Su Fu’s face grew even stranger and she asked, “Are you sure that works?”
“Of course,” the Pavilion Master said confidently, “I discovered this array in ancient records from the ship’s forbidden archives, though the scroll was incomplete, the array not whole.”
“I spent countless efforts, sleepless nights, searching through all manner of ancient texts, trying and failing over and over, before finally finding a way to restore it.”
He gazed at her with heartfelt earnestness and said, “Lord Su, all I need is your final step. This is your destiny! After today, you will live and die with the Immortal Ship, becoming a legend for the ages!”
“The ship will traverse secret realms never before reached, gaining treasures beyond compare! Even if your body perishes, your soul will remain with the ship, witnessing all its miraculous journeys!”
Su Fu: “….”
She felt numb just listening.
What she saw with the True Sight of Heaven was nothing like what he described.
Now, countless golden threads were beginning to move, slowly tightening around her, trying to pin her at the array’s center.
Su Fu decided to ask one last question.
“How did you discover me, anyway? Surely it wasn’t with those old eyes of yours, was it?”
The Pavilion Master: “…..”
‘Such insolence.’
He frowned, displeased, but seeing Su Fu so close to death and the array about to succeed, he couldn’t help wanting to talk.
Success demanded an audience—he could hardly hold it in.
“I’ll grant you this last wish—it was because of the Immortal Token. You collected the most Immortal Tokens!”
Su Fu narrowed her eyes.
The Pavilion Master went on, “Do you know why I am so sure this array will work? Because someone else already tried it. That was the last Immortal Ship General. He spent three months collecting nine hundred eighty tokens, but refused to enter the array. In the end, I helped him.”
Su Fu’s face changed, “So the Immortal Tokens are useless? Just a tool you use to screen people?”
“Not exactly.” The Pavilion Master shook his head, “The Immortal Tokens are useful, and whoever gathers the most does become General. That is the basic rule of the Immortal Ship. No one can change it—not me, not even the Immortal.”
But he grinned, “But becoming General doesn’t mean you can’t die. The Immortal Tokens represent the ship’s fortune—only those blessed by destiny can gather the most.”
“And you are not just the one who collected the most tokens of any General in history—you did it the fastest! So I judged you to be the destined one… and now I’ve been proven right.”
Su Fu: “……”
So it was that simple?
She’d thought this old thing had some unique way of seeing fate, but all he did was look at results and guess backward.
She deadpanned, “You’re really damn smart.”
The Pavilion Master took this as a sign of surrender, and said excitedly, “In that case, don’t resist. You’re not dying for me, but for the Immortal Ship!”
Sacrifice?
“I have a premonition—once this array is complete, the ship will advance further than ever before.”
“All those mysterious sea domains, all those legendary secret realms full of treasure, will open their doors to us!”
Su Fu looked at the raving old man before her and realized—he truly was mad.
Only now did she understand why this incomplete array required human sacrifice to repair.
It was because the Pavilion Master had taken the wrong path and turned it into an evil ritual.
True orthodox arrays of China never used such vicious methods—they drew upon the power of heaven and earth, following the natural Dao.
There was never any need for living sacrifices.
‘What a mess.’
She sighed, “You got it all wrong. You really are the class dunce rewriting the homework.”
The Pavilion Master’s expression changed drastically, “Wrong? I’m not wrong!”
He finally dropped his mask, muttering incantations.
The golden threads writhed like living things, their speed increasing tenfold.
“To give your life for the ship’s advancement is your honor! I’ll sacrifice you to complete the array and send you into reincarnation!”
The golden threads rapidly tightened, forming a cage ready to close.
Seeing he was about to succeed, the Pavilion Master turned and ran, racing along the array’s crucial points, locking each one as he passed to prevent Su Fu from escaping.
His voice echoed from afar, “Don’t waste your strength! The array is now perfect. Since you’ve stepped in, there’s no way out!”
“Trying to run?” Su Fu sneered, watching as he was about to step out of the array—
“SWISH!”
A crimson ribbon shot from behind him, wrapped tightly around the Pavilion Master’s waist, and yanked him back, dragging him toward the array’s center.
“No! No! Let me go! Just one more step and I’d be out!”
Just a second—just one more second and he’d have escaped the array’s range!
The Pavilion Master struggled with all his might but couldn’t budge at all.
Su Fu gave a hard tug and said, “Come back here, you!”
Almost at the same moment, the array locked, sealing all exits.
The Pavilion Master broke down completely, his face twisted beyond recognition, “I was so close! And now you want me to die?!”
He screamed hysterically, voice shrill: “You stupid woman! Do you know how many years I studied this? How many people did I sacrifice? I was just one step away! Just one step! Do you realize what you’ve destroyed? The entire ship’s future!”
At the same time, the golden threads around the two of them began to change, shifting from gold to blood-red, as if soaked in blood.
“Blood sacrifice… has begun…” The Pavilion Master stared at the sight in terror, voice trembling, “The array has awakened in blood… fate must be seized by force… blood will flow… there is no escape…”
“This is death—you and I are both doomed!” He turned to Su Fu, eyes full of resentment, “Since we both must die, let’s die together!”
“This is my personally improved array—no one leaves here alive!”
The blood-red threads twisted like living things, tightening ever inward.
But the Pavilion Master no longer felt fear.
His voice rose higher, mad laughter echoing: “Even if I can’t see the final success, my experiment is complete! The Immortal Ship will advance! Hahahahaha!”
However, Su Fu only looked at him oddly and asked, “Who said I’m dying here with you, you senile old man?”
Under the Pavilion Master’s startled gaze, she smiled and said, “This broken array—I’ll fix it.”
“[Patch the Sky: Restoration]!”
Divine power flowed from her palm into the array’s core.
Instantly, the spreading blood-red threads froze, then began to fade back to gold.
The chaotic lines started to rearrange, following an invisible logic, gradually returning to their rightful paths.
“This… this can’t be!” The Pavilion Master shook violently, looking as if he’d seen a ghost, his entire being suddenly aging ten years.
All his painstaking effort, all those sleepless nights, his only solution—denied in a moment.
“No! You’re destroying my array!” he screamed in madness, “Stop it! Stop!”
Su Fu raised her brows in surprise, “You’re requesting that?”
“All right then.”
The red lines’ transformation was almost complete, but stopped abruptly where they wound around the Pavilion Master.
“You said it yourself.” Su Fu smiled sweetly and withdrew her hand, “So I’ll stop.”
The Pavilion Master stared blankly at the bloody threads by his feet.
In the next instant, his aged body withered before her eyes, skin greying and cracking, turning to a pile of dry bones in a breath.
He collapsed, shattering into white ash.
The lines coiled around him were now a vivid, blinding red.
Only then did Su Fu continue repairing the array.
In truth, the array itself wasn’t badly damaged—the problem was just the direction of repair.
Its real name should have been “Destiny Aggregation Array,” meant to draw upon the power of those blessed by fate to gather spiritual energy and strengthen the ship—where would there be any need for sacrifice?
But this Pavilion Master—ignorant and reckless—had twisted it into an evil array.
Fortunately, Su Fu held Nuwa’s right of restoration.
Otherwise, this formation might have been ruined for good.
As Su Fu worked, the chaotic lines snapped back into order, the distorted runes regaining their original forms, finally blossoming into a giant golden lotus, layer upon radiant layer.
At last, the final line settled—an entirely renewed array.
“It’s done!”
But just then, the array erupted with dazzling golden light, shooting a pillar straight up into the heavens, illuminating the entire Immortal Ship.
The brilliance was so intense it was like a miniature sun rising over the ship, painting the Cloud Sea gold.
All aboard the ship were shocked by the spectacle, countless heads raised in awe.
The alchemists of the Alchemy Division looked up, exclaiming, “Heavens! What is that?”
The artisans of the Heavenly Workshop paused their work, exchanging glances, “It’s from the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion—did they invent a new array?”
Merchants and tourists in the cloud city gawked in amazement, “It’s beautiful! Is this some new marvel of the ship?”
Even Manager Jin Chan of the Cloudsea Chamber of Commerce poked his head from hiding, “This… this kind of display… could a great treasure have emerged?”
Su Fu herself was startled by the scene—she hadn’t expected such a commotion.
Looking up at the soaring light, she mused: “Seems this array must be of the highest grade, for the completion to produce such a spectacle.”
This, truly, was the might of orthodox Chinese arrays.
Su Fu nodded with satisfaction, ‘Rooted in heaven and earth, governed by yin and yang, powered by the five elements—this was the law of all creation.’
What could a blood sacrifice compare to that?
Just then, the pillar of light abruptly scattered into countless golden motes, falling across the ship like a silent, starry rain.
The pillar lasted for a full quarter-hour before gradually fading.
Only then did Su Fu notice that the Sea and Sky Grand Map before her had changed.
She realized: if the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion was the ship’s helm, then this map was its control panel.
She had activated the array, which now showed its effect and bestowed new abilities on the ship:
[Destiny Aggregation Array: Cloud Sea Stealth Navigation]
Su Fu blinked, reading the ability description.
It seemed the array not only enhanced the ship’s navigation in the Cloud Sea, but also granted it the special power to dive into its depths.
A submerge icon appeared in the top right corner, letting her freely switch between sailing and stealth mode.
At the same time, two new red dots appeared on the map, flashing with skull icons beside them.
These marked forbidden zones the ship had never dared approach.
The two locations were Yunmeng Marsh Illusion (5) and Guixu Sea Eye (5).
Su Fu nodded thoughtfully, “So before, the Immortal Ship couldn’t enter these high-danger maps, but now with this array’s protection, these places are unlocked.”
Her eyes suddenly brightened as she thought of new uses, “If someone tries to chase me, I can just dive into one of these spots…”
“A stealth escape—perfect way to dodge any attack!”
If she couldn’t win, she’d submerge and run and if anyone dared follow her in… heh.
They wouldn’t be her problem anymore.
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