Chapter 706: Chapter 706: The Eye of the Dragon
"Everyone, leave the room," Annie commanded, her voice cutting through the blue projection. "I want to speak with Ethan alone."
The Vice Sect Leader, General Henry, and General Boros didn’t hesitate. They stood up, executed a formal salute, and walked out of the high-security cabin, followed closely by Heidy. The heavy metal doors slid shut, leaving Ethan staring directly into the Sect Master’s dual-pupiled eyes.
"I have heard many rumors regarding your activities," Annie began, her gaze fixing on him with intensity. "You refuse to treat men, and you possess the unique ability to increase the cultivation base of women."
"I must correct your diagnosis there," Ethan interrupted smoothly.
Annie’s eyes widened slightly. It had been decades since anyone possessed the sheer audacity to cut her off in mid-sentence.
"I do not raise the level of female practitioners," Ethan explained, his voice flat and direct. "I simply purge ancient meridian blockages and heal old internal trauma. Their breakthroughs and their final cultivation are entirely the result of their own hard work."
Ethan refused to accept that specific reputation, even if it cost him his position. He desired to penetrate the high command to fulfill his personal mission, but he had zero intention of being chained down like a rare beast inside a pavilion zoo.
"Very well," Annie said, her expression flattening. "You can cure women, you understand runic arrays, you master advanced alchemy, and your swordsmanship is exceptional. Why exactly did you join our pavilion? If you had offered your services to the Soaring Dragon Kingdom, or even managed to reach the Golden Dragon Empire, you would have the entire world at your feet. I cannot help but doubt your true intent. I sent my best intelligence assets to investigate your background before I dispatched the Vice Leader to recruit you. Do you know what I found?"
Ethan maintained his perfect composure, his expression entirely unbothered. "Whatever your assets gathered is not necessarily the reality."
"Oh?" Annie countered, a cold smile touching her lips. "So if my reports claim that everything about your past is the absolute truth, is that also false?"
Ethan shrugged, a faint, mocking glint in his amethyst eyes. "Well, in that specific scenario, it is true."
"You converse like a seasoned old negotiator," Annie said, letting out a sharp sigh. "Unfortunately for my current schedule, I possess neither the time nor the expendable manpower to unmask your true face. If you are a miracle that simply fell from the heavens, I cannot afford to discard you purely based on my own suspicion. A talent like yours appears once in a millennium."
Her dual-pupiled eyes suddenly flared with a terrifying, invisible pressure that caused the air in the cabin to vibrate.
"However," Annie whispered, her voice dripping with malice, "if I discover that you harbor even the slightest hostile intention against my pavilion, there is not enough wealth or benefit in this world to prevent me from personally executing you. Is that understood?"
Ethan remained relaxed under her spiritual weight, offering a calm, professional nod. "Of course, Sect Master. Everything is perfectly clear.
"Good," Annie said, the heavy pressure in the cabin dissipating as she leaned back. "The entire armada is already mobilizing. Based on your report, I will immediately shift our military fronts directly toward your sector. We will completely abandon the current offensive against the Crimson Sect, limit our logistical alliance with the Blackmountain Sect, and focus every single resource on this location."
Ethan raised a hand, his face perfectly flat. "If you permit me a observation, Sect Master... that should be the absolute last action you execute. In fact, you should aggressively increase your active attacks against the Crimson Sect."
Annie’s dual-pupiled eyes narrowed into a sharp stare. "Oh? Explain your logic."
"It is neither a secret nor a falsehood that every major sect maintains deep espionage networks inside rival territories," Ethan explained, his voice calm and direct. "If you execute such an abrupt reallocation of your main armies, every faction on the continent will instantly calculate that a monumental discovery has occurred here. They will send their own vanguard forces, and the moment they discover what lies inside this vault, even the Golden Dragon Empire itself will mobilize to crush us. This sector requires a massive amount of time to develop in absolute secrecy."
He paused, tapping his fingers on the table.
"Right now, only our high command and the Thunderdragon Sect are aware of this specific location. What I cannot determine yet is exactly how much intelligence their leadership actually possesses. It will take time to analyze their reactions. For now, we must cover this entire military deployment as a brutal act of vengeance for the destruction of our original frontier outpost. We can easily justify this massive armada to the public as a punitive lesson."
Ethan looked directly into her split pupils. "We can even aggressively strike their borders to force them into a retreat, but every single tactical maneuver must remain under the narrative guise of a border dispute. We must strictly maintain the territorial limits signed by the kingdom. If the reality of this black fluid leaks out... there is absolutely no need to explain what will happen to this pavilion."
"You are correct," Annie said, nodding slowly as she calculated his strategy. "We will execute the deployment exactly as you advise. I will immediately reinforce our primary front lines to distract the rival intelligence networks. However, I will command the Vice Sect Leader to remain stationary and oversee your entire sector. With a high-tier asset like him entrenched on this border, the Thunderdragon Sect will calculate that we are completely serious about our retaliation. If they aggressively attempt to recapture this mountain, they definitely know something extremely valuable is hidden here. If they simply retreat, we will know their intelligence is minimal. How certain are you that they remain ignorant?"
"I cannot provide an absolute metric," Ethan replied, his voice flat and direct. "But after analyzing their precarious storage conditions for that black liquid, I am confident they currently classify it merely as a lethal, mummifying poison. They likely intended to weaponize it as a crude biological agent, given that even a peak Golden Core practitioner cannot survive its raw atmospheric exposure for more than five minutes. They were likely excavating deeper simply to search for ancient treasures. Their complete lack of medical and chemical containment protocols proves they do not understand its true value."
"Excellent," Annie declared. "Whatever resources or materials you require for your research, notify the Vice Leader immediately. We will dispatch everything necessary to ensure this operation achieves total success."
"Thank you, Sect Master," Ethan said, his amethyst eyes flashing with a cold brilliance. "There is one final tactical detail. I intend to deliver the completed elixirs as two separate, independent solutions. What I stated regarding the Divine Elixir is absolutely true, but the ancient alchemists utilized a highly ingenious method to conceal its existence. They divided the compound into two distinct formulas—a blue potion and a red potion. When separated, they function merely as high-potency healing tonics. Only when they are actively combined do they synthesize into the true Divine Elixir. Manage your logistics accordingly; only distribute the combined elixir to your absolute most loyal assets, at least until our strategic position stabilizes."
Annie’s eyes narrowed slightly as she processed the logistical advantage. "How many completed doses can your clinical hands currently manufacture with the raw materials available?"
"I can likely refine a maximum batch of ten elixirs in the absolute best-case scenario," Ethan stated calmly. "And a single dose in the worst-case scenario."
"What?!" Annie barked, her composure cracking through the projection.
"I possess the theoretical formula, but I have never physically refined this lost ancient potion" Ethan countered, his gravelly voice entirely unbothered by her reaction. "It is a compound completely erased from modern alchemy. It will require a massive number of attempts simply to stabilize the reaction."
"I understand," Annie said, executing a deep breath to stabilize her composure. "You are correct. I must not allow greed to cloud my metrics. A lost ancient formula cannot be rushed. Tell me, Doctor Ethan... does this potion works effectively on practitioners within the Spirit Sea realm?"
Ethan looked directly into her dual-pupiled projection, his expression completely calm and detached.
"If your primary concern is that you and the grand elders will be unable to utilize its restorative properties due to your high cultivation tier, let me clear your doubts immediately," Ethan replied. "A single combined dose of this elixir is fully capable of dragging a Spirit Sea expert straight back from the gates of death, leaving your physical vessel entirely restored and completely fresh for immediate combat."
Annie stared at him through the blue light for a long moment, a sharp, ambitious glint flashing across her unique eyes before the transmission smoothly deactivated, leaving the war room in complete silence.
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
The Melting Tide / The Tidal Horizon / The Sea Mist Ascension
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.
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