Chapter 334 — The Divine Pupil Reappears in the World

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor said with a half-smile, "The Holy Sect Master is hardly modest."

Shen Mu was somewhat perplexed. He had been modest — indeed, he had been entirely matter-of-fact, claiming only second place and never daring to claim first, never boasting in the least. How could that not count as modesty?

And Shan Youxin was far inferior to Shen Mu; Shen Mu reckoned himself no match for the Silent Artisan, so to call himself second was at once modesty and plain truth. Old Master Huo had taught him to be neither arrogant nor rash, neither servile nor overbearing, and he conducted himself by that standard.

Only, to others, a boy so young being the second greatest artisan under heaven was truly startling; and that this same boy also reckoned himself the second-ranked divine physician — that was frightening indeed.

Shen Mu pondered a moment, then drew up a list of the materials he needed and handed it to the Jingping Imperial Preceptor, saying, "To forge a cannon platform like this, I will need roughly these materials. If they prove insufficient, I will ask the Imperial Preceptor for more."

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor took the list, read it for a while, and said slowly, "Does the Holy Sect Master mean to empty the national treasury?"

Shen Mu said in surprise, "Why does the Imperial Preceptor say such a thing?"

"The mystic gold and mystic copper on your list are one thing — use a little more, and a few mines can supply that much gold and copper. But this divine gold and these divine materials — where am I to get them?"

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor flicked the list and showed a sincere look in his eyes. "Does the Sect Master intend to embezzle treasures from the national treasury? If so, there is a place for the Sect Master at Caishikou."

"Imperial Preceptor, what you are to build is a thing for slaying gods, not some sect-guarding treasure for killing a few sect masters! And — had you not spoken, I would almost have forgotten — the followers of my Heavenly Sacred Sect will help forge the treasure, and their wages must be paid."

Shen Mu thought for a moment, then added the wages, along with several supervisory workshops he required, and the names of several first-rank officials at court, all written out on the list.

"To forge this divine cannon, I also need the finest arithmetic adepts under heaven — the strongest divine-power wielders in the arts of calculation. Best of all would be to call upon the masters of the Daoist Sect!"

Shen Mu wrote the two words "Daoist Sect" on the list and said, "Every component of this divine cannon must be refined to the utmost; the volume of calculation is enormous. With only the scholars of the Grand Academy, it would take several hundred years to finish the reckoning — and there would still be errors. The masters of the Daoist Sect are mighty in the arts of calculation; they must be called upon."

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's expression shifted slightly; he felt the list heavy in his hand, truly weighing him down.

Even with the strength of an entire nation, perhaps only one divine cannon could be built!

The hardest of all to summon were the masters of the Daoist Sect. The old Daoist Sovereign had once assassinated Emperor Yanfeng and nearly succeeded; he had also abducted the former crown prince, Ling Yuxia, and raised a rebellion, nearly taking the throne. After the rebellion was put down, Emperor Yanfeng and the crown prince Ling Yushu had ruthlessly suppressed the Daoist Sect, and the two sides were deeply estranged, as incompatible as fire and water.

To summon the masters of the Daoist Sect out of seclusion to help — that would be very difficult.

Yet this divine cannon had to be built; otherwise, when the next heavenly calamity came, there would be no way to withstand it at all!

He had not yet recovered to his peak state — who knew when the next calamity would fall?

"The national treasury is empty; there is not so much money."

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor probed, "Could the Holy Sect Master offer a discount?"

Shen Mu made a quick reckoning, then smiled. "After the Loulan Golden Palace was taken, the Imperial Preceptor promised me my pick of a hundred treasures. I can fund the wages of the sect followers myself."

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor meant to haggle further, but Shen Mu smiled and said, "Heavenly King, I have put in my own labor and strength without asking for wages; to call upon the second greatest artisan under heaven, the price is hardly small! And I am, besides, the Holy Sect Master of the Heavenly Sacred Sect!"

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor sighed. "I should never have agreed to let you be the Heavenly King of the Heavenly Sacred Sect. Now my hands are tied and I cannot bargain. This matter I must report to the emperor and let him decide. In recent years Jingping has swallowed up the other nations and destroyed many sects, and the treasury does hold a little divine gold and divine material — but the emperor's consent is needed. Wait a dozen days or so, and the imperial decree will come down."

Shen Mu turned away to help forge the Divine Heaven Rings. As for divine gold and divine materials, he was not worried; he saw nothing especially precious in them. When he had forged his own sword elixir, he had used a good deal of such material, all of it taken from the Nether Demon Sect's treasure vault — though he had in turn handed over all the various sect-guarding treasures on his person to the Nether Demon Sect's vault.

Together with the Ministry of Works and the assembled scholars of the Grand Academy, he forged the Divine Heaven Rings, and the work went quickly indeed. Speed was the soul of war; if only the Divine Heaven Rings were forged, more than seventeen thousand of them would be needed — a vast undertaking in itself.

The Divine Heaven Rings linked the array patterns of the true-essence cannon, able to bind the true-essence beam at the center of the barrel without touching the bore, gathering the beam into a thickness like the mouth of a bowl; thus the bore would not heat, and neither mystic-gold fatigue nor heat decay would occur.

The original true-essence cannon's beam had been as thick as a water bucket; now it became as thick as a bowl's mouth. Though the area of attack shrank, the range increased greatly, and the cannon could be fired at will without fear of bursting, turning the tower ship into a true warship of the air.

In truth, the Divine Heaven Rings were not what improved the true-essence cannon the most. In the Ninefold Heaven Gazing Eye Art, the Soaring Heaven Eye was only the most basic of the eye arts; the other eight were all far stronger than the Soaring Heaven Eye.

The strongest was the ninth, the Fire Heaven Eye.

But the Soaring Heaven Eye's array patterns were the simplest, the easiest to learn, the easiest to forge, and required the fewest materials; so Shen Mu taught the others only the Soaring Heaven Eye's array patterns.

Had it been the Fire Heaven Eye, even Shen Mu could not forge a single Fire Heaven Ring in ten days or half a month — the Fire Heaven Ring's array patterns were far too complex. With Fire Heaven Rings, the true-essence beam would likely be compressed into a thread finer than a needle, and its range would rise enormously again. But the energy needed to fire the true-essence cannon would also be immense; the national treasury likely could not bear it.

"If Fire Heaven Rings could be forged, gathering light into threads and forming a killing array, it would truly be indestructible — used to guard a holy land, no army of a thousand legions could break through!"

Shen Mu calculated how much money such a guardian array would cost, and at once his spirits fell. The Heavenly Sacred Sect could afford to build it, but not to use it; the medicinal stones needed to activate and sustain the array were far too many.