Venerated Skysoarer’s help was a great boon to Jiang Chen. He desperately needed a knowledgeable helper when it came to formations. Restarting it would take more than a day or two.

First, he needed to find where the three nodes were located. He knew their rough directions, but it had been too long since their last operation. It would take some time for them to be found and repaired, and the latter was a complex process.

Smaller details could be left to lesser cultivators, but bigger projects required expert know-how.

As an executive of the Ancient Crimson Heavens Sect, Venerated Skysoarer had been one of the best formation masters in ancient times. Moreover, his sect had participated as one of the three parties responsible for the creation of the Great Formation of Heavenly Soul Confinement in the first place.

“Over the next few days, we’re going to do a selection for formational talent. Please, keep a close eye on the proceedings. These people may form the foundations for the Ancient Crimson Heavens Sect’s future.”

Venerated Skysoarer’s eyes widened. “Do you mean, young master Chen…?”

“Rebuilding the sect isn’t going to be done in a day. Just you or I cannot amount to an entire sect. Many generations of effort and fresh blood are needed for that.”

The old master nodded. “Indeed. Your formation master selection is to prepare for the reestablishment of the Ancient Crimson Heavens Sect, then?”

“One of my two purposes, yes,” Jiang Chen smiled. “Can you serve as the head judge?”

“Of course,” Venerated Skysoarer replied instantly. “I guarantee I’ll choose the ones with real talent and true potential.”

“You’ve seen the way the human domain is right now,” reminded Jiang Chen. “You can’t use the same standards as back then, or you won’t be able to find a single one to your liking.”

“Don’t worry. I may be old, but I’m not stubborn or foolish just yet,” promised Venerated Skysoarer.

“Good, good,” Jiang Chen laughed as well. “I trust your judgment and insight. Ah, that aside, what about the others? How are they doing in the outside world?”

Venerated Skysoarer’s face reddened. “We split up once we left the six palaces. The others? Haha… I doubt they’ll be able to last much longer than me out there. You’re a real tricky one, eh, young master Chen? You pretended to be generous in giving us back our freedom, but you knew we wouldn’t be able to stay long.”

Jiang Chen could hardly admit such a thing, even if it was absolutely true. Cackling, he tried to keep a straight face. “Do I look like that kind of person, sir? You wound me.”

Venerated Skysoarer harrumphed, but said nothing more.

In the span of time that followed, the human domain continued to experience turmoil. Attacks and incidents popped up everywhere.

Though the teams Jiang Chen had sent out resolved some of the issues, they couldn’t stop them at their root.

Jiang Chen was upset, but didn’t lose his head over it.

Instead, he calmly continued to work on reactivating the Great Formation of Heavenly Confinement. It took three months for him to locate and dig up all three nodes.

Since the formation structure remained intact, reactivating the formation wouldn’t be too much harder than fixing the nodes. A partially shattered network could be repaired ad hoc as long as the three nodes were in place.

Venerated Skysoarer was tremendously busy during that time. Several thousand formation masters had signed up for the selection, from among which he chose three hundred.

He wasn’t entirely happy with the candidates he had picked out, but it was the best he could do considering the human domain’s present condition.

Thankfully, none of them lacked understanding. Studying under the ancient master improved their ability by leaps and bounds.

Jiang Chen occasionally dropped in on their classes, but he minimized actual interference.  

Once the three nodes were found, he had to station heavy security near them. He was worried that the secret troublemakers would attack the nodes after hearing what he was doing.

Since the nodes’ locations were exposed now, someone with ulterior motives would easily be able to find them. Their destruction meant abandoning any prospects of reactivating the great formation.

Jiang Chen didn’t want a last-minute cancellation when he’d done so much work already. Defending the three important locations cost him a considerable amount of mental energy.

He had many subordinates, but he couldn’t rest easy about any of the nodes regardless.

Thankfully, Master P’eng and the others slowly trickled back in out of boredom with the world outside. This mitigated Jiang Chen’s urgent need.

Master P’eng, the Mad Fiend, the Grand Marquis, and Old Pill Rune had all been famous masters in the ancient era. They were far more capable than the less distinguished gods under Jiang Chen’s command.

Jiang Chen didn’t mince his words, instead taking an honest and forthright approach.

In turn, these ancient masters stuck to their promises and cooperated with the young lord. The four of them were assigned as a single group to protect one of the nodes.

Lan Tianhao, Yu Gong, and the rest of the gods were assembled into another team, in charge of defending a different node.

Jiang Chen was accompanied only by Venerated Skysoarer, though Xia Tianze hid himself nearby in secret as backup.

Xia Tianze was actually the strongest of the six, but he wasn’t used enough to the outside world to feel comfortable with revealing himself overmuch.

Jiang Chen saw no reason to force him.

The four sacred beasts were allowed to sit in cultivation within the Veluriyam Palace.

The Goldbiter Rats tunneled in the earth between the three nodes’ locations, charged with delivering messages and maintaining communications, as well as providing auxiliary support should it be necessary.

In truth, there wasn’t much more that Jiang Chen could do. He still fell short on manpower, nor could he pay much attention to the fighting in the Upper Eight Regions; reactivating the formation also took precedence over that for sure.

One of the nodes was located within Ninesuns Sky Sect territory in the Upper Eight Regions, not far from Veluriyam Capital.

The other two nodes were within Myriad Domain and an unnamed Mid Region respectively.

These three nodes formed a geographical triangle.