Chapter 158: The Impending Crisis

"Why didn't you let Lysa go with the Royal Guard? Didn't they just leave?" Chu Yun had no intention of leaving Blackstone City anytime soon. While war was something others desperately avoided, to him, it was an opportunity filled with treasures everywhere.

"A batch of crucial materials won't arrive until tonight, and a merchant caravan could never match the speed of the knight order." Viscount Carl looked back at Lysa. "Most importantly, she dislikes being around that crowd."

"Chu Yun, your strength is formidable. If you go to the capital, the King will surely value you and reuse you, and he won't hold your past mistakes against you." Carl believed that a young man like Chu Yun must harbor certain ambitions in his heart.

War was both a disaster and an opportunity. If one could gain the King's favor and heavy responsibilities, one could also secure a better status to participate in the war and achieve great merits.

Chu Yun shook his head flatly upon hearing this. "Lord Carl, I think you completely misunderstand me."

"I have no temporary plans to go to the capital, nor do I have the slightest interest in achieving military glory. You can send Lady Selina to accompany Lysa back. I'm sure Guild Master Nelson would be more than happy to see that."

Selina cast a sidelong glance at Chu Yun and retorted, "Hmph, I am not going back. It's better that the war is coming; at last, my magic will finally find some practical use."

Hearing the two of them talk this way, Lysa looked triumphantly at Viscount Carl. "Didn't I say so? They aren't going to run away. I'm staying too!"

The two had made another wager: if either Chu Yun or Lysa decided to go to the capital, then she would be forced to follow them there. Now that neither of them intended to leave, Lysa could continue to stay and manufacture the flight wings here.

"Besides, the ones who need the flight wings the most are Blackstone City's own soldiers. Why supply them to the capital first? That is completely absurd!" Lysa was somewhat dissatisfied with the order schedule.

Viscount Carl said helplessly, "We are just the manufacturers responsible only for production and making money. However, since they are being produced in Blackstone City now, Blackstone City will surely secure some quotas for itself."

"The border cities consist of more than just Blackstone City. The enemy might not necessarily launch their attack from here. Even the border of the northeastern region near the Kingdom of Houston or the northern Alces Empire could potentially attack us at any moment."

"If the flight wings are distributed in the capital, the capital can dispatch troops at any moment to reinforce all directions." Viscount Carl barely managed to scrape together a plausible reason.

"Since you've decided to stay, let's refine and simplify the blueprint as soon as possible. I'll go arrange manpower to set up the production workshop first." In truth, Viscount Carl also wanted to spend more time with his daughter.

If a truly forced and desperate crisis arrived, the worst-case scenario would be fleeing with his daughter or simply defecting to the enemy. Given his strength, preserving his own and his daughter's lives would not be a problem, let alone the fact that they held the production line blueprints for the flight wings in their hands.

The military's demand for him to set up the workshop in the capital was probably out of concern that the flight wings might be seized by the Empire.

Now, by establishing the workshop in Blackstone City, they would undoubtedly dispatch more soldiers to garrison here. However, by doing so, if they failed to follow the other party's instructions, they would earn slightly less money, and transportation would be quite troublesome. It was hardly a rational choice.

In the time that followed, the three of them began discussing how to simplify the flight wings. The main difficulties here lay in directional control and safe landing. Most regular flight wings relied heavily on magic to function, but mass production now required omitting overly complicated steps.

Based on the previous tandem flight wings, Chu Yun proposed improvement measures: one person would specialize solely in piloting, while the other would be responsible for attacks. This way, better control and flight instruction could be achieved.

Once flight proficiency was mastered, it could also be converted into single-person flight wings.

"Actually, we can also design matching variations according to different military branches. For example, those carrying explosives for throwing attacks could have suspension equipment added to the struts of the flight wings. For flight wings meant for covert infiltration and surprise attacks, the material selection and color would need to be adjusted, dividing them into blue and white for daytime use, and black for nighttime..."

Lysa and Selina, who had originally only intended to make a simple improvement, couldn't help their eyes lighting up upon hearing Chu Yun's various conceived concepts. On the contrary, Chu Yun was somewhat surprised.

"What, didn't the military mention any of these details?"

Lysa replied, "No. Perhaps they were in too much of a hurry. They are also contacting this kind of thing for the first time and lack experience."

After discussing for a little longer, Lysa began working on the samples, while Selina took charge of simplifying the magic circle illustrations—at least to the point where the apprentices hired in the workshop could draw them.

The research on the flight wings proceeded methodically. With nothing left for Chu Yun to handle, he began browsing through the books in Viscount Carl's study. He was particularly interested in books concerning the Abyss, especially since there was an Abyssal spellbook he had taken from Carl sitting in his basement.

"Chu Yun, you're actually interested in the Abyss?" Selina muttered as she studied her magic while glancing sideways at Chu Yun in concern.

Upon seeing the title of the book in his hands, she couldn't help asking.

Hearing Selina's inquiry, Lysa also stopped what she was doing. Her mother was a bloodline demon from the Abyss.

"A growing body of research shows that monsters have a mysterious connection to divinity. Aside from the Dragon race which was excluded, no matter how powerful monsters become, none have ever manifested a divinity. Don't you find that interesting? After all, monsters also have faith; those weak monsters within a territory essentially worship their lords."

Selina seemed to know quite a bit more. She warned, "Although most monsters lack divinity, their strength after reaching the sixth tier is equally formidable, especially the Demon Gods of the Demon race."

The Demon race encompassed a very broad category; vampires, demons, devils, and the like were all considered part of the Demon race.

"In fact, Abyssal summoning spells are malignant tumors left behind by the Demon Gods in the magical weave, which even the Goddess of Magic finds difficult to eradicate."

Chu Yun shook his head. "No matter how powerful they are, without a divinity, they ultimately do not belong to the same system. The Demon race will be the greatest hidden danger to the continent in the future. The imprisonment of the Abyss has completely vanished with the death of the Supreme God; powerful Demon Gods may have already arrived on this continent."

Selina remained optimistic. "That won't happen. The Abyssal Moon may look like it's in the sky, but it's actually very far from the continent. Reaching the continent on a large scale is very difficult; scattered, individual occurrences won't be much different from the past."

"No, Selina. The Abyss is truly dangerous. The next time the Abyssal Moon arrives will be the most perilous moment." Lysa couldn't help joining the conversation.

"Huh? How so?" Both of them turned to look at Lysa.

Lysa fetched a celestial map from the study, pointing at the Abyssal Moon and another moon as she said, "When the next Abyssal Moon appears, its orbital path will align in a straight line with the moon where the Pantheon resides for a period of time. This is a phenomenon that only occurs once every few centuries."

"Centuries... you mean..."

"That's right. In the past, whenever this happened, a massive monster outbreak occurred, and the distance between the Abyss and the continent was at its closest. In certain eras, Demon Gods even opened massive portals. Now that there is no Goddess of Magic guarding the magical weave, these spells forbidden by the Goddess are very likely to be utilized by the Demon Gods."

"This time, there are no deities residing in the Pantheon on the moon. Those Demon Gods will never let go of such a prime opportunity!" Because her mother was an Abyssal demon, Lysa had done a lot of research on these matters and was currently extremely worried.

This was also one of the reasons why Viscount Carl wanted to send her away to the imperial capital.

"It's just a pity that even at a time like this, humans still continue to endlessly engage in infighting. Sigh."