The Future of Energy

Wei Huoran, Captain Zhuo, Chief Bloodclaw, and Elder Tidehunter had just exited the flying ship that landed in the newly made crater. A few hundred feet away was large spherical object that resembled a boulder that had been chiseled into a ball, but as the quartet approached they sensed biological material, metal deposits, and high levels of Qi.

"What is this? How did it become like this?", Chief Bloodclaw asked.

"This is a new talisman that the Sages and I collaborated to create using guidance from my master", Huoran explained, "It works in two phases: the first is an impact followed by a series of shockwaves, and the second is a strong gravitational force that attracts everything towards the center. Before you ask Chief Bloodclaw, I'm afraid we will not be selling this talisman."

"You know me so well, Daoist Wei", Jaeger laughed, But I understand, it makes sense that your master would block the sell of this."

The other three watched as Huoran strolled over to the newly formed sphere, and store it in his storage ring.

"Captain, it's time to return home", Huoran ordered her before adding, "You will still be needed for this mission, but some additional planning must take place before we continue."

"Yes, Boss Wei", Captain Zhuo turned, and entered the ship.

"Do you want a ride somewhere, Chief Bloodclaw?", Huoran offered, "Since we are heading back to Sun & Moon island, we can also sell our extra supplies to you before we go."

"I'll accept your offer", Jaeger Bloodclaw said, "If it doesn't trouble you to go to my tribes village, I want to return there. Also, I will happy purchase any products you are willing to sell."

Huoran, Bloodclaw, and Tidehunter also entered the ship, and a few minutes later were on their way towards the Bloodclaws village.

Half a day, Chief Bloodclaw had been returned to his village, and the Swiftwind had arrived at Sun & Moon island's port.

"Captain Zhuo, I want to thank you for your service", Huoran bowed to her, "Go report to your superiors, but be prepared. I will most likely need your ship again once the new plan is decided."

Captain Zhuo returned his bow with a salute, "It was an honor to have you on my ship, you are welcome anytime."

She turned and walked back towards the ship, shouting instructions to the crew to prepare for the next mission.

"Shall we, Elder Tidehunter?", Huoran asked the merfolk elder.

"Of course", Tidehunter replied.

The two walked out the port, and traveled back to the ministry's office using a vehicle reserved for government officials. It was currently the early afternoon, and the two were greeted by staff members working at the reception center.

"Please guide us to an empty meeting room", Huoran instructed the staff, "But don't be concern about contacting anyone, My personal assistant have already handled it."

"Yes, Boss Wei", the staff members responded.

A woman spoke, "Please follow me."

Huoran and Tidehunter walked behind the lady until she stopped in front of a door on the third floor.

"I hope this room is up to your standards", the woman said.

"This is fine", Tidehunter told her as he opened the door.

Huoran and Tidehunter walked into the room and found seats to sit in. A few minutes later, three people walked into the room, Huoran's personal assistants Su and Lui, as well a merfolk. The young male merfolk walked in front of Tidehunter.

"Master, Boss Wei, welcome back", the youth greeted the two of them.

"Daoist Wei, let me introduce my disciple", Tidehunter stated, "This is Orion Seacrest."

Huoran gave the Orion a slight bow before speaking to the two women.

"Have the Ministers been contacted?", he inquired from them.

"Yes, Boss Wei", Su spoke first, "They will arrive shortly."

"We have drinks ready for you, Boss Wei", Lui said afterwards, "Shall we serve refreshments now?"

Huoran was about to get a red tea from his ring but stopped, "Yes, I would like an iced red tea."

"I'll have a cup of spiritual fruit juice", Tidehunter added.

Drinks were quickly provided, and as everyone was enjoying it, the spiritual light projectors activated displaying three men and five women. It was Ministers Xia and Zel of the Law Enforcement office, and their staff members, and everyone took a few moments to greet each other.

"Let me begin", Huoran's words quieted the room, "When I left, I believed that we would have been able to capture all the stones on a faster timeline than what was possible. That was until a few days ago, please watch the footage we've saved during the course of this trip. Pay close attention to the last part, and I think you will understand my proposal I will make afterwards."

The group of people watched the videos that were recorded by the cameras on the Swiftwind, as well as footage taken from Huoran's QFold. While they had also seen other videos of the submission effort of the rabbit, rooster, and bull stones, the battle where they faced the dog, sheep, and rat stones was tense. Then the recorded video of the cat stone played, and everyone grew silent.

"Daoist Wei", Zel broke the silence, "This is the new weapon that the sages and you made?"

"Yes, we currently have nineteen in total at the moment", Huoran answered him, "It takes time to prepare the materials, but we should be able to craft another twenty soon."

"I have to ask then, if it's better to keep our small supply here?", Xia asked, "The number of soldiers from the Draco Empire that continue to surround and monitor the island grows over time. I believe this would be effective in convincing them that an attack against us is fruitless."

Huoran thought about this for a few minutes before speaking, "I actually had a different idea, but your words have merit. Let's analyze or current situation, we are in possession of seven of these stones. Since the evidence suggests that there are thirteen in total, six remain. Five should still be on the Shuo continent: Horse, Boar, Snake, Monkey, and Tiger. The Dragon stone has to be in the hands of the emperor of the Draco Empire, but I don't think they will move until he is ready. So I propose that we send four frigates and eight talismans to the Shuo continent, that leaves eleven talismans here. The ships will travel in pairs with one taking the lead, and the second acts a back up in case unforeseen circumstances arise. Then they can proceed as I originally intended."

"What is your intentions now, Daoist Wei?", Tidehunter interrupted.

Everyone looked at him, and then at Wei Huoran awaiting the answer.

"Out of the remaining five holders of the stones, the Boars and the monkeys have publicly been the most aggressive towards their neighbors", Huoran said, "My plan starts there, I've heard that boars will most likely attempt to attack the Whitetail deer tribe again soon. I know the Bloodclaw wolves, as well as several bird clans with be present to offer the Whitetails assistance. I want to use our new weapon to capture the boar stone in front of everyone there. I want to show our power in front the clans, and I want them to spread the word to everyone on the continent. Even if I showed them the same videos that you all viewed today, many clans and tribes would remain unconvinced. After we defeat the boar army, I want our people to announce to everyone present there our next targets. I want this conflict resolved, because the bigger war is coming soon. Once we do this, the dragon army will know more of our capabilities, but I believe that will buy us more time."

It didn't take long before Minster Zel said, "I approve of this idea."

Minster Xia took awhile longer but ultimately agreed, "I wish we could do this differently, but maybe it's time we show our might."

Huoran understood Xia's hesitation in the manner, it's only been over ten years since he left North Wind city, where he lived in the slums.

"Then I will burden the two of you to organize the detail of the mission", Huoran said, "Minister Xia, I've already spoken to Captain Zhuo about expecting to return to complete the mission. I believe the experience she garnered in the last few weeks will be vital in leading this new mission."

"I had the same thoughts, Daoist Wei", Xia smiled.

Huoran was about to adjourn the meeting when his assistant Su whispered into his ear, "Boss Wei, the Ministers of Administration, Commerce, Infrastructure, and Entertainment wish to join us."

Surprised, he quickly agreed before announcing, "Can we please make space? Eight additional Ministers wish to join us."

Xia and Zel nodded and had their staff members leave their seats. Huoran looked at Su, and she sent message back to the Ministers, and soon the projectors made eight more humans and merfolk appear. After another round of everyone greeting the newcomers, and vice versa, Huoran asked, "What brings everyone here today?"

Minister Ye started first, "Daoist Wei, we have received wonderful news, and after hearing you had returned, we knew we had to interrupt."

Huoran looked at all the other ministers in expectation.

Minister Fan spoke next, "The teams we sent to the Nanying Continent has sent news, all the customers that ordered access steles have had their it installed. With just an activation of the array formation, the internet between all the cities are ready to be connected."

"Oh, that is good news!", Huoran exclaimed, "Why haven't we connected it yet then?"

Minister Tidefin of the merfolk commerce ministry chuckled, "Daoist Wei, this is a big event so we should announce it in a grand manner."

"That sounds acceptable", Huoran replied, "You don't need my permission to do that."

"That's true", Minster Xiu of the Entertainment department said, "But we had this idea to hold a competition, much like we did a few years ago for the disciples of the Nanying continent. There would be many more participants this time, and we aren't sure how to conduct the contest."

"I see, let's schedule a meeting tomorrow morning", Huoran suggested, "Since I just returned today, I would take the rest of the day to clean my house and rest."

"Of course", Xiu replied, "I'll have my office contact your assistants after the meeting is done."

"Since I don't believe there are any more issues that require immediate attention, let's end today's meeting", Huoran suggested.

Everyone bade farewell, and all the holographic images disappeared leaving Huoran, Tidehunter, and the two assistants and disciple alone in the room again.

"Sorry to take up your time, Elder Tidehunter", Huoran apologized, "I don't know if you will volunteer for the next mission to the Shuo continent, but I'm glad you were there on this occasion."

"I would gladly fight alongside you anytime, Daoist Wei", Tidehunter commented.

Huoran bid farewell to the Elder Merfolk, and left the room with his assistants following after him.

Huoran advised his assistants as they walked towards the car that had arrived to take him home, "Don't work overtime, just arrange the meeting for tomorrow, send it to my calendar, and take th rest of the day off."

"Yes, Boss Wei", both women answered.

Huoran stepped into the car, closed the door, set his destination from his home cave, and began meditating as the vehicle started driving. Once he arrived home, he took a few minutes clear the dust and dirt from his home, and then went the fifth floor below his cave. He took the large boulder he had picked up from the crater, and summoned it to the middle of the floor. He spent most the day using a variety of tools to disassemble the fused boulder, only to discover two orbs in the center of the mass.

Huoran held both orbs, one in each hand, and the one in his left hand he recognized, it was the Stone of the Cat. The orb in his right hand looked very similar but Huoran saw several differences: it wasn't perfectly spherical, it was missing runes inscribed in it, the color was slightly different, and it was smaller in size.

'Quanliyuan, am I imagining things or is the stone and whatever this orb is essentially the same?', Huoran contacted the artifact spirit.

'Just give me a moment, Xiao Ran', Quanliyuan replied.

The artifact spirit scanned the orb for several minutes before inviting Huoran into Simspace. Huoran entered to find Quanliyuan as a very short woman, and decided to stop asking about new forms.

'So what did you discover?' Huoran asked the artifact spirit.

'Your intuition was close to the truth', Quanliyuan said, 'We knew from prior investigations that the souls of ancient beast were housed inside the stones, but we could only speculate how they were able to interact with anyone that picked it up. When I scanned both orbs, I immediately noticed that they have very similar characteristics. They both have a beast core in the center which is surrounded by a crystallized layer of Qi, vital essence, and mind essence.'

'Why does the Stone of the Cat have these runes inscribed on it?', Huoran wondered.

'The core of the ancient beast might house the soul, but it acts like a shield and a prison', Quanliyuan explained, 'The soul can survive for much longer that normal because the outer layer protects it from eroding, but it also isolates it from everything.'

'So the ancient beasts either collaborated or coerced someone with high achievements in inscription to design an array formation that would allow the soul inside to absorb everything from the holder', Huoran theorized, 'Once the required amount of energy was gathered, the ancient beast inside could rebuild its body.'

'It sounds like you understand', Quanliyuan said dismissively.

Huoran stored the Cat Stone and looked at the orb in his right hand, 'If everything we said is true, that means the soul of the holder is currently stuck inside this orb.'

The short woman looked at Huoran, 'Actually, yes, that would be correct.'

'I think I could simply absorb the outer layer of the orb the same way I did the beast core we found in the secret realm', Huoran excitedly pointed out.

Huoran didn't even wait for Quanliyuan's response, he arranged a soul capture array and began absorbing from the orb. After several hours, multiple things happened: Huoran absorbed all the energy of the outer layer, the array captured the soul stuck inside, Huoran destroyed the captured soul to send it back to the reincarnation cycle, he absorbed all the energy of the beast core, and found his realm had risen to the late stage of Nascent Soul.

'Does this mean you're going to start hunting down magical beast for their cores?', Quanliyuan sarcastically asked.

Huoran laughed as he removed the array 'No, I did it this time because the power was leaking out, and I didn't want to waste it. It does mean that we finally have a use for the cores that come from the farm, and we can even start to accept them as trades.'

'Why would we want such a useless thing?' the spirit retorted, 'Only you can cultivate with them, doesn't seem like a good way for the island to spend resources.'

'The cores will become a new source of power', Huoran smiled, 'I can finally build the 'Eagle Eye'.'