Chapter 61: Space Lock
Did they have to deal with these gold magic beasts?
This was the greatest challenge ticking before the survivors’ eyes.
They could not storm in, the recently established Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps could not stand against such powerful foes.
Even with the young man and Zong Ge working together, it would be a great challenge to deal with a gold level magic beast.
The gold level tide snake that attacked previously required Tan Qiu, ten silver level cultivators, and almost all of the other high level figures on Snake Rat Island to face and kill it.
Luring a gold level magic beast from the underground and onto the surface so that Tan Qiu and the others could deal with this beast calamity was also risky.
If they were exposed, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Group would be besieged on all sides.
Even if the others were kept in the dark, the dragonman youngster couldn’t keep luring magic beasts out into the open.
The more magic beasts that appeared, the more suspicious others would become, thus instigating investigations.
Furthermore, with two pirate groups on the seas working together, if a gold magic beast attacked. Tan Qiu might take a gentler approach like diverting the magic beast elsewhere or placating its anger.
After all, battles were risky.
After Zi Di and Cang Xu looked at each other, she said, “It seems there is only one way.”
“In War Merchant’s database, there is an alchemy device called a Space Lock. Its effect was to null spatial changes within a specific area. For example, spatial passages, spatial cuts, teleportation spells, dimensional gates, and other such magics would fail or be suppressed.”
Zong Ge marveled, “I know of this alchemy device, it has played a crucial effect in many military campaigns. But normally, space locks are at minimum, gold level items. Are you saying we have the ability to make a gold level item?”
Cang Xu shook his head, “We do not.”
But we don’t need to make a complete space lock, we only need to refine a part of one.”
“The principle behind a space lock is this, a spatial node is manufactured, then the node is used to form a magic barrier that stabilizes space. To make a spatial node, one of the prerequisites is the node has the ability to determine the current situation of space within its range. If space is not stable, or if there are other spatial nodes, the spatial node will sound the alarm.”
When Zong Ge heard that, he immediately realized what Zi Di and Cang Xu were intending, “Are you saying that we only need to refine the most basic part of a space lock, then use it to examine the condition of nearby space, allowing us to discover the teleportation formation?”
“Correct.” Zi Di nodded, “We have already mapped out almost all of the underground, only the gold magic beast territories are left.”
“By using an incomplete space lock, we can stay on the outskirts and determine the spatial condition of those territories.”
“If War Merchant put a teleportation anywhere there, he would have surely distorted nearby space, and formed a stabilization spatial node. We can find that.”
Zong Ge pursed his brows, “Since we have such a device, why haven’t we been using it?”
Zi Di shook her head, “First, it is very expensive to refine this device. Before the three party deal, we didn’t have the funds. But now, after putting our full effort into it, we were barely able to collect enough materials.”
“Second, our current alchemy capabilities might not be enough to succeed. It is possibly that we will fail and cause an immense deficit. After all, it is part of a gold level alchemy device.”
“Finally, it takes a lot of magic power to both start and keep this device running. The magic power requirement is very high, and so are the manufacturing costs. We are unable to have a large survey range. If we hadn’t mapped out almost all of the underground, except for those remaining territories, using such a thing was unfeasible.”
“Our finances are quite bad, and we have no steady income streams. After the three party deal, we finally had capital. But since then, we have had constant expenses. Recruiting manpower, organizing battle squads, building and using the Anti-investigation and Prophecy Formation, purchasing equipment, purchasing magic beast meat, and buying daily necessities, along with ship maintenance, maintaining defense and scouting puppets…...”
“Currently, our main source of revenue is from hunting subterranean magic beasts. It is not enough to offset our expenses.”
“If we want to risk refining a space lock, we’d need to sell some flame crystal clusters and tide snake eggs.”
Those two resources had been obtained though the dragonman youngster’s Bloodcore transformations, allowing him to swipe them from underground areas.
Originally, they didn’t plan on selling them on Snake Rat Island.
It attracted too much attention.
If they were to be shown, it was bound to attract the envy of others – it’s so difficult for us to gather these resources, how did your mercenary corps obtain so many, you must have some special trick to do so!
The Night Devil Hunting Group had provoked a gold level tide snake when they tried to obtain tide snake eggs, causing disastrous casualties. If they saw the Dragon Lion Mercenary Crops wantonly take out many more tide snake eggs, what would they think?
Lord Tan Qiu would especially have misgivings.
When the survivors did mass recruitment, Tan Qiu felt incessantly distressed.
If he suddenly saw the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps display so many uncommon resources, Tan Qiu might suffer a stroke.
They had all been produced by his territory.
Yet outsiders secretly absconded with them, leaving Tan Qiu with nothing.
More crucially, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps also had an extraordinarily deep understanding of the underground. Although they had explored it all, the lord of the territory, Tan Qiu, did not have such knowledge.
“The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps has done something to my territory, they must have left some passages behind.”
“My territory is not safe!”
Tan Qiu thinking this way was not odd.
What would he do then?
Would he attack the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps?
He would muster the Hunting Guild and the local Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance, along with military force to threaten the survivors.
As the overlord, he also had many other methods. Such as levying heavy taxes!
Most of the survivors’ harvest was bound to be taken back, at minimum, their comprehensive map of the underground would be obtained by Tan Qiu.
Survival was not easy, it needed strategy.
On Mystifying Monster Island, everyone utilized all kinds of tactics to survive. On Snake Rat Island, it was the same.
The opponents the survivors faced now were stronger and more intelligent.
Don’t be fooled by the fact that Snake Rat Island sheltered them, they still needed to be vigilant against Tan Qiu and the others. As long as the benefits were big enough, Tan Qiu would act against the survivors.
To refine the foundational part of a space lock, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps began to outwardly sell flame crystal clusters and tide snake eggs.
These were some of Snake Rat Island’s rarest resources.
The main partners were the Hunting Guild and the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance storefront.
They sold them a bit at a time, prudently probing the attitude of the island’s big powers.
Snake Rat Island, the town castle.
Tan Qiu was standing in front of a window, his eyes following the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance magician leaving, climbing onto her carriage, then departing the castle in it.
Tan Qiu was gloomy, “Merchants are self-interested and never take responsibility!”
The Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance transport fleet had been completely wrecked by Lan Lu, Tan Qiu did not have enough time to save it.
With the help of this incident, he opened discussions with the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance, and hoped they would join his alliance to deal with Rou Zang’s pirate group.
No, more to be more accurate, the combined pirates forces of Rou Zang and Lan Lu.
At first, the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance expressed the desire to cooperate, however, during the discussion, they asked for much more benefits if they were to go to war.
Their proposed price was very high, and to Tan Qiu, it was no different than seeing a lion opening its gaping maw.
“Those people suffered at the hands of pirates, now they want to bite me and obtain compensation!” Tan Qiu huffed, he couldn’t have a falling out with them.
Because he knew the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance was too big.
Although they may have lost a small transportation fleet, they still have several hundred others!
They could bear this small loss.
They considered the costs, risks, and profits.
When Lan Lu stole one of their ships, the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance only issued a bunty, they didn’t personally chase him down.
Did they lack the strength?
Of course not.
They just calculated the costs. Chasing Lan Lu through the boundless ocean was very expensive and unprofitable.
The Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance was a colossus, they had many enemies that made things difficult, Lan Lu was unremarkable among them.
Contrary to that, the magician of the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance storefront wanted to eradicate the combined forces of Rou Zang and Lan Lu.
Because the short period without a transportation fleet would greatly influence her performance.
But this was just her personal opinion, and she yielded to the Merchant Alliance’s higher up’s commands.
After sitting back down at his desk, Tan Qiu internally examined the powers on the island.
The Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance storefront, the Sheng Ming Church, the Hunting Guild, the Night Devil Hunting Group, the bounty hunter Ba Hu, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps…
“Mye negotiations with the Clam Cloth Merchant Alliance has hit an immense obstruction.”
“The church’s small Templar Knight squad is a powerful battle squad, however, the priest won’t yield them to me.”
“The Hunting Guild has no experts, and scrupulously abides by neutrality, I cannot count on them.”
“The Night Devil Hunting Group bore the brunt of damage from the gold magic beast incident, they suffered disastrous damage.”
“Ba Hu is interested in joining, however, he is only one man.”
“Hei Fei’s ships are behind the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’, they have never gotten repaired. After the three party deal, their desire to leave the island has gotten fiercer, I cannot rely on them.”
“As for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps…this group of people not only recruited my talents, they also have been peddling flame crystal clusters and tide snake eggs! I have always considered them in my plans. That Shi Qiu, he unexpectedly rejected my offer! Simply preposterous.”
Tan Qiu’s troops not only had the silver level city guard commander, but also the silver level female thief, the latter was very good at making discreet inquiries.
Every day, Tan Qiu would receive a lot of intelligence, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was the chief subject among it.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’ expansion could be seen by the naked eye.
The survivors’ strength had become an irksome presence to Tan Qiu.
Previously, when Tan Qiu tried to recruit the survivors, it had been very cordial, because they had exploitable worth. But Tan Qiu was never able to make use of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, and as the highest authority, he would naturally be secretly irate.
These days, Tan Qiu wasn’t doing well.
To be more accurate, since the Pirate Throne had appeared, Tan Qiu’s days had been getting consistently worse.
The pressure on him was immense.
Rou Zang had been seriously injured, yet after so many days, his injury would have been healed.
Obviously, this had been an excellent opportunity, yet this group of damnable people relinquished it.
All of them were scheming, regardless of the big picture!
Now, there was not only Rou Zang, but there was also the Two Headed Pirate Group.
Tan Qiu’s head swelled.
He had always strived to be a mediator, a constant negotiator, and had wanted to establish an alliance, however, he never made any notable headway.
A few days later, Tan Qiu received even worse news.
His tax collection ship had been captured by the Two Headed Pirate Group, all of his taxes had fallen totally into the pirates’ hand.
Tan Qiu flew into a rage.
Those taxes were his territory’s main income.
Without those taxes, don’t mention developing Snake Rat Island, he would find it difficult to pay for salaries and provide for his people.
Tan Qiu was forced into a dead end, thus at last, he made a firm resolution, “Kill, I must kill those repulsive pirates.”
“Even if it means losing my family fortune, I will spare no expense!”