The crystal walls of the Great Sun Celestial Pool rotated as it traveled through the dark realm.
Jiang Ding sat cross-legged in the Solar Abyss, cultivating in silence, unaware of the passing years.
At one point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a faint spatial ripple outside the pool's crystal walls.
Through that ripple, dozens of space carriers and tens of thousands of warships and fighters teleported into the Great Sun Celestial Pool. After circling briefly inside it, they flew toward the Solar Abyss.
With a wave of his hand, Jiang Ding temporarily sealed off the Solar Abyss's destructive heat and eroding sword intent, forming a passage. He rose to meet them.
The fleet of space carriers stopped. More than fifty Nascent Soul True Lords flew out, led by a square-faced, middle-aged man at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.
"Hello, Professor Jiang!"
The middle-aged man saluted and introduced himself. "I'm Liu Futong, director of the Immortal Sect Battleship Research Institute. I've been ordered to conduct a preliminary inspection of the Great Sun Celestial Pool and compile the necessary data so that, when our seniors join the project, they can study the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's shipbuilding technology and strengthen the Immortal Sect's shipbuilding expertise."
Liu Futong felt uneasy.
The man before him was only at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, below his own level, yet facing him in person made Liu Futong instinctively struggle to breathe.
There was no pressure bearing down on him. It was purely psychological, as though he stood before a true Spirit Transformation Heavenly Lord.
"Director Liu, hello. You're too courteous."
Jiang Ding answered politely.
This had been arranged long ago.
The Immortal Sect was deeply interested in the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's shipbuilding technology. It believed this place might hold the key