The Modern Martial Immortal

At the Sky Patrol Research Institute No. 3 in the Big Dipper Domain, Director Fang Jinxue, along with multiple array casters and artifact refinement experts transferred in from several other research institutes, had been assembled. After signing a series of strict NDAs, they were led to an air dock completely enveloped by arrays. As they recalled the agreements they had signed not long ago, disbelief still filled every face.

”Is it really a second-generation Sky Patrol Warship?”

”Capturing a second-generation Sky Patrol Warship?! That sounds like something right out of a fantasy! How did the sect even manage this?”

”The first-generation Sky Patrol Warship focused on combat amplification. The second generation strengthened its defenses, while the third generation shifted its emphasis toward psychic-thought amplification and battlefield intelligence support, gaining the ability to generate an information-blackout zone similar to that of a Dharma Form cultivator. In other words, purely in terms of defense, a second-generation Sky Patrol Warship wasn’t much weaker than a third-generation one. To capture a second-generation ship, you’d need at least four elite battle institutes working together, and even then, only if the enemy neither called for reinforcements nor fled, but stubbornly fought to the death. Only then would there be even a slim chance...”

”This isn’t some kind of joke, right? I still have several major problems waiting to be tackled.”

The array masters and artifact refinement masters gathered together, talking all at once. Even after signing the agreements, they still found it impossible to believe.

Seeing this, Fang Jinxue couldn’t help but speak up. ”Alright. Since the higher-ups told us to wait here, they wouldn’t do so without reason. Let’s be patient.”

His words calmed everyone slightly, though the discussions continued unabated, keeping the atmosphere lively. Just then, a particularly perceptive primordial psyche cultivator who also specialized in array arts seemed to sense something. He abruptly raised his head and looked toward the distant horizon.

The moment he did, several other primordial psyche cultivators who focused on the Psyche Dao felt something as well. ”The flow of air feels off.”

”Something is approaching. Strange, I can’t even perceive it directly.”

”The surrounding stellar force field is undergoing a very subtle distortion. A massive object is incoming.”

Everyone used their perception and looked toward the sky. Soon, a radiant light began to circulate. A colossal object nearly a kilometer long gradually shed its disguise and concealment, revealing itself before them.

It was the Spring Rain warship, seized by Yaoguang and swiftly brought back from the East Sea. The moment they saw the warship, the artifact refiners and array casters who had still harbored doubts all widened their eyes.

As the sword cultivators and body cultivators responsible for guarding the institute rose into the air and guided the Sky Patrol Warship into the already-activated array zone, while everyone else rushed forward, unable to contain themselves.

”The Great Sun Sword Sect’s Spring Rain warship?! How did we end up capturing it?!”

”That’s unbelievable. Have we already reclaimed the East Sea?”

”I took a nap on the way here. Did I just sleep through a hundred years?” The array masters and artifact-refinement masters boarded the Spring Rain warship like children discovering a new toy, touching this and examining that, their eyes brimming with irrepressible excitement.

Fang Jinxue, meanwhile, immediately went up to Yaoguang, who had flown out from the bridge of the warship. He greeted him with visible excitement, ”Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang.”

Rubbing his hands together, he asked, ”This Sky Patrol Warship is really being handed over to us for research?”

”Yes,” Yaoguang replied with a nod. ”More precisely, it’s for us to study together. I’ll also be participating in the research on the Spring Rain Sky Patrol Warship. Using this vessel as a reference, we’ll analyze its structure and principles, then develop Sky Patrol Warships that belong to our Nine Cauldrons Sect.”

”Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang, you understand Sky Patrol Warships as well?” Fang Jinxue asked, somewhat surprised.

He had long heard of Yaoguang’s reputation. Yaoguang was a level 6, 3-star array caster and a level 9, 4-star artifact refiner! Any one of those titles alone was enough to shake the world. Even among the Six Great Immortal Sects, such a figure would be a foundational pillar!

In a mid-sized sect, someone like him could drive the sect’s progress and prosperity almost single-handedly. Even Fang Jinxue himself, a level 6, 3-star array caster well versed in primordial psyche amplification arrays, interference arrays, and stabilization principles, was far from comparable.

Still, isn’t he supposed to specialize in spirit-gathering arrays? How did he suddenly... Fang Jinxue thought.

Before Yaoguang could respond, Tang Fenghua, who had come along, laughed and spoke first. ”Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang’s attainments in array arts far exceed what most people imagine. For a genius like him, mastery in one path often leads to mastery in many. Do you know why we were able to capture the Spring Rain Sky Patrol Warship intact? Why the Great Sun Sword Sect’s cultivators were unable to flee or destroy the ship at the last moment? It was because they never had the chance!”

As he spoke, the fourth-tier great sword cultivator looked at Yaoguang with undisguised admiration. ”Under Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang’s guidance, thirty-six spell cultivators from our Sea Guardian Institute destroyed all twelve defensive arrays on the Spring Rain warship with a single Yin-Yang Disintegration Technique. It was nothing short of a miracle!”

”Thirty-six spell cultivators?! One Yin-Yang Disintegration Technique?!” Fang Jinxue blurted out almost instinctively. ”That’s impossible! A Sky Patrol Warship’s defenses are extraordinarily strong. Even a hundred and eight spell cultivators working for over an hour might not completely shatter all twelve defensive arrays. Thirty-six... This—”

”I found it unbelievable as well,” Tang Fenghua said, ”but it was the truth. On the way back, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang managed to create such a miracle. Then, recalling how he repeatedly directed us to strike specific key nodes of the warship during the battle, I finally understood. He was analyzing them! Through our attacks, he analyzed the operational principles of those arrays and understood how to destroy them with the lowest effort!”

He looked at Yaoguang as though gazing upon a living legend. ”In less than twenty minutes, he analyzed all twelve defensive arrays of the Spring Rain Sky Patrol Warship. In the end, with a single Yin-Yang Disintegration Technique jointly cast by thirty-six spell cultivators, he completely dismantled every layer of its defenses, leaving the enemy no time to breathe and delivering a decisive, fatal blow!”

”Less than twenty minutes?! Analyzing twelve defensive arrays?!” The array masters transferred from the other institutes crowded over as well, feeling as though they were listening to a myth.

”How could that be possible? Even an array grandmaster wouldn’t be able to analyze twelve level 6 arrays in such a short time.”

”Every Sky Patrol Warship chooses diversity and complexity when its defensive arrays are constructed, specifically to counter different array-breaking methods. I’ve studied the Spring Rain’s defenses before. They involve five major categories...”

”Was the Spring Rain’s array data leaked in advance?”

The array casters felt as though their entire understanding of array arts had been overturned. Yaoguang glanced at Tang Fenghua. He knew Tang Fenghua’s words came partly from genuine shock and a desire to share, and partly from an intention to establish Yaoguang’s authority, ensuring everyone would cooperate fully in the upcoming research.

Yaoguang then said calmly, ”How exactly it was done will become clear once we begin studying this Sky Patrol Warship. For now, let’s formally receive the Sky Patrol Warship. Also...”

He looked at Wang Feng. ”Let the warriors of the Sea Guardian Institute go and get some rest. In three days, the sect master will personally award honor medals to everyone who participated in this battle.”

”Yes!” Wang Feng replied, nodding.

The situation in the East Sea had yet to fully stabilize. They needed to seize every moment to recover the true origin expended in the battle aboard the Spring Rain, so they could return to the front lines as soon as possible.

***

Two enormous battles had erupted across the East Sea, and there was no way the news could be concealed. The information first spread out from the Void Psychic World domain of the Infinite Star Palace. It then rapidly circulated through the surrounding nations of the Heavenly Star Continent. Only after that did it finally reach the Void Psychic World of the Nine Cauldrons Sect.

As the details of the two great battles were revealed, members of the Nine Cauldrons Sect found themselves staring at the reports with an indescribable shock, as if everything were a dream.

The news that Lou Yuyu had led his forces to heavily cripple and rout all of the Xuanming Sect’s East Sea forces, slaying more than three hundred great cultivators and tens of thousands of high-tier cultivators, was already shocking enough.

They had more or less come to terms with that. But then, Sect Master Li Qingshan personally led the Sword-Wielding Institute, while Su Yaoguang, the deputy hall master of both the Artifact Refinement Hall and the Profound Array Hall, commanded the Sea Guardian Institute to meet the Great Sun Sword Sect’s Divine Fire Institute and the Spring Rain warship head-on.

And the result was a shocking victory that nearly wiped out the Divine Fire Institute and ”sank” the Spring Rain warship outright. Such an achievement was something no one would have dared to imagine even in their wildest dreams.

As a result, when these reports first spread, they were treated as pranks or fabricated nonsense by the Nine Cauldrons Sect for a long time. It was not until three days later, when Sect Master Li Qingshan held a brief yet exceptionally high-standard award ceremony for the Sword-Wielding Institute and the Sea Guardian Institute, that everyone finally realized, while still in a daze, that this might actually be real.

Immediately afterward, someone went to the Void Psychic World of the Xuanming Sect and brought back the announcements and battle footage that Lou Yuyu had personally released there.

Only then did people discover, to their astonishment, that the Nine Cauldrons Sect had not merely devastated all of the Xuanming Sect’s forces in the East Sea, but had gone further, striking directly into the Xuanming Sect itself and forcing it to bow its head and seek peace.

Once this news spread, the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s Void Psychic World exploded into an uproar. The impact was no less sensational than the East Sea war against the Xuanming Sect, and arguably even greater.

The Nine Cauldrons Sect did not attempt to suppress the spread of this information. Because at this point, the situation remained under control.

In particular, after Li Qingshan deliberately let slip the news that the so-called Dharma Form spirit treasure might in fact be an Origin World, the Great Sun Sword Sect, which had originally mobilized forces to avenge the Divine Fire Institute and the Spring Rain warship, abruptly fell silent.

Before fully confirming whether this legendary spirit treasure truly possessed the extraordinary properties rumored by the outside world, they no longer dared to act rashly, lest they suffer even greater losses.

Under such circumstances, after the two great battles, the situation in the East Sea quietly settled down. And it was precisely at this moment, on the second day after Yaoguang brought the Spring Rain warship to Sky Patrol Research Institute No. 3, that Li Qingshan led the Sword-Wielding Institute back to the sect’s home territory.

He then went straight to the Big Dipper Domain, sought out Yaoguang, and solemnly conveyed a single message. ”My martial uncle wants to meet you.”