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Chapter 13 (Vol-1)
🕑 Added 2024-11-23 09:48:00 +0000 UTC“…..Old Feng, why is it shaped like that?”
“What do you mean? Didn’t you ask me to make a frame out of the wood from the Iron Wood trees? That’s what I did.”
“No, you are right. It’s just that, why is It shaped like a boat?”
“What else is it supposed to look like? Aren’t you going to make an airship?”
“…Never mind.”
I stared at the structure that the old man made which looked similar to those old medieval ships from my world and felt an odd sensation.
Originally, I wanted the old man to make a tube with a cone shape for the front, similar to the passenger jets from my old world. However, I failed to convey the idea properly to him, resulting in this thing.
At least he still kept the large tube-like design at the rear of the ship like I asked. If not, I would have been forced to spend at least a few days carefully carving out the required shape by hand since the Iron Wood is particularly resistant to Qi.
While it was not that large, only the size of my cabin, it was very small for an airship in this world since even the smallest of personal airships in this world is at least as large as a 747 aircraft.
The size is mainly due to the large number of inscriptions needed to make the huge chunk of metal fly in the air.
The only reason I can get away with making something this small is because, unlike the other craftsmen who use brute force to overcome the natural laws of the world, I take advantage of these laws to make my airship fly.
I placed the large airship frame into my space ring and sat on the chair opposite the old man.
“You got any news from the capital?”
“Only that the Royal family has chosen to remain silent on the massacre of the Heavenly Sword Sect. Typical political stuff. Hell, I won’t be surprised if they had some hand in that incident.“
I nodded at his words since I had the same suspicions.
No government can ever tolerate a private force that is equal to its political and military strength, especially in a world like this. So it made sense that the royal family would always try to find ways to undermine the various sects and forces within its borders to make sure that it stays on the top.
I knew this fact personally since the old demon had personally witnessed many situations where the hidden strings of the royal family’s manipulations were felt, leading to the downfall of many a sect that had the misfortune of acquiring some form of advantage over the royal family. Whether it be a talented disciple, a heavenly treasure, or even a weapon.
Now, I won’t condemn the royal family’s actions since most of the time these actions are justified given the sheer greed of the sects and their desire for power. What I do condemn is the fact that the royal family’s approach to solving its problems results in severe collateral damage most of the time.
“While their silence is not a definite proof of their guilt, I won’t put it past them to do something like this. The only thing I am curious about is what my unfortunate former sect did to gain their attention in the first place.”
“Who knows? not like it has anything to do with us.”
“True. Putting that aside, do you want anything from the capital this time around?”
“Nothing in particular. However, I heard that there is a rare type of rice set to be auctioned at the Royal Auction House. Ocean Pearl Rice. I want to try making a wine with it. I will pay the amount for it once you get it back.”
“Forget about the cost, old man. The auction house will probably give it to me for free if I agree to sell one of my artifacts to them directly instead of auctioning.”
Old Feng glared at me at my words.
“Don’t try to flaunt your connections and wealth in front of me, brat. I may not be some famous Formations Master like you but my craft still sells very well in big cities and I have no shortage of spirit stones.”
“Shut up you old fool! I couldn’t care less if you are swimming in spirit stones. When I want to gift you something, I expect you to accept that gift.”
“Like hell I will!”
“Don’t make me call Grandma Liu.”
The old man instantly clammed up at my words and growled like a beast at me.
Seriously, despite being built like a tank and being in the middle stages of the Qi Condensation realm, I fail to understand why he is so deathly afraid of his mortal wife.
“….I really hate you, brat.”
“Yeah, yeah. Look after little Hui for me while I am gone.”
“Hui’er? Why?”
“I am leaving little Xing with her during this trip and she has grown to be a little rowdy these days. Who knows what she will get up to if little Hui fails to control her? With your cultivation, you should be able to easily handle a cat.”
“Oi! I am not some babysitter!!”
I waved my hand in started heading back towards my home while the old man continued his protests.
I knew that all of this was just a façade and he would look after the girl and my cat even without me saying anything. It was just his way of futilely trying to assert his status as an elder over me and trying to get some respect out of me.
The fool has still not realized that the only reason I speak so plainly with him without any respect is because I consider him a close friend. The thing he should be truly worried about is if I suddenly start talking to him with proper respect for his age since it would mean that I have lost any feelings of closeness with him.
I never planned to have a personal airship for myself since that would make me stand out no matter what I do.
In this world, any cultivator that reaches the Core Formation realm can achieve limited flight. However, given the massive size of the continent, the people of this world had to come up with something to transport things across within a reasonable time.
For the mortals, this came in the form of regular carts and carriages pulled by Spiritual Beasts, an inferior form of Demonic Beasts that were neither mortal animals nor demonic beasts capable of cultivation. These Spiritual Beasts were much stronger and faster than regular horses but had little intelligence and potential for cultivation, making them ideal for mortal use.
When it comes to the cultivators, the solution to the transportation issue was the Airships.
Airships are basically flying boats that are considered to be status symbols for the various forces of the continent with their number and quality being indicative of the power that someone can field in case of a conflict. The Airships themselves are divided into grades just like with everything else in this world, starting from Mortal and moving up through Earth, Heaven, and Supreme.
Most of the top sects in the empire have at least one Earth-grade Airship with them. The Alchemy Guild had three Earth-grade airships just like the Formations Guild.
Aside from this, there are also several high-profile people on the continent, like the Grandmaster Alchemist under the Royal family and a few other such people who had a personal Airship. However, these personal airships were always Mortal-grade since the inscriptions required to make an Earth-grade airship are a tightly guarded secret of the Formations Guild.
The Royal family is the only force with a Heaven-grade airship and more than ten Earth-grade airships.
Nobody knows when the first airships were created and the chances of uncovering this information are nearly impossible since they have been around for thousands of years with traces of their presence being recorded in the ancient manuscripts and jade slips recovered from ancient ruins all over the continent.
What is known is that modern airships are considered extremely primitive compared to the handful of ancient airships that are still left intact in the hands of various forces on the continent.
Even then, in my eyes, these things can only be called magic-powered flying bricks due to how they function.
The Airships of this world are primarily made with metals that are extremely receptive to Qi. This is done for two reasons.
One, the use of metals makes the ships much safer in case it is attacked by a Demonic Beast or hostile forces. This means that the crafter can save a lot of resources by reducing the number of defensive inscriptions carved into the ship and allowing the hull itself to bear the brunt of the responsibility for the defense of its passengers.
Two, since the metal is receptive to Qi the one flying the airship can easily use their Qi to directly control the formations and inscriptions on the ship, making it extremely intuitive to use.
The inscriptions themselves are extremely primitive and unrefined, especially since they have either not bothered to learn the laws of the world or decided that it was beneath them to use those laws for their advantage. Instead, they like to blatantly use raw power to break these rules with their inscriptions.
A move of hubris that I refuse to commit.
The moment I arrived at my home, I called over Yan Ling who was playing with little Xing, and had her observe as I started carving the inscriptions onto the airship.
While her talent for Inscriptions is not as great as Alchemy which took advantage of her physique, she was still young and had a lot of time to learn. If she can reach the rank of an Intermediate level Formation Master I’ll be very satisfied.
It also helps that she took to English fairly quickly and was capable of making basic conversations in the language.
I took my time carving the inscriptions onto the boat so that Yan Ling could follow what I was doing and understand the concepts upon which I was working.
The most basic inscription that I carved was the Buoyancy inscription which controlled the buoyancy of the ship.
Originally, I wanted to use an inscription to cancel out the forces of gravity on the ship. However, I was not certain whether doing that would untether the ship from the planet entirely and make it drift off into space. So I decided to make a Buoyancy inscription that would control just how much lighter the ship would be compared to its surrounding atmosphere, allowing me control over its altitude.
Then, I caved out the defensive inscription that I made based on the Hard-Light shield I made for Yan Ling’s bracelet. This should provide us with a decent level of protection should we be attacked.
I also added a Warp Inscription on the ship as a failsafe. In case the enemy is beyond our strength to fend off, we could use it to escape.
Then, I added a gravitational inscription designed to exert gravity opposite to the direction in which the ship is traveling when I want it to. This would act as the brakes of the ship. Similar inscriptions across the body of the ship would act as the directional control and steering.
Now, time for the intricate part of the build.
“Ling’er, bring the Gyroscope and the Thruster.”
“Yes, Master!”
The girl excitedly ran into the house and came back with a massive device over her head and an equally massive tube being dragged behind her.
It would have been a hilarious scene if it was not so weird to see a girl easily lift a few hundred kilos of metal over her head effortlessly while dragging an equally heavy piece of metal behind her.
The Gyroscope was an analog one that worked using a spinning wheel and gimble. Originally, I wanted to create an optical Gyroscope using Inscriptions. However, I quickly realized that my entry-level knowledge of such advanced science was not enough to make something like that. So I settled on making a mechanical Gyroscope since it was fairly simple to make.
The wheel itself has inscriptions on it that would keep it spinning perpetually as long as it is supplied with Qi while the entire device is connected to the directional control system of the ship.
The idea is for the gyroscope to keep it stable while in the air by detecting any kind of tilt beyond its setting and controlling the gravitational inscriptions to orient the ship.
By automating this aspect of the flight, I would only have to control the velocity and altitude of the ship, allowing me to enjoy the journey instead of spending the entire time micromanaging the ship like the others do with their airship.
There is a reason why the disciples with minor offenses are punished by having them fly the airships during an outing by their sects.
Aside from this, there is a small secondary Gyroscope that I have installed on the ship that would act as the Gyrocompass for the ship, allowing me to avoid the usual pitfalls of using a magnetic compass.
With the Gyroscope installed, I took the Thruster and carefully inserted it into the tube I had Old Feng carve into the ship’s back.
The thruster itself is nothing but a large tube with a rudimentary thrust vectoring nozzle that functions through inscriptions along with a few tanks and compartments attached to it so that all of it can be ejected from the structure in case of an accident.
The real beauty of this thing is the intricate inscriptions that I spent more than a week carving into it.
In simple terms, the inscriptions on the tube would extract the water vapor from the air into a tank where the inscriptions would carry out the electrolysis process and produce Hydrogen and Oxygen which are separately stored inside tanks with gravitational, cryogenic, and isolation inscriptions for both high-compression, liquid storage and safety of the entire system.
At this point, all the liquid Hydrogen and Oxygen are compressed to a small area through the use of gravitational inscriptions while using the Oxidizer-to-Fuel ratio of 6:1 with 6 parts Oxygen and 1 part Hydrogen. Then, ignition happens within the tube just like a chemical rocket from my old world using another formation.
The end result would be a tremendous amount of energy that is directed out of the thruster and through the nozzle, producing thrust the likes of which is unimaginable for any airship of this world.
While all of this process might sound easy enough, the reality is anything but. Even a tiny deviation in the inscriptions across the ship would lead to a catastrophic failure. It is the main reason why I had the boat made from Iron Wood which is extremely resistant to Qi instead of the metals used for making airships.
Originally, I wanted to have the thrust system work through gravity manipulation as well. However, I realized soon enough that it would take too much effort to precisely control the gravitational fields of the thrust system. Comparatively, in the type of system I designed, all I would have to control is the nozzle and the rate of combustion to control the acceleration and maintain a constant speed for sightseeing.
“Phew. I’m done.”
“Is it ready?? Can we go for a test??”
Yan Ling jumped excitedly, ready to ride the ship and enjoy the feeling of flying.
“Haha, sure. Let me power it up.”
I walked onto the boat that had an open deck and a room with a few amenities and beds for us to rest in.
At the center of the room was an indent that connected with all the inscriptions on the ship.
This is the power source of the ship where I would have to insert a High-grade Spirit Stone to power the entire system.
My estimate puts the fuel efficiency to be somewhere between one High-grade spirit stone per two days. A tremendously low amount of consumption compared to the ten High-grade spirit stones per day that are usually consumed by even the highest quality of airships of today.
Once I placed the spirit stone in the indent, the entire system activated immediately and all the inscriptions disappeared, leaving behind a pristine and newly built airship.
“Let’s see how quickly we can reach Starfall City in this thing.”
“Yes!! Let’s go full speed!!”
I laughed and spread my Qi through the system.
Might as well indulge in her request since It would serve as a stress test for the system.
With a thought, the thruster ignited and we flew through the air at tremendous speeds while Yan Ling screamed and laughed in joy.
It took me a week of designing, another week of working on the Thruster, and another week of work on the Gyroscopes. Three weeks of tireless work.
However, some things in life are truly worth the effort. Especially when they bring a smile to our loved one’s faces
