"Even when piloted by a Golden Core cultivator, its speed far surpasses ordinary Spirit Transformation cultivators flying by ordinary means.
"It can also draw upon the ambient spiritual power as an energy source, so you need not worry about personal energy depletion. Within this spiritual qi-rich environment of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens, its effectiveness is even more outstanding."
As Qi Buyi spoke, the black-gold Sky-Soaring Shuttle in her hand shimmered, and in the blink of an eye, it split apart into numerous identical copies.
They transformed into streaks of fine black light, arriving before each person present.
"You may explore the wonders of the Sky-Soaring Shuttle for yourselves shortly."
As Li Fan drew the flying artifact before him into his hand, he immediately sensed a wave of icy, clear coldness.
The moment his divine sense made contact, a crisp, mechanical voice instantly appeared in his mind.
"Permissions confirmed.
"Subsidiary Unit 0-16 activated.
"Current Pilot: Li Fan.”
The moment the Sky-Soaring Shuttle activated, its usage methods and various details requiring attention sequentially appeared in Li Fan's mind.
Li Fan couldn't help but feel his eyes brighten. While he secretly praised it in his heart, he also felt a twinge of regret.
A fine treasure. In terms of speed alone, it's even a bit faster than Zhong Shentong's multicolored divine light.
But it's just a subsidiary unit. All its functions are subject to restrictions.
Not only that, but the Sky-Soaring Shuttle's operational status, positional information, and basically everything that occurs within it are likely under surveillance.
Li Fan privately speculated.
Before everyone could fully familiarize themselves with the Sky-Soaring Shuttles, Qi Buyi produced several dozen rectangular jade slips and distributed them.
Li Fan took his. On the palm-sized jade slip, a black dot immediately manifested.
"Qi Buyi."
Upon contact with his divine sense, he instantly sensed this name.
Then, options such as Communication, Marking, Transmission, and Sharing emerged.
"This is the Celestial Oversight Ledger, also specially equipped by the Alliance for your convenience as you collaborate. It already contains a complete map of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.
"After logging your personal information into the Celestial Oversight Ledger, you can synchronize and share your location in real time.
"Anyone holding a Celestial Oversight Ledger can view this information at any time."
Qi Buyi continued her dutiful explanation for the group.
"Moreover, if you encounter special circumstances, you can also mark and annotate locations on the map to share the update.
"When you need to contact a specific member privately, you can also do so through the Celestial Oversight Ledger.
"Now, please proceed with your logins."
Li Fan pondered briefly, then sent his divine sense into the jade slip.
Moments later, on the jade slip's display, a small black dot representing Li Fan appeared.
One by one, the cultivators around him also appeared synchronously on the Celestial Oversight Ledger's display.
A thought stirred in Li Fan's mind. Under his control, he zoomed the view out.
Instantly, the entire map of the water attribute grotto-heaven appeared before his eyes in perfect detail.
Apart from the black dots representing individuals, there were blue markers for locations of rare materials, red markers for dangerous zones, and forbidden areas marked with only one or two "X's"—places they were absolutely not recommended to visit.
There were even constantly moving golden markers, representing the powerful, primitive lifeforms native to the water attribute grotto-heaven.
Like a man dying of thirst, Li Fan greedily synchronized all the map information into the Dao Transformation Stone crystal within his sea of consciousness, firmly preserving it.
The style of this map...
In the midst of pilfering the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s secrets, Li Fan suddenly found the map before him strangely familiar.
A moment later, he understood.
Back during the incident of the cart-pulling azure ox and Fuzi, which had led to the inexplicable deaths of dozens of cultivators, he, as the sole survivor, had been investigated by the Heavenly Mechanism Hall.
There, he had seen a similar map, one that marked countless secrets across the entire Congyun Sea.
The Celestial Oversight Ledger. So it seems this isn't limited to just the Congyun Sea and the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.
Perhaps every province under the Myriad Immortals Alliance's jurisdiction has such maps drawn.
Just as Li Fan was pondering this, Qi Buyi had already begun mobilization.
"The situation is urgent, and there's little time for rest. Shortly, I will share the construction plans for the Spirit-Locking Array in the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens with all of you.
"Each of your specific duties will be clearly explained. All you need to do is diligently execute the established plan.
“Of course, if anyone is able to go beyond their assigned duties, so much the better.”
Qi Buyi concluded, "As you saw on the Celestial Oversight Ledger map, aside from our Myriad Immortals Alliance, this water attribute grotto-heaven currently hosts some primitive beings.
"They are powerful, but possess little intelligence. They generally remain in fixed locations and do not attack proactively.
"Simply avoid them. If you truly encounter danger, escape using the Sky-Soaring Shuttle..."
Once the briefing was complete, Li Fan received his mission objective.
Because the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens were on the verge of convergence, the plan for constructing the Spirit-Locking Array here differed slightly from other regions.
The main structure of the array was to be deployed in the void outside the grotto-heavens.
Inside the grotto-heavens, only the corresponding connecting array units would be built at key nodes.
These would then be protected with special materials, ensuring the array would remain intact even after the five elements converged.
The protective material was said to be Eternal Calamity Gold, capable of withstanding the test of primordial chaos destruction.
Such a treasure would naturally be deployed personally by key individuals.
What Li Fan needed to do was no different from his previous tasks in the Roaring Abyss and the Spirit-Transforming Ravine. It was basically manual labor, constructing the foundational structural units of the array.
He harbored little complaint.
After Qi Buyi announced the commencement of operations, Li Fan took out his Sky-Soaring Shuttle, silently reciting the command in his mind.
The black-gold object instantly came to life, flowing like liquid to envelop his entire body.
In the blink of an eye, it formed a teardrop-shaped armor around him.
"Fly!"
At his command, Li Fan transformed into a streak of black light and tore through the sky, encased by the Sky-Soaring Shuttle.
The consumption of my own spiritual power is almost negligible. As long as there is some ambient spiritual qi, I can maintain this speed indefinitely.
Li Fan savored the sensation of piloting the Sky-Soaring Shuttle.
As he flew, the black-gold fluid around him gradually turned transparent, allowing him to observe the surrounding scenery without obstruction.
Air resistance and even sound were isolated from him. It did not feel like he was in rapid flight at all.
Only the constantly receding, shifting landscape, slightly distorted by the extreme speed, was proof of his flight velocity.
Extreme speed and extreme stillness, two utterly contradictory states, coexisting at the same time, caused Li Fan to feel a slight discomfort.
But soon, a prompt from the Sky-Soaring Shuttle echoed in his mind—the sound level of the external world could be adjusted.
He allowed a sliver of ambient noise to filter in, breaking the absolute silence.
Immediately, that sense of unease vanished.
With his mind locked onto the coordinates marked in the Celestial Oversight Ledger, Li Fan shot forward in a perfectly straight line toward his destination.