Chapter 1676: Zhang He’s Treasure s.h.i.+p
While the compet.i.tion outside was reaching its roaring height, Zhao Hai began refining his large artifact. Naturally, this so-called refining meant that he handed the job over to the processing machine. The best material composition would be achieved by the processing machine, this made Zhao Hai’s life much easier.
However, easier doesn’t mean relaxed. At the very least, Zhao Hai still had to design the large artifact. Moreover, Zhao Hai wanted to base his design on Zhang He’s treasure s.h.i.+ps during the Ming Dynasty. However, it wouldn’t have a mast nor cannons on the side. The formations to be used on the s.h.i.+p as well as the internal design would be handled by Zhao Hai.
Although the workload doesn’t seem big, there were a lot of things that Zhao Hai needed to be busy with. Because of this, Zhao Hai didn’t go out of the Ignored Valley frequently. This caused someone to be fl.u.s.tered, and that someone was Ye Tiancheng.
Ye Tiancheng’s face was ruined by Zhao Hai during the compet.i.tion. Naturally, he wouldn’t let Zhao Hai off. Except for Ban Li, Ye Tiancheng found out that Zhao Hai didn’t have any friends. He just stayed in the Ignored Valley all the time, giving Ye Tiancheng no opportunity to take revenge.
Ye Tiancheng grew up in the Black Tiger Gang. Therefore, he knew clearly that disciples with positions couldn’t be killed casually. Even if Ye Tiancheng was a genius and was valued by the sect, it would still be hard for him to kill Zhao Hai. If the sect investigates, then his future as a genius would be ruined.
The Great World of Cultivation never lacked talents. Those who reach the inner sect could be considered as geniuses. Ye Tiancheng was just one of those many geniuses, so he wouldn’t dare go over his limits.
But if Zhao Hai left the Black Tiger Gang, then Ye Tiancheng would be able to do anything to him. The Gang wouldn’t investigate an Outer Disciple. Unfortunately, Zhao Hai didn’t go out. This caused Ye Tiancheng’s teeth to itch with hatred.
However, soon enough, Ye Tiancheng changed his thinking and relaxed. Who was Zhao Hai? He was merely a Battle Slave. Moreover, being sent to the Ignored Valley meant that he wouldn’t be able to lift his head up for the rest of his life. Being frustrated by such a person was unreasonable. Upon thinking this, Ye Tiancheng calmed down.
With no more people wanting to disturb him, Zhao Hai’s calm life continued. He continued to work on the large artifact in the Ignored Valley. His life was free and comfortable.
Actually, Ye Tiancheng was lucky that he didn’t make a move on Zhao Hai. If he did, then he would certainly have died. Zhang Feng knew about Ye Tiancheng and Zhao Hai’s issue, Han Ren was also aware. These two people were now paying attention to Zhao Hai. Naturally, the two also noticed Ye Tiancheng. If Ye Tiancheng really made a move on Zhao Hai, both Zhang Feng and Han Ren would deal with him.
Zhao Hai no longer has anything to do with the compet.i.tion happening outside. The Black Tiger Gang’s compet.i.tion was different compared to other places. Those who have been eliminated would compete once more to select the bottom ten people. Meanwhile, those at the top would compete for the top ten positions. As for those in the middle, n.o.body would care about them. Their partic.i.p.ation in the compet.i.tion was over.
With Zhao Hai being eliminated in the second round, he naturally wouldn’t need to go back and fight. Zhao Hai also doesn’t feel the need to spectate the fights. Although the battles between the disciples were getting heated, Zhao Hai never appeared again.
The Outer Sect compet.i.tion would finish in seven days. The top ten Outer Sect disciples would enter the Inner Sect and become Inner Disciples. And among these ten people was the one-armed cultivator that Zhao Hai lost to.
This one-armed cultivator had a nickname in the Black Tiger Gang. People called him Crazy Blade Dugu Yin. The wound on his face was inflicted by a Roaring Flame Sect cultivator. The two got into a fight but the opponent was much stronger than him. In the end, his arm was cut off and his face was injured. Only then did he escape with his life. Dugu Yin kept the scar on his face while he practiced a left-handed blade style. Finally, he was able to finish third in the compet.i.tion and entered the Inner Sect.
Naturally, Zhao Hai didn’t care about any of this. Who became Inner Disciples wasn’t worth paying attention to. The Inner Sect’s benefits of more resources as well as Faith Power wasn’t attractive to Zhao Hai. It might be rich for other people, but to Zhao Hai it was nothing.
As for cultivation methods, Zhao Hai also doesn’t have any problems. Zhao Hai already had Dao Avatar Techniques. He has the 18 Buddhist Avatars as well as his 12 Zodiac Avatars, there were also other obscure avatars that he managed to form. If he reveals all of these, then his combat power would increase by several folds. Because of this, Dao Avatar Techniques weren’t attractive to Zhao Hai. It can be said that nothing in the Inner sect could attract Zhao Hai.
If there was something that Zhao Hai would be keen to pay attention to in the Inner sect, then it would be the Scripture Pavilion. The Black Tiger Gang’s Scripture Pavilion was its own special department independently managing its own affairs. Who can look into which jade slips was clearly marked down. Inner Disciples can look into more jade slips compared to Outer Disciples.
However, the only attractive thing in the Scripture Pavilion to Zhao Hai was seeing what scriptures the Black Tiger Gang Had.
Unfortunately, the defenses of the pavilion were very good. Zhao Hai wouldn’t dare use Liquid Silver to infiltrate lest he would risk being discovered.
The Black Tiger Gang’s Inner Disciples can access the lowest three floors of the pavilion. The Scripture Pavilion has seven floors altogether. Only Core Disciples and Elders can go anywhere inside. This also lowered Zhao Hai’s enthusiasm towards the Inner Sect.
Zhao Hai knew that it wouldn’t be a problem for him to enter the Inner Sect. He can enter through the compet.i.tion or not. As long as he showed his strength, entering the Inner Sect would be an ease. But it has only been a few months since he entered the Great World of Cultivation. If he entered the Inner Sect this soon, then he would be looked into. Because of this, Zhao Hai chose to stay in the Outer Sect in the meantime.
After the Outer Sect Compet.i.tion was the Inner Sect Compet.i.tion. The Inner Sect Compet.i.tion ran the same way as the Outer Sect. However, there were less Inner Disciples. Moreover, Inner Disciples were stronger than Outer Disciples. Because of this, the quality of the battles were much better in comparison.
Anyone can watch the Inner Sect Compet.i.tion. Because of this, the compet.i.tion was livelier compared to the Outer Sect Compet.i.tion. Not only were Inner Disciples coming, Outer Disciples also came to see the battles. The entire Mount Xingtai was packed with people.
Zhao Hai also wanted to see the quality of the Black Tiger Gang’s Inner Disciples. So on the first day of the compet.i.tion, he went to Mount Xingtai to spectate. But seeing the quality of the battles, Zhao Hai was disappointed. This was because the level of these people weren’t much. Some haven’t even congealed their Dao Avatar. Although they were stronger compared to Outer Disciples, they were far from Zhao Hai’s level.
After spectating the first round of the Inner Sect Compet.i.tion, Zhao Hai returned to the Ignored Valley and no longer went out. The Inner Sect Compet.i.tion ran a total of ten days. However, despite it being the Inner Sect Compet.i.tion, Zhang Feng didn’t partic.i.p.ate. His ident.i.ty as the top Inner Disciple was a t.i.tle for other people to see. His treatment was on par with the top ten Core Disciples and his strength was also equal to them. If such a person partic.i.p.ated in the compet.i.tion, it would be unfair to the other Inner Disciples.
Despite this, the top ten Inner Disciples were still worth looking into. These people had Core Formation-level strength and each one had solidified Dao Avatars. Despite this, Zhao Hai didn’t go out of the valley. To him, none of these disciples were his opponent.
Because Zhang Feng didn’t partic.i.p.ate, Zhao Hai didn’t know how strong he was. However, Zhao Hai was sure that Zhang Feng’s strength was far above these Inner Disciples. He might not be any worse than Firecloud.
What surprised Zhao Hai was that he also didn’t see Han Buli in the compet.i.tion. It seems like people from the Darkness Hall have a lot of privileges. They didn’t even need to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion.
Of course, it’s also possible that Han Buli partic.i.p.ated using another ident.i.ty, but his performance wasn’t eye-catching so Zhao Hai didn’t notice him. Recently, Han Buli hasn’t been visiting nor has sent any messages to Zhao Hai. Therefore, he didn’t know what Han Buli was doing.
Despite this, Zhao Hai didn’t take initiative in contacting Han Buli. After all, Han Buli has a special status. If Zhao Hai sent him a message, it might cause problems with his mission. Therefore, Zhao Hai always waited for Han Buli to send him a message first. People in the Darkness Hall have always been mysterious, so Zhao Hai was very careful when it came to their matters.
Now that the Outer and Inner Sect Compet.i.tions were finished, what’s left was the Core Disciple Compet.i.tion. However, battles between Core Disciples couldn’t be seen by anyone. Because of this, Zhao Hai put all of his energy into creating the large artifact.
Zhao Hai didn’t want to create the large artifact as one body. He wanted to use the method used to create Giant Spirit Treasure s.h.i.+ps. The parts of the s.h.i.+p were divided into components which would be a.s.sembled together. It wasn’t as powerful as a whole large artifact, but it also wasn’t vastly lacking if properly made. The most important advantage of this method was the ease of repair. Any damaged parts can be easily removed and replaced.
To ensure the strength of the artifact was preserved well, the damage needed to be replaced immediately. This was its greatest strength.
In the beginning, Zhao Hai thought about welding the parts together. But after further thinking, he knew that it wouldn’t work well. Welding them together wasn’t different from having one whole artifact. Once it was damaged, it would still need more work to replace the damaged parts.
Finally, after further experiments, Zhao Hai decided on the method. He would use joints between components. Zhao Hai got the inspiration for this method from furniture of the old times. Without nails to hold wood together, old furniture makers would use unique joints in order to join furniture parts. This method produced furniture that lasted for many years.
Zhao Hai wanted to use the same method on the s.h.i.+p. He wanted to see if the s.h.i.+p would become st.u.r.dier with this method. After his experiments, he proved that it was indeed feasible. Not only did it make a more st.u.r.dy s.h.i.+p, it was also very easy to repair after being damaged.
After figuring out the method, the production of the large artifact was quickened. But then, another problem arose, that was the arrangement of formations.
There were all kinds of formations that could be used on large artifacts. Zhao Hai wanted to use three-dimensional formations for the s.h.i.+p. But once the formations were arranged, he found that there would be nodes in the middle of the s.h.i.+p, connecting all the rest of the nodes of the formation.
If these middle nodes were destroyed, the formations would be severely affected. But if Zhao Hai arranged formations by component, the joints would thin out the energy lines. As long as the parts get misaligned, then there would be no way to connect it again. And if there was no connection, the formation wouldn’t fully operate.
In the end, Zhao Hai had to make specialized formations for the joints. And after a lot of calculations, he was finally able to solve the problem.
While Zhao Hai was solving these problems, 10 days pa.s.sed. At this time, the Black Tiger Gang returned to its normal pace. People continued to live their lives and do their tasks. Everything returned to their right tracks.
Five days later, Zhao Hai was finally going to test his Zhang He’s Treasure s.h.i.+p. After seeing that there were no issues with it, Zhao Hai sent a message to Zhang Hao. He wanted him and Zhang Feng to visit the Ignored Valley.
Zhang Hao was aware that Zhao Hai was preparing a gift for Zhang Feng. However, Zhang Feng didn’t know. After Zhang Feng received Zhao Hai’s message, he was somewhat confused. He didn’t know what Zhao Hai wanted him for. He immediately settled his matters and then went to the Ignored Valley along with Zhang Hao.