CHAPTER 1695: CHAPTER 562 STILL RACING AGAINST TIME {PART 2}

Currently, the human alchemists staying in Florence are not only from the Saint Francisco and Pompei nations. The other military powerhouse of the Aegean Continent—the Saint Jose Empire on the East Coast—somehow found out about Florence’s wealth and its offer of a 50/50 alchemy profit share. After the Twenty-Two Nations Alliance meeting, they shamelessly pushed their royal alchemy experts over as well.

Like Saint Francisco, Saint Jose is also a branch of the ancient Yest Human Empire. This country boasts the most advanced crossbow manufacturing technology in the Aegean, producing the renowned ten-shot crossbow cannon, dual-linked crossbows, and the scarab folding crossbow.

Unlike Pompei, which produces abundant metal ores, and Saint Francisco, known for its agricultural products, a third of Saint Jose’s territory is surrounded by the 800-mile Mississippi Lake. The nation has created cigar-shaped submarines and fishes out numerous high-quality natural gemstones from the lake each year, earning it the nickname "Gemstone Country."

For the Beamon, who urgently need defensive weapons, this human nation is naturally the most valuable to ally with. Of course, considering his own interests, Liu Zhenhuan wouldn’t refuse any alchemist coming to serve him.

After reorganizing the Summer Palace guards, Liu Zhenhuan’s first task was to enter the Underground Arms factory to understand the current speed of military manufacturing. With the alchemical support from the three human military powers, if he could further explore the potential of human mercenaries based on existing foundations, striving to produce a large number of magical devices for the kingdom, that was certainly something he was pleased to see.

Initially, he was in a pretty good mood.

After nearly half a year of transformation, the Lava Valley in the Underground World had been successfully built into a large settlement. Besides lighting provided by the underground sun and gnome steam street lamps, crystal lamps brought back from the Demon World were also installed on the branches along the asphalt avenue and the fencing towers, beautifying this nightlife town.

After Florence’s main legion was relocated to the Chesang Continent for confidentiality purposes, the defense for the Underground Arms factory was provided by the second-line legion’s Tiger mercenaries. The arrival of humans did not stir up the tranquil underground world; everything remained orderly.

After inspecting the military manufacturing, Liu Zhenhuan sensed something was amiss.

All the alchemists from the three human empires had amassed a huge collection of blueprints and materials, yet when it came to actual production, the alchemical experts of the three nations focused on just one task each—Pompei was solely committed to intensively producing the Babylon hammer, Francisco was frantically rushing to build the Mechanical Gao Cen, while Saint Jose was busy making the Tower of Light’s Wish!

This distinct separation gave the impression that they looked down upon other magical devices!

From a defense perspective, the Babylon hammer and Mechanical Gao Cen were indeed perfect choices for heavy weaponry, making the actions of Pompei and Saint Francisco understandable for Liu Zhenhuan—The hammer required magical metal with massive consumption; Pompei lacked the rich stock of gold steel and ant iron as in Florence, so they seized the opportunity to gain as much as possible. As for the Saint Francisco Empire, they have long held a grudge against Pompei’s golem legion. This time, crafting the Mechanical Gao Cen was merely an attempt to obtain war puppets comparable to golems, but without the help of Difeng Giant’s big craftsmen, solely based on their own efforts according to blueprints, consumed immense time and manpower for trial and integration. A little opportunistic behavior here was understandable.

What old Liu couldn’t comprehend the most were the people from Saint Jose.

The Tower of Light’s Wish crafted by the Desert People indeed had a unique concept with immense power. With blueprints pilfered from the Caliph’s Royal Palace, mimicking such magical equipment with the eye and ability of Aegean alchemists was absolutely not difficult. However, the focal point of the Tower of Light’s Wish was the grinding of convex lenses and rare moonstones. Without these two essential materials, the Tower of Light’s Wish couldn’t be constructed at all!

The convex lenses alone were not a big deal, thanks to the thirteen tons of pure transparent teleportation crystals Liu Zhenhuan brought back from the Demon World, and numerous Mulan lens grinders. This issue was a problem before, but no longer is. The convex lenses ground from teleportation crystals are much more durable and clearer than fragile glass lenses. Even Liu Zhenhuan himself intended to replace the glass lenses on the twelve mirror cannons with these sturdier crystal lenses.

If Saint Jose was hoping for Florence’s assistance in lens grinding, that would be understandable, but the moonstone? This item is not something easily supplied by just anyone. If old Liu had large quantities of moonstones, he would have already produced many mirror cannons!

Thus, Saint Jose’s continuous busy production of the Tower of Light’s Wish seemed quite puzzling.

The Saint Jose alchemists didn’t appear to be a bunch of fools, so why would they waste time crafting useless strategic weapons?

After figuring out this cause and effect, Liu Zhenhuan could hardly resist the urge to give those Saint Jose alchemists a good beating!

For every two Babylon hammers Pompei forged, they had to hand over one to Florence as payment; the same with Saint Francisco, crafting two Mechanical Gao Cen and giving Florence one. But Saint Jose, instead, created only semi-finished products. Once back home and an embedded moonstone away from firing, the half-finished goods left with Florence had Liu Zhao wondering where on earth to find moonstones?