Xu Shenghua was puzzled. "Besides being the Human Emperor, Brother Qin, you also hold the title of Cult Master of the Heavenly Saint Cult—of course I've heard of it. Why do you ask?"
Qin Mu said with a beaming smile, "If you join my Heavenly Saint Cult, Brother Xu, you won't have to repay the money. I may be the Human Emperor, but I'm also the Cult Master of the Heavenly Saint Cult. The Hall of the Human Emperor and the Celestial Heavens have a deep and bitter feud, but the Heavenly Saint Cult doesn't bear much hatred toward the Celestial Heavens, does it? Joining the Heavenly Saint Cult would solve everything nicely."
Yuliu and Jing Yan exchanged odd looks. This Human Emperor's way of doing things was truly absurd, yet wildly imaginative. The Celestial Heavens and the Hall of the Human Emperor were mortal enemies, locked in a fight to the death—and yet he went and invited his sworn foe to join his Heavenly Saint Cult!
"This Human Emperor can't possibly think that nine bowls of noodles plus one house call will make Young Master Xu join his Heavenly Saint Cult, can he? Honestly, it's hard to say whether he's simple by nature or cunning by nature," Jing Yan thought to herself.
Xu Shenghua was silent for a moment. "Don't joke around, Brother Qin. Rest assured, I'll repay the money as soon as I can."
Qin Mu hadn't actually expected him to agree to join the Heavenly Saint Cult. Although the Heavenly Saint Cult and the Celestial Heavens were not mortal enemies, the cult's Woodcutter Saint and the first Human Emperor of the Hall of the Human Emperor had both come from the Founding Emperor era. They shared the same goal, but to achieve it their methods had diverged.
The Hall of the Human Emperor pursued its goal through battle, while the Heavenly Saint Cult advanced the mundane world through teachings woven into the people's daily lives, working toward the same goal by that path.
The final aim of both sacred lands was the same: to overthrow the rule of the gods and establish the world of their hearts' aspirations.
And on this point, their philosophy was naturally at odds with that of the Celestial Heavens.
Divine-capability practitioners streamed out of the Construction Bureau, stirring their vital qi to hoist enormous parts and components into the air, where they floated in midair. Qin Mu paced back and forth above them, directing the position of each part.
Though this was only the base of the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon, its array patterns were exceedingly intricate. The fifty-six pill furnaces that Qin Mu had personally designed were especially so—each one was vast, impossible to cast in a single piece, and had to be pieced together from more than a hundred components, with the array patterns joining so precisely that not a hair's breadth of error was permitted.
Qin Mu had used mortise-and-tenon joinery: no rivets were needed at all. Once the pieces clicked together, they held fast, strong enough to endure tremendous impacts.
What was more, even if the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon were struck by an enemy and partially destroyed, the damaged portion could simply be removed and replaced with intact components. Once replaced, the cannon could be powered up again with no loss of strength whatsoever.
For the assembly of the cannon's base, many officials had gathered outside the Construction Bureau, thronging the site, and Emperor Yanfeng had come as well, clearly taking the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon very seriously.
"This mortise-and-tenon joinery of Director Qin's could be applied to spirit weapons and towered boats on the battlefield."
Emperor Yanfeng sang its praises without pause and said to the Minister of Works, "In Our judgment, it should be adopted by the whole army. If flying swords were built with mortise-and-tenon joints, and towered boats too, losses in wartime would be greatly reduced."
The Minister of Works nodded. "But it is very hard to forge."
"With the Construction Bureau redesigned by Director Qin, casting the components of each flying sword would be no great difficulty."
Emperor Yanfeng pondered. "Have every Construction Bureau produce components in great batches, so that during war the broken parts of spirit weapons, towered boats, and cloud chariots can be replaced at any time. Even in a large-scale campaign, battlefield losses would be modest! You of the Ministry of Works ought to go study this and spread these redesigned bureaus as quickly as possible."
While he was speaking, Qin Mu had already given the order to assemble. As hundreds of divine-capability practitioners clicked the central components together one by one, a disc roughly an acre in circumference took shape.
Then Ba Mountain Sacrier, returned from the front lines of the northern snowfields, descended below, raising the great, ponderous disc with both hands and bearing it aloft on his majestic arts.
Hundreds more divine-capability practitioners filed out of the Construction Bureau in single file while someone nearby called out numbers without pause; at each number, one practitioner stepped forward and fit a part or component onto the disc.
More and more pieces were joined, and the disc's base grew ever larger and sturdier. By the time nearly ten thousand parts and components had been assembled, even Ba Mountain Sacrier, that stalwart man, had both legs trembling under him, his waist pressed so low he could scarcely straighten up.
Gu Linuan stepped forward, and the two of them propped up the disc with their majestic arts. The disc was now four hundred acres across.
When the count reached twenty-seven thousand, the disc-shaped base, a thousand acres broad, was finally complete, and beneath it stood four Cult-Master-level powerhouses, holding the enormous cannon base aloft by their arts alone.
On the disc, Qin Mu and numerous officials of the Ministry of Works darted back and forth, inspecting the array patterns and runes at every seam. Only when they confirmed that nothing was wrong did Qin Mu give the order, and great beasts hauled up wagon after wagon. Apothecaries leapt down from them, and the apothecaries charged with carrying the materials came up onto the disc.
"Light the furnaces," Qin Mu commanded.
"Light the furnaces—"
The fifty-six pill furnaces were opened, medicinal stones were cast inside, and each apothecary stirred his own vital qi to kindle his furnace. At once the fires roared in the furnaces, the flames turning from red to white, from white to azure, and from azure to blue.
A terror-inspiring torrent of energy raced through the array patterns and runes spread across the thousand-acre disc, rousing the runic arrays upon it to full life!
The four Cult-Master-level powerhouses beneath the disc felt the pressure lift at once: this enormous gun platform no longer needed them to hold it—it floated in midair by itself!
The officials cried out in admiration: "The workmanship of gods and demons—truly the workmanship of gods and demons!"
Emperor Yanfeng's face looked rather unwell. This time Qin Mu was mainly fitting together the cannon's base to test the furnaces and the workings of the arrays, but that single test firing had consumed medicinal stones enough to sustain a mid-sized campaign!
"It's not his money being spent, after all..."
Emperor Yanfeng's heart ached with the cost.
His inspection finished, Qin Mu leapt down from the base and called out in a loud voice, "Extinguish the furnaces. Lower the base."
The pill furnaces gradually died down, and the enormous base floating in the air slowly descended, very smoothly. Even so it stirred up a tremendous current of air—a howling gale that snapped everyone's robes with a rattling clatter and blew their faces into wrinkles.
The air currents settled.
Qin Mu called out, "All apothecaries, have your medicinal stones ready. Once the gun carriage and the light-gathering forks are finished, we shall light the furnaces once more."
The apothecaries accepted the order.
Emperor Yanfeng's face was pale. He had Qin Mu summoned, then said graciously, "Director Qin, why must the furnaces be lit again?"
Qin Mu said, "Your Majesty, the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon has far too many parts and components; some fault or other is hard to guard against. Once the gun carriage and the light-gathering forks are finished, the furnaces must be lit again to check for any fault."
Emperor Yanfeng smiled genially. "And how many more times will it need to be lit?"
"If nothing goes wrong, two or three times will be enough."
Qin Mu tallied it up in his head. "But if something does go wrong, we'll have to find where the fault lies, and then there's no telling how many times it will need to be lit. The Divine Eye section in particular uses mortise-and-tenon joints and three-dimensional suspended gearing; it is so complex that the odds of error run high. But rest assured, Your Majesty: with so many masters of numerology and calculation present, any fault is certain to be located with all speed. Your humble servant will do his best to keep it within ten lightings—not too much money will be spent. Your Majesty, the next furnace-lighting will be half a month from now, so I beg Your Majesty to..."
"Very good, very good. We shall not come. You manage it all yourself... Minister, help Us back to the palace."
Qin Mu watched the emperor totter away, propped up by several officials, and marveled inwardly: "Is the emperor's injury not yet healed? That's not right—Little Poison King and I cured him beyond a doubt..."
Xu Shenghua's expression was grave as he gazed at the enormous disc.
Qin Mu came over and said with a smile, "Brother Xu, what do you think of this gun platform?"
"Handiwork worthy of Heaven's own crafts—a marvel of gods and demons."
Xu Shenghua shot him a glance. "If Brother Qin pours his energy into things like this, I'd say it won't be long before I defeat you. You are a miraculous physician and a master craftsman of Heaven's work; there is no way you can devote all your energy to cultivation. Given time, your cultivation will fall behind mine, and you will be crushed in a rout!"
"So Brother Xu has learned to scheme."
Qin Mu smiled faintly. "You don't want me to build this divine cannon, so you aim to strike at my confidence. But to me, the way of medicine and the craft of Heaven's work are both forms of cultivation—I can turn them both to the strength of my own abilities. The truth is, if I wished to beat you, I could poison you, or forge a sharp weapon and blast you to death. All of it is simple, and all of it is my strength."
Xu Shenghua's heart sank. "Those are not the true arts."
Qin Mu laughed loudly and clapped him on the shoulder. "We Tyrant Bodies learn whatever we set ourselves to, so don't you go burying yourself in cultivation alone. Do you know, when you challenge me next, whether I'll beat you to death with bare hands, poison you, or blast you to pieces with a treasure? My house-call fee is one thousand Dafeng coins—pay me early, and don't owe me a debt of gratitude. Then you and I can cross blows again. I'll be waiting."
Xu Shenghua was dumbfounded. Suddenly a little girl came hopping and skipping over, three white tails swishing and swaying behind her. In a flash she wrote out an IOU and said in a crisp, clear voice, "Young Master Xu, your seal, please!"
Xu Shenghua, in a daze, pressed his seal to it, and the little girl solemnly tucked the IOU away and followed Qin Mu off.
"I came down from the Celestial Heavens, failed to kill the Human Emperor, and ended up owing him one thousand Dafeng coins..."
Xu Shenghua shook his head, a thousand feelings surging in his heart. "How am I supposed to go back like this? Yuliu, Jing Yan—how does one go about earning money?"
Yuliu and Jing Yan were equally at their wits' end. The fastest way to make money was to sell treasures. They had brought no few precious objects down from the Celestial Heavens, and selling off a few to repay the debt would have been fine.
The trouble was, while Xu Shenghua lay sick in bed, everything that could be sold had already been sold, leaving only the jade vial and the pipa.
But the jade vial and the pipa were treasures of constellation lord Qiao Xingjun, and on no account could they be sold.
"I am versed in music. Could that earn money?" Xu Shenghua asked.
"Young master means to go sing in the streets for coppers?"
Jing Yan cried out in dismay, "How could that possibly be allowed? And street singing hardly pays!"
Xu Shenghua pondered. "I do know something of forging spirit weapons. Perhaps I could forge a few and sell them for money..."
"Young master means to become a blacksmith?"
Xu Shenghua smiled. "I am a Tyrant Body. If I don't learn something, fine—but once I set out to learn, I will do it better than anyone! Rest assured: even as a blacksmith, I will reach the very top, and I will not be a whit inferior to that Tyrant Body, the Human Emperor Qin!"
Worry showed on the faces of Jing Yan and Yuliu, and they exchanged a glance, thinking to themselves: "Young Master Xu may never return to the Celestial Heavens at all. His heart is no longer the heart he carried when he came down from the Celestial Heavens..."
A month later, when Qin Mu ran into Xu Shenghua again, it was in a blacksmith's forge. The finest disciple of the Celestial Heavens no longer wore his old image of flawless, untouchable purity—stripped to the work, he was swinging a great hammer, forging mystic gold.