Chapter 235, Banquet
After the interview, the Queen announced the banquet.
The banquet was held in a special state banquet hall. In the middle of the extremely spacious state banquet hall, there is an exquisite carpet about eight feet long and wide. Surrounded by the carpet, the smooth solid wood floor around it is filled with rows of tables. There are four rows on each side, and each row has more than 100 tables. Then there are twenty or as few as six cards. Naturally, the cases in the front row are large but few, and the ones in the back row are small but many.
Each table is filled with all kinds of delicacies from the mountains and seas, spiritual fruits and fine wines. The waiters guide the empress and the emperor's relatives, civil servants, military generals and even Qingshi and other distinguished guests to sit down. Each table is filled with exquisite and soft futons. Sit on the floor.
Naturally, in the front row on the north side are the Queen, her younger sisters, brothers and the eldest princess. Behind them are other royal relatives.
Qingshi and other six heads of the Xuanhu Gang took the six seats in the front row on the west side. Behind them were envoys and guests from various countries.
On the east and west sides are princes, ministers and celebrities.
The specifications of the state banquet are indeed extraordinary. In Qingshi's opinion, although the cooking skills are still a little less interesting, it is already very good, at least higher than the level in Tianlong Continent. As for the rare and rare ingredients of the dishes, they are extremely extravagant. , breathtaking.
In addition, the banquet provided three different styles of drinks, each of which was very good. One of them was a spirit called 'Rewave'. Even Qing Duan and Chen, who were used to drinking 'Line of Fire', were very impressed. .
Although it is a state banquet, the court etiquette of the Great Mirage Kingdom is open and informal. After three drinks, the Queen left the banquet and went to rest. Everyone was no longer cramped in their seats, either two people sitting across from each other and drinking, or three or five people gathered in a group to talk and laugh. Cups were exchanged, glasses were exchanged, strange stories were heard, bragging and firecrackers abounded, and the atmosphere was very lively.
Xiaopang worked hard and enjoyed his meal; Chen Tianye, Duan Wutian and Hu Hailong drank wine, no matter who was toasting, they all came, and the bowls were bottomed; Xiang An talked loudly, and his mouth was full of wine. The weird and strange things in Tianlong Continent made the surrounding princes and ministers marvel.
Bluestone means eating as usual and talking and laughing freely.
A slightly fat man with a kind face and a golden goatee on his chin came over to propose a toast to Qingshi, and said with a smile: "The master of Qingshi, who lives in Xia Lianshan Kai, is the owner of Qibaofang. I am lucky enough to meet you today. Master, it’s an honor, I’d like to toast you!”
Lian Shankai finished speaking and drank a glass of wine, and then said, "The shop is in the East Market. If the master is free tomorrow, you might as well come to the shop! I will personally serve the drink to the master!"
Qingshi drank the wine in the glass and said with a smile: "If Qibaofang is a small shop, I'm afraid there won't be any big shops in the entire Wanshan Sea! Even if the boss comes to sit down, why bother drinking? Today we will borrow the Queen's wine to drink. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to do it once?”
During this period of time, Qingshi has been paying close attention to navigation information and knows that Qibaofang is the number one treasure house for refining materials in the Great Mirage Kingdom. It is known as the God of Wealth in Lianshan Kai. It has vast resources and wealth that rivals other countries. Although he is a rich man, he is not afraid of risks at sea. He often travels around, explores, hunts for treasures, and buys and sells rare treasures. He is not only the God of Wealth, but also a famous maritime adventurer in the Great Mirage Kingdom.
This time, in order to thank Qingshi, the Queen gathered together five elements of rare objects and gave them to Qingshi. Among them, the sacred tree fruit, golden spirit crystal and earth spirit crystal were all found by Lianshankai at a huge cost.
The blue stone pulls the mountain to open and sits with me. Qingshi wanted to learn about the sea route going eastward through Lianshankai, while Lianshankai wanted Qingshi to talk about their experiences traveling from Tianlong Continent. The two exchanged information and had a good time.
Qingshi learned from Lianshan Kai that going east from the Great Mirage Kingdom was the Zhengxu Kingdom, and further east from the Zhengxu Kingdom was a vast ocean called the Great Sea. This vast ocean is nearly ten thousand miles away, and on the other side is the Shenmu Continent. In the past, although the sea route between Shenmu Continent and Wanshan Sea was difficult, there were still occasional merchant ships communicating with each other. However, in the past five hundred years, there has been no communication between the two places.
"So, no one has been to the Shenmu Continent for five hundred years?" Qingshi was puzzled and asked, "Why is this?"
"The reason is very simple," Lian Shankai said, "It's nothing more than strong winds, huge waves and sea monsters and sea monsters!"
"But there have always been strong winds, huge waves, and sea monsters and sea monsters?" Qingshi was still puzzled, "Why was it possible to navigate five hundred years ago, but not after that?"
"No one can tell clearly!" Lian Shankai said, "It is said that five hundred years ago, there were frequent ships traveling between the Shenmu Continent and the Wanshan Sea. At that time, although there were constant winds and huge waves on the sea, every seventeen days Every year, there will be a golden sailing period of more than three months. During this period, the weather is very good, the sea waves will be much smaller, and there will be much less ferocious sea beasts in the sea. People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can navigate during this period and successfully The rate was no less than 60%. But later, this golden period disappeared for some reason, and no one knew why.
"Since I was a child, I have determined to travel to all continents and seas in the world like my ancestors. Over the past two hundred years, I have gone on countless voyages to sea, experienced countless storms and attacks by sea beasts, and narrowly escaped death, but in the end I was unable to get out of the mountains and seas!
"Originally, I was already discouraged about leaving the Wanshan Sea, but your arrival made me full of hope again." Lian Shankai became more and more excited as he spoke. He stood up and bowed deeply to Qingshi, "I already know that Qingda is the master. There is a magic weapon that can fly in the air. Please sell one to me, Master Qingda. No matter what price you offer, I will accept it!"
"Boss Lian!" Qingshi smiled slightly and said, "The magic weapon you are talking about should refer to the airship that Xiang An sent the eldest princess and Wu Bo back to the court! That is called a jet spaceship. We came here from Tianlong Continent, not just This can be done with just one jet ship! Let’s talk about purchasing the ship later!”
"Oh!" Lian Shankai asked curiously, "According to the wishes of the master, is it possible that even if you have such a treasure as a jet spacecraft, you can't guarantee that you can cross the vast ocean?"
"Exactly!" Qingshi said, "We came from Tianlong Continent to Great Mirage, which lasted seven or eight years and spanned tens of thousands of miles. Among them, only less than 30% of the last sea route was completed by jet spacecraft. The previous ones For the journey, take other means of transportation.
"But no matter what kind of transportation we take, it's still dangerous. To be honest, this jet spacecraft is more dangerous than our previous transportation. I'm really not sure whether we can use it to cross the ocean to the Shenmu Continent!
"Besides, I only have a jet spaceship, and I don't have any extra materials to build a new one."
Qingshi's words are true. Although the jet spaceship can fly on the sea without spiritual energy, it also has many problems. For example, its flying altitude is very low, which is far from reaching the height of the infuriating airship. This makes it impossible to avoid strong force. The influence of convective weather, violent storms and lightning strikes may cause fatal damage to it.
Another example is that its drive is still immature. Along the way, one-third of the 'barrels' have experienced one or another failure, and four of them have been completely scrapped. Taken together, jet spaceships are indeed far less safe than infuriating airships.
After arriving in the Great Mirage Kingdom, Qingshi has been looking for fabrics similar to Miyun silk in an attempt to rebuild the Zhenqi airship, but unfortunately he has not found suitable materials so far.
"You are going to Shenmu Continent?" I heard a voice beside me exclaim, "No! Master Qingda must not have such an idea!"
Qingshi and Lian Shankai turned around to look, and saw that the person speaking was dressed as a military attaché, and it was Admiral Deno of the Great Mirage Navy.
"General Yu!" Lian Shankai called him this. Obviously, like Qingshi, he knew Yu Denuo but was not very familiar with him. "Master Qingda can come here from Tianlong Continent, why can't he go to Shenmu Continent? In terms of distance, Tianlong The mainland is much further away!”
"Yes!" Qingshi invited Yu Denuo to sit down, poured a bowl of wine and pushed it in front of him, made an invitation gesture, and asked, "It is said that Shenmu Continent is about ten thousand miles away from here by sea, and we came here from Tianlong Continent. We have traveled about 50,000 miles. Ordinarily, it shouldn’t be more difficult to get to the Shenmu Continent than before! General Yu told me not to think so, why is that?”
"In the past five hundred years, thousands of monks have tried to go to the Shenmu Continent, but none of them succeeded. Almost all of them were buried in the sea. Even the boss who has been able to escape unscathed after many risky voyages is one of a hundred. !" Yu Denuo said, "Master Qingda, you came here from the Tianlong Continent. I don't know what you encountered along the way, but I know very well what you will encounter when you go from the Wanshan Sea to the Shenmu Continent!"
"Really?" Qingshi said, "So I would like to ask General Yu for advice. What are the dangers of going from the Wanshan Sea to the Shenmu Continent?"
"Siren!" Yu Denuo said, "Even the boss is a great expert in maritime adventure, how could he not know that?"
"Of course I know!" Lian Shankai said, "The risks at sea are nothing more than storms and sea monsters. But in my opinion, bad weather with raging storms is more dangerous than sea monsters! People who die in strong winds and huge waves There are far more people than those who died under the claws of the giant mouth of the sea beast Siren. General Yu did not talk about wind and waves but talked about Siren. Why is this?"
"Even the boss," Yu Denuo said, "there are always sea monsters in this sea. Although they are dangerous, not all sea monsters will definitely hurt people, and not all sea monsters that hurt people can't be dealt with. But I The sea monster mentioned is different. Not only is this sea monster powerful, but it also specializes in attacking human monks. Since it appeared in the Great Sea, no one has been able to cross the Great Sea to the Shenmu Continent in the five hundred years since."
"General Yu!" Lian Shankai said, "These are just legends that everyone knows. Who knows whether they are true or false? In my opinion, they are mostly false. The sea is so vast, and this sea monster will never No matter how powerful it is, it is impossible to detect any situation on the sea at any time, right? If two fleets set off to the Shenmu Continent at the same time, one fleet takes the southern route, and the other takes the north route, and the two fleets are thousands of miles apart, then this sea monster How can we know the marching routes of both teams, and how can we attack them both?”
"It is said that this sea monster can control the entire sea area of the Great Sea, so it is said to be powerful!" Yu Denuo said, "Over the years, more and more shipwrecks have proved that this is probably not a legend but a reality. To be honest, I visited Mu Zhenren at Rising Sun Island last year, and even he said that the Kraken is real, how can this be false?"
"Seriously?" Lian Shankai couldn't help but asked in shock, "Is Mu Zhenren sure there really is a sea monster? I have also visited Mu Zhenren, but he never said that."
"It's absolutely true!" Yu Denuo said, "What I just said about the Kraken was all said by Mu Zhenren himself. Mu Zhenren said that he could confirm the news, but it would only take ten years. Even the boss visited Mu Zhenren I’m afraid it’s been more than ten years, right?”
"That's true!" Lian Shankai said, "I went to Rising Sun Island twenty years ago."
"Is there really such a big sea monster?" Hearing a voice, Qingshi turned around and saw that Uncle Wu also came to Qingshi's table with a wine glass, "This is really... By the way, every ten years Why did the golden sailing period, which appears once every seven years, disappear? What does Mu Zhenren say about this?"
"I don't know about that," Yu Denuo said. "I also have these questions, but I don't have the dignity to ask Mu Zhenren to answer them one by one for me."
"You also missed a risk," said Uncle Wu. "There are also pirates. There are many pirates active around the Wanshan Sea, including many powerful gangs like the Jukun Gang. If we hadn't come to our aid this time, we would have been I'm afraid I'll fall into their hands. Boss Lian, you have organized caravans from various countries to try to cross the Great Sea many times. Every time, the ships were destroyed and people died. In addition to the strong winds and huge waves, several of them were caused by the giant Kun gang. ,Right?"
"Yes!" Lian Shankai seemed a little embarrassed and said, "For us businessmen, pirates are naturally scary. But for young heroes like Master Qingshi, pirates are naturally nothing to worry about. You just said it, The Jukun Gang was defeated by the Xuanhu Gang this time!"
Qingshi listened to the conversation of several of them and secretly thought that before going east, it would be best to visit the Mu Zhenren first. Immediately, I asked them about who this Mu Zhenren was and what the origin of the title 'Zhenren' was.
It turns out that after the cultivation realm broke through the Immortal Pill Realm, the Tianlong Continent was called the Divine Origin Realm, while the Wanshan Sea Territory was called the 'Real Person'. There are four real people in this Wanshan Sea area, and Mu Zhenren is one of them. This Mu Zhenren is known as the God of Thunder, and his reputation is the highest in the entire Wanshan Sea area. This Mu Zhenren has high magic power and a kind heart. The sailors who ventured to the east were often rescued by him when they were in trouble, including Lian Shankai.
The three of them continued to talk about sailing topics. It might as well be someone shouting from the side. Looking back, it turned out that Duan Wutian was drinking with a general. Everyone in the audience cheered when they saw that they each had their first bowl.
This drinking and meat-eating competition was originally an entertainment event for the Great Mirage army, but now they have made it a state banquet, and no one objects to it. The civil and military ministers are all in high spirits and the atmosphere is lively.
