The time continued to flow in silence while Jin and Rodolph were on their way to this lower continent. And finally, they began to see it in the horizon. A mass of land began to appear, clearer and clearer as the ark moved.
Jin could see the waves crashing against the high cliffs of Vrislorin.
Then, as if a joke, the ark stopped moving while still dozens of kilometers away from the coast. Rodolph sighed as he got up and stretched up. Jin cautiously asked: "Why are we not moving further?"
Rodolph stated: "The spiritual density gets lower beyond this area, the ark can't go further and I don't plan to either"
Jin frowned and questioned: "Then what?"
Rodolph grinned widely as he grabbed Jin with both his hands and got into a stance. Jin was unable to even react to his movements. Before he even knew what happened, he was already flying away.
Rodolph threw him with all his strength towards Vrislorin.
As Jin was mid-air and looked back, sending a venomous glare at the man, Rodolph laughed as he delightfully stated: "Package delivered!"
Jin returned his gaze towards Vrislorin, cursing Rodolph internally. Certainly, he would not die from this but it remained very rude... And unpleasant.
The distance to the continent was closing by the seconds and Jin could now see beyond the cliffs. There was a dense forest on this side and it stretched as far as he could see. Regardless of where he would crash, he would have to walk for quite a distance before finding the first city.
He flew over the cliff then a few trees before he began to lose altitude and started dropping down.
He used his corruption. He had his arm stretch around himself creating a full circle around his torso before he made it enlarge upwards to create a makeshift parachute.
It was made of corruption so it was not the best and his altitude was too low for it to truly display the worth of a parachute. However, it did manage to slow down the inevitable.
As he began to get close to the trees, he switched the corruption's form again and created a perfect circular shield around himself. If a passer-by were to witness this, he would probably think a ball of flesh came down from the sky.
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In any case, it provided enough defensive properties for the crash to do little to no damage to Jin.
Only once there were no longer any movements did he remove the barrier and the corruption returned to its human arm shape.
There was a long stretch of land that had been destroyed and a few uprooted trees left behind on the path but Jin landed safely and successfully on Vrislorin. While it did not go as he hoped for, he still reached the place he planned to go to. And in one piece.
He sighed.
There were many things in his mind right now. Being on borrowed time was not a good feeling. However, that was just how it was. At the very least, it was not that different from before. When he was with Hae-Hyuk, he had to train so he would not die. It was a similar situation in a way. Which one was more dangerous did not matter as only how to get out of it had importance.
And the first step was to find a place to settle down.
The lower continents were different from the upper ones in many things. The biggest difference however was how the land was governed. In the upper continents, cultivators of the highest stages ruled their own territories most of the time. Even if there were lands without a clear owner, there were always cultivators at the top.
It was different in the lower continents. The many sects of the upper continents fought amongst themselves here with fierce opposition between good and evil yet they stayed away from the secular affairs. Most of the commoners were unaware of the world of cultivators and considered them immortals.
Certainly, there were sects originating from those continents and there were many outposts of clans and sects from the uppers. However, they rarely tried to approach the natives. Resources were scarce here and taking in disciples was a decision that required far more concerns.
As the land itself was not rich in spiritual energy, there were few treasures and it was not worth managing and growing. Nearly no sects were interested in governing lands beyond what they needed to settle down. They kept a few plains or peaks to themselves and stayed away from the mundane affairs.
On the other hand, mortal kings, emperors and clans strived here. Of course, they always did their best to recruit powerful cultivators to remain in power.
In the end, here, cultivators were the commodity instead. They were the ones being employed and not the employers. And they were fine with it. Because managing such lands were not worth their time yet they could still profit from simply being 'under' someone.
To the mortals, it was costly to hire cultivators but it was the best way to retain their status.
A different equilibrium existed here.
And Jin planned to make use of it.
It was close to impossible for him to be recognized now that he was in a lower continent. The natives might have been aware of his bounty but they would never have cared too much. They probably believed it was beyond them. The cultivators from uppers that went down here might be aware but recognizing his appearance now was not easy either. And, in the end, even if they could, defeating him would not be simple.
The highest stage one could reach here was the 30th stage. The density of energy could not enable more. Even a mighty stage 50th cultivator would be reduced to the level of a 30th stage here.
Jin could probably not defeat such a cultivator but he was not going to be easily captured by one either. His 'will', 'corruption' and many other abilities were not for show.