Chapter 776 Collecting information
"All that I am and that I have is because of her. The name and the ship is so I never forget.." softly said Bai Chen with a smile that was a mixture of gratitude and sadness.
Yang Qing unsure of what to say, just went with what was in his mind.
"It's beautiful.."
"It is, though I would much prefer she was the one here. I doubt she would agree to ferry people around though, and is more than likely to give me a beating and throw me in some infested forest for even suggesting it.." Bai Chen said with a laugh.
"Come, let me give you a tour before the rest arrive.." he added as he led Yang Qing to the ship.
Yang Qing nodded, walking side by side with Bai Chen whose excitement showed as he gave Yang Qing the tour. By his admission, the ship took 10 years to complete, and though it was the youngest ship, in terms of conceptualization it was the maiden ship, it was built from the first ever ship he had which he was given by the bluefin spine-tailed swift who raised him.
Yang Qing could read enough to know the bluefin spine-tailed swift was more than likely not alive and as curious as he was about what happened, he was not insensitive enough to ask about it.
Seeing it from the inside Yang Qing could see why it took ten years. Just the materials themselves didn't look easy to procure by an early-stage palace realm cultivator with no backing. The skeleton of the ship was made of rainbow restoration aspen wood. The material could be considered one of the ones that were at the very top amongst the list of middle-tier monarch-grade material.
Despite it being a monarch-grade material, having its equivalent value in spirit stones wasn't a guarantee that you would get it because of how versatile in its uses it was, making it extremely valuable.
Rainbow restoration aspen wood was highly adaptive to its environment as it afforded protection to its user from what was in said environment. The wood could freely manipulate seven elements i.e. water, wind, earth, fire, wood, metal, and lightning. It used the seven elements to adapt to variables it was subjected to making it an excellent material to build a ship with. It afforded an invaluable adaptive defense during travel when one was traveling over long distances hiding all sorts of dangers and treachery.
It wasn't just the rainbow restoration aspen wood, the entire ship was a trove of precious materials. Yang Qing didn't see any material that was used whether in a functional or decorative capacity that was below the monarch grade. Going off base value, the ship had likely cost tens of millions of high-grade spirit stones.
Yang Qing couldn't help but wonder how Bai Chen had managed to acquire them all in a short ten years. Some of those materials even having the required amount weren't sufficient to procure them and required substantial connections, something that Bai Chen seemed to have though he didn't say much about it, but he did speak a bit about his team as he was showing Yang Qing around.
Of the four palace realm experts, he was sworn brothers with two of them, while one of them was a long-time friend of the bluefin spine-tailed swift that raised him, and the last one was a friend he had made in Jade Leaf Academy who was looking to gain experience and decided being a ferry escort was the best way.
As for the rest of the staff, some like Duan Ting joined to repay a favor, which based on the respect Duan Ting showed, even though Bai Chen modestly avoided what it was, Yang Qing felt it had to be deep. Others were rogue cultivator acquaintances he had made along the way, others were referred to him by the Gold Earth Bank and a few others were from the general populace of the Gold Eagle Town who were looking for work which Bai Chen was in desperate need of considering how young his agency was.
Yang Qing did end up asking why he decided to start an escorting agency, to which Bai Chen replied that it was a way to feel close to the Bluefin spine-tailed swift that raised him as they used to travel all over the continent for the majority of his life since he was little. Flying ferries across the continent helped mirror that feeling.
A few minutes passed by before Duan Ting came over with 20 passengers who all wore the same look of amazement Yang Qing wore when he saw the ship. A few of them even asked Duan Ting in doubt if that was their ship. They were quickly settled in along with the auxiliary staff of the agency that would take care of the miscellaneous stuff on the ship. Despite a ship controller being on the list of staff who boarded the ship, Bai Chen insisted on being the one to fly the ship, even inviting Yang Qing to join him.
Yang Qing could only promise to do it later. He had been dying to look over the list Vice Warden Shao An had given and had been waiting for the right opportunity to go through it. While piloting a beautiful ferry like the Bluefin was enticing it wasn't as enticing as finding out about the dangerous inmates he would be supervising.
Yang Qing oblivious of the gradual transformation happening to him, excitedly went to his assigned floor, then his chamber, and activated all the protection arrays in the room. Out of a healthy sense of paranoia, he took out a few formation flags, 20 high-
grade spirit stones, and a dark stone that looked like it was made of nimbus clouds.
He carefully placed his formation flags at specific positions around the room before placing the calamity-obscuring stone at the center of the formation. He crushed the high-grade spirit stones and sprinkled them on the formation flags before finally muttering an incantation that activated it.
Cloud shrouding shadow veil array
The whole room was instantly swallowed by a dark grey shadow that flashed with grey lightning. Yang Qing couldn't help but smile with a satisfied smile. Someone who had not reached the domain realm could forget spying with the array in place.
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