Chapter 510: Going Home (Two-in-One)

Inside the First Building.

It was the same conference hall as before.

And roughly the same attendees.

Only the person sitting at the head of the table had changed.

"Thank you all for coming to Yueyin."

From the head seat, Yan Jing smiled. "We're currently celebrating the Yueyin New Year. I hope you all enjoy your time here."

The domain lords exchanged glances, but no one spoke.

More accurately, no one dared to speak.

Seeing that this couldn't continue, Wang Yu took the lead and clapped.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Domain Lord Yan."

At that, a scattered smattering of applause finally sounded through the hall.

"Thank you."

Once the applause faded, Yan Jing nodded with a smile. "Domain Lord Wang and Domain Lord Long have already informed me of Zodiac's upcoming strategic goals."

"Passing the assessment and joining the Central Region. Honestly, it sounds very straightforward."

"...Straightforward, but absolutely not simple," a gaunt, sharp-featured man finally stood up and said with a dark expression. "Including us, there are five organizations competing for this single spot. And overall, among these five, our strength ranks below average at best."

Yan Jing looked at him. "What format will the competition take?"

"We don't know yet. Based on previous cycles, it should be a free-for-all, so there's a high probability it will involve forming alliances."

"Besides us, who are the other four?"

"Star has twelve members, Color has nine, Seven Days has seven, and Joyous Events has five."

"Who is our most likely ally?"

At those words, the expressions of several people, including the gaunt man, turned awkward.

Ultimately, Wang Yu broke the silence.

"Actually, our relationships with the other organizations aren't particularly good. Of course, they aren't terrible either. Mostly, it's because our geographic location is too remote. To them, there's no value in strengthening ties with us."

Yan Jing looked thoughtful. "When does the competition start?"

"In about a month or two."

Yan Jing nodded. "Understood."

Suddenly recalling something, he looked at Wang Yu and Long Quezhou with a smile. "So your plan is to nurture a Summit cultivator within the next month or two from among those who entered the God Storage Land last time?"

Long Quezhou's mouth twitched. "Our three domains each have our own methods to achieve an effect similar to power impartation."

"Well, I didn't find Yueyin's method all that brilliant," Yan Jing chuckled. "No wonder she chose Ye Jinyuan and Mu Yi. Since Yueyin can only impart the Heart of reaching the summit, she needed individuals whose Seventh Tier experience was already maxed out."

At that, Wang Yu's mouth twitched as well. "Actually, almost all the inheritors across the Twelve Domains have maxed out their Seventh Tier experience."

"Is that so?" Yan Jing paused, then admitted frankly, "I haven't. Looks like I'll need to hurry up."

Wang Yu and Long Quezhou couldn't even be bothered to retort, but the other domain lords beside them clearly didn't know the specifics of Yan Jing's situation, and their eyes could hardly hide their shock.

The dark-skinned domain lord of Wanli looked at Yan Jing. "Domain Lord Yan... you really haven't reached the Summit?"

"I thought you all would know," Yan Jing smiled. "After all, you're the ones here to assess me."

"..." The domain lord of Wanli looked embarrassed. "We... might have skimped a bit on our preparations. We only watched some video footage yesterday, and... the video didn't have any sound."

Yan Jing's smile remained gentle.

Of course it had no sound.

Because he had muted it himself.

"So you... really reached the Summit with just your physical body?" the Wanli domain lord swallowed hard.

They had actually made speculations based on Yan Jing's performance at the time, but eventually concluded it was impossible.

In all of recorded history across the Twelve Domains, no one had ever reached the Summit using their physical body alone.

That was something that only happened in legends.

Yan Jing smiled faintly. "Something like that."

The newly arrived domain lords quickly exchanged glances. Then, the gaunt man let out a soft breath and said, "How much experience are you lacking? Is your Heart of reaching the summit full?"

Yan Jing smiled. "I'm still short on experience. Why? Is it important?"

"...Normally, it wouldn't be too important, but now..." The gaunt man hesitated for a few seconds before continuing. "We believe you might have the strength to act as our leader for this assessment."

"Me? But I've been a member for less than a day," Yan Jing laughed.

The man sighed. "To be honest, that was exactly our concern. We still don't know much about your character, abilities, or temperament. So even though your combat power is sufficiently strong, we hadn't considered placing you in this position before."

"But things are different now. If you can reach the Summit, your strength should approach the Ninth Tier."

"Objectively speaking, we aren't very confident about this assessment. If we had a Ninth Tier combatant leading us, our chances would improve significantly."

Hearing this, Yan Jing narrowed his eyes, catching an unusual subtext in the man's words. "Are there Ninth Tier cultivators in the other factions?"

"Not exactly," the man quickly replied. "It's just... there might be extraordinarily strong Eighth Tier experts. Very, very strong."

He emphasized the word "strong" multiple times. Even a fool could tell something was amiss.

Wang Yu hurriedly chimed in from the side, "There are Eighth Tier experts who have already forged their own path, and some of them have condensed their Divinity to a state of near completion. For example, the two leaders of Color, as well as the five from Joyous Events, are all basically at this level."

Yan Jing couldn't help but laugh. He looked at the man. "You just said that Zodiac's strength ranks below average among the groups. Exactly what place are we?"

"...We're about the same as Star. Ranked... dead last." Wang Yu's expression grew a little unnatural.

Yan Jing laughed out of sheer exasperation. "If you ask me, there's no point in even participating in this assessment, is there?"

At those words, the domain lords of the other regions flushed red with embarrassment.

Ultimately, it was Long Quezhou who stepped up to salvage the situation. "Because Dog, Ox, and Snake have also just stepped into that stage, we wanted to give it a try."

Yan Jing nodded. "Alright, we'll see how it goes. If I can smoothly advance to the Eighth Tier, we can discuss the specifics of the assessment then. If not... we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Hearing Yan Jing's answer, the man breathed a sigh of relief and shifted the topic. "If Domain Lord Yan needs any help, those of us present can offer some assistance."

The offer gave Yan Jing pause, but then a thought crossed his mind, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. "Really?"

"Building a Ship! Especially a massive Ship! The most important part is the hull!"

The Old Man, his back so hunched he couldn't stand straight, struggled to raise his hand and point at the blackboard.

Opposite him, Mao Si, Bobo, Liu Ye, and Guo Xie in his wheelchair sat listening intently.

"And what is the most important part of the hull? Who can answer?"

The Old Man rapped his crooked knuckles against the board.

Bobo looked at Guo Xie, Guo Xie looked at Liu Ye, and Liu Ye looked at Mao Si.

Mao Si coughed lightly and spoke up. "Bobo, you answer."

Bobo's face scrunched up bitterly.

This old guy had a terribly sharp tongue. She didn't know the first thing about shipbuilding—what the hell did she know?

"Is it... the ship's bulkhead?" she offered a tentative guess.

"I think you're a blockhead!"

Executing a zero-frame startup without missing a beat, the Old Man said coldly, "First of all, I said long ago that structurally, the most important part is the cabin."

"Secondly, structure aside, there is only one thing that truly matters: resources."

"Money, money, money. Once a Ship scales up, its overall performance inevitably drops. But with money, you can at least ensure the damn thing doesn't fall apart."

"Oh..." Bobo pouted, feeling deeply wronged.

"For the past couple of weeks, we've been plundering... acquiring funds from all over." Halfway through, Guo Xie diplomatically shifted his phrasing. "How much are we still short?"

"A lot." The Old Man's expression was dark. "A whole lot. What you're building isn't some ordinary vessel. It's a Ship meant to hold twenty thousand inmates and ten thousand staff members! On top of that, you want to cram all the Great Prison's resources inside, guarantee nearly a hundred square meters of private space for every single person, and ensure the whole thing can withstand the erosion of time and space. Can your rusty brain even fathom what kind of behemoth that is?"

"Not to mention, you're hoping this Ship can be transformed into a Domain."

"Even if we multiplied our current resources by a hundred, we'd still fall a bit short."

"Are you saying our pace is too slow?" Yan Jing finally spoke up amid the silence.

The Old Man shot Yan Jing a glance, managing to hold back his curses, and merely nodded.

"It's slow. And no matter how you look at it, it's going to be very hard to meet that multi-month deadline you set."

"My current plan is... we start building while simultaneously raiding for resources. Both at the same time."

"Finishing it all in one go is clearly impossible. We'll complete a primary hull first, and then slowly upgrade the Ship as it sails, gathering the remaining resources through piracy along the way."

"But... that requires manpower too. And we don't have enough right now."

"I have manpower. As much as you need," Yan Jing said calmly. "Just proceed according to your vision."

"That settles it, then." The Old Man let out a long breath. "I'll go prepare right now."

With that, the Old Man bowed his back and walked straight out of the room.

The remaining few stared at one another.

Choosing her words carefully, Bobo said, "Captain, sir... we don't have anywhere near that many people..."

Liu Ye nodded. "Even counting the captives from each raid, it's a huge stretch."

"Change of strategy," Yan Jing declared. "I'll handle the resources by myself. Reassign everyone else to shipbuilding."

"That's..." The group exchanged looks before Guo Xie spoke up. "If you go alone, with such a massive operation left behind, I'm afraid we won't be able to manage it properly."

"I'll handle that too."

Yan Jing's expression remained perfectly composed.

The others looked at one another in dismay.

That afternoon.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the dense crowd of humans who had appeared on the deck.

"Listen up, everyone," Yan Jing announced. "There is one rule on this ship you absolutely must follow."

"Whether you are human or Inner World Residents, no one is allowed to start conflicts."

"Violators will be executed."

"Yes, sir!!!" the crew responded in unison.

The bewildered humans hastily chimed in.

They didn't really understand what was going on. They had simply received orders from their respective domains to enter a Dungeon and do some manual labor.

After a brief exchange, they were surprised to find that many of them came from entirely different territories.

Some hailed from Wanli, while others came from Dongcang, a region that spanned over half the Surface World.

"This... is going to be alright, isn't it?"

Someone scratched his head and looked at his task prompt.

[Task: Construction]

[Task Description: As a prison holding some of the most heinous Evildoers of the Inner World, this place has enjoyed a terrifying reputation ever since its establishment.

Unfortunately, all of this is gradually approaching its end.

A mysterious and great entity sensed all of this and resolved to save it in his own way.

He wishes to construct a "Noah's Ark" to steal away everything in this prison.

Please assist him in its construction. The more effort you contribute, the greater your rewards.]

This task prompt was virtually identical for everyone.

Looking at the crew members moving supplies in perfect order, the newcomers felt that the criminals here weren't quite as heinous as the task description made them out to be.

"A miracle. It's an absolute miracle."

Bobo stared in disbelief at the freshly "summoned" humans.

She followed the Erudition Pathway, and her studies told her that summoning humans was something only Domains with profound foundations could accomplish. But Yan Jing had just shown her that everything she'd learned was complete bullshit! He had actually pulled it off single-handedly, right here in the Great Prison!

Meanwhile, Yan Jing knew nothing of what the people on the Ship were thinking, nor did he particularly care.

After making his announcement, he boarded his Specialized Small Boat—the same dinghy he'd been assigned when he first entered the Great Prison—and rowed off in a certain direction.

As for how he'd managed to summon so many people...

It was very simple.

First, he used the book he'd obtained from Tianxuan of the Seven Stars to issue a task and summon a single person.

Then, he had the other domain lords instruct their subordinates to use Dungeon Selection Vouchers to choose the exact same location and inherit the same task.

And this was just the first batch.

Once those domain lords confirmed it was safe, they would arrange for the next wave.

After rowing for god knows how long—until his arms were practically smoking from the effort—Yan Jing finally caught sight of a certain colossal Ship in the distance.

"I was right," Yan Jing muttered. "Rowing a boat by hand across the ocean isn't nearly as fast as just flying."

He grumbled, but his hands didn't stop.

Now that he was out at sea, it wouldn't be proper not to row.

The waves displaced by the tiny boat swelled several meters high. From a distance, it looked like a blade slicing through a cake made of the sea, the white spray resembling buttercream.

Soon enough, Yan Jing reached the side of the giant vessel.

He climbed up the side of the hull.

"Captain Mao Si." A man with a camera for a head stood at the bow. He watched Yan Jing hop aboard, his gaze teasing. "What's the matter? Run out of people to rob, so now you have to target me?"

Yan Jing smiled. "I'm not here to rob you."

"Then to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Firstly, I wanted to ask—you've been trailing us for so long, what exactly are you trying to do?" Yan Jing chuckled. "Is it just because I took your stuff last time? Honestly, it hardly even counts as robbing. It didn't even have your name on it."

"You know perfectly well," the man sneered. "Who was it that took a picture of me last time?"

"Didn't I tell you? It was me."

Yan Jing pointed at himself.

"Bullshit!!!"

Wuhe flew into a rage. "That is my Family's ability! What, are you a cat raised by my Family?!"

"My ability is replication," Yan Jing smiled faintly.

Hearing this, Wuhe's expression instantly changed.

His face slowly darkened as he stared at Yan Jing. "Where is my brother?"

"That brings me to my second point," Yan Jing said, holding out a hand with a smile. "Let's make a deal."

"I tell you where your brother is, and you help me plunder. How about it?"

"What do you need to plunder so much for?" Wuhe asked coldly.

Tailing Yan Jing these past few days, he had long since witnessed his methods.

Direct and violent, yet there was a sliver of gentleness within that violence—because he rarely ever hurt anyone, taking only their wealth.

And mostly worthless junk, at that.

"Building a Ship," Yan Jing said evenly. "Building a very big Ship."

"The Great Prison is finished."

"Only with a massive Ship can we ever hope to go home."

Hearing the words "go home," Wuhe's heart stirred.