540 Night Battle (1/2)

”Temperance? That will do.” Ye Qingxuan stretched out his hand and the Son of Phoenix clumsily took out a metal box from his backpack and cracked it open. There was a cup which seemed to be carved from a human skull.

”I'll go and gather the musicians,” said the Son of Phoenix.

”No need for that; it's too slow. I can do it myself.” Holding the cup like a sword, Ye Qingxuan chanted the initializing incantation which was a national secret.

”Today we raise the cup to celebrate; may all the fertile lands yield wheat.”

The sound of mud gushing was heard. In the empty cup, sticky grease -like liquid was steadily gushing out. The speed of the liquid was incredibly fast, with small bubbles popping out with it. There was nothing odd about its appearance, yet it made people nervous and fearful.

Land and grain were the prerequisites of life. If they were lost, the world would suffer from terrible plague and famine, which meant endless starvation and torment.

Even the Son of Phoenix, who had been keeping it, stepped back in terror, swallowing his own saliva.

The Temperance was horrible, yet the speed at which Ye Qingxuan was making it was even more horrible. Normally, it would take several masters to drive the process to make the venom, but now it was flowing out like a fountain.

”What are you waiting for?” Igor was the first to recover from the shock. ”Get a bucket! A bucket!”

The dust bin was emptied and placed in front of Ye Qingxuan, who tilted the cup so that the sticky liquid poured out of the skull cup into the bucket. The bucket was almost half full in no time.

When the bucket was put down, it was replaced by the musician of the School of Modifications into a kind of strange metal that was rich in oil to isolate the toxin. Though the toxin was completely isolated, the floor underneath the bucket turned a greyish-green and quickly rusted due to erosion.

”Enough! That's enough! No More!” When the amount of venom reached two-thirds of the bucket volume, Son of Pheonix asked Ye Qingxuan to stop. He carefully picked up the bucket and maintained the balance among the metals. It was only a short while, yet he began to sweat all over.

Ye Qingxuan's face also turned slightly pale. He put away the cup and stepped back. Catching his breath, he said, ”It's your job to do the extraction. The rest of you go and fix the ship body. Captain, I'm not familiar with sea battle. You are in charge now.”

”Now that we have a ballista, we can fight back.” Igor's eyes brightened up and he shouted, ”All crew members, get in position! Turn on the main engine, the secondary engine, the third engine, and the fourth engine! All of them! Put all the fuel in the furnace, save none of it! Distribute 30% of power to charge the Keel!” Then he paused, looking at Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan nodded. ”I'll distract the sea monster. No problem.”

Hearing that, Igor spat some saliva into his hands and rubbed them together, feeling a fire burning in his chest. The fire was so vigorous that his blood-shot eyes were almost radiating light.

”Well, in that case, let's do some chasing then!” said Igor.

…

One minute before the barrier of the Holy was withdrawn, the wheelset was ready. The warm-up of the ”point-to-point attacking matrix” keel was finished and the overload charging was in progress.

The organist engineers had finished the main structure of the special arrow for the ballista and were making final adjustments. Several pharmacists wrapped up in protective clothing carried the iron bucket and poured the sticky liquid into a narrow opening carefully. It was as they were facing the worst enemy ever. Every time there was a little shaking, they turned pale due to fear.

30 seconds before withdrawal, three musicians of the School of Modifications were in place, and the repair of the ship was finished.

The construction of the main parts of the reinforced matrix had begun.