21: Chapter 21 Breakthrough in Weapon Refining, Iron Pillar's Joy

When the door was kicked open, Chen Wuwang was standing in the center of the main hall with his back to the door, his right hand still resting on the edge of a sand table.

He didn't turn around, but the peripheral vision of his mechanical prosthetic eye had already scanned the coarse cloth work clothes covered in furnace ash—it was Chen Tiezhu.

The sound of footsteps pounded on the ground like ironwork, thud, thud, thud, every step carrying the rhythm of splashing sparks.

Then, with a loud "clack," a heavy black iron hammer slammed onto the meeting table, making the Psionic Lamp at the corner of the table shake violently, shadows dancing wildly.

"Family Head!" Chen Tiezhu's voice sounded like it had been fished out of a furnace, both hot and hoarse, "I did it!"

Chen Wuwang then slowly turned around.

He had no expression on his face; not even an eyebrow moved. His left mechanical prosthetic eye merely adjusted its focus, bringing Chen Tiezhu's flushed face into close view—sweat mixed with charcoal ash, creating several white streaks on his forehead; his knuckles were swollen, his palms split, with blood scabs and metal powder mixed together like welded runes.

But his eyes were terrifyingly bright, a light not of excitement, but the gaze of a craftsman who had endured the night, broken through the heavens, and finally seen the spark descend into the world.

"Mid-tier Mecha," Chen Tiezhu panted, enunciating every word. "I can refine them now! The entire skeleton, the Power Core, the Psionic Guide Rails—I can run the whole assembly line! Not just test pieces, but a real, functional machine!"

The air went silent for a moment.

Outside the window, the wind swept across the eaves, causing the lamp flame to flicker. From the direction of the distant Artifact Refining Workshop, the faint sound of forging echoed, beat by beat, like a heartbeat.

The corner of Chen Wuwang's mouth suddenly twitched upward.

It wasn't a smile, but the reflection of a blade before it leaves its sheath.

"Very good," he said. "Within seven days, complete mass production."

As the words fell, the heat on Chen Tiezhu's face seemed to be doused by a bucket of ice water, and his whole body froze.

"...Seven days?" His voice dropped an octave, as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes," Chen Wuwang nodded, his tone as calm as if he were saying "the food is ready."

"Family Head, wake up!" Chen Tiezhu slammed the table, making the iron hammer jump. "Do you understand the concept of a Mid-tier Mecha? One set requires three hundred and sixty-seven processes, and the core casting alone takes three days! We don't even have all the Materials yet, and the recruits can't even stand steadily at the workstations. You want me to build thirty units in seven days? That's impossible!"

After he finished shouting, his chest heaved violently, but his eyes were fixed on Chen Wuwang, waiting for him to change his mind, waiting for him to say "I was joking" or "Let's try making five first."

But Chen Wuwang just looked at him, his gaze as deep as subterranean magma.

Then, he raised his hand and pulled a piece of paper from his robe.

It wasn't ordinary paper. The material shimmered with a cold metallic light, and a layer of faint blue patterns floated on the surface, looking like a living stream of data rolling slowly.

As soon as it appeared, the temperature in the room dropped by half a degree, and the lamp flame froze for a moment.

"Follow this," Chen Wuwang handed over the blueprint with crisp, decisive movements. "Process optimization, modular assembly, and psionic pre-load nodes are all marked. Don't worry about the principles, just do it."

Chen Tiezhu was stunned. He reached out to take it, and his fingertips trembled when they touched the material—it was cold, smooth, and carried a weak vibration, like touching a living chip.

He looked down at the drawing, and his pupils shrank suddenly.

There were no written explanations on it, only dense structural lines, energy circuits, and assembly sequence numbers.

But those lines... they were too strange.

Unlike traditional Artifact Refining diagrams that emphasized symmetry and the flow of spiritual rhythm, these were like cold mechanical instructions, straight lines and right-angle turns, with node annotations using symbols he had never seen before.

But he understood them.

For some reason, he just understood. It was as if an old blacksmith had suddenly recognized a lost secret forging manual from a hundred years ago.

"This... who drew this?" his voice strained.

"The System gave it," Chen Wuwang said.

"System?" Chen Tiezhu looked up, frowning. "Which System? One issued by the Sect? The Angel Race's Star-track Algorithm? Or the new standardized blueprints promoted by the Loose Cultivator Alliance?"

"No," Chen Wuwang shook his head. "Only I can see it."

Chen Tiezhu stared at him, suddenly feeling that this young Family Head before him was even more inscrutable than the thousand-year-old furnace in the deepest part of the Artifact Refining Workshop.

He was silent for a few breaths, his fingers unconsciously tracing the edge of the blueprint as his mind quickly calculated—if they followed the processes on this diagram, skipping three annealings, merging seven segments of rune engraving, and using pre-pressure modules instead of manual joining... the time could indeed be compressed.

But the risk was also great. One wrong step, and the entire production line would be scrapped.

"Family Head..." his voice lowered, carrying a final trace of struggle. "This diagram is too aggressive. If the furnace explodes, three months of hard work will be gone. Besides, the clan has just experienced an Insect Tide, and people's hearts are unstable. If you fail because you pushed this too hard, the Elders' Council..."

"I know," Chen Wuwang interrupted him, his tone still steady. "That's why I'm giving it to you."

Chen Tiezhu was startled.

"In the entire Chen family, only you dare to gamble with your life." Chen Wuwang looked at him, his gaze sharp as a blade. "And only you are worthy of this blueprint."

It would have been fine if he hadn't said it, but once he did, Chen Tiezhu's chest surged with heat.

He remembered twenty years ago, the day his wife died on the refining table. Everyone said he was crazy, that he shouldn't have used new methods to modify the furnace.

Since then, he had never touched innovation again, only sticking to the old crafts like a gravekeeper.

But tonight, he had achieved a Breakthrough.

Just three hours ago, after seven days of secluded cultivation in front of the furnace, repeatedly tuning the psionic frequency, he finally made the nano-scale rune plates resonate with traditional fire patterns.

At that moment, the furnace fire soared to the sky, finished components formed automatically, and spiritual light fell like rain.

He knew he was no longer just an old blacksmith who only knew how to swing a hammer.

He was the first person to truly master Technological Artifact Refining.

And now, the Family Head had placed an even crazier diagram in his hands.

"Seven-day mass production..." he murmured, looking down at the blueprint again, his gaze changing.

It was no longer doubt, but Battle Intent.

"Good." He suddenly looked up, his voice steady. "I'll take it."

Chen Wuwang didn't speak, he just nodded.

Chen Tiezhu gripped the blueprint tightly in his palm. The surface of the paper emitted a slight hum, as if responding to his determination.

He turned and left, his steps heavy but firm, each one like adding a new piece of charcoal to the furnace.

When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped. He didn't turn around, only leaving behind a sentence:

"If it really succeeds... I get to name it."

Chen Wuwang stood where he was, watching his figure disappear at the end of the long corridor outside the door.

The wind poured in through the open door, causing the cold light left by the blueprint on the table to ripple slightly.

He raised his hand, and his mechanical prosthetic eye automatically brought up the System interface—

[heavenly secret instruction Update]

1. In three quarters of an hour, a Blood Mist will descend in the west; a Zerg Egg Core can be picked up.

2. Chen Xiaodao will have an Epiphany of Sword Intent tomorrow at noon.

3. Within seven days, the Artifact Refining Workshop must upgrade its Psionic Assembly Line.

Next to the third instruction, a green checkmark quietly appeared.

Completed.

He withdrew his hand, placed his hands behind his back, and stood quietly in the hall.

Outside, the stone path leading to the Artifact Refining Workshop stretched out straight, the lights on both sides still lit. In the distance, the first sound of forging rang out, crisp and powerful, like some kind of newborn pulse.

He didn't move, nor did he give any orders.

Just standing there, like a war hub that had not yet been activated, waiting for the first feedback signal to arrive.

The blueprint had been delivered, the spark had been cast.

Next, it remained to be seen if Tiezhu could fan this fire into a prairie blaze.

On his right face, three claw marks shimmered darkly under the lamp.

The blue light of the mechanical prosthetic eye flashed once, twice, and once more.