211: Chapter 211 With the help of Bai Ling's magic, the coating effect is enhanced.

The air in the Furnace Area was still filled with a faint shimmer of cyan powder, clinging to people's faces and eyelashes like mist.

The spraying of the second 'Iron Spine Type III' had just entered its second layer; just as the spray gun nozzle passed over the curve of the shoulder armor, fine cracks suddenly appeared on the coating's surface, looking like a dried-out riverbed.

"Stop!" Chen Tiezhu roared, abruptly releasing the trigger.

The spray gun cut out, and the cyan mist slowly settled.

He leaned in for a closer look, his brow furrowing into a tight knot.

Those cracks weren't surface peeling; they were disintegrating from the molecular layer, indicating that the material stress hadn't been balanced at all.

"The temperature was suppressed, and the Spiritual Qi frequency was right, so why did it go wrong again?"

He cursed under his breath and slammed a fist onto the control console, making the dashboard rattle. "I've put my life into this, and I've hit a wall! If we keep going like this, we're just burning armor as a sacrifice!"

Chen Wuwang stood three paces away, the blue light of his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye still active, with a stream of data constantly refreshing in his pupil.

He saw it clearly—the High-silica Oxygen Crystal Powder was crystallizing too quickly under the catalysis of the Thunder-patterned Manganese Iron. The bottom layer hadn't stabilized yet, but the upper layer had already solidified; with the internal and external tension imbalanced, it would be strange if it didn't crack.

He didn't speak, merely staring at the crack while his fingers unconsciously tapped the hilt of his dagger.

A-Fu, squatting by the mecha's feet to check the joint gaps, looked up and said with a trembling voice, "Patriarch... should we solidify it first? Wait for it to cool down and then add another layer?"

"No," Chen Wuwang shook his head. "Acid corrosion is a continuous infiltration; a break in the layers is equivalent to leaving a door open. We don't have time to wait for a second re-coating."

Before his voice had even faded, a gentle sound of wind came from the doorway.

The three of them turned back simultaneously.

Bai Ling stood at the entrance of the Artifact Refining Workshop, draped in a layer of green gauze as thin as a cicada's wing.

In her hand, she held a bundle of shimmering vine branches, with pale gold veins flowing along the edges of the leaves.

Her steps were light, landing without a sound, like a leaf blown in by the wind.

"You are using the method of 'blocking'," she spoke, her voice clear and bright. "But the way of nature lies not in blocking, but in guiding."

Chen Tiezhu frowned. "What are you saying?"

Bai Ling ignored him and walked straight to the mecha, her hand gently brushing over the crack.

Where her fingertips passed, a hint of green actually flickered at the edges of the split, like a withered tree meeting spring.

"Your coating is a hard seal, locking down all reactions," she looked up at Chen Wuwang. "But life never survives by being locked down. It relies on flow, on breathing."

Chen Wuwang's eyes shifted. "Are you saying... let the coating 'come alive'?"

"Yes," Bai Ling nodded. "The magic of the Elf Race is not about changing matter, but about awakening its internal rhythm."

"Just as a tree heals its own wounds and a river flows around stones. If your coating can self-regulate stress like a living thing, it won't crack."

Chen Tiezhu gave a cold laugh. "Easier said than done. We're not planting flowers or growing grass here; we're putting armor on a mecha! You're going to use that 'Natural Resonance' for war? Can it withstand the gnawing of acid?"

Bai Ling was not annoyed; she simply pressed the vine in her hand gently against the crack in the mecha.

In an instant, green light flashed, and the vine transformed into specks of light-dust, seeping into the gaps of the coating.

"Look," she said.

Everyone held their breath.

They saw the edges of the crack begin to slowly close, as if invisible hands were gently stitching it together.

Even more bizarrely, extremely fine leaf-vein patterns appeared on the surface of the originally dull cyan coating, rising and falling slightly with a certain rhythm, as if it were truly breathing.

"This..." A-Fu's eyes widened. "It's moving?"

Chen Wuwang's Mechanical Prosthetic Eye quickly switched to microscopic mode; in his field of vision, the molecular structure of the coating was resonating at a peculiar frequency, with each cycle lasting seventy-two heartbeats, synchronized with some external energy.

"Are you guiding life magic to infiltrate it?" he asked.

"It's not infiltration, it's awakening," Bai Ling corrected. "Your Materials themselves have vitality; it was just suppressed by your solidification process. What I'm doing is simply letting it hear its own heartbeat again."

Chen Tiezhu stared at the green-shimmering coating, speechless for a long moment.

All his life, he had believed in hammers and fire, believing that the calluses on his hands were more reliable than incantations.

But this scene before him made him feel, for the first time, that perhaps some things really couldn't be forged through brute force alone.

"How do you want to change it?" he finally spoke, his voice lower.

"Don't use the Spirit-Vein Sealing Array for the third layer," Bai Ling said. "Switch to the 'Pulsation Injection Method'. Seventy-two times every second, synchronized with the beat of my magic. Let the coating close naturally, layer by layer, like a leaf unfurling during the solidification process."

Chen Wuwang immediately pulled up the holographic projection to modify the parameters.

The new plan was generated instantly: the Spiritual Qi injection frequency was adjusted to seventy-two times per second, with an interval of 0.0125 seconds, forming a pulse wave.

The spraying pressure was reduced by fifteen percent to avoid forcibly compressing the material.

The solidification time was extended by fourteen-thirds to allow the molecules to arrange themselves.

"We can try it," he said, "but it must be calibrated in real-time. If we miss even one beat, the coating will explode."

"I will control the rhythm." Bai Ling closed her eyes, her fingertip tracing a green trail of light in the air as a slowly pulsing rune appeared. "Follow it."

Chen Tiezhu took a deep breath, put his protective gloves back on, and gripped the spray gun.

"A-Fu! Monitor the Spiritual Qi fluctuations!" he roared.

"On it!" the apprentice lunged toward the control console.

"A-Quan! Prepare the cooling liquid for emergency access!"

"Connected!"

Chen Wuwang stood beside Bai Ling, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye locking onto the pulsing rune while simultaneously projecting the data stream onto the spray booth's control panel.

"Begin," he said.

The spray gun started up.

Cyan powder sprayed out once more, uniformly covering the mecha's surface under the guidance of spiritual energy.

This time, it was no longer a crude covering, but like spring rain falling into the soil, seeping in gently layer by layer.

"Keep the frequency steady!" Chen Tiezhu gritted his teeth. "Seventy-two... seventy-two... don't mess up!"

"Spiritual Qi fluctuations are normal!" A-Fu stared at the screen. "Synchronization rate is ninety-eight percent!"

"Raise the pressure by another five percent!" The veins on Chen Tiezhu's forehead throbbed. "I want it to stick tighter!"

The coating gradually thickened, the green light on the surface becoming more and more obvious. The leaf-vein patterns spread across the entire shoulder armor, as if a living skin had been grafted onto the metal.

Suddenly, a slight popping sound came from the back of the mecha.

"Oh no!" A-Quan cried out. "Magic rejection in the rear armor area! The coating is going to collapse!"

Chen Wuwang's pupils constricted, and he immediately pulled up the energy map—sure enough, the elven magic was having a frequency conflict with the miniature isolation rune array, and the two forces were tearing at the coating's structure.

"Stop spraying!" he barked.

The spray gun cut out.

"We can't stop," Bai Ling shook her head. "Stopping will only kill it. We must keep pushing forward and use magic to break through the blockage."

After speaking, she pressed both hands against the back of the mecha and began to chant a clear, ancient incantation under her breath.

The syllables were ancient, sounding like morning dew dripping in a forest.

In an instant, a soft green light radiated from her body, and the bundle of vine branches in her palm completely transformed into light-dust, flooding into the cracks of the coating.

"Now!" She opened her eyes. "Spray! Quickly!"

Chen Tiezhu gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger again.

The cyan mist rose once more.

This time, the coating was no longer passively accepting; instead, it actively absorbed the powder as if it had a consciousness of its own. The green light at the cracks surged, and the leaf-vein patterns extended frantically, forcibly blending the two forces together.

Chen Wuwang watched the data closely: "Synchronization rate rising back up... ninety percent... ninety-five... it's stabilized!"

"Cooling program initiated!" A-Quan shouted.

A low-frequency spiritual flow was slowly injected, activating the final solidification.

The entire mecha stood silently, cyan and green light intertwining and flowing across its surface like a lake under moonlight, shimmering with ripples.

Time passed minute by minute.

Ten, nine, eight...

The final solidification program entered its countdown.

Bai Ling knelt on one knee, her hands still pressed against the mecha's leg armor. Her aura was noticeably weak, and fine sweat beaded on her forehead.

But the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, as if she had seen something worth smiling about.

Three, two, one.

A soft "Beep—" sounded.

It was finished.

The light on the mecha's surface slowly subsided, finally condensing into a composite protective film as warm and smooth as jade.

The leaf-vein patterns had not disappeared; instead, they became clearer, like the blood vessels of a living creature, pulsing faintly beneath the metallic skin.

Chen Tiezhu breathed a long sigh of relief, his legs going soft as he sat directly on the edge of the spray booth, panting heavily.

"It's alive..." he murmured. "This thing really came alive."

Chen Wuwang walked to the front of the mecha and reached out to lightly touch the shoulder armor.

The touch was no longer cold and hard, but carried a hint of warmth, like touching a stone wall warmed by the winter sun.

He looked down at Bai Ling. "Thank you."

Bai Ling looked up and smiled, her eyes like morning dew in the forest. "No need for thanks. I just... didn't want to see good things be destroyed."

The furnace continued its hum, and the lights remained bright.

The mecha stood quietly, like a god of war about to awaken.

No one spoke.

Everyone stared at it, waiting to see if it could withstand the next wave of acid.

The next wave would be coming very soon.