dtnovels Chapter 294 Little Fatty and Little Beauty
Chapter 294 Little Fatty and Little Beauty
Chapter 294 Little Fatty and Little Beauty
"The efficiency of that blast furnace in iron smelting is really high. If I were to smelt so many refined black iron blanks myself, it would take at least ten days, but the blast furnace can refine them in less than half a day! It saves a lot of trouble. If it weren't so far from this canyon, all the outer shell parts needed for the Yin-Yang Furnace could be smelted there and then just brought in for assembly!"
Looking at the large pile of black iron blocks that Master Lei had delivered as requested, Tieqiao sighed with emotion.
The inner cavity of the Two-Element Furnace has completely solidified and can now be installed with the outer components. To save effort and time, Tieqiao arranged for the arsenal to smelt a batch of black iron material, eliminating the need for him to refine refined iron from ore himself.
The Yin-Yang Furnace built in the canyon is an enormous furnace. Its body is octagonal with four legs and two openings, standing thirteen feet tall, and exceeding twenty feet in both length and width. Its size surpasses even the blast furnace built by Mo Yuming at the arsenal. However, due to special requirements, the internal smelting space is only one foot in diameter. Even so, it far exceeds the furnaces used by weapon refiners on the Tianxuan Continent outside; even the Zhang Family Fortress's clan-protecting furnace is only one-third its size.
The furnace has enough space to melt over a thousand kilograms of meteorite iron at a time. If it were melting black iron, it could melt at least several thousand kilograms each time.
The top-tier furnaces across the entire Tianxuan Continent have never smelted over a hundred kilograms of meteorite iron in a single operation, not even a few dozen kilograms. It's not that those top-tier furnaces are ineffective; it's just that there's too little material. Even the Zhangjiabao clan's heirloom, the Two Elements Furnace, has only accumulated a few dozen kilograms of meteorite iron smelted over the past few hundred years.
This time, Tieqiao was able to smelt over a thousand kilograms of meteorite iron at once, something unprecedented that filled him with both excitement and worry. He was excited because he could now smelt an unlimited amount of the priceless meteorite iron he had always dreamed of, without worrying about gains or losses. Although he had no worries, this was still a precious meteorite iron gem; even a piece the size of a fingernail was invaluable. Wasting it would be painful. Therefore, Tieqiao was still very worried that he might not be able to smelt it well.
Although the Yin-Yang Furnace for refining meteorite iron was not yet completed, Tie Qiao was already filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Normally very calm, he became somewhat unsettled from the start of construction, as if possessed, focusing solely on the furnace's construction. He spent his days thinking about how to improve the furnace and its performance, repeatedly verifying and modifying any aspects he felt could be improved or strengthened. Sometimes, his excitement even prevented him from sleeping well. Fortunately, his Xuan Gong cultivation was already quite high, so even going without sleep for ten days or half a month wouldn't affect him.
Lei Ye was also left behind as an assistant. Although He Ye and Qiu Shui were stationed at the canyon entrance, neither of them were fire-type cultivators and couldn't offer much help in refining weapons. With the assistance of Lei Ye and Mo Yuming, the outer shell parts of the Two Elements Furnace were being rapidly forged. Each component, including the iron bridge, had to be inspected several times before being installed with confidence.
Ten days later, thanks to the efforts of the three, the outer shell of the Two Elements Furnace was finally assembled. The next step was to inscribe runes on it. Each outer shell component, made of black iron, had already been inscribed with numerous runes inside and out before assembly. Now, large, covering runes were being inscribed to connect all the smaller parts and the internal runes, linking all the components inside and outside the Two Elements Furnace together to form a unified whole.
The success of drawing this set of runes is crucial to the final quality of the Yin-Yang Furnace. Even now, Tieqiao isn't confident he can complete it perfectly. This complex set of runes belongs to the highest level of advanced runes, demanding extremely high levels of Xuan Gong cultivation and rune-drawing skills. Tieqiao's current level of skill has only just met the minimum requirements. After pondering for a long time, Tieqiao didn't rush into action. Instead, he instructed Mo Yuming and Lei Ye to add mithril inlays at several points, mixing in finely ground ethereal gold powder. Then, they covered it with iron parts forged from flaming iron. Adding these accessories might enhance the runes' spiritual properties. Although the Yin-Yang Furnace is powered by absorbing Yin and Yang spiritual energy, to further enhance the furnace's heating capacity, Tieqiao added an auxiliary magic array at the bottom of the furnace. Adding fire-attribute energy crystals to this array and activating it would significantly increase the furnace's temperature.
With everything in place, Tieqiao calmed down. Over the past month, the extraordinary strain of the forging furnace had pushed both his profound spiritual energy and his weapon-refining skills to their limits, causing his long-stagnant cultivation to show signs of improvement. He hadn't felt this way in many years, and he felt he was likely about to break through again. After arranging things for Mo Yuming and the others, he ventured alone into the depths of the Fire Cloud Cave, arriving at an underground magma cave, intending to advance his cultivation there.
Cultivating in the canyon is undoubtedly an excellent place, where you don't have to worry about being disturbed by outsiders and can focus on your cultivation in peace.
Upon learning that Tieqiao was about to advance, Mo Yuming still arranged for Lei Ye to guard the cave entrance. Although it was unlikely that anyone would go in and disturb him, the advancement of a Heaven-rank expert was not the same as that of an Earth-rank expert; it would cause a great disturbance, and he was afraid that it might alert the nearby magical beasts and cause an accident. With Lei Ye guarding him, there would naturally be no more worries.
During these days of studying weapon crafting under Tieqiao's guidance, Mo Yuming has learned a great deal of new knowledge, and his weapon crafting skills have been further improved. His fire-type profound skills have also improved considerably, advancing from the mid-stage of level eight to the peak of level eight, and he will soon break through to level nine.
During the next few days of seclusion at the Iron Bridge to advance his cultivation, Mo Yuming didn't rest. He went to the spaceship, opened the hatch, entered the control center, and went to the Soul Pillar. He awakened the dormant crystal brain and communicated with it to further understand the structural features of the 'Nether Phoenix' spaceship. He decided that in addition to moving the Soul Jade communication to the spaceship and having it controlled by the crystal brain, he also wanted to try engraving runes on the spaceship's surface, allowing it to integrate into the Tianxuan Continent and become a product of the fantasy world.
After Mo Yuming explained the performance and function of the Soul Jade to the Crystal Brain in detail, the Crystal Brain quickly came to a conclusion. With its powerful computing capabilities of trillions of calculations per second, it determined that by placing the Soul Jade, the most basic communication device, into the Soul Pillar and connecting it through the Soul Pillar's neurons, the Soul Pillar could simultaneously control the operation of up to 100,000 Soul Jades without affecting the spaceship's performance. However, the volume of the Soul Jade must not exceed one-thousandth of the Soul Pillar's volume. Based on the internal space of the Soul Pillar, the total volume of 100,000 Soul Jades should not exceed a cube with a side length of one foot.
Mo Yuming pondered for a moment: to place 100,000 Soul Jade pieces in such a large space, each Soul Jade would have to be the size of a grain of rice. How could this be done? With the primitive tools of the weapon refiners of the Tianxuan Continent, it was simply a pipe dream. Tieqiao had previously said that with his technical skills, he could at most make Soul Jade pieces half an inch in size, and even if they were made more refined, they wouldn't be much smaller, but placing 10,000 of them in the Soul Pillar wouldn't be a problem. Mo Yuming was already quite satisfied with this result. His purpose in putting the Soul Jade pieces into the spaceship wasn't to vigorously develop this product, but rather to make it safer and more convenient for him and his subordinates to communicate using the Soul Jade pieces. After all, relying entirely on human power to operate the Soul Jade pieces would require a lot of transfer personnel, and it was prone to errors. Most importantly, it was unsafe. Over time, if the base's secrets were leaked, the communication via the Soul Jade pieces would be vulnerable to enemy attacks.
By placing the transfer function of the Soul Jade within the Soul Pillar, this worry was eliminated. Even if the function of the Soul Jade were leaked in the future, communication between him and his family and subordinates would not be affected. Ten thousand Soul Jades would be more than enough for their needs.
The biggest problem now is whether the spaceship can be used normally on the Tianxuan Continent. If it cannot be accepted by this world, then no matter how many functions the spaceship has, it's all for naught.
After Mo Yuming communicated this situation to the crystal brain, the crystal brain calculated that the runes in this world should be similar to the neural functional network of a spaceship, converting and releasing energy in a specific way to achieve the desired result. This is similar to the spaceship's defensive shield, anti-electronic scanning capabilities, camouflage and concealment functions, radar sensing capabilities, and so on.
These functions are implemented through a complex network of circuits composed of components and wiring installed within the spaceship's hull, all involving energy conversion. Each function utilizes a different circuit, much like the runes of this world; different rune symbols result in different functions. Ultimately, however, it all involves energy conversion. The only difference lies in the method of energy application. By simulating the operation of these runes within the spaceship's hull according to the principles of this world's runes, similar results should be achievable.
There's absolutely no need to inscribe runes on the hull. The spaceship's skin is already incredibly advanced, with each panel filled with neurons resembling those of a living organism. It can execute commands from the central controller. However, how to perform energy conversion in this world requires more data and experimentation to adapt to the environment.
Such a good thing! Mo Yuming immediately shared the various runes that needed to be inscribed with the crystal brain. After analysis, the crystal brain determined that the operation could be simulated. All that was needed was to transmit the graphic structure of the runes to the spaceship's control center, converting the runes into neuronal signals, and the experiment could be conducted. However, before the simulation experiment was successful, the opening of the spaceship would attract the repulsion of this world, so shielding must be implemented beforehand.
Mo Yuming had considered these factors beforehand, so he wasn't surprised. Moreover, he had already made plans, having arranged for Li Mubai to set up a large shielding array around the spaceship when he originally intended to experiment with inscribing runes on its hull. Now that inscribing runes was unnecessary, it saved him a lot of trouble.
Next, Mo Yuming and the crystal brain analyzed some of the materials needed to draw the runes. After calculation, the crystal brain concluded that these materials might be some rare mineral elements containing high levels of unique energy. However, the specific type of energy could only be determined by instrument testing. The spaceship had this analytical function, but it could not be activated at the moment and therefore could not be analyzed.
Mo Yuming got a satisfactory answer and stopped worrying about these things. Now, everything could only be discussed after Li Mubai and the others returned.
Mo Yuming stepped out of the spaceship and arrived at the white ape habitat. Upon hearing the news, the white ape brother and sister immediately came over to greet Mo Yuming. Mo Yuming had become very familiar with the two little white apes. In the years after Xinlan was taken away, Mo Yuming often came here to play and often played with the two little apes. The ancestors of Homo sapiens were also happy for their interaction.
The white apes were just as intelligent as humans, and soon the two learned to communicate using language. Mo Yuming learned the white apes' language, and the white ape siblings also learned human language, but they preferred to communicate with Mo Yuming using ape language.
After Mo Yuming and the others left the canyon, it became much quieter. Because the white ape population reproduces very slowly, the white ape siblings had almost no companions to play with. Therefore, after Mo Yuming and the others left, the white ape siblings were quite disappointed. Fortunately, three years later, a group of young witches moved in, and the Valley of Harmony became lively again.
"Little Fatty, Little Beauty, did you miss me while I was gone?" Four years had passed, and Mo Yuming had grown from a boy into a fifteen or sixteen-year-old youth, much taller, with a more handsome face and less childishness. But the white ape siblings remained unchanged; although they were over fifty years old, they were still children in their teens by human age.
“Sometimes my brother thinks about it, sometimes he doesn’t. He’s too lazy. When no one plays with him, he always sleeps,” said Xiaomei the White Ape.
"What about you, Xiao Mei?" Mo Yuming asked the white ape girl with a smile.
"Xiaomei thinks about Brother Yu every day! But Brother Yu never comes to play with us. Several times I wanted to go out and look for you, but Dad and Mom wouldn't come! It's so annoying!"
"Yes, my little sister sometimes hits me suddenly, saying that all I do is sleep and I refuse to cultivate," the chubby white ape said aggrievedly.
"Why?"
Mo Yuming didn't know what the little fat boy wanted to say.
"It's because I can't go out to play with you. If my profound skill reaches level seven, I can apply to leave the valley, and then I can take Xiaomei to play with you!"
"What level are you at in terms of cultivation now?"
"I'm only level 5, while my little sister is at the peak of level 5, almost level 6!" the fat ape said embarrassedly.
"Your cultivation levels are all so high! That's truly remarkable!" Mo Yuming exclaimed.
The white ape's profound skills are all inherited through its bloodline, similar to those of high-level magical beasts. The purer the bloodline, the more bloodline power is awakened after diligent cultivation, and the higher the cultivation level. Little Fatty's level five strength is equivalent to the mid-stage of the Earth Rank in humans, while Little Beauty's level six strength is close to the peak of the Earth Rank. Advancing one more level would bring her to the Heaven Rank in humans. Coupled with the white ape's innate physical advantages, its combat ability is even superior to that of humans of the same level.