The ship had been remodeled through Huangqing and Feinie’s joint efforts.

During the fight against Jiangchen Wushang’s skeletal ship in Dusk Province, Lu Yun’s fortress ship had suffered devastating damage and become all but unusable. But Huangqing and Feinie, one a master refiner and the other a formation grandmaster, had used the old ship as a foundation to build an even more powerful vessel.

Now named Divine Glory, it boasted three times the volume of its predecessor, and all formations and armaments onboard had been reinforced as much as possible. Emulating the ancient weapons of war, Huangqing had even installed a main cannon. Though it wasn’t as powerful as a genuine immortal siege weapon, it was nevertheless enough to threaten dao immortals.

The remodeled ship looked more magnificent and arrogant than ever, and possessed unrivaled speed. When operating at full strength, it could cross five hundred kilometers in the blink of an eye.

……

The North Sea was hardly the picture of peace at the moment.

All sorts of fearsome maritime beasts, including leviathans whose bodies possessed strength enough to match dao immortals, crashed relentlessly against Divine Glory in an attempt to overturn the giant ship intruding on their domain.

However, the fortress ship was simply too powerful. Genuine dao immortals themselves might not be powerful enough to rock this vessel.

Meanwhile, the six princes kept themselves busy aboard the mighty vessel. Now and then, they would reel in enormous fish-shaped creatures, then toss them back into the sea, seemingly never tiring of the sport.

As for Lu Yun, he was busy refining pills. More precisely, he was refining Tribulation Surrogate Pills!

Panorama Pavilion’s lord had delivered the necessary ingredients long ago. The three catalysts and the skyqilin blood had been provided by Cangyin, while the Pavilion Lord had provided the skyphoenix blood.

As for the skydragon blood… he had Jing Dichen! The third princess of the Untroubled Sea was a skydragon!

A different level compared to normal dragons, skydragons were a bloodline that anyone could gain. Any dragon could transform into a skydragon when breaking through the dao realm to reach the ingress realm.

Jing Dichen was a very rare exception as she possessed the skydragon bloodline from birth. Not only was she the pearl of the Unsullied Sea, but she was treasured by every single dragon, the pride and joy of the entire race.

None of the six from the alliance of profligates were ordinary cultivators. They either possessed heaven-defying bloodlines, like Jing Dichen the skydragon or the Deaf Prince, a pure-blooded xiangliu; were exceptional prodigies, or possessed extraordinary abilities.

In fact, none of the young men and women on the ship could be called ordinary.

There was no need to mention Lu Yun and Qing Han, the overlord of life and death and the first of Dao Sovereigns, respectively. Diexi was a zombie king come back from the dead, a one of a kind existence in all worlds, while the little fox was purely and simply the monster spirit ancestor.

After realizing Jing Dichen’s constitution, Lu Yun had shamelessly asked her for a drop of blood essence.

Over the past couple of days, he’d become a part of their circle, to the point where they now called him brother, and was practically the seventh profligate. Therefore, Jing Dichen had naturally agreed to his request.

As soon as he’d obtained the skydragon blood, he'd begun refining pills—the Tribulation Surrogate Pill in particular!

This pill allowed one to endure tribulations, or more precisely, withstand a tribulation in someone’s stead. Within forty-nine days of ingestion, it would help surmount all kinds of trials and tribulations. Even if dead, one would immediately come back to life. Therefore, taking this pill made one invincible for forty-nine days!

Qi Hai, greatest pill master of the ancient world of immortals, had refined no more than three such pills. He’d gifted them to three celestial emperors, helping them overcome their death tribulations.

But afterward, he’d refused to refine them again no matter the reason, not even for his own tribulations.

The recipe itself had been preserved and passed down, entering the hands of quite a few pill masters after Qi Hai’s death. Even so, only one among them had successfully refined the pill. However, after refining the Tribulation Surrogate Pill, his entire being was destroyed by a horrifying pill tribulation, while the one pill he’d left behind caused untold carnage throughout the world.

All of this had come from Su Xiaoxiao’s memories. Her master had crippled her cultivation and expelled her from his doors, but she hadn’t died from it. She’d faked her death, concealed her identity, and lived incognito thereon, which was why she knew of many subsequent events.

To refine a Tribulation Surrogate Pill, one needed to endure a tribulation consisting of four hundred eighty million lightning strikes!

It was similar to the Heaven Descent Pill, in this regard, except that the pill tribulation was even more intense and violent. And now, this lightning tribulation was precisely what Lu Yun required.

His journey across the North Sea would be extremely perilous, as many of his enemies had gathered in the imperial waters of the North Sea. Recklessness would only cause him to be dismembered by those fearsome dao immortals.

Therefore... he needed to be prepared ahead of time.

……

On the eleventh day of their sea voyage, in the midst of his pill refining, Lu Yun suddenly sensed an enormous vitality coming from the pill cauldron.

“Eh? What’s going on?!” His cheeks reddening from the surge of energy, his originally calm inner energy suddenly erupted and violently converged toward the nascent spirit inside his purple manor.

Boom!

In that split second, his cultivation broke through from peak refined spirit realm to transformed spirit realm.

In the transformed spirit realm, one’s nascent spirit could take all kinds of shapes and forms. Even if the body died, one could possess another body and come back to life, as long as their nascent spirit hadn’t been destroyed. One could even reincarnate and cultivate anew.

Lu Yun hadn’t planned on breaking through. In fact, he’d rather have stayed in the refined spirit realm. He’d already perfected his nascent spirit, but the refined spirit realm was a crucial step in tempering the nascent spirit and integrating it with the body and the heavens.

But now, the dense energy feedback from the Tribulation Surrogate Pill had forcibly pushed him into a breakthrough!

The Tome of Life and Death shone with a black glow. Whether in Dusk Province or in hell, his Envoys of Samsara likewise flared gently with bright radiance. Apart from Feinie and Su Xiaoxiao, everyone else had broken through to the golden immortal realm.

Prepared for such a situation, seals descended upon them the moment they ascended to bottle their cultivation back to the august immortal realm. After all, there was a restriction stopping golden immortals from stepping into Dusk Province.

……

A new death art floated to the fore of Lu Yun’s mind. Shapeshifting! It was a transformation art this time!

His eyes sparkled in delight. The world of immortals had its own transformation arts, but those were closer to illusions. They masked one’s appearance, but left their true natures untouched. Those with profound cultivation could still see through these disguises with ease.

However, the new death art allowed one to genuinely transform into something else, taking on the new form’s shape and properties alike!

For example, if Lu Yun turned into a stone, he’d become a real stone through and through, while retaining full possession of his powers even as a stone.

“With this art, I don’t have to worry about my disguise being seen through on this trip.... It’ll also be easier to trick people, too!” A smile crossed his lips.

Bzzzz—bang!

A powerful buzz exploded from the pill furnace, soon followed by the finely-crafted furnace’s loud implosion as three dazzling, golden pills shot into the sky.