Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 2012 Shipbuilding Arrangements
Zhou Xu would never cut down the Tree of Life on Qingshui Mountain to build those Black Sail warships for the Dark Elves.

There are only a few of these trees in total. Zhou Xu is counting on the roots of these Life Spirit Trees to reliably produce staffs for him. After all, the number of mages in their Great Zhou has been increasing year by year, and the demand for staffs has also increased accordingly.

He wasn't even sure what the black sail warship would actually look like once it was built, and he certainly wasn't going to take that risk.

However, Eredar also mentioned that there are many Trees of Life in the Elven Forest, so it's not impossible to try negotiating with the Elven Forest to see if we can trade a batch over.

With this in mind, Zhou Xu directly issued an order, instructing the Ministry of Foreign Trade to send people to the Elf Forest for negotiations.

The Great Zhou had just helped the Elf Forest deal with the threat from the Dark Elves. Although it was a transaction, the fact that the Great Zhou was willing to make this deal with the Elf Forest was itself a gesture of goodwill.

The relationship between the two sides is currently in a honeymoon phase, so Wright naturally wouldn't refuse the request.

The Tree of Life wasn't on their trade list before, mainly because the elves believed its primary purpose was to provide roots for crafting staffs and branches for making shafts for elven magic arrows.

These two things are only useful for a few special professions; for the vast majority of professions, they are basically useless.

The price of the Tree of Life is definitely more expensive than that of ordinary trees.

The elves aren't stupid; they wouldn't sell the Tree of Life like they would ordinary trees, so there's no need for them to sell it.

Now that the Great Zhou has taken the initiative to propose it, the elves have no reason to refuse.

Incidentally, it was during this process that Zhou Xu also formally learned that three-hundred-year-old spirit wood was considered the most basic material for the Elven race.

Because spirit wood less than three hundred years old contains negligible energy, from the perspective of the elves, it only reaches the standard for use after three hundred years.

They also have life trees that are older than the previous ones, but Zhou Xu doesn't plan to get them for the time being.

Because the older the wood, the more expensive it is, their Great Zhou's first black sail warship will be tested with three-hundred-year-old spirit wood.

If it works well once it's built, then they can consider using even older spirit wood to build ships.

During this time, the Zhou Dynasty did not hide their intention to purchase the Tree of Life. They simply said that it was to build the Black Sail Warship and that the simply processed wood would be sent directly to the Elven Port.

Wright did not show any dissatisfaction with this. In his view, the matter had already been over when Zhou Xu successfully recruited the dark elves.

Not to mention that their transactions with the Great Zhou were mainly based on the Tree of Life and resources. What the Great Zhou would do with the Tree of Life after acquiring it was not within their concern.

While the foreign trade department was negotiating the deal with the elves, other related work was also being carried out simultaneously.

The requirements for dock facilities are different when manufacturing new types of technologically advanced ships and when manufacturing old-fashioned sailing warships.

In response, the Dark Elves provided specialized architectural blueprints and blueprints for the Black Sail warships.

Zhou Xu had the Dark Elf's shipyard built first, located at the other end of the Elf port, before he began arranging for the shipwrights.

In shipbuilding, the Dark Elves have professional shipwrights.

As seen from the previous Black Sail warships, these shipwrights were quite skilled. Considering the negotiations for this project, the Great Zhou naturally needed to provide some shipwrights with specialized expertise.

Within the shipbuilding sector of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the shipbuilders newly recruited in the past two years have basically no experience in building old-style sailing warships.

After all, old-fashioned sailing warships had been phased out in their area for many years, and even those who had built early steam ironclad ships were now veteran shipwrights.

The earlier batch, who came from the era of sailing warships, aside from some who have already retired, are basically leaders of various shipyards and have generally stepped down to the second line. They never thought that they would have the chance to return to the front line.

They all seemed to be in pretty good spirits, and it felt like they could easily work on the front lines for another ten or eight years. Their shipbuilding experience was also beyond question.

After glancing at the ancestral blueprints of the Dark Elves, and ignoring the magical aspects they couldn't understand, they basically had a good idea of ​​how to build this Black Sail warship.

The design itself is definitely beyond repair; it's said to be an heirloom, so it has naturally stood the test of time.

The most important thing now is for them to determine just how effective this black-sailed warship, made from three-hundred-year-old spirit wood, will be.

Unsurprisingly, the black sail warship needed to be enchanted during this process.

This was within Zhou Xu's expectations. Since special materials were needed to make the main body, it was necessary to add enchantment effects; otherwise, it would be a complete waste.

The blueprints for this black sail warship were obtained from the Dark Elf's legacy stele, and they also included the necessary enchantments.

Essentially, the Blacksail Warship can be viewed as a massive enchanted piece of equipment.

So once the spirit wood arrives, the rest will mainly depend on the skills of the shipwrights and enchanters.

Given this premise, it's hard to imagine that the crafting efficiency for such a massive enchanted item would be fast.

All Zhou Xu could do was to stay calm and let them build it first.

Meanwhile, compared to the slow progress of the shipbuilding project, John and his companions, who had undergone the inheritance trial, were much more efficient, and by early winter they had completed the trial one by one.

All one hundred wood elf mages successfully obtained their class ranks. As expected, Sion also broke through the bottleneck and became a Saint-level mage while completing the trial and obtaining his class rank.

John, who had already cultivated to the Silver Level 2 of the Saint Realm, took this opportunity to advance to Silver Level 3.

Upon receiving the news, the Wood Elf elder rushed over to fetch them, and in the blink of an eye, they were all taken to the Wood Elf village.

The layout of the Elf Forest is centered around the ancient Elf Tree and the Elf King's Castle, with the largest Elf town located near the center.

This elven town is essentially the capital of the elven race. People from all lineages live here, but the majority are high elves.

Extending outwards from this base, there are also villages of various spirit lineages scattered in the outer areas, such as wood elves, grassland elves, and gray elves, who all actually have their own villages.

Further out are some elf outposts and outposts; the overall distribution is quite clear.

(End of this chapter)