Sea Cultivation: Giant Ships and Heavy Artillery Knock on the Door to All Races

Chapter 262 All Performers Encounter a Demon-Hunting Fleet

Just as the Tianji ship was about to leave Yundu Island for its next destination, Zhang Quansong disguised himself and secretly boarded the ship. The two sides then began to settle accounts.
Tianji paid a business tax. It's only right to pay taxes when doing business on someone else's turf. If you have a good relationship with them, you should pay taxes so that things can last.
They also separated the profits from the black market and divided them up separately. The selling price of the black market goods was kept very low, but the profit at the next stop was very high. This profit required the cooperation of the Zhang family, so it was time to divide the profits.

As Lin Qianfan expected, Zhang Quansong did not request the list of black market traders or specific records of items sold.
In fact, once someone boards the ship, their identity is completely exposed. Everyone knows who each hidden person is. However, countless cases occur on the high seas every day. Unless the case was committed in Yundu Immortal City, those things are long gone and cannot be prevented.

In addition, Tianji Lun also made a separate transaction with Zhang Quansong. Because there were too many goods acquired this time, even though some were auctioned off, there is still more stock than cash.

So Lin Qianfan selected a portion of goods with lower rarity but larger reserves and sold them to the Zhang family at a low price. He considered the profit margin of this batch of goods to be very low, allowing the Zhang family to make another profit and achieve a win-win situation.

Toot~
At midnight, the Tianji Wheel slowly departed from Yundu Immortal City, watched by Zhang Quansong and bid farewell by a large number of local rogue cultivators.

The next target of the Tianji Wheel is in the northern part of the Western Regions, a small Golden Core power called Haiyue Bay.
It had once won a bid for a Xuanqiong Jade Dew in Yulong Immortal City, which led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two parties. In fact, it was indebted to the Lin family, so after sending a letter to it, it responded actively and warmly invited the Tianji ship to dock at Haiyue Bay, and would make publicity and security work in advance.

Compared to when they arrived, there were dozens more tourists on board. They were all going to the next stop or even further away with the Tianji ship. Among them were several Foundation Establishment cultivators, which improved their ability to withstand risks.

In addition, the total amount of spirit stone reserves on the Tianji Wheel has increased by more than 10%, and the total value of cargo reserves has increased by nearly 20%. These extra portions represent the net profit for the past few days.

Don't be fooled by the seemingly low percentage; it's because the base number is so large that the actual amount is enormous. So much so that almost all the boatmen received a new notice: from now on, they can freely consume cultivation resources!
This is a reward for them leaving home and setting sail!

However, this mechanism is strictly managed, allowing no waste or embezzlement; it can only be used genuinely for one's own cultivation.

Given the current profitability, it's far from reaching its limit; it will only increase until the ship can support a Golden Core cultivator/deliberately reduce risk.
Because Yundu Island is too close to the Yulong Islands, the goods brought over from the Yulong Islands are not scarce enough in the region, and many things can be found in the local market. The main advantage this time is that it is private enough.

Furthermore, because Yundu Island is a low-level Golden Core power with a limited local market, the turnover rate of goods brought from the Yulong Islands is no more than 20%. If the docking point has a larger market, the profits will be greater.
Based on this, it means that the goods on the Tianji ship will have less and less to do with the Yulong Islands as time goes on, and will be all purchased from various places, with a wide variety and great competitiveness!
Toot~
After the Tianji ship departed Yundu Island, the three hundred boatmen, whose heels hadn't touched the ground for several days, finally got a rest.

This kind of extremely high-intensity work not only consumes physical strength, but also requires mental and spiritual energy to concentrate on and talk to clients online.

However, under extreme pressure, they can also grow rapidly, not only in terms of professional skills, but also in terms of personal cultivation. This is the benefit of high pressure. After all, these shipwrights still have room for improvement. It's a bittersweet experience!

The Spirit Source Well constantly absorbs free spiritual energy to replenish the Heavenly Pivot Wheel, which can simultaneously meet the cultivation needs of both boatmen and tourists. Moreover, ordinary boatmen do not pursue major breakthroughs in cultivation realms and prefer to cultivate directly with pills, so this does not pose much of a burden on the Spirit Source Well.

The next day,

After getting a rest, the shipwrights got up and went about their respective tasks. Some were maintaining the ship's puppets, which were working harder during this time and needed to be restored to their best condition to prepare for the next one.
Some people are working diligently in the workshop, turning a large amount of cheap raw materials collected from Yundu Island into finished products, which will be transformed into white spirit stones at the next stop.
Some were actively cultivating, some were inspecting the formation, and some were even using the spare fishing gear on the ship to catch marine life. After all, the three hundred boatmen came from different factions and each had their own plans.

Bang~
The Tianji Wheel has four levels.

Inside the alchemy room of the Third Elder's cultivation chamber, three round Foundation Establishment Pills were freshly made while still hot.

"Impressive! Three Foundation Establishment Pills were successfully refined on the first attempt!"

Lin Qianfan was not actually practicing alchemy; he was merely observing. The alchemist was none other than the Third Elder, a pseudo-alchemy cultivator.

"What's so great about it? Two genuine ones and one defective one, it's barely breaking even, and it's a waste of a precious main ingredient, the demon core."

When the Third Elder was young, he also practiced alchemy, but he only reached the peak of the first level. After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, he turned to managing the family's affairs and neglected this aspect. After all, it is difficult to break through from the first level to the second level, and it requires a lot of extra effort to study.

However, since stepping down from his position as the Chief of General Affairs, he has picked up alchemy again, intending to break through to the second-tier alchemist level and help Lin Qianling and her apprentice reduce some of the pressure of refining second-tier pills.

Later, the Third Elder successfully advanced to the Pseudo-Core Realm. With the cultivation foundation of a Pseudo-Core cultivator, it became much easier to learn alchemy in reverse. He quickly broke through to the second-tier alchemist and helped share the burden.

The raw materials for today's batch of Foundation Establishment Pills were obtained from Yundu Island. This is also the first time the Third Elder has tried to refine Foundation Establishment Pills. In terms of value, it is actually profitable to make two and a half pills, but compared to others who make five or six pills, it is indeed a huge loss.

"By summarizing the details of success and failure, becoming more familiar with the alchemy techniques, and practicing with other elixirs, we will get better and better next time."

"Who knows when we'll receive the Foundation Establishment Pill again? This stuff is incredibly rare!"

"Soon! As soon as we dock at Haiyue Bay, we'll announce that we're auctioning Foundation Establishment Pills. People will then know we have the ability to refine them. Whether they want us to refine the pills or sell the ingredients, it'll be good for us." "That's right! I need to hurry up and practice refining more second-tier pills. We have plenty of ingredients anyway; next time I'll try to make four pills!"

The Third Elder doesn't need to be responsible for too many specific matters; he has plenty of time to study alchemy.

Lin Qianfan was in the same situation. He cultivated every day without fail, and generally did not deal with worldly affairs in his spare time, leaving them all to Lin Lishen. He spent most of his free time studying the Tianji Wheel itself, thereby improving his shipwright skills.

I plan to advance this immortal skill to the peak of the second tier as soon as possible, so that I can turn my attention to studying the White Whale and the Zhentao Ship when I have free time.

However, due to limited space, it was impossible to practice and verify the techniques, so time was also allocated to learn puppetry.

The foundation of puppetry is similar to that of shipbuilding; both use weapon crafting as a carrier, runes as nodes, and arrays to connect them into a complete whole.

The difference lies in the fact that shipbuilding emphasizes large-scale construction, while puppet making emphasizes precise integration. They each have their own characteristics, but the difficulty is about the same.

Because the basic structure of the two is the same, Lin Qianfan learned very quickly. Making puppets takes up little space, requires less cost, has a short production cycle, and provides quick positive feedback, which enabled Lin Qianfan to make rapid progress, with his skill level improving every day.

"Advancing to the second tier will be quite difficult and requires a significant investment. I don't know how many more failures I'll have to endure. No rush, take it slow..."

The larger the ship, the more puppets can be used, especially since the combat sequence can be equipped with second-tier puppets in batches, and even third-tier puppets can be used in the future. However, the purchase price of second-tier combat puppets is very expensive. Making them yourself can save more than half of the cost and also keep it secret.

Although second-tier puppets have difficulty defeating cultivators of the same tier, as long as their numbers are high enough, they can still overwhelm others with sheer numbers or even their cultivation level, and their deterrent power remains extremely high.

A second-tier early-stage puppet can't defeat a Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivator, but wouldn't three or five second-tier mid-stage puppets be able to chase and kill a Foundation Establishment early-stage cultivator? This is much more convenient than cultivating a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and you won't feel bad if it breaks.

Besides considering the long-term development of the Puppet Way, it can also become one of the Tianji Wheel's flagship products. After all, which Foundation Establishment power wouldn't want to purchase a powerful second-tier combat puppet? They have the money but can't buy it!

On the Heavenly Pivot Wheel, not only the Third Elder and Lin Qianfan were delving into the second-tier immortal arts, but the other three Foundation Establishment guest elders they had hired also each had their own skills and were also studying!
One of them is a second-tier weapon refiner who can reliably produce high-quality second-tier spiritual weapons through the weapon refinement workshop. Although he cannot refine high-grade spiritual weapons, his output of mid-to-low-grade spiritual weapons is stable, and he can also accept custom orders.

The other is a second-tier alchemist. Although his alchemy skills are not particularly profound and he can only stably produce five common second-tier low-grade pills, they are all essential pills and are in short supply.

Another type is the second-tier talisman maker. The raw materials for second-tier talismans are plentiful and can be collected anywhere. They can be produced in batches and have no shortage of buyers. They can sell as many as they have.

Lin Qianfan carefully selected the three of them to board the ship, taking into account their skills and the fact that their stable output could become one of the high-quality products of the Tianji Wheel.

As for why there are only three people and why there are no formation masters, second-tier formation masters are too rare. In the Fish-Dragon Islands, apart from the Lin family, which can stably train second-tier formation masters, other Foundation Establishment forces find it difficult and unprofitable to train second-tier formation masters, and it is almost a losing proposition.

A few days later,
At the speed of a Tier 3 ship, the Tianji had already left the sea area familiar to Lin Qianfan and arrived at an unfamiliar sea area that he had never been before, along the main channel to Haiyue Bay.

This place is not far from the sea area where Haiyue Bay is located. The Tianji ship has also been prepared and is waiting to dock as soon as possible.

[Ding~ Unfamiliar fleet detected ahead, including a Tier 3 cargo ship and nearly a hundred Tier 2 monster-hunting ships of various sizes...]

The Heavenly Pivot Wheel's array detection range is vast, far exceeding the field of vision, comparable to the divine sense detection range of a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.
At this moment, a large red dot and nearly a hundred smaller red dots appeared on the detection array's screen, which were the unfamiliar fleet mentioned by the detection array.

Below the fleet, there were countless tiny red dots, which should be a large number of first-order creatures.

"Huh? This sea area wasn't a hunting ground before, so how come there's such a large fleet of demon-hunting ships and a school of spirit fish?"

Although Lin Qianfan had never been here before, according to the sea charts collected by the Lin family and the indications of the Vast Ocean Spirit Guidance Marker, this was not a regular hunting ground and did not produce stable resources.

"Thirteenth Master, there's an unfamiliar fleet ahead. Should we go around it or just approach it directly? Wouldn't that be too presumptuous?"

(End of this chapter)