Chapter 222: Zhou Qingqing's Research — An Airship?

After a long moment, Ziyu finally let out a slow breath of stale air, calming his shocked emotions, his gaze turning slightly fervent as it rested on the mysterious patterns coiled across the bare upper body of that man.

He had already understood it — the Empress's latest research had once again achieved a breakthrough, and just like him once before, that man was the beneficiary of this newest result.

As his thoughts churned, Ziyu grew ever more admiring of this astonishingly brilliant Empress; perhaps, thanks to this merit, he could also be the first to obtain a share of this new power!

At this moment, Zhou Qingqing, who had taken the lead toward the doorway, caught a sidelong glimpse of the young man behind her whose expression kept shifting; at the sight, she merely smiled within.

It was no exaggeration to say that the effect before her eyes was something she had deliberately engineered — after fleeing Di Du, the only ones she could command from now on were this band of subordinates, so their loyalty was her foremost concern.

Although most of them had been raised by her and her husband since childhood, so there was no need to speak further of their loyalty — otherwise they would not still be at her side now.

But no one could be certain they would remain loyal forever, especially now that Great Qin had already perished; therefore she had to find something new that could keep everyone's hearts steadfast, and what she chose was the one thing unchanging through the ages — power!

After all, she might be lacking in everything else these days, but she alone possessed an uncountable abundance of secret techniques that could perhaps make a person strong.

All of those were powers once bestowed upon her by the still-unfallen Black Robe beings; although that power had now dwindled until only a seed remained, the knowledge carried by the power had suffered no such limitation.

This knowledge was not only profound and incomparably mysterious, but also filled with all manner of ingenious ideas that left her endlessly marveling.

For a time she was lost within it, marveling that this world could contain such mysterious and profound knowledge — that only a few peculiar patterns were needed to produce mighty power or wondrous transformations!

Or that a few special structures could cause a massive apparatus to perform astonishing feats.

Her one frustration was that virtually every Technique within this knowledge seemed to require the driving force of magic, yet the magic within her body had been used up until only a single dried-up magic seed remained, and she had yet to find any way to restore it.

So under normal circumstances, this knowledge of Techniques was practically useless.

With no other choice, and driven by the disposition of a researcher within her, she could not bear to let this knowledge gather dust and go unused.

Therefore, over the past year she had carried out continual research into Techniques, striving to make these Techniques produce their effects even without the driving force of magic.

However, all of this required materials and required hands to help, and so the role of these subordinates came into play.

In short, no matter which angle one considered, she could not presently allow these subordinates to harbor disloyal thoughts; otherwise, relying on her strength alone, she would waste countless hours and still struggle to succeed.

After all, these modified Techniques still required subjects for experimentation.

While pondering, Zhou Qingqing had also walked out of the wooden cabin and arrived at a spacious open area where a massive apparatus stood, waiting for everyone to assemble.

And on that strange-shaped vessel behind her, countless craftsmen were making their final arrangements.

A quarter of an hour later, the people throughout the entire valley had one after another finished packing their belongings and come out.

In an instant, countless gazes — some curious, some bewildered — shot straight toward Zhou Qingqing, and toward the vessel she had ordered built behind her.

Because their Empress had, not long ago, already notified them to pack their belongings and prepare to leave this valley.

And that too by means of a strange great ship?

How could that be? How could a vessel meant for sailing the seas possibly be used on land? And even if it could, a vessel that large would create an obvious disturbance — it would be very easy for the Ancient Dragons to discover.

Nevertheless, though the crowd was puzzled, not a single person spoke up to question it, for this was the Empress who had led them in creating countless miracles!

Seeing the gazes cast her way, Zhou Qingqing paid them no heed; she slowly swept her eyes across the crowd, and without the slightest hesitation, said directly:

"Everyone, let us go — our destination is beyond Great Qin's borders — Hai Zhi Dao!"

Hearing this, not a single person raised an objection; one after another they began carrying their belongings and carefully boarding a peculiar, massive, and sturdy great ship.

After watching everyone finish boarding, Zhou Qingqing no longer hesitated; under the gaze of the crowd, a blazing blue flame ignited in her palm, which she then pressed into the fuel chamber at the rear of the great ship.

In an instant, accompanied by a flash of a light-pattern, an enormous object resembling a sack rose up atop the entire great ship.

The moment this strange sack-like object rose, it began madly drawing in air.

As vast quantities of air were drawn in and sucked up, this sack-like object slowly swelled, transforming into an enormous sphere that was still slowly ascending into the sky.

In the blink of an eye, within the span of a single cup of tea, the great ship that had previously rested on the land began, under the astonishing lift of that massive sphere, to slowly fly up into the heavens.

In an instant, countless people began to cry out in astonishment, for although they were the builders of this special great ship,

apart from Zhou Qingqing, there truly was not a single person who understood the ship's function — after all, they were presently on land, nowhere near the sea.

When the ship was first being built, countless people had inwardly questioned the Empress's order, believing she was wasting vast quantities of materials to manufacture something utterly useless.

One must understand that just to manufacture that sack-like object alone, nearly a hundred of the toughest, most extraordinarily elastic belly-sections of special flying dragons had been used — materials that could have been used to craft a great number of inner armors to protect the soldiers!

Yet who could have expected that this thing today could carry them all flying into the sky!

At this moment, those who had previously doubted could not help but feel ashamed of their former thoughts of questioning the Empress — an extraordinary woman of this world like the Empress was simply not someone they could doubt!

From now on, faced with the Empress's orders, they need only obey, and that would be right.

In an instant, countless shame-filled, astonished people silently made this decision within their hearts.

Setting aside the astonished crowd, Zhou Qingqing — watching this great ship, which she had remodeled based on the knowledge in her memory, successfully take flight — also felt a measure of relief within.

In truth, she had gambled correctly!

But this was not yet the moment for her to relax; while pondering, Zhou Qingqing, under the puzzled gazes of the crowd, walked toward the ship's control room.

At the same time, she also took out from the pouch at her waist a Compass-like object, and slowly placed it into the center of the helm that controlled the great ship's direction.

In an instant, a set of peculiar patterns lit up directly from the center of this helm-like object, extending outward across the entire ship and toward the sphere above — the source of its Flight power.

The next moment, as the patterns woven throughout the great ship flickered, that ship slowly vanished from sight.

In an instant, the crowd burst into another round of astonished cries.

Only after this did Zhou Qingqing finally relax.

Only now that the great ship had completely vanished from sight could it truly roam the skies; otherwise, with such a large target and no means of concealment, one could say it would be discovered by those terrifying Ancient Dragons in minutes, and then destroyed by them.

Now, at last, everything had succeeded.

(End of Chapter)