One month later.
The successful development of the flying battle construct remained entirely unknown to the outside world, apart from the dozen-odd participants: the school’s instructors and Instructor Oumon’s brothers.
To preserve secrecy, the principal personally handled all material procurement, purchasing everything needed from several remote districts far from Silver Maple City, bringing it all back to the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy in small, inconspicuous batches. Zhonghua and the Silver Maple City Lord, though they’d been quietly monitoring Yue Yang’s “academic progress,” had only managed to learn about his two stated research areas — the Sacred-tier quill pen with artifact spirit and the special rune array. The flying battle construct, which had received the best concealment of all, remained entirely off their radar. If they’d known, they would have gone absolutely mad.
Due to severe limitations in development time, materials, and manpower, the reconnaissance-type and combat-type flying battle constructs remained at the design stage.
The heavy assault type, on the other hand, already had a one-to-one scale model completed.
They had taken a significant step toward building an actual working prototype.
What Instructor Oumon, Instructor Oup, and the others needed to break through now was how to advance step by step from the current first-generation flying battle construct toward the heavy assault type’s construction.
Once the heavy assault type existed, in a situation where the enemy had no aerial constructs to counter it, it would be a mobile fortress.
Wherever it went, it would sweep all before it.
“There’s no urgency at all — even having the first-generation flying battle construct already puts us in an unassailable position.” The principal was reluctant to expose Yue Yang’s prodigious gifts too early. Doing so could easily invite disaster. A genius without sufficient protective power was very easy to eliminate out of jealousy — this kind of thing happened regularly, both in the Heavenly Realm outside and here in Human Valley. If not for the fact that Yue Yang had recently developed a self-detonating puppet that could be loaded into the belly of a heavy assault construct and released at any time as a powerful strike weapon — giving him a meaningful self-protection capability — the principal wouldn’t have agreed to begin developing the heavy assault type even now, out of sincere concern that the master of Star Diamond Castle would become a target for the major powers to scheme against and forcibly take from.
“Whatever comes, at Titan student’s Life Assessment Ceremony, we absolutely must have the heavy assault prototype ready so he can bring home the championship and the highest honor.” Instructor Oumon and his brothers were full of renewed drive.
“Principal — you and Titan student have received an invitation to attend the Heavenly Pride Scholar Exchange in Gold Leaf City!” Instructor Oup returned from outside with this news.
“This was recommended by the Silver Maple City Lord.”
The principal accepted the invitation card and found that Yue Yang’s inclusion was a special recommendation from the City Lord and Zhonghua.
He considered briefly, then passed the card to Yue Yang, wanting his input.
Yue Yang’s initial instinct was complete indifference toward such gatherings.
But when he heard that the Thousand-Year Great Sage was currently in Gold Leaf City and quite possibly planning to attend, he changed his mind at once and decided to accompany the principal — there was nothing pressing keeping him anyway, and if he could gain more understanding from the Thousand-Year Great Sage, so much the better.
There was also another consideration. Gold Leaf City had a local specialty.
Leaf-Feather Cloud Gold.
This rare and distinctive mineral was an important material for flying battle construct construction — particularly the combat type. Yue Yang decided that while the flying battle construct had yet to be publicly revealed and the true value of Leaf-Feather Cloud Gold was still unrecognized, he should buy as much as he could get his hands on.
The principal arranged affairs at the school, then departed with his prize student in a medium-sized luxury airship dispatched by the Silver Maple City Lord, bound for Gold Leaf City.
While Gold Leaf and Silver Maple were called cities, they were in practice the capitals of two great power blocs, separated by a distance of two thousand li.
Even aboard a luxury airship, the journey took a full six hours.
Accompanying them were the black-bearded elder who sat in the first seat to the City Lord’s right, and Advisor Fan — the red-robed council member who had previously tried to maneuver against Yue Yang’s territories.
The very eager Zhonghua, tenth son of the City Lord, was notably absent.
Of course, this said nothing particularly meaningful — it was quite likely he found it strategically better to avoid appearing as a traveling companion, preferring to arrange an apparently coincidental encounter at the banquet instead.
“Please, be seated.” The black-bearded elder showed the principal great respect, and toward Yue Yang — whom Zhonghua had been going out of his way to cultivate — he paid quiet, careful attention. Unlike the black-bearded elder, Advisor Fan still carried a faintly antagonistic edge toward Yue Yang, always looking for small points to needle: “I understand from the City Lord’s banquet that Star Diamond Castle’s master, the esteemed Baron Titan, is researching some deeply complex rune array. How is that coming along? This council member has no wish to doubt the young Baron’s claim to such extensive scholarly knowledge — only sincere hope that Star Diamond Castle’s master, Baron Titan, might achieve results at the Assessment Ceremony comparable to Silver Maple City’s own pride and joy, the City Lord’s tenth son Baron Zhonghua. That would reflect well on all of us as fellow citizens, naturally.”
“Advisor Fan, you won’t be disappointed.” The principal’s manner toward Yue Yang was that of a kindly, doting old grandfather who would have happily treated this prize student like a treasured jewel — but toward outsiders, he was uncompromising. Even when addressing someone of Advisor Fan’s standing as a red council member, the principal’s words carried no deference whatsoever.
If not for the need to maintain a scholar’s dignified bearing, he might have grabbed Advisor Fan by the collar and personally ejected him from the luxury airship for daring to take that tone with Yue Yang.
Under the principal’s eagle-sharp gaze, Advisor Fan felt a distinctly uncomfortable twinge of unease. Offending a great lord in Human Valley and then leaving that lord’s sphere of influence was generally manageable — Human Valley wasn’t a place where violence could be used freely. But offending a scholar was considerably worse. Who knew how many friends and disciples such a person had, how vast their knowledge base, how far their influence extended? In Human Valley, knowledge was power, knowledge was wealth, knowledge was nearly everything. Nobody willingly made an enemy of a scholar who commanded genuine learning.
Even princes paid careful respect to the truly wise.
“Haha — in that case, this council member will certainly attend the Life Assessment Ceremony and look forward to witnessing the Baron’s distinguished moment of glory in person.” Advisor Fan produced a pleasant social laugh and said something appropriately agreeable on the surface. He wasn’t foolish enough to provoke the principal directly — his real targets were Yue Yang and what he privately considered this lucky young upstart who’d stumbled into Star Diamond Castle.
“Hmph.” The principal’s disdain was absolute. He gave Advisor Fan no courtesy in return, rose immediately, and took Yue Yang back to their private compartment.
He had no intention of spending another moment sitting with that man.
Advisor Fan, with the emotional intelligence befitting a seasoned political operator, maintained an unruffled smile through even this awkward dismissal.
Yue Yang couldn’t be bothered to engage with him either. Whether in Human Valley or the society he’d come from before transmigrating, this kind of person was a permanent fixture of every world. As the Thousand-Year Great Sage had said — it was precisely because the world’s many forms of life contained good and evil, wisdom and foolishness, cunning and sincerity, falsehood and truth, that civilization in all its brilliance existed. The more complex the social relations, the fiercer the struggle — and the greater the opportunity for tempering and growth. In a relatively simple primitive society where all anyone needed was a full belly and everyone danced cheerfully around a fire, what real sharpening of the mind could occur?
It was precisely because the human heart was so complex that human society differed so enormously from the animal world.
And it was also precisely because of this that humanity possessed the best possible conditions for being refined and grown.
When Yue Yang and the principal stepped off the airship at Gold Leaf City’s docking area, the first piece of information they received was about the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord.
What genuinely surprised Yue Yang was that this figure had not reincarnated into any noble class whatsoever, but had instead reincarnated as the younger brother of Human Valley’s greatest rebel army leader — a man known as “Heaven Defier.”
Who was Heaven Defier?
How had he and the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord come to know each other?
What was their relationship, and why had the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord chosen to reincarnate as a rebel?
Yue Yang had no time to process these questions before another part of the news floored him entirely: the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord had built an invisible “ghost construct,” challenged the always-self-righteous city lord of Ten Thousand Beasts City — Crimson Tiger — to a duel with the Sworn Enemy of rebel forces, received official verification from the War God statue’s divine sense, defeated city lord Crimson Tiger in battle, and directly seized Ten Thousand Beasts City.
The most shocking part of all of this was:
Crimson Tiger — who had been locked in mortal enmity with the rebel army for over six hundred years — had been so thoroughly won over by the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord piloting his ghost construct that not only did he surrender the city as agreed under the terms of the bet, but he had also willingly kneeled and pledged himself to the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord as a subordinate who would follow his commands.
“An invisible ghost construct?” Yue Yang felt something about all of this was decidedly more complicated than it appeared. Betting a city on a duel was already outrageous enough — but kneeling to pledge loyalty afterward?
“Inconceivable.” The principal was equally baffled.
Ten Thousand Beasts City’s Crimson Tiger was, after all, the person who held the deepest hatred for the rebel army of anyone in Human Valley.
How could he possibly kneel before and pledge himself to “Heaven Opener” — the younger brother of rebel leader “Heaven Defier”?
What on earth had happened between them? The full picture wasn’t yet clear, but Yue Yang was certain something was going on beneath the surface. Otherwise, even the descent of an actual deity couldn’t convince a man who harbored such deep enmity to kneel and beg to be taken as a subordinate. The Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord was genuinely formidable, but in Human Valley he couldn’t use his own power, and he hadn’t arrived with a halo of foolish followers automatically attached. How could he possibly have made someone kneel and call him boss just by shaking his aura impressively?
Before he’d had time to digest this first piece of news, Yue Yang and the principal had barely been escorted by the reception attendant into the VIP hall, and had barely sat down to tea, with barely an exchange of pleasantries — when another explosive piece of news broke.
Ah. This one wasn’t about anyone kneeling and pledging loyalty.
But it was considerably more outrageous.
Considerably more jaw-dropping.
Ji Wuri, Sky Capital Prince of the imperial capital, having taken pity on the hardship of Human Valley’s common people — feeling that ordinary citizens were ground down by the pressures of making a living and had lost all interest in normal life, including the natural business of starting families — had deployed the waters of the Spring of Life along with a special substance reportedly called “Fortune and Longevity Like Gold” to develop a secret formula for something called “Harmonious Joy Powder” that reportedly energized the entire populace.
“A Mysterious Pleasure Powder?” Yue Yang was now half-seriously wondering whether Ji Wuri might also be a transmigrator.
“Preposterous.” The principal was offended, feeling this was a fine mind being directed into thoroughly dubious channels — which prompted him to hurriedly talk Yue Yang out of any thoughts of developing his own competing product along the lines of “I Love a Good Root” or “Lecherous Half-Step Madness” as a money-making scheme.
Admittedly, making something like that would certainly turn a profit.
But the profile it would create and the enmity it would attract weren’t worth it.
If his intention for the early stage was to develop quietly and keep a low profile, this was firmly off the table.
Ji Wuri inventing this to raise funds — absolutely brilliant strategy.
And the man was ruthless enough to back it up. To achieve his goal, he’d use any means available, including sacrificing his own reputation without hesitation. That alone showed what kind of person he was.
The Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord and Ji Wuri had both made their moves. What about Captain Kukuo from the Celestial Domain? And what about the Hall of Light Master Zhonghua — tenth son of the Silver Maple City Lord — along with Hall of Darkness Master Wanmo and Hall of Fire Master Ranfeng? How would they respond?
It was becoming clear that the struggles of Human Valley had only just begun to show their real entertainment value.
Still in the warmup phase.
Not yet performing at full intensity.
“All right, then — I’ll sit back and enjoy the show first. Once everyone’s done performing, I’ll hand out rewards one by one. Keep going, all of you — the more spectacular the fighting, the better. Fighting to the death would be the ideal outcome.” Yue Yang was in excellent spirits. His greatest advantage was that nobody knew he’d arrived. For the early stage, he could develop quietly in the background. Of course, Zhonghua’s convenient misidentification of him as an Eastern Immortal Clan heir — providing natural cover — was an added stroke of good fortune on top of everything else.
(End of Chapter)