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

Chapter 264 Hub Harbor, The Wenren Family's Entrustment
But there's no other way; to speed up the journey, we'd need to use high-grade spirit stones to power it, which is far too expensive.

Therefore, the entire journey can only be driven at maximum idle speed. Unless there is danger, it is impossible to spend extra high-grade spirit stones. After all, although the Heavenly Pivot Wheel can make money, it is difficult to earn high-grade spirit stones.

In fact, during the days since departing from the Fish and Dragon Islands, we had passed by several Golden Core forces, but because we were not familiar with each other or did not have a good relationship to start a conversation, we skipped them all and headed straight for Haiyue Bay.

The following evening,

As dusk falls and the sun is about to set...
The Tianji Wheel finally spotted its destination: Haiyue Immortal City, managed by the Wenren family of Haiyue Bay!
Most of the immortal cities in the Storm Ocean are built on the water's edge. Even immortal cities like Cloud Mist Immortal City, which are clearly located inland on an island, have to build a grand canal to connect to the sea to ensure smooth shipping.

Haiyue Bay's terrain is more in line with the word "bay" than Yanglong Bay. It is a natural deep-water harbor bay, located on the important main longitudinal shipping route of the Western Regions. Long-distance second and third-tier ships traveling to and from the vicinity almost always stop at Haiyue Immortal City for supplies.

Unfortunately, Haiyue Bay's land area is too small, even smaller than Yundu Island; it's really just a bay. Furthermore, it lacks the surrounding smaller islands to protect it, limiting its industrial development and thus restricting the number of cultivators it can accommodate.

Therefore, even with such a prime location, this high-quality harbor power is just an ordinary small Golden Core power with only two early-stage Golden Core cultivators. If its effective area could be expanded several times over and its spiritual vein level could be raised, it might actually be able to cultivate a large Golden Core power.

Toot~
The harbor was large, and even with many ships docked, it did not feel crowded. Under the individual guidance of the harbor management monks, the Tianji ship docked in a spot reserved for large merchant ships.

Clearly, Haiyue Xiancheng Port is more professional than other ports, with dedicated berthing zones for different types of large vessels, facilitating their various commercial activities and interactions with the shore.

"Welcome, Brother Lin, to my Haiyue Bay! You are most welcome!"

A young cultivator dressed in flashy, extravagant clothes, resembling a spoiled rich kid, was waiting at the Tianji Wheel's docking point with a group of beautiful women and attendants to welcome Lin Qianfan aboard.

"Brother Wenren, we meet again!"

Lin Qianfan did not underestimate this person and respectfully clasped his hands in response.

Despite his seemingly unreliable appearance, he has climbed to the 7,000th step of the Shuofeng Rank, placing him in the third tier. His chances of reaching the Core Formation stage are quite high.

This person is none other than the core Golden Core seed of the Wenren family, named Wenren Feihuang. The Xuanqiong Jade Dew that the Wenren family spent a great deal to exchange for in the Fish-Dragon Immortal City last time was for his Golden Core formation.

Lin Qianfan had some interactions with him during his studies abroad, but because this person was too high-profile, the two remained only acquaintances.

"Haha~ This is fate, it shows we are very destined. Brother Lin, this Senior Lin, fellow Daoists of the Lin family, please follow me. The Heavenly Immortal Pavilion has prepared a welcome banquet for you all!"

"Brother Wenren, even itinerant merchants need to value their reputation..."

"Brother Lin, I understand that business is important, but I have something more important to discuss with you! Please do me the honor!"

Wenren Feihuang used telepathy to say the second half of his sentence, abandoning his nonchalant attitude and becoming very serious, indicating that something was really wrong.

"Oh? Brother Wenren, would you mind revealing what important matter it is? Please make it clear first, otherwise I can't be of any help if it's something really big!"

Lin Qianfan became wary upon hearing this, wondering if it was another of Chu Junhao's tricks.

“It is indeed a big deal, but it is something that Brother Lin will certainly not find difficult. However, this matter is somewhat private and requires a quiet environment.”

"Then please come aboard my ship, Brother Wenren, for a meal and a chat! The restaurant on my ship is quite unique; you certainly haven't yet tasted the specialties of the Yulong Islands. Brother Wenren, please!"

As the captain of the Tianji Wheel, Lin Qianfan must prioritize its interests. Having docked at a key immortal city, he will not easily leave before the situation stabilizes.

"You even have a restaurant on your ship? So Brother Lin is quite the connoisseur, you really know how to enjoy life, hahaha~"

Alright! Today, I, Wenren Feihuang, will sample the unique cuisine of your Yulong Islands!

However, you must drink my spirit wine. My Hundred Flowers Nectar is the number one spirit wine of the Four Islands of Haiyue. Even Nascent Soul True Monarchs have praised it. Brother Bao Lin, you're satisfied!"

"Alright, I'll drink your spirit wine!"

Because prior communication had been made with them, and Wenren Feihuang seemed to genuinely have something to ask of them, plus the fact that several merchant ships pass through this area almost every year, a large number of customers flocked to the ship as soon as it docked.

It seems that there is no need for corresponding publicity or word-of-mouth, or even for explaining the rules, as the locals already know them by heart.

The boatmen, who already had extensive experience in receiving customers, managed the flow of people and guided transactions in an orderly manner, with all areas operating smoothly.

Tianji Lun Open-air Restaurant
The view here is excellent, offering a panoramic view of the open-air market on the deck and even the entire port area of ​​Haiyue Fairy City.

The two exchanged pleasantries and chatted about everyday matters to get to know each other. Then they enjoyed the food and wine to satisfy their appetites. After that, they talked about various things for a while before finally getting to the important matter that Wenren Feihuang had mentioned.

It turned out that the protective formation of Haiyue Immortal City was a bit outdated, and they wanted to spend money to set up a new third-order protective formation. However, the Wenren family could not make the decision on this matter and could not directly ask Lin Rongrong to come and do the work. They could only try to communicate through Lin Qianfan.

"...Wait a moment, Brother Wenren, I don't quite understand the logic here. Could you please explain it more clearly?"

"It's my fault! I'll punish myself with three drinks first! Then I'll explain things to you!"

Wenren Feihuang was not surprised, and after drinking three cups, he recounted the cause and effect.

It turns out that although Haiyue Bay belongs to the Wenren family, Haiyue Immortal City is a joint-stock company, divided into four parts and belonging to four different families.
Although the Wenren family occupies the largest share and has absolute control over Haiyue Immortal City, some major matters, such as changing the city's protective formation, still require the consent of the other three families.

These other three are the other three Golden Core forces located in the nearby "Haiyue Four Islands".

There are four Golden Core factions in this nearby sea area, located very close together on the nautical chart. They are all small Golden Core factions, including the Xuan Yuan Sea Pavilion, which the Tianji Wheel encountered earlier. Among the four islands, Haiyue Bay is the most famous because of its exceptionally favorable port conditions. Based on the shipping routes and port conditions, Haiyue Immortal City is the most prosperous, but Haiyue Bay is objectively barren, lacking sufficient resources to support its status as a key port on the main shipping route.
Therefore, the other three companies have been continuously supporting Haiyue Bay, which has led to close cooperation among the four companies. All three companies have shares in Haiyue Xiancheng. This has been going on for a long time, and even after the ownership of each company changed, it has been strictly implemented.

During the beast tide, Haiyue Immortal City was bullied several times by passing demon kings. Although the problems were successfully resolved each time with the help of the other three, the city's protective formation was also damaged.

The reason is that it is too old, or even too dilapidated!
The current series of third-order formations in Haiyue Immortal City originated three thousand years ago. Although they are maintained once every hundred years, they are clearly no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the ever-growing Haiyue Immortal City.

During this period, the Wenren family also tried to cultivate their own third-tier array masters, but most of the recent generations of Golden Core cultivators who failed to advance to the third-tier array masters were either unsuitable or stuck at the peak of the second tier.

Having weathered the beast tide, we can no longer wait; a complete overhaul is needed—a revolutionary and fundamental upgrade. This involves not only enormous financial interests but also matters of confidentiality.
Despite Haiyue Bay's prime location and the potential for a wide circle of friends, the Wenren family has actually failed to befriend any truly reliable third-tier array masters due to their own weakness.
After a brief encounter with the Lin family during the last auction, it was discovered that the protective formation of Fish Dragon Immortal City was very powerful, and the Lin family members were kind, easy to get along with, and had no bad records. Therefore, it is planned to invite Lin Rongrong to participate in the "competition".

That's right, they're not hired to do the work right away. Instead, they have to compete with three other third-tier array masters for the job. Only those who win the competition can take on this big job; otherwise, they'll only receive a travel allowance.

Considering that Lin Rongrong's personal strength and status are actually above the entire Wenren family, and given the uncertainty and difficulty in communicating about this matter, a hasty visit would likely result in a direct rejection.

That's why they planned to have Lin Qianfan sound out the situation first. If he agreed to participate in the competition, they would personally invite him. If he wasn't interested, it wouldn't cost them anything, and they would have to reconsider their manpower.

Actually, they don't have many options right now.

Despite the presence of one or two thousand Golden Core cultivators within the Thousand Star City's jurisdiction, true third-tier array masters are few and far between. Even fewer possess the skill and experience to independently and successfully set up a complete set of third-tier arrays for an entire immortal city.
They also need to exclude those with a bad history of misconduct, those who are difficult to deal with, those from powerful Nascent Soul cultivators, and those from high-risk overseas locations. Lin Rongrong is already the best choice they can think of.

"I see!"

After hearing Wenren Feihuang's explanation, Lin Qianfan finally breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't something as unreasonable as Chu Junhao's.

Is this urgent? Is there a time limit?

Such important matters are not convenient to communicate through means of communication, especially since this place is too far from the Fish and Dragon Islands. Activating a large-scale communication array would be extremely costly and inefficient. It would be best to have a face-to-face meeting.

"There's no rush in the short term, three to five years is fine, after all, the time scale of the Golden Core senior is different from that of us Foundation Establishment cultivators."

“Alright, I’ll take this on! Once I’ve finished this one-year merchant journey and returned to the Fish-Dragon Islands, I’ll contact the Supreme Elder. I can’t guarantee anything else, but I will do my best.”

"Brother Lin, I admire your noble character. Please drink this cup to the brim!"

After saying that, Wenren Feihuang downed the whole thing in one gulp.

I don't know if this kid wanted to drink more or what, but he opened a jar of aged Baihua Qiongjiang (a type of Chinese liquor), and drank three-quarters of it by himself.

This time, only Lin Qianfan accompanied him. If a few more Foundation Establishment cultivators were to join them for drinks, I wonder what his expression would be.

"Drink this cup to the full!"

Lin Qianfan was unaware of the Supreme Elder's intentions, so he made no promises regarding success or failure, lest he create undue expectations.

But Lin Qianfan knew that if this matter were to be accomplished, it would be of great benefit to Lin Rongrong, and she would most likely agree, after all, she had helped the Zhang family set up Yundu Immortal City last time.

Setting up a series of third-order formations from scratch allows third-order formation masters to highly verify their lifelong learning and further refine their immortal skills, and the profits from this are also considerable.

It's important to understand that a family's support for a Golden Core cultivator isn't unlimited. Especially since the Lin family now has multiple Golden Core cultivators, there's a well-established set of rules for supporting the Supreme Elder. It's a limited but virtuous cycle, so Lin Rongrong also needs to earn resources appropriately to accelerate her cultivation.

The Lin family currently has four Golden Core cultivators and two third-tier demon kings, making them quite strong. However, five of them have little potential for advancement. Only Lin Rongrong still has the potential to reach the late Golden Core stage. Therefore, she will definitely value the development of her abilities, even if it is just a sideline cultivation of immortal arts, which is still part of her capabilities.

Lin Qianfan was confident, but he didn't make any guarantees. He only promised to do his best to make the matter happen, and that there would be results in a year.

After several rounds of drinks and several dishes, it was already late at night.

The brightly lit Tianji Wheel continuously welcomed and saw off people. The flow of people did not decrease; on the contrary, there were even more people hiding their heads and peeking out, and their proportion even exceeded that of the day on Yundu Island.

"Brother Wenren, are the people here so fierce?"

"Huh? Oh! You mean these people who hide their identities?"
They may not all be from Haiyue Bay. This place is located on a major shipping route, with people coming and going from all directions, so it's naturally a mixed bag.
Furthermore, many people also come from the other three islands to make a living; this is normal and happens several times a year.
If their own merchant ships weren't useless locally, who would be willing to give up such a lucrative business?

"And they're not necessarily all here to sell things! Brother Lin, you may not know this, but my Haiyue Immortal City focuses on developing commerce, and we even rely entirely on commerce for our livelihood. I think most of them are here to buy goods!"

"Oh! Is that so?"

"Hahaha~ Of course!"

Fellow Daoists present, tonight's expenses at Tianji Restaurant are on me, Wenren Feihuang! Please enjoy yourselves!

Perhaps he had a good time, but Wenren Feihuang was out of tune when he left.

At his repeated invitation before leaving, Lin Qianfan agreed to visit Haiyue Immortal City the next day.

At midnight, after using his internal energy to force out the effects of the aged spirit wine on his brain, Lin Qianfan finally had time to check today's transaction data.

"It's only been three hours, but the transaction volume has already exceeded the total transaction volume of Yundu Island in the previous twelve hours!"

(End of this chapter)