Chapter 581: Chaori Ship Spirit

Captain's command room, center.

Surrounded by numerous instruments, a pure black cube, one corner pointing downward, slowly rotated.

Jiang Ding's divine sense poured into it, and densely packed patterns came into view—some resembling the Earthly Fiend restriction patterns of a magic treasure, yet sharing some similarity with formations, somewhere between the two.

Occasionally, destructive Lei Guang bloomed among the restriction patterns, emanating a terrifying aura; restriction traps existed within, powerful enough to shatter the divine sense of a Nascent Soul cultivator and spread into the Nascent Soul itself, inflicting grave injury.

When Jiang Ding's divine sense poured in, these restriction traps did not trigger; one by one they drew in their aura and allowed it entry, leaving a divine sense imprint at the center of the layered restrictions.

In an instant, certain things changed.

At a thought from Jiang Ding, a complete projection of the Chaori appeared within his sea of consciousness—every deck, every shipboard mirror drone, the stockpile of engine spirit stones, every detail rendered in perfect clarity, and any alteration could be known at will.

It was as if the thousand-plus-meter-long steel giant ship had become an extension of his limbs, without the slightest sense of delay.

"This is the pinnacle of the immortal gate's shipbuilding industry… very impressive."

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, his heart shaken.

"Fellow Daoist Jiang, is there anything you're dissatisfied with?"

Xia Caiyun said with a smile: "If you give a concrete reason, Lianyun Shipbuilding Heavy Industries can send it back to the factory for you, free of charge."

Her words carried a powerful confidence, carrying something of a shipbuilding-industry air of looking down on all under heaven.

"No, it's excellent."

Jiang Ding did not stint on his admiration, praising: "Classmate Xia, you've really worked hard, you and your colleagues—I'm very grateful."

"You're too kind."

Xia Caiyun was slightly reserved.

At a thought from Jiang Ding, accompanied by the sound of gears turning, a staircase descended from the Chaori, extending before them.

Several people stepped onto the staircase, and everything before them came into view.

"So spacious…"

An Siyan exclaimed in wonder.

In divine sense it hadn't felt like much, but standing truly upon the warship, it was like walking onto a steel land—one couldn't see the end, with radars, bridge towers, anti-air formation devices and the like standing everywhere, like tall buildings.

A person within it was like a tiny ant.

"Much bigger than ordinary warships—almost as large as a skyborne mothership."

Jin Lingfeng commented.

She had come into contact with many warships, and had visited her mother Yueling Zhenjun's warship many times, so she had considerable knowledge in this area.

The few did not fly either, but strolled on foot about the Chaori—deck, hangar, magazine, and other places were all looked over one by one; they lingered longest in the two places of the crew rest rooms and the dining hall.

"Can I have this room?"

Jin Lingfeng pointed to the rest room of the vice-commander with the rank of Brigadier General, responsible for carrier-based aircraft and carrier-based ship command, and asked.

Generally speaking, super warships and skyborne motherships do not sortie alone; they are matched with an entire group army, carrying large numbers of skyborne fighters, destroyers, scout ships, escort ships and other vessels. The fleet Major General commanding officer is responsible for central command, and one person is needed to share the command of part of the ships.

This position is the vice-commander with the rank of Brigadier General—the second-in-command of a carrier formation.

Xia Caiyun, seeing this scene, felt a touch of envy.

If nothing unexpected happened, this would be a core group army on par with Teacher Gu Lin's, and every cultivator within it would receive the immortal gate's focused cultivation.

Not to mention, this was the position of the fleet's second-in-command, the Brigadier General vice-commander—the cultivation treatment would far exceed that of a Nascent Soul seed.

Such a position, spoken offhandedly in casual chat like that.

"Of course."

Jiang Ding showed a delighted smile.

"Then this room is mine."

An Siyan smiled lightly, pointed to another room closer to the captain's command room, and said.

This was the rest room of the fleet chief of staff.

Subordinate to the fleet command center, overseeing numerous fleet staff officers, assisting the captain in commanding the entire fleet, it was an extension of the captain's thinking and command ability.

A good staff organization could turn an ordinary captain into an excellent commander.

"Naturally."

Jiang Ding laughed heartily.

Childhood classmates, now comrades-in-arms, and in the future they would fight on together—what a fine thing this was; on the Great Dao, one was not utterly alone.

Jin Lingfeng and the other were not merely saying it—they took out clothes, hats, blankets, washing supplies, meditation cushions, pill furnaces and other things from their storage rings, put them in, arranged them everywhere, like moving house, and even called Jiang Ding over to help with all manner of items.

They were busy for several hours before it was done.

Immediately after, the three came to the spacious dining hall.

It was empty here, with nothing in it—supplies had not yet arrived in time.

"A full set of supplies—pills, ammunition, food, spirit stones and other materials—seems really expensive."

Jiang Ding calculated, clicked his tongue inwardly: "One standard resupply consumes about forty million low-grade spirit stones, and that doesn't count the various warships and skyborne fighters; counting their supplies, it's at least a hundred million low-grade spirit stones."

"The salaries of the various Jin Dan cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators, needless to say."

"Skyborne motherships are expensive to build, and keeping them running is no less so—for a single cultivator's use, going broke is a matter of minutes; bankruptcy comes in an instant."

The four, in the super warship's dining hall, using the kitchen tools there, took ingredients from their storage jade pendants and cooked a lavish meal on the spot, paired it with fruit juice, ate until their bellies were round, and only then contentedly continued the tour.

They passed through the hangar where rows of mirror sword-shaped drones were arranged, counted them to be one thousand and twenty-four, then visited the super warship's fourth-tier spirit-particle engine, listened to its powerful roar as it ran, and went to the fourth-tier spirit-particle radar, the size of a basketball court, to test that it functioned normally.

After all this, they finally came to the captain's command room, dazzling with its array of instrument screens.

"I remember there's a ship spirit, right? Refined by Shuling Zhenjun using Dao-count stone."

Jiang Ding recalled something, fumbled for a moment within the Chaori's core, and triggered a formation node.

Hum!

The various formation patterns in the captain's command room extended, converged, and condensed into a human-shaped phantom upon the cube at the warship's core, continuously drawing spiritual energy from the spirit-particle engine to construct a body.

A moment later, the phantom solidified.

A young girl, a little over a metre tall, appeared before everyone.

She hovered in the air, dressed in a dark-green military skirt, her jacket buttoned tight in a double row, her chest thrust out, her little face adorably cute, a wide-brimmed military cap on her head, an electromagnetic cannon strapped to each shoulder, a pair of mechanical wings on her back that looked very similar to the mirror-blade sword-type drones, and two rows of ammunition boxes at her hips.

Her expression was extremely solemn.

Her eyes, flashing a deep blue sheen, swept a scan around the surroundings, finally fixing on a slender youth in blue.

*Snap! *

She brought her legs together and saluted.

"Commander, Ship Spirit Yunri reporting in."

(End of chapter)