Chapter 153: Dawn Of The Vast Sea, Northward, New Sea Route
The surging waves tirelessly crashed again and again against the silent shore, shattering upon the reefs, leaving billowing white foam and thunderous roars.
In just over half a month, the dock area had undergone earth-shaking changes. Oren, the Seven Luminaries Wreath Merchant House Northern Traveling Merchant steward, could not help but stand for a long time on the shore, watching.
Yes, Oren had now been promoted from deputy steward to steward, stepping over that crucial threshold in life from deputy post to full post.
At his age, it was no exaggeration to say that his future was boundless.
However, every time he came to Hanhai Territory, he always felt like a slime that could only wriggle in the rotten leaves on the forest ground surface, advancing too slow, far too slow!
The last time he saw this place, it had still been a collapsed coastline, stone slabs scattered in the clear seawater, mottled green; rows of long-rotten wooden stakes and stone piers stuck crookedly in the beach; rusty iron rings half-buried in stone crevices clogged with soil; some ancient building remains had even completely fused with the rocks, as if they had grown that way from the very beginning.
Now, this ruin of broken walls had become a bustling large construction site.
Amidst the piles of materials stacked like mountains, the giant skeleton of a seagoing ship had already taken shape.
During this period, the diligent Dwarf Factory Director Sol had led the territory citizens and Centaurs assigned to him to cut wood, lay the keel, fix the ribs, nail the hull… working in two shifts without pause, doing nothing but sleeping and working, and had finally completed the main construction of this large ship within the lord’s planned timeline.
In the somewhat crude new dock at Emerald Bay, this bare giant beast skeleton lay quietly, and the workers, busy as an ant colony, were carrying out the final planking and caulking.
The air was filled with the fresh scent of timber mixed with the pungent smell of waterproof coating.
What felt strange was that it had no mast bases, no oar ports, only a huge enclosed tail rudder, so that at first glance, the well-traveled Oren had almost taken it for a fixed water platform.
Or a floating dock?
That young lord had said this thing was a ship. Without even a chimney, how was it supposed to move?
Was it really going to rely on that feeble electric power?
The record keeper behind him was clearly thinking the same and muttered under their breath, still indignant about the Hanhai guards’ earlier “No magic recording here.”
“A broken ship without even a mast, is it supposed to rely entirely on a magic array for propulsion? Even if you are rich, you cannot waste money like this!”
Yes, Hanhai Lord was rich; everyone in the Merchant House knew this. Over the past year, Hanhai’s large-scale procurement alone accounted for one-fifth of the Northern Traveling Merchant trade volume of the Seven Luminaries Wreath.
Oren’s promotion to steward could not be shaken, no matter how jealous the competitors were.
“Stop complaining. Notify the Enchanter team to get to work!”
No matter how perfect the blueprints of this big ship were, no matter how exquisite the craftsmanship, there were still a few steps that could not be avoided.
The first was waterproofing.
No matter how tightly the wooden planks were joined, it was difficult to completely prevent seepage, so these gaps had to be filled with special hemp silk material and then coated with “slime glue” produced from the outskirts of the Gloomy Forest.
According to traditional shipbuilding techniques, after applying slime glue, the hull had to sit and bake dry in a waterproof state for four to five months.
Hanhai Territory could not wait that long.
Therefore, they needed the Enchanters among the artisans to accelerate the process.
Although these Enchanters had not reached First Turn, as technical talents specially supported by the Chamber of Commerce, they specialized in all kinds of auxiliary spells, magic arrays, runes, scrolls, and so on. Soon, they swiftly set up several “Blazing Sun” magic arrays, and flames of magic spiritual energy gently began to bake.
Chen Mo, who had come especially to watch, pressed the timer, and multiple cameras on site began recording from all angles.
Magic Power Spirit Crystals buzzed in the centers of the arrays, the water vapor in the air seemed to evaporate instantly, and the glue on the hull turned from milky white to transparent at a speed visible to the naked eye, a fine sheen rising on the surface.
Yes, once this information was sent back, his hometown would have another headache for quite some time.
Every ten-plus minutes, the head Enchanter would stop the magic arrays, lead a quick inspection, then adjust the Magic Power Spirit Crystal configuration of the “Blazing Sun” magic arrays and proceed to the next stage.
In at most around forty minutes, after the fifth inspection, the head Enchanter raised his hand to signal.
The Chamber of Commerce coordinator beamed. “My lord, Steward, the Enchanters have completed the curing of the waterproof glue. You can arrange for an inspection!”
So fast!
And of course, so expensive!
Watching the group of twelve people in Chamber of Commerce Mage Robes, Chen Mo felt a persistent itch in his heart.
Once he had the chance, he would get himself a team of such Enchanters no matter what; they were simply too useful!
Inspection was a long process. While Sol led the artisans climbing over the ship cabin, the lord invited Oren and his entourage to share a hearty lunch.
Next, the afternoon work would be even bigger.
They were going to mount the masts for the entire ship.
The reason for not using traditional masts and steam power, of course, was to employ the black technology system from Dong Xia of Blue Star.
It was not that Chen Mo did not want to save transportation capacity, but Hanhai Territory’s situation was special. Even with a ship, he still could not solve one core problem: crew.
To sail upon the sea was not something just anyone could do. Even for a small sailboat, without sufficient time spent training, one could not hope to handle it.
Within Hanhai Territory, it was already hard enough to assemble a group of people who would not get seasick; as for people who could actually steer and handle a ship, there were none.
Thus, even if traditional masts and sails were installed, without suitable sailors, no one would know how to use them.
As for steam turbines, that technology was fairly mature and, along with magic puppet power, was one of the two main power sources in common use on the Starlight Continent.
However, Chen Mo had run into a damned technical blockade.
The main supplier of steam turbines, and one of the major Dwarf gathering places, the Shuang Lan Principality, refused to sell to Hanhai Territory.
The reasons they gave publicly sounded perfectly adequate: first, this was high-end strategic material and qualifications had to be carefully evaluated; second, the order book was full and one had to apply and wait; third, the route to Hanhai lay entirely through war zones and was unsafe.
In reality, the factors were much more complicated.
The Shuang Lan Principality was small and in a very special geographical position; it was in a standard four-front situation, surrounded on all sides by stronger regimes.
By reason, whenever someone grew strong, they should come knock it around.
But precisely because its geography was so crucial—it guarded the only lowland pass on the Dragon’s Spine Mountain Range and directly connected the vertical route from Qiyue Dynasty to Mirror Lake Kingdom, across Redwood Highlands, to Xiyue Federation, and down to the southern Silver Duchy—no one could tolerate their enemy or opponent occupying this core transportation hub.
Anyone who dared to strike Shuang Lan ran a high risk of being beaten up by everyone.
In the end, it was because the continental situation was too balanced, with no single dominant power, that such small states in strategic locations gained the value of being courted.
Therefore, Shuang Lan’s quasi-“neutral” status and good relations with the major powers were quite normal. Even the Mist Moon Divine Court, which did not share a border with it, maintained friendly talks.
At the same time, thanks to this transit position and relatively safe environment, Shuang Lan had become a preferred refuge for various races fleeing war; the largest Dwarf group, the Iron Arm, held a considerable territory there.
So, it was entirely normal that the Shuang Lan Principality, profiting from all sides, looked down on Hanhai Territory. And Hanhai Territory had already offended quite a few factions; who knew whether someone had been stirring trouble from behind.
Altogether, this had nearly made Chen Mo cough up blood.
He, the heir of Dong Xia, whose homeland had already soared to the Moon, could get anything he wanted there; yet here he was, trying to buy a steam engine locally and being told it was high-end strategic material…
Strangling his throat?
Chen Mo had no choice but to bring in a hybrid power system from his homeland.
When the hull was being constructed, the engineering blueprints provided by Dong Xia had already reserved space for this system. After the local hull construction was completed, the shipyard spent a full fifteen days, under video guidance so detailed it specified the position of every screw, completing the installation of the keel reinforcements, alloy ribs, and mast bases, and setting the battery packs, motors, and thrusters into place.
The entire ship used six main masts, with technology derived from Dong Xia’s intelligent retractable folding sails, each mast weighing 74 tons.
Does that seem familiar? Yes, this was to prevent Classmate Chen Mo from being unable to advance; they shipped one whenever they could. Slower was still better than nothing.
It was the same idea as always: first solve the problem of having or not having.
Because they still could not ship in large-tonnage lifting equipment, Chen Mo had to rely on the Merchant House’s Enchanter team to complete the installation of the integrated sail masts.
The Enchanters began setting up new magic arrays.
This served as a super-sized Mage Hand, driving spiritual energy to lift the thick masts one by one into the mast bases fixed in the hull.
The Enchanters laid down complex magic arrays around the massive mast components, rune lines lighting up with a pale blue glow on the ground.
Magic power resonance caused the air to tremble slightly. Under the control of the chief caster, the towering masts were gently lifted by invisible magical hands, precisely aligned with the hull bases, then slowly lowered and locked into place with delicate metallic engagement sounds.
The entire process was filled with a beauty born of strength combined with precision.
Once all the masts were installed, the final step was for all irrelevant personnel to leave the ship. The Centaur electrical crew boarded to complete the final wiring connections, sensor checks, control system verification, and navigation equipment calibration.
The whole ship adopted direct-current electric engines and pod-type thrusters with alloy propellers, and was also equipped with a complete sail power system.
The six sails could autonomously adjust their angles of attack in real time according to wind speed and direction data collected by sensors, combined with the heading, and could still obtain good thrust by zigzagging even against the wind.
When the wind was strong enough, as the ship advanced, it could also perform kinetic energy recovery to recharge the electrical equipment.
As long as the equipment did not malfunction, power shortage should never occur on this hull.
In terms of the control system, although there was no satellite positioning yet, the integrated intelligent system—composed of manual presetting, plus surface radar, plus underwater sonar, plus terrain memory—could basically achieve short- and medium-distance automatic navigation and reef avoidance in nearshore waters where clear markers existed.
This maximally offset Hanhai Territory’s weakness in lacking experienced old sailors.
In early March, the breakwater opened, seawater poured in, and the hull underwent its maiden sea trial.
On March 10th, after completing the second coastal voyage, amid the boiling cheers of the harbor territory citizens, the lord personally named the ship: “Qiming Hao.”
On March 15th, Qiming Hao’s weapon system debugging was completed, including one long-range main cannon, one light rapid-fire and anti-air gun, a hive drone reconnaissance-and-strike system, as well as a squad of Human Ranked Warriors and a defensive force of 120 militiamen plus crew. All were in place and fully prepared.
The Centaur field army squad that had carried high expectations unfortunately failed: seventy percent of the Centaurs were seasick, the rest showed significant adaptation issues; in the end, none could board—total wipeout.
For the time being, Chen Mo had no plans to massively expand a navy. After all, before dealing with the Sea Tribe, warships could only circle along the shore.
The final form of this large electric sail warship had a full-load displacement of about 1,900 tons. After subtracting its own weight and weapon systems, its payload capacity was around 900 tons.
The weaponry still consumed too much carrying capacity.
After Qiming Hao completed its second sea trial and all data had been sent back to Blue Star and confirmed to be normal, it finally began its first long voyage.
Northward, northward!
——
Hanhai’s Blade, led by Comrade Liu Zaiyue, after obtaining permission from the Thunder Cliff Tribe, traveled eastward at full speed, day and night, and arrived at the easternmost coastline of White Deer Plain.
The surging waves mercilessly pounded this shore.
Old Niu stood atop a towering reef, facing the salty sea breeze, gazing southward for a long time—that was the direction of Hanhai Territory.
“Leader, we caught some local Humans. They said there are several bays here, all deep enough. They should be able to hold the big ship from home!”
Short Claw narrowed his eyes and carefully stood on a rock, maintaining a height slightly lower than the leader’s but not so low that the leader would have to bend down to speak, gesticulating as he gave his report.
This stretch of beach was beneath the notice of the Orcs and had naturally become a refuge for Humans.
Although the land here was relatively barren and produced little, experienced Humans could barely survive by gathering seafood and catching fish along the shore.
But without Orc raids, they also lacked the Shelter of Orc camps. If they ran into roaming gangs, they could only pray for themselves.
“Good! Send a report to the lord!”
This was Old Niu’s strength: he was not very bright, so he never bothered to scheme, and simply obeyed the lord in all things.
In the period that followed, the members of 【Hanhai’s Blade】 began to establish a temporary base in a relatively flat gravel forest land behind the beach.
The Orc soldiers swung huge axes to clear shrubs and low trees, while the Human soldiers were responsible for setting up simple tents and defensive works to guard against beasts or small bands of bandits that might appear at night.
Old Niu then sent out several squads to explore along the coastline in both directions. At each potentially suitable deep-water area, they dropped a seabed probe to collect underwater information.
After six or seven days, they finally confirmed a deep-water harbor area at a place the locals called Conch Mouth.
Here the sea surface lay to the south of the land, with a huge clam-shaped reef on the right that effectively blocked the battering of waves. Just over ten meters from shore, the water depth reached more than twenty meters, and the seabed was free of messy hidden reefs.
Though somewhat narrow and not a particularly fine large harbor, it could easily accommodate one or two large ships at a time.
Next came building a simple dock and erecting markers.
The Ogres became the main construction force. Lacking large tools, they relied on magic and brute strength to hammer a gentle ramp into the reef bit by bit, while clearing surrounding gravel to open a berth where a ship could moor.
Then came the markers.
Old Niu raised a large timber nearly twenty meters long near the beach, with a huge red flag at the top, painted with animal hide and bright dyes.
It looked like the camp of an Orc Tribe, but their own people would know at a glance that this was Hanhai Territory’s advance party.
At the top of the flag, two solar lamps were hung, casting orange beams diagonally to the left and right. Although not very bright, they were enough to pierce the heavy sea fog so that ships at sea could see them from more than ten kilometers away.
The days of waiting seemed especially long.
Every day Old Niu would climb onto the rock where the marker pole stood and gaze again and again toward Hanhai’s direction. The sea horizon was as empty as ever, with only seabirds and never-ending waves.
Until that afternoon, when the lookout soldier tumbled into the camp in excitement, almost incoherent: “Ship! A big ship! Flying a red flag, with signal lights, coming toward us!”
The entire camp instantly boiled over. Everyone swarmed to the shore and crowded onto the high reefs.
On the distant horizon, an elegant and massive white silhouette was breaking through the sea mist and slowly approaching.
Its hull lines were smooth and powerful, its deck very clean, with several simple and thick metal masts bearing broad intelligent sails that billowed with the wind as it advanced.
Of course, its greatest distinguishing feature was still that it had no chimney.
Old Niu almost immediately confirmed that this was the lord’s ship!
The sentries began flashing light signals. Behind the camp, three beacons roared into the sky—this was the final confirmation signal.
This great ship coming from afar was Qiming Hao from Hanhai.
This warship-cum-transport slowly entered Conch Mouth, lowered a small boat to complete docking, and then gradually approached the temporary pier onshore.
Buffer airbags and wooden stakes pressed gently against the rock wall, the gangplank was laid down, and the fully armed Hanhai guards disembarked first to establish a security line.
Old Niu took a deep breath, straightened his Leather Armor and the Badge on his chest, and strode forward.
From this moment on, Razor Fortress and Flag Mountain Pass were no longer so important.
The pattern of White Deer Plain was about to undergo earth-shaking changes, beginning from this hidden bay.
