Chapter 248 - 150: "Five Pieces, Not One Less.
Mortal Realm camp.
Chen Fan returned to the canyon entrance with Lame Monkey. The rest of his plan would need time to develop. For now, there was only a single, one-way line running between Mortal City and Jiangbei City.
A trial run.
For the next few days, it would operate free of charge.
The goal was to build its reputation.
He was able to accomplish this mainly due to two things.
The Copper Pipe and the Max Level Suspended Basket.
These two structures were quite Rare, especially the former. As far as he knew, he was the only one who possessed this construction module. But no matter how Rare a structure was, as long as it wasn’t unique, someone else was bound to have it eventually.
Therefore—
He had to expand his network as quickly as possible.
That way, even if someone wanted to steal his business, they wouldn’t be able to.
Most importantly, his construction costs were extremely low. If anyone else wanted to build a similar line, the cost would be... impossible to recoup in the short term. Besides, coming up with so many Ghost Stones at once would also be difficult.
He wouldn’t have any competitors for a while.
The next step was to run some tests.
First, a collision test.
At the canyon entrance, a Max Level Suspended Basket hovered just above the ground, poised to launch at any moment. Not far in front of it stood a newly constructed Level 1 City Wall.
The next moment—
The High-speed Rail activated.
It accelerated with incredible speed, hurtling toward the City Wall with a whoosh of air.
BANG!
A massive crash echoed as the Suspended Basket shattered into several pieces, which flew through the air.
The transparent light shield above it also shattered instantly.
One could only imagine that if a person had been inside the carriage, they would have been killed instantly.
The collision test was over.
The Max Level Suspended Basket’s speed was decent, but its defense was lacking. The route needed to be kept clear. The "route" was the Copper Pipe hidden underground, as the Suspended Basket could only travel along it.
...
Roadblock test.
He led a Skeleton Horse out and placed it in front of the Max Level Suspended Basket.
He activated it again.
BANG!
The Skeleton Horse was smashed to pieces, while the Suspended Basket continued forward, almost completely unscathed.
Ordinary obstacles couldn’t stop the Max Level Suspended Basket.
Chen Fan glanced at Qi Yue, who was standing to the side. ’I actually want to see if a Martial King can stop the High-speed Rail,’ he thought, but then decided against it. He immediately continued with the next test. With a thought,
a section of the Copper Pipe leading from the Mortal Realm straight to the Port disappeared.
The High-speed Rail activated again.
It instantly accelerated to top speed, then came to an abrupt halt when it reached the gap. With the Copper Pipe missing, it could not advance any further.
"Not bad."
Chen Fan nodded slightly, his eyes narrowing.
’The defense of the Max Level Suspended Basket is good enough. As long as it can smash a Skeleton Horse, that’s fine. As for a Level 1 City Wall... there’s really nothing to be done about that. Even a Level 1 City Wall is harder than many other things.’
"Young Master."
Lame Monkey said with some concern, "From the looks of it, if someone intentionally damages the Copper Pipe, it will cause the line to suspend operations for a while."
"Mhm."
Chen Fan nodded and said softly, "Ghost Fire will flow through the Copper Pipe, creating a certain range of influence. Ghost Objects outside the rainy season won’t attack it, but those during the rainy season will charge into the Ghost Fire’s range."
"But the Copper Pipe is buried a meter underground."
"Besides that, there are no structures on the surface, so ordinary, non-sentient Ghost Objects can’t destroy much."
"Even if a sentient Ghost Object digs three feet deep to destroy the Copper Pipe, it’s buried a meter down. That’s not easy to dig up, so they won’t be able to damage much. We can just repair it after the rainy season ends."
"The main concern is other factions."
"Some factions might get jealous and destroy the Copper Pipes we’ve laid, causing the line to get stuck."
"What we must do is awe the world with overwhelming might."
"Any faction that dares to damage the Copper Pipe, once identified, will be completely wiped out."
"This world is full of filth."
"We can’t guarantee that our plans will never be sabotaged. What we can do is reduce the number of such people. When the High-speed Rail network is large enough to connect all Four Areas of Jiangbei, the destruction of a single line won’t be a major issue."
...
Chen Fan said no more. He simply stood there, gazing at the Max Level Suspended Basket hovering just above the ground nearby. The existence of the High-speed Rail had drastically accelerated his plans, allowing his potential profits to soar once again.
’Four years?’
’Give me some time, and I’ll secure Jiangbei within four years.’
’In ten years, I’ll launch a counterattack.’
Currently, the camp still had 1.62 million Ghost Stones. 470,000 of those were brought back by Shao Qiu after he destroyed the Wind and Rain Tower. He didn’t plan to hoard these Ghost Stones but would instead continue to invest them in the Mortal Realm’s construction.
The deficit of several hundred million Ghost Stones he’d face in three years couldn’t be covered by saving alone.
He had to spend money to make money.
The more he invested, the more he would earn.
The "Suspended Basket" structure could be attached to most other structures. When attached, it would consume that structure’s Ghost Stones upon activation. He had checked, and the Suspended Basket’s consumption was so low it was almost negligible.
It was far less than the daily upkeep cost of the Copper Pipe.
Just then—
"Domain Lord."
Qi Yue, who had been following behind him this whole time, suddenly spoke up. "The time has come. I may have to leave for a while."
...
He turned to look at Qi Yue. He knew about this; she was going to kill a group of people.
"You don’t need my help?"
"I have to kill these people myself."
"Alright."
Chen Fan didn’t say much more and agreed. A Martial King, even if they couldn’t win a fight, was more than capable of escaping.
...
「Inside Mortal City.」
The Valley Master of Medicine King Valley paced back and forth by the inn window. After a long while, he finally stopped, looked at Qi Feng beside him, and spoke in a grave, hoarse voice.
"Qi Feng."
"Our Medicine King Valley’s Alchemy techniques have always been far ahead of the curve. Jiangnan is already the most developed of the Four Areas of Jiangbei, and our Alchemy is superior to that of the other three regions. But do you know why Jiangdong and Jiangxi don’t buy Elixirs from us?"