“Who is the captain of this vessel?” Dai Liang asked with another flex of his oppressive aura.

The mortal captain brought himself to his feet, trembling in fear.

“You will stop your boat here and wait for these three’s return. Do you understand?” Dai Liang asked.

“Yes! Of course senior.” The captain accepted the command with only a twinge of pain showing in his eyes at the lost time.

“Good.” Dai Liang nodded before turning back to the three boys. “Let’s go.”

Dai Liang stepped over to the side of the boat, over to where a lumpy wave rose out of the water, and stepped onto it. As he did, the top of the wave bent inward to create a bowl-shaped indentation as large as a wagon.

The water seemed to stabilize in that shape, the tail of the wave disconnecting from the river and all of the water beginning to flow in a counterclockwise direction to better maintain cohesiveness.

Standing in the center of the indentation he waved for Ji Kang, Lu Wu, and Yu Shuren to follow. Yu Shuren went first, tentatively straddling the boat’s railing and reaching out one foot to test how firm the water was.

Finding it suitably solid, he brought his other leg over the railing so he was sitting on it with both legs in the bowl before hopping off. The water didn’t budge at all with this new addition of weight, maintaining the same odd, thick walled bowl or pillow shape. Yu Shuren moved to stand on the slope behind and to the right of Dai Liang.

Ji Kang met Lu Wu’s eyes in a silent question. Lu Wu jerked his chin towards Dai Liang. It looked like Lu Wu wanted Ji Kang to go next, so he followed Yu Shuren’s example and mounted the flying water.

Seeing that Yu Shuren and Ji Kang were standing on the water without issue and considering that Dai Liang was possibly growing impatient, Lu Wu quickly joined them. As soon as he was on, the water cushion flew up into the air and started heading north.

Standing on top of the strange vehicle, Ji Kang was utterly confused by the consistency and feel of it. It was made of water and that water was still a liquid, it was just behaving unusually. Ji Kang noticed that his feet got a little wet from a thin mist that rose from the water as it churned. Somehow, despite not being solid, the water was able to hold its shape. He assumed it had something to do with how the water was moving.

The entire thing felt like it was churning at all times. From a distance he had mistaken it for simple rotation like the water around a drain, but upon closer examination it seemed to be filled with currents that constantly attempted to maintain a particular shape for the blob of water. The four people’s weight on top of the blob was stopping it from assuming that shape. Standing on top of it felt like standing on top of a geyser constantly shooting upwards, carrying them on a column of water that was being replenished by the rest of the water in the blob in a cycle.

The flying saucer of water was faster than Ji Kang would have guessed from its doughy appearance. The land zipped by beneath their feet, mostly small farms abutting the river that slowly gave way to forest and foothills for the nearby small mountain range off in the distance to the west. They hadn’t been flying long, only about half the time it took to burn a joss stick, when they started their descent.

Dropping below the clouds again, the three boys got their first view of a group of cultivators dressed in yellow robes with shiny golden borders. They numbered a couple more than a dozen, and were arrayed opposite a single cultivator in red and white matching Dai Liang’s robe at the top of a hill, just outside a small stone manor that stood alone surrounded by woods.

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As Ji Kang and the others got closer to the hill, he could see that the cultivators in yellow all stood in aggressive stances and looked angry at perceived mistreatment. Despite facing a crowd by himself the cultivator in red stood calmly with his hands clasped behind his back, facing out away from the crowd and over the nearby hills.

The water cushion they were standing on touched down on the hillside, only a few paces away from the man in red, and Dai Liang led the other three in jumping down lightly.

“Dear friends, I have returned with some inner disciples of the esteemed and honorable Azure Grove Sect to act as impartial witnesses. With their moderation I’m sure that we can come to a peaceful resolution to this dispute.” Dai Liang smiled at the group of cultivators in yellow.

The cultivators in yellow took this poorly. They exchanged dispirited, despairing, and angry glances among themselves before one of their number stepped forward. Ji Kang got the impression that the woman stepping forward wasn’t their leader per se, rather that she was a senior member of the group and since none of the others were willing to step forward she did so.

Her looks were plain, but she had a pair of very intelligent eyes that Ji Kang had no doubt would sparkle if they weren’t so full of anger currently. Her hair was held out of her face by a sunflower yellow headband and hung loose down her back to just below her shoulder blades.

“Lin Yu greets the disciples of the Azure Grove.” She perfunctorily cupped her fists towards Ji Kang and the other two in the barest observance of courtesy before turning toward Dai Liang, who had moved to stand beside the other man in red who was now once again paying attention. “Honored seniors, I must protest. The bad blood between the Golden Wind Sect and the Azure Grove Sect is well known, as is the good relationship they share with your own Red Sea Sect. They cannot possibly be said to be impartial.”

“Are you slandering the integrity of the Azure Grove Sect? Surely these fine young disciples can tell right from wrong. Moreover, although there have been some disagreements between the higher ups of your two sects, what does that have to do with these three? No no, they will behave honorably and not impune their sect’s good reputation by showing undue favor to us two sect brothers.” Dai Liang shook his head with mock solemnity.

Ji Kang was starting to understand the situation. Clearly the members of the two sects had found some valuable inheritance in this stone house and were coming into conflict over who should possess it.

Ordinarily this sort of thing would be handled by a spar between representatives of the two parties, but both of the Red Sea Sect cultivators were Core Formation stage and none of the Golden Wind Sect group had higher cultivation than Foundation Establishment stage. Any sparring between representatives of the two parties would be a farce.

If the organizations that the two groups were a part of had been unrelated then perhaps the two from the Red Sea Sect would have just taken what they wanted by force, but both parties were backed by two of the top ten sects in the Nation of Zhu. These top ten sects had long since entered into mutual cooperation and protection agreements.

This meant that all conflict between members of these ten sects needed to be resolved without bloodshed or else if word got out there would be severe political ramifications to the local cultivation world. And so this awkward situation came about.

Dai Liang and his sect brother had first suggested that they spar to decide the owner of whatever precious items were in the inheritance, but someone from the Golden Wind Sect group had cunningly demanded they find a neutral observer who could adjudicate the dispute. By this they had meant to delay the confrontation until a later date when they could bring a Core Formation elder from their own sect to represent their interests.

Unluckily for them, Dai Liang had an incredible sensory radius and was able to detect a small group of Qi Condensation cultivators nearby: Lu Wu, Yu Shuren, and Ji Kang. Knowing that a small group of Qi Condensation cultivators would be unable to properly oversee a dispute between senior cultivators with any authority at all, Dai Liang had hurried to collect them to serve as ‘impartial’ witnesses. No doubt finding out that they were from the Azure Grove Sect was merely a pleasant surprise for him.

This way, Ji Kang and company were unlikely to rule in favor of the Golden Wind Sect group as a result of the poor relationship between their sects, and even if they didn’t care about that Dai Liang doubted they would stand up to the displeasure of two Core Formation cultivators in order to take a principled stand. This was an ideal situation for Dai Liang.

Not quite so ideal for the three from Azure Grove Sect, but at least they weren’t likely to be in mortal peril… unless they angered both sides by mismanaging the situation.