"That's the gist of it. Neither the Director nor I can be sure if the person who gave me this information came from the Wizard World, or if it was the Great Wizard who sent me here. But even if we can't figure out their true intentions, this technique is incredibly useful. I definitely won't be able to learn the Spatial Guidance Art within a year, so I hope you can master it."
Li Ban recounted his discussion with the Director to Zhu Yao.
After deciding to use the Spatial Guidance Art, he made up his mind: whether anyone else learned it or not, he needed Zhu Yao to master it.
Even if they managed to recruit twenty or thirty priests in the future, Zhu Yao would still be the person Li Ban trusted most.
To prevent anyone from trying something funny, he had to ensure that either he or Zhu Yao could perform the Spatial Guidance Art. That way, if anything went wrong, they would be the first to find out.
"No problem. No matter what else we do, learning the Spatial Guidance Art will be my top priority for the foreseeable future."
After making her promise, Zhu Yao noticed Li Ban didn't seem to have anything else to say. She couldn't help but ask, "You and the Director—did my situation affect your partnership?"
Li Ban smiled to comfort her. "Of course not. We both know exactly what we need to do. You don't need to worry."
In truth, Li Ban knew that whatever Zhu Yao might have done to the Ring World, it had, at most, only accelerated its destruction.
Yet, at his rate of progress, even in his final year, people were only just beginning to become priests. They were a long, long way from producing a Great Wizard.
Gu Yi had been resolute enough to destroy himself, splitting his mind into millions of spiritual bodies, but even that hadn't been enough to save the Ring World.
It simply came down to one thing: there hadn't been enough time.
And judging by how the Great Wizard and the priests treated other minor worlds, it was obvious they wouldn't go out of their way to save a minor world on the brink of destruction.
Because in the Shattered Realm, minor worlds vanished on a regular basis.
While such an event was an apocalyptic catastrophe for the minor world itself, to everyone else, it happened so frequently they couldn't even be bothered to pay attention.
Though Zhu Yao felt slightly relieved, her emotions remained a tangled mess.
"People cannot truly empathize with others in desperate straits until they face that same desperation. We white-robed priests always emphasized cultivating the mind, but we mostly practiced it from the perspective of bystanders. It's no wonder that the further a white-robed priest progresses, the harder it is to advance. By the time we were swept into the Recycling Station, a very long time had passed without a new Great Wizard emerging."
Hearing Zhu Yao's lament, a sudden thought struck Li Ban. He guessed, "Zhu Yao, do you think that because the Wizard World went so long without a new Great Wizard, its progress got deleted?"
Zhu Yao frowned. "Some of us have guessed that too. But it doesn't explain why the history of every iteration is virtually identical. If the Great Wizard believed the Wizard World had no future developing like this, why not interfere every time it reset? At the very least, they should have made us aware of our own flaws. Otherwise, we're just repeating the same mistakes over and over again."
"You make a good point."
Li Ban swirled the cup in front of him.
He obviously didn't have any cola, so he had simply poured a cup of plain water for himself and Zhu Yao.
"I was just guessing earlier that the actions and words of the Great Wizard who sent me here were restricted. Could it be that the ultimate Wizard Lord... isn't actually entirely free, either?"
Zhu Yao was speechless for a moment.
That was the ultimate Wizard Lord, the direct creator of the Wizard World.
An existence standing above the three great Wizard Lords of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, the Imperial Dynasty, and the Mist Realm.
Could a being like that actually face restrictions?
Shouldn't they be able to do whatever they pleased?
"Forget it, let's not overthink this." Li Ban set down his cup, watching the clear water gently slosh inside without spilling over the rim. "Those are entities far beyond our reach. Right now, we only have one thing to do."
Zhu Yao softly finished his thought. "Charge into the Sea of Monsters and leave the Recycling Station."
In the days that followed, everyone became busy.
The Director sent out messages, inviting the camps near the continent to join an online conference.
Li Ban didn't attend the meeting. He made a few more trips to Heaven Beyond Heaven.
Unfortunately, even after the insect tide had receded, he couldn't get in touch with the people from the Unreturning Place.
He guessed their communication channels had been blocked by someone.
After failing to establish contact a few times, Li Ban stopped going. He focused his attention on studying how to use the Spatial Teleportation Portal within the Sea of Monsters alongside the Director and Chen Dong.
At the same time, he sent his team members to search the surrounding areas for waste elements.
If they found a place possessing many waste elements—like a monster lair—Li Ban would personally head out to harvest them and stockpile more Spirit Rhino White Seeds.
One of the promises the Director used to recruit other priests to brave the Sea of Monsters was: During battle, unlimited spiritual rhinoceros.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yao didn't spend all her time with Li Ban.
The Spatial Guidance Art wasn't the kind of spell someone could master just by resolving to learn it, let alone pick it up quickly.
However, since the method for using the spell was already mostly established, Zhu Yao adopted a somewhat opportunistic approach to her studies.
Normally, the Spatial Guidance Art required different mental shifts depending on the space being guided.
Zhu Yao knew the spaces she needed to guide were Heaven Beyond Heaven and the Sea of Monsters. Therefore, she specifically designed the spell's mental shifts for these two locations.
Next, she had to constantly familiarize herself with both places, modify the spell, and memorize the sequence of the mental shifts. She needed all three hundred and sixty-five mental shifts to become pure instinct.
Only by doing this could she cast the spell as quickly as possible and avoid making simple mistakes.
Because of this, she spent her days either holing up in Heaven Beyond Heaven or observing near the Sea of Monsters.
As for the other priest in Li Ban's team, Huinv, she did as she pleased.
Occasionally, she would join Li Ban to harvest waste elements.
Even without him saying a word, she could guess that Li Ban had a special way of using the waste elements, but she didn't care.
If Zhu Yao went to the Sea of Monsters, Priest Huinv would tag along, ostensibly as a guard. But in reality, just like Zhu Yao, she'd spend her time staring blankly into the Sea of Monsters.
Li Ban secretly suspected she believed the person she had been searching and waiting for was somewhere in the Sea of Monsters.
Priest Huinv was different from everyone else; she wasn't following Li Ban just to leave the Recycling Station.
Li Ban couldn't exactly bring himself to criticize her, so he just let her be.
Fortunately, she was a powerful Dark Moon Priest. Even if she was constantly distracted, she was still a massive help to them.
Guo Kao had already confirmed he wouldn't be participating in the frontal assault on the Sea of Monsters. Usually, he assisted the Director in contacting other camps and conducted whatever small experiments he could to pitch in.
Time flew by as everyone buried themselves in their work.
Even with the Director's prestige and resources, gathering thirty priests still took nearly two months.
If the people living in the Continental Center weren't mostly those who hadn't given up on leaving the Recycling Station, that timeframe could have easily multiplied.
But what truly swayed those priests was the Director's promise: "unlimited spiritual rhinoceros."
Many of them were deeply skeptical. If the person saying it had been anyone other than the Director—who never personally took action—they likely would have cursed and walked away.
For the Director's sake, after two months of deliberation, the various camps dispatched their people to an abandoned camp near Wanghai Cliff for a face-to-face discussion.
The abandoned site had originally been known as the Priest Camp. In fact, it was the very camp that Zhu Yao, Huinv, and many other priests once belonged to.
It was a pity that this camp—the closest one to Wanghai Cliff—had been completely crippled after two large-scale assaults on the Sea of Monsters failed. They couldn't even fend off routine monster invasions anymore and had been forced to abandon it entirely.
The survivors either left the Continental Center—like Zhu Yao and Huinv—or were absorbed by other nearby camps.
For such a crucial gathering, naturally, full attendance was required. Even Zhu Yao rushed back from Heaven Beyond Heaven.
The sole exception was the Director, who had Allen attend in his stead. The Director communicated with everyone through the voice tube on Allen's chest.
At first, Li Ban worried the others might view the Director's absence as a lack of sincerity. But as it turned out, everyone was already used to it.
"The Director really knows how to lay low," Li Ban marveled.
With that realization, Li Ban and his team stepped into the once-glorious Priest Camp.
The footprint of the Priest Camp wasn't particularly large. Much like Underwoods Camp, it was an underground settlement.
Because the Continental Center lacked natural defensive terrain, the vast majority of camps were built underground.
After entering the Continental Center, they had made a beeline for Wanghai Cliff, barely interacting with anyone from other camps. It had been a long time since they had seen a crowd this big.
The original population of the Priest Camp hadn't been large, but because nearly everyone there was a priest—with only a small fraction of ordinary people handling logistics and support—it had still boasted the strongest combat force among the neighboring camps.
The underground space was vast, but its facilities were barren and simple. It was glaringly obvious that the original priests never believed they would be stuck in this mysterious space for long.
When the people summoned by the Director reappeared in the camp, the space easily accommodated them all.
Zhu Yao, attending alongside Li Ban, felt an even deeper sense of melancholy.
They hadn't arrived at the Priest Camp particularly early. Some eager priests had even showed up a day in advance.
After they underwent identity verification using technology provided by the Director, the camp's gates swung open, welcoming Li Ban and his team inside.
Almost no one here knew Li Ban, but practically all of them had heard of Zhu Yao to some degree. There were even priests present who used to belong to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
However, hundreds of years spent languishing in the Recycling Station had essentially ground their past camaraderie to dust.
Allen moved to the front of their group and stood before the few individuals sent to greet them.
The voice tube on his chest broadcast the Director's voice.
"It has been a long time, everyone."
One of the leading priests stepped forward with a wry smile. "Director, even at a time like this, you still refuse to step out your door?"
"You all are the main characters of this gathering."
The Director proceeded to introduce everyone to one another.
Following that, the group moved into the heart of the camp, stepping into a temporarily arranged assembly hall.
When the Priest Camp had dissolved, people had taken most of its supplies. What remained was mostly useless junk, or items too heavy and bulky to be worth stealing.
This temporary assembly hall had been patched together with contributions from several camps. The styles were bizarrely mismatched, and hardly any of the furniture matched.
Still, even for camps situated in the Continental Center, most of their daily necessities had been scavenged from various Trash Cities.
When it was time to convene, Li Ban offered the head seat to Zhu Yao.
In the eyes of outsiders, he was barely considered a Star Glow priest, whereas every single camp leader dispatched here was at least a Dark Moon Priest.
The leading priest of the widely acknowledged strongest camp was a Solar Priest.
He was also a former priest of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda—a man named Li He.
When Zhu Yao spotted Priest Li He, she hesitated for a second before offering a casual nod in greeting.
Priest Li He appeared to be a severely stern individual, but he showed no displeasure at Zhu Yao's perfunctory manners. In fact, before the meeting began, he actively walked over to say hello.
"It's been a long time, Priest Yao. I'm glad to see you've pulled yourself together."
Even to his unprompted greeting, Zhu Yao paused for a moment before replying. "It's been a long time, Priest He."
"Are you still angry that I didn't participate in your operation back then?" Priest Li He asked.
"No." Zhu Yao raised her eyes. "I just realized that even though we both belonged to the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, we are not the same kind of people."
"But now, we find ourselves walking the same path, don't we?" Priest Li He spread his hands.
"Just collaborators."
Hearing Zhu Yao's blunt rejection, the severely stern priest finally shook his head, dropping any further attempts to catch up with her.
He turned his gaze toward Li Ban. "Are you the foreign priest who helped Zhu Yao get back on her feet? Li Ban... I've never heard that name before."
"Well, I've never heard of you either." Although Li Ban had no idea what kind of friction existed between Zhu Yao and Li He, he naturally stood by Zhu Yao's side.
At Li Ban's reply, Li He chuckled lightly. "Excellent. I finally understand exactly what kind of people you're looking to walk with, Zhu Yao."
With that, he turned on his heel and strode back to his camp's designated area.
Seeing Priest Li He return, everyone in his group stood up in greeting. They didn't sit back down until he was seated.
With no one blocking her way, Zhu Yao naturally took her assigned seat as well.
Li Ban sat to her left, Allen to her right, while Tail and Ming Kai took the seats behind the three of them.
"That Li He is so annoying. He talks down to everyone," Tail muttered in a low voice, leaning forward between Zhu Yao and Li Ban.
"He's an 8th Tier Solar Priest." Now that Li He was gone, Zhu Yao's tone softened once more, as if she hadn't been the ice-cold woman from a moment ago. "There are barely any Solar Priests left in the entire Recycling Station."
Even in the Wizard World, Solar Priests were a rarity.
"So what if he's a Solar Priest? Without enough spiritual rhinoceros, he just hits a little harder. Faced with the Sea of Monsters, he still can't fight a hundred monsters at once." Living in the Recycling Station, Tail had long since lost any starry-eyed reverence for priests.
Even though she still wanted to become one, she no longer saw them as aloof, untouchable gods.
"That's why he only stepped forward to participate when he heard we have massive amounts of White Seeds," Zhu Yao said.
Li Ban turned his head to look at Zhu Yao. "Do you hate him because he refused to join your operation back then?"
"No," Zhu Yao answered softly. "Before we set out, none of us were certain we'd succeed, so we never forced anyone to join."
"I hate him because... the moment Ed and I came back, he immediately sold out the Priest Camp and left for somewhere else, just so he could keep playing his role as a high-and-mighty big shot."