Actually, they could not be blamed for being shocked. That small potted plant, Ye Xiao, contained several extremely powerful methods.
First, refining methods.
To be able to perfectly arrange the power of space on a 10,000-year-old meteorite, meant that the other party's refining methods were extraordinary.
As the saying went, in the eyes of the Nine Provinces, the refining standards of the Nine Provinces should be the best in the world.
Even so, the current refiners in the Nine Provinces could gather all the top refiners and refine it for a few days and nights before they had a chance to refine it.
That was only a chance. No one could be sure that it would not fail.
That could only be done in a few days and nights without any mistakes or failures.
That first point was already extremely valuable.
The second point was that the basin was engraved with a very high-level spirit-gathering array.
With their knowledge and insight, they could tell at a glance that this array was extraordinary.
An imperial array!
It was a proper imperial array!
Just like the last artifact-refining factor, the top array masters of the Nine Provinces also needed time to set up that kind of array.
What was more shocking was that the bigger the array was, the easier it was to operate, because it did not have such high requirements for details.
The smaller the array was, the more difficult it was.
Creating a nuclear boat was not necessarily easier than creating a real boat.
Moreover, that was not just a spirit-gathering array, there was also a defensive array.
There were a total of two imperial arrays. How perverse. It had already caused a few people to be disrespectful.
As for the third point, it was the natural treasures inside.
Those things were all extremely rare and good things.
Of course, saying that they were rare was for ordinary people. For an existence like Ye Xiao, it was still relatively easy to find.
Genius martial arts experts flew quickly and had strong perceptions. Finding some natural treasures was a piece of cake.
The problem was cultivating and breeding those natural treasures.
That thing was not something that could be done by relying on cultivation.
Not only did Ye Xiao take good care of them, but he also allowed them to breed more natural treasures. That was the most valuable thing.
Those three types added together definitely cost Ye Xiao a lot of effort.
However, what made everyone feel their hearts bleed was that Ye Xiao was also a martial arts expert.
A top-notch martial arts expert.
He was only 21 years old.
21 years old!
Martial arts cultivation had reached the Emperor realm. It was a realm that other people might not be able to catch up to in almost ten lifetimes or even a hundred lifetimes.
He even knew how to use arrays, refine weapons, and even plant natural treasures. Did he still want others to live?
"Ye Xiao... Are all of these done by you alone?
"What I meant was, did you do all of this refining, including setting up the arrays?"
Ye Xiao nodded.
"Is there a problem?"
Everyone was silent for a moment before shaking their heads in unison.
"There's no problem."
Everyone once again understood Ye Xiao's strength and completely gave up on struggling.
That fellow was a complete pervert. If they continued to ask, they would only bring disgrace upon themselves. There was no need for them to say anything more.
They could just silently shout 'Awesome' in their hearts!
"Seniors, please come in."
Everyone nodded and followed Ye Xiao into the room.
Ye Xiao asked Huan Liuli to serve tea.
Everyone in the room finally recovered a little of their normal state.
Not everything in Ye Xiao's house was shocking. The vast majority of it was actually very ordinary.
It was just that a few others were able to shatter one's worldview.
That also made everyone admire Ye Xiao once again.
Even such a powerful person with such monstrous talent did not pursue any extravagant life. All of his thoughts were completely focused on cultivation.
He deserved to be so strong!
After drinking tea, the Azure Dragon began to speak:
"We came here this time because we have two things to tell you. The first is naturally to thank you for helping us advance."
Ye Xiao smiled.
"This is a piece of cake. There's no need to be so polite."
"Yes, if it weren't for you, who knows how long the two of us would have to wait to advance."
After a pause, the Azure Dragon spoke again,
"The second thing is about the beast calamity. What do you think?"
Ye Xiao shook his head.
"Actually, I don't have any good ideas about it. Tactical guidance isn't my forte. I'm only good at one-sided battles. One-on-one or one-on-many. As long as my cultivation isn't much higher than mine, it won't be a problem."
Ye Xiao was telling the truth. People could not be perfect.
The Azure Dragon looked at Jiang Chen.
"Black Tortoise, you should be the best at this. Do you have any ideas?"
Jiang Chen sat up straight.
"To be honest, I'm at my wit's end when it comes to this kind of thing.
"The beast calamities in the past had been fine, but this time, it was far beyond what we could bear.
"12 supreme divine beasts. Each of them was a martial arts expert comparable to the human race's Emperor realm!
"Even if the human race now had two more Emperor realm martial arts experts like you and Ye Xiao, there were only eight Emperor realm material arts experts. There was still a huge imbalance in the highest combat strength between us and the other party.
"Other than the highest combat strength, the other party had nearly 200 divine beasts in the past. This time, even the number of supreme divine beasts had increased. How many more divine beasts do you think there will be?
"This number is really impossible to estimate.
"Therefore, we can only do our best to fight this battle. Just how far can we fight? Or whether we can hold out until the end, no one can make a conclusion."
The Vermillion Bird said,
"Not to mention other things, just within the Nine Provinces, we have no way to protect all of them. Because the Nine Provinces is really too big, the population is the largest, and the distribution is especially wide. It is very difficult to gather in a short period of time."
The venerable White Tiger said,
"If there is really no way to save everyone, then we might as well gather them together. We can save as many as we can. We can gather those with the strongest strength first, and preserve the spark of humanity."
Ye Xiao's brows slightly raised.
He was someone who had interacted with King Zhou.
From the beginning of the history of the Zhou Dynasty, the Nine Provinces had changed their strategy towards the human race. From the resources of the entire population, they had become concentrated and divided resources according to class.
It was true that doing so would be more rational, and it would indeed be able to retain more elites. However, the vast majority of the Nine Provinces' human race would die.
Ye Xiao was not a saint, but those humans were also warriors who had been working hard for the Nine Provinces all along.
They did not have the right to choose. It was just that their aptitude was a little lower, so they had to give up more cultivation resources to provide for those elite warriors.
From a certain point of view, that was also a kind of dedication.
Their hearts to protect the Nine Provinces and to fight bravely for the entire Nine Provinces were no less than those elite warriors.
It would be too cold-blooded to abandon them just like that.
Besides that, there was another important point.
That was, although their aptitude wasn't good, all the humans in the Nine Provinces came from the same bloodline and were all descendants of the Xuan Yuan god race.
There was also divine blood in their blood. If the star beasts were to extract it, there would inevitably be a few more Emperor realm martial arts experts. Would that not be digging their own graves?
Those who abandoned their own race would inevitably suffer a backlash. That kind of karmic cycle problem was common.
If those people could be protected and taught, increasing their strength on a large scale, it would definitely have an unexpected effect in future battles against the star beasts.
Ye Xiao had already thought of a problem.
That was that the beast calamity would very likely cause the entire human race to suffer a huge impact. The number of humans would decrease drastically.
Hence, every human race was extremely precious.
If he could protect them, it was best to protect them. Otherwise, when there was a shortage of people in the future, he would not be able to protect them even if he wanted to.
"I don't think this method will work."
Ye Xiao immediately raised his opinion.
"Every human is precious. If it is nurtured, it will be a great battle strength. If it is given to the star beast, it will only strengthen the star beast's strength.
"Of course, what you said is also right. With our current strength, we have no way to protect everyone in the Nine Provinces.
"But we can use all the available resources to gather the human race in a few spots. Then we can use the imperial array to defend them, and we can use our powerful fighting power to protect them."
Jiang Chen shook his head.
"What you said is a good idea, but it's too idealistic.
"The White Tiger said it was more reasonable to gather a small number of elites to protect them first.
"To protect everyone in the entire Nine Provinces, the price was too high.
"Just the imperial array you mentioned, the array needs spirit stones. Only with enough spirit stones can the power of the array be perfectly displayed.
"If there aren't enough spirit stones, no matter how high the level of the array is, it won't be able to display its full power. It isn't an imperial array."
"I know that. I've thought of a few ways.
"There were two ways.
"One was to use the dragon vein. The dragon vein was strong enough to support a large-scale array.
"Just the Changbai dragon vein alone was enough to protect many people.
"There was also a dragon vein in the Southwest Seaside Forest.
"Two, if the dragon vein wasn't enough, we could use star beasts as the core of the array. We could gather the star beasts from various cities and use the imperial array to seal them. Together with the spirit-gathering array, we could form a large-scale defensive array, it should be enough to form a few shelters.
"Just like Jianghai city, with my star beast farm, we could provide a lot of spiritual energy to activate the array. We did not need the dragon veins, but we could meet the requirements.
"Thirdly, within the array, we could set up a teleportation array and use it to teleport martial artists.
"If one of the arrays is broken, the others can go over to help immediately."
Everyone's eyes lit up.
"This is a good idea."
"Good lad, you said just now that you don't know how to command, but the moment you make your move, it's a big move."
Ye Xiao's expression was solemn as he said,
"This is only a temporary measure. We still have to be wary of another thing. That is, if those star beasts occupy other states outside the Nine Provinces, they will definitely refine the divine blood.. After devouring the divine blood, they might even create new supreme divine beasts."