[More and More Doubts]

When studying the Great Zhou Dynasty's language, writing, and martial arts, I needed to repeatedly memorize content and deeply understand it.

In such cases, to ensure that the learned content was accurate, I had to record it with a camera.

But temporarily eavesdropping on some information isn't so troublesome; I can just open the Gates to Heavens and listen nearby.

Moreover, as long as I don't open the door in someone's face, there's no chance of being discovered.

The Gates to Heavens opened a fist-sized hole behind the curtains in the Sixth Princess Ji Qingyan's boudoir.

After slightly adjusting the coordinates of the door, Lin Ze could directly see the entire view of the Sixth Princess's boudoir from behind the Gates to Heavens hidden by the curtains.

Then, he saw the Sixth Princess sitting in the same spot where she had been chatting with him, her beautiful and aloof face showing a thoughtful expression, not talking to anyone.

This was normal; it had been less than a quarter of an hour since Lin Ze had left the Sixth Princess's boudoir. She was probably sorting out the information she had just discussed with Lin Ze, and it was normal that she didn't want to talk to anyone for the time being.

Lin Ze wasn't in a hurry and waited patiently.

After about another cup of tea's time, there were obvious footsteps approaching the boudoir, and soon a voice broke the silence in the room: "Qingyan, how was your contact with that Lin Zi Yi?"

As the voice sounded, the East Sea King Ji Kan's figure appeared in Lin Ze's sight.

"It went smoothly. After you treated him coldly, Royal Brother, a little politeness from me greatly increased his goodwill."

"I've already found out that he does have unique Firearms that are much stronger than the current Firearms, but the cost of using them is very high. The materials are expensive, and it takes a long time to make the Firearms. If we want to equip an army of ten thousand with Firearms, it would probably cost millions of taels of Silver."

"If we want to arm an army of one hundred thousand to attack the alien races, perhaps ten million taels of Silver won't be enough."

Ji Qingyan said in a faint voice.

"Today, I saw that Lin Zi Yi's energy and spirit were weak, and his internal strength was weak, but he was able to travel hundreds of miles across the Distant Moon Mountain Range overnight and sweep away the enemies. It seems that he used all his physical strength and Inner Breath to travel. He was able to sweep the Distant Moon Mountain Range entirely due to the power of Firearms."

"Such useful Firearms being expensive is normal."

"A mere ten million taels of Silver is nothing to the Imperial Brother's rich Imperial Treasury, but if we can save some Silver, it will be our credit. At that time, you and I, brother and sister, will split the money equally to buy Spiritual Medicine to improve our cultivation, wouldn't that be wonderful?"

The East Sea King thought this was normal. Where in the world is there such a cheap thing as a weapon with low cost and high lethality?

Hearing this, Ji Qingyan nodded, agreeing with her brother's words.

She also had extraordinary cultivation, her Inner Breath being a hundred times stronger than Lin Zi Yi's, but she also asked herself if she could travel hundreds of miles overnight and sweep away thousands of bandits in the entire Distant Moon Mountain Range, because both traveling and killing people require a lot of physical strength and Inner Breath.

This also highlighted the role of Firearms from another aspect, which was an important component of Lin Ze's Super-Class Expert combat power.

Then she nodded and said, "Then I will invite Lin Zi Yi to meet again tomorrow, first try to get closer to each other, and then ask him to dedicate his unique Firearms skills, so it won't be abrupt."

At this time, Ji Kan thought for a moment and then said, "Lin Zi Yi's internal strength is so weak, he must be busy studying Firearms and neglecting to cultivate internal strength, or the level of internal strength he cultivates is not high. Tomorrow, give him a Cultivation Secret Medicine Recipe and a Peerless Skill-level martial art."

"This can also dispel his concerns, so that he doesn't feel that his own survival ability will decline after he dedicates his unique Firearms skills, thus rejecting our request."

"Achieving Super-Class Expert level cultivation, and even achieving Peerless Expert in the future to prolong life, is always more practical than relying on external objects to have Super-Class Expert level combat power."

Ji Qingyan nodded, having no objections.

The two people's conversation ended here, and then they dispersed.

From beginning to end, neither of them noticed Lin Ze eavesdropping on the side.

Lin Ze also closed the Gates to Heavens.

In his own study, Lin Ze muttered to himself, somewhat amused, "Making such a big mystery, going through so many routines, I thought you guys were going to do something major. Turns out, it's just helping the emperor buy Firearms to pacify the foreign tribes?"

Earlier, Lin Ze had said that the Great Zhou Dynasty court wasn't interested in Firearms.

But the reality was that while ordinary officials and ordinary members of the imperial family weren't interested, the emperor, as the head of the entire court, was extremely interested and wanted to use Firearms to fight the foreign tribes.

For the time being, Lin Ze was certain that the East Sea King's visit was a good thing for him.

However, he didn't yet fully understand the specific details behind this matter. To fill in these information gaps, Lin Ze paid a visit to his father-in-law.

His father-in-law had spent a considerable amount of time in the Great Zhou Capital before and after passing the Presented Scholar examination. He had some understanding of the superficial information about the imperial family, and the major national event of fighting foreign tribes was something officials needed to pay close attention to at all times.

After inquiring, Lin Ze learned a lot of information from Li He, which helped him piece together the entire sequence of events surrounding the East Sea King's visit.

The current Emperor Ji Yuan, the East Sea King Ji Kan, and the Sixth Princess Ji Qingyan were siblings born of the same mother. As the emperor, Ji Yuan was five or six years older than his two siblings, so there was no conflict of interest such as vying for the throne among the three.

Their interests were completely aligned. The better Ji Yuan was as emperor, the more comfortable Ji Kan and Ji Qingyan would be.

Before this major premise, Ji Kan and his sister could gain Ji Yuan's trust and do such important things as preparing to purchase Firearms.

The foreign tribes that the emperor wanted to fight were the restless small countries around the Great Zhou Dynasty.

These small countries were very poor, and the countries they were in were not very rich in products. From time to time, they would come to the border of the Great Zhou Dynasty to plunder. However, they were all cavalry, coming and going freely, and living in no fixed place, scattering into the grasslands and mountains after looting.

Even though the Great Zhou Dynasty had strong combat power and many experts, they couldn't find anyone and couldn't do anything about it.

His Majesty, the current emperor, was ambitious and wanted to form a Firearms army for a distant expedition, using superior forces to wipe out all these bandits to eliminate border troubles.

The above is a deduction made by Lin Ze based on the information he heard from Ji Kan and Ji Qingyan, as well as the current world situation he learned from Li He.

But this deduction has loopholes.

First, Lin Ze already had some understanding of the combat power of Peerless Experts.

The aftermath of their battles was like heavy artillery bombardment, and their maximum movement speed even exceeded the speed of sound. It was no exaggeration to say that experts of this level were a one-man army.

If no one restrained them, it would only be a matter of time before they killed tens or hundreds of thousands of people in a county.

There were already more than ten Peerless Experts in the Bright Moon Pavilion, and there were four Martial Arts Holy Lands of the same level as the Bright Moon Pavilion around the Great Zhou Dynasty. The number of Peerless Experts was conservatively estimated to be fifty.

The Great Zhou Imperial Family Ji family was able to overwhelm the four major Martial Arts Holy Lands and become the ruler of the world. The power of Peerless Expert level they controlled was conservatively estimated to be one hundred people, and it could even be two or three hundred.

The Main World had border troubles because, before entering the industrial society, the Central Plains Dynasty could not effectively deal with the surrounding small countries.

The Great Zhou was different. The power and mobility of Peerless Experts were no less than that of mechanized armored units. Just sending out some Peerless Experts to wander around foreign countries and clean up the uncivilized barbarians would prevent them from becoming a threat for ten thousand years.

The second loophole was that if Ji Yuan was interested in Firearms, he didn't need to go about it in such a roundabout way, having Ji Kan contact Lin Ze.

He could have directly conscripted Lin Ze to go to the capital to help make Firearms, and then give Lin Ze a certain high official position as compensation. Lin Ze would not have any objections.

After all, he still had to live in the Great Zhou, and if he didn't want to offend the emperor, he probably wouldn't refuse the other party's request.

"A reasonable guess is that there are also Peerless Experts in the surrounding small countries, which makes the Peerless Experts on the Great Zhou Dynasty side not dare to act rashly. After all, they are already great figures standing at the peak of the world, and there is no need to risk their lives under normal circumstances."

"Or, the surrounding small countries actually don't have any experts, but the Great Zhou Dynasty is restrained by these Peerless Experts for some reason, making it impossible for them to leave easily."

"Then, the reason why Emperor Ji Yuan is being so roundabout is because someone is competing with him, so he doesn't want to reveal his intentions before things are done."

Lin Ze pondered the truth hidden beneath the surface results, but ultimately came up empty.

The information he had was too little, and for the time being, he could only speculate to this extent. Perhaps he would have new gains after meeting with Ji Kan and his sister tomorrow.

"It's best to watch out for your own safety recently. If someone is competing for the ownership of Firearms manufacturing technology, then someone might not play by the rules."

In the end, Lin Ze thought to himself.

Generally speaking, when faced with talent, normal forces would choose to win them over, using benefits to entice them and win their hearts, so that they would willingly continue to work for them.

Threats, beatings, and scolding are ultimately inferior methods, and it is inevitable to end up in a lose-lose situation when encountering a staunch person.

They would end up with nothing, a complete waste of effort.

But if two parties are competing for a certain talent, once one party determines that they cannot obtain them, they may directly kill the person to prevent the other party from getting them.

Lin Ze may be in a position to be contended for right now, so he must pay attention to his safety in this situation.

After making up his mind, Lin Ze decided to return to the Main World to sleep every night recently to avoid problems.

When he is awake, Lin Ze is not afraid of being attacked.

But it won't work when he is sleeping, the sensor can only defend against ordinary experts, but it can't defend against Peerless Experts.

The next day, early in the morning.

A eunuch came to the entrance of the Lin Residence and handed over an invitation from the East Sea King.

Inviting Lin Ze to meet for morning tea, and then visit the Wooden Railcar together.

To this, Lin Ze, who had just finished his morning exercise, gladly accepted.

After changing his clothes, he set off directly with the eunuch.

Coming to the East Sea King's large boat again, East Sea King Ji Kan changed his coldness from yesterday, and took the initiative to stand at the entrance of the living room to wait for Lin Ze, smiling and saying, "Zi Yi is here. I was entangled in trivial matters yesterday, and the reception was not good. Please don't blame me. This king must make up for it today."

"Come and try the breakfast made by my royal Chef. A seasoning called 'Umami Essence' is added to the meal. Although the price is slightly expensive, five hundred taels of Silver can only get one tael of Umami Essence, but it is extremely delicious, far better than ordinary flavors."

Lin Ze felt a little strange in his heart.

It seems that this East Sea King does not know that this Umami Essence is made by him.

That's right, although Lin Ze had thought about opening a store to sell Umami Essence before, he forgot about it because he was too busy with other things. The current distribution channel is only Dan Xuliang.

Outsiders have not carefully verified it, and it is normal not to know the source of this Umami Essence.

Although he felt a little strange in his heart, Lin Ze did not show it on his face, and cupped his hands and saluted, "I can't afford to be so polite from the king, then thank you for the king's hospitality."

After saying that, the East Sea King led the way, and soon brought Lin Ze to the top observation deck of this big ship.

It is dozens of meters away from the river, and the scenery is very magnificent when viewed from a high place.

On the observation deck, there are three tables.

Ji Qingyan, wearing a moon-white palace dress, was gazing into the distance, her cold and beautiful temperament giving her a sense of transcendence.

As if hearing footsteps, Ji Qingyan turned around and nodded slightly as a greeting, "Greetings, Young Master Lin."

"Good morning, Your Highness."

Lin Ze returned the greeting, while also glancing at Ji Qingyan's dress, which was the same color as yesterday's but with slightly different patterns.

Does this girl's wardrobe consist entirely of these moon-white dresses? She really likes this color.

"Serve the meal."

At this moment, Ji Kan instructed the eunuch beside him.

Before long, many court dishes were brought up and placed on three low tables respectively.

In front of the two hosts and one guest, these dishes were tasted slightly by the eunuchs to confirm they were not poisonous. Then, eunuchs skilled in Solar-attribute Inner Breath stimulated True Qi from the side to heat the somewhat cold dishes to a suitable temperature.

At this time, Ji Kan raised his cup to invite Lin Ze, saying, "Please."

Lin Ze returned the toast.

Afterward, the group ate while casually chatting about the river scenery, the atmosphere harmonious.

After the meal, Lin Ze took the two Highnesses to see the Wooden Railcar up close, personally introducing them to its mysteries.

Along the way, many Armored Soldiers wielding weapons accompanied them to ensure safety.

Later, it was already afternoon when the group returned to their seats, having eaten pastries on the way for lunch.

However, Ji Kan still did not let Lin Ze leave, inviting him to drink tea and play chess.

Ji Qingyan accompanied them, watching her brother and Lin Ze play chess.

After a day, the two scions of nobility were gentle and approachable. At this moment, the atmosphere between Lin Ze and the Ji Kan siblings was already harmonious, with no trace of the initial strangeness from when they first met.

And the discussion of serious matters began while playing chess.