Chapter 22: Trading with the Sea Tribe

The sudden change stunned everyone.

"Ugh... ugh..." Li Xian, pale-faced, slowly got up.

Just now, Li Xian had been genuinely terrified. The sudden explosion was incredibly powerful, and if it weren’t for his eighth-level Qi Refining cultivation protecting him, he would have been severely injured.

"What happened?" Everyone was at a loss, and there was panic—panic that Li Xian might have been hurt.

Tang Rong helped Li Xian sit down. Seeing the others so nervous, Li Xian suddenly laughed. "No need to worry, everyone. Cough, cough... This is research, after all. Things like this will happen often. Let’s just treat this as... cough... a lesson."

"The reason is simple: the small Spirit Gathering Formation can no longer meet the energy demands of the engine, which caused it to break down."

"Oh, I see. Then let’s just inscribe a larger Spirit Gathering Formation," someone suggested without hesitation.

Li Xian shook his head. "That will only solve the problem temporarily; it won’t be a permanent solution. Has anyone considered that the current engine is already designed for 10 horsepower? What about in the future?

In the future, engines will exceed 100 horsepower, 1,000 horsepower, even 10,000 horsepower. How will you inscribe Spirit Gathering Formations then?"

"Well..." Li Xian’s words left everyone troubled. Yes, if the engine reached 1,000 horsepower, would they need to carry a millstone-sized Spirit Gathering Formation? That would be far too impractical.

"Use spirit stones as a power source!" Tang Rong suggested. "A single low-grade spirit stone is ten times more powerful than a regular Spirit Gathering Formation. The only problem is, one spirit stone only lasts for one hour. Besides, it’s nearly impossible to buy spirit stones in the Great Xia Kingdom."

Spirit stones? Li Xian heard the name once again. These spirit stones, said to have been abundant in ancient times, had now become rare treasures. Even a defective spirit stone could lead to murder. Not even Li Yulong could get his hands on one.

But the mention of spirit stones made Li Xian think of "batteries" and "energy cells." If he could get his hands on a spirit stone for reference, he might be able to develop an "artificial spirit stone." If so...

The very thought excited him. Now, how could he get his first spirit stone? Oh right, the Dragon Palace! If he paid a huge price, he might be able to exchange for one, or even several spirit stones.

As if summoned by his thoughts, Song Xing came in to inform him that the emissary sent by the Sea Tribe had arrived—and was already at Li Xian’s Qingyun Valley.

The Sea Tribe’s emissary? Could it be the legendary Turtle Prime Minister? Li Xian felt a mix of dark humor and strange anticipation.

In the end, Li Xian was disappointed. It wasn’t the legendary Turtle Prime Minister but a real human, middle-aged, with a slightly weathered look and an indescribable sense of authority—it was a late-stage Foundation Establishment expert!

"I am Wei Zhe, here on behalf of the Sea Tribe."

"Greetings, Senior Wei. Did you bring the weapon design blueprints or samples?"

Wei Zhe handed over a jade slip. "Everything is in here, including the spiritual materials like silk threads and minerals that the Sea Tribe can currently provide, as well as the weapon designs."

Li Xian took the jade slip and was about to inspect it when Xu Ren suddenly spoke up. "Young master, would you like me to take a look first?"

"Please go ahead, sir."

After Xu Ren examined it, he handed it to Li Xian, who then began to inspect it. Wei Zhe across from them didn’t show any signs of displeasure.

In fact, Xu Ren's action was akin to testing for poison. Jade slips can be tampered with, especially when dealing with a legendary race like the Dragon Tribe. It's wise to remain cautious.

As soon as Li Xian looked at the jade slip, he was overjoyed. There was a type of thread called "Fire Spider" within it. It turned out that the ocean was vast, with countless islands large and small, most of which belonged to the Sea Tribe. It should be noted that in order to trade with Li Xian, the Sea Tribe had gathered quite a few things. However, many of the good items were extremely expensive, almost two to ten times the price of Sea Soul Silk. There were even a few types of second-tier (Golden Core stage) spiritual power threads.

Yet, from the list of materials, Li Xian keenly noticed a hidden piece of information: the Sea Tribe placed great importance on stainless steel! It seemed the Sea Tribe themselves hadn't realized that, in their eagerness and focus, they had listed all the materials with such care that sharp-eyed Li Xian discovered this concealed intelligence!

After calmly reviewing all the materials and bizarre weapons, Li Xian set down the jade slip. "Senior Wei, there are no issues with the weapons. We can even perfectly forge a trident as long as three zhang (about 10 meters)."

"That's excellent," Wei Zhe smiled a bit more visibly.

But Li Xian suddenly sighed. "However, Senior, you’re asking for one million jin (about 500,000 kilograms) of stainless steel weapons this time, which is a bit difficult. Currently, we can only produce 5,000 jin of stainless steel a day, and that's already our maximum capacity. Moreover, forging weapons, especially fine ones, takes about five jin of iron to forge a sword weighing roughly two jin.

"One million jin of weapons would take about two years."

"That long?" Wei Zhe was stunned, having thought it would only take three to five months. But what Li Xian said was true. Excellent weapons require repeated folding and hammering, eventually producing what’s called "refined iron."

Seeing this, Li Xian quickly added, "Senior Wei, we do have a method that could accelerate the production of ‘Stainless Essence.’ However, it might require a few spirit stones. Would the Sea Tribe be willing to sell spirit stones? The price is negotiable. With just one low-grade spirit stone, we could refine enough Stainless Essence to produce ten thousand jin of weapons."

Li Xian was speaking nonsense with a straight face. "Stainless Essence"? That was a complete fabrication. Yet, little did Li Xian know, the three words he uttered today would puzzle countless cultivators in the future—what exactly was this "Stainless Essence"?

At the moment, Wei Zhe narrowed his eyes at Li Xian for a long time before speaking, "If I give you ten spirit stones, how long will it take to complete the forging?"

"Within five months. If everything goes smoothly, four months."

"Alright! I'll give you an additional ten spirit stones and remove ten jin of Sea Soul Silk."

"Agreed!" Li Xian almost gritted his teeth to hold back—sooner or later, I’m going to earn thousands of spirit stones from the Sea Tribe.

Thus, in this deal, Li Xian received ten spirit stones and 190 jin of Sea Soul Silk. However, Li Xian extravagantly cut off 100 jin of Sea Soul Silk in exchange for 30 jin of other spiritual threads.

Wei Zhe immediately left, promising that all the materials would be delivered within ten days at the latest. On Li Xian’s side, he also started getting busy. The first task—upgrading the machine tools.

The Sea Tribe was known for their large physiques, and among the weapons this time were five tridents, each three zhang (about 10 meters) long, which were the weapons of the Sea Patrol Yaksha.

Each trident had a diameter of one chi (about 33 cm), with the three prongs at the front as thick as a person's thigh, weighing around 150,000 jin each! Just these five tridents alone weighed more than 700,000 jin!

To forge such weapons, upgrading the machine tools had to be done quickly. Otherwise, if they had to rely on manual hammering, it really would take two years!

Everyone got busy setting up simple grinding and hammering machine tools. The craftsmen were already quite skilled, and their technical expertise had accumulated sufficiently. Bearings, spindles, workbenches, engines—one by one, everything was being prepared.

To allow the machine tools to move the cutting tools straight, Li Xian proposed using a lead screw solution. By rotating the lead screw, the grinding tool could move horizontally, and a smooth guide rod would keep the tool stable. With this setup, they could even process a trident five zhang long, let alone three zhang.

Using the machine tools to process new parts and then assembling new machine tools—at this moment, Li Xian’s industrial development truly began to expand. Machines producing machines, though still in their primitive stages.

Both the smelting and mechanical sub-factories were working non-stop. The craftsmen—or rather, the skilled workers—were all beaming with joy, as rewards from Li Xian flowed into their pockets like a stream of water.

With the aid of magical spells, in just seven days, Li Xian witnessed the birth of a large machining tool—a machine capable of processing the three-zhang-long tridents. Although the machine was powered by engines with only 5 horsepower, its efficiency was appalling, and its precision laughable. However, it was still sufficient for crafting cold weapons like tridents.

Perhaps the only part of the machine that could be considered satisfactory were the cutting tools, which had been tempered with true essence by several cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage and imbued with formations. It must be said that with the help of cultivation, many things were almost as convenient as cheating.

Of course, what Li Xian viewed as dreadful efficiency and laughable precision was not seen the same way by the workers.

When the workers saw the giant machine complete the processing of a test iron column in just one hour, the workshop erupted into a sea of joy. Even Xu Ren, the strategist, was left utterly astonished upon seeing such a machine.

After the celebration in the morning, Xu Ren called the still-excited Li Xian aside in the afternoon. "Young master, Wei Zhe should be returning soon, and there's something I need to discuss with you."

"What is it?" Li Xian was still immersed in his excitement.

"Young master, individuals like Wei Zhe, who serve the demon and sea tribes, are not well-accepted by the general public. So, when dealing with them, you should be cautious and not get too close."

"I see. Thank you for the reminder, sir."

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