"At last, it has come out." Yaoguang looked at the branch before him and let out a quiet sigh.

He had waited a long time for this branch. Now, at last, his wish had been fulfilled. However, the emergence of the Qi Refinement branch also meant something else.

"The Alchemist branch won't emerge for a long time." He looked at the pills that Xu Qiexing had just brought him.

The pills that he took had come from Wu Qingying, the Hall Master of the Alchemy Hall. Having the hall master personally refine pills for him was the best treatment the sect could offer him. But Wu Qingying’s skill had only been adequate for qi-refinement-level pills: Once it came to the Foundation Building Realm, she had clearly fallen short. It was particularly noticeable for those pills meant to improve and solidify one’s foundation. The quality of the ones she could produce had been far from enough for the pills to be used to cultivate seriously.

Anyone cultivating exclusively with pills refined by this hall master would find their efficiency to be noticeably slower, and their chances of forming a Dao Foundation would drop significantly, let alone those of building an immortal foundation.

Even Yaoguang would never form an immortal foundation by relying on her pills, unless he was willing to grind away for ten or twenty years.

After thinking for a moment, Yaoguang shifted his gaze toward the Immortal Alliance. Among the current Six Great Immortal Sects, the Golden Temple had already become a decayed skeleton in a tomb, propped up solely by its Golden Core ancestor.

The Lunar Sect and Dharma Heaven Pavilion had fared slightly better than the Golden Temple, but they were also declining. If one disregarded Golden Core Realm combat power, whether their regular forces could defeat even the Great Sun Sword Sect remained uncertain.

The truly powerful forces were only the Thousand-Beast Sect, the Immortal Alliance, and the Infinite Star Palace. The Thousand-Beast Sect specialized in beast taming. Within its territory, there were more than a dozen divine beasts, each comparable to a first-generation star god.

However, divine beasts could not match humans in their capacity for evolution. As time passed, the Thousand-Beast Sect would be destined to fall behind the era’s progress. That left the Immortal Alliance, which was considerable in scale. Its alchemy techniques were unmatched in the world. Even the Infinite Star Palace fell slightly short compared to them in alchemy.

Yet the Immortal Alliance functioned as an alliance. Its eight great families did not share one unified will, and its internal cohesion remained questionable. Furthermore, the Immortal Alliance and the Thousand-Beast Sect were mortal enemies. They confronted each other constantly and could not spare much strength to compete for dominance.

As the two powers restrained and weakened each other, the Infinite Star Palace continued to expand. By now, it had grown so powerful that it stood in a tier of its own. One could see this from the fact that the Infinite Star Palace had been able to casually dispatch more than a dozen Sky Patrol Warships to blockade the Nine Cauldrons Sect.

Since many among the various sects' higher-ups heard about the hundred-year agreement among the Golden Core cultivators, some smaller sects grew optimistic about the Infinite Star Palace’s future. They hurried to pledge loyalty and joined its camp. The Xuanming Sect acted this way. Even the Great Sun Sword Sect and the First Yang Sect maintained extremely close ties with the Infinite Star Palace.

"The Nine Cauldrons Sect leans toward the Thousand-Beast Sect. Under these circumstances, if it wants to purchase truly top-tier pills from the Immortal Alliance, namely those high-grade treasured pills of the third generation or above, it will have to pay an astronomical price. It may not even find them for sale in the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s own Immortal-Proving Tower. We might only be able to purchase them through the Star Sea Sect." Yaoguang considered the matter carefully.

Perhaps the Nine Cauldrons Sect could recruit several alchemists from the Immortal Alliance?

With his current ability, locking onto the locations of the Immortal Alliance’s top alchemists would not be difficult. The only concern was that the Immortal Alliance might turn hostile, creating unnecessary trouble.

"This can be treated as a backup plan, but it is something to consider in the future rather than now," Yaoguang muttered.

As he was busy making plans, Bai Lu’s psychic thought came from outside. "Deputy Hall Master, Hall Master Xu has arrived. He brought Prince Chu Guang of the Taixuan Dynasty. They are at the reception hall outside the institute. The prince reportedly intends to place a large order with our Purple Firmament Institute."

"Understood." Yaoguang gathered his thoughts. A distinguished guest had arrived, and he could not neglect proper courtesy.

Although the Taixuan Dynasty was comparable to the Xuanming Sect in terms of scale, its wealth was concentrated within the royal clan. If they were willing to spend heavily, the order would be significant.

He left Sky Patrol Research Institute No. 3 and headed toward a building designated for receiving external visitors. Inside the reception hall, Xu Qiexing was speaking with a middle-aged man adorned in jewels and finery. Judging by their expressions, this man was the new client, Prince Chu Guang.

Several assistants and guards stood behind them. When Yaoguang’s gaze swept over a man dressed as a guard, he sensed something unusual.

This guard was rapidly transmitting information to someone outside. Although the psychic-thought messages were being transmitted through a refined artifact, the medium itself was the Void Psychic World.

With a single thought, Yaoguang saw through the Void Psychic World and traced the destination of the message. He quickly discovered that this so-called Taixuan Dynasty guard was actually a spy from the Great Sun Sword Sect, and their purpose on this trip was to abduct him!

The message he had just sent was triggered by seeing him in person and was being transmitted to other members of the delegation accompanying Chu Guang. After briefly investigating further, Yaoguang found out that, among the more than thirty members of the delegation, nine belonged to the Great Sun Sword Sect. That information left him somewhat speechless.

His psychic thought paused over those nine. Soon, he detected additional traces. Following the trail of the information they had transmitted, he quickly located sixteen great cultivators lying in ambush fifty kilometers away from the reception hall. In other words, the Great Sun Sword Sect had mobilized twenty-six great cultivators just to capture him.

Moreover, when he extended his perception slightly toward the East Sea, he discovered that the Vajra Sky Patrol Warship had already approached the Nine Heavens Domain and was now less than fifteen hundred kilometers away. It had apparently activated an information-blackout zone several hours earlier, and the Heavenly Palace Hall of the Nine Cauldrons Sect had not detected it.

Besides the Vajra, they also deployed three battle institutes... Yaoguang quickly saw through the entire deployment of the Great Sun Sword Sect.

When a Dharma Form cast its gaze upon someone, unless another Dharma Form cultivator concealed them, no secret could remain hidden.

Considering that the Great Sun Sword Sect had been stirring up trouble along the border months ago, likely to ensure the smooth execution of this very operation, it was easy to imagine how highly that sect valued him.

While thinking this, Yaoguang smiled and greeted Xu Qiexing, then began discussing the export of Purple Firmament flying swords with Chu Guang. At the same time, his psychic thought immediately contacted Tang Fenghua, Wang Feng, Lou Yuyu, Shen Qinglian, and Li Qingshan.

Within the Void Psychic World, figures manifested one after another.

"I will keep this brief..." Yaoguang quickly explained what he had discovered.

When they learned that the Great Sun Sword Sect had secretly deployed twenty-six great cultivators outside the research institute, Li Qingshan, Lou Yuyu, Tang Fenghua, and the others all darkened in expression.

"The Great Sun Sword Sect is audacious. They clearly have no respect for our Nine Cauldrons Sect," Tang Fenghua said coldly.

"Now is not the time for that. I have already discerned the enemy’s movements and intentions. The question is how we intend to handle them next," Yaoguang said.

"You can clearly see the entire situation. Do you have a plan?" Li Qingshan asked.

Yaoguang glanced at Tang Fenghua. "With you and the Sea Guardian Institute at my side, twenty-six great cultivators from the Great Sun Sword Sect are nothing worth mentioning. My suggestion is to play along and make them pay a heavy price!"

"Play along..." Li Qingshan muttered.

"Yes. I intercepted their communications through the Void Psychic World. The Vajra has received orders from the deputy hall master of the Warfare Hall. If necessary, the Vajra Sky Patrol Warship will advance to our gates and enter the core territory of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. At the same time, the Divine Wind Institute, Divine Wood Institute, and Divine Mountain Institute will coordinate with them. On our side, in addition to the Sea Guardian Institute, we also have the Divine Might Institute and the Azure Edge Institute," Yaoguang said as he looked toward Lou Yuyu and Shen Qinglian. "The most important thing is whether the battle institutes you command can hold off the three battle institutes of the Great Sun Sword Sect."

The two exchanged a glance and smiled confidently. "If you had asked us this question three years ago, we would only have said we would fight to the death. But now, the equipment of both the Divine Might Institute and the Azure Edge Institute has been fully upgraded. Although they are not equipped with Purple Firmament Type 16 flying swords, the advantages brought by the improved Purple Firmament Type 15 are more than enough to block the three battle institutes of the Great Sun Sword Sect. If we receive sufficient support from primordial psyche cultivators, we may even be able to wipe out all three."

"Then this becomes much simpler," Yaoguang said. "I will lure the Vajra deep into the territory of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. Let the battlefield be Longxiang City."

He smiled faintly. "After the expansion two years ago, the Sea Guardian Institute now has eighty-one great sword cultivators, seventy-two spell cultivators, and eighteen primordial psyche cultivators. Its combat strength is nothing like before. Longxiang City has also added numerous arrays due to the presence of the Purple Firmament Institute. With these arrays amplifying the cultivators' power, the Sea Guardian Institute’s battle power will rise exponentially. I am ninety-nine percent certain we can directly capture the Vajra warship!"

"Capture it?! The Vajra?!" Lou Yuyu’s eyes widened in disbelief. "That is a third-generation warship!"

"When the Sea Guardian Institute had not yet expanded, it already managed to capture the Spring Rain. Now that its scale has grown and with the arrays of Longxiang City at our disposal, I have no doubt about Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang’s claim," Li Qingshan said with a smile.

Unlike Lou Yuyu and Shen Qinglian, he was fully aware that Yaoguang was not only a master of array arts but also a Dharma Form cultivator. With a Dharma Form cultivator leading the formation and with arrays providing support, capturing a third-generation Sky Patrol Warship was entirely reasonable.

"It turns out that the Great Sun Sword Sect higher-ups are really good people. Knowing that our third-generation warship technology still has shortcomings, they are sending us one," he added.

"As expected, once we capture the Vajra, the Great Sun Sword Sect will likely become desperate. Sect Master Li, please make preparations for a potential full-scale war," Yaoguang said.

Li Qingshan nodded. "During this period, we have already expanded the Zhanlu and Chunjun Battle Institutes. I will personally lead them, together with the Sword-Wielding Institute, to the Nine Heavens Domain. Their Vajra warship is already advancing into our core territory. Are they trying to imitate the Infinite Star Palace and bring troops to our gates? They clearly do not take us seriously. If they want war, the Nine Cauldrons Sect will accompany them to the end."[1]

"Once we're done here, I will have someone pilot the Thousand-Beast Sect’s first-generation warship and the Spring Rain to reinforce you," Yaoguang added.

"Good!" Li Qingshan nodded.

The group then discussed tactics for a bit longer, planning how to cut off the enemy's retreat and attack them, aiming to inflict severe damage on the Great Sun Sword Sect. Ideally, they would seize this opportunity to drive the Great Sun Sword Sect out of the East Sea entirely.

Once the East Sea was reclaimed, the Nine Cauldrons Sect would gain more than a dozen intact spiritual power nodes and numerous less stable ones. At that time, the sect’s spirit stone production would increase by over forty percent compared to its current output.

1. Zhanlu and Chunjun are both names of swords from ancient China's top ten famous swords. ☜