Since he could not fly using his usual method—summoning and kicking his shield repeatedly—he had several options for approaching the island. First, he considered shrouding himself in his qi and flying manually. The second option was to swim, either using his physical prowess alone or shrouded in his qi. However, he disliked both ideas, so he came up with a third option; using his shield as a platform to carry him. After all, his shield had a function that allowed it to not only float, but also move vertically and horizontally. Liu Xing had just never bothered using this function because it was so slow.

  The last time he had done something like that was when he was still at the Lock Opening realm. Now that he was at the Core Splitting realm, he decided to try it again and was surprised by the result.

  Before, moving up, down, left, right, forward, and backward had been quite slow, akin to using an elevator. Now, while the shield’s maximum speed was not comparable to his usual speed or even Tide Walker, it was quite fast. His invisible hair whipped behind him, and the Garden of Red steadily grew closer.

  Soon, Liu Xing was close enough to one of the ships that patrolled the island. It had several masts and sails, and each sail glowed with a purple hue. The ship’s body had been left its original brown wood color, but at this proximity, Liu Xing realized the wood was carved with intersecting lines that created beautiful, symmetric patterns, as well as carvings of water, waves, and even the moon. On one side, at least forty cannons were mounted and ready to fire, and the other side probably had the same amount. Liu Xing tried to sense the qi inside this ship, trying to sense the people who manned it. Surely, a vessel as large as this would be manned by dozens of people, yet when he tried to sense it more, he realized he was wrong.

  When Liu Xing was directly above the ship, he crouched and looked down, and his brow furrowed at the sight. Things manned these ships, but they were not people. Instead, they were puppets wearing red, black, and purple robes.

  Each was the size of an adult human and had limbs and heads, but their limbs were made from wood, while their heads were made from animals. Some puppets had the heads of wolves, their eyes the color of blood. Some had the heads of rhinoceroses, monkeys, rabbits, and more. All their eyes were red, and they moved around the ship as if they were people busy manning it. However, it was clear they were merely trying to imitate busy sailors, because the longer he observed, the more Liu Xing realized they were just moving about, not truly doing anything.

  Each of the animal-headed puppets was connected to a creature that looked like a bloated black goat cosplaying as a balloon. It floated in the air with its yellow eyes bulging. To the side of the creature sat a human in a meditative pose, his eyes closed. It was clear that all the puppets were controlled by him through that floating, bloated goat.

  Looking around, he realized the other ships had similar setups. There were puppets, a floating and bloated animal tethering them all, and a person sitting nearby, likely controlling them.

  As Liu Xing successfully crossed the patrol line and moved straight toward the Garden of Red, he pinched his chin and wondered what all of this was. The puppets and the bloated animals did not look like spirit beasts, but they did not feel like treasures either. He thought they were a technique, but that did not feel right. Not only that, he felt a wrongness when observing them, as if they were things that were fundamentally wrong to exist in this world.

  As he thought about them, Liu Xing ventured deeper into enemy territory and soon found himself directly above the red sea. Looking down, the sea appeared to be filled with blood, disturbed by ripples on its surface. From his position, he could see the source of the ripples; it was water striders. Resembling mosquitoes, they covered the surface of the red water, and each of their feet vibrated, creating ripples on the water’s surface and a humming sound.

  Soon, Liu Xing passed them, and since hundreds or perhaps thousands of birds were flying above the island, he willed the shield to descend. The shield obeyed his will easily, descending with moderate speed like an elevator. When the shield was floating a mere meter from the ground, Liu Xing dismissed it, dropping to land on his feet atop a rock. Around him, a small beach with red sand was washed by the waves.

  In front of him, the beach transitioned abruptly into a carpet of green grass. While it was unusual, Liu Xing did not think too much about it. He jumped from the rock and landed on the grass. The ground felt quite soft. Around him, small, lean trees stood at uniform intervals. Each tree had blood-red leaves, and from their branches, fruit that looked like blood grapes hung freely. The fruit was an alluring, beautiful red, yet when Liu Xing inhaled deeply, he smelled the thick, nauseating scent of rotting blood that made him lose his appetite.

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  Liu Xing moved deeper into the island, and soon, flowers with blood-red petals appeared here and there. The deeper he went, the more red flowers he saw, until a moment later, standing on the perch of a small slope, he saw a sea of them. The ground was not flat; instead, it looked as if rolling waves were trapped beneath it. It would have looked quite beautiful—because while the color red dominated, there were several flowers of other colors—but the rotten smell assaulting his nose was so bad that he imagined each red flower was rotting meat.

  As Liu Xing covered his nose, he found a cobblestone path and followed it. The path brought him to a nearby building. It was a fortress with towers around it, yet the gate was open. He could see inside and heard laughter reverberating from within. The sound was of children’s laughter overlapping with more reserved but still high-pitched laughter, perhaps from teenagers, both male and female.

  Seeing the fortress but hearing their laughter, Liu Xing felt a weirdness in his heart. His feeling told him that it was one of the human farms the Nether Lotus Sect maintained, but while the fortress itself was imposing, it did not look like a farm.

  With a curious heart, Liu Xing increased his speed and soon entered the fortress. The moment he walked inside, he saw a garden in the middle of the fortress. The garden had green grass, with cobblestone paths snaking between it. Several flower beds were arranged around the garden, and there was a swing set, a slide, and more attractions in the center. There, children were playing. There were a dozen of them, with black hair, brown hair, yellow hair, golden hair, red hair, and more. They were chasing each other, playing on the swings and the slide, and generally having fun. Their clothes were pure white, they were smiling, their skin glowed, and their physiques looked ideal. Neither too fat, nor too thin.

  Seeing this, Liu Xing blinked and looked to the side of the garden. There, teenagers were tending the garden, lying on the grass enjoying the sun, and more. They were relaxing. One group was even creating flower crowns animatedly. These teenagers, whether male or female, were beautiful. Their faces were unblemished, their skin healthy and glowing, and they too looked happy and content. Their clothes were likewise pure white, as if they were angels playing in paradise.

  Confused by what he saw, Liu Xing moved to the side, his mind trying to conjure an explanation.

  "Isn't this island the Garden of Red? A place where the Nether Lotus Sect farms human lives like livestock?" he muttered.

  Yet, while the smell was bad, what he saw was like a paradise. There were no chains or cells caging them, and they were playing, healthy, and happy, as if no worries had ever come to their hearts.

  Liu Xing was suspicious. He came closer to the garden to observe more.

  The children were playing, their laughter like the sound of beautiful bells, but some of the teenagers—the group creating crowns from flowers—were chatting. They talked about the weather, the song they would play tonight, the play they planned for tomorrow, and even a little camping trip near the beach. However, after a moment, the conversation pivoted into something that sounded wrong.

  "Sister," a girl with black hair tapped the shoulder of a girl with blond hair. "You need to cheer up, or else, your meat will be chewy. We can’t have that, can we?"

  "I understand," the girl with the blond hair said, and she tried to smile, only for the smile to fail. "I just feel a little anxious. I am the oldest among us. And I should have been chosen to be eaten last week, yet I wasn’t. I am afraid. What if I will never be chosen? What if I grow old and my skin sags and my meat gets chewy? What if I will never be eaten at all?"

  The girl with black hair hugged her friend, and after they parted, she said, "Don’t worry, sister. There has never been a case where a person was never chosen. I’m sure that today, you will be chosen. People will eat you, and everything will be all right."

  "Thank you," the girl with blond hair said, and this time, the smile persisted. Even though a shade of anxiousness remained, she was still smiling. "I needed to hear that." She nodded. "You’re right. I need to be more positive. I will be chosen today."

  "Yes, and then you will be eaten, and someday I will be eaten, and we will both meet again in the afterlife."

  The teenagers continued their conversation, but Liu Xing, who was eavesdropping from the side, was dumbstruck by what he heard. They were talking about something unthinkable—about being eaten—as if they were girls talking about boys and makeup. His mind tried to conjure an explanation when, suddenly, a bell from one of the towers tolled. When the teenagers and the children heard it, they beamed with smiles, began to move to the center of the garden, and dusted their pure white clothes. Murmurs could be heard.

  "Who will be chosen today?"

  Then, a man came out from one side of the fortress. He was a man wearing a Nether Lotus Sect robe. He walked with his hands behind his back, and his expression was light, as if he were bringing good news for all of them. But Liu Xing narrowed his eyes, knowing for a fact that what he was about to hear was nothing good at all.

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