Chapter 196, high in the sky
Above the vast ocean, thousands of feet high in the sky, Chen Tianye, Duan Wutian and Xiang An were lying comfortably in the pod. Thousands of feet away, the strong wind was gathering dark clouds and lightning, covering the entire sea.
Occasionally, the sea surface was exposed for a moment through the gaps in the clouds, and there were still huge waves and torrential rain; ten feet above the head, the slightly bulging huge air bag looked white and beautiful under the sunlight, like a white cloud.
The airship is in the high-altitude stratosphere with gentle airflow, and is still rising slowly. The air at high altitude is cold and thin, and there is no aura at all. Of course, this is no problem for Qingshi and others.
Except for Qingshi, the other three people had exhausted their physical strength. At this time, they all took the Qi Recovery Pill and held the spirit stone in their hands to replenish their true energy. While replenishing their true energy, they drank some wine, which seemed extremely comfortable.
Seeing Qingshi still busy at the rear of the pod, Duan Wutian said, "Shitou, what else are you tinkering with? Come over and have a drink!"
Qingshi said: "You guys drink first, I have to be busy for a while." After saying that, he continued to keep his head down and busy.
"Haven't we already flown above the clouds? What are we still busy with?" Duan Wutian said with a smile, "Shitou, you are really a genius. Only you can tinker with this magic weapon that allows you to fly without spiritual energy, you are awesome! "
"Is everything going to be fine once we fly up?" Xiang An sneered, "Look at which direction we are flying now?"
Duan Wutian was startled, turned his head to look at Sun Ying and said, "It seems to be flying north, right?"
"Hey!" Chen Tianye rolled his eyes at Duan Wutian: "Is this going north? Is it going south?"
"Hey!" Xiang An rolled his eyes even more: "What's the south and the north? We are flying west, and the wind is blowing west, do you understand?"
"Oh!" Duan and Chen understood. Duan Wutian said: "Shouldn't we fly eastward? Why is the direction reversed?"
"So!" Xiang An said, "Is it enough to fly into the sky? We still have to find a way to make the airship fly in the direction we want to go! It will never reach the destination if it is drifting in the wind like this."
"Yes, that's right." Chen Tianye said, "Qingshi is installing a magic weapon to control the direction, right?"
"Yes!" Xiang An said, "In addition to the rudder, there is also a propulsion weapon."
"Oh!" Duan Wutian nodded, but then asked, "Then why don't you just pretend on the ground?"
"Ignorance!" Xiang An said with disdain, "These magic weapons have been refined a long time ago, but they were too heavy to install beforehand, and they rose too slowly. So can we still escape the storm? We can install them just fine now. Increase the weight so that the airship remains stable and stops rising. If it flies higher, the airbag will explode. Do you understand?"
The things in the storage container are in another dimension, so the things contained in it will not produce any weight, but will be there once taken out.
"Xiang Bailian, can you talk nicely? Are you looking for a slap in the face?" Duan Wutian really couldn't stand Xiang An's sarcasm, rolling eyes and contempt, "By the way, why are you still hanging around outside? Go back to Xiaopang's place quickly. go!"
"No!" Xiang An quickly put away his stinky face and put on a smile, "Just let me stay outside for a while. By the way, I'll go help with the bluestone beating. You guys can talk." After that, he walked to the pod. At the end, I watched Qingshi operating machinery and magic circles.
The cabin was three feet long and one foot wide, and the side of the cabin was more than three feet high. The cabin was originally empty, but now there were a lot of mechanical connecting rods and gear chain flywheels piled at the end of the cabin.
After Xiang An helped Qingshi tinker with it for a while, Qingshi clapped his hands, straightened up and said with a smile: "Well, the power device is ready. Seventh Brother Amano will come over and give it a try."
Duan and Chen got up and walked to the end of the cabin to see what was strange. I saw a huge four-blade propeller outside the stern of the cabin. Each blade was more than three feet long but very thin. It was obviously made of metal. The propeller was connected to a metal circular shaft, which passed through the bulkhead. Reach into the pod and connect to two strange-looking mechanical devices with two large flywheels and several small gears and tooth chains. This is something that even Xiang An has never seen before.
Qingshi pulled Duan Wutian and asked him to sit on a seat supported by a wooden pole on the left side of the circular axis. He pointed at the two footboards under the seat and said with a smile: "Brother Qi, put your two feet up... .Yes, that’s it, step hard, push hard... Hold the crossbar with your hands to make it harder, and see if the flywheel is spinning... Look outside, look outside, look Does the propeller also rotate... What's the use? This way you can move forward haha... Amano, please get on the right seat, yes, if both of you step on it together, will it rotate faster? Hahahaha..."
The power device designed by Qingshi is completely mechanical. Simply put, it uses two human-powered driving devices similar to bicycles to connect a propeller. When the human-driven propeller rotates rapidly, the blades fan the air and propel the airship forward.
Duan and Chen stepped on the flywheel and felt that their own movement caused the propeller to rotate, giving the airship forward momentum. They both felt fresh and had a sense of accomplishment. They pedaled happily and talked and laughed.
Qingshi walked to the front of the pod, waved his hand and released a large single sofa to sit on, then took out a bottle of mountain peach wine and took a sip, humming a tune with satisfaction. Xiang An frowned slightly and looked around with a puzzled look on his face.
After a while, Xiang An finally couldn't help but asked: "Speaking of Qingshi, the forward momentum is there, but the flying speed is too slow. Not to mention, how do you control the direction? How do you do this? No rudder installed?"
Qingshi glanced at Xiang An dissatisfied and said, "What are you in a hurry? Can't you just let me rest a little longer?" After saying that, he put away the bottle and stood up and walked to the stern of the cabin. He stretched out his hands to lift up, only to see a five-foot-tall stick. A log that was as long as a thigh appeared out of thin air and was held in his hand.
A slightly smaller propeller is installed horizontally on each end of the log. Qingshi asked Duan Wutian and Chen Tianye to stop first, and then placed the log horizontally on the pre-arranged slots on both sides of the cabin. The two ends of the five-foot-long log stretched out about two feet from the left and right cabin sides, and the propeller Towards the rear. Qingshi then pulled out two thick leather ropes from the two round holes in the center of the crossbar and hung them on the left and right flywheels. Then he said to Duan and Chen: "Tread on again."
As the two pedaled on the flywheel, the propellers mounted horizontally on both ends of the log outside the cabin began to rotate. Obviously, there was a transmission shaft hidden in the log.
With the addition of two propellers, it was more laborious for Duan and Chen to pedal, but for monks like them, it was not a problem to pedal for several days without eating, drinking or sleeping. And with the two new propellers spinning, the speed of the airship is naturally much faster.
"Yeah! It's great!" Xiang An praised it, and then asked doubtfully, "The speed is much faster, but I still can't control the direction?"
Qingshi smiled and turned a mechanism on the log. The propeller at the left end of the log stopped. Then, the pod dragged the huge air bag and began to turn to the left. Qingshi fiddled with the mechanism again, and the right propeller stopped and the left propeller began to spin again, so the airship began to turn to the right again.
"Wonderful!" Xiang An praised with eyes shining, "It's so wonderful!"
Duan Wutian and Chen Tianye also laughed and applauded.
Duan Wutian asked: "I can control the front, back, left, and right, but how to control the up and down?"
Xiang An said disdainfully: "If it's low, blow in air and if it's high, let it out. Isn't this simple? What kind of IQ!"
Duan Wutian glared at Xiang An and said, "I have a better way, do you want to know?"
"What can we do?" Chen Tianye asked.
"If it flies too high, take something out of the storage container," Duan Wutian said with a smile. "If it flies too low, throw Xiang An out of the cabin!"
Qingshi and Chen Tianye laughed together, and Xiang An laughed and scolded: "It's better to throw you away, you are bigger and heavier..."
After joking for a while, Chen Tianye's novelty disappeared and he lost interest in pedaling on the flywheel, so he asked: "Qingshi, if we want to keep flying forward, do we have to keep pedaling like this?"
"Otherwise?" Qingshi spread his hands.
"Well!" Chen Tianye obviously didn't want to keep pushing, "Can't we use puppets?"
"The puppets I have now use spiritual stones as their power source," Qingshi said. "In order for the spiritual stones to generate kinetic energy, they need to react with the spiritual energy in the air, just like a spaceship. There is no spiritual energy at all above the sea. Even above land, spiritual energy is extremely thin at such a high altitude, so using puppets won’t work.”
Xiang An said: "Can we draw out the spiritual energy from the spirit stone and let it react with the spirit stone in the puppet device?"
"No!" Qingshi said, "There is no such technology. At present, the only way to guide the spiritual energy in the spiritual stone is to rely on human power to use exercises. That is not as efficient as directly stepping on the flywheel."
"Okay, then keep pedaling!" Although Duan Wutian didn't understand, he also understood that there was no other way, and said, "But you can always take a rest when the wind is favorable! Also, Lao Xiang and Shitou can't be idle either. Come on! The four of us will work in two shifts!"
Qingshi said: "I am working on a driving magic weapon that does not require human power. I can modify the puppets so that they only use the spiritual source they carry and do not need to react with the spiritual energy in the air. However, this takes time. This human-driven I won’t be involved in this matter.”
Xiang An said: "No problem, no problem. Bluestone naturally doesn't need to be rotated to refine new magic weapons. I can put in more effort!"
Everyone knew that he wanted to spend more time outside the egg house, but they didn't say anything. Chen Tianye immediately agreed and gave up his seat to him.
Xiang An stepped on the seat and stepped on the flywheel and said, "Why do I feel that the airship is descending? I'm afraid these mechanical devices are too heavy."
Qingshi felt it and said, "Yes, Amano, let's go and blow some air." As monks at their level, they don't need to look at reference objects. They only need to sense changes in the external environment, such as subtle changes in pressure and wind direction, to judge whether it is Is it rising or falling?
Chen Tianye just wanted to relax, but was sent to do a more tiring job, and he couldn't help but get angry. Duan Wutian and Xiang An couldn't help but snicker, but this was Qingshi's order, so Chen Tianye had no choice but to comply. Fortunately, he only blew it for a while. Just to keep the airship stable, he tied the tube into a knot and tied it to a rope to rest.
Duan Wutian and Xiang An pedaled the flywheel to a very fast speed without expending much effort. While pedaling, they admired the blue sea and white clouds outside the cabin. Qingshi and Chen Tianye were each sitting on a sofa, drinking wine, and they were extremely comfortable.
The four of them drank and chatted, and before they knew it, the sun set behind them and fell under the airship. The airship was bathed in the setting sun and flew steadily towards the east.
