Mysterious mirror hanging high

Chapter 1084 Beating the Drum

The Second Heaven of the Immortal Realm, Immortal Continent Star

A female Nascent Soul cultivator flew over a celestial mountain on her sword and landed on the platform on the second floor of a pavilion.

The Nascent Soul female cultivator dismounted from her flying sword. Her steps were swift yet light and silent, clearly indicating her refined cultivation.

She crossed the platform, pushed open the half-closed attic door, and entered the attic.

The interior of the attic was more spacious and elegant than the outside. There was a large desk by the window, complete with the Four Treasures of the Study. But what was most eye-catching at this moment was a low table next to the desk.

On the low table, there was a chessboard with nineteen lines.

At this moment, the chessboard is covered with pieces of all colors, black and white, entangled and locked in a fierce battle. The situation is complex and delicate, clearly indicating that the game has reached the middle stage.

An elderly woman dressed in a palace gown with cloud patterns and her hair tied up in a high bun was sitting on a futon on the side of a low table.

She rested one hand lightly on her knee, while the other hand held a smooth black jade chess piece between two fingers, hovering it about an inch above the chessboard as she pondered deeply.

"Greetings, Elder Yun."

The female cultivator bowed gracefully and said respectfully.

The woman in palace attire did not look up, her attention still focused on the chess game that had reached its middle stage, and said calmly:

"What's the matter?"

"The cultivators of Immortal Continent launched a surprise attack on the Divine Cauldron caravan the day before yesterday and reaped considerable gains. This time, they have completely cut off all trade routes of the Divine Cauldron Immortal Dynasty in the Canyang Star Region... This is the specific intelligence."

The female cultivator handed the jade talisman to the woman in palace attire, still maintaining a respectful demeanor.

"Hmm, that's fast enough."

"Without your tireless planning and scheming day and night, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly," the woman in palace attire said calmly. "You've worked hard."

"It's all thanks to Elder Yun's excellent leadership," the female cultivator said with a smile.

This Nascent Soul female cultivator belongs to a secret organization within the [Immortal Continent Star], mainly responsible for intelligence gathering, information integration, and plan deduction. Almost all of its members possess destiny types of divination, comprehension, and intelligence.

It is known as the "Cloud Sparrow".

Those who can serve as the "Cloud Sparrow" have almost no requirements regarding their cultivation level; they are only judged by whether they have talent in planning and strategizing.

As for those whose cultivation level is low, resulting in weak souls and inability to compare their computational and deductive abilities with those of high-level cultivators, that's alright. Immortal Continent Star has already developed treasures that can temporarily enhance the computational power of the soul, which is enough to temporarily make up for this deficiency.

The true controller of the [Cloud Sparrow] is naturally [Yun Xuance].

This Nascent Soul female cultivator seemed to be quite familiar with Yun Xuance. Now that she had finished her official report, she relaxed a bit and asked with a smile:

"Is Elder Yun playing chess with himself?"

"Hmm." Yun Xuance said, "It's a pity that Fellow Daoist Yang is not here, and most of the other seniors are not good at chess, so there is no one to play chess with me, and I can only entertain myself here."

"It has been more than fifty years since Fatty Ye and Fellow Daoist Yang went to explore the secret realm. I wonder what their harvest was this time."

Just then, the void outside the pavilion trembled, and a shimmering silver sphere fell from the void.

The sphere fell into Yun Xuance's palm and split open on its own, revealing a faint human-shaped phantom. Yun Xuance stared at it closely and saw that the person was plump and had an endearing appearance. Who else could it be but Ye Xingyun?

"Haha, Third Sister! It's been decades! How have you been?" Ye Xingyun's illusory figure laughed heartily.

"We were just talking about you..." Yun Xuance curiously observed the cracked sphere and asked, "What's this new thing?"

"Third Sister, you may not know this, but this trip to the secret realm has been incredibly fruitful. We actually found a [Acquired Spiritual Treasure] within the secret realm!"

"This magical treasure is incredibly powerful; it can even transmit messages to others across countless layers of the void... and its range can almost cover half of the Immortal Realm!"

"With this magical treasure, we might be able to recreate the grandeur of the [Illusory Realm of the Great Void] from our time in the lower realm!"

Ye Xingyun said, "When we find Xuanjing, Big Sister and the others, we will give each of them a [Sound Transmission Orb]. Even if we are separated by several heavens, we may still be able to communicate with each other."

Yun Xuance smiled and said, "It is indeed a joyous occasion... Now that the trip to the secret realm has come to an end, let's return as soon as possible."

“When you’re not around, I always feel a little uneasy.”

"Alright, I've brought you quite a few good things. I'll return in a few months and hand them over to you in person." Ye Xingyun's illusory figure became intermittent:

"This [Sound Transmission Orb] consumes a lot of mana, so I won't go into details now. We can discuss it further when we return to Immortal Continent Star."

The next moment, Ye Xingyun's phantom image vanished, and the cracked silver sphere quickly closed up again, becoming perfectly round and flawless.

"Congratulations, Elder! Our Immortal Continent Star has acquired another supreme treasure!" the Nascent Soul female cultivator exclaimed with great joy.

Yun Xuance smiled without saying a word, but the Nascent Soul female cultivator said with envy, "With this treasure, I think the time it will take us to destroy the Divine Cauldron Immortal Dynasty can be shortened a bit."

"After all, the Divine Cauldron Immortal Dynasty still has several Celestial Immortals. No matter how much we harass them, we won't suffer any serious damage in the short term. We can only advance one step at a time each day." Yun Xuance waved his hand.

"With Elder Yun's unparalleled wisdom, what are a few mere celestial immortals compared to him?"

Many of the Cloud Sparrows worshipped Yun Xuance almost without limits, but Yun Xuance himself did not take the female cultivator's words seriously. Instead, he sighed inwardly.

Yun Xuance doesn't actually like to use strategy to solve problems.

Often, when faced with difficulties, cleverness is a helpless measure when power is insufficient, a backup option that must be used when all else fails.

The cultivators of the Immortal Continent have always known that Yun San Niang is resourceful and wise, but few people realize that Yun Xuance's resourcefulness is simply because he is just a mere cave cultivator, and all he has to offer is his wisdom and strategy.

Cultivation harnesses the immense power of heaven and earth, with each realm representing a new level of existence. Without a counterbalance of power of equal caliber, no matter how ingenious the strategy or plan, it cannot shake the overall trend.

Yun Xuance is now able to stir up trouble and hinder the Divine Cauldron Immortal Dynasty at every turn, all thanks to Xiao Buyi, the "Iron-Legged Immortal," acting as a deterrent.

However, Yun Xuance can only use tricks and schemes against Celestial Immortal forces like the Divine Cauldron Immortal Dynasty.

If it were a true immortal force? She wouldn't even dare to entertain the thought of provoking them.

In the Immortal Realm, there are far too many beings who could crush her. Above the Celestial Immortals are the True Immortals, above the True Immortals are the Golden Immortals, and after the Golden Immortals are the Dao Lords and Dao Venerables.

Sometimes Yun Xuance disliked the cultivation world. In her spare time, she would think that if there were no cultivators in this world, but only a group of ordinary people with mortal bodies, perhaps she would have a better chance to use her talents.

No matter how brilliant a scheme may be, it is far too fragile in the face of absolute power; it can be shattered with a single prick.

As Yun Xuance was pondering, a sudden drumbeat abruptly pulled her back from her reverie.

thump—

As the drumbeat reached his ears, Yun Xuance's fingers, which were resting on his knees, trembled slightly. The black jade chess piece that had been hanging on the chessboard fell off the board with a soft "thud".

She looked out the attic window, and for the first time, a clear look of surprise and seriousness appeared in her usually calm and wise eyes, which seemed to see through everything.

dong dong dong-

Who is beating the drum?

Yun Xuance abruptly stood up, a bad premonition rising in his heart:

"That drumbeat..."

"It's war drums!"