154: Chapter 154 Trial Sailing

Several months quietly passed by under the day-and-night labor of thousands of tireless Engineering Puppets.

When Zhang Mingxuan stood once again on the viewing platform of the underground dock, what greeted his eyes was a steel behemoth capable of suffocating the current era.

It was three hundred zhang long, its entire body cast from pitch-black Biological Alloy. It lacked any redundant streamlined design, presenting an overall feeling of extreme ruggedness and heaviness.

On both sides and along the spine of the warship, sixteen massive cannon emplacements were menacingly arranged.

Six Light of World Destruction MK2 units served as the main cannons, split between the bow and the sides of the bridge; the dark gold runic circuits on their muzzles emitted fluctuations strong enough to distort vision even in a silent state. Ten ordinary models of heavy cannons served as the secondary fire network, scattered across the hull; though their charging was slow, they excelled in broad fire coverage.

This was a warship armed to the teeth. It hovered quietly in an anti-gravity field, like a slumbering ancient demon god waiting to devour its prey.

"Tactical System self-check complete."

"The intellectual brain subsystem has taken control of the entire ship. Void Reactor output power: Standby mode. Defensive forcefield: Permanently active."

Following the broadcast of the ship-borne brain, the hundreds of millions of miniature runes on the hull lit up simultaneously for a brief moment before quickly receding beneath the black armor.

"Su Li."

Zhang Mingxuan did not look back, his gaze still locked onto those cold cannon muzzles.

"Present..."

Su Li stepped out from the shadows, his face somewhat pale. What he held in his hands was no longer a Jade Slip, but a Crystal Disk engraved with crimson numbers.

"This ship... how much did it cost?" Zhang Mingxuan asked indifferently.

"The cost analysis is as follows." Su Li took a deep breath, his voice trembling. "Hull structure and Biological Alloy sintering: 32 million. Void Reactor and propulsion System: 48 million. Ship-borne small Supercomputing Array and brain implantation: 60 million. Xuanwu Force Field Generator: 20 million..."

He paused, glancing at those sixteen great cannons with a flash of heartache in his eyes.

"The most expensive part was the weapons System. Six MK2 main cannons plus ten secondary cannons—the material costs alone burned through 78.1 million."

"Total cost: 238.1 million Low-Grade Spirit Stones."

When he spoke this number, Su Li felt his heart twitch. Over two hundred million! If this money were piled together, it would be enough to bury half of the Qingyun Sect! And yet, it was all used to build this... big fellow.

"We had 350 million on the books before."

Zhang Mingxuan's expression remained unchanged. "Including the cash flow from the spirit network and the Chamber of Commerce these past months, how much is left now?"

Su Li's fingers moved rapidly across the Crystal Disk, pulling up the final financial report.

"Although the spirit network business brings in gold every day, most of the net profit from these months was invested into the maintenance and expansion of relay towers everywhere. Currently, the liquid capital balance on the Bian Chamber of Commerce's books is..."

"165 million."

"One hundred and sixty-five million left." Zhang Mingxuan nodded. "A bit more than I expected. It seems the traffic fees from a monopoly operation are indeed highly profitable."

"Commence the sea trial now."

Su Li's whole body jolted as he subconsciously asked, "My Lord, what is the target of the sea trial?"

"First, cruise over the Five Domains to test silent stealth and the brain's unmanned piloting."

A strange ripple like water surfaced on the black giant ship moored in the underground abyss. The xuanwu system's optical camouflage module and spiritual energy shielding field operated at full power simultaneously; this three-hundred-zhang-long steel monster completely 'disappeared' from both the naked eye and ordinary Divine Sense.

Boom—

There was only an extremely faint spatial tremor. The ark of the other shore utilized the anti-gravity propulsion of its Void Engine like a ghost bubble, noiselessly penetrating the thick crust and camouflage Formations to rise into the ten-thousand-meter altitude of the Southern Border.

"Route set: Circle the Five Domains. Altitude: Twenty thousand meters. Maintain silence."

The warship cut through the sky at extreme speed, yet because of the streamlined forcefield shield, it did not cause even a hint of a sonic boom.

Inside the main control room, Zhang Mingxuan did not look at the sea of clouds outside the window, but stared fixedly at the spirit network data projection covering the entire hall.

At this moment, hundreds of millions of lingyan disks were operating in every corner of the Five Domains. Every casual word from a holder and every abnormal fluctuation in a Sect's Formation was being disguised as ordinary data packets and gathered into the brain of this warship.

"heavenly calculation, begin real-time keyword grabbing."

"Keywords: atmospheric anomaly, massive shadow, Spiritual Pressure crossing, Formation false alarm."

The data stream on the light screen refreshed frantically.

Coordinates: Southern Border · Myriad Poison Divine Cult Airspace

Real-time feedback: No anomalies. Mountain-protecting poison Formation not triggered.

spirit network forum: A group of demonic Cultivators are discussing how the wind seemed a bit stronger just now; someone suspects a new miasma storm, no panic caused.

Judgment: Perfect pass.

The warship continued north, crossing the natural chasm to enter the heart of the Central Plains.

Coordinates: Central Plains · Above Taichu City

Real-time feedback: Taichu City's defensive Formation showed a 0.3-second energy fluctuation, then returned to calm.

Zhang Mingxuan's expression remained cold. The true test was yet to come.

The ark swept past the sphere of influence of the Heavenly Sword Holy Land.

Here, Sword Qi soared to the heavens, and even the clouds were sliced into fragments. The warship cautiously increased its altitude, breaking into the astral wind layer to fly.

Warning: Subjected to high-frequency Divine Sense scanning! Source: Heavenly Sword Peak!

A red exclamation mark instantly popped up on the light screen.

spirit network intercepted intelligence (Encrypted channel):

Sender: Heavenly Sword Holy Land Inspection Deacon.

Content: "Reporting to Elder, the mountain-protecting sword Formation sensed a reaction to the northwest just now; it seems something passed by. However, the Heavenly Eye did not observe any physical entity; suspecting high-altitude astral wind movement."

Reply: "Continue monitoring. The world has not been peaceful lately; do not make a fuss over nothing."

He continued monitoring the data while simultaneously ordering a dive over the Eastern Sea.

Eastern Sea, Dragon Palace waters.

Feedback: Deep-sea giant whales emitted uneasy low moans as the ark passed. On the spirit network forum, a Loose Cultivator posted claiming to see 'the sea surface mysteriously dent into a large pit'—that was the airflow from the ark's high-speed low-altitude flight—but it was immediately dismissed as the work of a sea monster, and the post quickly sank.

Western Desert, Sword Burial Valley.

Feedback: The magnetic field here is naturally chaotic, so the ark's stealth effect was actually at its best. It attracted no attention whatsoever.

One lap of the cruise ended; the Five Domains remained undisturbed.

Zhang Mingxuan looked at the data on the light screen and nodded.

"It seems those high-level Cultivators don't maintain uninterrupted Divine Sense scanning of their sensory range either. And with the precision of Sect mountain-protecting Formations, it's very difficult to discover a warship with its stealth System active at ten thousand meters altitude."

"For large Sects or high-level Yao Beasts with keen perception, the ark will leave 'intuitive' traces. They will feel uneasy and oppressed, but as long as they don't think to throw a sword at the sky to test it, they won't find where we are."

"That is enough."

Zhang Mingxuan tapped his finger lightly, closing the spirit network monitoring.

"There is no perfect stealth in this world, only guesses that aren't bold enough. As long as we don't open fire, no one will believe there is a mountain flying over their heads."