Transmission

Near the airspace of the Jiuxiao Domain. A four-man squad led by Yun Qing had just concluded their routine patrol and was preparing to return to base to rest. Even though the high-level sword cultivators of the Xuanming Sect had pulled back and the skies over Posuo Island were filled exclusively with cultivators from the Nine Cauldrons Sect, they still did not dare slacken their vigilance in the slightest. Every day, more than ten sorties of high-level sword cultivators took off from the Jiuxiao Domain and surrounding islands to sweep through the airspace above Posuo Island. Although top-grade spirit artifacts consumed a considerable amount of spiritual energy—burning through dozens or even a hundred spirit stones over the course of a day's patrol—the War Hall showed not the slightest stinginess. Whatever was consumed was fully reimbursed. Moreover, every patrol mission carried an additional stipend. In particular, with business booming alongside the Golden Divine Temple, the Artifact Refining Hall was rolling in wealth, and that prosperity had trickled down to improve their allowances and benefits. If these compensation levels kept up, sword cultivators like them on the front lines, constantly carrying out patrol duties, would easily earn three to four hundred spirit stones over the course of the year. Such an income was hardly any less than that of newly promoted Great Cultivators serving in clerical roles far behind the front lines. "The modified Zixiao Type 12 flying sword is simply too magnificent to use. In one stroke, it has completely put our Nine Cauldrons Sect on the map. With so many export orders coming in, we're reaping the benefits as well. Last month we collected an extra allowance of thirty spirit stones—clear proof that the Artifact Refining Hall is loaded." As they flew, the four men in the squad chatted casually. The one speaking at the moment was Zhan Yunfei, who cultivated the Grand Superior Perception Sword Art. "Speaking of which, it's been a long time since our Nine Cauldrons Sect has stood this proud in the East Sea region." "Things will only get better from here. With more money, we can buy more pills and cultivate more powerful cultivators, reclaiming more territory. Then we can set up spirit gathering arrays at the spiritual energy nodes in those reclaimed areas to harvest even more spirit stones and train even more cultivators... It's a virtuous cycle." "I heard that First Seat Zixiao is researching a Treasure Weapon-grade Zixiao flying sword lately. Is that true or false?" "You heard that too? First Seat Zixiao can even craft fourth-generation flying swords at the top-grade spirit artifact level; crafting a Treasure Weapon is merely a matter of time, isn't it? Besides, with his profound foundation in spirit artifacts, once he crafts a Treasure Weapon, he'll soon develop second-generation low-grade Treasure Weapon flying swords, or even third-generation ones, right? When that time comes, our sect's Great Cultivators won't have to be held by the throat and extorted whenever they purchase flying swords." "If our Foundation Establishment sword cultivators can be equipped with third-generation Treasure Weapon flying swords, those folks from the Great Sun Sword Sect will behave themselves immediately. When it comes to the number of Foundation Establishment sword cultivators, we don't lag behind them at all." "First Seat Zixiao truly is a pillar of our Nine Cauldrons Sect." The men exchanged remarks with delight and eager anticipation for the future written across their brows. Yun Qing, however, felt a sharp intuition that something was off as he listened to their conversation. Yet he could not put his finger on what was wrong. After a long pause, he said, "First Seat Zixiao hasn't managed to craft a Treasure Weapon flying sword yet, after all. We should give him some time. Praising him to the skies this early is not a good thing. Besides... greater fame brings more storms, which won't help him focus peacefully on researching how to forge Treasure Weapons. We had better not spread such unconfirmed rumors." Hearing this, Zhan Yunfei and Zhang Lie nodded as if taking the lesson to heart. Tu Hong also gave an embarrassed reply. "The flight was just too dull, so I was chatting casually." "Even though our shift is over, we still need to maintain absolute vigilance while on patrol. Although the Xuanming Sect has kept quiet these past few months, heaven knows whether they're brewing some major scheme. We must never underestimate them in the slightest," Yun Qing said soberly. The others did not argue and quickly sharpened their senses. As soon as their focus tightened, the sharp-eyed Zhang Lie seemed to catch sight of something. Stunned, he suddenly pointed toward the distant clouds. "What is that!?" Yun Qing, Tu Hong, and Zhan Yunfei quickly looked as far as their eyes could see. There, among the clouds a hundred li away, a black speck tore through the cloud layers, surging toward their direction at terrifying speed. As the distance closed slightly and the four of them clearly made out what that black speck represented, every single one of their pupils contracted violently. "That's..." "A sky-patrol warship!" "In the entire Cangwu Great World, at most a dozen sects have the capability to manufacture a sky-patrol warship... Which power does this belong to!?" Muffled cries of shock erupted from the group. "Zhan Yunfei!" Yun Qing barked. Without needing the reminder, Zhan Yunfei had already engaged his sensory techniques, attempting to capture information regarding the sky-patrol warship. In merely a breath... His expression turned grim. "Information transmission is being jammed! It's an exceptionally refined, master-class jamming technique—so seamless and silent that even our divine sense didn't detect a thing! Unless it's an Origin Spirit powerhouse uniquely skilled at tracking and interception, no one could hope to glean the faintest shred of signal..." His words made Yun Qing's face drain of color. "Are you saying that we are currently inside an information black zone!?" "Yes. Based on my assessment, this area is vast—it likely spans several thousand li!" Zhan Yunfei said heavily. Yun Qing whipped his gaze toward the approaching warship. "A sky-patrol warship, operating with information jamming active, and at the level of an information black zone!? Jamming potent enough to deflect the divine mind perception of Origin Spirit Great Cultivators... An action like this..." The hostility was as clear as day. "No wonder the communications channel has been dead quiet all this time... Is this a sky-patrol warship from the Wuji Astral Palace, the Myriad Beasts Sect, or the Immortal Alliance!?" Only those three major powers possessed the technology to produce such a ghostlike information black zone. Neither the Taiyin Sect, the Fatian Pavilion, nor the Golden Divine Temple could achieve this. As the vessel drew closer, the men finally saw its true appearance. Along with... The sect emblem inscribed upon the hull, resembling a sprawling starry sky. "The Wuji Astral Palace!" A sky-patrol warship from the Wuji Astral Palace had actually appeared in the offshore waters of the Jiuxiao Domain!? Posuo Island, where they carried out their daily patrols, was eighteen thousand li from the Jiuxiao Domain. Having just completed their daily patrol and heading back to rest, they were now less than two thousand li from the Jiuxiao Domain. And judging by the warship's flight speed... It was traveling at roughly three times the speed of sound! In other words... In twenty minutes at most, this sky-patrol warship would breach the Jiuxiao Domain and invade the territory of the Nine Cauldrons Sect! And the Nine Cauldrons Sect had not detected a single thing! Rumble! The sky-patrol warship, over a thousand meters long, brought with it violent spatial tremors as it shredded the clouds to ribbons and swept across the vast sky. Countless arrays were inscribed across the hull. Offense, defense, perception, recovery, jamming, support, amplification... Everything one could imagine was present! This was the pinnacle creation combining artifact refining and array crafting in the Cangwu Great World today! It represented the highest level of compatibility between artifact refining and array systems across the entire world! The warship's intrinsic capabilities, bolstered by the myriad arrays, made it effectively equivalent to a mobile sect. And how terrifyingly powerful would a sect's grand mountain defense array be!? "The Wuji Astral Palace! The Wuji Astral Palace!" The name of this most terrifying behemoth in the contemporary world—a force so mighty it inspired despair—echoed endlessly in Yun Qing's mind. Shaken by the colossal figure roaring past and paralyzed by the fluctuations radiating from the fifth- and sixth-grade arrays enveloping the hull, he could only let out an unwilling roar from the depths of his heart. Vaguely, Yun Qing, Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie could see the indifferent gazes of the Wuji Astral Palace cultivators sweeping over them from the thousand-meter deck. It was a gaze... Born of supreme arrogance, as if they could crush these cultivators like bugs at will, yet could not even be bothered to lift a hand. It was precisely that aloof disdain that stung Yun Qing and the others to their core, jolting them awake from the terror inspired by such a monstrous entity. In that instant, Yun Qing realized the horrifying truth. Their current location... Was less than two thousand li from the Jiuxiao Domain. This sky-patrol warship from the Wuji Astral Palace had not only deployed an information black zone spanning thousands of li, but had also crossed the ten-thousand-li safe maritime perimeter tacitly acknowledged by every sect in the world without hesitation. What did they intend to do!? They certainly were not coming merely to flex their muscles over the Jiuxiao Domain! Then their objective... No! Whatever their purpose was, they could not be allowed to succeed! "Stop them! Stop them! We have to stop them!" Yun Qing's scalp tingled with dread. Staring at the massive titan wrapped in countless arrays, resembling the mountain gate of a grand sect, he lunged forward in mad pursuit. "Zhan Yunfei, we have to get the word out! This is a completely 'invisible' sky-patrol warship! If it reaches the Jiuxiao Domain while every city is entirely unprepared and not a single city defense array has been activated, once it opens fire, the amplified arrays aboard that warship will bring every city in the Jiuxiao Domain under its strike range! In a single breath, they could wipe out virtually every city across the Jiuxiao Domain, along with the hundreds of millions of people living inside them!" Yun Qing roared. Zhan Yunfei knew with absolute clarity that Yun Qing spoke the truth. There was not the slightest exaggeration. Yet... Facing his captain's roar, he could only shake his head with desperate force. "We can't get it out! No message can possibly break through! A sky-patrol warship carries Origin Spirit Great Cultivators proficient in every domain, and they are amplified by fifth- and sixth-grade arrays! Let alone a high-level sword cultivator like me, even if an Origin Spirit Great Cultivator were here, they couldn't transmit a single syllable to the outside!" "Fly! Fly in the opposite direction to escape this information black zone!" Zhang Lie shouted urgently. "There's no time! This black zone spans thousands of li! By the time we fly out and send word back, that warship will already be hovering over the Jiuxiao Domain!" Zhan Yunfei cried in despair. "Stop them! No matter what, we must stop them!" Yun Qing pushed his sword speed to its absolute limit, catching up to the warship cruising at three times the speed of sound. The air currents and astral winds whipped up by a thousand-meter warship traveling at Mach 3 were unimaginable. Flying beside the vessel, Yun Qing was nearly thrown off course by the turbulent shockwaves. Yet after a single stumble, he forced himself steady and pushed his divine sense to its utmost limit, bellowing a soul-shaking transmission: "Attention! You have breached the airspace of our Nine Cauldrons Sect! Depart immediately! Depart immediately!" Regrettably... His words failed to produce the slightest ripple upon this colossal warship. The vessel completely disregarded his presence and his warning, maintaining its cruising velocity as it forged ahead. "Your transmission might not penetrate! Let me help you!" Zhan Yunfei caught up to Yun Qing and immediately channeled the Grand Superior Perception Sword Art, vibrating his divine sense to project the message toward the warship once more. Yet upon making mere contact with the surface arrays of the warship, the high-level cultivator suffered immediate array backlash, his face turning deathly pale. Even so, Zhan Yunfei did not falter for a moment. Gritting his teeth, he forced Yun Qing's divine sense through, echoing it above the warship. "Attention! You have breached the airspace of our Nine Cauldrons Sect! This action constitutes a grave provocation against our sect's sovereignty! Depart immediately..." ... Aboard the sky-patrol warship. The fluctuation of divine sense finally caught the attention of a few individuals. A middle-aged man clad in robes adorned with dharma treasures asked casually, "What's the situation?" "Vice Captain, it's just a few gnats buzzing about," his adjutant reported at once. "Heh..." The middle-aged man swept his formidable divine sense outward and grasped the situation in an instant. "Swatting them would only dirty our hands... Never mind them. Accelerate. Reach that place called the Jiuxiao Domain as quickly as possible. Hmph, those people from the Nine Cauldrons Sect dared to steal our Wuji Astral Palace's spirit artifact refining techniques! They truly deserve ten thousand deaths!" The adjutant nodded as though it were the most natural truth in the world. How could the Nine Cauldrons Sect possibly possess such sophisticated artifact refining techniques? Crafting fourth-generation spirit artifacts? They had certainly stolen them from the Wuji Astral Palace. Even if they hadn't, they had. "Understood!" The adjutant nodded and swiftly relayed the command to accelerate. Instantly, an even more monstrous wave of energy erupted from the thousand-meter titan. The sky-patrol warship began to pick up speed! Mach 3... Mach 3.2... Mach 3.4... Before long, Zhan Yunfei, whose sword flight speed was not his strong suit, was left trailing far behind. Now, even Yun Qing found it impossible to project his divine sense into the warship. Of course, the crew aboard the vessel certainly knew what he was trying to say, but... Not a single soul cared. "They... don't regard us as anything at all... They can't even be bothered to pause and kill us..." Zhan Yunfei spoke in anguish. "We can't stop them from entering the Jiuxiao Domain... and we can't send word back to put the domain on alert..." Yun Qing watched the accelerating warship, his eyes brimming with despair. Activating any city's defensive array to full capacity took time. Depending on the complexity of the array, the fastest took minutes, while slower ones required tens of minutes or even hours. Moreover, grand arrays were extraordinarily delicate creations. If even a tiny formation foundation or array pattern was shattered, the entire formation would fail to function. He could already envision the scene: once the warship arrived over an undefended Jiuxiao Domain, it could dismantle the domain's entire defensive grid with a single thought. A sky-patrol warship equivalent to the mountain gate of a grand sect undoubtedly possessed such power! "We must warn the Jiuxiao Domain! We must tell them the enemy has arrived..." Yun Qing said. "But... we can't do it... The message simply won't go through!" Tu Hong's eyes were filled with bitter grief. "No!" Yun Qing stared fixedly at the accelerating warship and said heavily, "There is still one way!" "What way!?" "Captain, tell us! As long as it can be done, we will do it even at the cost of our lives!" Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie urged in unison. "The four of us achieved great merits during the battle against the Xuanming Sect and are being groomed as true disciples. Each of us has a soul lamp back at the sect... If our soul lamps go out, the sect will inevitably be alarmed. Combined with this information black zone covering thousands of li... I have a sixty percent certainty they will connect it to a sky-patrol warship." Yun Qing looked at Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie, profound agony filling his eyes. "However, it's useless if only my soul lamp goes out. The sect will assume something happened to me alone and wait to question the rest of you upon your return. Therefore, our entire squad—all four of our soul lamps—must be extinguished. And... it must happen in the exact same instant... like an absolute, crushing annihilation. Only then will the sect go on full alert!" Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie froze slightly upon hearing this. Looking at Yun Qing's anguished, guilt-ridden expression, the three of them smiled in unison. "A brilliant idea!" "Sixty percent—that's not low at all! As expected of our captain, to think of something like this!" "Haha, Yun Qing, to tell you the truth, I wasn't entirely convinced when you were appointed squad leader, but now I have to admit, your head turns faster than mine!" Smiles spread across their faces—calm, composed, and tranquil. "You..." Yun Qing stared at them. "What are you waiting for?" "Let's go, Captain. Don't make us look down on you." "Hey, to be honest, I feel a bit unwilling, but there's no other choice. My parents and my little sister are living in the Jiuxiao Domain. If I had the power to save them and did nothing, how could I live with myself?" As they spoke, there were traces of regret, sorrow, and longing in their eyes, but... Not a sliver of fear. Yun Qing looked at them. They looked back at Yun Qing. Finally... They nodded together. "Let's go!" "After all, behind us... is the sect we swore to protect! It's the home where we were born and raised!" "Stop being sentimental, grown men like us! Hahaha, I wonder if I'll go down as a hero." "Form the battle line!" Yun Qing said in a low, resolute voice, his eyes locked dead on the accelerating sky-patrol warship. Then... With his command... "Charge!" The four men accelerated! Accelerating! Pushing faster and faster! Even though the warship had now surpassed Mach 4, far beyond the limits of Zhan Yunfei's sword flight, he nonetheless burned his true essence and his very life without hesitation, driving his speed to its utmost! Under this desperate acceleration, the distance between them closed rapidly. Thirty li... twenty li... ten li... Every pair of eyes blazed with fearlessness; every gaze burned with mad resolve! Four figures, like four faint sword lights capable of illuminating the void, carried forward an unyielding determination and conviction until, at last... They slammed violently into the sky-patrol warship. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The protective arrays inherent to the sky-patrol warship merely pulsed, and the four sword lights were crushed to powder like dry weeds before a gale. A mist of blood... Bloomed. And was scattered by the rushing wind in an instant, leaving behind not a single trace.