Unorthodox sects would either go into hiding, or fight to the last cultivator. Unfortunately for the former, their movements were captured by satellites in orbit. Many more of the flying artifacts had been added over time creating a network that update the command center much quicker. The older models had already been recalled, and given updated observation and weapon systems.

The more aggressive sects were dealt with as well but several smaller sects and cities had suffered before the offenders were taken in. It only took a month for the Nanying continent to remove the influence of unorthodox sects from its borders while the Wu continent took four times that number. When all the ships returned, they unloaded their cargo, boxes of life realms that held the captives.

Wei Huoran had slip from public view since the wedding, and nowadays he was perfecting each profession. Married life was treating him well, and he would mostly work in his workshop. He no lingered tried to create new artifacts or concepts, instead he started his own company despite not really needing too. As the manger of the island, he received one percentage from every business, and he could just retire without worry. He realized he was not the type to sit around and do nothing, so he business was creating custom ordered luxury goods. The remaining time would be used to spend time with Meirong, or play on the pod. It was safe to say that the island was running without his oversight, and the council was handling everything.

It was the late morning and Huoran was working on an order, but his QFold rang.

"Hello, Assistant Su", he said as he answered the call, "It's not time for the company season report, so what happened?"

"The ships that went to suppress the unorthodox sects had returned", Su replied, "And I have already gotten a few inquiries about what our plans are with the captured cultivators."

"I understand", he remarked, "When is the meeting scheduled?"

"Tomorrow morning", she answered, "Will you attend?"

"Not in person", Huoran responded, "I'll remote into the meeting."

"Very well, Boss Wei", Su confirmed his intentions, "I'll inform the others."

Huoran ended the call, and returned to the artifact in front of him.

The next day, Huoran arrived in a large conference room, one created to be a meeting place of all the continents leaders. The room was a several circular rows of tables and chairs, with the highest ranking seats in the center, and the lower ranked assigned to rows a bit further from the center. He took the seat the usher assigned to him led him to, and sat down to the surprise of the few that had taken their seats. Huoran remembered these leaders of smaller forces, so while he waited for everyone to show, he took sometime to speak with them. He understood their confusion because he had not attended a meeting in this room yet, so by now everyone had forgotten about the empty chair.

Eventually all the attendees were in place, and many of them took the time to speak with Huoran when they saw he was there. No beastkins were in attendance for today's meeting because this operation had no impact on the Shuo continent.

Minister Ye banged the gavel with a small smile on his face, "I honored that everyone that was invited was able to attend today."

Huoran felt the old man was alluding to him, but he just snorted softly and ignored the comment.

"As everyone here should be aware, we recently made an effort to increase the security of the cities by apprehending the unorthodox cultivators", Ye spoke to the crowd, "The plan was an overall success, though a few people were lost in the process. We have already sent compensation to the families, but please join me as we take a moment of silence in honor of them."

Everyone bowed their heads for a few moments before raising them again.

"Now that the first part of the plan is complete, it's time to move on to the next part", Ye spoke to the audience, "As it was reported earlier, not all the captured cultivators taken into custody have been tainted by the sins of their sects. To speak more about this, I have asked the Venerable Wei Huoran here today.

"Thank you, Minister Ye", Huoran said as he stood up and walked to a platform in the middle of the room, "I'm not sure how many of the present members of audience know this, but not all of the methods used by unorthodox users were inherently wrong in the past. Unfortunately, sometime after the lack of resources caused cultivators to stop practicing the old ways, a smaller group of cultivators began to change their methods and practices to use new sources of energy, i.e., blood, souls, and the Qi taken directly using intimate cultivation techniques. Unfortunately, these methods were never studied fully and were full of flaws. The only reason cultivators still continued to use these methods was because in the early stages, a person's level would quickly rise. Obviously, the flaws expressed themselves later on as the ability to breakthrough became harder to accomplish. Now let me get to my proposal, I wish to save and correct the cultivation of those who can be saved. We are holding and evaluating the cultivation, bodies, and minds of those we have captured for the amount of damage that the flawed methods have caused them. That being said, I understand that many of our prisoners are criminals, and have caused great harm over the decades. So I recommend that we hold a tribunal for each captive, evaluating the history of each one. If the report and the tribunal decide that the individual is too far gone, they will be sentenced by the ones they harmed. But for instance, if one is a Qi Gathering realm cultivator and has not participated yet, we rehabilitate them. This is my plan, and if others have plans to propose of their own, I'll ask them to take the floor now."

As he sat down, other members in the room did speak to the audience like he did. As he predicted, one called for the eradication of all of them, and the other spoke of implanting slave imprints on everyone and using them for labor.

When things stayed quiet after the third proposal, Minister Ye stood up, "It seems that these three plans are all that will be discussed today, so let us put it to a vote. Here all the three indicators, one for each plan, so use your Qi sense to select the plan you wish to implement and the one with the most votes win."

Minister Ye waited five minutes before approaching the first plaque that represented eliminating all prisoners.

"This plan has received 3 percent of the vote, so I will move on to the next one", Minister Ye narrated as he walked, "This plan was proposed by Venerable Wei, and it totals at forty nine percent leaving 48 for the last plan. By the decision of this conference, it is decided that the prisoners will be evaluated before facing a tribunal. The members selected for the judgement will consider the evidence to determine the sentence for each prisoner. We will now move to the selection of the judges."

Huoran sent a brief message to Meirong summarizing what happened today, and let her know he would slightly late today. He refocused his attention towards the situation in front of him as talks continued. Not everyone was trying to be a judge, so the ones the did want to was trying to garner their support until Huoran stated something.

"This is not a contest of popularity", he said, "We want to make sure that no matter your opinion on the matter, the ones picked for this matter have the ability to listen to everything and make the right choice."

A few cultivators silently ended their campaigns for the spots, and eventually the judges were picked. Huoran also had to be a judge since the plan was his to begin with, but he accepted since that reasoning was sound enough. He left his pod, and was greeted by Meirong as rubbed his temples thinking about the things he would have to do soon.