One year and 11 months after regression

  Tundra couldn’t help but smile in amusement as the group that came with him seemed unusually tense. Even more than the visit to Luharlia. Edison kept staring and looking out of the windows of the carriage, as the view outside changed from the farmnds, forests, and over to rocky hills.

  It was still a fairly small convoy, all said and done. Only about fifty people, spread across ten or so carriages. He could feel the excitement in many of them, all truly little bumpkins going to the big city.

  “I can’t believe we’re going to Forgestone Peak.” Tundra remembered some of the Core Disciples chatting among themselves. Forgestone Peak, the trading hub of the Fming Phoenix’s shipyards. One of the major outposts of one of the Great Sect. As they got closer, the rocky terrain gave way to proper roads and workshops as far as the eye could see.

  Forgestone Peak was home to millions, as an entire institution built around supporting the Fming Phoenix’s massive shipbuilding industry. There were multiple sects that engaged in the construction of flying ships, but at the top stood the Fming Phoenix.

  He didn’t mount an attack on this city. Not in his first life. That was one of those red lines that would’ve thrown the two sects at each other’s throats. An attack on this city is a choice with no retreat. At the end of it, only one of their sects would survive. But in the end, it was the Zuja that mounted an attack. The Fming Phoenix defended it successfully a few times, but at that time, the Zuja could throw many 9th and 10th realm corrupted cultivators their way.

  His eyes admired the view of an entire horizon of workshops, and somehow his mind recalled a scene of a burning city, complete with the stench of burning flesh. He blinked, and it was gone.

  He felt Elly and Celestia’s hands on his.

  “Husband?” Elly asked.

  “Ah. Nothing.” Tundra said, as he felt the pills in his storage compartment. All three of his wives came this time, as did his children, Edison, Larian, and Anna, and even some of his grandchildren. Many would want to see Forgestone Peak, it is a pce few have ever seen in their lives.

  “Is this your first time here?” Elly asked, curious.

  “Yes.” Tundra said. He never visited in his first life. His flying ships were acquired from another competing, but much smaller sect. The Verdant Snow and the Fming Phoenix were not friendly, and he wouldn’t be able to just arrange a visit like this time. He wondered whether he should share about the two sect’s competing interests, but then, decided not to.

  In some ways, Tundra had the feeling that rivalry with a great sect was inevitable. If it wasn’t with the Fming Phoenix, it would be with some other Great Sect. Most of the time, nothing would happen, as Great Sects are checked by other Great Sects that would be eager to use each other’s bad behavior as just cause for war, and nibble at each other’s territories.

  “I’ve never used one of the Fming Phoenix’s flying ships.” Tundra said, as he noticed the vibrations of the carriage lessened. The roads here were meticulously made, the Fming Phoenix were great crafters, master of the fme and they were, in some ways, his natural enemies.

  Fme controlled Metal.

  “Which one did you use?” Marin spoke up suddenly. She was listening even though her eyes were looking at the constantly working city outside. There was a noisy hum that permeated the city.

  Tundra remembered the first one they acquired when he was in the 8th realm. “They were made by the Hundred Hands Sect, on the Western shore.” He remembered that they were skilled craftsmen, but they mostly made smaller ships. The Fming Phoenix’s flying ships ranged from the smallest ships, all the way to the rgest 10th realm ships that could fit an entire sect within it. The shipwright apprenticeship system of the Fming Phoenix is the most refined of any sect out there, something he admired even though they were foes.

  “I see.” Marin answered. She probably didn’t know who. “Why the Fming Phoenix, then?

  “They have, without a doubt, the best ships for our level of strength.” It would be a decade or more before Tundra could step into the 8th realm. “Their ships are faster, stronger, and generally of a higher quality than anything out there for its size.”

  It was possible to commission another sect to make a custom ship that exceeded whatever the Fming Phoenix made, but it’s cost would be so exorbitant that Tundra wasn’t sure he’d be able to afford it. The smaller flying ships were rated around the 6th and 7th realm, and could comfortably carry up to a hundred. They were made in bulk, by the apprentices and disciples of the Fming Phoenix.

  ***

  The convoy eventually reached one of the guesthouses meant for the Fming Phoenix to receive customers. Much to Tundra’s surprise, it was a seventh realm elder that came to receive them.

  “Greetings, Sect Master Fox. I’m Elder Ashe Northwind. Welcome to the Fming Phoenix’s Forgestone Peaks.” The elder was cd in the traditional deep red robes of the Sect, and was a beauty. Her hair seemed to sparkle in fmes, and she was clearly well into the 7th realm. For great sects, those in the 9th realm were usually given the titles Great Elders or Venerable Elders, while those in the 8th realm were usually the Senior Elders.

  Tundra smiled, and csped his hand in respect. “We are honored that an elder came to receive us.”

  Elder Northwind shrugged. “The yearly Flight Auction is an important event for the Fming Phoenix, and it would be improper to delegate it all to our disciples. Come, I will guide your group to your designated guesthomes. I’m afraid that we have a fairly busy crowd this time around, so we are unable to spare more.”

  Everyone obediently obeyed. Though there were mortal guards and attendants around, there were still Core Disciples of the Sect walking about, and these Core Disciples could be all the way up till the 6th realm. The sheer power difference of a Great Sect and theirs was so rge, that none of them dared do anything improper.

  The Guesthome was fairly sizable, and it’s furnishings were comparable to the guest homes provided by the Imperial pace. It made everyone in their entourage gawk, especially Elly and Marin who never saw such luxuries on open dispy and for use by guests.

  “They are so wealthy!” Elly said as she admired the incredible paintings in their room. Some of those paintings contained energy patterns of their creators, and studying art often gave insight into how artists visualized their spiritual realm.

  Edison quickly tried to control his mother. “Mother, behave yourself. We’re- we’re not country bumpkins!”

  “But~” Elly pouted as she picked up a beautiful vase. “Look at this!”

  “Mother, the elder is still here!” Edison said, trying to tug on her mother.

  Celestia merely looked on, a little amused. This was the second time she saw such luxuries, and she did recall Edison staring at everything in their guesthouse when they visited Luharlia.

  Tundra chuckled, and looked at the Elder Northwind, who was clearly familiar with such sights. “My apologies.”

  “It is our duty as hosts to impress.” Elder Northwind said a little chuckle. “Sect Master, while the rest of your party settles down, shall we walk and talk about the ship you wanted?”

  “Ah, yes.”

  ***

  Tundra and Elder Northwind walked through the streets of Forgestone Peak and then up into the shipyards. The shipyards were massive pces, each occupying a rge area where thousands of disciples worked to build the flying ships.

  There was a single rge ship going through it’s finishing touches, and it was clearly a ship in the 10th realm. It was so massive that anyone walking up to Forgestone Peak’s central peak tower wouldn’t miss it.

  “That’s for the Ancient Titans Sect.” Elder Northwind said, clearly knowing it would be asked anyway. “10th realm ship powered by the spirit cores of one hundred ninth realm spirit beasts, able to fit twenty thousand people, and equipped with the ability to travel through space.”

  “I see.” Tundra smiled. It would be a long, long time before they’d ever afford that kind of stuff. If he got his way, he probably didn’t need something like that. He was a walking compendium of powerful cultivation techniques.

  Eventually, the Elder Northwind stopped, and led him into a much smaller area. It was a hangar with twenty much, much smaller flying ships. “These are the test sixth realm 70-man flying ships we’ve made, there’s twenty of them that will be auctioned during the Flight Auctions.”

  “Twenty?” Tundra nodded. “I see.”

  “Do you want a brief tour? I can arrange for a Core Disciple to bring the rest of your family and sect ter.”

  “That would be nice.”

  The flying ship was about the size of a rge wooden merchant ship, and could easily fit about fifty to seventy, depending on how the internal parts were arranged. Tundra was aware of some cultivators that bought a ship and removed most of the smaller rooms into rger, bigger ones.

  Each flying ship was powered by a set of beast cores, and beast cores needed to be repced at certain intervals. For sixth-realm spirit beast cores, this was usually once in a few hundred years. Larger ships like the 10th realm ships probably needed to repce their core once a few thousand years. The spiritual cores of the beasts generate a field of energy that causes the ship to fly.

  Not all beast cores could be used as flying ship cores, because the ability of flight must come as one of the inherent qualities of that Core, though it is a fairly common quality found in spirit beasts.

  It was fairly basic, all things considered. It was fairly common for flying ships to be outfitted separately, so this wasn’t a big problem.

  “There are bigger ships during the auction?”

  “Yes. We will also be auctioning five of our rger 500-man ships, and two of our 1,500-man ships.” Elder Northwind said. “Those would be popur.”

  Tundra nodded. “Good, as long as the big fishes have things to fight for, they’ll be less concerned with the minnows.”

  “Good luck, Master Fox. We’ll see you at the auction.”

  ***

  “He’s from the Broken Ice Peak.” Severian said, briefly gncing at a man walking down the street, from their restaurant balcony vantage point. Tundra and his wives sat next to him, as well as the core disciples. The rest of the group were allowed to wander, but they were told to wear their sect uniforms, and to be polite because here, they were frankly nobodies. “That guy is from the Ancient Titans Great Sect.”

  The street was crowded, and spotting those from other sects was a form of information gathering. They were more interested in the presence of the mid-tier sects, because they would want to get a flying ship.

  Tundra nodded. “A fairly crowded auction is coming up. At least the Great Sects likely won’t bid for the sixth realm ships.”

  Most great sects did have their own shipbuilding capacity, given their size, though most of them didn’t go bigger than the 500-man ships. Even the Verdant Snow absorbed the Hundred Hands Sect during the middle 10,000 years of his first life, and they became their de-facto shipbuilding department.

  Shipwrights, just like alchemists and formation masters, existed as a supporting department built upon the resource collection or hunting divisions, usually known as the Procurement or External departments.

  “So we’re only expecting competition from sects about our size, or slightly rger.” Elder Severian nodded. “If their attention is directed at the bigger ships.”

  “We hope.” Tundra said. “Let’s see what happens.”