After returning to the Antalya Mage Tower, Feng Chou could finally focus on studying the master-level spell materials.
However, before that, Feng Chou needed to increase his intelligence first.
This time, the spell materials that he had purchased from the Amazons had been exchanged for 507 merit points for Feng Chou. Together with the previous balance, he now had a total of 680 merit points.
Therefore, Feng Chou decided to be extravagant this time.
He called out the attribute upgrade interface of the Reincarnation Mirror.
Feng Chou (Master)
Constitution: 358 +
Strength: 362 +
Agility: 189 +
Intelligence: 45 (+ 10) +
Perception: 31 (External), 67 (Internal)
Mental Power: 358 +
Physical Assessment: Healthy
Mental Assessment: Full
…
The Reincarnation Mirror very quickly destroyed Feng Chou's idea of being extravagant. This was because from 45 to 50, every point of Intelligence required 20 merit points. From 50 to 55, every point of Intelligence required 50 merit points!
In other words, for Feng Chou to increase his Intelligence from 45 to 55, he would need a total of 350 merit points. If he wanted to continue increasing his Intelligence from 55 to 60, every point would require 100 merit points!
After some consideration, Feng Chou decided to upgrade his Intelligence to 55 points. After 55 points, the remaining merit points would not be able to upgrade much. It was better to use them for something useful. 55 points of Intelligence should be enough for now. Anyway, this time he had earned another 50 years for himself. In addition to the time that he had not used up before, he had nearly 60 years to waste this time.
After upgrading his Intelligence, Feng Chou plunged into the sea of arcane magic …
Almost two years had passed in the real world, 16 years after the Universe Tower. Feng Chou secretly released Mr. Pei Di, who had no idea that he had been imprisoned, from Qiankun Pagoda. He secretly left Antalya and returned to Green Dragon Island.
In the past 20 years, Feng Chou not only successfully mastered master-level alchemy, but also became an Alchemy Archmage.
After becoming an Archmage, Feng Chou turned back to study all the high-level spells of all the elements. Soon, he became an all-element high-level mage.
After mastering all the high-level spells, Feng Chou turned back and easily mastered master-level evocation spells.
Feng Chou had planned to quietly hold a master-level golden dragon bloodline ceremony for himself in Leo's hometown, so that he could become a legendary Dragon Warrior.
However, the old Captain's call for help disrupted Feng Chou's plan.
The old Captain and Captain Haddock led Feng Chou's fleet. Under the leadership of Captain Haddock, who was very familiar with the Black Water Pirates, they successfully passed through the hunting grounds of the Black Water Pirates and returned to the Northern Continent.
Although there were pirates in the Eastern Sea Archipelago of the Northern Continent, under the attacks of the various major forces of the Northern Continent, they were not a threat at all. They could only sneakily rob the weak merchant ships. With such a large fleet like Feng Chou's, the pirates could not wait to hide.
The two Captains led the fleet and successfully arrived at Tailun City.
After receiving the messages from the two Captains, Feng Chou stopped his magic research and teleported to Tailun City. He secretly supervised the two Captains and had them use their old connections to sell the seven ships of goods from the Southern Continent to familiar trading companies.
In the end, these goods were exchanged for a huge sum of three billion crowns.
This was the reason why the merchants were willing to risk their lives for the Southern Continent. When the seven ships set off from the Northern Continent, they were loaded with 300 million crowns worth of goods. When they returned from the Southern Continent, they were loaded with 3 billion crowns worth of capital, and this did not include the + 5 magical equipment.
Feng Chou took away two and a half billion crowns, leaving five hundred million crowns for the two Captains to buy the goods to the Southern Continent. He also gave bonuses to all the crew members and recruited outstanding sailors.
The goods that were suitable to be transported from the Northern Continent to the Southern Continent mainly included high-grade fine cotton cloth and high-quality steel produced by the alchemy production line.
Fine cotton cloth was popular in the Southern Continent mainly because the Goblins were not adept at light manufacturing in the Southern Continent. The Amazons' textile technology was very backward, and the tieflings' textile technology was still stuck at the level of a thousand years ago. The fine cotton cloth produced by the Northern Continent's magical textile machines was definitely cheap and good for the people of the Southern Continent.
The lack of high-quality steel was mainly because the Goblins' current ordinary steelmaking techniques did not require the use of high-grade magic. They only needed the assistance of low-grade magic to produce steel. However, the steel produced by their methods had too many impurities and could only be considered crude steel or even iron. Compared to the high-quality alchemy steel produced by the Northern Continent's high-grade alchemy production line, the difference in quality was too great. It could not satisfy the needs of weapons and armor.
As for black steel and low-grade magic items, they could only be considered valuable goods and not bulk goods. Although the profits were high, they could not be sold as bulk goods due to the limited production capacity.
Hence, the goods that the Northern Continent's merchant ships could carry when they set off from the Northern Continent were not of high value. The five hundred million crowns that Feng Chou left behind was enough.
As for the purchase of goods, Feng Chou's only request was to find a way to purchase a few small-scale steelmaking production lines.
Although the production lines used to produce steel were only ordinary steel and could not even be considered magical materials, the production lines themselves were rather complicated and high-grade magic products.
The technical difficulty of an alchemy production line to produce steel was no less than that of an intermediate magic laboratory.
The most basic requirement to produce steel was to maintain a temperature of more than 1,500 degrees Celsius and melt the steel into a liquid state.
The process of producing steel was a rather complicated reaction process. The production lines had to control these reactions precisely in order to produce the best quality steel.
For a steelmaking production line, there was a magic constant spell that provided the energy source, a temperature control spell that maintained the high temperature and controlled the temperature accurately, and a purification spell that removed the impurities in the molten steel … These were all rather complicated and high-level spells.
A medium-sized production line to produce steel would cost tens of millions of crowns even in the Northern Continent. If it could be transported to the Southern Continent, the Goblins, who lacked high-quality steel, would be willing to buy it at ten times the price.
Because the Goblins lacked high-level alchemists, even if they could decipher the technology of the production line, it would be difficult for them to mass produce it.
Therefore, the cunning Alvendell Guild of Magic stipulated that the small-scale production lines could be exported to the Southern Continent, but the large-scale production lines were not allowed.
The Goblins were not very interested in the small-scale production lines that did not have a high production rate. They were only willing to buy it at three times the price.
The small-scale production line had a low production rate, less than one-fifth of the medium-sized production line. However, the price alone was not low — four million crowns per unit.
In fact, the small-scale production line was an outdated production line that had already been eliminated.
Now, if one wanted to buy a small-scale production line, they could only buy the old goods that were eliminated by others.
Moreover, such complicated alchemy machines were troublesome to transport and easily damaged. It was also more troublesome to install and adjust them after they arrived. Therefore, merchants were not very interested in selling such goods.
The reason why Feng Chou wanted to buy it was because he intended to install such a production line on the Green Dragon Island. On one hand, he wanted to satisfy the needs of the Green Dragon Island. On the other hand, he wanted to use the small-scale production line to derive the technology of the large-scale production line.
The production technology of the newly-invented machines like the steel production line and the black steel production line was still a trade secret. There was no such technology in the public magical information.
The old captain used a trading company to dismantle two small-scale production lines that had been discontinued due to the high cost from the old workshops of the two steel mills in the East District of Tailun.
After that, according to Feng Chou's instructions, the dismantled parts of the production lines were wrapped in canvas and fixed in a steel frame. They were then placed into containers and loaded onto the Pioneer Knight and the Warrior.
For these two production lines, the fleet stayed in Tailun City for almost half a year before setting sail.
The rest of the journey was considered smooth. The fleet arrived at the Green Dragon Island smoothly after replenishing a batch of cheap goods at the Barabac Port and the Tortuga Port.
After unloading the steel production lines at the Green Dragon Island and repairing them for half a month, the fleet continued to head east.