Chapter 512: Solar Mirror-Surface Sword-Type Drone Swarm

"That's how it is."

Nanyun Qi asked with some curiosity, "Are you planning to go to the Mofa City? Your clearance should allow it. The environment there is very suitable for your Sword Dao."

"Yun Gong Zhenjun, I don't have such plans at the moment."

Jiang Ding shook his head.

Mofa City was far too distant from Blue Glow Star; even with the aid of various natural wormholes, a Jin Dan cultivator's round trip would take at least a hundred years.

For him, whose lifespan was only six hundred years, that was far too extravagant.

Besides, this Yun Gong Zhenjun seemed extremely unreliable — nothing like the steadiness and shrewdness of Dinghai Zhenjun or Luling Zhenjun. She acted on every whim that popped into her head, completely disregarding practical circumstances.

It was probably because she had devoted herself to warship construction and scholarship, rarely interacting with people.

"Alright then."

Nanyun Qi felt a little regretful, though she herself didn't know what she was regretting. In an instant she forgot about it: "Let's continue learning about this Fourth-Order Magnetic Cloud Star-Splitting Cannon."

She pointed at the giant cannon on the Chaori — over a thousand meters long, with a barrel diameter of more than a hundred meters, weighing a hundred and twenty thousand tons.

"This cannon is forged entirely from Fourth-Order Electromagnetic Spirit Gold. Thirty-seven Nascent Soul-stage colleagues and I personally took action, and with the aid of the sect's Fifth-Order Artifact Refining Furnace, it took twenty-eight years and nine months to complete."

"The barrel is inscribed with the Myriad Magnet Thunder Cloud Acceleration Array. Within the eleven-hundred-meter-long barrel, seventy-two electromagnetic accelerators are installed. After seventy-two accelerations, the electromagnetic shell possesses the power to slay Nascent Soul-stage beings."

"Any associations?"

Nanyun Qi asked.

This was the sect's Dao Child.

Not a soldier who grabs a weapon and charges off to fight.

When seniors encountered such a one, most would do their best to teach and guide, letting them understand the why and the how — at the very least, they had to grasp the principles and know the full story.

Yu Qianzi witnessed this scene and felt a touch of envy in his heart.

No matter where the Eastern Extreme Demon Sect's Sun Sword Child went, it seemed he could ask any of their seniors for guidance on his difficulties, and the other party would be very enthusiastic, with deep mutual trust between them.

This was unimaginable among Qingmu Xianzong.

Family factions, master-disciple factions, moon lineages, law lineages…

All sorts of factions divided people into fine categories, separating them from one another. Those not of the same lineage — even those sharing the same master — had to be wary of each other. Even if a senior gave guidance, outwardly they would be respectful and overflowing with gratitude, but inwardly they would still be on guard.

Without such vigilance, one would long since have become some unknown pile of dry bones; no matter how great the talent, it would be useless.

"It's somewhat similar to the Tian Gang Di Sha artifact refinement method."

Jiang Ding pondered for a moment and said, "Before twelve Earth Sha prohibitions, it's a lower-grade magic treasure; before thirty-six Earth Sha prohibitions, it's a middle-grade magic treasure; from thirty-six to seventy-two Earth Sha prohibitions, it's an upper-grade magic treasure. The further one goes, the harder refining the Earth Sha prohibitions becomes, increasing exponentially."

"Many Jin Dan-level forces, after inheriting a single upper-grade magic treasure for several thousand years, have only managed to refine it to sixty-one or sixty-two Earth Sha prohibitions. Every step forward is extremely difficult."

"An upper-grade magic treasure, once its Earth Sha prohibitions are refined to seventy-two, will face an artifact heavenly tribulation. After surviving it, the seventy-two Earth Sha prohibitions will merge into a single Tian Gang prohibition…"

Jiang Ding's words paused.

The Magnetic Cloud Star-Splitting main cannon, seventy-two electromagnetic accelerators, and the Great Perfection of Earth Sha — also seventy-two Earth Sha prohibitions.

This was perhaps no coincidence.

"You're thinking along the right lines."

Nanyun Qi nodded approvingly: "The current Magnetic Cloud Star-Splitting Cannon cannot yet be called a Nascent Soul treasure. It needs to be refined by you, nurtured, and then survive an artifact heavenly tribulation. Only then will the seventy-two electromagnetic accelerators merge into one and truly become a Fourth-Order heavy cannon."

"After that, you'll still need to smelt it with dan fire, continuously invest Fourth-Order Electromagnetic Spirit Gold and various other heavenly materials and earthly treasures for refinement, and occasionally send it back to the factory for upgrades, letting it grow continuously…"

"Mm, it consumes a great deal of time and spirit stones."

She concluded at last.

"This copy of the 'Fourth-Order Heavy Cannon Maintenance Manual' has my annotations. Read it carefully when you go back. If there's anything you don't understand, send me a message and I'll reply when I have time."

A Fourth-Order Nascent Soul treasure-grade heavy cannon — not only is its power immense and its usage tier requirement high, even its daily maintenance and upgrades are a massive expense, with all sorts of intricacies. It relies on a powerful immortal-path industrial foundation… it's not something one can simply use after a single stroke of fortune.

"Thank you, Yun Gong Zhenjun!"

Jiang Ding solemnly accepted the transmitted document.

"The last one."

"Dai Sen Mirror-Surface Sword-Type Drones."

A hint of excitement appeared on Nanyun Qi's face: "This is actually the main reason I postponed building the Soul Transformation-grade fortress and came here."

With a casual wave of her hand, the deck at the Chaori's bow slowly slid backward, and drones flew out one after another, in an endless stream — within lay a vast spatial array.

Jiang Ding focused his gaze on one of the drones.

The drone was over a hundred meters long and more than twenty meters wide, wingless, thick at one end and thin at the other. From the thick end it tapered gradually, until finally contracting into a sharp point.

The drone's body was as smooth as a mirror, without a single wrinkle.

When sunlight shone down, it was naturally gathered by the mirror surface of the hull. Each drone could easily collect all the sunlight within a radius of a thousand meters, leaving nothing behind, and then reflect it all outward.

Taken as a whole, it looked like a mirror-surfaced giant sword over a hundred meters long and more than twenty meters wide!

One after another, a total of eight hundred and twenty-nine sword-type mirror drones spewed exhaust from their tails as they flew through the sky, maneuvering flexibly up, down, left, and right. Each sword-type drone emanated a clear Third-Order upper-grade magic treasure aura.

They were still some distance short of the final target of one thousand and twenty-four drones.

"We're still short by a bit."

"Actually, this concept you and Zhang Junsheng came up with is quite excellent."

Nanyun Qi rubbed her hands together excitedly: "Miniaturizing the technology of the sect's three-dimensional defense grand array and the Dai Sen Solar Mirror-Surface Fortress for use in conventional legion combat — once it takes shape, it will surely bring a revolution to the sect's way of fighting, far surpassing the military formation innovation led by the Xu Clan's Soul Transformation back in the day."

"It's just a pity…"

"It's too expensive."

She sighed again: "It requires vast amounts of Soul Transformation-stage materials, not to mention strategic-level specialties like Mercury-Silver Spirit Gold. Unless we discover a world rich in Mercury-Silver Spirit Gold reserves, it can't be rolled out to the army."

"There are also huge problems with control. Ordinary cultivators simply cannot withstand processing information from so many drones while maneuvering them flexibly."

One after another, the sword-type drones flew into the sky, spaced exactly a thousand meters apart, covering an area of dozens of kilometers without the slightest deviation. The sunlight was completely absorbed by them, and each drone made fine adjustments to its body.

In an instant, the sky darkened and night descended.

Everyone's hearts jolted, and they looked up.

Under the bright day, though it was clearly noon, the surroundings had plunged into pure darkness, not a single ray of light shining down, as if they had come to a deep, endless polar night.

They forced out their divine sense, passing through the unobstructed swarm of sword-shaped mirror drones.

They saw that within a radius of dozens of kilometers, countless sword-shaped mirror drones had arranged themselves in the sky into a concave arc whose edges could not be seen at a glance.

The sun's rays struck them and were reflected away in their entirety!

Countless sunbeams converged upon a single point, forming a dazzlingly blinding orb of light that illuminated everything above and below; a terrifying, extreme heat swept forth, instantly dissolving all the formless, intangible divine sense and every probe around it.

Darkness filled everyone's eyes, their souls racked with searing pain, and they could no longer see anything.

After a long while, they opened their eyes once more; the light had dispersed.

Looking again toward the horizon, they saw a house-sized spatial black hole had appeared in the sky, its edges uneven as if melted, healing at an incomparably slow pace.

Two

(End of this chapter)