The Time Plate is an artifact that was first seen millions of years ago in the cultivation land. It has the power to control time inside its sphere of influence. As time flew by, it was handed down to a few cultivators and was treated as a valued treasure.

The Time Plate's effect on time is external and through non-living beings. This means it can slow or hasten time but the age of a person or a beast inside its influence would not be affected. This includes cultivation and the gathering of one's mana or Qi inside their body. This has been the effect of the Time Plate since time immemorial.

Actually, the Time Plate was created by a Deity who is well versed with time Dao. The Deity then sent this artifact to the cultivation world so that it could be of use to those fortunate beings. But then what she expected didn't happen, because she then realized that most cultivators are selfish beings. Because of the difficulty of cultivation, many seek out the fastest way for their strength to improve. Hence, every time a great treasure would appear many would die. Countries, sects, schools, would kill themselves just to gain power over the others.

n.o.body would share like what the Deity thought in an ideal world.

That Deity before ascension and leaving the planet; decided to take the Time Plate from the land and hid it in the Deity realm of the planet.

"It would be better for this thing to be hidden in this place than be used by those ungrateful beings." The Deity shouted loudly shaking the land.

Hence the Time Plate was pa.s.sed down from one Deity to another. Sometimes, it would be given to a cultivator to test them. But it seems that many would just hide it and gain its advantage for themselves. Upon seeing this, the Deities would just shake their heads and once again take the Time Plate back.

A few thousands of years later...

This time, it was Deity Feng Guilin's turn to hold the Time Plate.

As she observes the vast cultivation land, she would always shake her head in dismay. This is because she could see fighting and wars happening all over the place. Whether the fight would be between, humans and beast, humans and beast-men, beast-men and beast, and so on. Although she also has experienced these when she was still a mere lowly cultivator, seeing it happening almost everywhere makes her feel distraught.

"There should be changes. This chaos should be lessened or even eradicated… Hmm… How can I make this world less chaotic?" she muttered.

Then suddenly from within her Great World Looking Eye Artifact, she saw from deep within the great cover of concealment and defensive array a place, a town which is populated by more than 500 mortals, cultivators, and… mages. The populace seems to live in peace and harmony with each other, following a rule which made them almost equal. Though she still can see some being oppressed but this is being dealt with by some power in that place they called the law.

"Interesting… How can this place stand the test of time?" she muttered.

Then she suddenly decided to go down to the cultivation land and act out her plan. She wanted to see for herself as upon observing that place inside the Great World Looking Eye, the hope of having her wishes and dream to come true almost came into reality deep inside her mind.

"This place is interesting if they can grow they might be able to have a chance to change this world and turn it into something less chaotic." The Deity muttered while waving her hand.

Her figure suddenly vanished from the place where she stood and reappears high up in the sea of trees within the Daemon forest.

And there she watches at how seven people hunted some beasts one by one or by groups. None of them saw her as she observes their discipline in executing commands and following orders. Their group acts as a singular individual. Sometimes, someone would make mistakes but as they progress their learning curve becomes better and better.

And so the meeting between the Deity Feng Guilin and the group of Qian Li along with the Shadow Squad trainee happened.

…

When they reached the underground base, they reported what had happened.

"What! Sister, you mean that this mysterious artifact called Time Plate was given to you by a mysterious woman." Phoenix(Meng s.h.i.+aoning) asked in astonishment.

Qian Li nods her head along with Beiwei Tang(Qilin) and the rest of the trainees who came with them.

Then suddenly two figures flashed and appear right in front of Qian Li, they were Qin Lou and Xi Jung.

"This… this aura… This pendant is what the woman gave you right?" Xi Jung suddenly said.

The Jung clan is a big clan and has a long history, Xi Jung upon seeing the pendant suddenly remember something.

There was a legendary artifact that was told within their clan that possesses the G.o.dly power of time. This artifact was lost and was only told in the legends. The legends called it the Time Plate.

So when Xi Jung and Qin Lou saw the pendant, they were both shocked.

"You know of this?" Phoenix suddenly turns her gaze to Xi Jung.

"Yes, it is actually a legend in many n.o.ble cultivator families." Xi Jung answered.

"I also read this in one of the books in the library of the City of Er." Qin Lou also said.

"The woman told me that to use this thing I just need to put a drop of my blood on this pendant. But she didn't tell me how to use it." Qian Li said with an unsure look in her eyes.

"Don't worry sister Qian, we can help you. We actually have an idea on how to use this. But before that, we need to plan this out." Qin Lou said as a thought came to her mind about s.h.i.+n Jiao's plan for the base.

In one of their talks, s.h.i.+n Jiao has shared with her his ideal world. And upon hearing it, she also thinks that the world that s.h.i.+n Jiao is trying to make it impossible to exist. Because the cultivation world is ruled by the strong and there is no such thing as equality. In this world, the winner takes all.

But everything changes, when she learned about the things that the underground base can do. When s.h.i.+n Jiao combined technology and cultivation, she was amazed. Even after staying inside the base for just a couple of days, it has given her great progress in her cultivation and base knowledge.

"If we can hide and improve within 50 years, then we can have the power to defend ourselves from the prying eyes of those greedy high-level cultivators and sects." Qin Lou thought.

"s.h.i.+n… We have it now… we have the power to build your ideal world… but… but I wish you are here to build it with me… with all of us." Qin Lou thought as a bead of tear unconsciously slid down her cheek.

Everyone cannot see her expression, but they can feel the melancholy in her aura. Then Qin Lou suddenly felt a soft warm palm, carefully holding hers. It was Qian Li who looks at her though she cannot see her under her veil.

"It's okay… He knows and trusted all of us." Qian Li muttered.

Thought her voice is low, everyone heard her and smiled.

Though their leader's status is unknown, yet they all trusted that he would be okay. With his wit and ability to adapt to things except for his emotional bonds, he would be fine. This is actually in the mind of all the original members of the Shadow Squad.

Then they decided to convey a meeting and began to plan for the future. They slowly plan out what they wanted to see in the next 50 years.

After 2 weeks of planning and deliberations, it was all done. They hasten the acceptance of the mortals who travel to the base; they began to literally accept everyone. Then the population blew up to around 50,000 people in those two weeks while the council is planning.

"Do you think that we have enough people?" Meng s.h.i.+aoning asked while looking at the data.

"This is enough for now. We can just accept more after 'a few years…' Hihi…" Ruby Lee(Serpent) giggled.

"Young ones I leave everything to you. I just wanted to be in my lab and creating things. Just tell me what you need. Master s.h.i.+n Jiao has given a lot of blueprints and I haven't even tried making half of them." the woman who looks like in her 50's whom they called Elder Wan Bing said.

This means that she has already deligated the leaders.h.i.+p of the base to both Qin Lou and Qian Li.

She and her team are the ones in charge of making gadgets and artifacts for the base. s.h.i.+n Jiao chooses her because he found out that she can actually quickly grasp the fundamentals of mechanics and electrical engineering. She is also good at numbers and other stuff. This is because she was once a crafting cultivator, who lost her dantian due to the machination of her own clan.

Everyone just smiles at her comment, they know that she is crazy when it comes to research and development of the underground base's types of machinery.

The elder man beside her didn't express his opinion and just smiled.

"Then we will start… From now on, a day would equal to 1 year… And we will build a huge town… no a great city, where the ideals of Master s.h.i.+n Jiao would come true, a place of peace and solace for those who seek it." Qian Li proudly declared.

She activated the pendant with her own blood and a bright s.h.i.+ning light engulfs the whole wide range of the forest…

...

50 days later…

A majestic city suddenly came out from within the protective barrier within the forest which suddenly opens like a bubble being popped. All the cultivators and the beast within that area look at it with wide amazement and wonder.

This would be the day that the world will know the existence of the Great s.h.i.+n County.