Death... and me

And so, three months had gone by, just like that. Freedom City kept receiving more and more cultivators from the outside, knowing about the Freedom Sect and Fizer's power. Celis had also finished spreading his roots, so the concentration of Spiritual Energy stabilized at the Rank Three level over the entire island.

During this time, Malo combed through the cultivators in Freedom City, taking into the sect as guest elders the ones who could help with its development. As for the ones who stayed in Freedom City, they weren't feeling bad at all. Freedom City had soon become a trade center, where many cultivators who didn't intend to stay there came to trade. Because of that, the cultivators who first arrived on the island and took their pieces of land started to profit a lot from it.

Information from outside kept coming through the sect's efforts as well. Soon, a map of Wringan was drawn out, and the countries that started to emerge were included there. By now, twelve countries, including Fausec, now seemed to have a real foothold in their territory. As for the others, they were going through disputes with other powers, or there were simply not enough cultivators there to guarantee their control.

Back in the sect, Govin, who was already in the Nascent Soul Realm, had finally broken through into a Heaven Initial-level blacksmith. Rean also taught him about the Elemental Gathering Metal. Of course, not only was he taught about it but the best disciples as well. By now, Rean didn't need to be the one crafting to make all the weapons for the disciples of the sect.

The same thing happened in the Formation Hall. Srevil and Dian were as knowledgeable as Qia, but they did succeed in creating a Heaven Initial-level Circuitry Formation. Because of her cultivation, Qia couldn't do that yet. For Rean, that was very good since those two were able to take a lot of the job and research he had into their hands.

Inside one of the rooms of the Formation Hall, Rean used another Circuitry Formation Device to work on something. He was accompanied by Srevil, Qia, Dian, and a few of the other disciples as well. As mentioned before, the runes had to decrease in size, and the cultivators' hands were already not enough for that anymore. That's why the Minuscule Rune Carving Formation was created.

Dian and Srevil used their Spiritual Senses together with Rean, working on the new piece of equipment. "Dian, move the receptor runes half a millimeter to the left. Srevil can keep holding the current while we test the new position."

Dian nodded, saying in response, "Sure. Just be careful with the connections since I'm too busy to stop them with my Spiritual Energy."

Srevil also added his piece, telling the others, "In fact, it should be better if we spread out the protection runes more sparsely. The Minuscule Rune Carver is already at its limit. We won't be able to keep it like that until the disciples finish developing the next version."

,

Rean pondered over it for a bit and nodded, eventually saying, "Alright, let me separate them a little."

A few hours went by when suddenly, a sound echoed in the room.

*Plin!*

The new device they were working on turned on as it connected to the sect's antenna. That immediately made Rean and everyone else's eyes light up. "Great! It is working!"

Rean's group had been working on the antenna's flaws as well, and they had already found a solution for most of its problems. The remaining issues wouldn't bother them for a while since there were simply not enough communication formations installed for them to occur yet.

Dian couldn't help but say, "Quick, try to send a message with it."

As expected, the new device was a new version of the Spiritual Smartphone. One that had its major flaw fixed.

'Hello! Can you hear me?'

'Yes, Elder Rean! I can hear you!'

Everyone cheered when the messages had been passed through correctly.

"It was about time for it to be done."

"Don't forget to save the information in the jade slip blueprints. Next time we try to make one, it'll be several times faster."

"Say goodbye to the brick era!"

Qia then took it in her hands before asking, "I understand that you wanted to reduce the size of it. However, why did you set a protection formation, and one at the Heaven-level at that? Isn't that a little too overpowered?"

"Of course not!" Rean answered as he shook his head. "We are cultivators who might go into battle at any moment. If we kept the same sturdiness as the brick, it would break with any hard movement, especially at the Nascent Soul level. We needed something that could bear the grunt so that its owner could use it in an emergency."

This wasn't the second version after the brick, though. Rean's group had tried five more different prototypes, but they all failed or did not meet the requirements set by Rean. This one had a higher coverage area, being able to send messages back to the nearest antenna up to a thousand kilometers away as long as one was outside. Considering its size, that was a huge feat and another reason why wireless signals that could bend with Spiritual Energy were so much better. This was the first one that seemed to be able to do that.

Qia looked at it for a moment before she gathered her Spiritual Energy in her fist and punched the new Spiritual Smartphone.

*Bang!*

She was almost near the Peak of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm, so the strength behind that attack was no joke. Of course, she didn't use her full strength since it was just a test.

*Bzzzzzzzz!*

Just as the energy of her attack was about to hit the device, its thousands of microcircuitry protection runes activated together. The Heaven Initial-level Circuitry Protection Formation inside created a dissipation barrier, protecting the device. The Spiritual Smartphone was still sent flying like a cannonball, though.

*Crash!*

It hit the wall, creating a small hole in it. Rean then used his Spiritual Energy and took it back to check. He pressed a few of the numbers on it and tried to communicate once again. Sure enough, the message passed through as if nothing had happened at all. "Hahaha! This is the sturdiest communication circuitry formation device ever!"

Everyone nodded until a disciple remembered something, deciding to ask, "By the way, elder Rean. What's the name of this new version?"

Rean pondered over it for a bit before a name popped in his head. "This guy is basically indestructible to those below the Nascent Soul Realm." Rean then smiled as he said in response, "Let's just call it the Nokia 3310. I just hope it can live up to its name."