John strode outside of the Mission Hall alongside his squadron, and followed Elder Rein to an empty part of the War Hall grounds.
Elder Rein waved his hand before him, and a massive object suddenly came into view before the group.
John's eyes widened slightly as he saw the object, which slightly resembled a boat. However, the 'boat' was much more sleek in design, and floated off the ground in front of them. It was thirty yards long, ten yards wide, and made out of some kind of metal. Formation etchings were visible all over the exterior of the boat, which pulsated ever so slightly.
"What's this?" John couldn't help but ask curiously.
"It's your first time seeing one of these?" a second year youth next to John replied. "This is a flying artifact, or flying ship, whatever you want to call it."
"Flying ship? Are we taking this to the borderlands?" John asked.
"Yep. The borderlands are over ten thousand miles away, and would take too long for us to fly there. This ship will carry us all there much faster," the boy replied.
"Oh," John replied.
"I'm Steven, by the way," the youth greeted John. He had a Late Core Formation cultivation, the same as John's.
"John," John greeted back.
"Oh, I know who you are. The whole sect does. I'm curious to see if the rumors about you are true however, or if they are overblown exaggerations," Steven replied with a smile on his face.
John laughed slightly at Steven's remark, finding him quite amiable. "I guess you'll find out soon enough," John replied.
"Enter the ship, we set out at once" Elder Rein instructed.
The group quickly followed behind Elder Rein, and entered a lower door which had opened for them. John was the last to enter, and quickly found himself in a relatively large, open area.
The cabin of the ship was quite large, but mostly empty.
"This ship is used for short range missions, and so the interior accommodations are quite lacking," Steven explained.
John nodded his head in understanding. The interior lacked any rooms or accommodations, but such a thing made sense if they were not going to spend too much time on the ship.
Elder Rein walked to the front of the ship, where a pedestal rested. On top of the pedestal were several glowing crystals, and many rune formations. He placed his hand on one of the crystals, and the ship began to rise higher and higher into the sky.
John looked down, and was slightly surprised to see that the once normal floor and walls of the ship quickly became transparent, allowing him and all the others to see the outside world unobstructed.
"How interesting," John mused as he watched the ground beneath him grow farther and farther away.
All of a sudden, the ship sped forward, reaching incredible speeds in an instant. John braced himself, expecting to be thrown backwards within the ship, but surprisingly found himself remaining stationary.
'This ship must have some sort of spatial properties that limits momentum and inertia within the ship itself.'
The ground beneath the ship whirled by rapidly, much faster than John had ever travelled in his life. Within a few minutes, he saw that they had already left the official grounds of the sect, which spanned for hundreds of miles in each direction.
"So fast!" John couldn't help but exclaim.
"John, come here," Elder Rein suddenly instructed.
John looked up towards the Elder, and noticed the squadron had grouped up once more. John walked over and joined the group.
"Before we start our mission, you should learn the names of all your squadron members. After that, we'll go over mission assignments," Elder Rein instructed.
John nodded in understanding, and the group quickly revealed their names, cultivations, and which year of discipleship they were from. There were five second years, four third years, and three fourth years in the group.
John noticed the dwindling numbers as the years of discipleship went higher, either an indication of the high death rate in the War Hall, or some other reason for the disciples leaving as they advanced in years. Each of the disciples greeted John warmly, and each carried themselves as a battle hardened warriors would, causing John to nod his head in respect to each one.
"Now that you know everyone in the group, we'll go over mission assignments. If we find a suitable enemy unit to engage, you are to engage the enemy in pairs. Unfortunately, the twelve before you already know their pairing assignments, which leaves us in a bit of an odd situation," Elder Rein explained.
"No need to worry," John stated in response. With a thought, Kirri suddenly appeared in the ship before the group, still disguised as a hybrid creature of a wolf and a horse. It had the head of a wolf, but the body of a horse, and was something none of the War Hall members had ever seen.
"What is this?" Elder Rein asked.
"This is Kirii, my animal companion," John explained. "I'll pair up with him."
Elder Rein inspected Kirii, which now had a cultivation at the Late Core Formation Realm.
"This is unconventional, but I suppose it works," Elder Rein replied. He was going to rearrange the pairings, but this worked out better. The pairing units had fought many battles together, and had grown accustomed to fighting alongside each other.
Reorganizing the pairings would lower the group's combat prowess, so John's solution was an acceptable one.
"Now that the pairings are set, all we need to do is find a suitable group to ambush," Elder Rein instructed. "In the meantime, rest and maintain your optimal battle state, as you never know when a battle will break out."
John walked to the side and sat down in a corner of the ship. Kirii followed closely behind, and sat down next to him, rubbing his head into John's chest constantly. John patted Kirii's head, enjoying this moment with his animal companion.
The ship continued to speed forward at immense speeds for the next several hours, speeding over the lands of the Yuan Continent. John looked down towards the ground the entire time, taking in the continent he had yet to explore.
Towering mountain ranges popped up occasionally, as well as deep valleys, dense forests, and barren wastelands. John spotted thousands of other cities, sects, and villages pass by underneath, revealing the massive scope of the Yuan Continent.
Many of the Sects were almost comparable to the Heavenly Lightning Sect in size, revealing the scope of their might.
"Those must be the first grade sects just underneath the Heavenly Lightning Sect," John mused to himself as he spotted many such sects pass by far underneath the ship.
Eventually, the incredible cities and sects turned into smaller villages and farmlands, and before long, there were only a sparse amount of smaller villages to be seen below.
"We're here," Elder Rein suddenly instructed.
John now understood why the villages had become smaller and less frequent. They were now at the border of the Bloodfiend Sects lands. This was a dangerous area, and so those who could afford to do so chose not to live in these lands.
"Elder, what's going on there?" A War Hall disciple suddenly spoke up as he pointed in a certain direction.
The eyes of all looked in that direction, and quickly spotted smoke rising up in the distance. The Elder turned the ship and sped off in the direction of the smoke, and the flying ship quickly arrived at the source of the smoke.
"Prepare to leave," Elder Rein instructed, as the ship suddenly disappeared.
John was unprepared for such a thing, and fell down a few yards before stabilizing himself in the air. Kirii did the same, and the War Hall squadron found themselves floating in the air above the source of the smoke.
John looked down, and his curious expression quickly turned dark.
Below them, a small village, containing no more than a hundred buildings, was completely razed to the ground. The corpses of countless villagers were seen lying all around the village grounds, many of them showing signs of an absolutely gruesome death.
John grit his teeth as he saw the scene before him. Clearly, these were the actions of the Bloodfiend Sect.