Xu Qing currently sat atop a big headless turtle that had a fist-sized barnacle on its tail. He made quite a strange sight, so it was no wonder the Smokewights noticed him. That said, there were all sorts of strange and unusual species on the wharf, so Xu Qing didn’t stick out very much. There were other cultivators who had mounts, including some who were riding skeletal creatures.17

Humans weren’t as common nowadays in Sea-Sealing County. The various Swordsage Courts had issued the call to war, so most human cultivators were on the northern and western fronts defending the county. It wasn’t just the Spirit Trove and Void Returning cultivators who had been mobilized. Though they had left some forces behind, especially those who were supposed to be the future of their sect, the majority of their forces had been mobilized.1

As Xu Qing studied the Daybreak Prefecture harbor, he saw mostly nonhumans. These people all lived in Sea-Sealing County, and had benefited for countless years from the protection of humankind.0

Though that protection wasn’t necessarily critical to survival, such species hadn’t been expelled. As a result, this was their home.0

When Xu Qing thought about how many of them had refused to join the war effort, he shook his...31