Wei Huoran was staring at four light screens floating in front of him, each with a project he had stashed away due to not having the ability to complete it. The first was a portable energy source, something Huoran felt was necessary to further reduce people's dependence on spiritual energy. Huoran's understanding of the world was that spiritual energy was a constant cycle that permeated the world, and occasionally something would occur that caused that power to coalesce into one area. These were what the people in the world call spiritual veins, and when they were undiscovered, large amounts of energy could be stored in the vein. Eventually, the strength of the aura would be discovered, and life on this world would gather to benefit from it.
The vein couldn't last forever as more and more beings moved to the area, and drained it to the point it could no longer substation itself. Huoran's objective was different, monitor the vein's growth rate, and the rate that they were absorbing the spiritual aura. His idea was to do his best to make sure that consumption of power didn't interfere with the expansion of the vein.
He already created some methods to reduce the consumption of Qi spiritual energy by creating artifacts and devices that operated on specific energies. For example, the average high quality spirit stone could have the spiritual energy inside split into the different elements with each type of energy powering an artifact perfectly aligned to it. That being said, there was still a high concentration of spiritual aura that was essentially wasted, and until now, Huoran could only watch it not being utilized.
"Su, can you contact the Sages and arrange a meeting when it's convenient for them?", Huoran requested of his assistant, "I'm heading to my meeting with the ministers now, but something happened last night that Sages will be very interested in. Also while you are handling that, it's acceptable to only have Assissant Lui at this morning's meeting."
"It will be done", Su affirmed.
"I'm very grateful, im heading to the meeting now so unless it's an emergency…" Huoran said.
"…You shouldn't be disturbed", Su finished his sentence.
"Ah, you know me so well, farewell", Huoran ended the call.
Huoran entered his person pod, and soon was in the normal meeting room for the ministers. As he entered, he saw that Ministers Song, Xia, and Xiu were already sitting, but not long afterwards all eighteen ministers where present.
"Shall we begin?", Huoran posed the question to everyone.
"Excellent, I will make this brief then since I have another meeting after this", Huoran announced, "But first, are there any new developments since yesterday?"
Minister Zel raised his hand before saying, "Last night, the new mission was sent out and four of our ships with the new weapon was deployed."
Huoran actually already knew this since he had his QFold in his possession, as well as Quanliyuan monitoring the Grand Formation. Nothing could enter or exit the formation with his knowledge, but he had never shared that with anyone for security purposes.
"That was rather quick, Minister", Huoran commented, "Shouldn't the crews have more time to prepare to leave?"
"It certainly was not the decision of our office to send them out so quickly", Zel explained, "As soon as word got around about the new mission, all the ship's captains volunteered and were ready with hours. Since there was nothing holding them back from leaving, we simply issued the orders and they left."
"How about the forces left to protect the island?", Huoran inquired.
"In between the formation and the martial forces left behind, I believe we are able to defend ourselves from most threats", Zel expressed his opinion.
"Minister Zel, you and Minister Xia might want to attend the next meeting with me as I believe you will be interested in the subjects being discussed", Huoran added.
The two ministers nodded before Huoran continued, "Does anyone have anything else that needs our attention? If not I will begin the meeting about the topic brought up yesterday."
When no one said anything, Huoran spoke, "Now, I'm sure everyone here already knows the subject of today, the completion of the installation of the network access steles in the Nanying continent. Obviously, we can't just connect all the cities together without a grand event, so today I want to hear how you wish to announce this accomplishment to the world."
Over the next hour, the ministers of commerce and entertainment presented their ideas to the group, but Huoran found that it was essentially the same plan as several years ago when the cultivators of the Nanying continent had come to compete.
After they finished, Huoran responded, "I don't want to offend anyone here, but considering the scale of this event, this is rather lacking."
The room seem to deflate a bit, but Huoran continued, "Once we connect all the cities, we need to show them the possibilities made available from this opportunity. The department of administration should be speaking with the leaders of all the cities and sects to coordinate a successful event. The department of commerce needs to find solutions for how customers can purchase products from our island, and have them delivered safely. I want to work with the department of entertainment to develop new music and shows, as well as the introduction of new items. The departments need to work together to ensure a successful launch of the network. To keep this meeting from taking too long, I will write and distribute my ideas to everyone. I'm sure there may be questions now, but let me send out the information first, and I'll answer concerns you have afterwards. For now, I need to end this meeting so I can attend my next one."
All the of ministers with the exception of Xia and Zel slightly bowed to Huoran before they left the room.
Huoran made small talk with the two men before the four Sages and a few of their core disciples entered them room several minutes later.
"I want to thank everyone for being able to attend on short notice", Huoran greeted the Sages, "But I believe once you see what I am about to share today, you will be able to forgive the offense."
"I feel like I've been seeing you too often, brat", Sage Neridia remarked, "Just tell us what you got so we can get back to work."
The other three sages were doing their best to hide their smiles, but Huoran didn't pay attention to them.
"Very well", Huoran smiled as well before speaking, "Here are four projects that we should have the capability of working on now. Three of these are ideas I had sometime ago but we didn't have the capability to creating them, while the last one is a discovery I made last night and is the key to everything. The first project I named 'Eagle Eye', and it's an artifact that will be launched into the sky where it will stay. It will have two complicated array formations inscribed for two separate functions: the first is reconnaissance using advanced arrays to map the land, the second is offensive using arrays to amplify the power of light."
Huoran commanded the holographic artifact in the center of the table to display a recreation of his description. The Sages and Ministers watched as several small artifacts rose from the land to the edge of the sky, and began to orbit a sphere.
Sage Hong was the first to ask, "Why are the artifacts circling this ball?"
"According to my master, Sage Hong, our land appears as such if you view it from a great distance", Huoran explained, "If I were to take the land we have already mapped using the flying ships, this ball would look more like this."
When Huoran fine his statement, he touched the sphere in the middle, and the land that had already been scanned by flying ship appeared. He touched it again, and the sphere started orbiting a small sun with the four moons of the world orbiting it.
"My master taught me that this is how day and night happen, but I'm getting off topic", Huoran changed the subject as he refocused the hologram back on the world, "These new artifacts will circle our world much like the moon, but with powerful image recorders pointed towards us. Once each artifact completes one cycle, it will send that information to us. As for the second function, if we wish to attack a target from far away or from above, we can command the artifact. Using power from the fourth project, as well as power collected from the sun, the artifact will attack our designated target."
The hologram in the middle changed again as it now displayed the artifact attack a city from orbit. The audience all had solemn looks on their face before Sage Neridia spoke up, "Brat, I thinks it's obvious that I should work on this."
"I believe that is the correct choice as well", Huoran agreed, "I should mention one last feature of the attack, as more artifact align, the stronger the attack is."
One final hologram appeared that had two, the three, and finally four artifacts align. Each time the beam from the artifacts became bigger, stronger, and brighter.
"I don't believe more needs to said", Huoran remarked as he sent the plans to Sage Neridia, "I believe the next two projects can be accomplished by both Sage Vigol and Sage Wutang as it could be a formation or a talisman. I have named them projects 'Ice Age' and 'Sunfire'."
The two Sages were excited as the projector changed to a new recording, and watched as it played. In the first demonstration, an animated video showed a drone dropping a talisman into the ocean, and the sages were amazed as they watched nearly one hundred miles of water instantly freeze. The video changed again as another animated clip showed a cultivator setup an array formation, and place an sheep inside. Then he walked out of the array, and activated it, but the sages were surprised because they couldn't detect any changes to the sheep for a few seconds. Suddenly, the sheep cried out in pain as it exploded into a bloody mess.
While the Sages were old men that had seen many things over their lifetime, Huoran could tell they were concerned about the Sunfire killing array.
"I would recommend doing all your research in simspace, and contacting me before you test these projects", Huoran stated as he sent his files to Sages Vigol and Wutang, "As for Sage Hong, this is the first time we will collaborate on a project, but this one will probably have the biggest impact."
Sage Hong smiled at Huoran, "Unless you created a miraculous pill that's never been seen before, I'm not sure what I can contribute."
"I'm sure everyone here is familiar with beast cores, as well as the 'stones' that have been causing problems in the Shuo continent", Huoran commented.
The Ministers and Sages confirmed they were familiar with these things before Huoran continued, "Let me play another recording for you, and display a few images of some discoveries I recently made."
Huoran sent another command to the holographic projector, and it played an older recording of the battle versus that Holder of the Cat stone. When it finished Huoran told everyone about how he had to dig the stone out of the newly fused object before displaying a new image of himself holding two orbs in his hands.
"As you can see, one of the stones is the Stone of the Cat, but the other is not", Huoran said, "But if you pay close attention you can see the second state closely resembles the first. It turns out that the 'Stones' aren't stones at all, instead they are beast cores that had spiritual Qi crystallized around it, and inscriptions etched into it."
This revelation shocked everyone in the room as they tried to consider the possibilities this could bring.
"The project that you will lead will be creation of these orbs, Sage Hong", Huoran stated, "But we don't want them looking like the accidental creation in the image."
"Then what is it that you want, Daoist Wei?", Hong asked in a careful manner.
"We need to be able to inscribe the orb", Huoran explained, "This project will have to be carried out with extreme caution and precision. From my understanding, we have many storage rings of beast cores from the slaughter house that are useless and taking up space. Those will be sent to you to perfect the process. The first step will be to clear the core of any soul energy that may linger inside, I understand that will cause the core to dissipate faster, but it's necessary. Step two will be to a furnace that uses gravity to fused Qi into a crystallized layer around the core. Then we can start adding inscriptions to the outer layer, afterwards we repeat the second step until the orb is complete or too many layers are added, and the whole thing collapses."
"Collapses?", Hong said in shock, "Why would that happen?"
"Because the cores we will use will not have souls inside", Huoran answered her, "If too much Qi is fused to the soulless core, it will destabilize and collapse, disintegrating into spiritual aura or exploding, I don't know which. This is why we will use simspace to find out."
"I accept this task, Daoist Wei, but what is the direction of research?", Hong asked him.
"The first will be to turn the beast cores that no one uses into a power source", Huoran told them, "One of the biggest reasons 'Eagle Eyes' stayed stored away for too long was that I didn't have a reliable way to power it as it as it circled the world. But if these orbs are installed inside, the artifact can use spiritual Qi when it's available, or power itself by the orbs inside when Qi is not available. With this is mind, I can only imagine how many ways we can use this in the future. The second path of research I wish you to follow is something I found out yesterday. As everyone here knows, cultivators can't safely absorb the energy stored inside a beast core because it's too chaotic, and will damage the person who tries."
Sage Vigol laughed, "Of course, what fool would attempt to do such a thing. Only desperate people would try, but they probably wouldn't live to see another day."
"Well Sage Vigol, if it turns out that we can safely use the energy from a beast core to power artifacts, the same should happen for cultivators."
The Sages and Ministers couldn't believe it! If this was true, then Sun & Moon island would grow even faster, and be even more powerful than before. They wanted to deny that it was possible, but when they considered the Senior that support Wei Huoran, they decided they had to try.
As their imaginations began to run wild, Huoran cleared his throat, and everyone returned to reality.
"Now is the part of the meeting that has to be said, even if I don't want to", Huoran gave everyone a serious look, "Ministers Xia and Zel, there were two reasons why I invited you today. The first one is obvious as I wanted to inform you of new weapons that will soon be produced for you to better defend the island. The second reason is because as of now only the people in this room have knowledge of the new discoveries, especially about beast cores, and it will be your charge to protect these secrets. Although I will be monitoring everyone to prevent betrayals, you will need to have officials present to protect our researchers, or kill anyone who wishes to steal our knowledge. Also you will work with the other departments to acquire beast cores that other continents have, but as of now, it will be a crime to kill a beastkin and attempt to sell it to us. We will accept any and all cores from magical beast, but we will not turn beastkin into prey."
Everyone suddenly understood the wisdom of Huoran's words, and nodded in agreement.