After receiving Ningguang's orders, Instructor Feng Yan hurried toward the waterfront with a handful of men in tow.
They had been looking down at the warship from higher ground before — but now, standing directly before the cruiser, the sheer scale of it hit them all over again, harder than ever.
It was massive.
Truly, breathtakingly massive.
From above, it had looked like some great beast crouching across the sea. But standing here and looking up at it, it felt more like a towering mountain range rearing up right before their eyes.
All around them, sailors, dockworkers, and crewmen couldn't help themselves — they had to reach out and touch it.
The Millelith were no different, their hands drawn irresistibly toward the hull.
The moment their palms made contact with the steel plating, they let out a chorus of appreciative clicks.
Hard and ice-cold to the touch — the exact same texture as the tip of a spear in their own hands.
The comparison drew no shortage of amazed murmurs.
"Good gods — could we even dent this thing with our spears?"
"Are you kidding? If you managed to leave so much as a scratch on that hull with your spear tip, I'd call you the strongest man alive!"
"This ship is just absurd. I thought it was longer and wider than Captain Beidou's Death Omen Star, but it's taller too!?"
"Just who is Master Ye Xi!? Some kind of immortal!? He conjured something this enormous out of thin air like it was a magic trick!"
"No wonder Lady Ningguang and Lady Keqing have both fallen for him — if it were me, I'd have fallen too. The man is absolutely insane!"
Instructor Feng Yan heard all of this and immediately snapped his brows into a scowl. "Enough! Not one word about Master Ye Xi behind his back — from any of you! Ever!"
Honestly.
When he'd first seen Ye Xi rolling in with those iron cargo trucks, he'd already thought it was terrifying. Those trucks — enormous, blindingly fast — if they came charging through, the Millelith wouldn't have a prayer of reacting in time. They'd had to set up the Guizhong Ballistae in advance just to manage a defense.
He'd thought that was already the peak of what was possible.
And then Ye Xi went and produced this — a leviathan of the seas the size of a small island.
Just looking at the material this ship was made of — honestly, he wasn't sure even a Guizhong Ballista could put a dent in it.
But if you mounted a Guizhong Ballista on a ship like this, and then the Vortex Demon God came calling — they wouldn't have a thing to fear!
And as for the man who built something like this — the position he was going to occupy in this world... the mind boggled.
It was easy enough to imagine.
If word got out that his own subordinates had been running their mouths behind that man's back, they were all finished!
At the instructor's sharp reprimand, the men snapped to attention at once.
"Alright! We need to get the boarding preparations underway — now!"
"Sir!"
A few men dragged over a wooden boarding ladder from nearby and got everything set up.
Just then, Ye Xi made his way over with Ningguang and the others.
One look at the cruiser before them, and Ningguang, Keqing, and Yae Miko were already scrambling up the ladder, too impatient to wait.
The moment they set foot on the deck, everyone shared the same sensation.
Solid.
"So stable!" Ningguang let out an involuntary exclamation of delight.
Yae Miko chimed in at once. "It feels exactly like walking on solid ground! What else would you expect from a big iron block?"
She had lived in Inazuma for hundreds of years — she knew the sea and ships as well as anyone.
Standing on a wooden ship, you were never truly steady. Even the mildest wind and wave would send creaks groaning up through the hull. In any kind of weather, a little wooden vessel felt like it might splinter apart at any moment.
And the rolling — even small swells would have you swaying constantly, barely able to keep your feet. It was like standing on a Slime.
But this great iron warship beneath them now? Stepping onto it felt like stepping onto solid earth. Not the faintest tremor, not the slightest sway.
If not for the sound of the waves, she could have sworn she was standing on dry land.
Ganyu and Ye Xi boarded after them.
Ye Xi took in the steady, grounded feeling of the ship underfoot.
He wasn't quite as thrilled as he might have expected to be, though.
In the end, this was only a cruiser. Compared to an aircraft carrier, it was nowhere close.
An aircraft carrier ran at least three hundred meters stem to stern — walking the bridge of a carrier, that was something that made your pulse race.
He found himself hoping the system's next reward would be the blueprints for one. That would be worth getting excited about.
"Truly remarkable!" Ningguang breathed.
"Only..." she added, "a ship this sturdy being used as a cargo vessel does seem like a bit of a waste."
In Ningguang's mind, a ship like this outfitted with Guizhong Ballistae, with the Millelith deployed on deck — it would be an absolutely unstoppable war machine.
Three or four ships like this, and Liyue would rule the seas.
Even if the Demon God Osial came again, they could face him head-on with ease.
Ye Xi could guess exactly what she was thinking. He gave a measured response. "I can make modifications on top of this design."
"But... it'll take some time."
Building something this large had taken a considerable toll on his Abyss Power reserves. He'd gotten a fair amount of [Karma] energy from Xiao last time, but he still had to think ahead.
Hearing that, Ningguang leaned close to his ear and murmured softly, "Then I'll just have to give you more children. Will that do?"
Ye Xi thought to himself: Well, well.
In the span of a single night, this wealthy lady had gotten very good at teasing a man. A natural talent, clearly.
As he turned that thought over, a shout rang out from the distance.
"Hey——!"
Ningguang looked toward the sound and spotted a wooden vessel steadily approaching.
The figure waving from the deck was someone she recognized immediately.
"The great captain is back."
A faint smile touched Ningguang's lips as she told Ye Xi who it was.
Gradually, the Alcor drew alongside.
The closer it came, the starker the difference between the two vessels became.
The Alcor, for all her glory, looked to be barely half the size of the cruiser.
And there in the same stretch of water, riding the same swells, the Alcor pitched and rocked noticeably — while Ye Xi's warship sat utterly immovable, like it had taken root at the bottom of the sea.
Thud —
A low impact, and the two vessels came together.
Each ship's railings were lined with thick buffer fenders — exactly for moments like this.
Beidou vaulted across in a single leap and landed on the cruiser's deck.
The solidity beneath her feet gave her heart a sudden jolt.
After more than half a month of swaying and rolling on a ship, that abrupt sensation of standing on something rock-solid was impossible to ignore.
"Now that is one solid deck!"
She declared her verdict aloud, then turned and gave Ningguang a wave. "Ningguang! What in the world kind of ship is this — it's extraordinary! I leave for a few days and you spring a surprise like this on me!?"
Ningguang gave a small huff and smiled lightly. "This wasn't prepared for you."
"Look at you — like I was trying to lay claim to one of your ships!"
"Oh! Lady Yuheng and Secretary Ganyu are here too!"
Spotting Keqing and Ganyu, Beidou gave them each a wave as well.
Ningguang replied smoothly, "This ship isn't mine."
"This ship was personally built, just a moment ago, by our very own Master Ye Xi."
As she said it, she drew Ye Xi forward.
Hearing Ningguang describe Ye Xi as ours, Beidou's curiosity was instantly piqued, and she gave the man before her a sharp, appraising look.
She prided herself on reading people at a glance.
One look at Ye Xi — handsome, with a presence that filled the air around him — and she knew at once: this was no ordinary man.
And then there was what Ningguang had just said —
"Just built it?"
"Come on now. A ship like this had to have been built in secret over ten-odd years before they brought it out, right?"
A wooden ship took the better part of a year to build. This iron monstrosity? The mind boggled.
But Ningguang's expression told her this was no joke.
Right.
She and Ningguang went back far enough. When she'd led the naval force against the lingering might of the Vortex Demon God's remnant Beisht, Ningguang had deployed her fleet without a second thought. A bond that deep, and a shipbuilding operation of this scale — Ningguang couldn't have hidden it from her.
That thought settled it.
Her expression grew serious, and she opened her mouth: "Brother Ye Xi — I'm the boss of the Southern Cross fleet. How'd you feel about joining? I'll step down and make you the head — you take the top spot, and I'll be your second-in-command!"
Ye Xi: ???
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