This was an enormous valley in the World Inside the Tower.
Two behemoths lay quietly at anchor, their hulls savage in contour, radiating a heart-pounding pressure.
One was dark gold all over. Despite its modifications, traces of its origins in the Lesser Cold Temple remained visible;
The other gleamed deep blue, with the Condensed Jade Sect's cloud-pattern insignia faintly visible along one side of its hull.
These two [Treasure Ships], supposedly "severely damaged" and long since struck from the register, were now as good as new.
Even the 'Protective Armor Plating' embedded in crucial sections of their hulls looked thicker and heavier. They were clearly in peak condition!
Qing Chen had gone to painstaking lengths to repair these two Treasure Ships without a sound and hide them here.
First, he had reported them as battle losses, deceiving the heavens to cross the sea, then had the [Demon Lotus Sect] requisition cultivators skilled in artifact refining from far and wide to work day and night.
Yet repairing such enormous Magic Treasures of war took a long time, and the commotion inevitably grew.
Qing Chen knew full well that this matter was of grave importance. He could not permit the slightest leak.
When the Treasure Ships were nearly repaired.
He had silenced every last one of the dozens of Artifact Refiners involved in the core repairs, along with their lineages and apprentices, and destroyed every related record!
These two Treasure Ships had only looked severely damaged to begin with; they had not actually been beyond repair.
Besides these two [Treasure Ships], which could serve as the army's backbone, more than thirty slightly smaller [Warships] stood in neat rows along one side of the valley.
Qing Chen swept his gaze over this hidden fleet, a hint of satisfaction crossing his face.
These were