140: Chapter 140 Bai Ling's Assistance: The Fusion of Magic and Technology

The morning light had just shone into the Artifact Refining Workshop, and the dew on the metal plates had not yet dried.

Chen Wuwang pushed the door open and entered.

There was a smell of iron in the air, left over from the cutting machines last night.

The furnace fire was about to go out, occasionally popping with a spark.

Chen Tiezhu sat at the desk.

He held a charcoal pencil, hovering over the "Armor Self-Healing Mechanism" section on the blueprint, his hand motionless.

He had been staring at this line of text for a long time.

"Incorporating Life Tree sap into the shell can achieve micro-repairs," was the last sentence he had written last night.

He knew that having just the Materials was not enough.

How to make the sap come alive?

How to make it know where it was broken and go to repair it?

These things were not written in the books.

He rubbed his temples.

The mechanical hand made a click sound.

A shadow moved at the doorway, and Chen Wuwang walked to the table.

He didn't ask about the progress, nor did he look at the blueprint, only saying: "I will fill in the missing link."

Chen Tiezhu looked up at him.

Chen Wuwang had already opened the communication Formation Plate at the corner of the table.

Three Spirit Stones floated up, runes lit up in circles, and the air began to ripple.

A few seconds later, green light surged out, landing and forming a shadow like vines.

Bai Ling stood there.

She wore a pale green gauze dress, her feet clean, as if she had just walked out of the forest.

She blinked, looked at the parts on the ground, the semi-finished body armor, the wiring diagrams on the wall, and finally at the design drawing on the table.

"Are you making armor that can repair itself?" she asked softly.

"Yes," Chen Tiezhu said, "but we don't know how to make the Materials come alive."

Bai Ling walked over and gently touched a corner of the blueprint with her finger.

A very thin green line crawled half an inch along the paper.

"Life is not driven by electricity," she said. "It listens to rhythm, temperature, and heartbeat."

Chen Wuwang nodded: "That is why we need your magic knowledge."

"Not just the formula, but the principle—how does a Life Spell connect to objects? How does a piece of wood know it's broken and needs to grow back?"

Bai Ling smiled: "You are speaking the language of nature using metal... I would love to see the result."

She opened her hand, and a small stone appeared in her palm, engraved with spiral patterns.

She whispered a Spell, and the stone flew to the center of the table.

Green light spilled down, illuminating a strand of nano Spirit Silk.

That Spirit Silk suddenly twitched, and the value on the detector immediately jumped by 17%.

Chen Tiezhu stood up abruptly, grabbed the instrument to take a look, his brows furrowed tightly. "This isn't random movement."

"It is resonance," Chen Wuwang said, activating his mechanical eye, with data streams flashing in his eyes.

He pulled up the spectrum graph and pointed to a regular waveform: "This frequency is exactly the best conduction point for the nano Spirit Silk. This is not metaphysics; it is another form of energy."

Bai Ling nodded: "Our clan calls it the 'Rebirth Pattern,' often carved on healing scrolls or tree bark."

"It doesn't directly cure illnesses; it awakens the object's own memory—for instance, just as a tree knows to regrow a leaf that has fallen off, the armor can also know it needs to heal if it cracks."

Chen Tiezhu looked at the diagram, remained silent for a while, and then suddenly asked: "Is it affected by the moon?"

"Yes," Bai Ling said. "Strongest during a full moon, weakest during a new moon. But it is always present, just like breathing; it doesn't stop just because someone falls asleep."

"The battlefield won't wait for the moon to be full," Chen Tiezhu said in a hard voice. "I need stable output, I can't rely on the heavens."

"Then don't make it rely on the moon."

Chen Wuwang interrupted, tapping the table three times: "We can record this frequency, turn it into a program, and put it into a chip. It doesn't need to change by itself; it just needs to execute commands."

Bai Ling's eyes lit up: "Just like... installing a switch for magic?"

"Yes," Chen Wuwang looked at her. "Can you turn the 'Rebirth Pattern' into a fixed condition? For example, triggering a repair when a specific amount of Qi is input, regardless of day or night."

Bai Ling thought for a moment and nodded: "We can try. But I need something to carve the pattern into."

Chen Tiezhu took a spare armor plate from the shelf and gave it to her.

She took it, held it with both hands, and muttered a few more words. The rune stone slowly sank, green light seeped into the armor's surface, and a thin circular pattern emerged.

"It's done," she said softly.

Chen Wuwang immediately scanned it with his mechanical eye. Data showed that there was faint activity inside the armor. After simulating a scratch, the small particles at the edge began to slowly gather.

"Effective," he said in a calm tone, but there was a glint in his eyes.

Chen Tiezhu looked at the green pattern, and it was a long time before he spoke: "...Let's test it."

He picked up the charcoal pencil, drew a line next to the "Energy System" on the blueprint, and wrote: "Dual-Track Input—Spirit Energy Circuit + Magic Pattern Interface."

Below that, he added another sentence: Reserve three sets of coupling points to support modules of different frequencies.

Bai Ling leaned over to take a look, reached out, and tapped the "Cockpit Lining" position: "You can add a layer of pattern here too, to absorb the pilot's life fluctuations as a startup signal."

"You mean... using the master's aura to awaken the repair?" Chen Wuwang asked.

"Yes," Bai Ling smiled. "Just like a mother recognizes her child's cry. After using the armor for a long time, it will understand its master better."

Chen Tiezhu didn't speak, but added a stroke to the blueprint.

The three of them stood still. The only sounds in the room were the low hum of machines and the lingering green light.

Outside, the sun climbed higher, shining on the armor plate with the green pattern, reflecting a soft light.

Chen Wuwang lowered his head to record data, his mechanical eye still running.

Chen Tiezhu held the pen, repeatedly comparing the original drawing with the newly added content.

Bai Ling held the rune stone, trying to carve another segment of the pattern into the second plate, her expression serious.

The maintenance mech's light by the furnace flickered on and off, as if dozing off.

The cutting machine had already cooled down, but the blueprint on the workbench was filled with new lines.

The first traces of Fusion remained on this table.

Chen Wuwang suddenly looked up: "If we compile this frequency into instructions, can we mass-produce it?"

Bai Ling thought for a moment: "Yes. But every piece of armor needs an 'Awakening Ceremony,' otherwise the pattern will be dead."

"Then we'll treat it as factory calibration," Chen Wuwang said. "One mech, one exclusive pattern."

Chen Tiezhu asked: "What about the cost?"

"One rune stone can carve ten times," Bai Ling replied. "After that, it needs to be recharged, about once a month."

Chen Tiezhu nodded, wrote down the number in the cost column, and his brows relaxed a little.

"There is one more problem," Chen Wuwang continued to ask. "If the enemy interferes with this frequency, will it cause the armor to break?"

"It's possible," Bai Ling's expression changed. "Therefore, the pattern must be encrypted. We can use the Family Bloodline fluctuation as a key; others won't be able to imitate it."

Chen Tiezhu looked up: "You mean... only the Chen Family can use it?"

"Yes," Bai Ling said seriously. "This is protection, not a weapon. It shouldn't be used indiscriminately."

Chen Wuwang was silent for two seconds, then nodded: "Reasonable."

He looked at Chen Tiezhu: "Starting tomorrow, build a dedicated line. Make five prototypes first, equipped with the dual-track System."

Chen Tiezhu agreed, picked up his pen, and wrote on the task list: "Magic-Technology Dual-Track Input System, project initiated."

Bai Ling watched them and asked softly: "Do you really want to let machines learn how to breathe?"

Chen Wuwang looked at the green pattern and said: "We are not making machines. We are making comrades who can survive."

Bai Ling smiled, her finger gently brushing over the pattern on the armor.

A spot of light flashed in her eyes.