Heroes' Prison

Chapter 409 - 399: The Ancient Road, The Western Wind and The Lean Horse

Huang Yi’s words made sense. The Rare Class Holders of the Hero Guild were mostly criminals from Rose Prison, and they had spent too little time in The Second World. Although they were progressing very quickly and were eagerly catching up, they still lagged significantly behind the top teams—a gap that could only be closed over time. This time at the martial arts tournament, Huang Yi wasn’t confident that the Hero Guild’s team could win the championship, or even that they could make it into the top eight would be quite a challenge.

"This is where your sacrifice comes in. If you don’t make a sacrifice, they obviously won’t win the championship. You must sacrifice your own achievements for the team, just like Dao Feng," the Poet said, taking another sip of wine. "As for your desire to go public quickly, that’s a matter of your own will. If you want to go public fast and achieve a higher valuation, the only way is to build something that can match the Deep Sea Battleships in the shortest time possible, showing that your Guild also has the strength to engage in Transoceanic Trade and can take a slice of the pie. That might just work. But that is only taking a slice of the pie, competing with the Sun Guild is completely out of the question. They’ve already seized the early advantage. Not just you, but all the guilds in the world will find it very difficult to catch up to them in a short period of time."

Huang Yi smiled faintly. To others, it truly was only a slice of the pie, but the Sun Guild was actually his own guild after all. Being brothers, it was a different story. He could fully leverage the Sun Guild to rapidly develop the Hero Guild’s transoceanic trade, creating an apparent competition but an actual monopoly behind the scenes, and thereby maximally devouring this huge piece of the cake.

"Then what do you think it would take to catch up to the Sun Guild completely?" At this moment, Xiao Chunzi also interjected, "Although I don’t know what you all are talking about, it seems very impressive."

"If you don’t want to share a cake with others, the best way is to find a new cake," the Poet said, smiling as he patted Xiao Chunzi on the head. Then he looked up at Huang Yi and continued, "Actually, that’s what I want to say to you as well. God of Slaughter, I have high hopes for you, and I am looking forward to your rapid growth. Following behind the Sun Guild, you will indeed find it hard to catch up to them; you’ll only be eating their dust. You need to find a new cake, to open up a new battlefield. I have a piece of advice for you; although The Ocean is vast, it pales in comparison to the sky. You should set your sights on the sky." Saying this, the Poet looked upward at the vast blue expanse above him.

"What do you mean, ’the sky’?" Huang Yi was a little startled and looked up at the sky as well, but all he saw were clumps of white clouds, and he didn’t grasp the Poet’s implication.

At that moment, the Poet took out a thick stack of sheepskin scrolls from his storage ring and handed them to Huang Yi, saying, "Take these; they’re of no use to me, but in the hands of your Guild, they could be extremely valuable. This is the only help I can provide."

Huang Yi reached out curiously and received the stack of thick sheepskin scrolls from the Poet’s hands, opening them to take a look.

He saw that the scrolls appeared to be the blueprints for some sort of machine, with diagrams of strange devices featuring balloon-like structures, cockpits, flamethrowers, among other components, each labeled with circles and arrows. The entire stack detailed the manufacturing method for this device.

And on the title page of these blueprints, Huang Yi discovered a line of letters written with the touch of the Remote Ancient—Oceanic Airship Construction Blueprints.

"Oceanic Airship!" Huang Yi was instantly astonished!

He was not unfamiliar with airships; they existed on the mainland, and one could choose to travel by airship from the northern to the southern parts of the continent. But those airships were too slow, had too little carrying capacity, and needed to stop frequently for refueling and supplies.

However, the blueprint before him depicted an oceanic airship capable of transoceanic flight, something he had never heard of before.

The Bard smiled faintly and said, "This oceanic airship is an outstanding product of the ancient goblins. As the God of Slaughter, you’re overwhelmed with daily matters, either level grinding or avoiding assassins, so it’s normal for you not to be familiar with the mainland’s historical technology. I am a Bard, traveling across the land, and I found these blueprints accidentally in a dark and decrepit shop in a remote village. This is a great treasure, unlike the small airships you’ve seen on the mainland; it was invented by the ancient goblins’ Divine Craftsman, the Hand of Sky. Its performance is extremely strong, with flight speed, range, and carrying capacity far surpassing those of ordinary airships. With it, you could dominate the airspace of the entire world."

Huang Yi took a deep breath, fully aware of the immense value of the stack of blueprints in his hands. At a time when the rest of the world’s attention had just begun to turn to the ocean, he was taking a step ahead by starting to develop air power—a lead that could completely overturn history!

This was a whole new enormous cake, even bigger than the one discovered by the Sun Guild!

"Why would you give me something so valuable?" Huang Yi suddenly asked. The Bard obviously knew the worth of the item, and giving such a thing to Huang Yi, there must be something he desired in return.

"I never said I would give it to you!" The Bard’s eyebrows lifted as he replied with a slight smile, "I only want to partner with you. I’m just a lone individual whose lifelong dream is to travel the continent and have fun everywhere. Even with these blueprints, I have no intention of organizing a team to research and manufacture them. I happen to be quite interested in you, and we have met before; I greatly admire you, hence I came to propose a partnership."

At this point, the Bard’s expression became serious as he stared at Huang Yi, "This stack of blueprints that I’ve given you comes with a cost. Once you’ve manufactured this type of airship and started profiting from it, you will share with me half of the net profits after deducting your costs."

"No problem," Huang Yi agreed immediately. The Bard’s terms were reasonable: sharing profit after deducting costs. Without the Bard’s blueprints, Huang Yi wouldn’t even be able to access that half of the profits. This was an opportunity to earn money together.

"That’s a swift decision, God of Slaughter!" exclaimed the Bard, clapping Huang Yi on the shoulder cheerfully, "Then you’ll need to speed up production. As precious as these blueprints are, they are not unique. This is just a handwritten copy, and there are definitely other copies out there, just not discovered yet. Once they are, you’ll have competitors. It’s like the Sun Guild’s deep sea battleships—they only temporarily secured the early advantage, and now all the guilds are racing to construct transoceanic vessels. Your advantage is also in timing, being the first to soar in the sky, and monopolizing is impossible."

"Alright, I will immediately arrange for a team to fully invest in the research and production of this type of airship!" said Huang Yi. He then looked at the Bard with great sincerity and gratitude, "Bard, thank you for valuing me, Instakill. If there’s anything you need help with in the future, just call me."

"Just what I need, right now I need a favor from you." The poet raised his head, gulped down a mouthful of wine, and said with a gurgle.

"What is it?" Huang Yi immediately asked, gripping the two Ghost Axes in his hand, ready to take to the battlefield at any moment.

The poet shrugged his shoulders, and tilted the wine gourd in his hand, but only a few drops of wine dripped out.

"I’m out of wine, and I’ve got no money to buy more, so you’ll have to get me a jug of wine later..."

In the following week, the poet stayed in Dragon City, and Huang Yi had a long conversation with him about the affairs of the world.

The poet had an extensive knowledge base, especially about the relations and complex entanglements among the major powers and famous figures, analyzing them with evidence and insights, his gaze sharp and incisive.

Moreover, the poet also gave Huang Yi many pieces of advice, providing guidance on his and the entire Hero Guild’s future path, which benefited Huang Yi greatly.

Actually, the Hero Guild also had a complete intelligence system, but this information was just stacks of text, which Huang Yi had no time to study. However, the poet was a specialist in this field, blending various bits of intelligence together, complementing one another. Sometimes, when faced with seemingly unrelated information, he could use other intelligence to analyze and ultimately uncover some hidden connection, making predictions, which required a significant amount of time and was incredibly tedious, not something everyone had the patience to ponder.

Gradually, a week passed, Xiao Chunzi returned to school, and the poet was about to leave, continuing his travels across the continent.

This afternoon, on the outskirts of Dragon City, the ancient tea-horse road.

At this time, the sun was setting, its golden afterglow casting a slanted light on the ancient road. A few crows returned to their nests, and a western wind blew, causing the poplar trees to sway gently. The poet, leading a thin horse, was saying farewell to Huang Yi.

"Instakill, I must continue on my journey. I’m looking forward to seeing you putting effort into the Guild just like Dao Feng once did. I’m eagerly anticipating your Hero Guild’s performance in the group competitions of the championship. As for whether you can win the individual champion title, I’m not too concerned. You are already outstanding, and any more glory would just be icing on the cake."

"I’ll do my best, Brother Poet, take care!" Huang Yi said with a slight smile, bowing his hands to the poet.

"Take care!" The poet also bowed his hands, lifted his leg onto the stirrup, and mounted the horse.

Afterward, he squeezed the horse’s belly, and the thin horse slowly started walking, heading towards the path ahead.

At this moment, the golden sunset shone upon the poet, casting a long shadow as the thin horse gradually trod farther away, as if heading to the ends of the earth.

The poet’s carefree and weathered singing voice also drifted far over—

"Old roads and the western wind, a lean horse, the sun sets in the west, the heartbroken linger at the ends of the earth..."

Huang Yi stood in place, watching the poet’s receding figure and suddenly envied that kind of life, free and unfettered, while he himself was still trapped within the confines of the city.

...

———————————————————————————————————(To be continued. If you like this book, please come to Starting Point (qidian.com) to cast your Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)