Pillar of Yita

Before the events of that day at the Elfendo banquet had time to spread, the members of the Seven Seas Traveler were ready to embark on their journey again.

Count Westwood Sibika and Master Ande ultimately adopted Fang Hong’s suggestion and chose to seek someone else as the successor to the Rose Workshop. Of course, this ’seeking someone else’ was not achieved overnight; after Rolin left, the remaining Linen was evidently lacking. And the Earl himself seemed to have the intention of cultivating an heir.

After all, he was just forty-eight this year, an age considered strong and vigorous in Eteliria.

As for the Elf Legacy Fang Hong left in the council, it also brought him many benefits, including the Heart of Fairy. And the promise he made to Count Westwood Sibika and others actually had another meaning.

After seeking advice from Hilveld and Tang Xin, he chose to distance himself from the entanglements of the Elfendo council and the inheritance rights of the Rose Workshop, but he did not simply walk away without care. After all, he had exerted considerable effort in the Fanric incident, and naturally, he could not give up the influence he had in the battle at Nikopolas in vain.

Otherwise, outsiders might think that this was a sign of concession and weakness, further encouraging them to push their luck.

By making this suggestion, he had the capability to continuously provide technical support to the Elfendo council, thereby gaining a means to restrain the council. The subject of Ancient Alchemy was enticing, and with the division of this pie, the Alchemists in the Southern Region would naturally make their choice.

At the same time, he remained detached from the council, avoiding becoming a target of others’ attacks, essentially placing himself in an invincible position.

With this connection, the council established a beneficial relationship with him and with Hilveld. Feelings between allies often cannot last long and dominate everything, but benefits can often sustain for a long time and make the relationship more intimate.

In this case, even if someone like Pudra tried to reenact the incidents against the Albert Family, the council and the Southern Nobles would still have to consider the opinions of the wide Alchemist community, and they wouldn’t act recklessly.

Thus, the Seven Seas Traveler achieved its objective, and even without being in Fanric or the Southern Region, it could still leverage the power of the council.

This was what Fang Hong called the ’bait.’

However, unlike in the past, most of this plan was devised by himself, with Hilveld, Tang Xin, Bakins, and the Big Catfolk merely helping him refine the details. The success of the plan greatly encouraged Fang Hong—because it meant that he, even the ’Seven Seas Travel Group,’ had taken a significant step from being pawns at the mercy of others to becoming the players themselves.

And then came the delivery of the Heart of Fairy.

This technical legacy, left by Hilveld’s grandfather and father, which Fang Hong had long heard of but never seen, was finally unveiled to everyone on Mr. Greyrock’s platform.

It was placed in a large container, and upon opening the black-painted metal lid, one could see the dazzlingly brilliant Main Core Crystal. It was about three meters long and more than one meter wide, carefully wrapped in a layer of padded silk.

The crystal lay quietly there, its colorful crystalline structure restrained by various small and large copper pipes, and its interior covered with densely packed Alchemy Arrays, which stripped it of its original appearance, making it resemble a container for depicting multilayered Alchemy formulas.

The complex mechanical parts on its surface used the most expensive materials Fang Hong could enumerate—from the structure of mithril for its main body, using the most conductive mithril as a conduit for magic, it was akin to pathways of silver light across a golden sky.

Dragon Scales were used as a magic power insulator and also served as an inner padding layer, encasing the transmission device forged from Fairy Alloy. Even the cheapest copper was not ordinary but an enchanted product repeatedly refined by an Alchemy Master.

Finally, it was overlaid with a layer of expensive Magic Blackwood as a shell, in harmony with the magic conduction of the ship’s body.

This massive yet exquisite device was what truly showed Fang Hong the luxury of top-tier Alchemy products. Because every part of it was not designed for ornamental or boastful purposes but was absolutely necessary.

It could be said that this was the most ’austere’ design, and it was only due to its astonishingly high ’standards’ that it was made this way.

Seeing this, Fang Hong couldn’t help but glance at Miss Ship’s Officer beside him, recalling the boast he once made, and couldn’t help but blush a little.

The ’Heart of Fairy’ was merely the name of this Alchemy work, but in reality, it was the most crucial part of the ship-type Magic Guided Reactor, the main engine, and Crystal Core. It was so complex and precise, exorbitantly expensive, and yet was just one of the many large-scale devices on a Floating Ship.

In his youthful ignorance, he had rashly promised to build a Floating Ship, but upon seeing this ship-type Magic Guided Reactor, only then did he realize how absurdly wrong he was.

The construction of a Floating Ship is one of the most massive system projects in the history of Eteliria Alchemy, no less than the giant constructs of the past or the Dragon Knights, and in some domains, even surpassing them. Building a Level Six Escort Ship requires at least the joint effort of hundreds of craftsmen in a shipyard and must be completed under the direction of several Grand Artificers. The countless financial investments involved, how could these be reduced to mere words?