Chapter 706: Zhang Yu Emerges, Funeral

Zhang Yu mused to himself, "Right now, the greatest help and support I can offer my two teachers is probably to continue raising the level of my immortal sect techniques, master stronger spatial arts, and produce spatial treasures more advantageous to the war situation."

In order to focus on cultivation and raise the level of "Three Realms Ten Directions Ultimate Void Barrier" as quickly as possible, aside from exchanging spiritual roots with Bai Zhenzhen every few days to boost cultivation efficiency, Zhang Yu had already decided to ignore all worldly matters and pour all his mind and energy into the cultivation of immortal sect techniques.

To that end, he even temporarily severed his connection to the spirit realm, only letting Yu Xinghan and Bei Wufeng keep an eye on news from all sides, and only reporting to him when major news emerged.

And so... Zhang Yu threw himself wholeheartedly into his cultivation, continuously consuming the various resources sent from the research institute, step by step advancing his cultivation base.

And time flowed on without cease in this process.

One day, two days, three days...

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed!

With a breath of turbid qi expelled from his body, Zhang Yu’s gaze swept over the feather script before him, looking at the data changes on it.

Because he had not practiced any body-tempering techniques this entire month, Zhang Yu’s physical strength remained at level 37.49.

However, his Dao Heart and mana had both been continuously improving due to the passive circulation of his mental cultivation method.

Although his Dao Heart had been burned several times earlier due to designing the Taixu Yuncang using the Heavenly Works, it had now reached level 36 (85.36%), allowing Zhang Yu to control every inch of flesh and every bit of power inside and outside his body with perfect ease.

Meanwhile, his mana, through unceasing day-and-night improvement, had been boosted to 38,959 units, surging like a mighty river through his body without rest.

Of course, these basic stats were only the passive gains from Zhang Yu’s cultivation; his biggest harvest over the past month was that he had raised "Three Realms Ten Directions Ultimate Void Barrier" to level 40.

Feeling the various insights, knowledge, and techniques flowing through his mind from the level-40 immortal sect technique, Zhang Yu had an illusion—an illusion that he had already cultivated this immortal sect technique for a hundred years and cycled it billions of times.

"If I had been born in ancient times and had no feather script to assist me, it would probably take a hundred years just to push this technique to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage."

Zhang Yu pressed his palms together, then pulled them apart, and a spatial barrier rose up between his hands.

At this moment, Zhang Yu could clearly sense that as long as he was willing to inject his mana into it, he could keep expanding this spatial barrier.

"This must be the technical foundation that enables the formation of the Sky Dome."

And as he looked at the spatial barrier he had deployed before him, Zhang Yu’s mind recalled the Sky Dome he had broken through a month ago, created by an immortal descendant.

He compared the differences between the two and quickly reached a conclusion: "The fourth and fifth layers of the Sky Dome are even more powerful than my spatial barrier—not only because the other side has stronger techniques, but also because the Sky Dome contains the power of formations."

With all kinds of knowledge and data circulating in his mind, Zhang Yu silently calculated: "The cultivator who set up the fourth and fifth layers of the Sky Dome not only mastered 'Three Realms Ten Directions Ultimate Void Barrier' above level 40, but was also a formation grandmaster, using formations to realize this Sky Dome..."

After a month in seclusion, Zhang Yu now understood the might of the fourth and fifth layers of the Sky Dome even better.

However, although his technique in "Three Realms Ten Directions Ultimate Void Barrier" had not yet surpassed the opponent’s, by combining the two techniques "Kunlun in the Palm" and "Three Realms Ten Directions Ultimate Void Barrier," he had gradually conceived more ideas for breaking through spatial barriers like the fourth and fifth layers of the Sky Dome.

Zhang Yu recalled the external situation that Yu Xinghan and Bei Wufeng had reported to him a few days ago, and suppressed his intention to break out of seclusion immediately.

"Right now, even if I come out of seclusion, it’s useless."

"I need to at least design a product—one that can be effective in the current situation..."

As the Heavenly Works activated, Zhang Yu felt as if a bang resounded in his mind, as if a flame was burning fiercely.

A treasure design gradually emerged in Zhang Yu’s mind.

"It needs to be more widespread... able to draw on the power of more people..."

"Reduce costs."

"Must continue to reduce costs so that more people can use it..."

A few days later.

In the laboratory, Bei Wufeng, Jin Jun, and Yan Qianji all seemed somewhat distracted, occasionally using their eye-skeletons to browse news in the spirit realm, then revealing a trace of worry in their eyes.

With the drastic changes in the war situation, every day’s various reports and news were intensely tugging at their hearts.

Even some of the laboratory’s worktops had accumulated a layer of fine dust, as if they had been unused for a while; everyone in the lab had lost their will to work.

Just then, as the laboratory door opened, Zhang Yu’s figure appeared before everyone’s eyes.

"True Lord." Jin Jun instinctively straightened his body, looking at Zhang Yu in surprise. "Why are you here?"

Ever since the fourth and fifth layers’ Spirit Severing battle had begun, Zhang Yu had entered complete seclusion.

From then on, Jin Jun never saw the other person again, only witnessing countless resources delivered into his quiet chamber, where he devoured all kinds of immortal cultivation resources like a bottomless abyss.

Zhang Yu nodded slightly to everyone and looked at the Celestial Sun Radiance Divine and the twelve Taihao Sacred Law Flying Swords on the experimental platform.

These two military-grade artifacts, after being refined by several Nascent Soul cultivators from the Artifact Refining Department and with the assistance of Bei Wufeng and others, had reached the peak level 40 Nascent Soul stage.

A flash of eye socket armor crossed Zhang Yu’s gaze, and the two military-grade artifacts rose up before being loaded into his Taixu Cloud Storage.

At the same time, he had already received various data, precautions, and user manuals regarding these two level-40 artifacts.

The level-40 Celestial Sun Radiance Divine could turn a thousand-square-li area into scorched earth. Not only did it have the power to boil mountains and burn seas, but it could also refine vast amounts of matter into magical power.

The level-40 Taihao Sacred Law Flying Swords could deploy a sword formation that radiated a thousand li, freely transmitting power within the formation, cutting through the spirit realm, and detecting enemies.

It could be said that these two level-40 artifacts were able to compensate for many of Zhang Yu’s deficiencies in accumulated power after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.

As for the Celestial Sun Radiance Divine that Magnetic Pole Divine Lord used to send him back, that was the Magnetic Pole Divine Lord’s own Celestial Sun Radiance Divine. After sending him off, it naturally returned to the battlefield. Zhang Yu had come to the laboratory after emerging from seclusion precisely to retrieve his own artifacts.

Immediately after, Zhang Yu looked at another piece of eye socket armor on the experimental platform and said, "Has the level-40 Netherworld Demon Eye arrived? Help me install it."

Zhang Yu had used the Netherworld Demon Eye during his Foundation Establishment stage—an eye socket armor that could see through soul cultivators, freeze dark spirits, and specialize in spirit realm offense and defense.

However, after breaking through to the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages in succession, Zhang Yu had not had time to replace it with a more suitable eye socket armor, so he had been temporarily wearing a basic Nascent Soul-level eye socket armor.

Now, with the new Netherworld Demon Eye that the Ten Thousand Methods University had crafted for him, the laboratory in Zhang Yu’s vision instantly became densely packed, filled everywhere with soul cultivators attached to various devices and the spirit realm network, along with their names, information, origins, and levels...

He could even see through the distribution of spirit realm signals, penetrating the obstruction of walls, observing the state of other rooms next door, seeing the spiritual realm signals emitted by cultivators in those rooms, and perceiving their positions and movement trajectories...

He could also see the continuous emission and reception of spirit realm signals from Bei Wufeng, Yan Qianji, Jin Jun, and others right before him.

An unprecedented sense of fluency and control welled up in Zhang Yu’s heart, greatly enhancing his visual and observational abilities.

After collecting all three level-40 artifacts in succession, Zhang Yu turned around and was about to leave.

Just then, Yan Qianji couldn’t help but ask, "True Lord, are you going back into seclusion again?"

Looking at Zhang Yu, who had turned around, Yan Qianji fiercely scolded in his mind and thoughts: "After consuming a massive amount of resources, and the principal transferring various permissions within the campus to you, facing the current situation, aren’t you going to do anything? Are you just going to keep secluding yourself, always improving your cultivation?"

Though a surge of anger filled his mind, Yan Qianji still maintained a certain restraint on the surface, calmly saying, "I want to ask, True Lord, how long do you plan to stay in seclusion?"

Jin Jun immediately said, "Yan Qianji, what nonsense are you asking? The True Lord naturally has his own plans—how could it be your place to question him?"

Yan Qianji frowned and thought angrily: "Did I say something wrong? He’s been in seclusion for so long—what contributions has he made? How does he pass the research institute’s monthly assessments and performance reviews?"

But Yan Qianji still didn’t speak his mind, only muttering softly, "Everyone outside is asking—are you two still going to pretend not to know?"

Bei Wufeng sighed inwardly, thinking: "Even if it’s true, you can’t just say it out loud."

Yan Qianji looked at Zhang Yu and said, "True Lord Candle Yi, if you’re still planning to go back into seclusion, I’m afraid I can’t go along with that anymore. I don’t want to keep wasting my time here."

With that, he unfastened his uniform, already intending to leave the laboratory.

Zhang Yu, however, paid no attention to Yan Qianji’s attitude and calmly said, "My seclusion is over."

"I plan to have a discussion with many of the senior members of the campus next."

"Do you know if they have any meetings or gathering places recently?"

Yan Qianji, seeing Zhang Yu’s calm, unfazed demeanor, was momentarily stunned inside, then said, "Today is the funeral of True Lord Heavenly Execution. Most of the Nascent Soul cultivators on campus should be attending."

As he watched Zhang Yu’s form turn and swiftly float out of the laboratory, Yan Qianji thought to himself: "He’s planning to go to True Lord Heavenly Execution’s funeral? What is he going to do?"

Just then, Jin Jun took off his uniform and quickly followed.

Bei Wufeng said, "Jin Jun, what are you doing? It’s still work hours."

Jin Jun turned back and said, "Senior brother, what’s the point of still working? At a time like this, gathering information from all sides is the most important thing."

"I have a feeling that something big might happen when the True Lord goes over there this time."

With that, he turned to look at assistants like Zi Yunzhen, Su Yunni, Liu Xiangqiao, and said, "Alright, stop pretending to work hard."

"There’s not that much work to do in our lab anyway—let’s all go see what the True Lord is really up to."