On the way back from North New District, Yu Ye decisively gave up on being the driver again. She obediently sat in the back seat, wrapping her arms around Master's waist. To give Yu Ye a quiet environment to familiarize herself with those high-level techniques, Ji Qinglin told her to study upstairs while he watched the shop alone.
Yet Ji Qinglin's mind was not on the shop either. He kept turning the glass box over in his hands.
It was indeed tempered glass. The black powder inside looked evenly distributed, not like the fragments of something broken apart, and there was not the slightest sign of caking or clumping.
Even using Divine Sense Observation right in front of it, he could not make out what the black powder in the box was supposed to be.
Since "Eternal Dao Heart" and a phone icon were printed on it, it had to be related to the thing inside his body. But he could not find any connection right now. The thing was sealed, and if he wanted to pour out its contents, he could only smash it open.
What if it was something dangerous? At that thought, Ji Qinglin recalled the prompt from the last time he used the Qi Sea Cloud Disk. This cultivation phone was not supposed to kill people—or, more strictly speaking, it did not kill those who also belonged to the Old Era. Then opening it himself should not be dangerous.
But what if this thing needed to remain inside the glass box to be used? That would be awkward. No, if that were the case, they could have used a sturdier material. Wasn't tempered glass used precisely so no one would get hurt when it shattered?
Damn, he had been overthinking it. Without destruction, there could be no construction. This glass box might have been made specifically to be smashed.
Still, to be safe, Ji Qinglin placed the glass box on the workbench and set up barriers around it to keep the black powder from spilling out. He opened the Big Dipper Map, preparing to evade any possible danger, then took out a hammer and brought it down on the glass box.
Crack—
The instant he struck it, he leaped back. Just as he had guessed, the tempered glass box shattered at once, and the black powder inside spread across the workbench. Strangely, though, none of the black powder sprayed outward.
From such close range, under the workbench light, Ji Qinglin discovered that not even a speck of dust had flown up. It was as if the box had contained a puddle of black mud.
Just as Ji Qinglin was about to lean closer for a look, a pop-up appeared in his Divine Sense Observation interface.
Identifying your weapon.
A weapon? This handful of black powder was a weapon? Was he supposed to fling it in someone's face during a fight? This was getting more and more absurd. After hesitating for a moment, Ji Qinglin chose to wait, thinking, Let's see what exactly you are.
Sure enough, as Divine Sense Observation displayed "Identification complete," the black powder on the table rapidly gathered together, shoving away every shard of tempered glass mixed within it. It was like a mass of living powder.
It had been alive after being sealed in that glass box for so long? Ji Qinglin leaned in to observe it and found that the black powder was not loose at all. Gathered together, it had fine black filaments swaying on its surface, making it look as though a little patch of black grass had grown from the workbench.
Was this a box of chives?
Swish, swish—
As he pondered, the "black grass" on the table immediately began to ripple. The black powder rapidly reassembled itself, and in the blink of an eye, condensed into a sturdy yet simple black rod.
"Hiss, this is..."
A magic wand? It did not seem that long. Otherwise, Harry Potter would have been a swordsman.
Recalling the thing's transformation, Ji Qinglin suddenly remembered seeing something similar at a Cultivation Technology expo.
Although the technological achievement he had seen back then had been nowhere near as outrageous as the "black grass" on the table—able to transform flexibly and swiftly with a single thought—the method of transformation could indeed only be accomplished by that thing.
Nanobots!
Ji Qinglin widened his eyes and walked to the workbench. Picking up the black rod condensed from Nanobots, he could not tell at all from its appearance that it was formed from Nanobots. A line of engraving was also etched into the surface of the rod:
Mo Attack: Like a Sword Without Edge, Moist Non-Attack.
Mo Attack? This thing actually had a name. It looked like a personal signature left behind by the creator of these Nanobots.
With the experience from just now, Ji Qinglin tried using his thoughts to alter the Nanobots' arrangement again, creating something new.
He gripped the black rod in his hand and directly imagined a longsword. Mo Attack promptly reassembled in his grip, like a huge mass of black dust finer than grains of sand shifting in his hand. In an instant, it became a sharp black sword, its blade likewise marked with a small "Mo Attack" logo.
Looking at the sharp blade in his hand, Ji Qinglin thought that its creator was definitely an extraordinary person, particular about Like a Sword Without Edge and Moist Non-Attack. But Ji Qinglin did not possess that kind of cultivation. If he killed someone without finishing them off, sooner or later he would get cut down himself.
With another thought, the Mo Attack in his hand swiftly wrapped around his right arm as if it were melting, looking like a tattoo embroidered onto his skin.
The technological potential of nanotechnology went far beyond mere shape-shifting, which was only its most direct use. Nanobots' repair of external injuries in the medical field was their most distinctive application. In other words, Nanobots could first be used to fill, seal, and stop the bleeding from open wounds.
Of course, using them in reverse should theoretically also be possible. He could use Nanobots to damage an opponent's prosthetic nerves, achieving victory without having to fight until the final stage. Put that way, it was a little like poisoning someone.
Since Nanobots could be controlled remotely, could so-called Sword Control also be explored? What if he transformed them into a gun? Would it fail if the structure became more complicated?
Having discovered that this box of "freshly ground coffee" was actually Nanobots called Mo Attack, countless bold ideas sprang into Ji Qinglin's mind. But all of them still needed testing.
During this process, his admiration for the creator of the cultivation phone deepened by several degrees. They could even create something like this—using thoughts to control Nanobots that were not directly connected. No matter how he looked at it, it resembled the object control and transformation techniques of cultivation.
Could this thing attach itself to Yu Ye and help her catch others off guard during the Cultivation Grand Competition? But in that case, would it have to be hidden on her body? Caw, caw—
As he was thinking, Coal Boss suddenly flew down from the second floor, letting out two urgent cries that it only made when something was wrong.
"Yu Ye?"
But there was no response from the second floor of the shop. Only the sound of something breaking came from above.
Full of confusion, Ji Qinglin rushed upstairs and found Yu Ye's graceful body leaning against the sofa, trembling uncontrollably. Her thin shirt had been soaked through with sweat and clung to her body, her Human Body Weaknesses faintly visible. With her head lowered, he could not see her expression, but her breathing was heavy.
"Ugh... huff."
"Yu Ye?"
Before he could finish speaking, Yu Ye suddenly raised her head. Several more bead-sized drops of sweat slid down her delicate cheeks. The spring charm and heroic spirit that usually filled her captivating almond eyes had now been replaced by savage hostility.
"Yu Ye, you—"
Before he could finish, Yu Ye stamped her back foot and used Intercept Cloud Step to arrive before Ji Qinglin in a flash, striking straight at her Master's face with a hand blade.
"On the Application of Nanotechnology in the Cultivation Field"—Mozi (The new chapter got held for review, everyone, please wait a bit.)
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