Sam looked at the large metallic tower in front of him. It is at least thirty meters tall. It has a great structural design and even from the outside it looked pleasing to the eye.
The metallic tower is glowing with faint red color indicating the fire elemental energy it is using and as he moved closer to the tower he could feel the burning heat being emitted by it.
Sam activated the energy vision as he looked at the tower to see if he could get a glimpse of the energy circulation.
But he couldn't get any. Because the whole tower is covered with a bunch of inscriptions and formations that made it is impossible for one to directly get access to the visibility of the energy circulation inside the tower.
He walked forward and touched the tower-like many others. It is warm, hot in fact. He used closed his eyes and used his observation ability.
With his current cultivation level he could definitely scan it all, as he looked through it, he noticed that a liquid is currently being circulated within the center of the tower along its vertical axis.
The liquid is at different temperatures in different levels and even its density seemed to have changed with every level.
When Sam saw this tower, he was reminded of a process. Fractional distillation. Fractional distillation is used for refining various oils from the crude oil obtained from petroleum ore.
In a tall tower, the crude oil will be heated until it was evaporated and as the gas goes upwards, each component of the crude oil that has a different boiling point will turn to liquid in different compartments of the tower. The petrol, diesel, kerosene, and other oils that are obtained from the petroleum are obtained this way.
But this tower has one major difference here in the process and that is all the different oils are being consumed as soon as they are deposited.
The whole tower has different levels of heat at different sections because the heat energy released by the combustion of each fuel is different.
The heat energy obtained from different fuels is being used to supply different nodes with the energy required to keep the whole city warm. The location of petroleum ore is not far from the city and the tower has a direct connection with this.
In Sam's opinion as sophisticated and complex as it might be, this is a waste of some good resources. The whole tower and the heating system are completely inefficient and a lot of energy is being wasted from this.
And there is also something else Sam noticed, it is the familiarity in the styles of formations that are inscribed on it. These are similar to the two major formations he came across in the journey. The Maze and the mountain prison in which Saber Monarch and Vidyut were trapped.
This made him feel surprised and then he remembered that Vidyut told him that there are three people in the group and one of them is the maker of the maze and the other is the maker of the mountain prison, so this might be the third guy's specialty.
Sam couldn't help but smile and then looked deeper into the tower to observe anything that was leftover.
After a while, he returned to the inn to meet with the rest of his team.
"So, any news?" Sam asked as he sat down while sketching something.
"No, boss. The matters of the sect are not much discussed. Even the merchants that have businesses with them only deal with the external branch. The same goes for the people who give them missions.
Unless the mission is something too important and extremely high value, nobody other than the external members of the sect and the person who is in charge of the mission will come into contact with them.
It is even worse in the business. Even if it is a billion spirit stone deal, only the external members contact them. The highest-ranked person is called the Deacon and he is the last lead we can go if we proceed normally.
Nobody knows how the external branch contacts the main branch of the sect. Nobody knows in which direction, the entrance of the sect could be in, they don't even have the faintest idea."
Sam heard the reports as he kept on sketching, after they are done, he looked at Vidyut and said.
"The tower is the work of the people who imprisoned you." Vidyut was surprised.
"Really? They did this? What could their purpose be, imprisoning another one?"
"Not really. Even when they imprisoned you and Saber Monarch, it was not their original purpose, Saber Monarch happened to be the suitable target of the young masters who promised to use his formation and you happened to be the one that pissed them off at the right moment. You guys are just means to an end. What they want is the glory and the satisfaction of making something incredible.
They did it with both of you guys and they did again with this tower. Making a warm city in the middle of the vast ice plains. That is their goal."
Sam said as he finished his sketch and then he continued.
"Everyone of you spread out in the city and stay in the different inns, place assignments in the sect branch. Choose the most dangerous ones you could think of in this place and set some high price. But not right now, wait for the two days. The shadow mice will be back with most of the info regarding the personnel of the external branch.
Meanwhile, see if someone is competing with the sect, or if there are any conflicts, big or small that we might be able to take advantage of, an arrogant young master of the sect, a black mark of the sect, anything tries to search. Generally, the lowest level of the workers have much information regarding this, try to see if you can get anything.
After we get the list of people and you drop the missions, see if the sect will send anyone other than the external members.
Inform me if they did and I will take it up from here.
Do not kill anyone from the sect until now. It is different from before, even though it is registered that only a Late-Stage Transcendent stage cultivator of Astral Plane is in charge, with the current sect situation and with so many mysterious actions of them, we couldn't be sure about anything and Hel is a real pain in the ass, if Hou Yi could do something like this, there is no saying what she would do. Be careful and try to change your appearances as much as you can."
Sam gave instructions and sent them away. From his current room, he has a great view of the tower. But every time he looked at he couldn't help but lament. The other party has great proficiency in the formation department, but in terms of machinery and energy efficiency is very far behind.
For Sam, this tower is a waste of energy and resources.
He couldn't help but think about what he would do to correct them and increase their efficiency and that was what he was sketching when he was speaking to the team.
He couldn't help himself. He is really too into improving this. But he knew that it would be difficult if he touched the tower to modify it, the whole city will deal with him, and that too with a united front without and disparities.
The tower is too valuable for the residents, not because of the comfort it provides, but rather for the tourist attraction it was and the prosperity it brings with that attraction.
It is impossible for them to let Sam mess with it.
But he didn't care. As long as he has plans ready and dealt with the sect, then he would be able to do anything with this tower and no one would have the balls to stop him.
For the next two days, the team was trying to dig any possible information they could get about the sect.
But they didn't have much success. The sect's reputation is too clean.
The shadow mice returned and they gave some information to Sam.
He passed that info to the team and told them to drop the missions.
Everyone from the team placed the mission separately. In the past two days even though the information about the sect wasn't obtainable, there was another information they managed to obtain.
The dangerous creatures and the resources that are available in the ice plains and some that could even require the action of some Middle stage Astral Plane Transcendent cultivators.
For example, there is a frost wyvern tribe on a mountain nearby and the beast in charge of the tribe is a Middle stage Astral plane Transcendent creature.
Kiran went and placed a mission that he would need the blood of that creature and he offered a sky-high price.
The rest of the team also proceeded to place the missions of such level with a certain time gap of at least half a day in between.
