Yang Jing stood silently, feeling many glances fall on her. A nervousness soon enveloped her heart.
Everyone was curious. Tang Zhi and the others already knew about Deng Tianjin and the sect disciples he was accompanying, knowing that Deng Tianjin was a disciple of Ling Tian as well, so Yang Jing's presence was clearly unfamiliar to all of them.
"Her name is Yang Jing, and she will stay with us for a while to cultivate, because she has a special physique and needs powerful treasures..."
Ling Tian explained simply but understandably, not wanting his mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law to think badly of him if he didn't clear up the matter of Yang Jing, especially if they knew that 'he had taken her by force'.
"She is so pretty! She reminds me of the girls when they were her age or so!" Tang Zhi said with a smile.
"Little Tian... are you sure that's all it is? You don't mean you brought her to be your wife in the future? This girl is clearly very pretty and she'll be even prettier when she grows up enough..."
Suddenly, Zhang Ruoyan looked at Ling Tian and she asked him directly, staring at him as if she had discovered Ling Tian's hidden intentions. Tang Zhi blinked and just like Zhang Ruoyan, she fixed her gaze on Ling Tian as well.
Everyone else couldn't help but stare at Ling Tian, wanting to know if what Zhang Ruoyan had said was true.
Even Hao Zhentian, Ying Chen, Deng Tianjin, Shin Wei and Sun Xiang listened silently, as Ling Tian had not really explained about Yang Jing's presence. Even Xuan Li, Lang Qingzu and the other disciples listened attentively!
Moreover, Xuan Li, Lang Qingzu, Shi Yunfeng, Xu Linghu and the others were stunned to see Tang Zhi, Zhang Ruoyan and the others talking and joking with Ling Tian, even referring to him as "little Tian" when in truth Ling Tian was the ancestor of the sect! Who were these people who barely had their cultivation bases from foundation establishment realm to golden core realm?
Ling Tian smiled helplessly as he felt the gazes of everyone else, so he couldn't help but shake his head.
"Aunt... I really don't have that thought towards Yang Jing... she's pretty, of course she is, but she'll only be with us for a while as she peacefully cultivates until her brother comes to pick her up. After that she will decide whether she wants to leave or stay."
Ling Tian calmly looked at Zhang Ruoyan and explained.
"Are you sure?" Tang Zhi asked, looking even more directly into Ling Tian's eyes.
"Yes, aunt, I can swear I don't have those kinds of thoughts regarding her." Ling Tian let out a sigh, smiling helplessly. It seemed that these two mothers-in-law of his also thought that he would keep looking for more women.
Yang Jing did not respond or move, her gaze observing between Ling Tian and these people. Since she had left the room, she had silently watched everything going on, realizing the relationship these people had with Ling Tian, seeing how they were all smiling happily and always heading towards him.
Yang Jing noticed that the young people had referred to Ling Tian as their sect ancestor, even as their grand master as well, so Yang Jing thought of the sect Ling Tian had spoken of earlier.
Yang Jing also rested completely on this trip, while spending all the time looking out the window at the world and scenery that constantly changed every moment. Water and food were also delivered to her by one of the young men behind Ling Tian, which she learned was his disciple after a few days.
Tang Zhi and Zhang Ruoyan finally nodded at Ling Tian's words when they noticed a hint of seriousness in him and knew that it was not the case they thought, then looked at Yang Jing, realizing that she indeed had no cultivation base, being a mere mortal.
"Well, little Jing, we are this boy's mothers-in-law, so if he dares to do anything improper to you, you have to tell us! You can count on us!" Tang Zhi said with a smile as she looked at Yang Jing. Zhang Ruoyan beside her nodded with a smile as well!
Watching Yang Jing a bit more, both Tang Zhi and Zhang Ruoyan noticed her slightly shaking hands, as well as the feeling of knowing she was a stranger in the depths of her eyes, so both women decided to cheer Yang Jing up a bit to make them feel better.
Knowing that Ling Tian had a plan in mind related to Yang Jing, Zhang Ruoyan and Tang Zhi trusted him; to the two of them Ling Tian is the best son-in-law and they knew that he was not evil, let alone would hurt a poor girl like Yang Jing.
"Thank you..."
Finally, after a few seconds, Yang Jing sincerely thanked Tang Zhi and Zhang Ruoyan.
"So we've already arrived at the capital of the east state? I thought there was still more time left!"
Yun Dong approached the edge of the flying boat, noticing the city that could be seen in the distance.
Hao Zhentian had explained to them that they would have to travel for several months to reach this city, so counting the time so far seemed to be much less time than estimated in reality.
They had also concentrated on cultivating completely while traveling to reach this place. This was another world, where strength mattered more than ever, so they wanted to increase their cultivations quickly.
"Master caught up with us several days ago, then he helped us by operating the flying boat so we advanced much faster!" Ying Chen quickly explained.
Yun Dong was stunned to hear this, but quickly calmed down. After all, Ling Tian is very powerful, even more so than Hao Zhentian and the others, so this kind of thing should be common.
Quickly everyone got off the flying boat, waiting for instructions.
"Alright, brother, you can withdraw your power!"
Hao Zhentian looked at Ying Chen. Both of them had stayed on the boat at the end.
Ling Tian was also with them. He was curiously looking inside, observing the various active formations.
"Understood!" Ying Chen nodded and at once he cut off the flow of his power into the formations of the flying ship.
Then, before Ling Tian's eyes, the gigantic space inside quickly began to shrink, with the rooms that were large becoming small, then shrinking to the limit before blending into each other and quickly disappearing as they seemed to overlap each other, leaving less than 5 small rooms in the end.
The size of the flying boat also shrank considerably, from 50 meters down to just over 20 meters.
Ling Tian watched the process as his perception of space was actively at all times. A gleam crossed his eyes as he watched the interior shrink rapidly, sensing a different kind of spatial principles to those he understood.
Although Ling Tian has observed many immortal formations involving space, as well as objects or treasures that affect spatial principles, in the end it is very different from trying to directly mobilize space and interact with the same principles oneself without the help of external forces.
Formations, especially teleportation formations, can work due to the special space patterns, symbols and runes engraved on them, interacting with the spatial principle. Only spiritual energy needs to be poured in to make it work.
However, manipulating space directly without any external help was a truly different matter, which Ling Tian continued to comprehend every moment, deepening his knowledge of the dao of space.
At this moment, Ling Tian, who had seen the reduction of space inside the flying boat, thought of the short-distance teleportation he did.
"In itself what I do is an instant transmission or short range teleportation, not a true teleportation which would be very long range..." Ling Tian murmured.
Moving space and moving through spatial principles at a certain distance was what Ling Tian was doing, realizing that he was instantly transmitting to that location. But a real teleportation would have to cover a great amount of distance, much more than a simple instant transmission, somehow entering the void without tearing it directly and appearing at the destined place smoothly.
Ling Tian could travel much farther, but that was because he would tear through space to enter the void and tear through the void again to exit, reaching a much greater distance. But what Ling Tian wanted was to avoid directly tearing through the void, moving smoothly without shaking space too much.
"If the space is eliminated, in other words, reduced, the distance should also be able to be reduced more than expected, shortening the range much more, so... my teleportations should be longer, right?"
Ling Tian put his hand to his chin, sinking into his thoughts. He would shake his head from side to side every few seconds, while a frown grew deeper and deeper. His eyelashes lowered and Ling Tian kept his eyes closed.
Ling Tian's mobilization was by means of spatial principles, but he felt that he was missing something essential in order to truly teleport a great distance. The spatial principles inside the flying boat flowed and were perceived by Ling Tian, noticing that, although they appeared to be the same spatial principles, they were actually completely different.
Up until this point, Ling Tian used the spatial principles as far as he could perceive, resulting in him being able to teleport once he grabbed and mobilized them, quickly reaching that place.
But... what if the way he used the principles of space wasn't the right way?
What if instead of trying to perceive and grasp the spatial principles as far as he could with his perception, he tried to shrink the space directly?
Although Ling Tian moved through space alone, it was because he mobilized the spatial principles.
While Ling Tian's goal was to move through space without any obstacles and without the need to directly use spatial principles, Ling Tian knew that it was not something he could do at the moment.
The mystery of space was one of the supreme forces of heaven and earth along with the mystery of time, the two great laws that shape and maintain the many worlds.
If Ling Tian ranked from 1 to 10 levels in knowledge of space, despite all that he can do right now like teleporting, tearing space, creating spatial blades and mobilizing spatial principles, Ling Tian felt that he was barely scratching the surface of the first level of ten levels!
That was how important and difficult the dao of space was!
Ling Tian could ask a simple question, which would have no end or clear answer the more one thought about it... what is space?
"I will create my own force of the dao of space in the future!"
A wild thought arose in Ling Tian's mind, even though he knew the difficulty of doing so... it's as if Ling Tian was saying that he would easily create a habitable world just by snapping his fingers, which was something impossible even in his peak of the Supreme state, let alone for his current him.
