"With Grandpa Deaf here, I'm spared the trouble of drawing the structural diagrams. The Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon has an intricate structure, and if Grandpa Deaf paints this cannon so that it appears in the real world, measuring it becomes much easier, much simpler. Forging it will be far easier as well."
Qin Mu finally let out a breath of relief.
The Deaf hadn't sold a single painting for months, yet Qin Mu had sold paintings on his behalf for only a short while and earned more than the old man had made in his entire life. It left this Tiantu Crown Prince full of sighs, lamenting that the hearts of men were no longer what they once were.
Now that he wanted for neither food nor clothing, he did not refuse when Qin Mu asked him back to the Grand Academy to help.
Once at the Grand Academy, Qin Mu had no time to rest. He immediately gathered people and assigned tasks.
Qingyou, You He, and Youyun of Little Jade Capital; Daoist Master Lin Xuan of the Daoist Sect and ten Taoist priests with profound attainments in mystic computation; computation experts from the Grand Academy, the court's Design Bureau, and the Heavenly Saint Cult; and Village Chief as well—twenty-six people in all. Together with the Dragon Qilin, they were charged with painting the images for the Golden Books and Treasure Scrolls and organizing the models of spatial computation.
The Dragon Qilin's attainments in mystic computation were not low either, in no way inferior to those old Taoist priests.
The Dragon Qilin was moved to tears of gratitude. He had finally found a reason not to be carried to the dinner table, and so worked doubly hard.
The Golden Books and Treasure Scrolls needed no personal attention from Qin Mu. He poured all of his energy into building the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon.
Wang Muran, Mu Qingdai, and Long Yu were assigned by Qin Mu to work with the computation experts of the Daoist Sect, the Grand Academy, the Design Bureau, and the Heavenly Saint Cult on the cannon's models of spatial computation and formations. Gu Linuan was among them as well.
Many of the imperial secretaries of the Celestial Record Tower in the Grand Academy were also great masters of formations, versed in all manner of arts and divine abilities—practically walking treasuries of cultivation knowledge—and Qin Mu invited them over too.
The Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon had originally been an eye technique called the Sun-Shooting Divine Eye. The State Preceptor of Yankang had obtained it and archived it in the Celestial Record Tower, so the imperial secretaries were needed to provide guidance.
Qin Mu spent several days exchanging pointers with the secretaries of the Celestial Record Tower, mastering the formations and structure of the Sun-Shooting Divine Eye, devising the sequence of formation runes that would transform the Divine Eye into the Divine Cannon, and then framing the cannon's body.
The Deaf watched from the side. Once Qin Mu settled the cannon's structure, the old man began to paint at once.
Even for one revered as the Painting Sage, it took five days to finish painting this divine cannon.
When The Deaf was done, he carried the completed blueprints outside the city, chose an open stretch of ground, and unrolled them. At once a terrifying cannon battery a hundred zhang tall appeared, covering a vast area of roughly a thousand mu.
Unlike other true qi cannons, the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon that Qin Mu designed had no barrel at all. It looked like nothing more than an enormous platform.
On either side of the platform stood two frames extending outward from its edges, etched with arc-shaped patterns, and at the top of each frame was a thick, sturdy axle.
The two axles were symmetrical but not joined together. At the end of each axle was a semicircular fork, and between the two forks, eighty zhang apart, floated a divine eye wreathed in blazing fire, rolling about with a gurgle from time to time.
When the eye opened, fire came gushing out.
When the eye closed, it turned in place upon the platform.
This was the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon that Qin Mu had designed from the Sun-Shooting Divine Eye!
Hundreds of computation experts immediately swarmed over, climbing all over the enormous battery, drawing, measuring, calculating, and breaking it down. They parsed the great cannon into individual parts and components, recording the structure and dimensions of each one, allowing not the slightest error.
The formation runes on every part and component had to be measured out as well, and the amount of calculation was enormous.
Qin Mu had not designed every single component of the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon. He had designed only the cannon's main body, but no forging workshop in existence was large enough to cast so colossal a cannon in a single piece.
So if it was to be forged at all, it had to be broken down into individual parts and components, forged separately, then assembled.
That was precisely why Qin Mu needed so many computation experts.
With so many people cooperating on measurement and calculation, the coordination between them was itself an art, and not the slightest mistake could be tolerated.
Qin Mu simply invited Emperor Yanfeng out of the capital and had him coordinate the cooperation among the computation experts. The Emperor's injuries had healed, but they had been too grave; his Celestial Heavens realm remained tattered and still needed recuperation, and his cultivation had not recovered.
Qin Mu and Fu Yuanqing, the Minor Poison King, had treated him, and the medicine they used had been so fierce that both the Emperor and the State Preceptor of Yankang had suffered miserably at their hands. Emperor Yanfeng still brooded over it to this day.
"Your Majesty, these computation experts are all my guests. They are not your ministers, so if something displeases you, you may not go about shouting for their heads," Qin Mu admonished him.
Emperor Yanfeng laughed. "I'm hardly that tyrant who constantly has 'off with their heads' on his lips. Rest assured, my dear minister."
Officials of the Ministry of Works arrived. Shan Youxin, Hall Master of the Heavenly Works Hall, and the others had come down from the front lines—the fighting on the grasslands no longer had any use for them—so the State Preceptor of Yankang had sent them back to the capital.
"His Holiness the State Preceptor is attacking the Golden Palace of Loulan. When we withdrew, the battle had not yet begun," the Minister of Works reported to Emperor Yanfeng.
Qin Mu summoned the Ministry officials at once, and after some deliberation the Minister of Works reported to the Emperor: "Supervisor Qin finds the five forging workshops Your Majesty granted him too small, and the distances between them rather great. He intends to demolish all five and build a new one by the river."
Emperor Yanfeng flew into a rage. "Demolish my five forging workshops? Those workshops were built with real gold and hard silver! He spends money with such a loose hand—easy enough when it isn't his own money! Off with his head!"
The Minister of Works chuckled. "Has Your Majesty forgotten? Every forging workshop in our State of Yankang was improved and designed by Supervisor Qin."
The Emperor's expression softened. "He is indeed a capable man. His head can wait."
A little later, Qin Mu requisitioned towered boats, had the five workshops dismantled and hauled to the banks of the Tu River, and began building the new one. Ling Yuxiu was no slouch at leadership and command, so Qin Mu asked her over to help coordinate and direct the construction.
Qin Mu also had people haul divine metals and divine materials of every kind, along with treasures of heaven and earth, from the national treasury and ship them to the new workshop.
Emperor Yanfeng, for his part, busied himself coordinating the many computation experts so that nothing would go wrong, devoting every ounce of his energy to it.
More than ten days later, the mystic-computation measurements of the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon were complete. The computation experts consolidated their work, condensed vital energy into part after part, and fitted tens of thousands of pieces together without the deviation of a single thread. It was precisely one Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon.
Meanwhile, Qin Mu had practically emptied the national treasury, and he requisitioned shipload after shipload of mystic gold, mystic iron, and mystic copper from the mines across the land. Outside the new workshop, treasures of every kind piled up like mountains.
The new workshop had already started up. Qin Mu had designed new pill furnaces with fiercer flames, and a hundred-odd towering mechanical giants of metal hammered away at the mystic gold and mystic iron, while the refined gold, silver, copper, and iron were stacked away in neat rows.
Emperor Yanfeng came back to his senses and summoned the Minister of Works. "What is left in my treasury?"
The Minister of Works hesitated. "To answer Your Majesty—practically nothing. Supervisor Qin has emptied even the materials in the rat holes!"
Emperor Yanfeng walked into the new workshop and found it bustling with heat and activity. New machines of every kind had started up, pill furnace after pill furnace blazing away to keep the mechanical giants running, boilers large and small breathing out billows of steam, the glare almost blinding.
"This new workshop consumes more medicinal stones in a single day than a mid-sized war consumes in a day."
The Minister of Works said, "Supervisor Qin has also designed an energy source for the Divine Cannon: fifty-six of the most powerful pill furnaces. One activation consumes nearly as many medicinal stones as His Holiness took with him on his campaign against the Mandi Kingdom."
Emperor Yanfeng was struck dumb. After a long while he said slowly, "Easy to spend when it isn't his own money. Where is Supervisor Qin? I must ask him whether spending feels good."
"Supervisor Qin has gone off drinking with the Princess."
The Minister of Works continued carefully, "He says he owed someone a meal of wine, and that person has been waiting many days. With almost nothing here that needs him, he went to treat the man, so as not to owe a favor. When the Princess heard of it, she went along with him, and a little fox tagged along as well. Supervisor Qin said there was no good wine on hand, so it was the Princess who fetched tribute wine from the palace."
Emperor Yanfeng raged. "I hauled myself over here and busied myself to death, and he runs off to drink—and it's my wine he drinks, and he takes my own daughter out gallivanting! Off with his head!"
The Minister of Works hurried to say, "Your Majesty, the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon isn't finished yet..."
Emperor Yanfeng replied with perfect good humor, "His head can wait."
The Minister of Works said, "Supervisor Qin says one must not owe wages. He has already drawn up the bill and begs Your Majesty to review it."
Emperor Yanfeng took one look and flew into a towering rage. "This much money? He has emptied my national treasury—where would I find money to pay him? Off with his head!"
The Minister of Works hurried to say, "Your Majesty, once the Mandi Kingdom falls and the Langjuxu Kingdom is taken, we will have money."
Emperor Yanfeng turned from anger to delight and laughed. "Supervisor Qin's head can wait. Still, I cannot shortchange these heavenly craftsmen; when there is money, they shall be paid. Any word from the northern frontier?"
"To answer Your Majesty, the Heavenly Strategy General has sent word of victory: the royal court of the Langjuxu Kingdom has been broken and its ruler has surrendered. The Heavenly Strategy General remains to garrison that country, and the Crown Prince is escorting that country's ruler here even now. Today or tomorrow at the latest, he will arrive."
Emperor Yanfeng nodded and smiled. "Yushu gives far less cause for worry than her brother."
"Supervisor Qin—"
Emperor Yanfeng raised a hand. "Don't mention him! Change the subject, change the subject entirely."
"Grand Provost Gu Linuan has asked the Ministry of Revenue whether he might draw a month's salary in advance..."
"No money!"
Emperor Yanfeng sneered. "Grand Provost Gu has always been one to scheme and scrape. How could he be short of money?"
"Grand Provost Gu truly has no money."
The Minister of Works laughed. "He spent his entire fortune buying back the Shao Bao Sword. They say the Saintess of the Heavenly Saint Cult brought the sword to him and asked whether he wanted it back, and with that, Grand Provost Gu was bankrupted. And since he also helped survey the Divine Cannon this time, he has earned some merit, so he thought to draw his salary early."
Emperor Yanfeng said in surprise, "Isn't the Shao Bao Sword with Supervisor Qin? How did it end up in the hands of the Heavenly Saint Saintess... Pah, there you go mentioning him again! Off with your head! I'm not merely bankrupt—I have bankrupted my entire nation. Where would money come from? Every one of you comes begging money from me. I have sold off nearly everything in my palace; only the dragon robe and the dragon throne remain unsold! I truly have nothing left to sell!"
The Minister of Works smiled ingratiatingly. "Your Majesty, once the grasslands and the snow plains are united, money will hardly be lacking. And Supervisor Qin keeps improving the forging workshops, building towered boats and engines of every kind to sell to the merchants—money flows into the treasury like water..."
Emperor Yanfeng sighed. "His head and yours—both can wait. Supervisor Qin has taken my precious daughter off drinking with whom, exactly?"