As the immortal art fragment was unsealed, then concealed beneath layer upon layer of the Immortal Sect's grand array, everyone in the Immortal Sect sank into contemplation.
That surprised no one. It was only natural.
The Immortal Sect had studied the immortal art fragment for over five thousand years, almost as long as the Great Sun Heavenly Lord had lived. Drawing inspiration from it, the Immortal Sect had made enormous breakthroughs in cultivation methods, warships, magical treasures, and spells.
One example was the Taiyi Netherworld Sky-Patrolling Arrow, a seventh-tier cornerstone weapon of the Immortal Sect. It remained active in the skies of the Horn Nether Domain, roaming through the domain's Primordial Magnetism Heavenly Law Web.
Over the past thousand years, advances in refining materials, inscribed arrays, and technology had increased the arrow's power by roughly thirty percent while sharply reducing its cost. The Immortal Sect had made three more.
If the Immortal Orders' mighty cultivators thought they could crush the Immortal Sect simply by cultivating, breaking through, and making great leaps in strength, they were gravely mistaken.
Time flowed like water. The Immortal Sect's many Void Refining cultivators remained immersed in contemplation.
Jiang Ding kept watch. He did not even divide his attention to cultivate; all of it stayed here.
"The Immortal Sect's advantage in immortal industry..."
With nothing else to do, Jiang Ding's thoughts drifted.
The Immortal Sect's immortal civilization had grown out of an industrial civilization in a material universe. Its greatest strength was mass replication and expansion: as production increased, costs fell dramatically.
The Immortal Sect could not say the same of crossing major cultivation realms. That was difficult.
But when it came to growing stronger within the same realm, the Immortal Sect feared no Immortal Order!
Of course, the Immortal Orders could not be underestimated either.