I’ll be in the Sky

Wei Huoran was pleased with how the last week went for him. He spent his time on three projects, with the bulk of time being on the satellite artifact, and beast core power source. He especially enjoyed the latter because he gave himself the duty of 'disposing' of the failed attempts.

Thankfully due to his ability to refine energy safely, Huoran noticed his realm quickly approaching the next small realm. He asked Quanliyuan to check for any hidden dangers, but the artifact spirit always reported that his foundation was as strong as ever.

After the week of working with Sage Hong, they had a few breakthroughs in Simspace resulting in the first prototypes being developed. After a couple of days, the success rate rose to an acceptable level, so they decided to create the real thing. Although a few failures happened, the initial attempt still went well, and core batteries became a reality. The beast cores used were from a large stockpile of cores gathered from the farm animals that were raised in one of the life realms which meant that Sun & Moon island now had a new power source. Unfortunately, this was only half of the project as the other half was to research the possibility of making beast cores into cultivation sources.

Huoran and Sage Hong was sitting in a Simspace workshop discussing the possibilities.

"Daoist Wei, our initial research has used the notes you given us, but progress has been slow", Hong told Huoran his concerns.

"What seems to be the main issue?", Huoran inquired, "The limited notes I wrote down says this should be possible, so I'm curious what problems came up."

"Compatibility", Hong replied, "We certainly have an almost unlimited supply of beast cores from the life realm farms, but they all belong to five or six different animals. So if a cultivator does not share affinity with the core…"

"They can not absorb it", Huoran finished the explanation. Huoran had thought about this problem which is why he asked the commerce ministry to purchase beast cores and magical beasts.

This was not happening fast enough though, "I understand the issue, Sage Hong. I guess we will need to make this a higher priority then. For now, I believe that your workshop can return to normal, and keep a small team on the side. For our own exclusive city, they can buy all products offered by your stores, but they must be briefed that the core batteries and core cultivation pill can not leave the city. As far as the cities that our guests enjoy, they will have to wait longer before they can enjoy our new products."

"We are in agreement then", Hong remarked, "I will start contacting the other Sages in an effort to improve our artifacts, and search for cultivators that can use the core pills we have for now."

"Very well, I will take a few life realm artifacts out to prepare for the next step", Huoran explained, "Also, I believe it's time to offer missions for the capture of magical beasts. This should encourage others to capture what we need, and we can sell capture talismans as well."

The meeting ended, and both parties left the space with Sage Hong heading back to her shop, and Huoran sending a message to his assistants. The two assistants passed the word to the ministers, simply stating that the new projects required magical beasts of every element. They were asked to create a mission or bounty system, decide the appropriate rewards, and make sure enough were collected for breeding purposes.

As the Ministry started working on this, Huoran had left the first life realm artifact behind to keep any beast alive while he was gone. He also picked up several life realms of various sizes to bring with him on his trip. He left the island quietly, but he didn't immediately head towards any continents.

Huoran instead stayed in the sea, but he did not just roam around, but instead he went to the merfolk's old homeland. He didn't forget about what happened here, but he had been busy since the merfolk refugees came to the island.

It had been some time since the old king detonated the spiritual vein here, and now the seabed had settled. The exposed lava that once surged to the surface had created new underwater mountains before cooling off, and Huoran could feel the environment lacked almost any spiritual aura now. Maybe because of the lack of Qi, Quanliyuan was able to detect several secret realms in the area, undoubtedly left behind by powerful merfolk in the past. After several days of searching each secret realm, Huoran collected them all, but two he specifically stored into a life realm artifact by themselves.

For the next few weeks, Huoran traveled the three continents collecting secret realms of various climate zones. He would meld them together to create several environments, such as an Artic zone, Temperate zone, or others. These would be the realms to hold the magical beasts they would collect in the future. Anytime Huoran found beasts that could be captured easily, he would quickly take them and place them in the appropriate artifact. The biggest discovery was with the largest realm artifact, with a capacity of 500 kilometers, Huoran melded an ocean secret realm with four land secret realms and the result appeared as a rather small plane. Huoran was amazed to see the new plane inside that was a mix of the ocean, jungle, forest, plains, and a set of ruins.

During the time that Huoran traveled the world , he would often attend conference calls with the Sages. Today, he was heading towards the Wu continent to search for secret realms and to recruit a few more residents for the island. As his ship flew through the air, he placed a QR helmet on his head and entered today's meeting.

Huoran entered a room where all the Sages of the island were already sitting at the table, discussing and laughing about something.

With smiles on their face, the Sages all greeted Huoran as he sat down at the table.

"I'm glad to see everyone in high spirits", Huoran greeted everyone, "Does this mean today is filled with good news?"

"Of course, shall we get started?", Sage Neridia replied.

Curious about today's news, Huoran agreed with a nod.

Sage Neridia smiled, "I'll begin, I'm proud to report the Eagle Eye project is complete. Our first artifact is built, the power source is ready, and the altar to control it is installed in the security room."

"That is good to hear", Huoran said, "Let's make this simple, and change our location then."

Huoran change the virtual room they were in to an office connected to the main security room. A few moments later, the group heard a knock at the door and a security officer entered the room.

"Boss Wei, Honored Sages, how can I help you today?", the man said.

"There should have been a new desk added by Sage Neridia recently, isn't here?", Huoran inquired.

The security guard nodded and Huoran continued, "We will do our first test of the 'Eagle Eye' project now, is someone at the desk?"

"Please wait a moment, Boss Wei", the guard replied, "We will arrange it quickly."

"Sage Neridia, is the artifact ready to activate?", Huoran questioned the merfolk Sage.

"I'll contact my disciples, and tell them to get it ready", the gruff craftsman responded.

"Sage Hong, I know you cannot make much progress until we can secure more supplies, but has anything happened after my departure?", Huoran asked the alchemy Sage.

"Although it is true that we are awaiting supplies, we have still been active", Sage Hong informed him, "While you have been gone, we already bought some beast cores from the guests to make do for now. Also, I have already had my work shop deliver the first core batteries to Sage Neridia's workshop so they can start modifying the required artifacts."

"Sage Hong, how can you tell Daoist Wei about my work before I do?", Sage Neridia interjected.

"It is fine, Sage Neridia", Huoran interrupted before turning towards the other two men, "Sage Vigol and Sage Wutang, how does the both of your projects fair?"

"They have been completed of course", Sage Vigol confidently replied, "I have successfully created Ice age and Sunfire arrays, and they are already in progress of being placed."

"I can also report of successfully creating the talismans", Sage Wutang added, "My workshop is in the process of drawing them, as well as, all the other talismans we normally produce. The ministry is already aware, and the Law Enforcement departments have already secured some for protection."

"It seems that everything has been completed", Huoran said, "I see someone is already coming over here, it should be time to begin the test."

A guard enter the room again and bowed, "The test is ready to commence, can you please follow me?"

The five of them stood up from their seats, and walked into the next room. As per usual, security personnel were watching the different screens, on the lookout for any signs of trouble. Huoran and the others turned their attention to the newer addition to the room, the Eagle Eye control desk.

"Sage Neridia, is the artifact ready to activate?", Huoran inquired.

"Yes, let me send my disciples the signal", Neridia replied as he took out his Qphone.

The security guards at the control desk activated the various screens and the projector at the desk, unfortunately they were all currently blank.

"Let's start", Huoran simply said.

Neridia sent a message on his Qphone, and a moment later, all the screens at the desk displayed images. Everyone watched as right afterwards, the artifact flew straight into the sky, climbing higher and higher. The artifact satellite broke through the clouds and continued to climb, but on the ground, everyone was watching in awe of the image on the screen. Just when Huoran thought the satellite would exit the upper atmosphere, and enter low orbit, an odd occurrence happened. The satellite stopped its ascent, but not because of any malfunction. Confused, Huoran started to look at all the screens to locate the camera that sat on top of the satellite, and was amazed. The image showed him that the moons, space, the stars, and the sun were still there, but it seemed as if this world was inside a planet sized barrier. Since the artifact could no longer ascend, Huoran ordered the guard to start the orbiting process, and the satellite stopped holding it's position and started to orbit. Soon the artifact was no longer in contact with the control desk, but Huoran knew this would happen. Without a network of satellites to route commands, they could only wait for the artifact to finish its course. Once it arrived, the images captured by it would be sent to the control desk, and the holographic projector would display the results for everyone.

"How long do you think it will take before the artifact sends us the first images", Sage Hong asked.

"I'm not entirely sure", Huoran replied, "I think the minimum time would be two hours, but I highly doubt that. So, I think it would be reasonable if it took three to six hours."

Sage Vigol scrunched his nose at that estimate, "I still have many thing to take care of, so please forgive my rudeness as I will return to my shop for now."

The image of the Sage bowed before it phased out, afterwards all the other Sages followed but before Neridia left, he looked at the guard and said, "Message us, Daoist Wei, and the Ministers when it appears again."

After he left, Huoran bade the guards farewell, and returned to his ship as well.

He probably should have been working on something, but the incident of the satellite being blocked stuck in his mind. When he thought about the footage taken by the camera, he recalled a very similar scene, but this confused him even more.

After a few hours of contemplating what he saw, the message from the island arrived, so he returned to the security room. Soon after, all the Sages and Ministers arrived as well and everyone looked at the control desk. A floating ring was now shown by the holographic projector, and everyone was trying to guess the meaning.

"What does this mean?", Minister Ye gasped, he had been updated on what happened to today, and the image showing right now worried him.

"It is nothing to worry about", Huoran tried to calm down some of the obviously nervous ministers, "The artifact made its initial orbit, and this is just the first images recorded. Sage Neridia, we do have more artifacts ready to be deployed soon, right? Otherwise, it will take a long time for one to look over the whole thing."

"We have one that is ready to deploy now, a d another that will be ready in a few days", the Sage answered, "We have not started refining any more right now."

"We need twenty seven more", Huoran stated, "I don't need to be here as they become available, just calculate the routes so that the artifacts avoid colliding into another. Once the entire world has been displayed, send me the image to my QFold. Please excuse my quick exit, but I'm about to arrive at my destination."

With a quick bow, Huoran's image disappeared, leaving everyone behind. His ship was about to arrive at the Wu continent, but as he watched the approaching land, he said to himself, "Approximately 270 minutes for a low orbit, that means this world is at least three times bigger."

'Bigger than what?', Quanliyuan suddenly asked.

The artifact spirit's sudden appearance surprised him, but he answered, "Three times bigger than my initial estimate."

The two spoke more as Huoran's ship arrived at the continent.

Huoran completed his goal, and after the many weeks, arrived home again. When he arrived, he placed the life realms in secure locations before he messaged his assistant, Su.

'I have arrived home, please invite Zeng Meirong to the city office for a meeting at her convenience', Huoran typed, 'Inform her that it has to do with her late family.'

His assistant complied, and returned a message that Zeng Meirong was available to meet in the morning tomorrow. Huoran put his QFold down before relaxing for the rest of the day.

The next day, Huoran went to the city office and went to the private meeting room he reserved.

Soon after Meirong arrived, and as she entered she said with a smile, "It has been some time since we have talked, I'm glad we have the opportunity now."

Huoran returned the bow and the greeting saying, "My apologies, my master has recently given me many task to prepare for an eventual conflict."

"I understand", Meirong replied, "I apologize for taking time from your important duties."

"How much do you know about the process of powerhouses as they grow in strength?", Huoran changed to topic.

Meirong explained what she knew, but it was evident she had little knowledge about the topic. Huoran decided to tell her more, so he explained to her how secret realms were formed.

After seeing a confused looked on her face, Huoran spoke, "It seems you do not understand why I told you this. When your father passed away, and later when your uncle and the other powerful warriors of your homeland died, what do you think happened to them?"

Realization appeared on her face, "You are saying that after their death, their cores would become secret realms, correct?"

"Yes, during my last trip, I visited your homeland", Huoran explained, "I took some life realm artifacts with me, and collected all the secret realms left behind."

Meirong was shocked, but she did her best to control her feelings.

"I hope I haven't offended you, but I already fused the secret realms of the warriors I found into life realms", Huoran admitted, "But I do have two special life realms here, and according to the evaluation array on the artifact, you are the only person able to enter. I suspect that one of them belong to your uncle, and the other belongs to your father. Would you like to see them now?"

Meirong was quiet for a few minutes, but she eventually answered him, "I will see them later with the other ministers, but for now, can we just walk around the lake for a little bit?"

"Sure"