by <unknown>
After all, his big brother who popped out of nowhere had killed thousands of refiners in "Manjusaka, the City in the Sky". He was almost a "bane of refiners"!
Li Yao, however, did not bother to care about anything else. He simply walked to a chamber deep inside the maintenance workshop.
The maintenance workshop was mainly for the maintenance and modification of single battle magical equipment, particularly armed shuttles and crystal suits. Most of the components were inputted from outside and polished, melded, assembled, and modified here. It was unnecessary to perform the complicated purification procedures starting from the raw minerals.
Therefore, the furnaces here were mostly quite small and boasted very strong shaping abilities. They were mainly used to fashion the small components that were no larger than fists.
The laboratories outside were for the use of common refiners. Almost a hundred furnaces had been established next to each other, presenting a rather splendid scene.
The laboratories inside were for the specialists of higher levels such as Ye Qingyun and Jin Tianzong. There were only nine furnaces in total, but they were all precise in structure, powerful in performance, and produced by renowned manufacturers. The hues on their shells that looked like rainbows alone were indicative enough of their extraordinariness.
Naturally, it was highly tricky to control the excellent furnaces and to harness the flames that could melt superalloys by changing the temperature from minus a hundred degrees to thousands of degrees.
One moment of carelessness, and the violent spiritual energy inside the furnace might burst backward and burn the internal organs of the refiner into ashes. It was certainly not a joke.
Therefore, when the elite refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet, including Ye Qingyun, saw that Li Yao really sat down at the center of the nine furnaces, held jade chips, and read the user manuals and operation instructions of the furnaces wholeheartedly, they were so stunned that they did not come back to themselves until a long time later.
Is this guy… really a refiner?
Everybody had the same confusion.
The nine ultimate furnaces were all presented by the most famous magical equipment manufacturers in the Imperium. The most classic operation interfaces were adopted, and their operations were the fundamentals and the common sense that must be learned in any refining academies in the Imperium!
Although the nine ultimate furnaces had a lot of sophisticated, advanced functions compared to the common furnaces, why did the guy spend so much time studying the simplest launch menu? It almost seemed that he had not touched furnaces of such a model before!
When they thought of the guy's curiosity and eagerness when he just entered the maintenance workshop, like a bumpkin who had just gone into the city, everybody couldn't help but feel greatly suspicious of his expertise.
Even Jin Tianzong and Li Linghai were also observing Li Yao's actions through the surveillance camera at a corner of the chamber.
"If I may ask, Your Grace…"
Jin Tianzong was silent for a moment before he continued, "Where exactly did you find this 'Master Vulture Li Yao'?"
Li Linghai smiled. Unpredictable light beamed out of her almost transparent eyes, but she did not give an answer.
Ten minutes later, Li Yao finally finished browsing through the user manuals of the nine furnaces and gained a deep understanding of the architecture of the nine furnaces.
He rose up abruptly, with excitement shooting out of his eyes.
"Fellow Cultivator Li—"
Ye Qingyun asked patiently, "Have you picked your 'favorite' furnace?"
He stressed "favorite" in obvious mockery.
"Not yet. Just wait a moment."
Li Yao walked to the furnace closest to him. Opening his arms and embracing the furnace, he stuck his face and ear to it and groped on the surface of the furnace with both hands while he said, "I need to further communicate with the furnace and pick a furnace that gets along with me."
"One that gets along with you?"
Behind Ye Qingyun, some of the refiners already couldn't hold back their laughter.
Ye Qingyun was having a hard time withholding his own laughter too. His face blushing, he shook his head quickly, as if he was regretting the waste of his time.
Jin Tianzong, who was still staying next to the Colossus, however, was shocked. Solemnly, he played back the picture where Li Yao rubbed the furnace. Enlarging and slowing down the picture, he finally managed to see that Li Yao's fingers were shivering at an amazingly high speed in two clusters of grey mists although they seemed to be rubbing the furnace slowly.
The high-speed shivers of the fingers even affected the surface of the furnace, causing the illusion that it had turned from solid into liquid, with ripples spreading out!
"This… This is…"
Jin Tianzong was greatly surprised. "What kind of technique is this?"
While observing Li Yao's movement, Li Linghai glimpsed at Jin Tianzong's face and asked with great interest, "Even you have never seen such a technique before, Master Jin?"
"It looks like the 'snap and listen' skill in the refining arts, which can sense the structure, gaps, and inner stress of a piece of magical equipment by the quakes of fingers. It does not belong to any single school. Many schools have similar skills. It is not very surprising."
Jin Tianzong said, "However, normal 'snap and listen' is only suitable for the small and delicate magical equipment because it is hard to penetrate the force into the thick and solid magical equipment and to receive the feedback of the waves.
"This 'Vulture Li Yao', however, is playing the move on such a piece of huge and clumsy magical equipment like a furnace. Is he trying to sink the subtle force through the solid shell of a furnace?
"Is he simply being pretentious, or is he—"
How pretentious!
In the chamber, many refiners had already lost their patience and were secretly complaining in their hearts. Ye Qingyun was also frowning gravely. He asked, "Fellow Cultivator Li, have you picked one?"
Li Yao heard none of it. The nine furnaces here represented the best technologies in refining in the Imperium of True Human Beings. Now that he had the opportunity, he would certainly study them well. Why would he bother the humming flies nearby?
After embracing the nine furnaces one by one, Li Yao finally pointed at the seventh furnace with a smile. "Yes. I want this one!"
"Oh?"
Ye Qingyun discovered that the furnace that Li Yao chose happened to be the one that he had been using. He couldn't help but sneer, "Fellow Cultivator Li, you have picked this one after such a long time of selection. Is there anything special about it?"
"Actually, the fact that the nine furnaces are placed in this advanced chamber suggests that they all have excellent performance. Any random one of them would have sufficed if they were just manufactured. After all, I am just crafting some components for temporary uses. There is no need to be picky, right?"
Li Yao explained unhurriedly, "However, it is obvious that the nine furnaces have been used for a long time. If not enough attention is paid during refining, there are bound to be a lot of flaws, just like the magical equipment that is not well-maintained will be rusty."
Everybody whispered to each other after hearing what he said. The refiners behind Ye Qingyun demanded angrily, "Are you implying that we did not pay enough attention during refining and caused 'flaws' to the furnaces?"
"Well, it is perhaps not because of the lack of attention. Some habitual movements will inevitably lead to corrosions."
Li Yao opened his hands and said, "Furnaces are not treasures. They are bound to be corroded after they are used."
"Fellow Cultivator Li!"
Ye Qingyun raised his voice as he asked, "Would you like to enlighten us by pointing out the 'flaws' for us?"
"Take this one for example."
Li Yao did not beat around the bush, and he did not even have any emotional fluctuations, because he was a teach
er who was teaching a bunch of kindergartners. No matter how noisy and fussy the kindergartens were, there was no need to be angry with them, and all that needed to be done was to point out their shortages and deficiencies.
"The fellow Cultivator who often uses this furnace prefers to join acids into reactions when he etches chips and special curved-surface components. However, he does not pay enough attention to cleaning after his work. Or to be more exact, he overlooks the cleaning of the gas ports and other details, which leads to the tiny traces of corrosion inside the gas ports.
"For this particular fellow Cultivator, the corrosion is naturally still tolerable. It is some sort of 'regular corrosion'. When the time comes, he only needs to change new gas ports.
"But for me, the furnace is… slightly uncomfortable.
"And this one. Well, this furnace is very impressive. The fellow Cultivator who often controls this furnace must boast very impressive heritages of the spiritual energy of the fire class. It is perhaps a family skill or something, which makes him particularly good at high-temperature purifications.
"After all, just because you are good at dealing with high temperatures does not mean you have to keep the temperature at the highest point all the time. The consequence of the inability to control the temperature is that the components produced are often too 'heated' with an exceptionally high faulty rate, right? Also, this furnace is filled with the air of smoke too, and it feels like an impatient man. How can the really qualified components be produced in it?"
Chapter 2173: Reasons for Furnaces |
With his hands in his back, Li Yao walked past every furnace slowly and pointed out the problems of the furnace. When he grew excited during his talk, he even activated the light beam of his crystal processor and drew the internal structure of the furnaces as quickly as flashes of lightning, illustrating the flawed parts and the reasons for the flaws.
The refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet including Ye Qingyun did not think much of it at the beginning and believed that he was just bragging.
However, after hearing what the guy said, those people began to have sweat the size of beans, and their mouths were wide open beyond their control as they stared at Li Yao in utmost disbelief.
Shocked!
Everybody couldn't have been more shocked!
"Vulture Li Yao", the refiner who had mysteriously arrived, couldn't have visited the laboratory before, but he had described the characteristics of their refining most accurately based on the tiniest gaps or scrapes inside the furnace. He had even pointed out some of their habitual moments, or the advantages and disadvantages of a certain unique technique. He was almost like a ghost that had been haunting them and observing them during their refining work all the time!
Where… Where did this guy come from exactly? His sharp senses and his understanding of furnaces were too appalling!
Even Master Jin Tianzong was quite astonished. After a long daze, he asked Li Linghai, "Your Grace, did you show the videos of our furnace to this 'Vulture Li Yao'?"
"Of course not."
Li Linghai couldn't help but put on a smile. "Master Jin, you wanted a miracle, and it seems that the miracle is already underway."
"Fellow Cultivator Li!"
Inside the chamber, Ye Qingyun couldn't hold it back anymore. Pointing at the furnace that Li Yao picked in the end, he asked, "So to speak, this is the best-maintained one of the nine furnaces in this room?"
The furnace that Li Yao picked in the end was the one that Ye Qingyun had been using.
Ye Qingyun was one of the best among the refiners in the Deep Sea Fleet, but he was certainly not half as good as Master Jin Tianzong.
Therefore, if Li Yao stated that the refiner was the best one in the room, it would mean that his eyes were just so-so.
But out of his expectation, Li Yao simply shook his head while smiling. "Not exactly. This furnace also has a myriad of problems. But compared with the other furnaces, it will do."
"It will do?"
Ye Qingyun demanded angrily, "What are the problems of this furnace?"
"Most importantly of all, the joint of the components of this furnace is not tight enough. Many gaps that are invisible for the naked eye have appeared. Some of them may be too thin to affect refining normally, but they will hinder my senses and operations."
Touching the furnace whose shell had been carved with abundant radial runes, Li Yao said solemnly, "It must be an expert who has been frequently using this furnace. His control over flames and his shaping skills are all very professional. It shouldn't be difficult for him to devise and produce a crystal suit independently."
With satisfaction on his face, Ye Qingyun snorted.
Li Yao, however, changed the topic and went on, "But the refiner's problem is that he is too impatient and likes to show off. Let me give you a simple example. His favorite skill is to change the temperature of thousands of degrees at the center of the furnace to below zero abruptly in only a couple of seconds.
"The quick transformation of temperature can contribute to the reduction of the inner stress in the components and the improvement of the extension and the anti-interference abilities of the components. In such a way, the crystal suits produced will have a better chance of survival in a complicated battlefield.
"It is supposed to be an excellent skill, and the refiner is also very capable to achieve the transformation in only a couple of seconds.
"However…
"Just because you have mastered an awesome skill does not mean you have to use it in the production of every component, right? Except for the few critical components, it is not necessary to completely eliminate the inner stress of most regular components that can be easily replaced.
"The refiner's skills, on the other hand, have not reached the most mature level yet. Or rather, adjusting the temperature at the center of the furnace so drastically every time will inevitably consume abundant spiritual and physical energy. Then, during the last few batches, negligence and loss of control will be unavoidable, which will lead to an increase in the faulty rate. Even the products that have passed the test may have hidden flaws and problems that can barely be noticed.
"The joints of the units of the furnace, because of the frequent thermal changes, also have metal fatigue due to the overflowing spiritual energy. They are more or less sloppy right now. They are all the prices of 'showoff'.
"In fact, refining is very easy. Many mass-produced components have been crafted by predecessors since hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The most reasonable and standard refining procedures have long been figured out and written into the relevant operation manuals.
"In fact, I am quite excited to come to the refining team of the Deep Sea Fleet because I can tell that the team here is very young and creative. There is quite an air of innovation and insanity in your refining skills, which fits my appetite very well. Personally, I like the most unbelievably and crazy styles in refining better than anything else.
"However, the extremity in the style does not mean the exaggeration in the skills. Or rather, exactly because we are pursuing new, more creative ideas in overall designs, we have to be more dutiful and serious in the production of the basic components.
"If the ideas are crazy and the skills are crazy too, the magical equipment that is produced in the end will certainly be fickle.
"We are a real-life refining team that follows a fleet, not a team for experimental refining under a certain university or a research institute. Creations are indeed very important, but the most important thing is still to ensure the stable, efficient, and continuous output on a battlefield. Don't you agree, Fellow Cultivator Ye?"
His eyes as clear as water, Li Yao looked at Ye Qingyun in the most sincere way.
Ye Qingyun truly lost all his temper because of what Li Yao said. While the guy's words were full of provocation, they were put in such a way as if he was merely discussing the issue honestly with strangers. Ye Qingyun did not even know how he should throw his tantrum. Afte
r a long daze, he pointed at the furnace that Master Jin Tianzong had been using and asked, "What about this one? Why did you not choose this one?"
"This furnace can be called perfect."
Li Yao complimented, "Judging from the internal corrosions, the fuel left on the wall inside, and the color of the metals, the refiner that has been using it is exactly what I described just now. He has the best basic skills and never shows off. He simply crafts all the components dutifully without overlooking any procedure.
"I am not saying that the refiner who uses this furnace is definitely much more skilled than other refiners, but he knows his limits very well, and he carries out his best during every refining process, no more and no less.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The hardest thing for any person is to know themselves. You can never have such a deep insight about yourself without a hundred years of hard work.
"After a long time, even the smoke and earthiness of this furnace itself have been completely consumed by him. Just tilt your head and look carefully, and you will see a vague halo on the surface of the furnace, as if it were covered in milk. If I have to describe it in one word, it will be 'smooth'.
"The furnace that has been used by a master of refining for a long time is like an enameled pottery that has been played by a great collector for a hundred years. It is so natural and flawless!"
The refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet were all astounded as they listened. Ye Qingyun couldn't help but ask, "Then—"
"Then, why did I not choose this one?"
Li Yao said with a smile, "Every master of refining has their unique techniques and habitual movements, which will be deeply 'etched' into the furnace during their refining process, while the refiner and the furnace adapt to one another and approach perfection. It is the reason why a refiner is often only used to one furnace and why they do not change their device often.
"The stronger a refiner is, the more distinctive their personal characteristics will be, and the more capable they will be in 'etching'.
"This best furnace has been polished by the master of refining for at least two years. Every unit has been deeply soaked in the master's personal features. It is almost like he has stamped the furnace with his soul.
