Chapter 496 - 221: All Parties Prepare: Entering Celestial Star Island
Chapter 496: Chapter 221: All Parties Prepare: Entering Celestial Star Island
The main issue was that exhaustion made it easy to make a mistake, which would ruin the Talisman.
So, even if they wanted to pull an all-nighter, it wasn’t a problem willpower alone could solve.
"It’s just a matter of practice."
Yu Zhenyang smiled and waved a hand dismissively. "We brought plenty of Spiritual Materials with us, which saves a lot of time."
"Besides, we’ve been to plenty of Relics before. If we didn’t have a few tricks up our sleeve, we would’ve been eaten alive long ago."
"Let’s go inside to talk. I’ll show you our Array Plates."
Stepping into the pavilion to the front right, Xiao Chen saw as many as twenty-four Portable Array Plates laid out separately on the floor.
Ma Wenbo was currently hunched over a table to the left, engrossed in Talisman Making.
He paid no mind to the sound of footsteps and whirring mechanisms around him.
Xiao Chen followed the noise and saw Qiu Fanghui standing amidst four dismantled Profound Iron Puppets, frowning as if pondering something.
A pile of materials lay on the floor, including five complete pairs of Profound Iron arms.
One of the advantages of the Mechanical Puppet Technique was the ability to quickly repair damaged puppets by swapping out parts, allowing them to rapidly return to fighting strength.
You could also install different mechanisms to achieve a variety of effects.
Of course, this was also a disadvantage, as these spare parts required no small amount of resources to create.
The more you prepared, the higher the extra cost.
Striking the right balance had always been a major challenge.
’Well now,’ Xiao Chen had originally thought this temporary team’s overall strength might be lacking.
’But now they look quite competent. Seems there’s more to them than meets the eye.’
"Eldest Brother, bad news!"
Cao Mingjie came running over in a panic. "I heard the patriarchs of the Eight Great Families are all making a move! They’re planning to enter the new Relic to hunt for treasure."
"That’s eight more factions joining the fray! What are we going to do?"
...
Xiao Chen retracted his previous thought.
Yu Zhenyang was taken aback but remained relatively composed. "Third Junior Brother, calm down. Tell us what you know, nice and slow."
"Also, did you go ask Li for information like I told you to?"
Cao Mingjie immediately pulled out a letter. "I did. This is the intel Li gave me."
"On my way back, I heard that the talks between the Celestial Sound Sect and the Yin Corpse Sect fell through, so I thought we wouldn’t have to worry about a blockade."
"But I didn’t expect that the Eight Great Families had apparently gotten wind of it ahead of time."
"Not only are they seizing this chance to enter the Relic, they’re even recruiting people over in the West Market right now."
"If you join their teams, they hand out Talismans and Elixirs right away, and they’ll even give you Spirit Stones when you get back."
"I only watched for a moment, and I already saw several fellow Golden Core Cultivators join them."
To be fair, if the Eight Great Families weren’t just going themselves but were also recruiting Loose Cultivators, it would definitely lead to a lot more people inside the Relic.
’But,’ Xiao Chen thought, ’that doesn’t really pose a threat to me.’
He was more concerned about the Cultivators from the major powers.
Yu Zhenyang’s expression immediately hardened at the news, but he didn’t panic.
Instead, he opened the letter and read it. His expression immediately relaxed. "Good. The overall situation is actually quite favorable."
Seeing this, Cao Mingjie immediately pressed him. "Eldest Brother, what’s the good news from Li? Tell me, quick!"
Yu Zhenyang summarized, "The Yin Corpse Sect took all those astrological materials. That’s a good thing."
"If no one has them, then we’re not at a disadvantage."
"Also, I heard a Walking Elder from the Five Thunders Temple is coming, but that doesn’t really matter."
Huh?
Xiao Chen felt he must have misheard. "Wait a second, Yu. The person coming from the Five Thunders Temple is a *Walking Elder*?"
Within the Five Thunders Temple, the position of Walking Elder was generally responsible for external Magical Combat.
Simply put, they were the best fighter of their generation.
"Huh?"
Yu Zhenyang was taken aback by the question. He glanced down at the letter. "It does say Walking Elder. But he’s coming alone, so it has nothing to do with us."
"A Cultivator from a Major Sect like that will definitely head for the core of the Relic to hunt for treasure. We just need to stay out of their way."
Cao Mingjie chimed in as well, "Right, right! Golden Light Taoist, we don’t need to worry about that."
"These Ancient Ruins are always built with lots of side halls and annexes. We’ll just go to those places and scavenge for what’s left."
The three members of the Three Immortals Sect had always just scraped by on the outskirts of Relics. From the very beginning, they never planned to compete for the core area.
So their focus was on the total number of participants and the attitudes of the major powers.
The arrival of a Cultivator from a Major Sect, on the other hand, didn’t concern them much.
Top-tier Cultivators and low-tier Cultivators weren’t in competition with each other.
...
For the next three days, they all completed their own preparations.
Then they took two days to rest and fully restore their Essence, Qi, and Spirit.
On the morning of the tenth day of the seventh month, they traveled together via Sword Control to the outskirts of the new Relic.
They didn’t bring the Spirit Ship because they wouldn’t have anyone to spare for guard duty.
Many Loose Cultivators who had arrived early had already taken out wooden planks and other items from their Storage Rings to fashion temporary rafts on the sea’s surface.
This was mainly to conserve their True Essence.
Unlike the Loose Cultivators, both the Yin Corpse Sect and the Celestial Sound Sect had brought an enormous Spirit Ship, which were anchored far out in the periphery.
The two Spirit Ships, however, were anchored hundreds of miles apart, one to the left and one to the right, seeming to confirm the rumors of their discord.
"It’s starting, it’s starting!"
At 9 p.m., a wave of surprised shouts suddenly erupted.
As the constellations shifted in the sky, the dense fog that had lingered for months began to recede.