Chapter Thirteen: On the Eve of Battle

The next morning, just as sunlight seeped into the base on the resource planet, a long, clear whistle resounded, jolting everyone awake. It was the signal for assembly. Tang Yi cursed under his breath—damn it, couldn’t they use some music as an alarm instead?

After breakfast, each team swiftly assembled, armor was distributed, and everyone dressed neatly. Under the lead of the chief commander, the teams marched out of the base.

On the open ground before the base, five enormous shuttles were already waiting. Each shuttle could accommodate a hundred and fifty people, shaped like two ships joined hull to hull, upside down. Tang Yi began to drool at the sight. Inside the shuttle, there were no tables or chairs—just rows of round cushions on the floor, meant for the cultivators to meditate during the journey. While the others found their spots and sat down to meditate in earnest, Tang Yi was busily gawking about, frequently wiping away a string of drool from the corner of his mouth, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he touched and fiddled with everything he could reach, muttering to himself. Had he let his hair down and looked any more disheveled, the others might have mistaken him for a lunatic and thrown him off the shuttle.

At last, the five shuttles lifted off, steady as could be, with no hint of dizziness—Tang Yi silently approved. Then he returned to his ceaseless exploration.

Meanwhile...

On the resource planet orbiting Saturn, five shuttles were also launching, each almost identical in appearance. These were the cultivators from the Pegasus System.

The battle for the resource planet was held every ten years, with each side sending around a thousand fighters—a number that was already pushing the limits. Any more, and both sides would suffer irreparable loss. The battlefield was located on a planet between the two resource worlds, close to the contested planet itself. Neither side had built a teleportation array there; even if they had, it would be destroyed in the ensuing war.

The shuttles sped forward at tremendous velocity—Tang Yi wasn’t sure exactly how fast, but judged it was at least warp three. To his amazement, once the shuttles accelerated, they entered subspace, traversing folded space itself. After some twenty hours of flight, both sides’ shuttles landed on the battlefield, where, as if by unspoken agreement, the teams promptly set up camp, quietly awaiting the next day’s great battle.

In the Pegasus System cultivators’ base on the Saturnian satellite named Titan, the largest building among them contained a spacious hall. There, a man in black addressed the figure seated on the main dais, “My lord, the war that erupts every decade has always ended in alternating victories and defeats. Why not, during this battle, simply empty the resource planet and relocate everything? Then we’d never have to fight this war every ten years.”

“Hmph! You short-sighted fool, just like those old locusts—only thinking to exploit and squander, never considering sustainable use or renewal of resources,” the lord on the dais replied with disdain. “Setting that aside, even if you were to move it, with what means would you do so?”

“We could craft extra-large storage bags!” said the man in black.

“Idiot! Do you know why storage rings are so much more valuable than other storage items?”

“Because they’re more convenient?”

“How someone as dense as you reached such a high level of cultivation is beyond me. Let me tell you: it’s all about the materials. No matter how a storage bag is refined, its space can only reach about half a mile across at best. But storage rings and bracelets are different—theoretically, their capacity can be limitless. Of course, not truly infinite, but it’s said they can hold a thousand suns without issue.”

“Then why are most storage rings today so much smaller than storage bags?”

“That’s due to current refining techniques, and because even if someone could forge a ring with such vast space, who nowadays has the spiritual power to move a sun or planet into it? And even if they did, it would serve no practical purpose. So even if someone could craft it, they wouldn’t bother.”

“I am enlightened!” the man in black said respectfully.

“Enough about that. Even if you could move the resources away, do you think the Earth branch of cultivators would just let you? They’d throw everything they had at us to retake this resource planet. Then what would we do? Given our current state, what are our chances in a head-on clash?”

“Um… I failed to consider that, my lord. Please punish me.”

“That’s enough, you always say that! Just focus on nurturing talent more quickly. If things continue as they are, we’ll be in real trouble. What’s most infuriating is those old men, still fighting on two fronts at a time like this… Forget it, leave me. I need some time alone.”

“Yes, my lord!” The man in black bowed and withdrew.

On the battlefield planet—

“I think this planet has some good stuff too!” Tang Yi surveyed the surroundings. “The scenery here isn’t bad. Qiangzi, bring out some good food—let’s compose poetry and match verses here!”

“Tang, Qiangzi and the others didn’t come to the battlefield planet!” Hua Shaojie replied.

“Oh, right, I forgot. Habit. I’ll handle it myself then—luckily I brought a reserve supply. Storage rings really are the best refrigerators for food—never goes bad!” Tang Yi sighed. He pulled out a set of sofas and a small tea table, then arranged fruit and snacks on top. After a moment’s thought, he brought out more sofas and tables, filling them all with treats. Next, he produced a chess-piece-sized object—a formation base he’d fashioned after the Talent Selection Peak’s arena shield. With just this chess piece, he could deploy a formation that protected an area three times larger than that arena.

Tang Yi set the formation base on the ground and had Hua Shaojie call their teammates for a pre-battle feast. The others were dumbfounded—was this really how things were done?

“Hurry and get everyone, or once the shield is up, you won’t get in and there’ll be nothing left to eat!” Tang Yi urged the wide-eyed group.

After some noisy commotion and shouts, the formation was activated. Tang Yi’s team, thirty-one including himself, shed their heavy armor, lounged on soft sofas, drank wine, chatted, and even indulged in a little flirting—there was no trace of pre-battle tension. The other teams around them looked on enviously. They might have liked to do the same, but lacking the equipment, they could only sit in their icy blue armor inside simple tents, meditating to keep warm. Tang Yi’s actions drew the attention of the higher-ups, and as a result, in later decades, cultivators arriving for the ten-year battle would no longer have to suffer the bone-chilling cold of the battlefield planet.

But happy times are always fleeting. After the feast, as darkness fell, Tang Yi simply told everyone to rest right there in the formation. He unfolded the sofas into small beds, and then produced an even larger formation base, layering one shield over another to ensure their security through the night.