Feng Chou only left the Qiankun Pagoda after unearthing more than half of the potential of the golden dragon bloodline ritual.
After returning to the octagonal hall at the bottom of the laboratory, Feng Chou moved the twenty skeletal golems and twenty black steel golems out of the Qiankun Tower. He used the forty golems and the golems to set up a small defensive formation in the corner of the hall. After everything was ready, Feng Chou set up a simple altar in front of the high back chair of the evil spirit and began to summon Morpheus.
The moment Morpheus' figure appeared in the summoning formation, Feng Chou activated the spatial lock formation in the hall and completely sealed off all teleportation spells in the hall.
Morpheus, who appeared in the summoning formation, saw the formation in the hall clearly and felt his scalp go numb.
The summoning formation was under the high platform in the middle of the hall. When Morpheus turned his head, he could see the translucent figure sitting on the large chair on the high platform.
"Evil spirit!"
As a greater demon who had lived for more than two thousand years, Morpheus naturally knew about evil spirits and how powerful they were.
As the strongest defensive force in the floating city of the arcanists, evil spirits were stronger than demons of the same level. Although the evil spirit in front of him was only a weakened version of a half-legendary evil spirit, it was more than enough to deal with a half-legendary demon. Moreover …
Morpheus looked in front of him and saw 20 skeletal golems in four rows in a small square formation, blocking Feng Chou behind them. 20 black steel golems stood against the walls of the hall, the small cannon-like guns in their hands pointed at him.
The evil spirit who was looking at him with annoyance was now emitting a strong aura that made Morpheus extremely uncomfortable. It was the aura of the golden dragon.
The golden dragon could be said to be the nemesis of all negative energy life forms.
Although demons were not completely negative energy life forms, they were actually creatures of the lower planes made up of negative energy, fire elemental energy, soul energy, and some other substances. Negative energy occupied about 20% of their body structure.
Although it was only 20%, it was enough to make demons fear the golden dragon's positive energy spells.
If it was only a half-legendary descendant of the golden dragon, Morpheus, who had a challenge rating of almost 20, would not be afraid. However, when this descendant of the golden dragon had 20 skeletal golems standing in front of him as a shield, the situation was completely different.
To Morpheus, who had a challenge rating close to Level 20, destroying 20 Skeletal Golems that had a challenge rating of Level 12 was not too much of a hassle. However, if a Level 18 or 19 Gold Dragon's descendant were to cast a positive energy spell on him while he was destroying 20 Skeletal Golems, he would be in deep trouble.
Not to mention that there was an evil spirit with a challenge rating of over 20 beside him!
Morpheus could not help but let out a long sigh, feeling relieved.
Morpheus was relieved that he did not come here in his true form.
In contrast to Morpheus was relieved Morpheus, Morpheus's expression, Morpheus's face, Morpheus.
A week ago, after spending more than five thousand Soul Crystals in exchange for a large amount of spell information from Morpheus, Feng Chou guessed that Morpheus would most likely be unable to control his greed and would teleport his main body over.
A demon with a challenge rating of Level 20 would only have half of its original strength. Its challenge rating of Level 15 was just enough for it to be restrained by the Magician's Laboratory.
However, if Morpheus came here in his true form, the Magician's Laboratory would not be able to stop him. He would then be able to capture Feng Chou, extract his soul, and interrogate him about the secret of so many soul crystals.
Feng Chou, on the other hand, intended to take advantage of this opportunity to capture this demon, squeeze out more benefits from him, and then silence him!
Obviously, Feng Chou had miscalculated this time.
In fact, Morpheus had almost come here in his true form because Feng Chou's previous transaction was too crazy. As the saying goes, don't show off your wealth, but there is a limit. If you show off too much wealth, you might scare the robber.
Morpheus was the robber who was scared stiff.
Greatly disappointed, Feng Chou could only suppress his thoughts and wave his hand to make the skeletal golems retreat.
Since it was not his true form, Feng Chou was not afraid of the projection. Feng Chou could deal with a Level 15 demon with his own strength alone.
Morpheus laughed dryly and said, "Your Excellency, I have collected six liters of White Dragon Blood Essence and six liters of Black Dragon Blood Essence for you. What do you think?"
Feng Chou removed the Spatial Lock and walked through the golems to Morpheus. He smiled as if nothing had happened and said, "Of course, thank you very much." As he spoke, he handed Morpheus a contract.
After checking the contract, Morpheus quickly completed the signing of the contract. Then, he quickly teleported over a small box containing 12 crystal bottles.
The projection of the demon contained a part of the demon's soul. Although it would not be a big problem even if it was lost, it would cause the demon to permanently lose a part of its power. If it was not necessary, Morpheus would not want to lose this projection. Therefore, even if Feng Chou had almost broken all pretense of cordiality, he was still willing to obediently carry out the transaction. Of course, the premise was that Feng Chou did not have the intention to force him to make a loss. For a smart and cold demon, all actions were the result of balancing benefits.
Feng Chou directly threw the box into the Qiankun Pagoda. The tower genie quickly responded and confirmed that it was indeed the White Dragon Blood Essence.
Without saying anything, Feng Chou kicked a small box containing more than a thousand Soul Crystals to Morpheus.
Morpheus quickly checked a few Soul Crystals and nodded to Feng Chou. He first sent the Soul Crystals away and was about to leave impatiently.
However, Feng Chou stopped him and asked him to use the high-purity Soul Crystals in his hands to exchange for some normal Soul Crystals and Calamity Coins.
Since he had already exposed the fact that he had many high-purity Soul Crystals in his hands, he did not mind revealing more.
In the end, Morpheus took out all his wealth and exchanged it for more than three thousand Soul Crystals from Feng Chou.
Feng Chou looked at the place where Morpheus' projection disappeared with a gloomy expression. He was extremely depressed.
He had miscalculated this time. He had exposed his strength in front of Morpheus and did not kill him. This had caused him to fall into a greater crisis.
Feng Chou was not afraid of Morpheus. He was afraid that Morpheus would not dare to do anything to him and sell his situation to a stronger demon. If that happened, he would be in danger.
But now that things had come to this, he could only speed up his retreat.
Taking a deep breath, Feng Chou suppressed the worry in his heart and began to command the golems to remove the stone slabs in the hall.
These stone slabs were all Obsidian and were used as platforms to carry the magic formation.
Feng Chou planned to remove these stone slabs and store them in the Qiankun Pagoda. He would have to carry the evil spirit with him in the future.
As for Chapman Dominion, he could not be bothered to care about it now.
After removing the magic formation that controlled the evil spirit and storing the tens of ghosts in Chapman Dominion into the pagoda, Feng Chou left Chapman Dominion without hesitation and returned to Stellin Manor.
After returning to Stellin Manor, Feng Chou rested for a while before heading out again. He took a carriage and went to Nikles Magic Academy to visit Headmaster Aldrich.
When he heard that Feng Chou wanted to use Stellin Manor as collateral to borrow fifteen million crowns at an annual interest rate of 20%, Archmage Aldrich was immediately tempted.
Ignoring the high interest rate of 20%, Aldrich actually hoped that Feng Chou would not be able to repay the money. The Baron Manor with its high-order magus laboratory was definitely worth more than twenty million crowns in the eyes of a magus.
Even though he was very tempted, Aldrich still asked Feng Chou why he needed such a large sum of money.
The reason Feng Chou gave him was that he wanted to buy a large armed merchant ship to participate in the ocean trade.
Aldrich accepted this reason. The rich profits of ocean trade had long been the consensus of the upper echelons of the Sutton Empire.
Under the supervision of the judge and the lawyer, Feng Chou and Aldrich signed a formal contract. After that, Feng Chou received a draft for 15 million kronor.
The richest people in the world would always be magi. Even the great Marquis Nikles had to sell his dominion to take out ten million crowns, but Archmage Aldrich casually took it out of his pocket.
Feng Chou's real estate in Auvindale had suffered heavy losses because of his wishful thinking.
This time, Feng Chou would not make the same mistake with the Stellin Manor.
Moreover, the purchase of the materials for the bloodline ceremony had squeezed Feng Chou dry of his cash. He was now in urgent need of a sum of money to carry out the next step of his plan.
After completing the transaction, Feng Chou seemed to ask casually, "Sir Chairman, is there any training materials for the Steel Soul Style in the Union's database?"
Aldrich replied, "There is, but only high-order and below. The training materials for high-order and above are the secrets of the Church of the King of War. Why do you need this?
I don't recommend you use this method to train your guards. It's too difficult. "
Feng Chou said, "I'm very curious about the high-order fighters of the Steel Soul Style with the title of Magus Assassin. I hope to see it with my own eyes."
Aldrich sneered, "Magus Assassin?
That's just the fantasy of those fools! "
"If you insist, this will cost five thousand contribution points, but I still advise you not to waste it."
After expressing his gratitude to Aldrich, he went to the Union's alchemy department and turned in a few + 7 magic items in exchange for five thousand contribution points. He then exchanged them for the high-order training manual for the Steel Soul Style.
With the huge sum of money, Feng Chou took Chorre, Owen, Chapman, and a few other apprentices and boarded the train to Stormwind City.
After arriving at Stormwind City, Feng Chou first rented a remote old warehouse in the harbor and then rented a detached villa not far from the warehouse.
For the next few days, Chorre picked a few clever apprentices and brought them to the main bars of the harbor. Owen brought a few other apprentices and two skeletal golems to guard the warehouse. Chapman and a few other scholar apprentices stayed in the villa.
After arranging tasks for Chorre and the others, Feng Chou changed his identity and rented a large warehouse in the busiest part of the harbor. He then began to be active in Stormwind City's bulk trading market as a high-order wizard and Baron.
In the trading market, Feng Chou continued to buy large quantities of raw materials such as steel, black iron, and arcane copper.
The Sutton Empire was the main source of these raw materials, and Stormwind City was the largest port for these goods.
Although Feng Chou's spending was not small, but when placed in such a big market, he was like an unremarkable little wave.
It only took a little more than a week to send thousands of tons of steel, dozens of tons of black iron, and several tons of arcane copper into the warehouse.
Feng Chou hired a few mercenaries to guard the outside of the warehouse and placed five black steel and five skeletal golems in the warehouse, keeping anyone with bad intentions away from his warehouse.
Of course, if someone dared to sneak into the warehouse and was lucky enough not to be discovered by the golems or the golems, they would find that the alleyway was filled with stones.
The goods in the warehouse were all sent into the Universe of the Tower by Feng Chou.
Qiankun Pagoda carried out secondary smelting on these crude steel, black iron, arcane copper, and other metals, refining large amounts of fine steel and secondary black steel.
Within the Universe of the Tower, Qiankun Pagoda was completely remodeling the Patrick.
Remodeling wasn't accurate. The Patrick had been completely dismantled, and Qiankun Pagoda was actually using the Patrick's raw materials and newly purchased metal to build two new armed merchant ships.
Qiankun Pagoda used black iron to replace the original wood dragon bone, then enchanted it.
The enchanted black iron was shockingly strong, making the ship's keel almost as strong as a real magic-powered warship.
The Patrick's original deck material had been split in two, and the thirty-centimetre-thick deck had been split into ten-centimetre-thick sections.
When Qiankun Pagoda laid the decks on the keel and ribs of the two new ships, the outer layer was made of steel, while the inner layer was made of the original Patrick's magical wood.
The Patrick's side decks had two layers, one on the inner and outer sides of the ribs, which was why they were called splint ships.
Now that the outer layers of the side decks had been replaced by steel, there was an extra layer of splint. The splint had been divided into two layers, making the number of decks nearly three times the original.
However, the number of decks laid on the two ships was just right.
This was because the two new ships were much larger than the original Patrick. The original Patrick had a full displacement of 6,300 tons, while the two new ships had a full displacement of more than 13,000 tons.
The cheap and sturdy steel allowed the ships to be larger.
After using steel and magical wood as a composite deck, the new ship's deck possessed the strength of steel and magical wood.
Both ships were powered by magic-powered propulsion rings. After all, compared to wind and steam, magic-powered propulsion rings were superior in terms of speed, convenience, efficiency, economy, and cleanliness. Even if Feng Chou wanted to build a steam-powered ship, he knew that even modern steam-powered ships were not as good as magic-powered propulsion rings, let alone a steam-powered ship.
For this reason, Feng Chou had no choice but to teleport to the capital of the Alvindale Empire, Alvindale City, and purchase six new large-scale magical propulsion rings.
As the alchemy capital of the world, Alvindale City had the most variety of high-grade alchemy products, the best quality and the cheapest.
Patrick's keel and ribs, which were originally made of mid-level magic wood, were dismantled and modified by the Universe Tower. They were used to make the magic carrying parts of another ship, such as the carrying parts of the Mana Propulsion Ring, the carrying parts of the large-scale Mana Constant Circle, the carrying parts of the Mana Transmission Line, and so on.