"Unless the Xuanming Sect truly dares to launch an all-out war against the Nine Cauldrons Sect and send their great cultivators to battle, the Posuo Island region is essentially secured." Yaoguang smiled faintly.

Thirty-two Xuanming Sect's cultivators fought against twenty from the Nine Cauldrons Sect, and it still ended in a clean sweep. Once the news made its way back to the Xuanming Sect, their morale would be crushed on the spot.

Moreover, as more and more cultivators were equipped with the modified Purple Firmament Type 12 and grew increasingly familiar with its performance, the Xuanming Sect’s high-tier sword cultivators would no longer deserve to be called sword cultivators at all. They would be nothing more than walking military merit badges.

Every Nine Cauldrons Sect sword cultivator would be howling as they patrolled the skies above the Eastern Sea, searching for and sniping any enemy cultivator they encountered. Yaoguang glanced at the workbench. A strand of psychic thought swiftly activated one of the functional panels, and a virtual projection was immediately cast into the air.

It was a projection of information coming from the Void Psychic World. Displayed on it was news that cultivators from the Great Sun Sword Sect had gathered at Haige Island.

More than fifty cultivators at the Primordial Psyche Realm, over two hundred great sword cultivators, and more than a hundred spell cultivators had gathered there. In addition, there were over ten thousand high-tier cultivators from various professions providing auxiliary support.

The numbers alone were not the key issue. The real concern lay in their equipment. Especially among the great sword cultivators responsible for breaking through defenses and tearing open battle lines. Every single one of them was equipped with at least second-generation treasured artifacts, and at least a third possessed third-generation treasured artifacts. To make things worse, more than twenty percent of those treasured artifacts were high-grade.

The gap between the Nine Cauldrons Sect and the Great Sun Sword Sect in treasured artifact equipment was no smaller than the current gap between the Nine Cauldrons Sect and the Xuanming Sect at the spirit artifact level.

Relying on its advantage in spirit artifacts, the Nine Cauldrons Sect had just crushed the Xuanming Sect, killing thirty-two enemies without any losses. If they were to go to war with the Great Sun Sword Sect... It might not end like that, but the result of the most recent clash already spoke volumes: they had lost forty cultivators while inflicting only seven casualties.

Yaoguang studied the information carefully, making sure he did not misjudge the situation. Strength at the spirit artifact level was not true strength. Whoever dominated the treasured artifact market would dominate the entire sword cultivator system. After flipping through the feed for a moment, his gaze settled on a particular report.

"The Great Sun Sword Sect’s Warfare Hall Master, Jiang Senfeng, stated that if war broke out between the Great Sun Sword Sect and the Nine Cauldrons Sect, the Great Sun Sword Sect was confident it could annihilate all of the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s Foundation Building sword cultivators within fifteen days."

A follow-up line had been added. The reason it would take fifteen days was simple. The Nine Cauldrons Sect was vast, and flying one full circuit around it would already require that much time.

Below the report, the discussion had naturally exploded. Members of the Nine Cauldrons Sect and the Great Sun Sword Sect argued back and forth, while forces such as the First Yang Sect, the Star Sea Sect, and the Brahma Divine Kingdom watched with relish, eager for chaos.

Yaoguang briefly glanced at the discussion before withdrawing his attention. "Whether the Great Sun Sword Sect will be intimidated by the battle record from the clash between the Nine Cauldrons Sect and the Xuanming Sect, causing this drill to end with much sound and little substance... We’ll know soon enough."

In any case, with the record of that sweeping victory on the books, there would be no shortage of orders for the external sale of his spirit artifacts.

"I need to finalize the export version of the Purple Firmament Type 12 as soon as possible. And the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 also needs an external sales version. After all, it was the modified model that achieved this battle record, and that’s what everyone will be watching," Yaoguang said to himself.

With that thought, Yaoguang closed the endlessly chattering feed from the Void Psychic World and returned to his work at the bench.

***

While Yaoguang continued refining flying swords, a high-level meeting was being held at the main branch in the Nine Heavens City.

Domain Lord You Qianshan of the Nine Heavens Domain, the side branch's Sect Master Zhao Siliang, Zhao He of the Warfare Hall, along with more than a dozen deputy domain lords and deputy sect masters, had gathered to discuss how to respond to the Great Sun Sword Sect’s request for another drill.

Although it was officially only a drill, in this world, it was far from rare for drills to turn into full-scale invasions abruptly. Especially since the drill location, Haige Island, lay less than ten thousand kilometers from the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s mainland territory. The Nine Cauldrons Sect had no choice but to remain vigilant.

"On the Great Sun Sword Sect front, we’ve already set up arrays on Fangyuan Island, Wanzhang Island, and Penghai Island," Zhao He reported. "These include not only defensive arrays but also offensive ones. Fangyuan Island, in particular, is protected by the level 6 Nine Heavens Ocean Array that we built at great expense. Elder Canghai from the main sect is personally stationed there. With the power of the array, he can suppress all psychic thoughts within fifteen thousand kilometers. The moment the Great Sun Sword Sect draws near, we’ll detect it immediately."

"The level 5 Heaven-and-Earth Infinite Array on Wanzhang Island has also been completed. With this array, spell cultivators can project their spells across five thousand kilometers," added another deputy hall master from the Warfare Hall who oversaw array arts.

"What about Penghai Island? Has the level 6 Heaven-and-Earth Infinite Array not been completed yet?" You Qianshan asked.

"The earth vein layout of Penghai Island, as well as the movement of the stars, simply isn’t suitable for deploying that array," the deputy hall master replied. "Unless we can relocate the three vassal worlds connected to it, if we rely only on external force to reshape the terrain and rebuild the array environment, the process will likely take another ten years."

"Another ten years!?" Zhao Siliang frowned. "Over the past thirty-plus years, we’ve invested no less than 600 thousand spirit stones into Penghai Island. Ten years ago, we were told it would be finished in ten years. Now it’s still another ten?"

"The Great Sun Sword Sect’s interference with Penghai Island has been too severe," the deputy hall master said with a wry smile. "Especially over the past decade. Ever since their sixth Warship successfully launched, their sword cultivators have flown over Penghai Island more than a hundred times. Each pass disrupted the earth veins."

That explanation left You Qianshan with little to say. After a pause, he said, "Then transfer the manpower from the Posuo Island front as soon as possible. We must concentrate all our strength to deal with the threat from the Great Sun Sword Sect."

Zhao Siliang nodded. Even if he was unwilling to admit it, that was the reality. Suddenly, Zhao He seemed to receive a message. He froze briefly, then burst into laughter even in front of the entire assembly. "Good! Excellent! Beautifully done! I’ll personally request commendations for those warriors!"

As everyone’s attention turned to him, he rose to his feet without hesitation, his voice filled with excitement. "Just now, Hall Master Bai Lu sent word. She and twenty outstanding disciples encountered eight elite squads of the Xuanming Sect led by Ma Ke. Relying on the overwhelming performance of the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 flying swords, they achieved a shocking victory. At the cost of only a few light injuries, they wiped out all thirty-two elite Xuanming Sect sword cultivators under Ma Ke’s command!"

"How many!? Thirty-two to zero!?" You Qianshan exclaimed in disbelief.

"Ever since the Xuanming Sect suffered setbacks around Posuo Island a few months ago, they’ve been desperate to restore morale. They’ve spared no expense in equipping their disciples with high-grade spirit artifacts, and many of them were even using second-generation high-grade spirit artifacts. And under those conditions, they still suffered a result like this!?"

"I know Ma Ke. Even if he didn’t dare enter the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning layer, he was already someone who could easily withstand Blazing Solar Lightning. At most, he was only a little weaker than Bai Lu. How was he crushed to this extent by her!?" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The other deputy domain lords and hall masters spoke up one after another, their voices filled with shock.

"Is the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 really that powerful!?" Zhao Siliang was the first to grasp the crux of the issue, though astonishment still showed on his face. "T-This has already gone beyond the level of an ordinary third-generation flying sword, hasn’t it?"

"Based on the intelligence and data Bai Lu sent back, as long as our side’s primordial psyche great cultivator holds the upper hand, the performance of the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 far surpasses that of standard third-generation models. Even without primordial psyche support, its raw metrics are still solidly at the third-generation level," Zhao He said with a broad smile. "Perhaps the improved Purple Firmament Type 12 could be considered a three-and-a-half-generation flying sword?"

He seemed to receive another message and said rapidly, "Bai Lu has already sent over a simulated reconstruction of the battle through psychic thought."

He operated the console, and a streak of light was quickly projected onto the platform at the center of the meeting room. The dozen or so people present, each of whom could at the very least be considered star-lord-tier figures, released their psychic will, psychic consciousness, and psychic thought in unison, perceiving the information within.

After personally experiencing the battle from Bai Lu’s perspective, whether it was Zhao Siliang as the side branch's sect master, You Qianshan as the domain lord, or the other deputy hall masters, all of them cried out in excitement. "Beautiful!"

"So battles could be fought like this!?"

"Hahaha, a great victory! What a great victory! This was the greatest triumph our Nine Cauldrons Sect had achieved over the Xuanming Sect since the conflict over Posuo Island began!" Joyful voices echoed continuously through the meeting room.

Even though those engaged in the battle were only sword cultivators still at the qi refinement phase rather than Foundation Building great cultivators, they still shared in the elation of victory as if they themselves had been there.

"They won far too beautifully. When they return, I’ll personally receive them and grant rewards!" Zhao Siliang declared firmly in his role as the side branch's sect master.

"They truly deserved huge rewards, and this should be promoted as a model case to inspire confidence among the disciples." You Qianshan immediately nodded in agreement.

And when he mentioned promotion, Zhao Siliang keenly caught the deeper implication. "Promotion! We must promote this heavily. And this news must be delivered to the main branch as quickly as possible, even directly reported to Sect Master Li!"

As he spoke, Zhao Siliang drew in a deep breath. "If we handle news about this victory properly, the crisis brought about by the Great Sun Sword Sect’s drill might be resolved with surprising ease."

His words quickly brought realization to the others. The Great Sun Sword Sect had staged this drill precisely to tie down the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s strength, creating an opportunity for the Xuanming Sect and the Nine Cauldrons Sect to clash head-on, ideally grinding down the elite high-tier sword cultivators on both sides until a gap formed.

But once this battle record spread, the Great Sun Sword Sect would soon realize that the Xuanming Sect’s momentum had already collapsed. Unless it dared to tear away all pretenses and directly deploy great cultivators against the Nine Cauldrons Sect, sending high-tier sword cultivators into the fray would only lead to one outcome: All who were sent in would die.

And before the Xuanming Sect fully secured support from the Infinite Star Palace, it simply lacked the courage to let its great cultivators act against the Nine Cauldrons Sect. This confrontation had effectively ended, with the Nine Cauldrons Sect emerging victorious. Under such circumstances, the Great Sun Sword Sect’s drill no longer held any real meaning.

"For the Purple Firmament Institute's chief to be able to refine flying swords of this caliber... Truly remarkable. This time, our Nine Heavens Domain will likely make quite a splash within the sect," You Qianshan said with a smile.

Zhao Siliang nodded in agreement. "If we truly manage to weather this hidden crisis brought by the Great Sun Sword Sect unscathed, then Chief Yaoguang should receive the greatest merit."

As they spoke, they wasted no time and swiftly reported the developments to the higher-ups.