Not only were Shen Jue and Feng Chunya shocked, but the military advisor, Pei Du, who accompanied the army this time, was also utterly astounded.
When he first heard the Divine Lady say that she would use her divine powers to send them directly to the South Sea, he was still pondering where he could procure enough ships to carry ten thousand people across the waters.
Now, it seemed he didn't need to worry about that at all.
The hull of the tower boat rose as high as a city wall, and the deck alone was spacious enough to accommodate thousands of soldiers in formation.
Nine stories of pavilions stacked atop one another.
Countless wind chimes hung beneath the upturned eaves of each floor, letting out crisp, distant rings whenever the sea breeze swept by.
On the terrace of the topmost floor, the Divine Lady stood leaning against the railing.
She wore a gown of plain snow. The hem of her skirt shimmered with a faint, pearlescent glow in the sunlight, and as it billowed gently in the sea breeze, it looked like a flowing mist of condensed moonlight.
A light blue sash was tied around her waist, its dangling tassels adorned with tiny blue crystals.
A moon-white veil covered her face, its corners embroidered with silver threads outlining lily of the valley patterns, leaving only her phoenix eyes exposed.
Her gaze was crystal clear, like a pool of autumn water sealed beneath the snow of distant mountains, cold and completely devoid of any mortal touch.
Below, everyone stared up at her in a daze.
No one spoke.
The Divine Lady looked down at the dense, dark crowd of people.
Her gaze was not particularly sharp, yet it carried a natural, divine majesty that made everyone she swept her eyes over instinctively straighten their backs, their palms breaking into a sweat.
“Board the ship.”
The ethereal, melodious voice jolted everyone awake.
Shen Jue and Feng Chunya knelt on one knee, the iron plates of their armor clashing against the sandy ground with a dull, metallic ring.
“We obey your command!”
The two of them stood up and turned to look at the soldiers behind them.
“Pass down the order—board the ship!”
The command was as unshakeable as a mountain.
The soldiers boarded the ship in an orderly fashion.
Their rustling footsteps echoed across the beach as they surged toward the massive gangplank hanging from the side of the tower boat.
The gangplank was over three zhang wide, its thick wooden planks resembling a small bridge resting diagonally against the gunwale.
The moment they stepped onto the deck, some felt their legs go weak and almost fell to their knees.
Looking as far as the eye could see, the flat wooden deck stretched out so far to both sides that its edges were nowhere in sight.
Ahead were three sides of towering pavilions, while behind them lay the slowly retracting gangplank and the golden beach.
Above them were layers of upturned eaves and wind chimes; in their ears was the crisp chiming sound mixed with the distant crashing of waves. They felt as if they had stepped into another world.
“Oh, my sweet mother...” a young soldier muttered, instinctively holding onto the gunwale, his voice trembling. “The Divine Lady's celestial ship is actually bigger than our entire village...”
“Don't embarrass us.”
An old soldier beside him feigned composure and reached out to pat his shoulder. “The Divine Lady is watching from above.”
The young soldier quickly straightened up.
Seeing that all the soldiers had boarded, Shen Jue and the others collectively looked up at the highest point of the tower boat once more. “Divine Lady, all ten thousand soldiers have boarded. We await your instructions.”
The Divine Lady still stood on the terrace, her clothes and long hair fluttering in the sea breeze. Her back was turned to them as she faced south.
The sunlight poured down from behind her, enveloping her and the entire ship in a soft, golden glow.
“This ship requires no human labor to move. We will reach Wuling Prefecture in four days. You may move about freely during this time.”
With that, she walked into the topmost pavilion.
In the next second, the tower boat gave a slight shudder.
Almost at the exact same moment, a gust of wind blew past, causing the wind chimes under the pavilion's upturned eaves to sway in unison.
With a loud rustle, the white sails unfurled, blotting out the sky as they billowed into full, rounded arcs in the wind.
The ship slowly pulled away from the shore.
On the deck, everyone stumbled in unison.
Some cried out in surprise, some gripped the gunwale tightly, while even more stared blankly into the distance.
The tower boat was moving, leaving the land behind and sailing into a sapphire-blue world they had never seen before.
Under the cloudless sky, the sun was cradled by the sea, dyeing the entire ocean in a shimmering, fragmented gold.
The sea breeze rushed over them, salty and damp.
After arranging everything for Shen Jue and the others, Yun Shu and the little fox lay on the soft daybed in the topmost pavilion, eating pork with green peppers bento boxes purchased from the Pinduoduo System.
Since no one could reach the top floor anyway, and none of the noise up here would travel downstairs, the human and system duo naturally didn't need to maintain their aloof facades as the Divine Lady and the spirit fox.
While Yun Shu was busy drawing the navigation chart, the little fox stealthily nudged some of the meat from its own bowl into hers.
Its host truly couldn't stay idle for even a minute; she always managed to find something to do.
Without even raising her head, Yun Shu said, “System, go buy another hundred thousand boxed meals for the Zhenbei Army.”
The little fox immediately looked puzzled. “Host, I think it's enough to just distribute white porridge to them using the Scent of Plain Snow Set. Why spend so many Shock Values on boxed meals?”
“Once the Shock Value is gone, we can always earn more.” Yun Shu put down her pencil and massaged her aching wrist.
Then, she looked at the system monitor.
None of the soldiers had gone inside the pavilion to rest. Instead, they sat on the deck, eating their dry rations with water.
Seeing this, her tone softened slightly. “They are all heroes who sacrificed their small families for the greater good, leaving their hometowns to follow me south. I can't let them suffer the pain of separation and not even give them a hot meal.”
Hearing this, the little fox fell silent.
Then, it wolfed down its meal in a few bites. “Host, I'll go hand out the boxed meals to them right now.”
“Go ahead.”
As she spoke, Yun Shu picked up her own meal, hastily shoved a couple of mouthfuls into her mouth, and then picked up her pencil again.
The little fox darted out of the pavilion like the wind.
As for Yun Shu, almost the instant it left, she became completely immersed in her work.
A massive sea chart was spread across the table in front of her, densely marked with shipping lanes, reef-prone areas, and ocean current directions.
Suddenly, low cries of pleasant surprise and choked-up expressions of gratitude from the soldiers drifted in through the window; they must have received the boxed meals.
The corners of Yun Shu's mouth curved upward, but she did not look up.
She remained bent over the desk, drawing the sea chart. Once her territory expanded to the south, building docks and opening shipping lanes would surely have to be put on the agenda. When that time came, this sea chart would be necessary.
Before she knew it, time slipped away.
The sun began to sink in the west. Seeing that the sea chart was mostly complete, she prepared to pack it up and get some sleep.
However, the tower boat suddenly ground to a halt.
The entire ship felt as if it had run into something.
The hull shook slightly—not a violent tremor, but enough to make the pencil on the desk roll half an inch.
Yun Shu immediately reached out to hold down the sea chart, while her other hand snatched the pencil just as it was about to roll off the edge of the table.
At that moment, waves of startled cries rose from outside.
“What is that?!”
“I... I don't know either... There are so many of them!”
“They're surrounding us!”
Yun Shu frowned and set down her pencil. Just as she was about to stand up, the pavilion door was flung open, and a fluffy white shadow dashed inside, leaping straight onto the table.
“Host! Host! Something's happened outside!”
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