In the end, the place Lao Xia chose didn’t surprise Feng Jun; if there was a choice, Huaxia was of course the first pick.

So Feng Jun drove that modified little car, took the three comatose agents with him, and left with Sofia.

He picked a spot without cameras, put the three into the Spirit Beast Bag, and brought Sofia back to the mountains of Chaoyang.

Right now Zhang Caixin had just fully completed her breakthrough and was starting to move into the phase of consolidating her realm. Barring accidents, she’d need at least another week.

Zhang Caixin had no idea that Feng Jun had gone out again during this period. She did a simple consolidation of her realm, sensed the aura outside, the corners of her lips lifting in a faint smile, then began consolidating boldly and without worry.

Then Feng Jun stood up, gestured to everyone, and went to Luohua again, heading straight for Beauty Lin.

Beauty Lin showed no surprise at his coming to her of his own accord. In fact, she had already received word that Feng Jun would be bringing back some surprises for everyone, and she’d even been given an address.

The address was near Zhengyang. Feng Jun drove all the way over, and only when he found the place did he realize it was actually a small courtyard with beautiful scenery, looking like it belonged to a wealthy family.

Feng Jun set the three unconscious people down, turned around and left without another word, but in his heart he was mulling over: how many more low-key yet loaded places like this were there in all of Zhengyang?

Anyway, what came next had nothing to do with him. A week later, when Xiao Caixin’s realm had basically stabilized, he brought her back to Luohua.

In Sister Hong’s view, with her little sister advancing into the Out-of-Dust Realm, they should absolutely throw a big celebration. But Zhang Caixin wasn’t interested. In her words: "As long as our own people know, that’s enough. As for outsiders... let them stay ignorant a little longer."

She didn’t say this because she looked down on the other Daoist Sects, but because the more she learned about Kunhao, the smaller she felt herself to be; it was far from the time to show off. Sooner or later the other Daoist Sects would also learn about the Kunhao Realm. Better to hurry up and cherish this ’ignorant’ era.

Of course, she also knew her sister was pushing so hard because she was wary of Yu Qingzhu’s rapid progress and wanted to help her build up her reputation, since Sister Hong was very worried that when it came time for Core Formation, Yu Qingzhu might take that step ahead of her.

On this point, Zhang Caixin was not convinced. Although many people believed that Yu Qingzhu would surpass her sooner or later, she had her own pride—never mind Core Formation; even at Nascent Soul, you’re not getting ahead of me.

She was even somewhat confident that she’d make it so Yu Qingzhu would never catch up to her in this lifetime. So what if her aptitude was a bit better? If a good aptitude alone guaranteed higher cultivation, then what need would there be for things like "opportunity"?

At the end of the day, a true Cultivator’s heart is always strong.

Zhang Caixin had that kind of arrogance. However, how could news like this be something she could control?

To say nothing of others, once the Little Celestial Master knew, it meant Maoshan knew; once Shen Qingyi knew, it meant Kunlun knew; and the place where Zhang Caixin made her breakthrough was somewhere Tianma Sanniang of Danxia often visited.

So in just a few days, practically all the Daoist Sects knew. Liang Siyu’s phone almost got blown up with calls, everyone asking when Zhang Caixin would be holding her Out-of-Dust celebration and hoping to get a few invitations.

At this point, if Zhang Caixin said she didn’t plan to hold a celebration, it would very likely be taken as: "You’re not qualified to attend!"

So what if you’re a Cultivator? As long as you still live in the Mortal World, you can’t avoid the give-and-take of human relationships.

Not to mention Feng Jun was still counting on the Daoist Sects to band together for a revival; even just for Luohua, they still needed things from the outside and needed the other Daoist Sects to lend their support.

So Zhang Caixin set the celebration for the Double Ninth Festival, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. It was still early spring now, a long way off.

After handling this matter, Feng Jun once again arrived in the skies above the Alxa League. He was planning to head to the Insect World to wage war and had specially come to ask the Guardian to see whether the karmic entanglements had been fully erased.

The Guardian’s answer was very straightforward. "When I said one year, I meant one year. There’s definitely nothing left now. But you still can’t go over for the time being... during this year, I found some good stuff for you."

Feng Jun only felt his vision blur, and three Stone Rings suddenly appeared on the stone table in front of him. Seeing them, he couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath. "This is... where did these come from?"

The three Stone Rings weren’t all dark-cyan—only one of them was. Of the other two, one was jade-colored and one was Xuanhuang-colored, and they didn’t look as ancient as the dark-cyan one.

"That dark-cyan one is the one I found for you," the Guardian answered faintly. "It was in an underground dark river. Without me, you’d have to at least reach the Emergence Stage before you’d have any chance of finding it... do you believe that?"

"I believe it," Feng Jun nodded without the slightest hesitation, then cupped his fists. "Many thanks for your help, Senior. There is something I don’t understand: how many of these dark-cyan Stone Rings are there in total?"

The Guardian didn’t answer directly, just countered with a question, "If there were still more, do you think I wouldn’t be able to find them?"

"I was being presumptuous," Feng Jun cupped his hands again, apologizing very respectfully. "My main issue is that I still have no idea where this thing came from, and you wouldn’t let me ask. Now that I’ve seen Stone Rings of other colors, I can’t help being shocked."

The Guardian didn’t respond. After a while, a thought descended. "Those two Stone Rings were something I casually made. You can regard them as sub-Magical Treasures of your Stone Ring. If you activate them at chosen spots in each of the two planes, they can form a planar passage."

"A planar passage?" Feng Jun was greatly surprised. He froze for quite a while before reacting. "Senior, you really are a mighty one."

"This isn’t hard. I’m just borrowing the rules of the Stone Ring," the Guardian was very indifferent about it. "It’s not my own skill."

Feng Jun was silent for a moment, then spoke up to ask, "I’m very grateful to you, Senior, but... why make something like this?"

The Guardian answered slowly, "It can synchronize time on both sides. Even when you’re not around, other people can travel between the two planes, so you don’t have to do everything yourself. Isn’t that a good thing?"

Feng Jun smiled and asked thoughtfully, "Forgive my offense, Senior... it has to do with the mantises from the Insect World, right?"

The Guardian probably blanked out for about five seconds before responding. "You really dare to guess, but there is indeed some connection. Are you sure you want to hear it?"

Feng Jun thought for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "If we open a passage to Kunhao, can that stop the Insect World from connecting directly to Earth?"

"You know quite a lot," this time the Guardian was truly surprised. "That’s right. As long as there is one stable, continuous passage, since the Insect World has already opened a passage to Tianqin, it will be very difficult for it to connect to the Earth Realm."

"That’s actually easy to understand." Feng Jun spread his hands, answering very frankly. "A one-dimensional line can be separated with two colors. A two-dimensional map gives you the Four Color Theorem. What I want to ask is, why are we guarding against the Insect World... is it because of the mantis genes?"

Seeing that he had spoken so clearly, the Guardian no longer bothered to hide anything. "I don’t understand that one-dimensional, two-dimensional stuff you’re talking about, but with this level of genetic similarity, it’s very possible that this world once came into contact with the Insect World. In your opinion, if they get connected again, can the current Earth Realm beat the Insect World?"

Hearing this, Feng Jun couldn’t help shivering. That kind of scene was just too terrifying; he really didn’t even dare to imagine it. "Forget the bugs in the Insect World— even if it’s the Human Race over there, I don’t think we should rush into contact. There has to be a process."

"Exactly. You don’t like trouble, and neither do I," the Guardian stated his stance. "I’m not afraid of them, but I’m very lazy, and there isn’t much Spiritual Energy on Earth. So I made this thing. While it gives you convenience, it also saves me trouble."

Feng Jun blinked once and asked in a low voice, "These two Stone Rings that are sub-Magical Treasures... do they recognize a master by a drop of blood?"

"Yes," the Guardian answered without hesitation. "Originally, I was considering what kinds of methods to use for refining them, since your people’s cultivation levels are all too low. But after reading some web novels, I realized this method was quite suitable... those novels are very interesting."

Uh, a Guardian who reads web novels... Feng Jun was a bit speechless. He cupped his hands toward the sky. "My thanks to you again, Senior."

Then he reached out to pick up the Stone Rings, but his vision blurred, and the two Stone Rings vanished, leaving only the dark-cyan one behind.

The Guardian’s thought descended again; it sounded somewhat displeased. "You think a couple of words of thanks are enough to walk off with my stuff for free? I’m telling you, that’s not how this works!"

Feng Jun instantly understood the other party’s logic. The Guardian had kept the dark-cyan Stone Ring he’d painstakingly found, which showed he wasn’t greedy, but the other two Stone Rings he had painstakingly made—he wasn’t going to let Feng Jun take those for free.

In essence, Feng Jun was the same kind of person, so he gave an embarrassed smile. "I get that. I just thought we were both doing this for the good of the Earth Realm, and that you’re the Guardian, Senior."

"I am the Guardian, but you’re getting benefits out of this too," the Guardian argued with solid reasoning. "You have so many High-grade Spirit Stones, and I’ve never taken the initiative to ask for any of them. But it never occurred to you that you ought to show some initiative?"

"That’s my mistake!" Feng Jun slapped his forehead and nodded in sudden realization. "I really haven’t thought things through. If you’re going to restore your cultivation level, Senior, how many High-grade Spirit Stones will you need?"

The Guardian let out a faint sigh. "That last line shows you still have a bit of conscience. But given your cultivation level, you probably don’t need to think about it for now... High-grade Spirit Stones can only keep my situation from getting worse. As for recovery, I’ll need at least tens of thousands of Top-Grade Spirit Stones."

Tens of thousands... of Top-Grade Spirit Stones? Feng Jun really wanted to say, "Sorry, wrong script."

In the end, though, he still took out five thousand High-grades. "This is all I have for now. I’ve got some other Spirit Stones, but they’re earmarked for other uses. I’m really sorry."

Five thousand High-grades on the Tianqin Plane could easily be exchanged for seven to eight hundred thousand mid-grade stones, and for common Spirit Stones the total would definitely exceed a hundred million. Exchanging them for a pair of ’plane gates’ that could shuttle between two worlds—and in a plane that Feng Jun already had the ability to traverse—this calculation... was hard to quantify.

But from another perspective, with this pair of plane gates, at the very least he could ensure that the Earth Plane wouldn’t be harassed by the Insect World. That value absolutely couldn’t be measured in Spirit Stones.