Chapter 361 — A Change of Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Emperor Yanfeng mused, "Let every directorate produce components in great quantity, so that in war the broken parts of primal weapons, tower ships, and cloud chariots may be replaced at any time. Then even in large-scale campaigns, battlefield losses will not be great! Your Ministry of Works should go and study this, and spread this kind of directorate as quickly as possible.
" Even as he spoke, Shen Mu had already ordered the assembly begun. As hundreds of divine-power wielders locked central components together one after another, a disc about a mu across took shape.
Then Libationer Bashan, returned from the front on the northern snow plains, came below it, raising both hands to hold up this vast, heavy disc with his mighty dharma power.
Hundreds more divine-power wielders filed out of the directorate; beside them a man kept calling out numbers, and at each number a wielder stepped forward and fitted a component or part onto the disc. More and more pieces were joined; the disc base grew larger and more solid. By the time nearly ten thousand components and parts had been fitted, even Bashan the Libationer, a man of mighty build, had legs trembling beneath him, his waist bent so low he could scarcely straighten.
Pei Wujiu stepped forward, and the two of them held the disc up with their mighty dharma power.
The disc now measured four hundred mu across.
When the count reached twenty-seven thousand, the disc base, covering a thousand mu, was at last complete; beneath it stood four cultivators of cult-leader rank, holding this enormous cannon base aloft with their dharma power. Upon the disc, Shen Mu and many officials of the Ministry of Works moved swiftly about, inspecting the array patterns and runes at every seam. Once he had confirmed there were no problems, Shen Mu gave an order, and great beasts came drawing carts; many pill masters leaped down from them and carried their loads onto the disc. "Light the furnaces," Shen Mu ordered.
"Light the furnaces—" The fifty-six pill furnaces were opened, elixir stones cast in; each pill master roused his vital essence and kindled his furnace. At once flames blazed within, the fire shifting from red to white, from white to azure, and from azure to blue.
Terrifying energy coursed swiftly through the array patterns and runes upon the thousand-mu disc, fully activating the runic arrays upon it! The four cult-leader-rank cultivators beneath the disc immediately felt the weight lift: this enormous cannon platform, astonishingly, no longer needed their support — it floated in the air on its own!
The assembled officials marveled one after another, "Work of the gods, truly work of the gods! " Emperor Yanfeng's expression was somewhat sour. This time Shen Mu had chiefly assembled the cannon's base and tested the operation of the furnaces and arrays — yet merely testing the furnaces had consumed elixir stones enough to sustain a medium-scale campaign!
"In any case, it is not his money being spent. . .
" Emperor Yanfeng ached to the marrow.
His inspection finished, Shen Mu leaped down from the base and called out loudly, "Extinguish the furnaces, lower the base. " The furnaces died down one by one, and the vast base floating in the air descended slowly and smoothly; even so it stirred up a mighty current of air, a howling gale that set everyone's clothes flapping and rattling and rippled the skin of their faces into folds.
The wind subsided. Shen Mu called out, "Pill masters, prepare the elixir stones. Once the carriage and the light-gathering prongs are forged, we will fire the furnaces once more.
" The many pill masters acknowledged the order.
Emperor Yanfeng, pale of face, had Shen Mu summoned and said with a genial countenance, "Director Shen, why must the furnaces be fired again?