Chapter 1009: Crafting the Strongest Dreadnaught
In the Summer Departure calendar, at the end of the first year of the imperial reign, snow fell in the imperial capital of humankind. But winter always came late to Seven Blood Eyes, and besides, the climate was temperate, so the most that happened was that it rained. That was true even at the end of the year.
The rain that fell covered the Port District. From a distance, everything looked hazy. The crowds on the street and the ships coming in and out of the harbors created a beautiful scene. The pitter-patter of the rain on oilskin umbrellas was as gentle as the sounds of nature, tugging on the heartstrings of the people. It was like an affectionate confession of the sky to the earth, or the clouds expressing deep attachment to all the living things below.
Xu Qing walked through the rhythmic rain until he found Harbor 176. There, squatting in the eaves of a big warehouse was Zhang San, wearing the same style of clothing he had always worn. And just like always, he was smoking a pipe.
There was a familiar face squatting next to him. It was Erniu, who was wringing out his soaking fur all while talking nonstop.
Upon spotting Xu Qing, Erniu waved and shouted a greeting. Meanwhile, Zhang San’s eyes lit up. Shooting to his feet, he put his pipe away and rubbed his hands together in anticipation, all while flashing a silly smile. That smile came instinctively to Zhang San, either when he was around old friends or important people.
Nowadays, Xu Qing counted as a familiar face to Zhang San, but at the same time, was something of a stranger. He was a familiar face because of their times together in the past. But he was a stranger because, nowadays, his cultivation base and status had reached an astonishing level.
“Xu...” he began hesitantly, unsure of exactly how to address Xu Qing.
“Elder Brother Zhang San,” Xu Qing interrupted with a smile before Zhang San could decide which form of address to settle on. And with that, he squatted down beneath the eaves. It was just like the time years ago when Erniu introduced Xu Qing to Zhang San.[1]
Zhang San grinned.
Erniu, meanwhile, looked off into the distance for something before snorting coldly and grumbling, “So, that damned old bird Huang Yan isn’t with you? Let me tell you, little Ah Qing, that crappy bird is one foul fowl!”Xu Qing thought for a moment. “Eldest Brother,” he said quietly, “given Huang Yan’s cultivation, even though he’s not right here, he can probably still hear everything you say.”
Erniu’s eyes widened into a glare, and he loudly said, “This is Seven Blood Eyes! My Junior Sister is here! My Master is here! I’m the Grand Highness of Seventh Peak! You think I’m scared of some dumb bird?”
It was hard to say if it was a coincidence or not, but the moment the words left Erniu’s mouth, thunder crashed deafeningly in the sky.
Erniu’s face became a mask of abject terror.
Zhang San could feel a headache coming on already. Erniu had returned earlier that morning, and from the moment he had squatted down until now, he had been complaining about Huang Yan nonstop.... Zhang San obviously didn’t want to offend either Erniu or Huang Yan, so the moment Xu Qing arrived, he quickly changed the conversation topic.
“Xu Qing,” he said, “I heard you and the Captain went to the outer sea!”
Xu Qing nodded. Waving his hand, he produced the crumbled remains of his dreadnaught, which dropped down with a thump into the courtyard outside the warehouse. It took up about ninety percent of the entire courtyard. Though the dreadnaught had been mostly destroyed, it still pulsed with the aura of a godly entity, and was also full of outer sea mutagen. Combined, it created a vicious and evil black mist that spread out rapidly. As the rain fell, the black mist devoured it and expanded. Wherever it went, everything became as dark as night.
Zhang San was shaken to the core.
Xu Qing waved his hand, which dispelled the black mist and cleared it from the area as thoroughly as if it had been erased.
“Elder Brother Zhang San, my dreadnaught broke down. Do you think you could come up with a plan for how to fix it?”
Xu Qing was a big admirer of Zhang San’s work. From his first dharmaboat until now, he had always relied on Zhang San. Although Zhang San’s cultivation base was now far too low to be of much help, his deep understanding of dharmaboats would be enough to come up with a good plan.
Zhang San looked at the dreadnaught and its broken-down state, and he nearly gasped. “It looks almost like something opened its mouth and took a big bite out of it....”
Xu Qing nodded.
Erniu cleared his throat. “You’re absolutely right about that, Sansan. It did get bitten by a huge creature. And then, little Ah Qing and I were swallowed up along with the dreadnaught. Yep. It was all because I summoned the thing.”
Erniu looked very proud of himself when he offered the explanation.
When Xu Qing saw how pleased Erniu looked, he was struck somewhat speechless. That said, he had to admit that what Erniu said was fairly close to the truth.
Zhang San’s eyes went wide, and a moment later, he shook his head. Now that he thought about it, he actually didn’t want to know too much about what Xu Qing and Erniu had been up to. There were some things that, the more you knew about them, the more danger you were in.
My weak little body is not made for things like that.
Zhang San was very pleased with his high standing in Seven Blood Eyes. He had his own harbor, he had more spirit stones than he could spend, and he had a lot of daoist partners. There were very few people who would dare to offend him. Things had been very good lately. The last thing he wanted to do was start courting death.
Not responding to what Erniu had just said, Zhang San walked over to the dreadnaught and started inspecting it. Shortly after, he was back under the eaves. Taking out his pipe, he looked at Xu Qing and sighed.
“It’s ruined. You might as well just get rid of it. The materials are too damaged. Sorry, Xu Qing. I can’t really help you.”
Xu Qing looked at the broken-down dreadnaught for a moment. “Elder Brother Zhang San, can’t you just make a new one?”
Zhang San shook his head. “Given your cultivation base, an ordinary dreadnaught wouldn’t be of much use. And a special dreadnaught requires extremely high-quality material. But if the materials are too high-level, then I wouldn’t be able to do anything with them... that is, unless you could arrange for help. And you would need to chip in some help as well. Although, that’s really secondary to the main issue.
“Ultimately, the materials are key. An ordinary godly entity isn’t going to cut it at this point. You would need the flesh of a high-level god. Now, maybe you have that already, but in addition, you would need some extremely powerful item to serve as the foundation. Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything that would be able to bear the weight of the flesh of a god.”
Zhang San seemed to be at a loss.
Off to the side, Erniu’s eyes lit up. “Hey, what about that mountain that used to be a holy land? Little Ah Qing, what do you say we write a letter to the empress demanding it back? We can sign it in the name of our Master!”
Zhang San immediately nodded. Though he hadn’t actually seen that mountain, based on his understanding, using a holy land for materials would definitely suffice.
After a bit of thought, Xu Qing put away the dreadnaught, then flicked his sleeve to produce a chunk of flesh. It was from Floating Fiend. Xu Qing reached out and squeezed the flesh with his hand, crushing it so that a stream of gray light flew out, which turned into a dilapidated pagoda right in the middle of the courtyard. It was the very same mysterious pagoda that Xu Qing had discovered on the seafloor and used as a hiding place. Floating Fiend discovered it and absorbed it into his own flesh. Later, when Xu Qing was freed by Yu Liuchen, he had assimilated Floating Fiend’s flesh, and thus acquired the pagoda. Given Xu Qing’s current level of strength, he couldn’t absorb the pagoda, so it made sense to leave it with Floating Fiend’s flesh.
After taking it out, Xu Qing looked at Zhang San. “What about this thing?”
Before Zhang San could answer, Erniu’s eyes locked onto the pagoda as if in excitement. He could sense a terrifying aura in the pagoda, and he could also see the aura of the sageheaven god vine.
“That thing is incredible!” he blurted, and all of a sudden, his sageheaven god vine shot out and wrapped around the pagoda, all while emitting excited fluctuations.
Xu Qing’s god vine did the same. It quickly formed a resonance with Erniu’s vine, and an instant later, starlight glittered out from the two of them. That, in turn, affected the pagoda, which also started to shine with starlight.
Zhang San had a very serious expression on his face as he observed what was happening. The more he observed, the more shocked he was. And then, with the approval of Xu Qing and the help of the vines, he passed through the bubble and entered the pagoda.
When he came back out a short time later, he looked shaken, but his eyes were shining.
“I can’t identify the material it’s constructed from, but it doesn’t look like a postheaven item. In all likelihood, it’s a naturally-occurring material! The aura is chaotic and primeval, and also incredibly ancient. It seems to have the same origin as those two vines of yours.... This is definitely an incredible item. Something unique and one-of-a-kind. I’m going to need to study it more to determine further details.”
Zhang San inhaled deeply and looked at Xu Qing. “Xu Qing, my intuition is telling me that if we had a way to refine that thing and turn it into a dreadnaught... it would be absolutely stupefying. But even if we can’t refine it, using it as a reference point will be very beneficial. As for your vine... well I need to put some thought into the whole matter. Incidentally, we’re going to need help from the exalted Flame Phoenix.”
Xu Qing quickly took out a transmission jade slip and sent a message to Huang Yan.
Shortly after, as Erniu grumbled inwardly, Huang Yan arrived. When the two of them saw each other, they exchanged nothing but sharp glares.
Xu Qing quickly hurried in between them, all while Zhang San started explaining the situation with Xu Qing’s dreadnaught.
After Huang Yan heard the explanation, he looked at the pagoda for a moment and then nodded. “You need some flame? No problem.”
Zhang San was about to say ‘yes’ when Erniu cleared his throat.
“San,” Erniu said, “if you’re planning to build a new dreadnaught for little Ah Qing, wouldn’t it help to have the power of frigid coldness?”
Seeing the look in Erniu’s eyes caused Zhang San to hesitate. In the end, he could only agree.
Erniu and Huang Yan continued to glare at each other for a while until Zhang San and Xu Qing managed to smooth things out between them. Then they started refining the pagoda.
Making a new dreadnaught for Xu Qing was one of the most important things for Seven Blood Eyes at the moment. Since Zhang San couldn’t do it alone, Second Elder Sister ordered all of the equipment forgers in the sect to hurry over and help.
Eventually, they decided to use an open area in a forbidden ground as the construction yard. In that spot, hundreds of thousands of cultivators started working on Xu Qing’s dreadnaught.
As the work progressed, Xu Qing himself didn’t need to do much personally. In most cases, he could just leave his god vine behind.
As a result, Xu Qing ended up having a lot of free time. He spent time helping the Mute with his cultivation base. He also gave some dao sermons in Seven Blood Eyes, in which he explained matters of personal cultivation enlightenment. Not only did he provide general instructions to the disciples but he also gave individualized help, enabling specific disciples to deal with questions and obstacles.
A month passed.
On one particular morning, Xu Qing was seated cross-legged in his mansion grotto when he received a voice message from Zhang San.
“Xu Qing, your dreadnaught is just about done. Everything went smoothly. You... should just come see it for yourself.”
Xu Qing rose and walked out of his mansion grotto. As he was about to leave to meet Zhang San, he suddenly sensed something. Looking up into the canopy of heaven, he smiled.
Up above, he saw a prismatic beam of light shooting toward the Seventh Peak.
There were two people within the beam of light. One was middle-aged, the other was a young woman. The middle-aged man was Grandpa Ninth, while the young woman... was Ling’er.
“Big Bro Xu Qing,” Ling’er said in a cheerful and lighthearted voice that sounded like the chime of silver bells.
1. Erniu took Xu Qing to meet Zhang San in chapter 55. ☜