Chapter Fifty-Six: The Yin-Yang Stone

The sudden decline in the import volume of Yin-Yang stones had its objective reasons. Generally, no one on the Celestial Stone Continent wished to live there long-term. If an ordinary person stayed on the Celestial Stone Continent for more than three months, their lifespan would be halved; after half a year, they would age rapidly into a near three-hundred-year-old elder and perish. Therefore, the Yin-Yang stones from the Celestial Stone Continent were usually transported to the Central Continent only by warriors, archmages, or grand Taoists who had reached at least the thirteenth level of cultivation. Only those at this level or above could endure living there for a year or more without significant harm. In fact, such an environment often aided their cultivation and breakthroughs.

These cultivators would train on the Celestial Stone Continent while also searching for unique ores and medicinal herbs. Upon returning to the Central Continent, these treasures could yield substantial income, killing two birds with one stone. However, after centuries of maritime expansion and development, peace had settled once more. Yet, the seven kingdoms of the Central Continent were beginning to stir restlessly again. Though no major wars had erupted, minor skirmishes were frequent. The thirteenth to fifteenth level cultivators formed each nation’s backbone, and as tensions rose in anticipation of coming conflicts, countries began consolidating their vital forces. Consequently, fewer and fewer cultivators at these levels ventured to the Celestial Stone Continent; only solitary practitioners without sects or clans continued to train there.

With war looming, the Great Zhou family began massively increasing their troops, thus requiring more military equipment. Orders from the Taixin and Liang families surged, further straining the supply of Yin-Yang stones.

Tang Yi glanced at Zhang Sanfeng and said, “I’ll be straightforward. This money is trivial to us at Xuan; what I actually want is to purchase the associated minerals accompanying your magical stone veins. I’ll buy as much as you have, though naturally, your prices will need to be somewhat discounted.” Huang Shidong and the others were momentarily stunned. They had assumed Tang Yi sought shares of their magical stone veins, but he only wanted the associated ores. To be honest, Huang Shidong had long been troubled by the issue of these accompanying minerals. There were seven or eight kinds, and while these ores held some value on Dream Blue Star, their demand was minimal. Thus, to Huang and his family, these minerals were little more than a burden. Tang Yi’s offer was a blessing in disguise—why not accept? The three family heads agreed on the spot to sell all their associated minerals to Tang Yi at a price thirty percent below market value. To them, offloading these unwanted ores at once solved a major headache. For Tang Yi, it was a great bargain; with these minerals, many of his products could be upgraded or refined to a higher quality. More importantly, this purchase was legitimate and aboveboard. This success also provided Tang Yi with inspiration to perfect his ore acquisition plan on Dream Blue Star.

Meanwhile, under Tang Yi’s instructions, Zhang Sanfeng pretended to return home to begin forging the formation arrays’ plates. After more than ten days of effort, three spirit beasts left their aura within the vast range of the mineral veins. The harvest for Hua Ruoxue and the others was considerable; each filled their spatial rings with a large assortment of gems. Of course, only Tang Yi’s inner circle knew about these spatial rings.

Tang Yi discovered that Dream Blue Star lacked equipment akin to storage spaces, which sparked the idea of developing such devices. For example, he considered trading spatial rings for mineral veins. After some thought, he decided to postpone this project to first master the cultivation techniques native to Dream Blue Star. To be honest, Tang Yi had been searching for an offensive cultivation method that truly satisfied him but had yet to find one. Seeing the three professions on Dream Blue Star reminded him of a legendary online game he’d played in high school—“Legend of Mir.” Back then, he had dreamed of mastering skills from every class, even playing on private servers that allowed combining abilities from all three professions. Now, Tang Yi was poised to realize that long-held ambition.

The day after returning from the mineral veins, Zhang Sanfeng delivered a large sack of formation plates to Huang Shidong, along with an instruction manual. These had actually been commissioned by Tang Yi and crafted by Lei Zhenzi long ago, enough for use on every vein on Dream Blue Star. This was part of Tang Yi’s plan: the migration of magical beasts was already impacting the entire planet, though some areas’ times had yet to come. Once the time arrived, nearly all human-developed mineral veins in the Central Continent would be affected. Now, allowing Huang Shidong to use these formation plates freely was a form of advertisement investment. When other veins suffered from magical beast invasions, Tang Yi’s formation plates would be in high demand.

At this time, Tang Yi launched his super-learning plan. By the third day, copies of Tang Yi appeared simultaneously in every classroom, laboratory, and competition venue of the Three Talents Academy. Tang Yi had employed the upgraded ability of his replication clones—each clone was essentially a part of himself, with knowledge learned by the clones directly transmitted to Tang Yi’s original brain. Among the many Tang Yis in the academy, all were copies; the original was in the spaceship’s laboratory. A sudden inspiration the previous night revealed that the upgraded replication ability was extraordinary. From the ship, Tang Yi could deploy his clones anywhere on Dream Blue Star instantly, thanks to the combined effect of another super perception ability. Thus, Tang Yi advanced his previously postponed plans. He intended to craft a storage device tailored to the people of Dream Blue Star. Once mass-produced, this invention would revolutionize storage methods across the planet.

Time flew swiftly. Three months later, the Xuan Island Fund Chamber had opened over one hundred branches across the Central Continent, with more continuously added. Its accumulated capital reached an astonishing figure. During these three months, various mining veins on the Central Continent suffered magical beast incursions. Thanks to the live advertisements provided by Huang Shidong and two other great families outside East Gate City, many people flocked to the nearby Xuan Island Chamber shops to purchase protective formation plates. The plates became the hottest selling items overnight.

Naturally, this success stirred resentment among some interests. Attempts to sabotage Xuan Island’s shops began—first by spreading counterfeit goods on the market, pretending to be from Xuan Island. Unfortunately for the saboteurs, all genuine products had a special anti-counterfeit aura impossible to replicate. When that failed, they tried violent destruction under the cover of dark, windy nights. But Xuan Island shops were fortified with sturdy protective formations, and these attacks failed to cause any damage. During the day, sabotage was impossible with the ship’s Jet’s comprehensive surveillance and light transmission capabilities. Anyone attempting trouble would find a master at the guide level appearing in the store within ten seconds. If the intruder was a higher-level expert, Zhang Sanfeng would confront them. Zhang Sanfeng was the highest-level cultivator on Dream Blue Star.

Helpless, a group calling itself the Formation Array Alliance sent a formal challenge to Xuan Island Fund Chamber, naming it a Formation Array Exchange Conference. To ensure fairness, the conference was set to be held in the Imperial Capital of the Great Zhou Kingdom, Golden Light City’s Emperor Square, one month hence.