Chapter 401 - 174: "I’d Rather Call It... The Return of the Celestial Mandate.

Chapter 401: Chapter 174: "I’d Rather Call It... The Return of the Celestial Mandate.

"Place them at the foot of the back mountain."

Chen Fan replied after a moment of thought.

The foot of the back mountain was the most suitable place for so many corpses. Once he was finished here, he would go over there, build a Sacrificial Tower, and sacrifice all these Ghost Corpses to see what he could get.

...

Mortal Realm, the Port.

The entrance to the Undersea Tunnel leading to the New Continent was located here. High-speed rail trains could be seen constantly traveling back and forth. Beside the Port, around two hundred Celestial Pillars stood tall, an incredibly conspicuous sight.

The Mortal Realm currently had 200 Level 6 Celestial Pillars and 15 Level 10 Celestial Pillars.

The fifteen Max Level Celestial Pillars were still storing energy nonstop under the thunderstorms of the Tribulation Clouds. Even though the rainy season had ended, a large patch of dark clouds still flashed with lightning and boomed with thunder above them.

They needed to store energy continuously in thunderstorm weather for three years before they would be fully charged.

As for the remaining 200 Level 6 Celestial Pillars, 100 of them had been built two years ago. Having gone through two rainy seasons, they were now over sixty percent charged. They would be fully charged after one more rainy season.

The other 100 Level 6 Celestial Pillars were only a little over thirty percent charged.

He had built these ones on the fly when the current rainy season began, so they had only been through it once. They would need two more rainy seasons to be fully charged.

Level 6 Celestial Pillars were quite cheap, requiring only 150,000 Ghost Stones.

Even a Level 10 Celestial Pillar only required 455,000 Ghost Stones.

As for their power...

He didn’t know for the time being.

He had only tested the might of a Level 1 Celestial Pillar, and he was very satisfied with it. As for the Level 6 and Level 10 ones, none of them were fully charged, so he couldn’t test them even if he wanted to.

Each upgrade to a Celestial Pillar increased its firing range.

The firing range of a Level 6 Celestial Pillar could reach roughly as far as the No. 7 Defense Line and the Yellow Springs Entrance Canyon.

A Level 10 Celestial Pillar’s range, however, could strike deep into the heartlands of the Eternal Night Continent, far beyond the Yellow Springs Entrance Canyon.

’What a pity.’

Chen Fan gazed with a hint of regret at the Celestial Pillars before him, which resembled the support columns of the Celestial Court. ’If only I had one more Celestial Dao Stone.’ He wanted to see what the Celestial Dao Blessing Effect for the Celestial Pillars would be.

If...

If only he had ten Celestial Dao Stones.

That would be fucking awesome.

He then began to activate the Exotic Treasure in his hand, the Commanding Heaven Banner. Infused with Spiritual Qi, the once pocket-sized banner suddenly grew enormous, stretching several meters wide.

With every wave, a fierce gale stirred.

Soon, dark clouds gathered in the sky, filled with flashing lightning and roaring thunder. A torrential downpour, laced with lightning, began to fall incessantly.

The affected area was slightly larger than that of the Tribulation Clouds.

But...

’This is kinda dumb.’

Chen Fan summed up his opinion of the Exotic Treasure. The Tribulation Clouds were completely automatic; once activated, they would just float in the sky and produce rain on their own.

This Commanding Heaven Banner, however, needed to be activated manually.

It needed to be waved continuously.

You’d run out of energy after waving it for just a little while. To keep it operating all day, you’d have to arrange for enough people to work in shifts.

Fortunately...

He wasn’t fighting alone, and there were plenty of people in the Mortal Realm.

He used a Sound Transmission Talisman to summon Wang Kui.

...

Soon.

Wang Kui arrived with his men. They marked out the area the Commanding Heaven Banner’s rain would cover, and Chen Fan filled the space with thirty Max Level Celestial Pillars.

It consumed about fifteen million Ghost Stones.

This batch of Max Level Celestial Pillars definitely wouldn’t be fully charged before the Jiangbei Undersea Ghost Tide made landfall, but they could be saved for later. It wasn’t as if his work would be finished once the Jiangbei Ghost Tide was over.

He tossed the Commanding Heaven Banner to Wang Kui.

Wang Kui would arrange for the manpower. This task should have originally fallen to Xiaoyu’s Logistics Pavilion, but Xiaoyu and most of its members were busy on the New Continent with the "Sparks Set the World Ablaze" project. ℴ

After finishing all this, Chen Fan finally breathed a sigh of relief. He stood and gazed out at the sea, his line of sight seeming to pierce thousands of miles to the distant Thunderstorm Sea Realm on the horizon as he murmured softly.

’Sooner or later, I have to get the Celestial Pillars to the Thunderstorm Sea Realm.’

Charging them here was still too slow.

If he could get them to the Thunderstorm Sea Realm, the charging speed would be incredible. The problems were how to transport them and whether the Celestial Pillars could even withstand the thunderbolts there.

Before activation, a Celestial Pillar was a massive column a full several hundred meters tall!

The structure wasn’t immobile after being built. It wasn’t a fixed building; it could be moved and transported.

But just because it was possible in theory didn’t mean they could actually pull it off.

For one, it definitely wouldn’t fit through the Undersea Tunnel.

It might be possible using Sea Ships, but it would require several of them and take days just to transport a single massive Celestial Pillar to the Thunderstorm Sea Realm.

Then, they would have to successfully retrieve it after it was fully charged and transport it back to Jiangbei.

The workload was immense, and it didn’t sound very cost-effective.

But...

If there really was a way to do it.

It would be a miracle.

The construction cost for a Celestial Pillar was arguably low. Its only drawback was the incredibly long charging time. If he could find a way to shorten it, it would be more than just another major strategic asset for the Mortal Realm.

Most importantly...

He could sell these things to the Eternal Night Frontline.

Chen Fan lowered his head in thought. He had a faint feeling that he might be able to use the Copper Pipe’s Illusion to achieve this.

A flash of inspiration seemed to cross his mind, but it was too fast for him to grasp.

’Can’t you flash a little slower...’

Just then—

The Sound Transmission Talisman in his robes grew slightly warm, and Elder Qi’s voice came from within it.