Chapter 200 The Dark Delver Part 2

There stood about four creatures for the interview. One of them was an automaton, skin steel grey and bulging metal eyes. Its face was there, somewhat human. You could see its eyes and ears and mouth, all present as various metal bumps and dives. 

They meant nothing, though I suppose that familiarity would seem nice to a mortal. 

“Hello,” it said, speaking with aura and qi, a language all cultivators understood. 

“Where would you be going?”

“The Shrine of Man,” I answered.

“Any imports or objects planning to be traded? No special artifact or keeping method can shield you from the Delver’s sights, so honesty is most desirable.”

“No,” I answered.

“Any acquaintances?"

“The man behind me. I met him on the road and we are traveling together towards the Shrine of Man.”

The other three beings were studying me. 

One was a member of the Primordial Cult, creatures who worshiped the four primordials and sought to shape themselves into their form. Some of them took the ideas to extremes, forcing themselves to be a mixture of both genders. 

To a mortal, they would look grotesque and chaotic. 

This one had the head of a rabbit, which made me think that she had originally been a beast of some sort. Maybe a half beast, maybe a full one. 

But that was the most normal part. Her torso took the shape of a woman but had a hard carapace on it. It curved in a human-like way, closing on hips slightly before expanding for the waist. And that served as the thorax. The abdomen descended right where her rear should be, coming out to a bulge beneath her like an overgrown tail. 

Her arms were human, as were her legs, but plants sprouted all of her. She had branch made horns and bark patches on her carapace. Vines wrapped around her and leaves grew large as clothes. 

We were similar in power, first step of the thirteenth rank. 

“Do you wish to join the Primordial’s Path? Do you want the path of all the Primordial Gods to meet within your flesh and qi, change into their children and blossom with their essence? Will you accept the insect's shell? The Beast's fur and the growth of green into your being?”

The automaton turned, staring at her as if it were calculating something. The other two, a regular human in some robes and a lady knight did the same.

“I do not seek that path,” I replied. “I am a follower of the Tome.”

The rabbit lady flared a bit at my statement, expressing disapproval but not disgust or anything outrageous. 

“Do you walk the righteous path?” Asked the automaton.

“I do,” I answered him. “Do you transfer those of the demonic Path?”

“Yes,” the knight lady interrupted. “But they will be kept among themselves and each will be charged a protection fee, if they choose to pay for it.”

A protection fee? Right, a demonic cultivator would be amongst their own, so they would have to pay to be protected among their own.

“Your association with the Tome has been passed and your personal time has been validated, board the ship at your leisure within five thousand seconds. We have finished. We charge three thirteenth rank spirit stones for the journey. You can pay when you board.”

The automaton handed me a jade slip and I nodded and moved out of the interview area, crossing the layers of wards and enchantments. 

They had used enchantments for these, not arrays, and the language of those enchantments was defined by Delver itself. A common thing for most ships, but that was to say the magical language used within those enchantments only had power here, where it could be enforced. I didn’t understand the language. It must have been something specific, nothing standardized like Drangontounge, Oldspeak, Runic, or Fulu which were some of the most common enchantment languages out there. 

I waited for a bit, studying the egg shaped ship from the outside as Wang went through his interview. 

It was truly something amazing. I saw people on the surface moving about, doing things. At its center was a large dense hole with a bridge extending out from it where the cargo was being loaded and unloaded as I watched. 

They were all boxes, but the boxes screamed with pure hatred and chaos. 

I sighed to myself. This was a decent ship. 

It was up on the better side of the Chaordic Bound. And while they weren’t righteous, they weren’t evil as well. There were no slaves, no vileness, no evil. 

At least not aside from the demonic cultivators that would also be there. 

But I wouldn't have to see them. I wouldn’t be able to if I tried. 

I read through the jade piece, reading their operations and pathways. 

No demonic activity would be committed by the ship cultivators, which was just good business because who would trust a sect that traded in demonic goods to ferry them across the void?

The path was somewhat strange, they would set off to the Entropic Path, heading into the chaos before coming back and heading straight to the Law Lands. 

That was problematic, but going towards the chaos for a bit wouldn’t be troublesome for fifteenth ranks. Not unless they pierced into the Chaos itself. 

Wang Hou finally finished his interview and walked over. 

“Senior, have you seen the ship’s planned path? They will head into the Entropic Path before turning around and heading towards the Law Lands. Why would they do such a thing?”

“Hunting,” I guessed. “They probably want to sweep through and see if they can find something worth hunting near the region, a few fourteenth rank chaos beings would be worth it for that.”

“But what about us?”

“We’ll be fine. I doubt--”

I held my words for a second. 

“We will be fine.”

“Senior, why are you so ominous? You act like fate itself is watching your words!”

I frowned, thinking about that damn fishing line. 

We would be fine, probably. Most likely. Almost certainly. 

I frowned. 

I hated God-Imperiums

AN: Now would be a good time to review the crappy map I made and read that lore post I made awhile back. See you later today or tomorrow!