Chapter 817: Financial Peril
Qianye crouched down in front of her and stroked that metallic bone. He couldn’t see anything different about it even with his True Sight, but that was also expected because Qianye was far from being at the level where he could see through space.
The part produced a crisp, metallic echo when he flicked it with his finger, but he couldn’t tell what material it was.
“That’s actually not metal, but the bone of a void colossus. It comes naturally with a small storage space and is one of my tribe's most prized treasures.”
“You’re actually holding such a valuable treasure?”
“It’s to carry the Earth Dragon’s blood and other potential treasures.” She was rather honest.
Qianye stood up with a nod.
Bluemoon couldn’t help but tremble as she looked into his emotionless eyes. She suddenly recalled how Qianye had told her that he would kill her on the first sign of disobedience. And hiding fuel for her weaponry had gone well beyond disobedience.
However, Qianye’s frosty expression suddenly became radiant. He returned the dagger and black crystal to Bluemoon, saying, “The blade is not bad, keep it for yourself. You may also use your black crystals now.”
The restrictions on her weapons and energy had been lifted? Bluemoon was startled. Wasn’t he afraid that she would do something behind his back?
Watching Qianye’s receding figure, Bluemoon couldn’t help but ask, “Why?”
“No reason, I’m just in a good mood.”
This answer left Bluemoon puzzled, but her eyes lit up when she saw little Zhuji on one side. She approached the girl and asked in a soft voice, “Did master encounter anything good on his trip?”
Little Zhuji gave it some thought before replying, “He went to see Big Sis, then he was driven away by her. That’s all.”
Bluemoon was even more confused now. This didn’t sound like a good thing at all; how was it supposed to improve Qianye’s mood? What if it was just an ironic remark? The thought grew stronger and stronger after taking root. There were historic records about how lords would treat people with a smile when they wanted to kill them.
She was drenched in cold sweat at the thought of this. At the moment, she suddenly heard Qianye’s call, “Come here.”
“Ah!” Bluemoon exclaimed in shock. Just now, she was lost in thought, and hearing Qianye’s voice so close gave her a good fright.
Qianye was standing beside the lake at the moment. He gave Bluemoon a weird look, saying, “What are you shouting about? It’s not like I’ll eat you up. Bring me those design diagrams.”
Bluemoon calmed herself and ran back to the wooden hut, from which she returned with all the diagrams. She placed the documents in front of Qianye and stood beside him in a solemn manner, waiting for further instructions. This was her primary job, as well as the sole reason she was alive, so she attached great importance to it. The thick stack of diagrams in front of Qianye was the result of her sweat and blood.
Qianye picked one up and studied it carefully before picking up the next. Only when he was going through the plans did Bluemoon manage to sigh in relief, feeling as though she had regained some life. She couldn’t be blamed for being so weak—those who had failed to embrace death the first time would always feel more apprehension on the second.
Qianye looked through all the plans. It took him quite a long while and a great deal of headache, yet he still couldn’t understand much. He had no intention of figuring everything out, either. All he wanted was to ascertain Bluemoon’s achievements. At least on the surface, it would seem the girl wasn’t idling about these days and had spent most of her time on these designs. As for taking the time to build these houses and gardens, that was simply human nature. If anything, that was pretty cute of her.
Qianye put down the plans and asked calmly, “What do you think we should work on first?”
“The engine,” Bluemoon replied without hesitation.
“Engine? Why? Don’t we already have the Earth Dragon’s heart as a source of kinetic energy?” Qianye was somewhat puzzled.
“To be honest, the Martyr’s Palace is just the remains of the Earth Dragon. It’s only flying because of the skeleton’s innate ability to float in the air and the driving force from the heart. But don’t forget that the Earth Dragon is already dead and what we have is only a fraction of its remnant power. Do you think it can fly very fast?”
Qianye nodded. He also understood that the Martyr's Palace was only a bit faster than a cargo airship. If it wasn’t for its ability to easily pass through space, any military warship could outperform this vessel.
Bluemoon whipped out a design and pointed at the web-like diagrams on it. “The power produced by the Earth Dragon’s heart is extremely valuable. I believe the Pointer Monarch should have left a series of mechanisms to utilize this energy. The void colossus’ energy can be considered a top-grade energy source. With it, we can realize many installations that used to be possible only on paper. How can we waste this kind of power? So, we should just use an ordinary engine for day-to-day flight. Besides, the Martyr’s Palace is so big, we can definitely stock several year’s worth of fuel on it.”
Bluemoon was extremely confident in her own field. Qianye could only gaze blankly at her without understanding much. He had no idea what kind of value the heart held or how to utilize it. Additionally, the irresponsible Pointer Monarch had handed Qianye a half-finished product just like that. There wasn’t a single sign of those special designs that could only be driven by the Earth Dragon’s heart.
While criticizing the Pointer Monarch in his mind, Qianye nodded to indicate that he had heard the girl’s explanation. As for how much of it he understood, he wasn’t about to reveal that, and Bluemoon—being the clever girl she was—wouldn’t ask, either.
What Qianye did understand was that he needed some ordinary engines. Onone hand, it would increase the Martyr’s Palace’s speed and flexibility, while on the other, it would save the void origin power harvested by the Earth Dragon’s heart and bones.
Not being able to take advantage of the Earth Dragon’s energy for the time being wasn’t a problem. It wouldn’t be a waste because this power could be used to grow the dragon’s flesh and consequently repair the ship’s body. Besides, the Earth Dragon’s defensive barrier while passing through the void also required energy.
“What’s the detailed plan?”
“This…” Bluemoon seemed hesitant. “There are several feasible plans. One of them is temporary and will need to be swapped out in the future. The other is permanent, but it’ll be a bit more expensive.”
Qianye had killed almost a thousand mercenaries to date, and there were mountains of treasures and black crystals in Andruil’s Realm. He felt rich and imposing at the moment, so why would he even care about costs? The last words he wanted to hear was “a bit more expensive”. He waved his hand and said in a heroic manner, “Just use the permanent method, the cost is not a problem!”
Bluemoon became spirited and said with a bright smile, “It’s a combination of engines and kinetic sails, the plan is to hang a kinetic sail on each of the Earth Dragon’s spines. This will save us a great deal of fuel and space. But even the largest kinetic sails we have on the market are too small, so we need to combine eight of them to get one of our size. Additionally, because of the significant demand in driving force, we need to join up sails of the highest quality. Naturally, it’ll be best if we can get our sails custom-made!”
At this point, Qianye’s heart was deeply shaken and his vision turned dark.
Sails of different quality have vastly different price points, but warship parts were never cheap. The highest grade sail of the largest size would cost at least a few thousand imperial gold coins. Even the largest imperial airships would use five or six at most.
But this Martyr’s Palace required eight of them to make up a single sail. The entire vessel was several thousand meters long with hundreds of spines on it. Even if they installed sails only on the biggest spines, it would cost at least a few million coins. The cost of outfitting an expeditionary army division on Evernight Continent was only a few hundred thousand gold coins.
Now, Qianye was supposed to hang twenty such divisions on the spine masts, and that was only the cost of basic components. They still needed sails for acceleration, turning, and balance, which would boil down to double that price in total.
No matter how rich Qianye was right now, he couldn’t handle such an expenditure. Most of the mercenaries had little cash on them. Only high-ranking hunters and expert assassins had enough dough on them. Qianye managed to rake in just over a million gold coins in total fortune from them. His own possessions far surpassed this, of course, but the problem was that his true fortune consisted of things he couldn’t sell—things like the Pointer Monarch’s gun barrel, East Peak, the Book of Darkness, the Wings of Inception, etc.
Only now did Qianye realize that a warship was actually a bottomless pit that was always hungry for gold coins. Those powerful warships from the empire had been brought together over the centuries. It was the same for the Evernight side—vessels belonging to dukes and princes were peerless in might but took hundreds of years to perfect and upgrade them. It wouldn’t be strange for a great dark monarch’s airship to be constructed over a thousand years.
Hence, these massive ancient airships capable of changing the tide of the battle would rarely appear in a fight between the empire and Evernight. The true reason was that these dukes, princes, and even great monarchs couldn’t bear to use them.
Meanwhile, this Martyr’s Palace was a giant airship of unprecedented scale, one that could even be considered an aerial fortress. Naturally, its consumption involved astronomical numbers. It’s just that merely the sails, among countless other airship parts, made the nouveau riche Qianye feel as though he were bankrupt. How much would he need to perfectly reconstruct the entire warship? At the very least, it was a number that would make even the major clans feel despair.
Qianye had a sudden suspicion that perhaps the Pointer Monarch had given up on the Martyr’s Palace because he had no more money.
No matter how much evil guesses he had of the Pointer Monarch, the Martyr’s Palace was now in his hands, and this expense was destined to land on his head.
Qianye calmed himself and put on a gentle smile. “Bluemoon, is there any other plan?”