Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 113 - 112: Technology Is Also an Immortal Technique

Chapter 113: Chapter 112: Technology Is Also an Immortal Technique

In the following two weeks, a peculiar building sprang up in the field at the edge of the estate.

It was funded by the Immortal Alliance, with Hot Pepper Village providing manpower, and designed and constructed under the guidance of Chen Xuan. From the outside, it seemed to be two stories high, but inside, it was actually just one story. The space was simply divided, with pre-planned positions for counters, shelves, and the main entrance.

Indeed, this was the "specialized teleportation branch" that Chen Xuan envisioned.\nHe had previously noticed that the branch would automatically alter its interior layout based on the designated building; if the layout of the branch was exactly the same as the main store, then the furnishings would be identical. If the branch’s layout differed slightly, then the furnishings would undergo certain adjustments, but there was always a pattern, such as stairs and sofas tending to appear to the left of the bar, while elevator doors usually appeared on the right wall, etc...

So, as long as the planning was done in advance, the branch could perfectly present the appearance that Chen Xuan desired.

After the building was completed, Chen Xuan scanned the land deed into an app, making it one of the alternatives for a branch.

But that was not all. In the eyes of outsiders, it should be a teleportation array created with significant resources from Only I am Venerable Sect, the Witch Gathering Hall, and France. So, after converting it into a branch, Chen Xuan dismantled all the shelves, seats, lights, and decorations inside, then used wooden frames and colored steel sheets to create a passage, connecting only the main entrance and the elevator door.

Meanwhile, some modifications were also needed on the main store’s side, for example, slightly embellishing the second-floor corridor with foam boards to block the doors of other guest rooms.

In short... on the day of the trial run, over a hundred people gathered in front of the teleportation array’s door.

The Immortal Alliance Governor Xu Yuanqing was naturally among them.

The fifteen cultivators standing behind him were members of the envoy team representing the Immortal Alliance. Moreover, some well-informed local sects also dispatched a batch of cultivators to respond to the call of Only I am Venerable Sect—they were indeed keen to know whether Sect Leader Chen truly had the capability to instantly transport people to the West.

The remaining twenty people were members of the French visiting delegation.

During the month they stayed in Chang’an City, they did not spend their time idly but made themselves recognizable to the Immortal Alliance officials, playing a bridging role on their return to their homeland this time.

Chen Xuan pretended to watch the sky for a moment, then nodded at Xu Yuanqing, saying, "The time has come, we can set off."

After saying that, he walked to the branch entrance and pulled up the shutter door.

"Only fifty people can be teleported at a time, please enter in order."

Xu Yuanqing walked at the forefront of the team with him.

"This house is much smaller inside than it looks," he said curiously while scanning around, "What’s the intention behind this arrangement?"

To those who were unaware, it seemed peculiar for such a spacious door to lead to a gradually narrowing passage, connecting to a dark room at the end.

"The array distorts time and space, so the interior must be built according to a certain pattern to ensure safety when the array operates," Chen Xuan explained, making things up.

And the dark room at the end of the passage was naturally the store elevator.

It was more like a room itself, at thirty square meters, and had no marked load capacity. Chen Xuan allowed only fifty people in at a time, purely because cramming in too many would seem inelegant.

Once everyone was inside, Chen Xuan closed the elevator door and turned on the preset spotlights.

In an instant, dozens of colorful beams of light from above shattered the room’s darkness.

"Hiss..." Quite a few cultivators gasped in shock.

Never before had they seen such dazzling lights; compared to the omnipresent diffuse reflections of candles and torches, these concentrated beams seemed like tangible entities, casting patches of light on the walls. Some highly condensed red and green lights even transformed into straight lines that pierced through space, illustrating the essence of light to them.

Some brave souls extended their hands to try and touch those lasers, and with a slight block, they could interrupt them, and once moved away, the beams would seamlessly reconnect.

"Is this really light?" Xu Yuanqing was also shocked, asking, "Why can I see its path so clearly?"

"Because light has always been like this," Chen Xuan responded with a calm smile, resembling a sage, "It only travels in straight lines and refracts when it encounters other substances, like water. The light emitted from candles does the same, but it sends out countless rays in all directions simultaneously, making it hard to notice."

The cultivators pondered his words with complex expressions.

For a brief moment, a mental image formed in their minds about light: endless rays crashing and colliding like strands of thread, scattering when striking obstacles, forming shadows behind those obstacles; the scattered rays illuminated otherwise unreachable objects, creating reflections; once the light stabilized, a room interwoven with light and shadow appeared...

Some even felt a slight tremor in their Dao hearts from this mental image.

This tremor stemmed from glimpsing a corner of truth.

Everyone’s gaze towards Chen Xuan held an added respect.

Was this the foundation of the Only I am Venerable Sect?

However, Chen Xuan’s purpose for installing KTV lights here was just to prevent them from realizing they were in a special elevator.

He pressed the button, first letting the elevator return from the branch to the main store, then selecting the second floor, allowing it to stop directly at the guest room section.

When the door opened, the sight in front of them was even more mystical.

They saw a brilliant galaxy!

Countless stars were slowly shifting overhead, close enough to be within reach, with eternal darkness behind them, like the boundless universe.

Of course, this effect was achieved by several projectors working together—the corridor was surrounded by painted foam boards, functioning as a seamless screen, making this effect not hard to achieve. The downside was that as people passed through the lens, they would block parts of the image, casting the galaxy’s realm onto themselves, but for those who hadn’t experienced movies, this flaw was negligible.

Faced with such grandeur, the cultivators dared not even breathe.

Chen Xuan’s words deepened their awe for the universe, "This path is called the River of Time. Time draws power from the stars; it can lead us across long distances in short times or allow us to travel through long time spans in short distances."

"Travel through long time spans?" Xu Yuanqing asked incredulously, "Are you saying the array can not only transport people thousands of miles away but also has the effect of making what is days outside feel like years in here?"

These words made everyone’s hair stand on end.

No one wanted to take a walk here, only to find upon exiting that everything had changed.

"Perhaps, but the latter is its high-level application, which I haven’t mastered yet," Chen Xuan replied.

Xu Yuanqing slightly relaxed, "Where did Sect Leader Chen learn such an array?"

He gestured to the sky, without saying more.

Everyone understood his answer.

As the saying goes, the secrets of heaven cannot be revealed, so Xu Yuanqing didn’t pursue further.

The corridor was only about ten meters long, and the group soon entered Joan’s room—its decor resembled a bedroom deep within a castle, complete with lofty stone columns and walls, a ridiculously high ceiling, and a roaring fire in the fireplace. Yet, after experiencing "Strolling in the Star River," even the grandest of man-made structures seemed less impressive. Especially considering the tall towers in Chang’an City, which rival in grandeur with any cathedral here.

Beyond the back door, they found another low stone building, akin to a cave dwelling of primitives when compared to the bedroom they just left.

Given the intense wartime situations in France, the two weeks were only enough for military engineers to quickly construct a somewhat decent-sized bungalow on the front line.

Exiting this plain shack, they arrived at the beach of Normandy.

Staring at the grey-blue sea and the vast, open grasslands, the cultivators suddenly realized that while it may not be the end of the continent’s west, they were certainly no longer in the Central Plains.