66: Material smelting

Boom—

Along with a dull impact, the hull of the black iron trembled violently.

This wasn't an enemy attack, but a heavily overloaded mecha forcing its way into the docking platform.

The auxiliary Mechanical Arms let out an overburdened creak, struggling to lock onto the mecha's leg armor.

Once the blast of air from the hydraulic pressure release dissipated.

Jiang Ran pushed open the cockpit door and jumped onto the metal walkway, smelling of sweat mixed with coolant.

Before he could even steady his feet, a dark shadow darted past him with a whistle of wind.

"Gently! You clumsy Mechanical Arms, be gentle for me!"

Old Chen was wearing oil-stained overalls.

He brandished an electronic wrench, shouting at the automated cranes currently unloading the cargo.

His posture was more tense than if he were commanding an interstellar battle.

Usually, he was a miser who would grumble for half the day just to save a few kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Now, however, he was uncharacteristically generous, turning on all the workshop's searchlights and illuminating the docking bay as bright as day.

The massive mutated crab claw was the first to be hoisted down.

The dark green carapace shimmered with a faint, cold light under the intense glare, with heart-pounding energy fluctuations still lingering at the break.

Its weight alone caused the tires of the flatbed transport truck to deform slightly.

Next was the "Metal Mother Plant," tightly sealed in a specialized isolation tank.

Seeing it land, Old Chen almost pounced on it.

With his face pressed against the leaded glass, he stared greedily at the mass of semi-metallic flesh inside that was still slowly writhing and trying to penetrate the container walls.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he muttered neurotically:

"Perfect... it's practically a work of art... this activity, this aggression..."

"Stop staring; it's not going to call you 'Daddy' no matter how long you look."

Jiang Ran casually tossed his helmet onto the console and took a huge swig from a water bottle. "As agreed, I've brought the stuff back.

But how do we handle this thing?

It almost ate my mecha just now."

Only then did Old Chen reluctantly pull his gaze away and turn to look at him, a smile mixing madness and excitement appearing on his face.

He revealed a mouthful of teeth yellowed by tobacco.

"How to handle it? By 'eating' it back, of course."

Old Chen waved his hand grandly. "Lock all the hatches and activate Level 2 biochemical protection.

Kid, tonight we’re firing up the furnace to refine some pills!"

The air inside the workshop instantly became hot and filled with the smell of dust.

The ventilation system ran at full capacity, emitting a dull hum.

"Careful! This is the hardest piece of that crab's dorsal carapace; it's meant to withstand depth charges!"

Old Chen shouted a reminder from behind the protective glass of the console.

His fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, adjusting the parameters of the crusher below.

The conveyor belt moved slowly, and the massive dark green carapace was fed into the maw of the heavy-duty jaw crusher.

With the roar of the machine starting up, the massive alloy gears bit down hard.

“Crack—boom!”

A loud explosion rang out, and sparks flew in all directions.

The crusher, powerful enough to grind a tank to pieces, actually jammed.

The motor let out an overloaded shriek; only a few white marks were left on the carapace, without even a single crack.

"I knew it... this beast's hardness is off the charts."

Old Chen clicked his tongue and quickly cut the power:

"Conventional methods won't work; trying to grind it down will just ruin the machine.

Kid, do it manually. Use the High-frequency Oscillation Blade along with the hydraulic shears."

Jiang Ran nodded and took the heavy industrial cutter off the tool rack.

The thing weighed dozens of kilograms, but in his hands, it was like a table knife.

He flipped the switch; the blade immediately blurred, and the air filled with the buzz of high-frequency vibrations.

He walked over to the carapace, found the natural grain of the shell, and pressed the blade down hard.

“Screee—!!!”

A metal-cutting sound sharp enough to pierce eardrums instantly exploded.

Countless fine sparks erupted like a fountain, nearly engulfing him entirely.

The sensation of hard meeting hard traveled up the handle into his bones, making the webbing of his thumb go numb from the vibration.

This wasn't cutting meat, or even steel plate; it was cutting through a high-density crystalline substance.

As the oscillation blade bit in bit by bit, the hard carapace finally began to disintegrate.

It didn't break into chunks; instead, under the high-frequency oscillation, it turned into countless fine dust particles.

This dust wasn't a lifeless grayish-white.

It was a deep dark gray, shimmering with a faint blue metallic luster under the lights, like a pool of a shattered galaxy.

It took a full half hour.

Before the massive dorsal carapace completely disappeared, replaced by a collection bin full of heavy crystalline metal powder.

Old Chen walked over, pinched a bit of the powder, and rubbed it between his fingers, his eyes sparkling:

"Good stuff... natural bio-alloy powder. This toughness and energy conductivity are two tiers higher than the best Black Gold on the market."

After dealing with the "skeleton," next came the truly life-threatening work.

In front of the biochemical isolation cabinet deep in the workshop, a red warning light spun silently.

The "Metal Mother Plant" sealed behind the specialized leaded glass was currently displaying a hair-raising vitality.

It was like a violent tumor.

Countless tiny tentacles clung tightly to the inner glass walls, secreting a murky acid.

The five-centimeter-thick bulletproof glass had actually already been etched with faint white marks.

"Don't touch it. This thing is in a stress-induced defensive state right now; anyone who touches it dies."

Old Chen put on heavy insulated gloves and stood before the isolation cabinet's access port, fine beads of sweat rarely appearing on his forehead.

He took a deep breath, slid his hands into the attached gloves, and manipulated the precision Mechanical Arms inside the cabinet.

"Inject 'Sedative,' maximum dose."

He pressed the red button on the console as instructed.

Inside the cabinet, several high-pressure injection guns fired simultaneously, accurately piercing the pulsing core tumor of the Mother Plant.

A specialized blue inhibitor was forcibly injected.

“Squeak squeak squeak—!”

The Mother Plant reacted as if it had been seared by a red-hot iron.

It spasmed violently, its tentacles frantically lashing against the surrounding glass with a series of thuds.

The entire isolation cabinet vibrated as if it might burst at any moment.

"Keep the voltage coming! Electrocute it!" Old Chen roared.

Blue-white arcs of electricity instantly exploded inside the cabinet, as high-voltage current surged through every inch of the Mother Plant's tissue.

After exactly ten seconds of continuous electrocution.

The frenzied mass of flesh-metal hybrid finally went limp, like a pile of soulless sludge.

Old Chen didn't pause for a second, taking advantage of its unconscious state.

He manipulated a razor-thin titanium probe, cautiously piercing into its core.

The suction pump started up.

Inside the transparent tube, a liquid slowly began to rise.

It wasn't red blood, nor was it the blue bodily fluid seen before; it was a viscous silver fluid with a mirror-like luster.

It flowed through the tube extremely slowly, as if it possessed an incredible density.

"This is its essence..."

Old Chen stared at the tube, his voice raspy from intense concentration. "Look closely; this thing is 'alive'."

Through a magnifying glass, it could be clearly seen that the silver liquid wasn't just flowing down the tube.

Instead, it was constantly flowing backward, churning, and even trying to push open the valves to escape.

It seemed to have its own consciousness, filled with wildness and aggression.

In the end, only about three hundred milliliters of the silver fluid were extracted and sealed in a strong magnetic containment bottle.

It writhed slowly at the bottom of the bottle, like a captive mercury demon.

"Feed the materials!"

At Old Chen's command.

Jiang Ran pulled the control lever; the funnel valve opened, and the bin of ground crab shell metal powder poured into the reaction furnace like a black sand waterfall.

The High-frequency Smelting Furnace emitted a low roar, and the furnace temperature instantly skyrocketed to three thousand degrees.

On the monitoring screen, the dark gray powder softened and melted rapidly, turning into a pot of viscous dark green paste.

It swirled slowly in the crucible.

This was still within the realm of conventional physical smelting; aside from the high hardness, there was nothing unusual about it.

The truly critical moment had arrived.

Old Chen took a deep breath, his fingers trembling slightly.

He manipulated the Mechanical Arm, slowly moving the magnetic containment bottle holding the "Silver Demon" to the injection port at the top of the furnace.

"Watch the readings! If the pressure crosses the red line, force a cooling immediately—don't worry about me!"

“Click.”

The bottle opened, and the three hundred milliliters of silver fluid fell into the furnace.

There was no expected explosion, but the moment they made contact, the originally dark green metal slurry acted like a powder keg being ignited.

The scene inside the furnace was no longer a glowing dull red; instead, a blindingly bright silver-white light erupted!

“Vroom—!!!”

A piercing high-frequency noise cut through the soundproof walls, and the lights throughout the entire workshop flickered wildly.

"Energy reaction overload! Furnace pressure up 300%!"

Jiang Ran roared while staring at the dashboard, his hand already on the emergency relief valve.

"Hold steady! Don't touch it! This is a fusion reaction!"

Old Chen stared intently through the observation window, his face looking as if it were plated in silver. "They're devouring each other... they're restructuring!"

This violent reaction lasted for a full five minutes.

Until the howling inside the furnace gradually subsided, turning into a rhythm that felt like a heartbeat.

The discharge outlet opened slowly.

No sparks, no waste residue.

A breath-takingly pure silver liquid flowed out slowly, falling into the heat-resistant container below.

It was unlike any known molten metal.

Even after leaving the high-temperature environment, it didn't solidify quickly; instead, it flowed and gathered slowly in the container.

When a speck of dust landed on the surface, ripples instantly spread across the liquid; the dust was swallowed and decomposed in the blink of an eye, becoming part of it.

Even when Old Chen tentatively used a pair of long tongs to draw a gash across the surface of the liquid.

The gash actually healed itself within half a second, leaving the surface as smooth as before without a single trace.

This was "Bio-active Steel."

It retained the terrifying physical defense of the Crab King's carapace while inheriting the Metal Mother Plant's abnormal biological self-healing properties.

That eerie scene of self-repair plunged the entire workshop into a brief silence.

The fanaticism on Old Chen's face gradually faded.

It was replaced by an unprecedented solemnity, even carrying a hint of awe.

He didn't reach out to touch the priceless basin of liquid.

Instead, he subconsciously took half a step back, crossing his arms with his brow furrowed deeply.

"It's too alive..."

Old Chen murmured under his breath, as if staring at a nuclear warhead that could detonate at any moment:

"The energy density far exceeds expectations. This thing is currently an untamed beast."

"We can't use it directly?"

Jiang Ran asked, sensing Old Chen's concerns.

"It can be used, but not in the crude way you're thinking."

Old Chen looked up, his eyes terrifyingly sharp, showing none of his usual mercenary demeanor:

"Coat the hull with it?

That's asking for death.

It would instantly devour the original hull structure, turning the black iron into a pile of scrap metal.

To master it, we have to dig out the original keel.

Replace it bit by bit, and establish a new energy circulation loop to suppress its wildness."

Saying this, Old Chen pointed at the pool of silver liquid that was still pulsing slowly.

"Listen, the next task isn't ship repair; it's 'heart transplant surgery'.

We're going to put an excessively strong heart into the chest cavity of a dying patient."

"Success rate?" Jiang Ran asked.

"Fifty-fifty."

Old Chen pulled a crumpled cigarette from his pocket and chewed on it hard without lighting it:

"If my hand shakes during the connection, or if there's even a slight deviation in the energy loop...

The resulting energy imbalance from this thing could blow us and the ship sky-high, leaving nothing but dust."

The atmosphere in the workshop instantly dropped to freezing point, as if the air were filled with invisible gunpowder.

Old Chen spat out the tobacco residue, took a deep breath, and turned toward the console, his back radiating a sense of resolve.

"Go get ready. Preheat the reactor and disconnect all non-essential power.

We start the surgery in ten minutes.

Tonight, either the black iron undergoes a complete metamorphosis, or we all go to see the Sea God together."