In a great plain that shone with a cold green light were scattered the skeletons of numerous ships. Spirit vessels that once soared through the sky and beyond now stripped off all their dignity. Their broken shells littered the ground, never destined to touch the sky ever again. The Scavenger plains brimmed with many different kinds of deaths, so it was only fitting that the place swarmed with hungry vultures.

One such, rather unwilling vulture was a tall young man, with corpse-white skin, gray short hair, and burning emerald eyes that were pointed up to the heavens. While as usual Han Bei looked at the thousands of sky jewels with an appreciation for their beauty and small jealousy of their freedom, now his gaze also held anticipation as he waited for something to fall from the Heavens.

He had gone to Last light and found out all that he could about the scavenger raids that happened every so often. And now he sat atop a rather tall pile of broken half-rotten ship parts that lost any spirituality or power a long time ago. The smell was rather unpleasant but it made for a decent vantage point.

Right now Han Bei was closer to the central parts of the plains, west of the nameless ravine and south of Last light city. Quite close to the place he awoke on this nightmare of a world, actually. A fact that might have made him nostalgic had there been any good memories involved.

" Any minute now, " Han Bei thought as he vigilantly monitored the eternally dark sky, and the hours slowly slipped by. It was dreadful. It was boring. And the more time passed the more the dangerous thought, that this was nothing but a waste of time, pressed against his mind. " Patience is a virtue Han Bei, " he reminded himself as often as he could.

The Scavengers plains teemed with filthy undead and nasty beasties but thanks to his cloak he went by unnoticed to the eyes of most. Most excitement he had was clashing against 3 dog-sized rats whose flesh he devoured afterward. It somewhat helped his body cultivation but it was still firmly at the initial stage of the 2nd realm. Spirit cultivation, on the other hand, was something he didn't dare outside of the confines of the nameless ravine, although heaven knew that he wanted to. " I'm already at the final heaven of the 1st realm, a bit more, and it's back to the good old initial Heaven of the 2nd realm. "

As he excitedly thought of the future Han Bei almost missed a brown blur that passed high over his head. With a nasty death shriek that threatened to blow out the eardrums of anyone in a 10-kilometer wide radius a spirit vessel in the shape of a bulky brown ship fell from the starry sky

The fallen spirit ship left a deep burrow as it nosedived into the ground and smashed apart whatever was unlucky enough to befall its paths. Pitiful cries of beasts mixed with the shrieking of rusted metal as living things and inanimate objects alike were buried underneath the fury of the abandoned spirit vessel.

Yet such momentum was too ferocious to maintain even for such a massive spirit vessel and with the sound of bending wood, it tore apart into 2 broken parts. The spirit ship's front side maintained the same direction and slid through the ground for a while upheaving whatever was in front of it until it crashed into a carcass of another, much larger, spirit vessel.

While the back part of the poor spirit vessel skipped over the green shining plains like a rock thrown across a lake. 3 times it spun through the air and 3 times it bounced from the ground before coming to a rest atop a roaring zombie either too dumb or too slow to move. The ships decapitated front part rested no more than a kilometer away.

" Now that's a fucking entrance! " Han Bei exclaimed at the magnificent sight. While the thunder of the crash still echoed through the planes the sound was suppressed by a cacophony of blaring horns, each one a claim to whatever trash or treasure fell in this dreary domain. Han Bei strained his emerald eyes at the fallen spirit ship and decided, " Mine." He took out a dull-looking, black, cracked horn from his bag of holding. He deeply inhaled and for several seconds his enhanced body filled with air and then his claim echoed throughout the scavenger plains along the rest.

Cold wind brushed against pale almost unfeeling skin as Corpse ran with all his might, his eyes in the direction of the price that had fallen a few kilometers away in the western direction. " I should probably get a mount, " he idly thought before returning his attention to the wreck in the distance.

At first, he gracefully maneuvered around any wreckage that stood on his way but as time passed on he worried about the other scavengers and turned to blunter methods. He smashed to through enchanted wood like it was made from glass, and many of the half-dead carcasses that stubbornly persisted for years or even decades finally toppled to the ground. Han Bei's new approach also drew way more attention but he never stuck around long enough for any trouble to catch up.

The only danger he actually expected to face was from other scavengers, who, Han Bei was sure, will be all moving to the fresh wreck. The ground cracked underneath him and Han Bei shot forwards [ghost step]. He employed the technique sparingly but it brought him to the fresh wreck that much quicker.

It was laughably easy to find the decapitated ship as it left behind a trail of torn-up ground where the green sickly light of the planes was absent. As Han Bei followed the trail from the corners of his eyes he finally noticed the other scavengers. Without losing speed he carefully glanced at his competitors and noted that nearly all of them moved in groups.

As was common with any group of cultivators the scavengers displayed their affiliations openly either through banners, clothing, or the mounts that they employed. There was a mixed group of men and women that wore black robes with red scarfs around their necks while they employed movement techniques similar to Han Bei's.

There were raiders that rode on skeletal mounts reminiscent of the late skeleton manor with shaved heads and tattoos all over their faces while they wore heavy bone-white armor and carried large bone-white weapons.

Hairy savages with wild hair that wore beast pelts and skins that looked worrisomely human with chariots pushed forward by giant horse-sized hyenas. Han Bei sensed other groups but they were either too weak or too far away for his consideration. The ones that were near him on the other hand. In some groups, he sensed those of the 2nd realm, in all of them there were nascent and 1st realm cultivators.

Similarly, Han Bei felt the spirit sense of others skim over his body. He refused to shrink back and displayed his power openly with pride and aggression. To those that reached out with their sixth sense, he clearly conveyed his readiness to fight. For now, that was enough.

With the wrecked spirit vessel so close Han Bei rummaged through his brain and drew what little knowledge he already had about the spirit vessels and what he learned in Last light. " 9 times out of 10 the most valuable thing inside a spirit vessel is the space burning furnace, that refines the space around the spirit ships and allows it to travel from world to world at nearly incomprehensible speeds. Even damaged these furnaces are extremely valuable because of the precious materials that went into their creation. " Han Bei wryly smiled as he thought of his old sect. " Yellow valley was never wealthy enough to own a spirit ship capable of star fairing, I wonder what my brothers and sisters would say if they could see this place. "

He waved the idle thought away a moment later. He was closing in now and it was time to choose, " The bottom part or the top part, which one holds the damn furnace? " He scrutinized them both and sensed nothing from them. " To hell with it, " Han Bei swore as he moved away from the trail upheaved by the front part and moved toward the back half. " It's bigger so it probably houses the bigger loot, " he reasoned.

Han Bei weared away from the trail and ran toward the other half of the ship, already he saw some of the skin-wearing savages nearing his goal from another side. " Won't be having that, " he decided. Away from the path of destruction, the lower path of the new wreck was encircled by mountains of old. Surrounded, the savages with their big brutal chariots were forced to rearrange for travel through confined and narrow spaces. A waste of time that Han Bei happily exploited.

Power flowed through his legs and he lept through the air[ghost leap]. The obstacles that barred the path forward for the chariots became footholds for Han Bei. From a broken mast to a burned hull, he grabbed a torn sail and hauled his body past the competition straight onto the wreck. He burned through a quarter of his qi but it was worth it.

He heard shouts, curses, and roars all aimed at him and 9 generations of his family. He threw back a single derisive glance and noticed that the savages weren't human at all. Cowls snd shaggy hair hid stubby animal ears characteristic common to many races of the beast born. " No matter, I'm the first and I have to work fast. "

Now that he finally was on the broken spirit vessel he got a real sense of how big the damn thing was. Han Bei took a single step and the floor dangerously creaked. He wondered how long it would last. Still, even broken in half it was 200 meters in length and 50 with many hut-like holds on the deck. Han Bei saw no plates or any other signs that indicated the contents of the holds. either already broken off or never added in the first place. He closed his eyes and expanded his spirit that easily penetrated the fractured walls.

He grimaced as sensed the contents of the nearest hold. It was filled to the brim with thin human bodies, no less than a 100, so malnourished at first it was hard to tell apart their genders. Nothing but bodies clothed in dirty rags chained to the broken ship's ceiling, bound even after death took hold of them. Some were violently broken open from the great fall, but just as many must have returned to the earth from starvation. Han Bei extended his sense toward 2 other holds and there he found a similar picture and there were a dozen more holds like these.

Han Bei had seen death and destruction before. Dark memories vividly stabbed at him more often than he dared to admit, but this was different. Cruelty so senseless that the pity Han Bei felt for these souls surpassed the one he felt for his own martial siblings. " At least they got to fight back. "

Each hold was filled with unmoving bodies and already Han Bei felt rot and hatred fester in some of them. " Is this how yin soldier mist is created, is that the Heavenly punishment for such a great loss of life? " Han Bei questioned. Still shocked by what he sensed that he barely registered a dark shape that broke through one the holds straight towards him

.

Brittle wood broke apart and Han Bei only regained his senses when he was tackled off the spirit vessel. He quickly pushed off his assailant and nimbly flipped through the air before he landed on his feet. Finally, he looked at the blur that attacked him and his cloak shrunk as he was ready for battle.

Its skin was as pale as his, and it looked on with hollow misty eyes, devoid of all life. Han Bei felt a particular kind of disgust that he only felt when face to face against the undead. It had sharp needle-like teeth set on an elongated face. The thing wore a desolate suit of black armor that had started to fuse with its flesh. Broken spikes jutted out of things arms and legs while its hand had fused into claws.

Han Bei could see that other raiders had gotten on the ship and engaged similar undead guards in combat. " Heavens damn you! " he cursed and charged at the thing, unwilling to lose the initiative. With a sharp hiss, the undead guard dodged several of his attacks and swiped at his side before it lept away. Still in front of the ship, still guarding it. " Loyal little thing, " Han Bei snarled as he observed the undead bastard. [Ghost leap] qi gathered in his legs and this time the undead guard didn't manage to get away.

Han Bei landed several blows that would have deformed or outright shattered a human skull while the undead guard simply fought on, landing several blows of its own that left marks of ruptured skin on Han Bei's body. He had to admit the damn had been made sturdy and the fight turned into a stalemate, as the 2 pale forms clothed in black traded ineffectual blows.

Irritated at the distraction the undead guard proved to be Han Bei used both of his hands and grabbed the undead guard's head as it furiously slashed his upper body[death grip]. With a hold that would have crumpled a mortal's skull like paper Han Bei pushed forward until he managed to break the fiend's balance, and pinned it to the ground. As the undead guard squirmed and tried to escape Han Bei applied more pressure in an attempt to put the damn thing out of its misery yet it refused to stay down. It refused to die again.

A brutal smile spread on Han Bei's face as he leaned his head back. " When in doubt use your head. " Ghostly qi surged through his upper body and from the neck up his skin became grey[death strike]. Corpse brought his head down like a hammer and pounded the undead thing into the ground.

He felt his ear ring. " Like hitting a damn wall, " he briefly thought before qi flowed through his body again and he repeated the attack[death strike]. The thing's face deformed, its nose was a crooked mess, while its jaw loosely hanged open. Still, it raked its claws against Han Bei's body leaving behind crimson lines of raw flesh on his chest and arms. Still, it struggled.

" Not for long, " Han Bei decided. It had nowhere to run, still pinned to the ground by 2 pillar-like arms it could do nothing [death strike]. The undead guard's head caved in from the impact and black brain matter was ejected from its ears, while a single eyeball was launched from a deformed eye socket.

Han Bei let go of the thing's body and it struggled no more. His forehead was sticky with black filth, and after pushing a pale hand through his hair he found there a murky eyeball. He flicked the loose organ away and stood up. Han Bei breathed out with a grim sense of satisfaction as he looked at his handy work.

The sense of satisfaction, however, didn't last as his gaze returned to the wrecked spirit ship. The upper deck holds were broken open and there was no sight, of any of the scavengers. He looked at the other half of the spirit ship. There was nobody there either.

" Fuck, " he silently muttered.