Long Chen shook his head. “This isn’t evil. Pill Valley is also thinking like this. They only lowered their heads this time to win their reputation back, and I refuse to believe that they don’t understand what I said. They’re already scheming on how to bring us down. Our enmity with Pill Valley has been completely set in stone. If Pill Valley has a chance, they won’t hesitate to destroy the Xuantian Dao Sect. And if I have a chance, I definitely won’t let them off easy. Don’t get taken in by appearances. The Xuantian Dao Sect looks like it’s rising, but in terms of foundation, it cannot compare to Pill Valley. It might look like we got a large sum from Pill Valley, but to their sales of medicinal pills over tens of thousands of years, it’s nothing. Medicinal pills are the most profitable business. They’ve held monopolies for so many years. No one knows how much wealth they’ve accumulated. Of course, Pill Valley won’t just let that money rot away. They definitely have the ability to transform that wealth into terrifying power. The most powerful existence in this world is money. Why is it that Pill Valley can act so tyrannical to everyone except the Huayun Sect? Because the Huayun Sect has money. The Xuantian Dao Sect doesn’t have a matching wealth for its sudden rise. There are many newcomers that the sect has to raise now, and that’s all money. Furthermore, the sect must be rebuilt. With the great era coming, it must be rebuilt as fast as possible. That all requires an ocean’s worth of resources. So don’t get confused by our victory now. As soon as someone loses their sense of crisis, the real crisis comes.”

Everyone’s hearts shook. After the battle in the Grand Han, Long Chen’s name had shaken the very heavens, and the Dragonblood Legion’s name had rocked the world. They truly had felt very satisfied with that unrivaled state.

Only now did they realize that it was too early to be happy. Things were far from as simple as they seemed.

“Everyone, go into seclusion. Guo Ran, you stay behind.”

Once everyone had left, Guo Ran laughed mischievously. “Boss, are you giving this little brother some special treatment?”

This little fellow was craftier than a monkey. Long Chen was speechless as Guo Ran had guessed right.

“Yes. This time, I gained some new Heavenly Dao Fruits. However, it’s a bit different from what I imagined.”

Long Chen brought Guo Ran somewhere private and took out a Heavenly Dao Fruit.

This Heavenly Dao Fruit was different from before. Before, a Heavenly Dao Fruit had one to nine marks depending on the rank of the Celestial.

However, this one had no marks. It was translucent, and the inside was a mass of primal chaos.

This time, he had gained sixteen of these Heavenly Dao Fruits. Amongst them included Hu Xiaolin and Jin Mingwei’s whose manifestations had reached a state of initial awakening. However, Long Chen found that all of them were the same. The energy fluctuations were also identical.

There was no way to ascertain which ones came from Hu Xiaolin or Jin Mingwei. Long Chen guessed that the Heavenly Dao Tree only absorbed their Heavenly Dao energy, but not their manifestation. Their actual manifestation returned to the heavens.

“Eat one as a test.” Long Chen handed a Heavenly Dao Fruit over.

“Boss, you really treat me well!” Guo Ran was grateful. He knew that in the Dragonblood Legion, he was the only one to obtain this Heavenly Dao Fruit.

“Yup. Eat it.”

Guo Ran devoured it in three gulps. As the Heavenly Dao Fruit entered his stomach, Guo Ran’s expression changed. He suddenly found that his Heavenly Dao energy was evaporating out of his control. It was actually dissipating.

“Boss!” cried Guo Ran.

Long Chen’s expression was also serious. As expected, the Heavenly Dao energy of Empyreans was marked by the Heavenly Daos. Unless someone was approved by the Heavenly Daos, there was no way to absorb it.

Not only could Guo Ran not absorb it, but his rank nine Celestial status was also being stripped away.

It was like someone was caught cheating during a test. Not only were their cheating tools taken away, but even their current accomplishments were eliminated.

“Summon your armor and see if you can lock it in,” said Long Chen.

Guo Ran hastily summoned his armor, covering his entire body. Countless runes lit up.

“Boss, it’s no good!” cried Guo Ran. He was unable to lock in his dissipating energy. Like using a bamboo basket to hold water, there was no way to make it work by just trying harder.

Long Chen placed a hand on his back. “Don’t move. Let me see if I can help you control it.”

Long Chen sent his spiritual yuan throughout Guo Ran’s body, forming a barrier to lock the energy in.

However, no matter how he tried to stop it, he was unable to stop the Heavenly Dao energy from escaping. A person had too many acupuncture points.

If Long Chen used his full power, he could forcibly suppress that energy. He felt like there was an eighty percent chance of success in suppressing it.

However, that would cause Guo Ran’s body to explode instantly. Even Gu Yang would be unable to bear that impact.

Long Chen pulled back his hand, and Guo Ran felt like he was a deflating balloon. All his Heavenly Dao energy escaped.

“Boss, what happened?” asked Guo Ran.

“It’s fine. It’s just that your Heavenly Dao energy disappeared and you’re no longer a Celestial,” said Long Chen.

“Ah? How is that fine?!” Guo Ran jumped. If he didn’t have Heavenly Dao energy, he would basically be crippled.

“Don’t worry, the reason I chose you to test is because you have your armor. I wanted to see if that could lock it in. Since it can’t, it means this wouldn’t work for anyone else either. This experiment is a failure,” said Long Chen helplessly.

“What the fuck, so you were just using me as a guinea pig?! Why was I so grateful?” Guo Ran had a desire to cry tearless tears.

“Don’t worry. Someone had to test it. Since directly consuming it is no good, I’ll come up with some medicinal formulas to refine the Heavenly Dao Fruit into Heavenly Dao Pills. Go and distribute these rank nine Heavenly Dao Fruits. The entire Dragonblood Legion will be full of rank nine Celestials.” Long Chen handed a spatial ring to Guo Ran.

The spatial ring was packed with just enough rank nine Heavenly Dao Fruits to transform each rank seven and rank eight Celestial in the Dragonblood Legion into a rank nine Celestial.

Their gains during the last battle were truly great. The Dragonblood Legion’s power was about to rise once more.

The only thing that depressed Long Chen was that the experiment had failed, resulting in him wasting a possible Empyrean appearing in the Dragonblood Legion.

However, fortunately he had used Guo Ran as an experiment first. Otherwise, if he had distributed them at the start, they would all be wasted.

Long Chen first ran over to Li Tianxuan to see the situation with the formation. The cost of the formation Xia Chen had sent was absolutely terrifying.

“If Pill Valley pays in full, then adding on our current wealth, we can finish about eighty percent of the formation. As for the remaining twenty percent, we can think of something in the future. In any case, building such a huge formation will require a long time,” said Li Tianxuan.

“How long would it take to reconstruct the Xuantian Dao Sect?” asked Long Chen.

“About a hundred years,” said Li Tianxuan.

“A hundred years? That’s way too long!” Long Chen almost jumped.

“A hundred years is already very fast. You should know that when the Xuantian Dao Sect was first built, it took eight hundred years. By the time the formations and buildings were fully built, it had been a thousand years. If you want to complete it faster, it’ll take even more manpower and resources. We don’t have the money,” said Li Tianxuan. It was just as Long Chen said: the Xuantian Dao Sect didn’t have enough money as a foundation.

The main reason was due to the long period of decline. Even though they had revived, their pockets were still empty, and it took a long time to accumulate wealth. Wealth was even more important to a sect’s foundation than geniuses.

“Even so, it’s too long. We can’t wait that long.” Long Chen shook his head.

“I understand. With the great era coming, heavenly geniuses are sprouting up, and countless hibernating sects are awakening. This is an era where countless flowers bloom and strive to outshine the others. However, it’s also the most dangerous era. The slightest carelessness will cause one to be washed out of the era. Unfortunately, we can only do it this way. Just because you want to build it faster doesn’t mean that we can,” said Li Tianxuan helplessly.

“I understand why we can’t, and you understand why we must. But it’s still no good. This formation relates to the Xuantian Dao Sect’s life and death. It has to be constructed in as short of a time as possible,” said Long Chen decisively.

Although he had the support of the Wine God Palace and the Xuantian Dao Sect, and even Qu Jianying had warned others that she would protect Long Chen, he could not entrust the lives of his brothers and himself in the hands of others. That wouldn’t give any sense of safety.

The formation that Xia Chen had sent over had been studied by Li Tianxuan. It was a formation that had vanished from the earth, and it was extremely powerful. If they could construct this formation, then the Xuantian Dao Sect would have established a confident foothold even within the great era.

That was why this formation was a must for Long Chen. It had to be built as fast as possible.

A hundred years was too long. Who knew what would happen in a hundred years? What if someone attacked in the middle of the construction and ruined everything?

“Then how long do you want?” asked Li Tianxuan.

“One to two years,” said Long Chen.

Li Tianxuan and the old Xuan Master sucked in a cold gasp of air. Li Tianxuan said, “Ignoring whether or not that’s physically possible, even if it is, the cost of building it that quickly will be ten times greater than the original estimation,” said Li Tianxuan.

Constructing the Xuantian Dao Sect wasn’t just building houses. The formation had many runes that needed to be nourished for a long time. To have them mature in a short time would require more resources, more wealth. The cost was staggering.

“That’s fine. Xuan Master, you can get started with planning and building the foundation. I’ll think of something for the rest.”

Long Chen left the Xuantian Tower under the shocked gazes of Li Tianxuan and the old Xuan Master. He told the Dragonblood warriors to focus on their cultivation, and he left the Xuantian Dao Sect alone, going directly to the Heaven Splitting Battle Sect.

He didn’t dare to tarry. With the old man’s temper, who knew whether or not he would directly charge the Netherpassage realm in his fury? Without fully preparing, his odds of failure were too high.