After speaking, Xiang Shan turned and streaked toward the great hall where the Super Space Formation was housed. Ding Yao and the other eight Eighth-Order cultivators followed close behind, with the five hundred soldiers further back.
Yang Kai led the Dawn Team at the forefront, with Chai Fang and the members of the Old Turtle Team at his side, the entire procession surging forward in grand formation.
Before long, the eight Eighth-Order cultivators and the five hundred soldiers arrived at the great hall housing the Super Space Formation. The hall was spacious enough to accommodate several hundred people without feeling crowded.
An Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator from the other side of the formation stepped forward to greet them, cupping his fists toward Xiang Shan. "Everything is prepared."
Xiang Shan nodded. "Thank you for your trouble."
The Eighth-Order cultivator stepped aside, and Xiang Shan led the hundreds of soldiers directly up to the Space Formation. The formation's light blazed brilliantly, its runes flickering and its base humming — clearly it was already in an activated state, ready for use at any moment.
Xiang Shan turned to face the five hundred people behind him and ordered, "Groups of approximately fifty — split up and spread out!"
Everyone obeyed. Under the direction of their respective squad leaders, three or four small teams grouped together into one unit.
Only the Dawn Team and the Old Turtle Team required no reorganization, since both elite squads already numbered roughly fifty.
With this arrangement, the five hundred were swiftly divided into ten groups.
Xiang Shan turned his head to look at the Eighth-Order cultivators beside him and gave a slight nod. In the next instant, all eight of them flickered forward to stand before the groups of soldiers.
The one who appeared before the Dawn Team was Grandmaster Trouble. Whether this had been prearranged or not, he did the same as the other Eighth-Order cultivators — he channeled the power of his Small Universe, opened a gateway within himself, and transformed it into a passage. "Enter!" he shouted in a low voice at Yang Kai and the others.
Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately understood the Eighth-Order cultivators' plan. They were clearly going to use their power to send these five hundred soldiers to another pass.
Teleporting between passes was an enormous undertaking. Due to the vast distances involved, each teleportation consumed staggering amounts of resources, and the stronger the cultivators being transported, the greater the expenditure.
Biluo Pass was committing five hundred people. If they teleported each one individually, Biluo Pass's current deep reserves could technically absorb the cost — but it would result in a great deal of unnecessary waste and consume an enormous amount of time.
Rather than do that, it was far better to utilize the Eighth-Order cultivators' Small Universes.
In comparison, transporting ten Eighth-Order cultivators would consume far fewer resources than transporting five hundred individuals, and it would also take less time.
In practice, this was the standard method for personnel transfers between passes — lower-ranked cultivators would enter the Small Universes of higher-ranked ones, saving resources as much as possible.
An Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator's Small Universe was vast. If it only needed to hold Fifth-Order cultivators, it could accommodate hundreds or even thousands of people. Sixth-Order cultivators would reduce that number to around a hundred. If they were all Seventh-Order, the limit was perhaps ten — any more, and even an Eighth-Order cultivator would struggle to bear it. Once a Small Universe came under strain, it could easily bring about all manner of trouble.
That was why Xiang Shan and the others had deliberated carefully beforehand and concluded that deploying ten Eighth-Order cultivators together was the optimal choice for transporting five hundred people.
At Grandmaster Trouble's shout, Yang Kai was the first to hurl himself into the gateway. The Dawn Team members followed close behind, their figures vanishing one after another.
Only after everyone had been received into his Small Universe did Grandmaster Trouble close the gateway.
This was his first time doing something like this — he had never experienced it before. Under normal circumstances, even a cultivator whose realm far surpassed another's would not casually accept lower-ranked cultivators into their Small Universe. If those taken in were to cause havoc inside, it could easily inflict severe damage on the host. Even if they could be suppressed in time, the Small Universe would inevitably be contaminated by the other person's Heavenly Might, which was extremely troublesome to purge.
That was why, in Yang Kai's own Small Universe, any warrior who reached the point of being able to advance to the Open Heaven Realm was required to leave. For one thing, every person walked a different Dao, and the Void Temple disciples' success rate for advancement within his Small Universe was not high. For another, it was a precaution against contaminating his own power.
But the Ink Battlefield was a special case. Using a Small Universe to shelter lower-ranked Open Heaven cultivators was a common practice here. They were comrades-in-arms who fought side by side, and that much trust existed between them.
Having taken in the entire Dawn Team — though the roster fell short of fifty — Grandmaster Trouble's complexion still went noticeably pale.
By contrast, Xiang Shan and the others all looked perfectly composed. Xiang Shan in particular had taken in nearly sixty people and looked as if nothing had happened at all.
This went to show that despite all being Eighth-Order cultivators, Grandmaster Trouble's foundation could not compare to that of Biluo Pass's veteran Eighth-Order cultivators. The Dao of Artifact Refining had consumed too much of his energy.
After all five hundred had been received into the Small Universes, the eight Eighth-Order cultivators did not immediately step onto the formation and teleport away. Instead, they stood in place and waited in silence.
This was because Biluo Pass was not the only one teleporting reinforcements this time. Every pass had mobilized personnel, and the receiving formation on the other side could not possibly handle that many people arriving simultaneously. They would have to go in batches, and Xiang Shan and the others needed to wait for the signal from the other side.
They did not wait long — only about half a shi-chen — when the Space Formation suddenly erupted in a blinding flash of light. The radiance was dazzling to the extreme, then quickly receded. This sequence repeated three times.
This was the prearranged signal from the opposite side.
Once the formation's glow stabilized, Xiang Shan stepped forward and set foot on the formation first, with the other Open Heaven cultivators following in tight formation.
"Activate the formation!" barked the Eighth-Order cultivator who had originally come out to greet them from within the hall. Around the formation, the many soldiers who had been standing in readiness each formed hand seals and channeled their power to drive the formation's operation.
A brilliant light was born at the formation's outer rim and rapidly spread inward toward the center, soon enveloping the figures of Xiang Shan and the other ten Eighth-Order cultivators.