Void Cultivation

Now knowing that the slender youth was the captain of division yellow of sequence three from the Detective Agency Department, Grey grew slightly comfortable.

"What's up with your disguise? I can't see through it at all. Must be a very powerful magic artifact to be able to hide your appearance from a Foundation Establishment cultivator." The captain said after taking another bite from the apple.

After hearing those words, Grey knew it was finally time to take off the mysterious cloak. He had been wearing it for over two good months! If it weren't for the fact that it came with self cleaning services, he doubted he could wear it for that long.

But Grey didn't take it off immediately, instead he stared carefully at the captain until her cheeks flushed red.

"Fine, there's no need for you to take it off if you want. Just stop staring at me." The captain said in a flushed manner. She had already eaten the apple, leaving behind only the core.

By the time she finished speaking, she had already brought out another fruit and begun to dig into it.

After confirming that it really was the captain, he heaved a silent sigh of relief. But he still didn't take off the mysterious cloak. Grey felt that with the captain around, she would attempt to do something crazy like the mad idea she had just suggested. So he deliberated and believed that keeping his disguise donned on was the right choice.

"Anyways Vice- captain Grey, the war has already progressed by far now. I gave you an estimate of returning two months before so that we could come back in time before the war started. But who would have thought that things would be accelerated and war would start one month ahead of time. Hehe, that war zone is no place for a Qi accumulation cultivator to participate in now. It's mostly for Foundation Establishment realm cultivators now..." The captain stopped when she saw that Grey had not taken a bite out of his apple. But was still staring as her intently. His pale Grey eyes blurred by the mysterious cloak.

She then pretended to clear her throat and continued. "But of course, as your senior I'll protect you if need be. Ah! But sadly, I received information that the war will soon end. That's why I brought out this idea of stealing from the Nascent Soul Transformation cultivator's clone. It'll make up for the loss we've incurred." The captain said with a sorry expression. But on her somewhat gloomy face, it just looked weird.

Grey resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said. "Captain, what method do you have of tracking down his clones?"

The Captain's eyes brightened as if she was just reminded of something exciting. "Actually, I can only determine what level the clone that took our items is. I can't proactively look for the other clones. The Nascent Soul cultivator will recognize our efforts and we will be dealt with-" The captain said with a pause at the end.

"Luckily, when he was taking our items, I also dropped one of my personal items." She then cleared her throat again and began speaking.

"If the Clone is above the Foundation Establishment realm, the personal item will be destroyed when his Divine sense passes over it. But I've not received any backlash from that item, so my guess is that the clone is not above Foundation Establis-" It was at this moment that the captain suddenly stopped talking.

Grey's expression turned to one of surprise, then slight wariness. That was because blood was dripping from her nose and ears unto the wooden floor boards of the magic ship.

"Oh... This is quite unexpected." The captain said as she wiped the flowing blood that was dripping from her ears and nose with a cloth that came out of nowhere.

Then, seemingly unperturbed, she brought out another apple from her storage bag and took a huge bite.

"So what do you suggest we do now?" Grey asked. The captain shrugged her shoulders in nonchalance, but Grey could guess that she was also surprised.

"If worse comes to worse, I guess we'll have to participate in the war without any advantages. *Sigh* And that will take even longer because the spatial tear dropped us even further from the Beserk Sea. Which means we'll have to get around it first before plotting a course to Sky Mist... Who knows what dangers we'll encounter during that time."

Grey just stood in silence. Over the past few months, he had been filled with a strange feeling of melancholy and nostalgia. Often missing people like caster, Ange and the rest. But now that he had encountered the captain, those feelings of nostalgia and melancholy that he had been suppressing all this while arose in his heart once again and he couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh of emotion.

The captain could not pinpoint the exact reason behind Grey's emotional sigh, so she pretended to not notice and instead focus on her apple.

With the level of her magic ship, she didn't need to actively direct it. So she could use the time to do other things.

As Grey used this time to think, he noticed some things about the Captain's magic ship. Although it was more slender and sleeker than his, it was a lot longer and taller.

Other than the bow of the magic ship which was several feet in length, the deck was over fifteen meters long, and about ten meters wide.

On the large and spacious deck, four tall wooden pillars stood as the bearings for the four huge masts of the magic ship.

Compared to the slim and slender magic ship build, the four huge masts was like a Stark contrast. It made the magic ship look like it could capsize and fall to the side just by the size of the masts alone.

Although Grey's magic ship was more robust and accommodating than the Captain's, his only had three normal sized masts.

Witnessing Grey silently observe her magic ship, the captain ate her apple more quietly, that you couldn't even her crunch.

"There are two cabins below the deck. The smaller one is for you." The captain then said and walked downwards into the Captain's cabin. Grey followed and entered the smaller room, where he planned on refining more poison.

***

"Eh! Little Grey did not disperse poison this time around. Hmm, he must've encountered something that made him stop spreading his poison rashly or... His poison must've finished!" The captain muttered lowly to herself while eating another apple.

When only the core remained, she tried to bring out another apple from her storage bag, only to find out that there were no more apples.

Suppressing a frown that threatened to appear on her face, she brought out a lollipop instead and stuffed it into her mouty with contentment.

***

As Grey entered the cabin, he first measure the diameter before sitting down cross legged on the floor instead of the bed.

Grey planned on refining poison!

First of all, Grey created a wall of spirit energy around him. Effectively cutting off connection with the rest of the world. He had thought of this idea sometime ago when he was pondering on a way to refine poison without it's corrosiveness spilling out.

After entering the eighth level of Qi Accumulation, he found that he could release his spirituality outside of his body. And although this spirituality could not be touched physically, it was very good for containing certain auras, including the corrosive substance. But only for a period of time as the wall of spirituality was made from spirit energy, and spirit energy can be corroded by the corrosive substance.

After creating a wall of spirit energy around him and another wall directly above, he began to bring out several items from his storage bag.

He brought out a pill cauldron, some medicinal herbs, and some very poisonous grasses he had gathered.

Grey also did not forget to bring out some items that he had gotten from the pocket dimension. He found these items to fit some of the descriptions he was looking for.

As soon as these intems appeared, Grey immediately began concocting poison.

'The death Rose has a very high level of corrosive substance. If I were to mix it with the previous batches I had made before, the corrosive substance would have surged outward before the poison is even fully created.'

'Then adding some herbs rich filled with Celestial Qi will be the best choice of action. The Cold yin flower will also have similar effects because it has been known to be able to suppress high density of corrosive substance.'

'Then, adding it in a ratio of 1: 4 will be for the best. I also want it's corrosive properties to soar as well. My last batch of poison took a long time before it affected anyone. Even Qi Accumulation cultivators have some level of resistance against it.'

Grey noticed that when the battle was going one, the Foundation Establishment cultivators decided not to get involved. If they had really gotten involved, Grey doubted he would be alive at this point.

'I have to start preparing poison than can affect even affect Foundation Establishment. Very soon, I will be facing foes at that level and I need to get stronger.' Grey said inwardly.