Monarch of Evernight - Chapter 919

Chapter 8-919: Volume 8 - Chapter 919: Response

“Yes, it’s that Eden . ” Qianye nodded .

Song Zining deactivated his illusory domain and said seriously, “Before I came to the neutral lands, I heard Eden’s position in the clan had risen meteorically due to his accomplishments . Now he’s seen as a strong contender for the clan lord position . A genius like this wouldn’t be here alone . We might be facing the mobile units of the Dark Abyss in the future . ”

Qianye nodded . After fighting Eden for so long, he understood full well about the other party’s potential and how difficult he was to deal with .

Song Zining muttered to himself, “ The Dark Abyss’ mobile units will probably suffer a significant decrease in strength after coming here, perhaps they won’t be as difficult to handle . ”

At this point, he shook his head . “No, the Dark Abyss took part in the previous neutral lands expedition, so they must understand the land quite well . They will come equipped with special equipment in order to minimize the effect on their combat strength . We can’t be careless . ”

Qianye nodded . In the battles big and small of the past, every battle involving the demonkin had been difficult .

Song Zining closed his folding fan . “But what is Eden doing here instead of heading into the Great Maelstrom? Don’t tell me something’s happened there?”

Qianye was oblivious about the situation . “Has the Great Maelstrom opened?”

Song Zining nodded . “Yes, the passage has already opened . Normally, the earlier phase passage isn’t quite stable and will always lead to the peripheral regions . That’s why people who considered themselves geniuses would usually wait until the passage shifts to the depths of the maelstrom . They would focus on the resources at the center, foregoing the benefits from the border region . Additionally, the secret resource grounds of certain families will start shipping out their products, and that requires powerful escort units . ”

Qianye found this fairly odd . Although Eden was outstanding, it was a stretch to call him a rare genius in either camp . His growth mostly relied on his untiring efforts and willpower instead of talents . It was indeed strange that he would arrive in the neutral lands at such a time .

After some thought, Song Zining seemed to have come to a decision . “It seems great things are about to happen in the Eastern Sea in the near future . What we need to do is retract our defensive lines . We’ll clear out the area around Southern Blue and Seagaze, driving away all disloyal powers and allowing us to make full use of the resources . After the region is secured, I’ll ship over the six engines and four main cannons Ningyuan Heavy Industries has in store and install them on the Martyr’s Palace . These are great quality products meant for the newest batch of imperial airships . ”

“Your Ningyuan Heavy Industries has developed to this degree?” Qianye was rather surprised . Being able to construct main cannons and engines meant that they were only one step away from being able to build complete airships . After all, these were the most difficult key-components . Not to mention the few years Ningyuan had to develop, it would normally be difficult to reach this stage even after thirty years .

Song Zining smiled . “I helped a major character do some work and he gave me some small rewards . ”

Qianye was speechless . This “small reward” was already twenty percent of the empire’s airship construction technology . Even the emperor would be hard-pressed to bring this onto the table, to speak nothing of ordinary bigshots .

Qianye wasn’t going to ask about things Song Zining didn’t want to speak of . He spread out the map and confirmed several places that needed cleaning as their next step in the plan .

After mapping out the details, Qianye produced the case of rare-metal from Andruil’s space and placed it in the courtyard . This case was extremely heavy—Qianye set up a layer of supportive origin power before carefully placing it on the ground . Otherwise, it might actually cause the ground to cave in .

Song Zining opened the case . He observed the ingots momentarily, and then flicked the metallic support structures inside the case . “Not bad, there’s a fair amount of black gold here . Although less than I’d anticipated, it’s already a sufficient amount . This should allow us to manufacture at full capacity for three years . Haha, that seller would never have imagined that we would possess the most cutting-edge airship technology in the empire or that our utilization of black gold has increased exponentially . ”

“Take a look at this . I’ve never seen an engine like this . ” With that, Qianye released the engine .

Qianye said, “It’s indeed not simple . I can feel the aura of a void colossus coming from it . ”

“Void colossus? That’s weird . ” Song Zining examined the object in detail, going so far as to reach into the engine’s opening, but couldn’t find any traces of a void colossus .

He stood up and muttered, “It looks like we can only open it up to find out the truth, but let’s wait for the master engineer to arrive . With him around, we’ll be less likely to damage the engine structure during disassembly . At first, I thought this engine was a trap meant to bring harm to us, but the gains wouldn’t cover the losses if they had really used void colossus remains . ”

Qianye agreed . Any part of a void colossus was priceless, not to mention a part containing its living vitality and aura . It could be said that the value of this void colossus part would trump a brand new engine . Paying such a steep price to trap someone else was more of a gift than anything .

Song Zining laid down an aura isolation array around the engine, saying, “We’ll know once the master engineer arrives tomorrow . No matter what this is, we have nothing to lose since we didn’t spend any money . ”

Qianye snorted . “It’s my reputation that suffered . ”

Song Zining broke into a laugh . “You have no reputation left since the day you killed your way out of the empire . Reputation isn’t worth crap in the neutral lands anyway . ”

Qianye shrugged . There was indeed some truth to his words since this was a trap, to begin with . The other party had arranged for Eden to ambush Qianye, hoping to kill him inside Seagaze . No one had imagined, however, that Qianye’s advancement would be even faster than Eden’s, nor did anyone anticipate the presence of Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan behind Qianye . In the end, Eden had to flee with injuries and the bait was taken by Qianye .

Qianye had no qualms about taking things from the enemy .

He left the crate and engine in the room, and went back to cultivate . The battle with Eden had lasted but a moment, yet there were enough things there for him to slowly digest .

At noon the second day, Qianye was roused from his cultivation by a gentle voice .

“Qianye, come and see . This thing is a bit odd . ”

Qianye retracted his origin power, put on his clothes, and arrived in Song Zining’s courtyard . Several white-robed technicians were working around the engine . The machine had been largely disassembled and parts of various sizes had been sorted out nearby . A designated person would mark each removed component and add relevant markups on the blueprint .

At this moment, the mysterious engine had been mostly taken apart to reveal the internal walls . A white-haired elder was knocking lightly on it, listening carefully to the echo within . “Seventh Young Master, the inner walls are quite special . If I’m not wrong, its composition is not inferior to that formula in your hands . It also seems to contain some other special characteristics . We’ll need to wait until the laboratory is constructed in order to perform an analysis . ”

Song Zining bowed . “I’ll trouble Elder Hu for that . ”

In addition to the Ningyuan engineers, Li Kuanglan was standing in a corner of the courtyard and watching the scene unfold . Ji Tianqing, on the other hand, was leaning against a tree and gazing idly at the sky—there was no telling what this lady was thinking . Their presence was also to prevent accidents . The demonkin were similar to the vampires in that they produced a fair number of assassins .

The master engineer continued knocking along the inner-wall but came to a sudden stop at the other end . There, he tapped the metal repeatedly, alternating between different levels of force, eyes closed as he focused on the echo .

This was a special method to probe the insides of a metal, relying on the strength of the knock and the composition of the material . Grasping the profundity of such a technique didn’t require powerful origin power, and it was also useful to check the internal situation of large structural components .

Qianye closed his eyes, his ears moving ever so slightly as he tried to grasp the echoing oscillation . Gradually, the imagery grew clear as the engine’s internal wall appeared in his head . But Qianye gradually frowned as he listened on . He felt that the internal structure was quite odd—it was thick around the rear exit port, but the insides were fairly loose . Additionally, it felt like the density was shifting slowly .

Qianye’s senses were extremely sharp . He knew that it wasn’t an illusion . The density around the forepart of the internal wall was changing .

It would seem the master engineer had also sensed this abnormality . He finally found a barely discernible slit, along which he continued his investigation, and realized that this was actually a covering plate . It only looked like a single piece due to the compression of oil and dust between the walls .

This cover plate contained no locking or clipping mechanism on it, and no one knew how to open it . The master engineer deliberated for a long while before sighing . “The craftsmanship leaves me sighing in admiration . This engine is at least several hundred years old, and it’s truly impressive that they were able to achieve such precision back in the day . If my judgment is correct, there’s no mechanism on this plate . It was installed based on precision and locked in place by the natural attractive force . Opening it should follow the same means . ”

With that, the master engineer placed a hand on the plate and channeled his origin power . He pulled back after adhering his hand to the plate .

However, the cover plate didn’t even budge .

The engineer’s face turned red as he channeled his origin power several times, squeezing out whatever power he possessed . Yet, the cover remained unmoved, almost as though it had been nailed in place .

He had no choice but to give up . “This old man is too weak for this task . Young Master should invite another expert to open it up . The secret of this engine should be hidden underneath . ”

Song Zining looked around him . In the end, he bowed toward Ji Tianqing with a smile . “Young Miss, I hope you can help us with this . ”

Ji Tianqing chuckled . “No problem, I really like well-mannered people like you . ”

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