"Three thousand..." A sharp glint flashed through Yao Si's eyes. Su Yan was only at the first level of the Emperor Realm, and her Divine Sense cultivation wasn't particularly strong. If she could accommodate three thousand, then he could certainly accommodate more.
First level of the Emperor Realm could do this — what about the second level? The third? And what about the Pseudo-Emperors above that? Since the World Pearl's functionality was closely tied to Divine Sense cultivation, it stood to reason that the higher one's cultivation, the greater the use one could make of this artifact.
Clutching the World Pearl, Yao Si said, "Madam, I think we should hold off on giving this to Lord Fu for now. I'd like to find more people to test its capabilities first. Master is still crafting more anyway, so there's no harm in sending one to Lord Fu once we have spares. As for Master... I'll explain it to him myself. I won't let him become a man who goes back on his word."
Su Yan replied, "Master gave orders that in his absence, Commander Yao has full authority to act as he sees fit."
Yao Si smiled. "Thank you, Madam."
Once the first World Pearl was created, the news spread like wildfire. After all, Yang Kai and Su Yan had captured over seventy patrol teams during their trial run. Although Yao Si had issued a gag order immediately afterward, too many mouths had already wagged, and word of the World Pearl quickly got out.
The Jizi Army camp became lively once again as regiment commanders from every army came visiting. Unable to find Yang Kai, they zeroed in on Yao Si, their eyes locked on the World Pearl in his hand like hungry wolves eyeing a delicious meal.
Fu Renjie claimed Yang Kai had promised it to him, so he demanded it from Yao Si with righteous confidence. The other regiment commanders were having none of it — the counterattack was imminent, and having a World Pearl could prove invaluable at a critical moment. Nobody was about to be polite to Fu Renjie now.
Wen Zishan argued that Yang Kai was an Elder of the Qingyang Divine Temple, and the first World Pearl rightfully belonged to the Qingyang Divine Temple and should be kept and used by him.
Lei Hong countered that Yang Kai hailed from the Southern Region and had received the legacy of the Bright Moon Great Emperor, so now was the time to return the favor in kind. For a time, whether they were familiar with Yang Kai or not, everyone was arguing heatedly in the Jizi Army camp, and those with fiery tempers nearly rolled up their sleeves to settle things by force.
Fortunately, the World Pearl was in Yao Si's keeping. Although his cultivation wasn't particularly high — only the second level of the Emperor Realm — he was the son of a Great Emperor. The regiment commanders, no matter how covetous they were of the World Pearl, could only resort to appeals of goodwill. Had it been anyone else holding the pearl, it would have been snatched away long ago.
Even Bing Yun, who had always been above worldly strife, got involved, specifically calling Su Yan over to inquire about the World Pearl.
After the Bingchen Army matter, Su Yan was at her wit's end. Reaching out to Yang Kai yielded no response, and knowing he must be focused on refining, she could only wait patiently.
After half a month of commotion, the matter reached the Seven Fog Sea. Li Wuyi issued a single decree, ordering Yao Si to deliver the World Pearl to the Seven Fog Sea — the Chief Commander claimed it was for "thorough study."
Others had been wary of Yao Si's status as the son of a Great Emperor, but Li Wuyi feared no such thing. When the Chief Commander gave an order, Yao Si didn't dare disobey, and dutifully sent the World Pearl to the Seven Fog Sea.
When Yao Si returned from the Seven Fog Sea, he gave the cluster of regiment commanders a cold look. Everyone knew that once the World Pearl had reached the Seven Fog Sea, it was probably gone for good. Now they could only wait for Yang Kai to return from the Star Domain and see if he could bring back a few more.
So even though the World Pearl was gone, the regiment commanders still lingered in the Jizi Army camp. Yao Si couldn't chase them away no matter how hard he tried — they were beyond annoying.
What was worse, Yang Kai's wives had become surrounded by countless female powerhouses from every army. Women always found it easier to talk among themselves. When the regiment commanders couldn't find a way through Yao Si, they set their sights on Yang Kai's wives, taking the roundabout path to get what they wanted.
In the Star Domain, when Yang Kai learned of all this, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He hadn't expected the World Pearls to be so sought-after, but on second thought, spatial artifacts that could hold living beings had never appeared in this world before, and with the counterattack imminent, it was only natural that those regiment commanders would be green with envy.
In the midst of his busy schedule, he sent a message back, instructing Yao Si to relay that as long as there was enough time, every regiment commander would have their own World Pearl by the day he returned.
Once word spread, the Jizi Army finally settled down for good, and the regiment commanders all went home.
Refining a World Pearl wasn't particularly difficult. Apart from the first one, which had required some extra effort, Yang Kai simplified the process considerably for all subsequent ones. The largest army had no more than a million soldiers, and most had only several hundred thousand. Factoring in the cultivation levels of those regiment commanders, a World Pearl with enough space to hold anywhere from several hundred thousand to a million people was more than sufficient.
The larger the space, the longer the refinement took. To improve efficiency, there was no need to go through the same trouble as with the first pearl — finding a slightly larger meteorite to refine made little difference.
World Pearl after World Pearl was born from Yang Kai's hands, maintaining a steady pace of roughly one every five or six days.
However, with over fifty regiments in the Star Boundary, ensuring one for each was going to be slightly tight on time.
Time flowed onward. Beside the passage between the two worlds, army after army rested with weapons at the ready, and the grand formations using those armies as their core nodes were nearing completion. Everyone knew the day of the counterattack was not far off. Each warrior seized this final stretch to push their cultivation higher, hoping to improve their chances of survival on the battlefield.
Night fell — pitch black, heavy clouds blotted out the moon, and between heaven and earth there was not a shred of light.
In the camps of the assembled armies, silence reigned, with patrol teams passing ceaselessly to and fro.
Heaven and earth trembled ever so slightly. A figure appeared abruptly in the void, as if it had always been there. Its silhouette was indistinct, its features unrecognizable — the entire being was shrouded in a layer of mysterious darkness.
The figure raised its head and gazed silently at the sky.
A thousand miles away, in the Demon Race camp, Yu Rumeng, who had been sitting cross-legged in meditation, suddenly opened her eyes, leapt from her perfumed bed, and drifted out of her tent.
At the same time, the flaps of two nearby tents were thrown open, and Chang Tian and Bei Limo appeared simultaneously.
They exchanged a glance. Bei Limo turned her head toward the former location of the inter-realm passage, her dark brows furrowed. "You two felt it as well?"
Chang Tian nodded silently, his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze deep and piercing as it cut through the void, colliding soundlessly with a pair of eyes a thousand miles away.