Nightshade's voice dropped to such a low whisper that no one else in the chamber could possibly hear it. The words were almost swallowed by the silence that had followed the end of the trial. However, Adrian stood directly in front of him, close enough that the faint murmur reached his ears alone.
"What are you?"
Adrian did not respond. In truth, he had no idea what Nightshade had seen in his eyes during that moment. The only conclusion he could draw was that Nightshade had glimpsed the Source essence and instinctively classified it as an ultimate-tier divine concept. Combined with the intensity of the ongoing confrontation and the abrupt collapse of Nightshade's concentration, the shock might have forced such a reaction out of him. Beyond that, Adrian had no explanation. It was simply the most reasonable conclusion he could arrive at.
Without speaking further, Adrian withdrew his domain as well. The crimson field contracted inward, folding back into his body. As the domain faded from the chamber, he reflected briefly on the properties of Crimson Vital Dominion. Previously, he had believed the domain's innate properties enhanced projection of strength and bodily output, but the brief clash had revealed something more subtle. The domain also amplified his overall speed. When combined with the acceleration of his Temporal Veil spell, the effect had allowed him to evade Nightshade's attacks far more easily than expected. It was a useful discovery, though the situation had not been ideal for experimentation.
As both domains dissipated completely, the chamber returned to normal illumination.
Hestia stepped forward from the sidelines immediately, her presence cutting cleanly through the lingering tension. "The trial is complete. Elder Adrian has passed."
Nightshade did not answer immediately. He remained standing in front of Adrian, his eyes still fixed upon him as his mind struggled to reconcile what he had just witnessed. The composure that had characterized him throughout the earlier conversation had cracked for a brief moment, and he required a few seconds to fully gather himself.
Finally, Nightshade straightened. The subtle strain in his expression faded as discipline reasserted itself. His hands, which had trembled faintly, steadied.
"Yes." His voice had regained its earlier steadiness, "He has passed."
He turned slightly, addressing both Adrian and Hestia now, "The Crimson Vital Sect is more than stable. You have my attention."
No one present chose to make an issue of the final extra attack he had attempted after the timer had ended. Hestia understood that whatever Adrian had revealed in that moment had clearly shaken Nightshade. She had witnessed the Sect Leader's domain collapse entirely, something that should have been impossible without concentration collapse or severe injury. But compared to the fact that Adrian could even wield authority without deploying a domain, a truth she had already accepted, this incident did not strike her as particularly alarming. If anything, it only strengthened her growing curiosity regarding the methods possessed by cultivators from the great sects.
Adrian himself had no interest in discussing the matter either. Drawing attention to it would serve no purpose.
Marivelle stood near the chamber's edge. She had observed the entire exchange with growing unease, her hands clasped behind her back to hide their trembling.
With the tension resolved, the chamber's environment shifted back to negotiation mode. The long conference table and the surrounding seats re-materialized smoothly within the room as the formation controlling the chamber restored its original configuration.
Everyone returned to their places. Adrian settled into the seat beside Hestia, whilst Marivelle took position slightly behind them. Across the table, Nightshade resumed his central position, flanked by Elder Kaevryn.
Nightshade rested his fingers lightly on the surface of the table. The earlier tension had vanished entirely, replaced by the focused calm of a man ready to conduct business. "So, tell me what the Crimson Vital Sect can offer."
Hestia extended her UNI-OS node slightly above the table. A layered holographic projection unfolded between them, forming multiple floating panels that displayed detailed information. Rows of pill classifications began scrolling across the display, each entry accompanied by images and specification data.
"The relic we recently acquired has begun producing a stable supply of high-grade medicinal resources. Our first category is high-tier healing pills."
With a small gesture, she expanded the display. A rotating emerald pill appeared in the hologram.
"As you know, high-tier healing pills can regenerate severe physical damage, repair internal injuries, and stabilize bone fractures within a cultivator's body. Their effects are significantly stronger than those of ordinary low-tier healing pills."
Hestia shifted the projection to the next item. "We also produce mana pills. Each pill contains over one hundred thousand refined mana units, making them suitable for rapid replenishment or high-intensity cultivation."
Within the Azure Garden, certain plants contained as much as three hundred thousand mana units or even more. However, those specimens were extremely limited. For large-scale production, the most abundant plants were those containing roughly one hundred thousand units of mana. The rarer plants could either be reserved for the sect's own use or divided into smaller batches to create multiple pills of lower concentration. For that reason, Hestia had chosen to present the one-hundred-thousand-unit pills as the standard product, which was already considered extremely valuable by Andromeda Galaxy standards.
She moved the projection again. "We also produce advancement pills capable of awakening a cultivator's rule perception, as well as supplementary pills that regulate violent mana fluctuations within the body." A pale violet pill rotated in the display. "This one is particularly useful when consuming mana pills."
Adrian remained silent beside her, simply observing the negotiation.
One detail immediately caught his attention. Hestia never mentioned the Void-Calming Bloom or the Crimson Will Lotus. Those two plants were among the most valuable resources within the Azure Garden, but their quantities were extremely limited. It was clear that Hestia intended to reserve those resources exclusively for the sect's own disciples rather than selling them to outsiders.
Nightshade studied the projection for several moments before speaking again, "It appears you have obtained quite the fortune with that relic."
He leaned back slightly in his seat, "High-tier healing pills are not produced anywhere in this galaxy by minor sects. The necessary materials simply do not exist within Andromeda's natural ecosystems."
Nightshade's finger tapped lightly against the table, "Until now, I have been forced to acquire such pills from other galaxies through the networks of major sects. But, transport times alone can take months or even years. If a sect within this galaxy can supply them consistently, that delay would disappear entirely."
Nightshade glanced briefly at the other items in the display, "Mana pills, advancement pills, supplementary pills," he said, "All of these are useful, but none of them are rare. The Thousand Veils Sect already maintains supply contracts for these."
His hand rose, pointing once toward the emerald pill that still rotated at the center of the display. "The high-tier healing pills, however, are another matter. I am willing to propose a long-term supply contract specifically for those." His eyes shifted from the projection to Hestia directly. "The question is whether you can supply them consistently over the long term, or whether you are limited by relic inventory."
Nightshade understood how relic gardens functioned. Plants that had grown undisturbed for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years could accumulate extraordinary life force, but once harvested, the supply inevitably dwindled. From his perspective, the Crimson Vital Sect likely possessed only a limited stock of such plants, valuable for the immediate future, but ultimately finite.
Hestia remained completely composed. If this negotiation had occurred before Adrian provided the life-based divine concept, Verdant Genesis, to the sect, she would indeed have been forced to admit production limitations. However, once the sect began cultivating Verdant Genesis, growing plants with extremely dense life force would become significantly easier. In fact, producing high-tier healing pills might soon become one of the sect's simplest tasks.
"You do not need to worry about production," she replied calmly, "Even if the contract extends for several thousand years, we will be able to maintain supply without issue."
Nightshade's eyes narrowed fractionally. He nodded slowly. "I see."
He did not press further. He did not know how the Crimson Vital Sect intended to accomplish that level of production, but the method itself did not concern him. As long as the supply remained stable, the details were irrelevant. Sects guarded their methods jealously; demanding explanations would only sour negotiations.
"Then let us discuss terms," Nightshade said.
The negotiation continued for some time after that. Hestia projected additional screens displaying proposed shipment schedules, pill purity standards verified through third-party alchemical analysis, contract duration spanning initially five hundred years with renewal clauses, delivery guarantees backed by penalty structures, and storage protocols during transport.
The Thousand Veils Sect requested a consistent monthly delivery quota of high-tier healing pills and offered a purchase price five percent higher than the current market value.
They went back and forth on Adjustments to penalty clauses, clarifications on force majeure provisions in case of galactic conflicts disrupting supply chains, and insurance requirements for shipments crossing unstable spatial currents.
Eventually, both sides reached an agreement that satisfied their respective interests.
Nightshade extended his hand across the table. Hestia grasped it firmly. The gesture was brief and professional.
Both sect leaders activated their UNI-OS nodes simultaneously. Translucent screens materialized before them, displaying identical contract documents rendered. Adrian watched as they reviewed the final terms line by line, each party verifying clauses, checking numerical values, ensuring no last-minute alterations had been introduced.
Satisfied, both pressed their seals to the document. Golden light flared briefly as the UNI-Contract system registered the agreement, binding both parties under universal enforcement protocols. Breach of such contracts carried severe penalties enforced directly by the UNI Sect itself, financial sanctions, authority downgrades, and even complete exclusion from galactic commerce networks.
With that, the negotiation concluded.
Nightshade rose from his seat, "It has been a productive meeting."
Hestia stood as well, inclining her head respectfully. "Indeed. I look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership."
Adrian and Marivelle rose in turn.
Kaevryn stepped forward from his position near the chamber's entrance, "Allow me to escort you back to your vessel."
The group filed out of the chamber in orderly fashion. The door sealed behind them with a faint hiss of pressurized air equalizing.
...
A short while later, Hestia, Adrian, and Marivelle walked through the vast corridors of the Thousand Veils headquarters, guided by Kaevryn's steady pace.
As Adrian walked, his thoughts returned to the trial.
He was certain of one thing. If that encounter had been a real fight, he would have lost.
Even if he had deployed his Source Domain at full strength and displayed one hundred percent authority and used his source form, the clash with Nightshade's domain would have stabilized his final authority at sixty-five percent versus thirty-five percent. Technically, Adrian would still possess thirty percent surplus authority to manipulate reality. But how long could he maintain that advantage? That was the real problem.
In a genuine battle, Nightshade would have begun deploying proper offensive authority techniques immediately. Complex, layered attacks designed to force repeated negations. To counter even a single one of those attacks, Adrian would have been forced to expend enormous amounts of mana.
With only eighty thousand mana units available, he would have been completely drained within seconds.
At that point, authority would become meaningless. No matter how powerful a divine concept might be, without mana and willforce to sustain it, the cultivator wielding it would collapse.
That realization again made his weakness painfully clear. Mana and Willforce were his current limitations.
But increasing mana capacity required time regardless of the method used. Adrian already possessed time formations to counter the time problem, but he could no longer rely on Origin Ink to power them freely. The risk of exposure was too great. Instead, he would have to depend on the same methods used throughout the universe: Conceptual essence crystals.
Producing time essence crystals would in itself would take time.
And actually, no matter how he approached the problem, in the end, everything came back to one requirement: Mana crystals. Mana crystals are needed to convert them into time essence crystals, and even the Origin ink would need at least the pure Mana crystals to function.
One step at a time.
Adrian reorganized his priorities as they walked. His first objective would be to monetize the willforce recovery spell he had created. The willforce recovery spell was his best option. Universal applicability, genuine utility, something every cultivator in existence would benefit from. If he could package it properly, perhaps as a formation token, perhaps as a new method which could be used anywhere and even in the middle of combat, the demand would be astronomical.
If he succeeded in distributing it across the universe, it would generate a steady flow of income.
Once he had enough of a constant supply of mana crystals, at that time, he could choose to just use the pure crystals to power time formations while disguising the mechanics of Origin Ink behind layers of spatial compression and formation obfuscation. Or if he wished to avoid the risk entirely, he could simply produce the time-essence crystals himself or even purchase them directly. Such resources were rare but still available in the vast wider universe; few sects sold them commercially through the premium networks for high prices. If one just had enough money, one could do anything. Buying them rather than producing them himself would save enormous time and effort.
With sufficient mana crystals accumulating regularly, the possibilities would expand dramatically. With this, he could also accelerate his own cultivation and strengthen both his people and the Crimson Vital Sect at the same time.
As Adrian organized these plans in his mind, the group eventually reached the docking platform where their starship awaited.
Their vessel sat exactly where they had left it, compact and unassuming compared to the massive warships docked nearby.
Kaevryn stopped a few steps away from the vessel and inclined his head slightly, "May this partnership prove profitable for both our sects."
Hestia returned the gesture with equal formality. "Indeed. Please convey my regards to Sect Leader Nightshade."
"Of course."
Marivelle bowed as well, though she said nothing.
Adrian nodded once in farewell.
After a brief exchange of formalities, Adrian, Hestia, and Marivelle boarded the ship through the extended boarding ramp. The hatch sealed behind them.
Moments later, the vessel began preparations to depart the colossal headquarters of the Thousand Veils Sect.