Lan Xincheng was stunned. He then laughed wryly, saying, “We can offer one type at most and just one unit of it. That is unless you put the origin crystals into the equation.”
“The origin crystals won’t be at this price.” Qianye smiled.
“The origin crystals you have…”
“I believe you already know their attributes and have expected as much.”
Ji Tianqing and the other people were present when Qianye condensed his origin crystals. Moreover, everyone had observed his crystal in turn. Apart from the one in the Book of Darkness, the remaining three were never a secret. Those condensed from Venus Dawn would benefit even a divine champion. The one formed from the vampire stars and part of the dark star contained the terrifying power of a vampire constitution. It would allow the expert to cross through the thresholds of many powerful inheritances.
The last two origin crystals had never appeared before, and probably wouldn’t in the future. Pricing it like usual origin crystals was simply impossible. Lan Xincheng knew that his little plan had been seen through. “If you’re willing to sell it, the military will offer one of its latest battlecruisers in exchange.”
Battlecruisers were a newly developed warship of the Empire, falling between a battleship and a cruiser. It was fast and powerful but slightly inferior in defense. These ships were developed in response to the demonkins’ new high-speed destroyers. They were of the newest class, be it in terms of weapons or equipment.
The skycloud-grade kinetic sail and earth-grade engine Qianye wanted were parts from the last generation of cruisers. The phoenix-grade main cannon was a destroyer-class main cannon of the previous generation, not something that could be compared to the latest battlecruiser model.
Qianye was somewhat curious. “How many of these battlecruisers does the Empire own?”
“Three.” Lan Xincheng was expressionless.
“It’s not enough to share, is it?” Qianye smiled.
“The two belonging to the army and the Imperial clan can’t be touched. But we can transfer the one in the void fleet after a while.”
The fleet in the void belonged to the forces guarding the Empire’s borders, and their fighting power was only below the Palace Guard Fleet. Normally, their designation numbers were between three and eight.
The latest-model battlecruiser could be used as a flagship of the fleet. In the neutral lands, it would bring about a situation of one ship annihilating an entire squadron.
“That’s a pretty steep investment. Why didn’t you bring the airship along?”
“We need to complete negotiations first. This will be a major transfer involving many people and will probably require a good amount of discussions.” Lan Xincheng hesitated for a while, but glancing at Qianye, he finally decided to reveal some secrets. “I heard that even some dukes and marshals were moved by the two top-grade crystals you condensed, especially the two with no chance at making more progress. But all the Empire can afford to offer is a new-model battlecruiser, and even that is still under negotiations.”
The word “negotiation” probably wasn’t as cordial as it sounded. A powerful vessel of this sort was related to the power balance of an entire region, but a marshal-rank expert’s personal strength was related to the rise and fall of entire factions. Their fall would bring about the demise of many related people.
Hearing this, Qianye understood that Lan Xincheng would probably have a clear plan during his next visit.
Fang Zhan said, “Sire Qianye, people from the major clans might visit you during this time. You should hold out no matter what they offer you. Only the Empire can bring a battlecruiser to the table, and we’ll probably bring it along the next time we come. All you need to do is tell them you’re not trading now and just forget about them.”
Qianye broke into a laugh. “I understand.”
Fang Zhan wasn’t wrong. Perhaps only the military would have the power to bring all their chips to the neutral lands and pick out the goods. This feeling was like driving a truck full of gold coins to go shopping, leaving no room for worry or doubt regarding the payment.
After seeing off Lan Xincheng and Fang Zhan, Qianye gave his subordinates instructions regarding operations in Southern Blue. Then, he set out for the Northern Continent with the new batch of ridge-grade engines and toad-grade main cannons.
The Northern Continent was much livelier than before. The two towns had completed their initial construction plans—most of the workshops were up and running, and the few remaining ones were waiting on new equipment. Song Zining had delivered over a thousand men, forming a power that wasn’t any weaker than the Highbeards.
The latter people were still arriving in a steady trickle. As inherent technicians and warriors, they were also the main power protecting the Northern Continent. Although no one knows about the continent’s existence just yet, it wouldn’t be a secret forever—forming an army was a necessary measure.
The Martyr’s Palace was parked outside of town, undergoing modifications.
The palace had been floating in the void while Qianye was inside the Great Maelstrom, absorbing void origin power on its own. With the heart as its core, new flesh grew along the skeleton and ribs, forming a natural outer wall. Some of the constructed ship walls were now covered and integrated into the body.
No steel developed by either the humans or the dark races could compare to the Earth Dragon’s natural body. Void colossi were extraordinary existences. Warship main-cannons could hardly blast open their bodies, and the only way to kill them was for Great Dark Monarchs or Heavenly Monarchs to take action.
The current Martyr’s Palace was now seeing an increased surface area of natural muscle. Most of the chest cavity was now covered in natural flesh, and it was starting to stretch along the spine toward the back. For it to recover entirely, though, would take decades.
Glancing up into the sky, one could see that the Martyr’s Palace had recovered a bit of its living glory. However, there was still a large area composed of man-made structures and even more empty spaces. The outline of a deck was visible on its back, and its two sides were lined with empty holes where the side-cannons would be installed. Those toad-grade main cannons would be installed in these positions.
The toad-grade main cannons could produce concentrated fire, but its firepower was somewhat inferior, making it the best candidate for this position. The truly difficult targets would be left to Landsinker to handle. Linken had poured a significant amount of resources to build this duke-grade main cannon, and it was even more powerful than that of the old imperial battleships.
Seeing a cargo ship descend, Blue Moon ran over immediately. What Qianye saw when he opened the door was dozens of gun barrels aimed at him.
“Master!” Cheering, Bluemoon tossed her gun away and ran forward.
Qianye was surprised by her sudden enthusiasm. He gave her a pat on the back and plucked her off his body.
Bluemoon looked up, saying, “You’ve been gone for so long.”
Her eyes turned red as she spoke. Qianye didn’t know how to reply, so he simply pointed at the airship behind him. “I brought some good stuff. Install them on the Martyr’s Palace.”
Nodding, Bluemoon summoned dozens of Highbeard warriors to help with the shipping.
“Take me to the Martyr’s Palace. Let’s see how much it has progressed.”
“Yes.”
Bluemoon pulled Qianye onto the palace and showed him around the various parts. The materials stored on the vessel had more or less been used up. While the Martyr’s Palace was parked in the void absorbing origin power, there were hundreds of technicians working constantly on construction, installation, and optimization.
Having installed the main-cannons and engines in stock, the technicians had begun constructing the cannon chambers.
The crew living-area had started to take shape, with partitions for the infirmary, leisure areas, warehouse, mess hall, etc. The basic facilities had also been installed. The palace could now hold several hundred people. Only a small part of the Earth Dragon’s body was enclosed, and what little area protected by the dragon’s flesh had to be prioritized for the kinetic chamber, energy chamber, armory, and various origin arrays. Hence, there wasn’t a lot of space for the crew to live.
Qianye had brought back a large amount of construction materials. The high-grade board components could be used to build the outer wall and fit it with plate armor. The ordinary ones could be used to build internal cabins and rooms. This would allow the available space to expand yet again. The airship would be able to hold over a thousand people after the fitting.
A massive thousand-meter vessel like this dragonship could easily hold tens of thousands of people. Qianye checked the internal layout, saying, “Add another living space. The insides don’t need to be too comfortable, just enough for people to live in for a week or so.”
Bluemoon made rapid calculations. “With the current space, the new living quarters will fit about three thousand people, but we’ll need to remodel the respective warehouses and mess halls. How many people do you want it to fit?”
Qianye wanted to say ten thousand at first, but he changed his mind after some thought. “Three thousand it is then.”
Three thousand happened to be the right fit for the most well-trained of Dark Flame’s elites. With how mobile the Earth Dragon was, one could easily drop these three thousand soldiers behind the enemy lines and attack their rear.
The days that followed were spent installing the ridge-grade engines and toad-grade main cannons. Qianye installed everything on the Martyr’s Palace, greatly increasing its speed. It was still no match for a standard Imperial warship, or even the biggest mothership for that matter, but it was much faster than a cargo vessel now. The palace would barely compare to a mothership with the addition of a few more ridge-grade engines.
Qianye didn’t wait for the installations to be complete before driving the Martyr’s Palace back to Southern Blue.
Once back in the city, Qianye parked the palace in the void and instructed the technicians on board to continue with the installation. Meanwhile, he flew back toward the Dark Flame headquarters.
He asked his men to bring Zhang Xuance. After several days in prison, the man was looking pretty listless, and his usual prideful demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
He looked at Qianye as though the latter were a lifesaving straw. “Sire! You’re finally back!”
“Oh? You missed me?” Qianye smiled spuriously.
“I’ve been imprisoned here for so long. You’re neither killing nor letting me go, this…”
“Oh, so that’s how it is. I was a bit busy, so I forgot.”
Zhang Xuance’s expression was quite interesting. He had thought of every reason but never guessed Qianye had actually forgotten about him.
This young man had always been in the limelight from a young age. He would still receive some attention even if Zhang Buzhou’s direct descendants weren’t dead. Who would’ve thought he would fall to such an unimportant role one day, so much so that people would forget him?
This emptied his mind of the words he had been preparing for several days. After some thought, he finally said, “Sire, if you don’t plan to kill me, please let me go. My family will surely pay you well.”
“What kind of payment are we talking about.” Qianye seemed interested.
Zhang Xuance could forget about freedom if he couldn’t suggest anything concrete. Finally, he braced himself to quote a price for his life.
