Yun finally arrived back at their shared quarters before finding Zhu Cai to talk to her. She spent a while telling her about the items she needed first before informing her that she would also receive seven total requests from the other leaders. Zhu Cai was given discretion to determine the extent of the requests that could be fulfilled, but she was also told that Gao Mao was to have the most restrictive options of the five of them.
After finally finishing the conversation about the awarded items, Zhu Cai brought Yun to the forge space to show her something new.
"You aren't aware, but while you were locked in your cultivation chamber I was calling in favors and making something for you."
Saying this, Zhu Cai brought out an armor stand with a set of robes that were almost identical to the ones that she had previously given Yun. Yun was a little surprised, but after a brief visual inspection she didn't see any real difference.
"Cai'er, this looks just like the last one you gave me. What sort of favors did you have to call in?"
Due to her curiosity Yun was a little hesitant to touch the new article, trying to judge what was different herself.
"There are of course quite a few differences from the one you're wearing now, Yun'er. This set of armor robes were specially crafted with your unique strengths in mind! As before it has the spiritual color that I developed, but it's also got quite a bit of improvements. First and foremost, let me show you the easiest to accept."
Zhu Cai reached out and touched the fabric, inserting her spiritual energy into it and changing the color into a Direct Disciple's robes, then withdrew her hand.
"Cai'er, it can hold it's color now?" Yun asked hesitantly.
"Yes, silly. One of the additions was to add an energy gathering array, and since so little energy is needed to maintain the color it's easily able to accomplish this. Speaking of the energy gathering array, let me show you something else it can do!"
Zhu Cai reached out again and began to use her spirit to release the energy in the array, causing an aura of dense energy to appear around the garment. This could be used for all sorts of purposes, including improving defenses or channeling into techniques.
"Alright, this one understands how energy gathering arrays work, so that's not so surprising, what else have you done that's being powered by this trick?"
Yun was a little impatient to see what else Zhu Cai had included that would merit her being so confident in her creation.
"Along with the Element Gathering Array there is obviously a storage array, but there is additionally a material strengthening array and an elemental array. Since we already know the material is great at handling both of your elemental energies I decided that it made sense to increase that affinity and give it the ability to directly channel those energies instead of just transferring them. With this you can increase your elemental skills a few times in battle before you exhaust the energy dedicated to that function. It takes about a day to recharge its energy here in Myhrrwar, but I've heard there are other regions of the world with much more energy available. In those regions I imagine it would recharge a little faster."
Yun sat down and stared at Zhu Cai for a few moments before she could speak again.
"You. . . Really are such a good friend. How much did this even cost you Cai'er? The materials for this couldn't have been easy to acquire, nor the labor!"
Zhu Cai looked at Yun like she was being foolish again before speaking to her, "Did you forget what you've given me? Wild beasts frequently ingest treasures to protect them when they leave their domains. Within the myriad corpses you gave me were a large number of natural resources that could be used for things like this.
"Many of the special gemstones used for array stabilization and maintenance that we normally only obtain from conflicts with the Volvaka were within those corpses, far more than were used to make this uniform. Not just this uniform, with the resources you provided I could make dozens of uniforms before the gems began to truly be depleted!"
Yun was astonished, there was such a good thing!? She stood up and gave Zhu Cai a huge hug, squeezing her tightly.
"Let...me...go! You must have the arms of an Eizuru already! What First Rank Body Tempering? You're definitely at least sixth!"
Yun looked down in embarrassment, not knowing what to say. After a few moments she was preparing to speak when Zhu Cai scolded her again.
"You were definitely just about to tell me something about your cultivation weren't you? Stop right there and think again. Have you still learned nothing? What if someday this information is used against you by someone! I neither want to know nor should know. Go wash yourself up and get ready for dinner, I imagine you have about twelve hours before your Lieutenants finish gathering their teams and want your next instructions."
As Yun continued through her day it turned out Zhu Cai was fairly accurate with her estimate. The first corps to be completed showed up merely an hour after her bath was finished and was her First Lieutenant's group. She gave them some instructions on a meeting place outside the city and expected to be there the next day at noon.
This trend continued throughout the evening, with her Third Lieutenant being the second to present her corps, followed first thing in the morning by Fourth Lieutenant Gao Bao, and finally around mid-morning her Second Lieutenant had approached her with his own group.
Finally all of the corps had been formed and instructed where to meet up. Calling on Long Wuying to have a meeting, Yun prepared for the training exercises to begin in earnest.