The next moment, the Azure Dragon youth was teleported out of the grotto-heaven world by Li Zhangzong. Clearly, he did not meet the mission's requirements.
After sending off the Azure Dragon youth, Li Zhangzong looked at the remaining three with a smile. "All right, let's get down to business. I'm already aware of what's happening outside. If there truly is a so-called Star rank above the God rank, and if Progenitor Edward of the Blood Clan advances to Star rank by converting three hundred million vampires, relying on the Grotto-Heaven Plan alone might not be enough to stop him.
"Therefore, I have made a few modifications to the plan. It will require the cooperation of the entire nation, and the three of you will bear the most critical burden. The pressure could be immense. Do you three have the confidence?"
"I do! As long as it protects our home and defends the nation, Elder can take my life if needed!" Xuanming said earnestly.
Zhu Yuan nodded along and said, "Rest assured, Elder Li. No matter how arduous the task, even if it costs our lives, we swear to see the mission through to the end."
"Elder Li, whatever you need us to do, just say the word," Yu Xian chimed in.
Li Zhangzong nodded approvingly. Then, he took out three wristbands, gesturing for all three of them to put them on. Next, he produced more than forty jade plaques and distributed them among the three, explaining, "These are coordinate locators. Make sure you don't lose them. All you need to do is place a coordinate locator into your wristband, and your spatial perception will detect a specific spatial coordinate. Then, you'll need to place these stone steles at their respective coordinates."
As he spoke, he produced more than forty massive black stone steles.
Zhu Yuan had expected something far more difficult. After hearing this, she blinked in surprise. "Elder Li, is that all?"
"No. After completing those steps, you must insert this red jade plaque into the wristband. At that moment, you will sense all the stone steles involved in the Grotto-Heaven Plan. Simultaneously, the convictions of the entire nation's people will be channeled into you through this red jade plaque. What you must do is infuse that conviction into every single stone stele.
"The power of these beliefs will be immensely chaotic, and enduring it requires tremendous willpower. If you find yourself unable to bear it, remove the red jade plaque immediately.
"Remember: never force yourselves beyond your limits, or you may very well burst from the excess energy," Li Zhangzong said grimly as he produced three red jade plaques.
The three took the red jade plaques. Just by touching them, they could feel warmth gradually radiating from within.
"All right. Time is of the essence. Set out!"
Seeing that the three had safely stowed the red jade plaques, Li Zhangzong slowly turned around.
In the next second, the trio was instantly teleported out.
Seeing them emerge, Yu Lie and the others immediately stepped forward to inquire. Only after confirming that all three had passed did they breathe a sigh of relief.
The Azure Dragon youth had just been ejected for failing to qualify, leaving the other three ministers somewhat on edge, dreading that everyone might fail and render the plan impossible to even initiate.
"Minister, to prevent unexpected complications from delays, I'm heading out on the mission now," Yu Xian said right away after reporting on what had occurred inside the grotto-heaven world.
Yu Lie nodded. "Mm, go on. Stay safe!"
"Understood!"
Yu Xian acknowledged him, enveloped himself in a spatial bubble in the very next second, and instantly returned to Earth.
Silver City.
He teleported directly home.
Nangong Wanwan had changed into a maid uniform and was sweeping fallen leaves in the garden.
"Proprietor!" Nangong Wanwan looked up and called out respectfully upon seeing Yu Xian standing on the balcony.
Yu Xian glanced at Nangong Wanwan, feeling somewhat curious about where she had gotten a maid uniform. But with business to attend to, he merely nodded, then took out a coordinate jade plaque and placed it into the wristband.
Once the coordinate jade plaque was set into the wristband, he sensed a spatial coordinate.
In his perception, that spatial coordinate glittered like a star. He immediately coated his body with energy from the Reverse Scale Dragon Shield's core, and with a flash of red light, he teleported straight to the sensed position.
Deep underground beneath a certain city—far deeper even than the sewers—the state had excavated a chamber.
Yu Xian produced the corresponding stone stele and set it down heavily onto the designated coordinate. Next, he watched as the golden characters on the stele slowly transformed into energy, flowing from the base of the stele into pre-carved grooves. The entire chamber was sealed shut by golden energy.
He glanced at the room's sole door, sudden understanding dawning on him. No wonder spatial ability users were required for this mission—otherwise, simply getting inside would be a nightmare.
Just verifying and unlocking this door would take a whole week. Moreover, the door was a full ten meters thick and reinforced with massive amounts of transcendent metal during its construction; even a Dragon-rank powerhouse would probably need three to four days to breach it.
As for the chamber itself, countless array barriers had been incorporated during its construction. Once the Grotto-Heaven Plan was fully activated, no spatial ability user would be able to enter unless they wore the wristband.
From there, Yu Xian continuously swapped coordinate jade plaques, placing stone steles at their designated coordinates one after another. He had been assigned fifteen steles in total, and just twenty minutes had passed by the time he finished placing them all.
He contacted Yu Lie to ask if the other two had finished the first step. Learning that they were still carrying out their tasks, he simply found a mountain peak, sat down on a boulder at the summit to snatch a moment of leisure, and used Stealing Heavenly Secrets to absorb spatial energy.
The more spatial energy he possessed, the larger the grotto-heaven he could create.
Having stolen a portion of Li Zhangzong's spatial energy, he was already able to create a space roughly the size of a swimming pool, and that was nowhere near his limit.
Before long, he had stolen enough spatial energy to match the size of a basketball court.
Fortunately, the world he lived in possessed no such things as a world will or Alaya-vijnana. Otherwise, the world might target him at any second, letting him experience what Final Destination really felt like.
After stealing enough spatial energy, he created a basketball-sized grotto-heaven bubble and instantly stepped inside.
"This seems a bit similar to the principle behind a storage ring," Yu Xian muttered to himself as he sat in the vast, empty space, watching everything outside turn gigantic.
Entering this grotto-heaven world actually involved the Art of Small Within, Large Without.
A basketball-sized grotto-heaven world itself required the Art of Large Within, Small Without to maintain—simply put, the internal space was vast, while it appeared small from the outside.
Meanwhile, his entry into this space utilized the Art of Small Within, Large Without, converting his large self into a smaller scale as he crossed into the grotto-heaven world.
His mass had not actually changed at all; he was purely smaller. What's more, this shrunken state could persist even after he exited the grotto-heaven world, unless he dismissed the grotto-heaven world.
At that moment, he flew out from the grotto-heaven bubble. When he touched down, the boulder he had been sitting on was now vaster than a mountain. Standing atop the boulder, he looked around at this 'gigantic' world and eagerly began to explore with great curiosity.
Riding a spatial bubble, he flew down to the ground. Weeds that previously only reached his ankles now towered over him.
Stepping out of the spatial bubble, he sprinted through the weeds. Suddenly, a mantis concealed in the undergrowth lunged at him with its twin scythes. He halted with a chuckle and allowed the scythes to strike him, even deliberately keeping the dragon shield from deploying a defense.
The mantis clamped Yu Xian between its scythes. The standard procedure would be to pull Yu Xian toward its mouthparts to chew on him, but when it tugged, he did not budge in the slightest. Instead, the weed the mantis perched on bent sharply under the strain.
Face to face, before it could bite, Yu Xian grabbed the mantis's triangular head and gave it a twist, snapping it right off. A torrent of green blood gushed from the stump.
Looking at the blood, an idea struck him. In the future, if he encountered a transcendent creature with low blood volume whose abilities he coveted, he could totally shrink down before drawing its blood—wouldn't that be equivalent to having far more blood?
Just then, a sparrow swooped down from the sky, seizing the headless mantis in hopes of taking flight. But because the dead mantis's scythes were still locked tightly around Yu Xian, the sparrow flapped its wings with all its might and couldn't even lift off the ground.
Yu Xian watched the sparrow thrash about in amusement, suddenly thinking that a shrunken world was truly far too much fun.
Chapter 163