604: Hiding Oneself

Hiding Oneself

With Ming Yue's group inside the ship, the Twelve Zodiacs all strolled out, facing the various Elders along with their private armies. Behind them were the Seekers, all three divisions were present and separated except for Preservation, whose forces were scattered around to keep watch. 0

However, Qiuyu Bi stood by the other elders, dressed in armor. 

"The day has come!" his voice echoed out, "Finally, we will no longer be restricted by the Savage Lands and on this day, we will reconnect with the other continents! As the first to go, we must salute the Zodiacs, formed by the Council! Through their deeds, we would've remained stagnant, wasting away! Now salute!"

Everyone did as he said, lowering their heads and putting a fist to their chest. Ao Qin and the others reciprocated, putting a fist to their chest. 

Sharing this moment, both Ruishi Wang and Bai Weishi stepped forward, looking at their respective kin. 

"This is the beginning of a new era!" the lion-kin announced, "An era where we will flourish!"

"And you twelve will bring this new era to us!"

As Bai Weishi said this, he looked especially at his daughter, Bai Sheng.

"We will send you off with honor and when you return, we will be waiting", he said. 

Lao Yang then chuckled as he looked at them. 

"If that's all, let's get started."

The goat-kin looked at the Teleportation Array and snapped his fingers as a signal. Hearing it, several beast-kin moved the key of the array into the central hole, pushing down on it. A loud thump came and a humming began as the scholars on the outside began to feed beast cores into the outer ring of the array. 

"It shouldn't take long to get it to full power", he said, "Probably just a few minutes."

It was then that another elder walked forward, clearing her throat as she covered part of her face with her fan. It was none other than the elder of the Huxian Tribe, Huxian Qie. 

"In that case, why don't we have a quick inspection of the ship? I don't believe that we've actually looked inside before", she said. 

The other elders looked at each other before looking at her, showing a somewhat strange expression. And the twelve Zodiacs showed no reaction to it, except for Lao Yang. 

"Inspection? At this time? We have just a mere few minutes before we must go. And we don't exactly have the resources to keep the array activated for long. What are you trying to do, Huxian Qie?" he looked at her with a sharp gaze. 

However, the fox-kin's eyes narrowed, hiding a smile behind her fan. 

"I just felt that it would be appropriate to see the vessel that will be bringing us into a new age. I'm sure the others would like to see it as well", she replied. 

Her eyes shifted to the side as she glanced over at Ruishi Lei and Bai Weishi. Both noticed it but neither knew what to make of it. What was she intending to do? 

Lao Yang's face seemed to grow even more annoyed, hitting the butt of his cane on the ground. Just as he was about to unleash a harsh stream of insults, Zhu Xie took the lead, walking forward with a smile. 

"Of course, please come right in!" he said all too happily. 

The other Zodiacs looked at him strangely while Huxian Qie was seemingly taken aback, not expecting such a response. 

"I- Alright then, please lead the way, this is your ship after all", she said. 

Huxian Qie waved her fan and the boar-kin turned around, leading everyone into the ship. Despite her smiling, there was a sense of doubt within her eyes. 

"What's going on here? Was the information wrong?" she thought to herself, "No, that can't be it, my intelligence network is the best! There has to be something else, but what?" 

The elder couldn't quite figure it out. 

"This is the cabin of the ship where I steer and where we all generally gather. It's quite spacious and I made a few changes, added some furniture for everyone to sit and eat! Down below are rooms for us to sleep in as well as the storage area..."

Bringing everyone into the ship, Zhu Xie began to chatter away happily, showing every nook and cranny of the ship to them. 

"This here is the cleaning supply closet! That's the toilet over there, the shower's right next to it! They seemed a bit too small when I first obtained the ship so I made a few changes. It's much bigger now and much nicer. I even added a bath to it!"

His mouth just kept rambling on and on, talking about every little detail that he made to it. It had come to the point where the Elders started to get a bit tired of it. 

The few minutes seemed to stretch until Zhu Xie finally brought them out of the ship. 

"Well, that's the end of the tour. I would've gone into more detail about it but we are running on a tight schedule, aren't we, Lao Yang?" 

The boar-kin glanced over at him as he spoke. 

"Urgh, uh, yeah. it seems that the Array has been fully powered now. We wouldn't want to waste any more resources than we already have. If all of you are satisfied with that tour, I believe that it is time for us to depart."

Lao Yang waved goodbye before turning around and strolling back towards the ship. 

"That's it?! Is there nothing else?"

Huxian Qie blurted out, her eyes widening in disbelief. Was the information she had obtained wrong all this time?

The goat-kin just turned, looking at her with a grin. 

"What? Do you really want to hear more of Zhu Xie talking about the ship?" he asked, "I mean, we've all gone through it so if you don't want to go with him, you could choose one of us. Though, we really are pressed for time so forgive us but we do have to leave."

Talking with a smile on his face, Lao Yan turned back and entered the ship. The others merely glanced at her before following. 

And soon enough, the ship rose up, slowly making its way into the glowing light of the Teleportation Array. Stopping at the center of it, the thrum of the Array grew louder as the light grew stronger, enveloping the ship. It took just a few seconds before the light softened and the power of the Array weakened. 

Turning off, the ship that was once there was nowhere to be seen. 

"We've done it, they're on the other side", one of them said. 

It was quiet, very quiet. All that was left to do was to stay and guard it until the ship returned. 

But in all that time, Huxian Qie seemed preoccupied with something else, one could see the calculations being made in her eyes. 

"Why was there nothing? The information said that there was a human and several other companions. But there was nothing, not a single soul inside. What's going on?" 

She was confused, perhaps even dumbfounded. 

"This would've been a chance to strike at the other tribes, we could've gained the upper hand there. But it doesn't make sense, could they have left? Has the human decided not to go back?"

As many questions as the fox-kin had, none of them could be answered. The information she had obtained was not much. All that she knew was that there was a human as well as her companions on board. But there was no sign of them, not even a single trace to show that Ming Yue and the others were there.

She was completely befuddled. 

"What... what's going on?!" 

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