300: Chapter 300: The Assembly Line Gets an Upgrade

The cold glint of metal shimmered in the workshop. The inner walls of the guide rails still bore the first Spiritual Energy Coupling Patterns carved last night. The edges of the blade marks were slightly hot, like iron bars just pulled from a furnace.

Chen Qiaoshou stood before the seventh section's control console, his knuckles pressed against his forehead and his eyes bloodshot—he hadn't slept for three days.

"The last resonance point is connected," he said raspy-voiced into the recorder. "Seven-section closed loop, power supply is stable. Now... let's try it once."

He pressed the start button.

Hum—

The originally dull sound of mechanical friction vanished, replaced by a low-frequency vibration that felt like a pulse coming from deep within the earth.

The Circular Energy Guide Groove began to glow with a faint blue light, and the energy flow moved slowly like a stream, circulating endlessly within the closed circuit.

The console screen flickered:

[System self-check in progress... Nodes 1-7 passed]

[Power output increased by 42.6%]

[Anti-interference Rank: Grade 3 (Standard met)]

"It's moving," Chen Qiaoshou murmured. "It's really moving."

He turned his head to look at the door.

Chen Tiezhu stood there with his arms crossed, his brows knitted into a tight knot as he stared at the operating assembly line without saying a word.

"Elder Chen," Chen Qiaoshou called out.

Chen Tiezhu didn't respond. He walked forward a few steps, crouched down, and reached out to touch the outer casing of a running guide rail.

His fingers slid across the metal surface and stopped near the coupling patterns for several seconds.

"The temperature is uniform," he said softly. "No local overheating."

"Driven by spiritual energy, it doesn't rely on gear engagement but on resonance," Chen Qiaoshou walked over. "The entire System regulates its own frequency, just like... breathing."

"Nonsense!" Chen Tiezhu suddenly looked up. "How can Spiritual Qi be so obedient? Yesterday it was a model that exploded; what if the hub explodes today? How will you compensate for that?"

"Data doesn't lie," Chen Qiaoshou pulled up the monitoring panel. "Look at the seventh section Shunt Valve. Previously, it required manual calibration every three minutes. Now, it automatically balances the pressure with an error of less than 0.3 Spiritual Pressure units."

"That's for now!" Chen Tiezhu stood up, his voice rising. "Wait until it's run ten or twenty rounds, then I'll see if you still dare to use the word 'stable'!"

Before he could finish his sentence, the entire assembly line suddenly accelerated.

The mechanical arms moved fluidly—grabbing components, positioning, assembling, and testing—all in one smooth motion.

The finished modules slid into the drop zone with a crisp 'ding' as the red light turned green.

"First round of assembly complete," the System prompt sounded. "Pass rate: 100%."

The second round began.

The third round began.

The fourth round...

Chen Tiezhu's expression changed.

He walked step by step to the Testing Array, picked up a newly produced Energy Core, and examined it over and over.

The interfaces were smooth, the runes were clear, and the spiritual energy fluctuations were incredibly stable.

"This is impossible..." he muttered. "Even manual polishing might not achieve this level of precision."

"It's not manual," Chen Qiaoshou stood beside him. "It's a rhythm the System learned on its own. It remembered the optimal parameters and is optimizing with every round."

Chen Tiezhu snapped his head up and stared fixedly at him. "Are you saying... this machine can become smart on its own?"

"It's not smart," Chen Qiaoshou shook his head. "It's alive. You said Artifact Refining needs a soul, but a soul doesn't necessarily have to be poured in by a person. As long as it can run itself, correct itself, and withstand pressure on its own—that is a soul."

Chen Tiezhu fell silent.

He looked down at the Energy Core in his hand, his fingertips gently stroking the surface.

After a long while, he placed the item back onto the tray and turned to walk toward the end of the assembly line.

Chen Qiaoshou didn't move.

He knew this hurdle hadn't been cleared yet.

Until—

Chen Tiezhu stopped in his tracks, his back to him, his shoulders slumping slightly.

"You..." he began, his voice so low it was almost inaudible, "you really are amazing."

Chen Qiaoshou was stunned.

"What?"

Chen Tiezhu spun around, his face flushed red as if words he'd suppressed for half a lifetime had finally burst out. "I said you're amazing! I'm convinced! Satisfied now?!"

Several nearby Technicians stopped their work and peeked up quietly.

Chen Qiaoshou grinned. "If you'd said that earlier, I could've skipped two all-nighters."

"Don't get cocky!" Chen Tiezhu raised his hand as if to knock him on the head, but pulled it back halfway, muttering, "I'll admit you've got guts."

As they were speaking, footsteps echoed from the doorway.

Chen Wuwang walked in.

He wasn't wearing armor, only a set of black martial robes, his silver-white hair tied back casually, and his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye glinting with a faint blue light in the dimness.

He didn't say a word the whole way, walking straight to the main control platform as his gaze swept across the entire assembly line.

The guide rails hummed, the mechanical arms swung, and the energy flow circulated steadily in the circular grooves.

He watched for a moment, and the corner of his mouth twitched upward slightly.

He didn't speak; he simply nodded.

It was a small gesture, but everyone present understood it.

Chen Qiaoshou breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the console, looking as if all his bones had been removed.

"It's a success," he said.

"It's more than a success," Chen Tiezhu stared at the assembly line and suddenly spoke. "It's stronger than before. Much stronger."

"You just said I was going to blow it up," Chen Qiaoshou laughed.

"I was afraid," Chen Tiezhu's voice lowered. "My wife... she was blown up by a furnace. Back then, they also said 'precise calculations' and 'absolute safety.' And the result?"

He paused, looking at the steadily running line. "But now... this is different. It's quiet, but it's alive. I can feel it; it's not a machine, nor a furnace. It's... a life."

Chen Qiaoshou didn't respond.

He knew how much weight those words carried.

For an old craftsman who had trusted his hands, fire, and hammer his whole life to say an assembly line "has a life" was not a surrender, but a Rebirth.

"What's next?" Chen Tiezhu asked.

"We wait," Chen Qiaoshou said. "Let it keep running. Non-stop for twenty-four watches to see if it can hold up."

"And if it can't?"

"Then we change it again," he smiled. "In any case, it won't blow up now. Even if it does, it'll blow up in a fake spot."

Chen Tiezhu snorted. "You even kept a back-up plan?"

"The Family Head taught me," Chen Qiaoshou gestured toward Chen Wuwang. "If the enemy wants to strike the vital point, we turn the whole body into a vital point—so they don't know where to strike."

Chen Tiezhu stared at him for two seconds and suddenly laughed. "You young people... are truly crazy."

"If we weren't crazy, we couldn't do this," Chen Qiaoshou shrugged. "The way you spent seven days and nights without sleep to modify the earth dragon back then, now that was crazy."

"Heh," Chen Tiezhu shook his head. "Fair enough."

As they were talking, the System prompt sounded again:

[Tenth round of assembly complete]

[Cumulative output: 58 sets]

[Pass rate: 100%]

"Still stable," Chen Qiaoshou looked at the data. "Run another ten rounds, and I'll dare to start mass production."

"If you dare, I'll dare to sign off on it," Chen Tiezhu slapped the console. "But if something goes wrong, I'll be the first to take your head."

"Sure," Chen Qiaoshou laughed. "Just let me submit the new blueprints before you take it."

Chen Tiezhu glared at him, turned to another section of the guide rail, and reached out to touch the casing again.

"The temperature is still uniform," he talked to himself. "Even the vibration feels like a heartbeat..."

He stood there for a long time, not saying anything else.

Chen Wuwang remained standing before the main console, his gaze sweeping over every node and every reading.

He didn't give any orders or offer any evaluation; he just watched quietly.

The assembly line continued to operate.

The mechanical arms lifted, grabbed new components, and precisely embedded them.

An Energy Core slid into the drop zone with a crisp 'ding.'

The green light lit up.

Chen Qiaoshou walked to his side and said in a low voice, "The next step, should we let all the workshops in the Eastern Wasteland use this line?"

Chen Wuwang didn't look back, only saying flatly, "Let them see it first."

"See what?"

"See what it means to have—something that cannot be blown up."

In the workshop, the lights were steady, the guide rails hummed, and the energy flow moved quietly in the circular grooves like a river waking up.

Chen Qiaoshou nodded and turned back to his operator's seat.

He opened the recorder and entered a new command: "Prepare to enter the continuous operation testing phase. Goal: seventy-two hours non-stop, in preparation for mass production."

After speaking, he looked up at Chen Tiezhu.

The old man was crouching by the seventh section of the guide rail, holding a testing crystal chip, muttering as he measured, "This thing... is really damn steady."

Chen Qiaoshou smiled.

He sat back in his chair, hands resting on the control console, and stared at the data stream jumping on the screen, whispering:

"Come on, let's see how far you can run."