135: Master Henry invites you

The lingering charm of the wedding celebration resonated throughout the Shattered Star Archipelago for a full seven days. Decorations that had yet to be removed could be seen everywhere in Star Sea City, and the air still seemed to hold the faint fragrance of Star-Wish Flowers and the afterglow of celebration magic. Guests departed one after another, carrying a deep impression of the Star Sea Territory's power, and the harbor returned to its usual busy and orderly state.

Inside the Lords Mansion, Linn enjoyed a rare period of peace. He, Elise, and Aivi spent several days leisurely in the Breath of Life Demi-plane, where time flowed differently from the outside world. They had enough time to stroll through the magical forest, go boating on Mirror Lake, or snuggle and talk long into the night under the Starry Dome. The Starlight Flowers Elise had cultivated in this demi-plane were in full bloom, causing the entire meadow to emit a soft blue light at night; Aivi had diverted a stream of hot spring water to the lakeside, building a small bathhouse in the Sea God Clan style.

During his first wedding night with Aivi, a unique Sea God Clan secret technique allowed Linn to advance from the Intermediate Sky rank to the Peak Sky rank. This greatly delighted Linn, though its effect was clearly negligible the second time.

Until the morning of the eighth day, a Griffin clad in silver-blue armor pierced through the morning mist and landed in the courtyard of the Lords Mansion. The rider was a liaison officer from the Star Sea Territory's air force, his expression solemn yet carrying an irrepressible excitement.

"Lord, Great Master Henry has sent an urgent message from the Northern Highland Plateau, requesting that you proceed to the secret warehouse immediately." The rider knelt on one knee and presented a special communication crystal, its surface flickering with Great Master Henry's exclusive alchemical rune mark.

Linn took the crystal and probed it with his Mental Energy. Great Master Henry's familiar and slightly hurried voice spoke directly into his mind: "Linn, it's done! The airship 'Starship No. 1' has completed its final testing, requesting the Lord's personal inspection!"

Although the message in the crystal was brief, it caused a sharp light to flash in Linn's eyes. Over the years, he had invested a massive amount of resources to support Great Master Henry's research! This included excavating a giant mountain warehouse deep within the Northern Highland Plateau, assembling a joint team of the territory's best alchemists and Sea God Clan Arcanists, and utilizing countless resources.

"Finally..." Linn muttered to himself, his palm slightly tightening around the crystal.

"Is there good news from Great Master Henry's side?" Elise keenly noticed the change in Linn's emotions.

"A airship."

Waves of emotion rose in Aivi's deep blue eyes: "The ancient records of the Sea God Clan mention a 'Sky Ark' that once soared between the sea of clouds and the deep sea. Great Master Henry and the others actually did it..."

"I'm going to take a look," Linn said, tracing a circle of light outside the castle window with his hand.

A moment later, a streak of silver-white light dove down from the clouds within the circle. Destiny stretched out her massive dragon wings, which already exceeded twenty meters, and landed gracefully in the courtyard, her molten-gold-like dragon pupils filled with affection. Under Linn's years of nurturing, this Starlight Dragon's strength had steadily entered the Legendary Peak rank, and the star patterns on her scales shimmered with a Mithril-like luster in the sunlight.

Linn lightly stroked the dragon's neck and flipped himself onto the specially made dragon saddle. He turned back to look at his two wives: "Do you want to come along?"

Elise shook her head, her smile full of understanding: "This is a military secret; it is not convenient for us to appear together. Tell us the details when you return."

Linn felt a warmth in his heart and nodded in acknowledgment, then lightly patted the dragon's neck. Destiny let out a clear dragon cry, spread her wings, and soared into the Sky, kicking up a gust of air as she flew swiftly toward the Northern Highland Plateau in the northwest.

The Northern Highland Plateau is located at the northwestern tip of the Shattered Star Archipelago, a bitterly cold land covered in snow and ice year-round. Precisely because of its harsh environment and lack of human presence, Linn had chosen this location three years ago to establish a top-secret research and development base. Looking down from the air, one could only see continuous snow-capped Peaks and glaciers, with no indication of the scale of the transformation inside the mountain.

Following Linn's guidance, Destiny flew toward a seemingly ordinary snow-capped mountain. As they approached the mountainside, Linn took out a rune stone engraved with complex spatial coordinates and infused it with mana. Ripples appeared in the void ahead, and a hundred-meter-long crack "split open" on the surface of the snow mountain! It was an entrance to an Illusion Concealment Barrier large enough for a giant dragon to enter and exit.

Passing through the barrier, the view suddenly opened up.

The interior of the mountain had been completely hollowed out, forming a giant artificial cavern over a thousand meters in length, width, and height. The dome was embedded with hundreds of large glowing crystals, illuminating the entire space as bright as day. The cavern walls were lined with reinforced metal plates, and countless thick energy conduits crisscrossed like blood vessels, finally converging toward the center of the cavern.

There, a gargantuan object was suspended.

Linn's pupils constricted slightly. Even though he had been mentally prepared, the moment he truly witnessed this airship, he still felt a soul-shaking sense of magnificent beauty.

The warship was approximately two hundred meters long, with a streamlined silver-gray body. Its outer armor was forged from a composite of Mithril and Arcanium, and the deck was inscribed with layers of magical runes that flickered rhythmically, as if a giant beast were breathing in its sleep. Three pairs of curved wing panels extended from both sides of the hull; these were not ordinary wings used for aerodynamics, but 'Floating Wings' embedded with giant Wind Element Crystals. The formation patterns on the surface of the wing panels were so complex that an ordinary mage would feel dizzy just looking at them.

Most striking was the prow: a meticulously carved Griffin statue stood with its head held high and wings spread. The Griffin's eyes were set with crimson gems the size of a fist, which were the conductive crystals for the 'Heart of Molten Fire'—the main energy core of the entire warship. Behind the Griffin statue, the observation windows of the bridge command room fanned out in an arc. The glass was a special magical material smelted from Deep Sea Crystallized Coral and Star Sand, offering excellent light transmission and the ability to withstand a direct attack from the Sky rank.