89: Chapter 89 Technological Cultivation, Rapid Growth of Spirit Plants

Before the third quarter of the noon hour had arrived, the wind outside the Artifact Refining Workshop already carried the scent of rust.

Chen Wuwang stood before the half-open alloy gate, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye glowing faintly as he entered an encrypted command into his wrist terminal.

From inside came the sound of metal being struck, a steady rhythm like an old craftsman forging iron, one strike after another, unhurried and calm—that was Chen Tiezhu calibrating the final power supply module.

"You've arrived." Chen Tiezhu didn't turn around, his wrench giving a twist as the connection clicked and locked into place. "Have the Zhao family's items been delivered?"

"The Spiritual Qi mineral inventory has been verified, and the secret technique Incomplete Manual has been sealed, awaiting interpretation." Chen Wuwang stepped inside, his boot soles crushing a wisp of pale cyan mist seeping from the floor cracks. "But I didn't come for that."

Chen Tiezhu finally turned around, his face smeared with grease, yet his gaze was as sharp as a blade:

"Then why are you here? I'm busy replacing the core bearings for the 'earth dragon', I don't have time to play along with whatever new tricks you have."

Chen Wuwang remained unbothered, raising his hand to gesture, and instantly a growth curve chart of seven spiritual plants appeared in the air, with data streams scrolling like a waterfall: Spiritual Qi absorption rate, cell division frequency, root fluctuation rhythm... dense and packed, all in a numerical language only machines could read.

"Two samples have already been sent out." His tone was calm. "Only five mother plants remain; we cannot touch another leaf."

Chen Tiezhu narrowed his eyes: "And so?"

"So, we need to create more." Chen Wuwang pointed to three red-marked nodes on the chart. "The germination stage, the stem-shooting stage, and the pre-seeding stage—during these three phases, I can use mecha energy pulses to simulate earth vein resonance, stimulating the cells to accelerate division."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Tiezhu sneered and waved his hand to disperse the light screen:

"Absurd! Spiritual plants are nurtured by Heaven and Earth, not blasted into existence by your electric currents! Do you think this is Artifact Refining? You can just power it up and increase the speed? If the medicinal properties change, the entire healing System of the Eastern Wasteland Alliance will collapse!"

"I am not trying to alter the medicinal properties." Chen Wuwang's voice didn't rise, but every word was like a nail. "I intend to compress the three-year growth period into three months, without damaging the original species."

"Three months?" Chen Tiezhu acted as if he had heard a joke. "Do you know how much effort generations of Ancestral Masters spent on a Nine-Turn Soul-Returning Tree from the moment the seed breaks ground until it can be harvested? Seven whole years! And you want three months? You might as well say it will bloom and bear fruit tomorrow!"

"Then let us test it." Chen Wuwang stared at him. "Three rows on the left for traditional cultivation, three rows on the right with weak Spiritual Qi energy pulses, with you personally supervising the entire process. Record the leaf color, root pressure changes, and Spiritual Qi affinity every day. If any abnormality occurs, immediately cut off the power supply."

Chen Tiezhu was stunned.

He had thought this kid was going to force some kind of "Cyber Cultivation" again, but now... this was actually a controlled experiment?

He was silent for a moment, then finally spoke: "This 'weak' you mentioned, just how weak is it?"

"The initial output is set to 1.3 times the natural fluctuation of the earth veins." Chen Wuwang pulled up the control interface. "It only acts during the seedling stage and automatically shuts down after maturity. You hold the authority for emergency shutdown throughout the entire process."

Chen Tiezhu walked a few steps closer, stared at the string of parameters for a full half-minute, and suddenly asked: "Who gave you this idea? Old Lin?"

"I simply applied the mecha neural feedback System to the plant growth model." Chen Wuwang shook his head. "But the theoretical foundation... someone did indeed mention the four words 'Spiritual Root resonance'."

Chen Tiezhu didn't press further. He knew that some things didn't need to be pointed out.

He took off his gloves and tossed them onto his protective suit: "Fine. I'll give you three days to build the System. But this matter must be kept from the others, especially those old pedants. If something really goes wrong, I'm not taking the blame for you."

"I didn't intend to let them know anyway." Chen Wuwang's lips curved slightly. "After all, by the time they realize it, the Medicinal Field will already be green."

The two men said no more and immediately threw themselves into preparations.

Chen Tiezhu brought over six sets of temperature control pipelines, buried them underground in the Medicinal Field test area, and personally calibrated thirty-six micro-sensor stakes to ensure that every inch of soil moisture, temperature, and Spiritual Qi reflux speed could be relayed in real-time.

Chen Wuwang connected to the mecha's main control chip, loading an adaptive algorithm so the System could dynamically adjust pulse intensity based on plant feedback.

"Try this waveform." Chen Tiezhu handed over a yellowed manual, opening to a page. "Spring thunder awakens the insects, rousing the earth's Qi. This is the rhythm recorded in the 'Cultivation Manual' passed down by my father; it says this is the 'point' when the Heavens thunder and all things beneath the earth awaken."

Chen Wuwang took it, quickly scanned the content, and immediately input it into the control System: "Changed to a low-frequency oscillation sequence, starting in the morning, each duration seventeen seconds, with two-minute intervals."

"Close enough." Chen Tiezhu nodded. "Don't be too harsh; they aren't mechas, they can't withstand that kind of bombardment of yours."

The first round of testing began at dusk.

The six rows of the Medicinal Field were clearly separated by partitions; the left side was quiet as usual, while the right side, as night fell, slowly released an extremely faint blue halo, like ripples of moonlight falling on water.

On the monitoring screen, the vital sign curves began to pulse.

At first, everything was normal.

But just at the third hour, the leaves of the two seedlings on the right suddenly turned gray, the tips curled, and the root System signals weakened sharply.

"Stop!" Chen Tiezhu slammed the red button, and the System instantly cut power.

The two men rushed into the greenhouse.

Chen Wuwang crouched down, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye scanning the leaf tissue at close range: "The frequency is too high, the cells cannot withstand it."

"I told you!" Chen Tiezhu's voice was tight. "This isn't Artifact Refining! You can't just copy that set of methods!"

"I know I was wrong." Chen Wuwang didn't argue, instead quickly pulling up the adaptive learning module in the mecha's neural network. "The problem isn't the amount of energy, it's the feedback mechanism. We need to let it 'speak' for itself."

He reprogrammed it, adding a bio-feedback regulation logic: whenever cell pressure was detected exceeding the threshold, immediately lower the output power to 30%, and pause the next cycle of pulses.

"Try again." He said. "This time, slower."

Late at night, the second start-up occurred.

This time, the pulses were much softer, rising and falling like breathing. The leaf color gradually recovered, and the root System fluctuations tended toward stability.

Chen Tiezhu stared at the monitoring screen, his brows relaxing a fraction: "...Interesting."

Chen Wuwang didn't speak, just wrote a line of commands on the terminal: [Initiate dual-track cultivation plan: Morning low-frequency oscillation + Nighttime atomized Spiritual Qi liquid spray].

The System confirmed execution.

Deep in the Medicinal Field, a fine silver mist sprayed from the underground pipe network, wrapping diluted Spiritual Qi liquid and gently covering every seedling.

At the same time, the ground vibrated slightly; these were extremely low-frequency vibration waves, mimicking the rhythm of the earth awakening.

"It worked." Chen Tiezhu said in a low voice, as if afraid of disturbing something.

"Not yet." Chen Wuwang stared at the screen. "It's only the first day."

But there was light in his eyes.

He knew that this path was the right one.

At three in the morning, the first day's operating data was stable. The mutated spiritual plants showed no abnormalities, and the cell division rate had increased by 2.7 times, still within the safe range.

Chen Tiezhu took off his protective suit, sat on the stone steps outside the control room, and lit a pipe of dry tobacco.

"You kid..." He exhaled a smoke ring, "You always manage to turn the impossible into the possible."

"I just don't want to wait." Chen Wuwang stood at the doorway, his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye still recording the final set of data. "Waiting means being caught up to, being robbed."

Chen Tiezhu didn't respond, only gazing at the pitch-black Medicinal Field in the distance.

There, six rows of land lay quietly, half guarding the ancient Law, half stepping on the edge of the unknown.

And tomorrow, or perhaps the day after, they would grow the same leaves, bloom the same flowers—only ten times faster.

He suddenly asked: "If this succeeds, what is the next step?"

Chen Wuwang looked toward the depths of the Artifact Refining Workshop, where a new power supply array was being assembled.

"The next step?" He said softly, "It is to let the entire Eastern Wasteland learn—how to seize time."

Inside the control room, the life curves on the holographic screen were still pulsing.

The green lines rose steadily, like a heart slowly accelerating.

Chen Wuwang stood before the light screen, his fingertips hovering above the "Full Activation" button.

He did not press it.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the first full twenty-four hours to pass.

Waiting for Chen Tiezhu to personally confirm—that this batch of spiritual plants had truly survived.