[V7C031– In Life and In Eternal Rest]


    After several days of flying through the void, the seemingly constant starry skies finally saw some changes—a continent appeared vaguely in the distance.


    During his first long-distance flight, Qianye finally realized just how terrifying the void was. The space here seemedpletely empty, but void storms would ur at any time and without warning. Airships without special reinforcement might very well be torn apart if they were swept into the center.


    Additionally, there were small floating meteorites in the void and some of them were as fast as bullets. Once struck, they would leave deep pits on the ted armor.


    The biggest threat in the void wasn’t pirates but void beasts. A chance encounter wasn’t so bad, but death was almost certain for those who identally charged into a nest. Red Pipe, however, was highly capable. Although the route he had picked was curved and roundabout, the ship never encountered a single void beast along the way and managed to arrive safely in the neutralnds.


    The neutralnds sounded like a continent, but in fact, it was made up of many smallndmasses. Thergest one among them was merely the size of the floating continent on which Qianye had been fighting.


    This ce was a fair distance away from the other continents, almost like an abandoned corner of the world. Countless smallndmasses were moving around the sun in extremelyplicated orbits. Someone had once spected that the neutralnds weren’t formed naturally; instead, they came from the breaking down of a certain or continent during an era preceding the fall of the Void Star. However, this spection remained an unproven theory.


    This ce was far from theyered continents at the center, and hence the intense temperature fluctuations. Disaster-level storms would sweep through often, and many of thendmasses could not support any vegetation. Not to mention human habitation, even the most adaptive arachne couldn’t live very long there.


    It was precisely because it was difficult to survive that neither the empire nor Evernight were interested in this ce. To those who couldn’t live in either faction, however, this ce was their only haven. In the very beginning, those who could arrive in this ce were the most powerful people, and it just so happened that they were also the most ferocious of men. As time passed, the ce became a mixture of various characters whose only purpose was to survive in the neutralnds.


    Due to the rampaging storms and theplexity of thendmass orbits, traveling between the inds here was a dangerous business. Only veteran captains couldplete such trips by virtue of their deep experience, and Red Pipe was one such captain. His choice was a medium-sizedndmass on which existed thergest port in the neutralnds and also the first transit point for neers—human neers, that is.


    As the old airship slowly approached the dock, a group of well-built men in shabby clothes swarmed over and surrounded the exit.


    Red Pipe appeared at the cabin doors and waved his hand. “Go, there aren’t any goods this time. I only need a couple of people.”


    The people at the docks dispersed immediately after hearing this. Only then did those standing at the back get the chance toe forward. Most of them were old people and children. There were a few middle-aged men, but they were thin, emaciated, and looked rather sickly.


    Qianye and Nighteye had no luggage, and the only crate they had was packed full of frozen beast meat. On the contrary, it was the old “Great Master” who had an entire five boxes with him, all of them extremely heavy. Qianye tied three of the containers together and carried them himself, while five other people were chosen to move the rest.


    Walking past the long dock, Red Pipe brought Qianye to a certain three-storeyed brick building. This was the most magnificent structure in the airship port. Its main hall was fairly wide but currently packed full of people. mor and chaos rushed at one’s face along with the smell of sweat and body odor, causing Qianye to frown somewhat. Nighteye, with great foresight, had long since shut off her perception.


    The bearded captain took the lead and headed to the counter at the end of the hall. Whoever blocked his way he wouldsh at them with his whip or simply kick them out of the way. Those who were attacked would mostly scuttle to the side after seeing that red pipe in the captain’s mouth, not even daring to utter a word. Only a fierce-looking man with a face full of knife scars red back at the captain.


    Red Pipe smiled coldly and performed a cut-throat gesture at the scarred man. Those in the vicinity began crying out in excitement while the scarred man’s expression became rather unsightly.


    “What does that mean?” Qianye asked someone nearby.


    That person shot a nce at Qianye and said disdainfully, “You must be new? You’ll know after a while. This is a showdown challenge—those who are dissatisfied will fight to the death, and those who don’t dare can scram to the side and shut up.”


    Qianye quickly realized what it was. Who would’ve thought the neutralnds pursued such an undisguisedw where the strong reigned supreme.


    Not daring to engage in a battle with Red Pipe, the scarred man turned and left. Those in the vicinity sighed in regret.


    With the scarred man gone, those left in the hall quickly opened up a path. Countless eyes fell upon Qianye’s group, and all of them were unfriendly.


    After arriving at the counter, Red Pipe tossed a gold coin onto the counter and said, “Help my friends here register.”


    The man behind the counter was an elegant looking young man. He put away the money swiftly and picked up his pen, inquiring Qianye, Nighteye, and the old man about their identities. Qianye stated a random name, but the old man said his name was Cui Yuanhai. Qianye was somewhat surprised that he would use his real name.


    As though he understood Qianye’s thoughts, the old man said, “I’m too old to keep running. I don’t want to go anywhere else after arriving here.”


    The young man produced three bronze tokens with their names carved upon them and tossed them to Qianye. “This is your proof of identity. Naturally, it has no other major use. If you’re not willing to reveal your real identities, you can also rob a couple of tokens, no one will care. In this ursed ce, anything in your hands is yours.”


    He fished out yet another bronze te and ced it on the table. “If you want to survive here, you have to earn or rob it yourself. This is a ticket to the Eastern Desce. You’ll get a room on the ship, barely enough for your group and things. If you want better arrangements you’ll need to pay more. They’re short of people on the Eastern Desce, so they’re offering fairly good terms. You’ll get a piece ofnd there so long as you’re willing to go. You can ask for morend if you think your share is too small, but that way, you’ll die earlier.”


    Qianye knew nothing about the neutralnds, but to him, it was the same everywhere. Hence, he reached out to take the bronze te, but the young man pressed the te beneath his palm with a meaningful smile and wouldn’t let go.


    Qianye gave it some thought and realized the point. “How much?”


    The young man revealed a brilliant smile. “Smart! I like talking to smart people. Fifty gold coins and this ticket is yours.”


    There were many currencies flowing about in the neutralnds—imperial gold coins, ck crystals, Evernight silver coins, blood crystals, demonic cubes—everything was fair game. Qianye produced a pouch and weighed it in his hands before passing it over. “Forty-seven is all I have.”


    The young man snatched the pouch and stuffed the bronze te into Qianye’s hands. “That’s enough, that’s enough!”


    Qianye knew he had overpaid, but he didn’t mind since taking a loss was unavoidable as a first-timer. After asking where the airship was parked, Qianye headed to the docks with the others in tow. Red Pipe remained leaning on the counter without any movement. His job had beenpleted after sending Qianye here.


    The smile on the young man’s face disappeared entirely as Qianye left the hall. A middle-aged man who had arrived from the side watched Qianye’s receding figure and said, “He’s just a rank-eight fellow. Do you really need to send him to that ce?”


    The young man nced at Red Pipe. “Didn’t you say he’s hidden his strength? How much did he hide?”


    Red Pipe didn’t answer this question. He took two deep puffs from his pipe and said, “That isn’t important. If he’s hidden enough, it’ll just cause more trouble for those people. Isn’t that good? The Wolf King isn’t that easy to deal with.”


    The young man revealed a mysterious expression unbefitting of his young age. “You’re still just as evil. Perhaps we should reconsider our next cooperation.”


    Red Pipe pointed at the pouch of gold coins and said, “You earned quite a bit too, didn’t you?”


    The young man weighed the pouch in his hand. “But I suddenly feel that this money is going to be troublesome.”


    On the other end of the docks, Qianye had finally found his airship, an ancient-looking vessel. Many of its steam pipes were on the outside, and its two chimneys were puffing out rolling ck smoke. The airship could barely fit its massive steam engine—no one knew how much space there was left for passengers.


    Such an antique airship was a rare sight even on Evernight Continent.


    Qianye handed over the bronze ticket and obtained permission to board. The cabin was, as expected, quite small. After stuffing the boxes in, the group could only remain standing. It was fine for Zhuji since the littless could sleep in any position, even upside down. So, she jumped directly onto the ceiling and fell asleep in a hanging position. The old man sat on the boxes while Qianye and Nighteye simply went up to the deck, prepared to spend the journey there.


    The time to set sail arrived pretty soon. Hissing and screaming, the airship left the dock with great difficulty and drove away.


    Even though the flight was betweenndmasses, it took an entire two days to arrive at the destination. This was an exceedingly big piece ofnd at the periphery of the neutralnds. Looking at it from the void, Qianye reckoned it was the same size as the floating continent, or maybe a bit bigger.


    Throughout the journey, Qianye at first wanted to ask about matters rted to the Eastern Desce, but everyone—from the captain down to the crew—avoided the topic and weren’t willing to utter a word regarding it. Even when Qianye offered them a couple of gold coins, the money was stuffed back into his hands.


    However, Qianye did manage to obtain some basic information. Most of the Eastern Desce was covered by a hugeke—only a fourth of its surface area wasnd, while the rest was water. Theke was sorge that it extended thousands of kilometers and could rightly be called a sea. That was why the Eastern Desce was also called the Eastern Sea.


    The ancient airship gradually approachednd. Qianye and Nighteye stood at the bow, gazing at the mysterious but dangerous-lookingnd. Nighteye suddenly leaned on Qianye’s shoulder with a sigh.


    “What’s wrong?”


    Gazing at the fast-approaching continent and its vast, deep sea, she said, “I have a feeling that this will be our home.”


    Qianye held her tightly and said, “Very well, then this shall be our home!”