After careful consideration, Lei Dong perceived a definite concept forming in his mind. He turned serious: “Captain, please issue your orders. I will obey every command without question.”

Zhang Heng was quite pleased with Lei Dong’s attitude. In his imagination, Lei Dong was young, having achieved the rank of First Grade Soldier before even turning forty, which might suggest a slight disrespect toward his superior. Ouyang’s previous words were intended as a subtle warning to Lei Dong to respect his superiors. Unexpectedly, this Lei Dong possessed more social acumen than anticipated, showing not a trace of arrogance despite his considerable strength. Zhang Heng nodded: “Since that is the case, I happen to need to lead a patrol to the Star Islands region in the East Sea soon. You will accompany me this time. The patrol is a routine mission; it will be a good opportunity for you to acclimate to the team’s combat atmosphere and gain some experience.”

Zhang Heng was powerfully built and notably tall, his brow radiating masculine vigor—the complete opposite of his ancestor, the Ghost Fiend Patriarch. His demeanor was also pleasing to Lei Dong, increasing his favorable impression. He responded solemnly: “Yes, Captain.”

“The East Sea Star Islands, and the nearby East Sea coast approaching the Celestial Vein, fall under the jurisdiction of our Third Domain, First Squad,” Zhang Heng explained proactively. “Whether you’ve heard of the Star Islands or not, I must remind you beforehand. The East Sea Star Islands are not merely a scattering of isles but comprise dozens of star clusters, large and small. Legend has it that the sheer number of islands relates closely to the geological transformations of the Sundering Mountain Range. The ocean is vast, and to this day, many islands remain undiscovered or unclaimed by humans. The East Sea is boundless, teeming with monstrous beasts both in the water and on the islands, and all manner of rare heavenly treasures are found everywhere. Consequently, cultivators eager for adventure and profit flock to the East Sea to seek treasures. This has resulted in the Star Islands becoming a chaotic mix of dragons and snakes, with countless bandits. Killing someone... hiding on an uninhabited islet... and then vanishing. Such incidents are common.”

Lei Dong listened intently as Zhang Heng meticulously detailed matters concerning the Star Islands: certain precautions, renowned old monsters in the East Sea not to be provoked lightly, and various dangerous sea areas and islands. At the same time, Zhang Heng gave him a jade slip containing partial maps of the East Sea region, marking areas that were dangerous or extremely hazardous. Lei Dong was also granted a month to make preparations.

Two months later.

The First Squad of the Third Domain consisted of nine members, including the Captain. They were traveling on a medium-sized warship. The vessel was twenty zhang long and over seven or eight zhang wide, possessing a beautifully streamlined shape that exuded a faint, ethereal black mist. Lei Dong understood upon brief inquiry that the hull was primarily constructed from Nether-Scent Wood, a material produced in-house by the Yin Sha Sect. This wood was light yet exceptionally tough and pliable, capable of effectively resisting magical assaults. However, Nether-Scent Trees were notoriously difficult to cultivate, requiring centuries of growth before they could be used for building flying vessels. Since the Yin Sha Sect’s own flying ships were allocated to the War Hall, they were naturally crafted from the meticulously selected heartwood of the finest Nether-Scent trees.

The outer armor consisted of a substantial quantity of Black Iron, interspersed with traces of Primordial Chaos Iron. This was forged and refined using artifact-crafting techniques to create an incredibly robust defensive layer. Furthermore, the warship featured an energy shield core capable of withstanding sustained attacks from a Golden Core cultivator, as well as a formidable Nether Fire main cannon and two rapid secondary cannons—all products of integrating artifact refinement with sorcery.

Regarding the energy shield core, housed in the fore section of the vessel, when activated, it emitted an energy barrier akin to the Profound Yin Shield, enveloping the entire ship. It could also modulate its strength based on the intensity of incoming threats, thus conserving the expenditure of spirit stones. The Nether Fire main cannon required high-grade spirit stones for power, combined with pre-prepared Nether Fire projectiles, to unleash an attack analogous to the Nether Fire Cannon spell.

The two secondary cannons fired Nether Fire Bolts, which could be powered by mid-grade spirit stones. This specialized application of spellcasting opened Lei Dong’s eyes anew. While he had heard of mechanism arts and witnessed war golems utilizing them, this was the first time he had seen a mechanism that could directly launch spells. It reminded Lei Dong of certain weaponry from his previous life.

This constituted an offensive method combining spellcasting with artifact refinement technology. To Lei Dong’s knowledge, the most primitive way to cast a spell like the Nether Fire Bolt was for a cultivator proficient in the spell to condense their own cultivation energy into a bolt and send it forth. This was the most economical method, carrying almost no material cost, expending only the cultivator’s personal power.

The second method involved pre-packaging the Nether Fire Bolt spell into a talisman. The cultivator then needed only to guide the talisman with far less spiritual sense than required to cast the spell directly, causing it to detonate and release the effect without consuming personal energy. However, utilizing talismans to cast spells was not without limitations. Although guiding a talisman with spiritual sense was far less complicated than weaving a full spell, if the cultivator's power level or spiritual sense fell too far short of the spell’s requirements, they might fail to control it, potentially even harming themselves. For instance, although Lei Dong’s cultivation was far insufficient to learn and cast the more powerful Nether Fire Cannon spell, his spiritual sense was quite high, allowing him to barely utilize talismans that sealed the spell. The specialized, meticulously crafted Nether Fire Cannon talisman gifted to him by the Celestial Demon, for example, could only be used with great strain, and because it demanded mental guidance over immense stored power, it inevitably caused some damage to his current soul. If Lei Dong’s spiritual sense approached that of an early Golden Core cultivator, casting the Nether Fire Cannon spell would become significantly easier, as it is a technique even Golden Core cultivators struggle immensely to master. The fact that the Celestial Demon managed to create a talisman even Lei Dong could barely use demonstrated the significant effort invested.

Pre-packaging spells into talismans was an extremely extravagant and draining practice. Creating a Nether Fire Cannon talisman, for instance, was far more involved than simply casting the spell once. It required proficiency in talisman crafting, strong spiritual sense, and a considerable expenditure of vital energy to produce. This is why talismans, especially those with great destructive power, consistently commanded exorbitant prices. Even for the Celestial Demon, creating one Nether Fire Cannon talisman would severely deplete vital energy, requiring a month or two of recovery.

Therefore, high-power talismans were typically reserved for life-saving emergencies and were not suitable for sustained combat use.

The third method of casting was through the activation of a spiritual artifact or magical treasure. Although Lei Dong possessed no spiritual artifact specifically for launching Nether Fire Bolts, he did have the Black Dragon Banner, a specialized spiritual treasure of this type. It lacked direct offensive or defensive capabilities but could be nurtured within the soul over time, gradually absorbing scattered true qi energy released during the cultivator’s practice, thus slowly charging itself until the spell matrix was gradually constructed within the artifact. While such spiritual artifacts could be activated without consuming true qi during use, they suffered numerous drawbacks. They generally could not be used consecutively, often limited to a single activation. Attempts had been made to create artifacts capable of multiple spell releases, but numerous technical problems seemed to remain unresolved. Lei Dong had little involvement in artifact refinement and thus lacked deep knowledge, vaguely understanding only that embedding a spell within a spiritual artifact required an exquisitely precise and highly fragile internal structure, often leading to collapse or damage upon repeated use.

The fourth method was the one Lei Dong observed now with the main Nether Fire Cannon—the large-scale ordnance fitted onto ships or defensive structures. This represented a breakthrough in magical artifacts, utilizing principles somewhat divergent from existing spell operation methods. This application method did not originally exist in the cultivation world.

It emerged ten thousand years ago when several Nascent Soul level masters jointly explored an ancient ruin, discovering it to be the headquarters of some ancient sect. That ancient sect did not primarily focus on cultivation but rather on manufacturing all sorts of bizarre and unusual devices. Those several Nascent Soul experts suffered heavy losses within the ruins, with only one managing to escape.

The surviving Nascent Soul expert was the later renowned founder of the Celestial Secret Sect, the Celestial Secret Elder. After founding the sect, the Celestial Secret Elder dedicated efforts to fabricating artifacts like golems, flying ships, and implements that did not require the cultivator’s personal true qi. The Celestial Secret Sect rapidly rose to prominence, achieving fame through these novel creations.

However, the structure of the Eight Great Supreme Sects had already taken solid form. The colossal powers were not only wary that this emerging sect might threaten their status but were also covetous of these new, useful gadgets. In a rare alignment, the Eight Great Sects set aside their differences and jointly moved against the Celestial Secret Sect. Pitiable as they were, though the Celestial Secret Sect had gained fame through its novel tools, it could not withstand the might of the Eight Great Sects. In fact, even any single one of those supreme factions was more than the Celestial Secret Sect could confront head-on.

The Celestial Secret Sect was forced to surrender all the data obtained from the ancient ruins, which is how mechanism arts were disseminated. Flying ships, golems, and various implements of war spread, bringing many revolutionary advancements to the entire cultivation world. Today, flying ships and golems are commonplace, and many new methods in artifact refinement have drawn inspiration from mechanism arts.

Yet, the formerly high-ranking Celestial Secret Sect managed to survive precariously between the cracks of the great powers. Now, that once-emerging sect has adapted to the world's harshness and learned to skillfully navigate the balance of power. Maintaining strict neutrality, they thrive increasingly well, and their research into mechanism arts has grown ever more profound, resulting in numerous innovations uniquely their own.