"He was standing outside the yard, holding a piece of Sea of Bitterness in his hand."
As soon as Tongtian's words left Magic Formation, someone slapped Ruined Temple's courtyard door from the outside.
It's not pushing, it's shooting.
The dust on the door panel shook down a layer, the hinges creaked, and the entire door bounced inwards, hit the wall and bounced back, before being caught firmly by a hand.
That hand was Number One larger than a normal person's hand, and the knuckles were as thick as old bamboo roots. The skin on the back of the hand was dark brown, and the veins were raised, like exposed tree roots on the ground.
Zhao Gongming stood at the entrance of the courtyard.
The person is half a head shorter than Nezha, but when viewed sideways, he can support the width of two Nezhas.
He was wearing a wrinkled black robe, and the corners of the robe were half wet. A liquid that didn't look like water was dripping down into the cracks in the stone slabs on the ground, and the stones made small bubbles with a sizzling sound.
His face had the texture of being soaked in sand and Sea of Bitterness for nine thousand years. The wrinkles were deeper than tree bark. A pair of eyes stared out from the wrinkles. The whites of the eyes were yellow and the pupils were pitch black, so dark that it was impossible to tell the depth.
He held a palm-sized black token in his left hand. The token had the words "Sea of Bitterness" engraved on it, and the strokes were twisted like an insect crawling.
He held an unsheathed short knife in his right hand, and the blade was covered with a layer of white powder like salt frost.
Nezha took two steps back from the door of the Great Hall and took a breath.
"Coming."
Zhao Gongming's eyes crossed the yard, passed through the Great Hall's door, scanned the people inside, and finally landed on Gu Changqing who was sitting on the Taishi's chair.
"Nine thousand years."
He spoke, his throat was like a grinding wheel grinding iron, with a hint of saltiness coming from Sea of Bitterness Abyss.
"No one has called me for nine thousand years. I thought you were all dead, but when Edict came, it was for a war."
Gu Changqing Put down the tea bowl.
"Sit."
"Don't sit down."
Zhao Gongming took a step towards the yard, the soles of his boots hitting the stone slabs with a dull sound, "Let's make it clear first, who to hit, where to hit, and how long to hit."
"Hit Great Thousand Origin Realm, over Boundary Sea, until there is no need to hit."
Zhao Gongming's yellow eyes turned white.
"Great Thousand Origin Realm? I've heard about that place once and it's said to be the root of Myriad Worlds."
"It's the root."
"You want to pull out the roots too?"
"Don't pull up the roots, pull up the door."
Zhao Gongming pinned the token in his left hand to his waist, inserted the short knife into his robe, and walked in the Great Hall.
I glanced at Nezha when I passed by.
"Are you short again?"
Nezha's temple jumped.
"I'm not short, you're dazzled."
"Sea of Bitterness It takes nine thousand years to soak my eyes. You are really short. Last time we met, you reached my ears, and now you reach my chin."
"That's because you have a hunchback."
Zhao Gongming didn't answer, he just pulled up a chair and sat down. The chair creaked twice under his weight but did not collapse.
Tongtian walked in from outside the yard, followed by two Heavenly Soldier. Heavenly Soldier each carried a black box in his hand. The seal of the box had the same twisted words as the Zhao Gongming token.
"The main body of Twenty-Four Universe Sea of Bitterness is stored in these two boxes. Zhao Gongming took it with him as soon as he left the customs."
Tongtian walked next to Gu Changqing and lowered his voice for half a minute.
Zhao Gongming's fingers drew a line on the table, and his fingernails scraped the wood with a squeaking sound.
"Tongtian, Edict I saw, fifty million Heavenly Soldier across the Boundary Sea expedition, what luck do you plan to take?"
Tongtian is waiting for this sentence.
What he took out from his sleeve was not a prescription paper, but a piece of blueprint folded in four.
When the drawings were unfolded on the table, the tea bowl on the table slid to the side by two inches.
What is drawn on the drawing is a Formation.
It's not an ordinary Formation, the lines are so dense with Runes that it makes your scalp feel tight.
Nezha came over to take a look, and then retracted his head.
"Can't understand."
Zhao Gongming, on the other hand, stared at the drawing without moving his gaze. His black pupils scanned back and forth between the lines of Runes a dozen times.
"Immortal Slaying Formation?"
Tongtian nodded.
"A variant of Immortal Slaying Formation, I spent three thousand years recasting Formation Diagram. I dismantled and rearranged the attack and killing structure of the original Immortal Slaying Formation, added a set of space penetration and shield overlay modules, and used it to make an expedition vanguard main battleship."
Zhao Gongming's fingers pressed on the largest Runes in the center of the drawing, and his fingertips felt the faint vibration coming from underneath the paper.
"You mean Immortal Slaying Formation folded into a boat?"
"It's not a ship, it's Formation Ship."
Tongtian's finger traced from the lower left corner to the upper right corner of the drawing, "The entire Formation will cover a range of thirty thousand miles when expanded, and compressed into a thousand mile long hull after being folded, which can carry all fifty million Expeditionary Army."
Zhao Gongming whistled, the sound was as rough as a saw pulling wood.
"Three thousand years for this?"
"This is enough."
Gu Changqing spoke next to him and pointed at several nodes on the drawing.
"Tongtian, Main Battle Core from Pioneer Formation Ship, who will sit?"
"I'll sit by myself."
Zhao Gongming changed his sitting position on the chair, and the chair made another noise.
"Tongtian is sitting on Main Battle Core, where are the left and right wings?"
Gu Changqing looked at Yang Jian standing at the door, and then at Nezha squatting next to the threshold.
"Yang Jian left wing, Nezha right wing."
Nezha's gun barrel turned half a circle in his hand.
"Okay."
Yang Jian said nothing, took his hand away from the handle of the knife, and accepted the request.
"Who will provide the intermediate support?" Zhao Gongming asked.
"Kong Xuan."
Zhao Gongming's eyebrows raised half an inch.
"That old Peacock? He's still alive?"
"Not only is he alive, but he also practiced Five-Colored Divine Light to Seventh weight in the past few years."
Tongtian folded the drawing again, "Five-Colored Divine Light can restrain more than 80% of the space mutants in the Boundary Sea. It is most suitable to use him in the center as a countermeasure."
Zhao Gongming tapped his fingers twice on the table.
"What about me?"
"You open the way."
Gu Changqing said two words, Zhao Gongming's expression changed, and the wrinkles at the corners of his mouth formed an upward arc.
"Use Sea of Bitterness?"
"Your Twenty-Four Universe Sea of Bitterness can suppress the space fluctuations of the Boundary Sea. The stability of the entire army's waterway depends entirely on you."
Zhao Gongming stood up from the chair, and the chair legs scratched two white marks on the stone slab.
"I haven't touched my hands in nine thousand years, and my bones are almost rusty. It's just right."
He walked to the two black boxes and patted the lid with his right hand. The seal cracked and a strong salty smell came out of the box, like the mud from thousands of ocean trenches that had been mixed together and fermented for thousands of years.
Nezha's nose wrinkled up.
"Old man Zhao, can you seal that thing better?"
"Do you dislike the smell?"
Zhao Gongming didn't look back, "You will miss this taste when you eat Boundary Sea."
Tongtian has laid out a larger drawing in the corner of the Great Hall, which shows the organization structure of the entire Expeditionary Army.
Fifty million Heavenly Soldier are divided into three legions, each legion has twelve front armies, and each front army is divided into six Battle Formation.
One hundred and eight Battle Formation guard Immortal Slaying Formation Battleship, Formation Ship is in the center, and Sea of Bitterness clears the way.
Yang Jian walked to the drawing and took a look.
"Departure time?"
"Three days later."
Tongtian pointed to the assembly point marked on the drawing, "The entire army will gather at the void anchor point of the Firmament Realm's first Star Domain, and cut into the Boundary Sea from there."
Zhao Gongming walked back from the box and sat back on the chair.
"Is three days enough?"
"It must be enough even if it's not enough."
Gu Changqing's voice came from the Taishi Chair.
"The barriers are being dismantled over there. Once they are dismantled, we will be passive."
Zhao Gongming was chewing something in his mouth. It was unclear whether he was clenching his teeth or grinding his molars.
Kelān remained silent in the corner, but stood up when he heard this.
"Mr. Gu, I can provide reference for the route of the Boundary Sea."
Nezha turned his head.
"Do you still know the way to the Boundary Sea?"
"Thief Race has fixed smuggling channels in the Boundary Sea. I have handled the coordinate data of three channels."
Gu Changqing glanced at her.
"Take it out."
Kelān took out a piece of silver Chip the size of a fingernail from under his cloak and placed it on the table.
A layer of translucent holographic projection floats on the surface of Chip. Three curved light rays intersect in the void, and each line is marked with densely packed coordinate points.
Zhao Gongming leaned over and took a look, and the whites of his yellow eyes rolled around.
"This road goes far enough."
"The reason for the long detour is to avoid the space tear zone deep in the Boundary Sea."
Kelān's finger clicked on two locations on the projection, "Here and here are two known permanent space faults. If you walk in a straight line, you will hit them."
Tongtian's eyes moved from the compilation drawing and stared at those two points for three breaths.
"My Immortal Slaying Formation Battleship can punch through space faults."
"You can get through it, but the Legion can't get through it."
Kelān's fingers were confiscated, "Formation Ship can withstand the impact, but the Battle Formation behind can't. Not everyone with fifty million Heavenly Soldier has the means of Immortal Emperor Level's body protection."
Tongtian said nothing.
Zhao Gongming flicked the projection with his finger.
"How many more days will the detour take?"
"Two days."
"It's a good deal to exchange the lives of 50 million people in two days."
After Zhao Gongming finished speaking, he looked at Gu Changqing.
Gu Changqing's fingers stopped on the armrest.
"Use her channel, Zhao Gongming to calibrate simultaneously when opening the road ahead, and deal with any changes on the channel that are not marked on the spot."
Kelān pushed the silver Chip to the middle of the table.
"One more thing."
"Say."
"There is something deep in the Boundary Sea."
Nezha's gun tip was raised half an inch.
"What?"
The miniature Star Map in Kelān's silver-gray pupils spun twice, at a slower speed than usual, as if recalling some distant scene.
"I walked through the Boundary Sea once, and met a group of living creatures on the way back. Thief Race people call them Abyssal Beast. They have been soaking in the Boundary Sea's Origin all year round and have grown up by devouring space debris. The largest one is about the same size as a small Planet."
Zhao Gongming's fingers stopped on the table.
"Five Elements Immortal Magic can defeat you?"
Kelān shook his head.
"It can't be beaten. Their shells are the product of Boundary Sea Origin Crystal ization. The Five Elements magic and ordinary magic weapons are like scratching an itch."
The air in the Great Hall dropped for two breaths.
Nezha placed Fire-Tipped Spear across his knees, rubbing the lines on the gun barrel back and forth with his fingers.
"How many heads does that thing have?"
Kelān's lips moved.
"I only encountered seven of them that time, but it was the largest encounter ever recorded in Thief Race's channel log."
"How much?"
"More than three hundred heads."