Big Data Cultivation
Chapter 1170: Golden Core Warship (2nd Update)

Chapter 1170: Chapter 1170: Golden Core Warship (2nd Update)

Huang Fu Wuxia had always been the one crushing others, but now she finally experienced what it felt like to be crushed. She couldn’t even muster a trace of anger.

However, Kong Ziyi didn’t want to accept Feng Jun’s benefit for nothing. She smiled and said, "The storage bag... can be considered as payment."

Because of Huang Fu Wuxia’s presence, she couldn’t elaborate further. But in fact, Chairman Huang Fu had a deep understanding of her—so much so that even her relationship with Master Sumiao had been guessed with near-perfect accuracy.

The only thing Huang Fu Wuxia didn’t guess was that Kong Ziyi bore the Chaos Yin-Yang Curse. Nor did she understand what Feng Jun had done to win Sister Ziyi’s support, but that was not her fault.

Feng Jun chuckled lightly at her words. "Then the Red Refinement Snake can also be considered payment. Master Sumiao has helped Mount Zhige a lot."

This statement was sincere. It wasn’t just Master Sumiao who had helped Feng Jun; even Ji Buseng had directly confronted the Nangong Family. Right now, the three intermediate-level Out-Dust Realm experimental materials were all procured by Master Buseng.

Kong Ziyi wasn’t one to be overly sentimental. After pondering for a moment, she found Feng Jun’s words reasonable. She smiled and cupped her hands. "Then I must thank Mountain Master Feng for his generosity... If the Mountain Master has any difficult matters, feel free to tell me. Perhaps I can resolve them."

The two of them were having a delightful conversation, but Huang Fu Wuxia felt a bit sullen. Finding an opportunity, she quietly asked Feng Jun, "That high-tier Qi Refining cultivator you killed—what’s his name and background? So many good things, it’s almost too much of a coincidence."

Feng Jun shared the same feeling. He nodded. "I also think there’s a bit too much coincidence. His name is Xu Shengzhi. As for his background... something like the White Horse Villa?"

"The White Horse Villa..." Huang Fu Wuxia’s brows furrowed slightly. "That place still has survivors? Was that person... particularly handsome?"

Feng Jun thought hard before eventually shaking his head apologetically. "I really can’t remember his appearance; his body was already smashed to bits. As for whether he was handsome, I wouldn’t know. His build was bulkier than the average person’s, and he had a head of white hair."

Huang Fu Wuxia nodded solemnly and said, "That’s enough information. I’ll look into it. You shouldn’t let your guard down either. Twenty years ago, the White Horse Villa was a formidable force and had connections with many female cultivators, including several female Masters."

Feng Jun’s eyes widened in shock. Such a powerful force... completely vanished just like that?

However, Huang Fu Wuxia didn’t seem interested in explaining, so Feng Jun dropped the subject. If someone doesn’t want to talk about it, why insist?

Feng Jun returned quite late that day. After such a long conversation and a meal, it was nearly midnight.

By all accounts, he should have gone to rest, but upon returning to his room and thinking about it, he found himself unable to sleep. Gaining so many benefits from a high-tier Qi Refining cultivator defied logic.

He took out the Soul Stone, placed it on the table, and murmured softly, "A remnant soul, huh? Doesn’t look like it. Should I... sell this thing and stay out of this trouble?"

In Feng Jun’s courtyard, the generator was running. The brown Soul Stone lay quietly on the table, showing no reaction under the lamp’s light—just a lifeless object.

He muttered to himself as he casually swiped open his mobile phone. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about the Soul Stone.

Previously, outside the Fang Market, he had too many things to worry about and no time to study this with a clear head. On the way back, there wasn’t an opportunity either. It wasn’t until now that he could spare the time.

He opened a "Nearby Yin Spirits" scan on his phone, then exited the app.

Nothing happened that night. The next morning, he found Huang Fu Wuxia. "The Soul Stone... do you still want it?"

"Of course," Huang Fu Wuxia replied without hesitation but then frowned in confusion. "Didn’t you say you wouldn’t sell it? What’s this, some kind of joke?"

Knowing her haughty nature, Feng Jun didn’t bother explaining, merely said calmly, "The price won’t be cheap."

"A Golden Core Warship!" Huang Fu Wuxia made an offer directly. "Focused on defense and speed. As for attack capabilities, that’s your problem."

"A Golden Core Warship..." Feng Jun was dumbfounded. With such an offer, how could he even begin to haggle?

A Golden Core Warship, as the name suggests, is a warship at the Golden Core level. It can both fly and fight. Heaven help him—Feng Jun hadn’t even seen an Out-Dust-grade warship before. As for Qi Refining warships... actually, they barely existed.

The last time Ji PingAn ambushed the Xue Clan’s people and intercepted their armed merchant ship—well, that could barely be called a Qi Refining warship. But since it only had defense but no offense, it wasn’t truly a warship.

Generally speaking, standard flying boats lacked the necessary defenses and could barely be considered armed merchant vessels.

The details of what made a warship could get very complicated, so let’s take Feng Jun’s flying boats as examples.

Simply put, he owned several flying boats, but none could withstand an Out-Dust Realm attack. Nor could any of them unleash an attack comparable to the Out-Dust level.

In other words, Feng Jun didn’t possess even an Out-Dust-grade warship—he couldn’t even defend against the attacks of an Out-Dust cultivator.

Now, what about a Golden Core Warship? To qualify as one, the flying boat should at least withstand attacks at the Golden Core level.

But defense alone isn’t enough—you must also be able to counterattack. Only then could it be truly called a warship. Without attacking capability, it should be called a "Golden Core Defensive Ship."

However, being able to defend and escape fast enough might still qualify it as a warship.

To summarize, a warship must excel in at least two of these three areas: defense, attack, or escape. Only then does it barely deserve to be called a warship.

Strictly speaking, such classifications are still somewhat arbitrary. But for lack of a better system, this has become the standard—an imperfect system is better than none.

In truth, whether it’s a warship or not doesn’t matter much to human cultivators—victory is all they care about.

The living are winners; the dead are losers. It’s as simple as that.

However, for non-human factions, the human standard is important—it determines how those humans plan to deal with them.

The concept of warships originally came about to target demon beasts. Before large-scale human-on-human conflicts emerged, most warships were used for expeditions into the wild to hunt spirit beasts and savage beasts.

As for Huang Fu Wuxia, her claim that the Golden Core Warship was focused on defense and speed was more than reasonable. After all, a warship’s combat strength often relied on the cultivators aboard.

Feng Jun had guessed the Soul Stone was valuable, but he hadn’t imagined it would be this valuable. A Golden Core-level warship would be worth at least a million Spirit Stones, wouldn’t it?

He hesitated about whether to warn Huang Fu Wuxia—cultivator trade mostly relied on one’s expertise. While there wasn’t a notion of cheating someone in this context, everyone did embrace the philosophy of "a bet is a bet."

Now that he’d received such an offer, he felt it necessary to clarify. "I accept your price, but I think I should warn you—the Yin Spirit within this stone might not be as weak as we imagine. You’d better be cautious."

Huang Fu Wuxia froze momentarily at his words. "Are you saying... you’ve identified something?"

Feng Jun shook his head. "I couldn’t identify it, but after some deductions, it feels like there’s a significant threat."

Huang Fu Wuxia hesitated after hearing this. If even Feng Jun couldn’t identify it, just how great would the threat be?

She had considerable faith in Feng Jun’s appraisal skills; otherwise, she wouldn’t have urged him to go treasure hunting again.

In her eyes, the Golden Core Warship wasn’t even worth a million Spirit Stones. It might not even be worth 500,000—just faster and better defended, lacking Golden Core-level attack power. How expensive could it be?

This was similar to the deal Feng Jun had made when buying Ning Family’s courtyard mansion. Its market price probably exceeded 100,000 Spirit Stones, but the Ning Family sold it to him for 20,000 and didn’t feel cheated.

From Huang Fu Wuxia’s perspective, this was a fair transaction—she might even be getting a bit of a bargain. Now, hearing Feng Jun’s warning, she hesitated. "Can I have this Soul Stone appraised first before deciding?"

"Of course," Feng Jun agreed readily. "If you want it, buy it. If not, I won’t press you."

With that, he pulled out a Spirit Beast Bag. "If there’s nothing else, I’ll head to the cave for cultivation."

As they were speaking, Kong Ziyi arrived. She asked Feng Jun to bring Yang Shangren along for cultivation in the cave, saying she would cover the costs.

Yang Shangren was happy to oblige. These days, he was eager to save where he could and seize any opportunity.

After the two left, Huang Fu Wuxia didn’t rush to summon their elder ancestor—she wasn’t in the mood for another scolding.

Instead, she arranged for someone to investigate Xu Shengzhi’s background and find out what kind of person he was.

Tiantong’s intelligence network was quite formidable. By the evening, some initial details came in.

By the following noon, the full report was compiled. Xu Shengzhi wasn’t a local of Qiuchen. It was said he came from the Burning Desert and had only been in the Qiuchen region for four or five years. Within that time, he had advanced from the second layer of Qi Refining to the eighth layer.

However, he rarely spoke about himself. More often than not, he wouldn’t even reveal his name, merely saying, "Call me Xu."

His presence wasn’t particularly high-profile, but it wasn’t low-profile either. His rapid advancement inevitably drew attention, and people often asked him what cultivation technique he practiced.

As a cultivator, it was acceptable not to answer such questions from strangers, but he would always respond with a smile, "I practice the Devouring Primordial Heaven Technique."

The Devouring Primordial Heaven Technique was famously known as a quick advancement cultivation technique. However, it was notoriously difficult to cultivate, requiring many strict prerequisites and astronomical costs. Even Golden Core families wouldn’t encourage their descendants to practice it.

Thus, people generally assumed Xu Shengzhi was lying to cover up the origin of his cultivation technique.

But this wasn’t hard to understand. For this reason, he was often jokingly referred to as "Young Master Xu"—since he must be extremely wealthy.