pondering for a moment, li yao admitted frankly, “i’m preparing to solve the problem with a drain valve that is crafted through special technique and a combustion improver that i have invented on my own.”
master jin tianzong pursued further, “what kind of special technique is it?”
“like this.”
li yao retrieved a metal cube the size of a baby’s fist from his cosmos ring. it was in lead gray and even and smooth on the surface.
holding the metal cube in his hand, he inputted a stream of spiritual energy into it, and the metal cube immediately floated and hovered in midair.
shua! shua! shua! shua!
li yao had never looked more serious before. sweat the size of beans was even leaking out of his temples. dozens of electric arcs jumped out of his fingertips and gathered into five deep blue rays of light before they immersed into the cube, changing, cutting, and carving along with his fingers quickly.
smoke popped up while the surface of the metal cube was engraved with complicated, delicate patterns. it was almost like a combination of six mazes.
one minute later, li yao took a long breath in relief and finished the carving. holding the beautiful metal cube, he delivered it to master jin tianzong.
ye qingyun and other refiners of the deep sea fleet were greatly confused. while li yao’s skill in focusing the spiritual energy into light blades to carve the surface of metals was quite beautiful, it was not exactly a rarely-seen trick. he might be only more fluent at it than most people.
master jin tianzong, however, was more prudent than ever. he held his breath and took over the metal cube in li yao’s hands carefully.
he covered the cube with a thin layer of spiritual shield first, before he inputted a stream of spiritual energy into the cube.
an amazing scene took place again!
the metal cube that seemed to be in one piece turned into metal slips that were as thin as paper and almost transparent, dancing in midair softly!
every metal slip was like a clear snowflake, engraved with sophisticated circuits.
they were the rune arrays related to combustions and power output, and the spiritual energy circulations that were extremely esoteric. they were a hundred times more complicated than the patterns on the surfaces of the metal cube!
the tiny and delicate metal cube had been cut into hundreds of metal slips without a sound with the blade of spiritual energy by li yao, and on each metal slip, entirely different rune arrays had been carved!
ye qingyun and other refiners of the deep sea fleet were awed by li yao’s extraordinary skill again. they were too shocked to exclaim anymore.
“fellow cultivator jin—”
li yao could already tell that master jin tianzong was a pure, devoted refiner. formalities were not needed to deal with such a technical specialist, and he could only win the man’s acknowledgment and trust with true skills. “if i carve thirty or so protection and stabilization rune arrays on the internal walls of the crystal reactor and control the change of power output with special drain valves, is it possible to provide three different power outputs for the three different forms of the crystal suit with only one crystal reactor?”
master jin tianzong stared at the dancing metal slips for a long time; his eyes wandering in the patterns that li yao had carved, full of fascination. it was not until a long time later that he finally retreated his attention and focused his eyes on li yao’s plain-looking hands.
master jin tianzong heaved a blurred sigh. there was no telling whether he was envying li yao for having such a pair of fast and agile hands, or that he was mourning that he could never achieve what li yao had achieved just now because of the destructive wounds to his hands, which made it impossible for him to carry out half of his expertise in his peak years.
“may i know your teacher and your school, fellow cultivator li?”
it finally occurred to master jin tianzong that li yao bowed to him deeply in respect just now. he bowed back and said sincerely, “your skills in refining will definitely raise a lot of attention even if you barge into the circle of refiners in the capital!”
li yao replied, “if i say that i accidentally found the heritages on refining from the age of ancient cultivators and grasped them on my own, would you believe it, fellow cultivator jin?”
master jin tianzong was slightly dazed. then he said, “just now, i was still telling her grace that i absolutely did not believe anyone could reach the peak of refining on their own. but now that i have seen fellow cultivator li’s extraordinary skills, i have to say that i’m having doubts of my conclusion if that person is fellow cultivator li!”
looking at master jin tianzong’s hands, li yao changed the topic abruptly, “fellow cultivator jin, your hands were heavily wounded in the past two years?”
hearing his words, ye qingyun and other refiners of the deep sea fleet looked embarrassed again. the hands of a refiner were everything to them. it was somewhat outrageous of li yao to tear apart master jin tianzong’s trauma like that.
master jin tianzong slightly frowned, with intense miseries surfacing in his eyes. it was not because he recalled the pain when his hands were wounded but because of the helplessness that he could never make use of his hands deftly and carry out the best of his refining arts. in a hoarse voice, he said, “yes. the flesh exploded, the bones were all broken, the veins and the nerves were disrupted into a mess… thanks to the most advanced flesh-regeneration technologies and the nurture of the heavenly materials and earthly treasures that her grace has found through various sources, it is not a big problem in daily life or regular refining. but during the production of certain complicated components or the fashioning that required a high precision, it is exactly like what you said, ‘something is missing’.
“with our expertise, we are both clear that my hands have been crippled now that they have been reduced to this!
“since i came to the deep sea fleet, i have summarized all my knowledge in refining that i gained in the first half of my life, and i still believe in the correctness of my theories.
“there are countless brand-new power rune arrays that i want to create and hundreds of unique crystal suits that i want to craft. i even developed an ancillary power unit for the colossi, which could increase the speed and agility of the colossi by more than 5%!
“but because of my… crippled hands, all the experiments failed, and all the designs can only stay in my head!
“i have told her grace many times that, at best, i can only work as the ‘brain’ in the refining team of the deep sea fleet and provide theoretical guidance, and if the deep sea fleet truly wants to have the most powerful crystal suits and even colossi in order to compete with other super fleets of the imperium of true human beings, we have to find a pair of hands for the refining team; a pair of miraculous and legendary hands!
“i… i didn’t know that her grace was so omnipotent that she would find such a great expert as fellow cultivator li!”
master jin tianzong was so thrilled that he could not describe the shock that li yao brought to him at all.
li yao said, “i’m told that fellow cultivator jin has been working on the ‘hybrid crystal suits’ and made groundbreaking breakthroughs? i was more or less suspicious about it in the beginning, but i’m starting to believe it after scanning the power system of this crystal suit. i can’t wait to start the exploration of ‘hybrid crystal suits’ together with fellow cultivator jin.”
his eyes glowing, master jin tianzong said, “with the participation of fellow cultivator li, the magical equipment development team of the deep sea fleet will be like a tiger that has grown wings. with enough time, it is even possible for us to surpass the refining teams in the imperial university, the imperial polytechnical university, and the imperial advanced college of metallurgy!”
to this moment, master jin tianzong still thought that li yao was a pure refiner, or at least mainly a refiner. so, he was still encouraging li yao with the logic of a refiner.
li yao smiled and changed the topic back to master jin tianzong’s hands. “fellow cultivator jin, it was rather presumptuous of me to have inquired about the wounds of your hands abruptly just now. i was only eager to learn whether your wounds were new or old, because there were several secret prescriptions on the nurturing and training of the hands in the heritages of the ancient cultivators that i got.
“although the ancient cultivators were far behind the modern immortal cultivators in terms of the systematical development of disciplines, there were still quite a few effective methods after tens of thousands of years of experience.
“my hands suffered a lot of serious wounds during my crazy refining. some of the training methods even required that the flesh on my hands be gnawed up and regenerated in order to build up the sharpest senses.
“had it not been for the support of the secret techniques that nourished the hands, my hands would’ve been wasted a long time ago!
“therefore, if you trust me, fellow cultivator jin, you might as well try my secret prescriptions. after all, i don’t think your conditions can get any worse, right?”
master jin tianzong was immediately stunned.
the relationship among the immortal cultivators was generally cold and distant. deals and negotiations were highly appreciated, and few people would show kindness to other people for no reason.
also, back when he was in the refining department of the imperial polytechnical university, he had been working on the development of the “hybrid crystal suits”, which was rather a unique path and pissed off too many refiners.
everybody was waiting to see him humiliate himself. so, none of them would give him any help.
out of his intuitions, he wondered if this “vulture li yao” was up to something and intended to obtain certain things from him.
it was not until he realized that he was in the deep sea fleet, and this fellow cultivator li had been invited by the queen in person, that he was finally more or less reassured.
besides, he had been demoted from a professor of the imperial polytechnical university and a heated grandmaster in the circle of refiner to what he was today. was there anything about him that could call for other people’s greed?
the only valuable things he had were the theories and designs regarding the “hybrid crystal suits”.
if they were what “vulture li yao” wanted, he might as well take away all of them. perhaps they could only be really put into practice someday if they were in his hands!
hundreds of thoughts popped in master jin tianzong’s head, but they eventually all turned into a gloomy sigh. he bowed at li yao deeply again. “thank you, fellow cultivator li. i believe that you and i will certainly have a lot of things that we can talk about sincerely in terms of refining!”