Su Fu nodded in satisfaction, then gave a stern order:
“As the general of the Immortal Boat, I hereby declare: we are now entering wartime!”
“All personnel, return to your posts immediately. Prepare to activate Cloud Sea Stealth Navigation. Set course for the Yunmeng Marsh Mirage!”
With her command, the entire Immortal Boat became a flurry of activity.
Heavenly Mechanism Birds zipped about every corner of the boat, spreading the latest news:
[Emergency route change for the Immortal Boat: Destination—Yunmeng Marsh Mirage]
[Attention all personnel: The Immortal Boat will enter Cloud Sea Stealth Navigation in fifteen minutes]
[Please make preparations and do not panic]
[……]
Qie Qianya was curious. “Why did you choose Yunmeng Marsh? Why not go straight to Olympus?”
“It’s simple,” Su Fu shrugged. “It’s too far to go directly.”
This isn’t like Ling Mountain, where the maps connect and you can just walk across. Crossing these zones is basically like jumping between different instances. The trip would be long and easy to get lost.
“So we need to use Yunmeng Marsh as a shortcut. Yunmeng Marsh is very special—it doesn’t exist physically, but is the crystallization of a great ancient’s dream, a place where illusion and reality intertwine, unconstrained by the laws of physical space.”
Qie Qianya tilted her snake head. “What do you mean?”
Su Fu explained with an example, “We might travel only a thousand meters in the Yunmeng Marsh Mirage, but in the real world—”
“In simple terms, we might have moved ten thousand meters.”
“That’s why Yunmeng Marsh is rated five-star danger—no coordinates, so easy to get lost that you’d never find your way back. A single misstep and you could be worlds apart.”
She only learned this after carefully studying the Cloudsea Map. With the Immortal Boat’s Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion for guidance, Yunmeng Marsh was just perfect for traveling.
“In other words, we might appear near Olympus one moment, and the next, be deep under the sea in Atlantis.”
She mused that the Immortal Boat was a bit like a ghost ship on the open ocean—appearing and disappearing unpredictably, fighting or fleeing as it pleased.
Of course, she had another reason—the candidates on the boat, including herself, needed a safe place to activate the Divine Power Light Pillar and summon the gods of their pantheons.
At a time like this, nothing could be allowed to go wrong.
She was the first to clear a map, but the other candidates weren’t pushovers. Not a single one of them was easy prey!
Who knew, maybe a boss had already appeared on one of the maps, and some candidates might already have acquired special traits.
But those traits might not necessarily be buffs for their own maps—they could just as easily be debuffs, weakening others.
The problem was, since she was the first to clear a map, it was obvious she’d become a target for everyone.
Only a fool would stay in one place and take the beating.
Oh, she wasn’t talking about Olympus, but everyone else here.
So Yunmeng Marsh was the best option. Its safety rating was nearly perfect, and even if others wanted to attack her, they wouldn’t be able to find her.
She had already confirmed with Shen Xing that the higher the map’s level, the less those special traits could affect things.
Maybe not even the interference effects could enter.
An excellent hiding spot.
At that moment, the entire Immortal Boat had fully entered wartime status.
Even the Heavenly Mechanism Birds had taken flight, circling above to relay the latest orders:
[Attention all boatfolk! The Immortal Boat is now in wartime status!]
[Defensive systems fully upgraded]
[All non-essential areas sealed off]
[Please return to your designated zones at once]
[East District defense array reinforcement imminent]
[West District resource warehouses under emergency lockdown]
[North District armory fully activated]
Red beams of light appeared all over the Immortal Boat. Massive mechanical components shifted, and heavy blast doors slowly closed.
The Immortal Boat had awakened.
Su Fu looked up toward where the Immortal once stood. He was the only variable now, but at some point, the mysterious Immortal had already left.
“At a time like this, Xu Immortal still won’t act?” Su Fu mused. “Maybe he’ll only intervene if the Immortal Boat faces total destruction?”
Just as Xuan Ming said—these immortals only cared about eternal life, nothing else.
Still, that worked to her advantage. The Immortal Boat was hers to command now.
She wouldn’t act rashly. She’d wait until she understood the situation.
Su Fu returned to the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion and activated the Cloudsea Map. The three-dimensional projection of the Immortal Boat appeared before her.
“Activate Cloud Sea Stealth Navigation!”
“Destination—Yunmeng Marsh Mirage!”
The mechanical bird in the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion responded:
“Order confirmed!”
“Stealth navigation mode activated!”
“Boom—”
With her command, the entire Immortal Boat rumbled. The hull began to transform, its cloud sails folding away, the extended wings retracting into a streamlined shape.
At the same time, protective shields extended from the hull, enveloping the entire vessel.
“Cloud Sea Stealth Navigation program initiated. Countdown: ten, nine, eight…”
“All personnel, attention! The Immortal Boat is about to submerge!”
“Stealth navigation commencing!”
The Immortal Boat lurched downward, swiftly sinking through the clouds, diving into the depths of the cloud sea like a giant whale, quickly vanishing into the endless mist.
“Stealth navigation successful!”
“Current coordinates: unknown!”
“Estimated time to Yunmeng Marsh: 30 minutes!”
Su Fu let out a long breath, her heart pounding with excitement—they’d made it!
The Immortal Boat was enormous, yet remarkably agile.
She quickly organized her plans: first, focus the Immortal Boat’s resources on entering Yunmeng Marsh safely.
Second, activate the Divine Power Light Pillar and summon the gods!
At the same time, she’d boost the Immortal Boat’s firepower—cannons, divine ballistae, bombs… every kind of technology and artifact she could muster, ensuring full coverage by land, sea, and air.
Additionally, she wanted to see if she could set up some enhanced formations to further improve the Immortal Boat’s performance—any new functions would be a plus.
She’d get right to work!
Su Fu entered the formation research room of the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion, laying out dozens of formation blueprints before her.
She stared at them for a while, then realized a problem:
“Oh no, maybe this was a bit rash…”
All the formations were from the Immortal Boat’s ancient manuals, dense with intricate runic lines that made her dizzy just looking at them.
She rubbed her temples, barely making out the main structure on one blueprint, but after that…
Forget it. She put aside the “Nine Heavens Lightning Array” blueprint and picked up another.
After a long study, her eyes went blank.
Wait a minute, on second thought—since she’s already the Pavilion Master, why not just have her subordinates do the work?
As long as the array gets set up, that’s all that matters. If there’s a mistake, she can just patch it up herself. Perfect!
She immediately summoned Xuan Ming.
Xuan Ming hurried over and saluted respectfully. “Pavilion Master, what are your orders?”
Su Fu grinned as she pushed a few blueprints over. “Daoist Xuan Ming, I have a feeling you’re quite accomplished in formations. Could you arrange a few of these for the Immortal Ship?”
Xuan Ming:
“???”
Don’t think he didn’t know—these were all ancient Immortal Ship formations! The previous Pavilion Master spent his entire life studying just one of these diagrams!
Su Fu was still picking and choosing. In the end, she said, “Let’s go with these:
‘Jiuxiao Thunder-Attracting Formation’
‘Void Obscuration Array’…!”
Xuan Ming:
“Me?” He pointed to his nose, incredulous. “Pavilion Master, you mean… you want me to set up these ancient arrays?”
He must have misheard!
“Am I crazy, or is this world crazy… all these tasks… are being handed… to me… personally…”
Xuan Ming muttered to himself, eyes dazed. “Previous Pavilion Masters… none of them would ever…”
Su Fu patted his shoulder, her tone light. “Hey, that’s where they went wrong. I think you have great potential!”
“You’ve been in the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion for so many years—you must have learned a lot. Go ahead, be bold. Besides, if anything goes wrong, I’ll have your back.”
Xuan Ming opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but finally swallowed his words.
Seeing Su Fu’s resolute expression, he chose to accept the task.
Forget it, no point arguing. He conceded defeat.
Once Xuan Ming left, Su Fu stretched lazily, suddenly realizing she had free time for the first time in a while.
“This is the benefit of having subordinates—it’s just too satisfying.” She sighed contentedly, then opened the World Channel interface.
But the screen was filled with notifications all about her.
“This won’t do,” Su Fu thought. “Why is no one else catching up?”
She pondered, then sent out a global broadcast:
[World Channel · Su Fu: Why is it all just Penglai Immortal Ship? Where are friends from other maps?]
[World Channel · Su Fu: Sigh, hurry up, everyone! I’ve been waiting so long, my flowers have withered.]
Other map players who saw the message:
So infuriating! How could she be so arrogant!
—
Olympus Arena, Greek Pantheon.
Freya and the others stared at Su Fu’s message in the World Channel, grinding their teeth in fury.
“That’s got to be a taunt, right?”
“Let her be smug for a little while longer. Once Achilles wins this round, we’ll have control of this arena.”
“But can Achilles really win this round? It’s the final stage, it must be tough, right?”
“Don’t worry,” Freya said with absolute certainty, “Even if he can’t, Zeus will make sure he does.”
Everyone exchanged glances, their expressions a bit odd.
Just then, a deafening cheer erupted from the center of the arena—the final match had ended.
The victor, Achilles, raised his bloodstained thunder spear high, his radiant smile dazzling in the sunlight.
“Achilles! Achilles!” The crowd in the stands went wild, shouting his name, tossing flowers and ribbons from all directions.
A horn sounded at the edge of the field, and the voice of Divine Yan went live:
[Olympus Map has been successfully conquered!]
[Conqueror: Greek Pantheon Achilles (Road to the Vault of Heaven)]
[Olympus Map has successfully connected to the World Map!]
[World Channel has been opened]
System prompts rang out endlessly as Achilles strode through the cheers toward Freya and the others.
Everyone eagerly asked, “So, what is our map’s special ability?”
A map’s ability referred to the unique features inherent to each map.
Just as Penglai Immortal Ship could move, travel to various places, and set up all kinds of formations for various functions, Olympus Map naturally had its own distinctive qualities.
Achilles smirked, “The original ability was ordinary, but since I requested the blessing of the King of Gods… so…”
“We’ve obtained the power of ‘World Lightning.'”
“In other words,”
He tilted his chin slightly, “We can wield the authority of lightning and strike any target across the world—”
“Including…”
“Penglai Immortal Ship.”
“Long-range strike?!” Everyone exclaimed. “And it’s across the entire map?!”
“Heavens! That ability is insane!”
“Now let’s see how Su Fu keeps acting so smug—hahaha!”
Achilles smiled. Although there was a cooldown, it was indeed a one-of-a-kind ranged attack.
It was the gods’ promise and favor to him.
Amidst the chorus of praise, Achilles logged into the World Channel, sending a simple message:
[World Channel · Achilles: I’m coming to attack you all.]
The rest of the examinees on other maps looked blank, unable to understand.
“What does that mean?” Olaf of the Norse map was baffled. “What’s gotten into Achilles?”
Before his words faded, thunder rumbled in the sky, and they realized that what had been a clear day was now instantly covered by dark clouds.
“What’s going on?”
“Thunder?!”
“The weather just changed out of nowhere?”
“This isn’t normal, right?”
In the next instant, golden lightning flickered wildly in the clouds, and bolts thick as pillars crashed down without warning!
“BOOM—!!!”
And then, a second, a third…
“Heavens! What the hell is that?!”
“Dodge! Quick, dodge!”
“Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on?!”
Suddenly, a system announcement popped up in the World Channel:
[World Announcement: Olympus Map is releasing a special ability—implementing thunderous strikes against all maps, duration: 10 minutes]
[All maps are temporarily under ‘Rampant Thunder’ debuff: Recovery ability -50%, random regional disasters may occur.]
Everyone went crazy, cursing out loud:
“What the—! An all-map strike?! Achilles, you maniac!”
“This is shameless! Just because we can’t move, we can only get hit!”
“This is a damn bug! Divine Yan is totally biased!”
“This isn’t fair! Why can they attack other maps?!”
“Shameless! What did we ever do to you?!”
[World Channel · Achilles: Can’t help it. My original target was only Penglai Immortal Ship.]
[World Channel · Achilles: But unfortunately, the ability I received is all-map strike. Sorry, everyone.]
People exploded with rage:
“Screw you! Both of you are shameless!”
“Go ahead and fight, but why drag us into your feud?!”
“Damn it! What does your grudge have to do with us?!”