Chapter 653: Chapter 349: Intermediate Cultivation Tower Completed

"Rest assured, Great Elder, I will definitely accomplish this task," Tie Mu said confidently. "Though the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall has a strong Hall Master, their industrial capacity is lacking. The Sky Giant Ships and C6-level Flying Transport Vehicles we, Black Steel, provide are scarce resources to them. If we offer them priority, they shouldn’t refuse to cooperate with us in exploring the Restricted Area."

The technological prowess of the Four Domain Cities has always been top-notch. While they might be unable to produce Sky Giant Ships made from C6-level alloy, manufacturing C6-level Flying Transport Vehicles is a breeze. This level of technological prowess is something no other major force, let alone the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, possesses.

If a force wishes to develop, various resources are indispensable, hence transportation has always been a problem plaguing major forces. As a result, flying vehicles have always been hot commodities, and even the Four Domain Cities order Sky Giant Ships and C6-level Flying Transport Vehicles from Black Steel.

Now that the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall has made a name for itself, they will undoubtedly want to rapidly expand and become the Fifth Domain City in the Four Domains, requiring an enormous amount of resources, and their demand for Black Steel’s aerial vehicles will naturally rise.

"Go ahead." The Great Elder of the Serpentine Race nodded. "Also, take some of this year’s selected talents with you, especially the top few. Take half of them. The Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall has always been recruiting disciples. Since we’re aiming to cooperate, consider this the first step."

"Great Elder, the top talents selected this year are exceptionally gifted. Even in the Domain Cities, they would be considered super talents. A few of them might even have the potential to reach the Half-step Celestial Human or even Heavenly Human Realm in the future. Sending half of them seems a bit much, doesn’t it?" Tie Mu couldn’t help but comment.

As a top-notch power in the Four Domains, Black Steel Heavy Industry doesn’t send their best talents to the Domain Cities like the cities governed by the Domain Cities do.

Usually, to maintain relations with the Wild Ridge Domain City, they only send a small portion of their talents. The best are kept within because self-development is the priority. Sending talents to other powers means those talents belong to other powers in the future.

Now, sending half of this year’s most outstanding talents, especially when they are the best batch in the past two or three decades, poses a significant loss to Black Steel.

"Go ahead. These talents might be the future of our race, but we probably don’t have much time for our future," the Great Elder waved his hand, a bit regretful, but rationality told him that deepening cooperation with the potential future Fifth Domain City is crucial now.

If we wait until the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall develops to the level of a Fifth Domain City and produces a Great Grandmaster, it will be far from the current small cost to deepen the relationship and cooperate in exploring the depths of the Restricted Area."

"Yes!" Tie Mu reluctantly nodded and left.

To ordinary people in the Four Domains, Black Steel Heavy Industry seemed like a top-level force almost rivaling the Four Domain Cities. However, only the higher-ups knew the stark disparity in strength between both sides.

A Deputy City Lord from a Domain City could easily obliterate top-notch forces like theirs. It’s only out of fear that these top-notch forces’ Grandmasters would go on a rampage and destroy cities that they have been given some respect.

An instance like with the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, where even a Deputy City Lord couldn’t stay calm, was unprecedented in recent decades in the Four Domains. The last force that had such treatment is now the City Lord of Icefield Domain City!

Indeed!

Icefield Domain City offered the position of City Lord to absorb that force, integrating them into the Icefield Domain City. Such a grand gesture and strategy stunned all major forces in the Four Domains, making Icefield Domain City the second Domain City, only behind Celestial River Domain City.

If we don’t establish good relations with the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now before they fully develop, Fog Mountain Domain City or another Domain City might win them over, integrating the Hall into the Domain City to become its leader.

Fog Mountain Region, Red Moon Town, Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

"Hall Master, Coach Qin Mu reported back from the Fog Mountain Domain City investigation, saying there hasn’t been any unusual activity there," Wu Zhuoqun informed Lin Qi, who was resting with his eyes closed in the Basic Meditation Room, in a low voice. "It seems the Insect Race doesn’t plan to make a move yet."

Lin Qi’s unexpected move to stop Mo Ye, the Deputy City Lord of Fog Mountain Domain City, had really startled him at the time.

It wasn’t that he doubted Lin Qi’s ability to defeat Mo Ye, but the Insect Race had always been secretly nurturing and preying on the Four Domains, targeting those who had become ’ripe.’ If the Insect Race targeted the Black Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now, they would be defenseless, forced to escape into the Restricted Area to survive.

And the Restricted Area is no safe haven, especially once the calm period passes and the danger period begins, a tough time even for the shelters in the Restricted Area.

According to Fan Yaoguang and others, if not for mastering the two technologies found in the relic—Defense Field and Qi Blood Domain—one allowing defense against attacks from the Heavenly Human Realm using energy shields, and the other suppressing all hostile Qi and Blood within a range, the major shelters in the Restricted Area would have long been destroyed, unable to survive to this day.

"No unusual activity? The Sky Dome Shelter’s communication technology is truly impressive. With just a personal device, you can communicate within thousands of kilometers, even within the Restricted Area up to several hundred kilometers. If only we could acquire more from Fan Yaoguang and his group," Lin Qi looked at his newly acquired Sky Dome Battle Armor wrist guard and sighed.

The long-range communication technology had always been controlled by the Four Domain Cities. Even the large communications equipment in major cities, which could only communicate within 500 kilometers, made the major forces drool. As for equipment capable of communicating over one or two thousand kilometers in the Four Domains, the Domain Cities never sold them.

Wealthy forces like the Red Moon Commerce or Earth Star Pharmaceutical could only transmit information point-to-point, much slower than the Four Domain Cities, and maintaining the operations of such equipment came at an exorbitant cost.

Now, the Sky Dome Shelter has achieved it with just a battle armor wrist guard, and its communication range across the Four Domains reaches over 5,000 kilometers. Even within the Restricted Area, it maintains up to 500 kilometers, which is simply black technology in the Four Domains.

Thanks to this communication technology, Red Moon Town’s defense and detection capabilities have escalated significantly, giving him the confidence to directly confront Mo Ye.

Even if Mo Ye were defeated and Fog Mountain Domain City made a move, he’d take people immediately to the Restricted Area shelters. As for a sneak attack, that’s also impossible. With the Sky Dome Type Three Life Detector he got from Fan Yaoguang, no strong life form within 100 kilometers can escape detection.

A distance of 100 kilometers is enough for him to make various preparations, even if the City Lords of the Four Domain Cities gather. He would have ample time to escape, but he wouldn’t do so unless absolutely necessary, as abandoning Red Moon Town, which had developed with great effort, would be too much of a pity.

"Hall Master, although there’s no unusual activity in Fog Mountain Domain City, we don’t know what the Insect Race plans," Wu Zhuoqun suggested. "Should we recall some disciples from the Restricted Area to guard Red Moon Town? This way, if only a small group of Insect Race attacks, we might be able to resist temporarily?"

"Recall some disciples?" Lin Qi thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Let’s not. Allocate more resources to Luo Qi so she can quickly produce new battle armor."

Currently, the number of players entering the Descent of High Martial game has exceeded 100,000. The number of players reaching the Blood Coagulation Realm has recently hit fifteen, with the fastest achiever nearing the limit of Blood Coagulation Realm Basic, just a step away from Blood Coagulation Realm Middle Tier.

If these players guarded Red Moon Town, they could indeed fend off a small group of Celestial Human Grandmasters, but they would only buy time, not change the battle outcome.

If we truly wish to contend against the Insect Race of the Four Domain Cities, the new battle armor is more reliable.

The new alloy created by Yiye Fuyun—its metal strength needs no discussion. Even with his full-force strike, it only slightly dents the new alloy. This level of alloy absolutely exceeds C level and reaches D level. Luo Qi even suspects the new alloy might be equivalent to the E level alloy recorded by the Star Energy Civilization.

The strength of battle armor made from this alloy is self-evident.

However, molding this new alloy is extremely difficult. The smelting temperature exceeds 30,000 degrees, and it requires at least Bone Forging Realm martial artists for shaping, resulting in a very slow production rate. Over these days, Luo Qi has only completed less than half and keeps urging him to allocate more manpower, especially Blood Coagulation Realm martial artists, causing Yino to even help Luo Qi.

But just as Lin Qi was contemplating how to gather more manpower for Luo Qi, a system notification sound suddenly rang in his ear.

System: Congratulations to the host, the Intermediate Cultivation Tower modification is complete. Would you like to activate it now?