Chapter 848: Satellite

"In the Sky Curtain Ground Net Administration, you should be able to find samples of any discontinued ores that aren't available in the First Military Factory. If you want them, I'll mention it to my superior, and he'll surely do you this favor."

At this moment, Yun Yangbing suddenly spoke.

The Sky Curtain Ground Net Administration is primarily responsible for maintaining the Immortal Sect's top-tier sixth-grade grand formation. Since the ground net extends across all parts of the Primeval Star, this department regularly dispatches personnel to tour various regions worldwide. Many mineral veins and resources were discovered by them.

Whenever they find a new mineral vein, personnel from the Sky Curtain Ground Net Administration always take some samples for their own archives first.

"That won't be necessary for now. I just had the thought. I estimate it will take me a long time just to experiment with those three thousand types of ores."

After a moment of thought, Chen Mobai cautiously declined Yun Yangbing's offer.

After all, the ores he needed were to be refined into the Myriad Virtue Cauldron. No one would care how much common ore an Exalted Nascent Soul cultivator like him took.

However, if they were extremely rare, discontinued samples, even he wouldn't feel comfortable taking them.

Nevertheless, Chen Mobai still expressed his gratitude to Yun Yangbing.

After dinner that evening, they went out for another round. Hua Zijing had arranged a private room for them, and Chen Mobai then told her and Zhuang Jialan to head back first.

The three brothers reminisced about their good old days at the Daoist Academy, drinking together.

"If I manage to form a Core, I'll probably switch to cultivating the Heaven-Burning Art."

Yun Yangbing suddenly uttered this sentence as dawn approached.

"How can you be so disheartened so quickly? I'm definitely sticking with it until the end."

Ming Yihua couldn't help but criticize Yun Yangbing's unspirited words. His fire spiritual root started at 61 points. Although he hadn't pursued further spiritual root enhancement during his cultivation to achieve the Six-Yang Body quickly, it had still reached 93 points by now.

After forming his Core, if he continued to cultivate the Pure Yang Dharma Body, he would certainly be able to raise his fire spiritual root to 100 points, so he was determined to stick with the Pure Yang Scroll.

Yun Yangbing's initial fire spiritual root was slightly weaker. Based on his cultivation progress over the past few decades, he estimated that if he were to cultivate a Nascent Soul using the Pure Yang Scroll, he might not have enough time, which led him to consider switching cultivation methods.

"I think you should persevere," Chen Mobai interjected. "After all, the pioneering war is about to begin. If we go to war with other worlds, the spirit stones reserved within the Immortal Sect will surely be released."

As he offered his advice, Chen Mobai also reached out and took nine high-grade spirit stones, giving them to each of the two.

"These are some I personally obtained from void blind boxes. Take them and use them, but keep it to yourselves."

Chen Mobai's generous act immediately stunned both Ming Yihua and Yun Yangbing. With these spirit stones, they could save at least a decade of cultivation time after forming their Cores to cultivate the Seven-Yang Body.

"Old Chen, words cannot express my gratitude. If you ever need my help in the future, just say the word."

Ming Yihua, with his forthright nature, knew these high-grade spirit stones would be immensely useful to him, so he didn't refuse and accepted them directly. With these, he could raise his fire spiritual root to 100 points while cultivating the Seven-Yang Body. The subsequent Eight-Yang and Nine-Yang stages would be even easier, as they only required transforming into the Postnatal Pure Yang Body.

"Thank you very much!"

Yun Yangbing also thanked him with a solemn expression.

"These spirit stones can be recharged repeatedly. When you're forming your Cores, don't hold back; just use them. However, if the consumption of spiritual energy is too high, you'll need to come up with an excuse."

Chen Mobai added, always generous with those close to him.

Moreover, these two good brothers had always gone all out to help him, whether it was with formations or artifact refining, whenever he asked.

Giving them high-grade spirit stones was something Chen Mobai had planned for a long time.

"Don't worry, Old Chen. Many large-scale pieces of equipment at my military factory consume the spiritual energy of dozens of high-grade spirit stones daily. If I recharge the spirit stones after using half of their energy at my unit, it will only be considered a normal fluctuation."

Ming Yihua, however, looked completely unconcerned. His unit was among the top energy consumers in the Immortal Sect, so recharging a few high-grade spirit stones, when averaged over time, certainly wouldn't attract attention.

"My unit is in charge of the Immortal Sect's spiritual energy!"

Compared to Ming Yihua, Yun Yangbing's statement was even more reassuring to Chen Mobai.

All spiritual energy supplied to the thousands of households within the Immortal Sect's Thirty-Six Grotto-Heavens and Seventy-Two Blessed Lands passed through the Sky Curtain Ground Net, a sixth-grade grand formation.

Moreover, if Yun Yangbing formed his Core, the amount of spiritual energy he could allocate would be sufficient to recharge the high-grade spirit stones.

However, Chen Mobai merely offered them a reminder.

Finally, he recalled the communication project in the Eastern Barrens and asked Yun Yangbing if there were any discarded satellites.

"We do have those, but they're all numbered, so it's not easy to just take one out. What do you need it for?" Yun Yangbing replied truthfully, then asked curiously.

"After forming my Nascent Soul, don't I have plenty of time? I was thinking of studying formations. The ultimate formation of the Immortal Sect is the Sky Curtain Ground Net, so I figured if I'm going to learn, I'd start with the most difficult one. I'll take a node satellite from the Sky Curtain grand formation as an introduction."

Chen Mobai's words earned him a thumbs-up from both of them, who looked at him with admiration.

"These discarded, recovered satellites are processed for scrap after a period, their materials disassembled and reused to forge new ones. However, there are also satellites in space that were discarded because early technology wasn't mature enough to retrieve them. No one manages those. I'll look through the records and see if I can get one for you."

Upon hearing this, Yun Yangbing immediately thought of a solution.

Only Nascent Soul cultivators had the ability to retrieve these satellites abandoned in space. However, early satellite materials and technology were flawed; they could be sent up but not recovered. So, after destroying their core chips, the Immortal Sect simply categorized them as space debris.

If Chen Mobai wanted one, he could retrieve a piece of space debris, and then Yun Yangbing could repair its chip. This would give him a node of the Sky Curtain grand formation to study.

"Alright, but let's discuss this after you've formed your Core. That would be safer."

Chen Mobai said steadily after hearing Yun Yangbing's words.

Just then, dawn broke.

After the three finished their last drinks and walked out, Zhuang Jialan was already waiting at the entrance with a car.

Chen Mobai personally accompanied them to the Immortal Affairs Hall.

Today was the day to collect the Golden Liquid Jade Return Pills from the Finance Department, so in addition to the three of them, the other seven individuals had also arrived early.

However, upon seeing Chen Mobai alight from the car, they all respectfully came over to greet him.

Even Daoist Master Ling from the Heaven-Mending lineage did the same.

"Greetings, Exalted Pure Yang!"

Chen Mobai responded with a smile, even nodding to Daoist Master Ling.

"You are all the future of the Immortal Sect. You must work hard and never waste the opportunities the Immortal Sect has given you."

After a few words of encouragement, Chen Mobai entered with Zhuang Jialan and the other two.

The Finance Department, which hadn't even officially opened for business, immediately opened its doors. Bai Xiangqian, the Deputy Head of the Immortal Affairs Hall, who was in charge of distributing the Golden Liquid Jade Return Pills, personally came out to greet them.

Soon, Zhuang Jialan, Ming Yihua, and Yun Yangbing received their Core-forming spirit medicines, all of them visibly excited.

Having finished his business, Chen Mobai was about to leave when he encountered Lan Haitain at the entrance of the Immortal Affairs Hall, who seemed to have been waiting specifically for him.

"Wait for me here for a moment."

Chen Mobai, showing respect to Lan Haitain, told Zhuang Jialan and the other two to wait, then followed Lan Haitain into an office.

"Exalted Pure Yang, I am truly sorry about the Golden Liquid Jade Return Pill matter earlier. I was unable to fulfill my promise."

Lan Haitian immediately apologized. Earlier, Chen Mobai had agreed with him to give one pill from the Heaven-Mending Group's allocation to Lin Yin, and in the next term, Lan Haitian would use his influence to secure one for Hua Zijing.

Unfortunately, events unfolded completely beyond Lan Haitian's expectations.

Ultimately, it was only after Chen Mobai formed his Nascent Soul that the stalemate was broken.

"It's not your fault. Let's just leave that matter as it is. However, I can't let you have Lin Yin for now; I'll need him for a few decades."

Chen Mobai knew that fewer connections were better, so he didn't make things difficult for Lan Haitian over this.

However, since Lin Yin had used a Golden Liquid Jade Return Pill quota from the Heaven-Mending Group during his tenure to form his Core, Chen Mobai certainly couldn't just give such a talent to Lan Haitian for free.

"Yes, since the task wasn't completed, I have no right to ask you for Lin Yin."

Upon hearing this, Lan Haitian felt regretful but could only nod in agreement.

After all, Lan Haitian was not a Nascent Soul cultivator and couldn't decisively influence the list for the Golden Liquid Jade Return Pills like Chen Mobai could. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for him to cultivate a Core-forming direct subordinate of his own.

However, to mend his relationship with Chen Mobai, he calmly made his choice.

After all, a direct subordinate could be cultivated again, but if he soured his relationship with an Exalted Nascent Soul cultivator, even if he eventually formed a Nascent Soul himself, they would likely be enemies for life.

After mending their relationship, Chen Mobai bid farewell and left.

Upon reaching the entrance of the Immortal Affairs Hall, he found only Yun Yangbing and Zhuang Jialan. Upon asking, he learned that Ming Yihua had taken the opportunity to deliver the glass bead containing the Divine Law-Breaking Light.

However, they didn't have to wait long before Ming Yihua returned, even being personally escorted out by Lu Zunsheng, the Deputy Minister of the Immortal Defense Department.

Lu Zunsheng was from the Kunpeng lineage and a very senior member of the Kaiyuan Hall.

But upon seeing Chen Mobai, he immediately came over to greet him.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Chen Mobai left the Immortal Affairs Hall with the three members of the Artifact Refinement lineage who had received their Core-forming spirit medicines.

"Where do you plan to form your Cores?" Chen Mobai asked in the car.

"Mount Chicheng!"

Yun Yangbing and Ming Yihua replied without hesitation.