Eight Chapter Plowing Test

This afternoon, in Lu Mingyuan's small courtyard, the three-part delicate vegetable patch, which hadn't rested for a few days, was once again brutally ravaged.

This time, it was even plowed over and over again, perfectly neat.

And plowing it a few times was one thing, but after that, it was dug and shoveled. This greatly angered the weeds that had just come back to life in the ground.

If they could speak, they would probably jump up and question Lu Mingyuan: "Are you bored? You're tilling the soil all day. Can you give us weeds a way to live, big brother? We weeds also have human rights."

Unfortunately, Lu Mingyuan couldn't hear them. He continued to busy himself with his testing.

After a while.

"This hand-pulled plow is quite useful. The hoe and the iron shovel are similar too."

That's right. After testing the hand-pulled plow, Lu Mingyuan also pulled out other small tools to test them all, such as hoes, cultivators, and iron shovels.

The results were all pretty good.

At least Lu Mingyuan felt pretty good about himself.

Suddenly, a dull "crack" sound came.

What was that sound?

Lu Mingyuan scanned left and right but found nothing unusual.

Then he shook his head and muttered softly, continuing the work in his hands, pulling hard on the hand-pulled plow to cultivate the land.

But as he pulled, a problem arose.

"Huh? Why can't I pull it anymore?"

"Is the ground too hard?"

"But that's not right. It was fine just now, wasn't it?"

He had tried the softer part in the center of the vegetable patch over and over again, and it was fine. This time, Lu Mingyuan was cultivating the edge of the vegetable patch, which was harder.

But now he suddenly couldn't pull it anymore.

Abruptly, Lu Mingyuan's expression hardened. He gave a fierce tug and pulled forward. This time, the plowshare, along with the large clod of mud on top of it, flew up.

"Sigh, it came off again."

Seeing this, Lu Mingyuan stepped forward and prepared to re-engage the plowshare, holding the hand-pulled plow.

It was only then that he noticed that the triangular cone tip of the plowshare was missing.

"Huh? How did it break? It wasn't just..."

"Was it that sound?"

"Mhm~ I remember I just..."

Convinced that the plow tip of the plowshare had broken when the sound occurred, Lu Mingyuan began to recall the situation, trying to figure out why it had suddenly broken when it was fine at the beginning.

"I think I suddenly lifted it upwards just now. Could it be because of that?"

With this doubt, Lu Mingyuan analyzed it carefully in his mind.

Judging by his known physics and engineering knowledge, when cultivating hard soil, one should not lift upwards suddenly, or it would break. Could it really be because of this?

"Mhm, it's probably also because the soil is too hard."

After figuring it out, Lu Mingyuan suddenly laughed with a bit of relief. "Fortunately, this hand-pulled plow was summoned by me. Otherwise, my five hundred silver dollars would be gone."

Then, with a thought, the plow in his hand turned into specks of starlight and dissipated into the air. The part of the plow tip that was still lying in the ditch also turned into starlight.

Immediately after, another plow was freshly grown.

Our hand-pulled plow is back again.

At this moment, Lu Mingyuan glanced at the still intact plow tip and smiled slightly. "Looking at it this way, it's new every time I summon it."

"Then I can mess around and test it as I please in the future. No need to be so careful."

"Hey, wait. If the plow tip can break, it means its strength is similar to ordinary steel. So, is it really steel?"

Thinking of this, Lu Mingyuan decided to study it.

To satisfy his curiosity!

However, since he was going to investigate the material, he decided to try it with wood first. This should be easier to test.

With that thought, in a moment, he went to the kitchen and got a candle and a fire starter.

As Lu Mingyuan thought, to investigate whether the summoned wood was really wood, burning it with fire should be a relatively simple and practical method.

He lit the candle and summoned a sickle.

Then, he slowly brought the wooden handle of the sickle towards the candlelight.

As soon as it touched the outer flame, the handle showed no reaction.

After one second, still no reaction.

Suddenly, the part of the handle on the candlelight began to flicker with a few specks of light.

There was a reaction?

Realizing this, Lu Mingyuan quickly retracted the handle and examined it closely.

Only then did he discover that the part of the wooden handle that had touched the flame had turned a large patch of gray-black.

In the middle of the gray-black area, a brownish, somewhat irregular circular pattern had suddenly appeared.

This circular pattern not only differed in color from its surroundings but also in its flatness. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a very shallow pit, less than a millimeter deep.

As for the size of the pit, it was about one centimeter, exactly the same size as the part that had touched the outer flame of the candle.

"It didn't burn, but it turned black and a part of it disappeared?"

Muttering this, Lu Mingyuan reached out and lightly wiped the blackened part of the handle.

Well, it had returned to its original wooden color—brown.

"It didn't char? It didn't burn? But a part of it suddenly disappeared?"

"In other words, this is indeed not wood, but a material similar to wood."

"Then those light spots that flashed when it was burning must have been similar to dissipating."

Subsequently, to further confirm this guess, Lu Mingyuan scraped a very thin wooden strip with the knife, as thin as paper.

Then he used it for a burning test.

This time, the reaction was much faster. As soon as it touched the flame, the wooden strip began to flash with light spots. Seeing this, Lu Mingyuan pulled it back and saw that the surface of the wooden strip had become pitted, with many irregular small holes.

However, there was no ash.

Seeing this, Lu Mingyuan made a judgment:

"It seems it is indeed just a material very similar to wood. And its heat resistance should be extremely poor."

As he spoke, Lu Mingyuan tore the wooden strip in his hand in the middle and looked at the torn edge, which indeed had many broken fiber bundles.

"This aspect is also very similar to wood, being composed of such fine fibers."

At this point, Lu Mingyuan suddenly realized something. He turned the sickle around and placed the iron sheet on the other side over the candle flame to roast.

A moment later, he looked at the small round hole on the sickle blade in his hand, utterly astonished.

"You can burn the wooden handle, I won't say anything about that. But this is steel, brother. When did candles start melting steel, even burning it away?"

"This is really a bit too much."

A moment later.

"So, these physical objects summoned are not made of real materials, but should be something purely set and simulated."

At least, within Lu Mingyuan's current knowledge, this was indeed the case.

"Since they are set and simulated, the material properties might differ from real ones."

"Just like this material similar to steel, it should have the same strength, rigidity, and even toughness as ordinary steel, but its heat resistance is just a bit poor."

"Looking at it this way, those divine abilities that can summon weapons for combat must have pushed the properties of the materials used to the extreme in all aspects, even far exceeding ordinary materials, which is why they can withstand collisions of hundreds of jin, or even tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of jin of force."

In any case, the materials in Lu Mingyuan's hands were definitely not suitable for use as weapons.

If nothing else, if the opponent sent a fireball and you blocked it, only to have a large hole appear, who could withstand that?

The testing of the properties of these materials would temporarily end here.

As for other physicochemical properties of the materials, Lu Mingyuan's tools were limited. He had neither acid nor alkali, nor electricity, so he could only deal with it later.

The next morning, as the sun just rose, an ox cart slowly drove out of Osmanthus Lane.

Near the front of the ox cart, two men, one in his thirties and one in his twenties, were sitting and chatting.

At this moment, a man carrying an oilcloth bag walked towards them. He glanced at the curved-beam plow leaning on the ox cart.

"Old Second Lu, you're taking your nephew to farm."

"Just planting some small cabbages and cucumbers. Old Third Liu, are you going to work?"

"Ah, someone in Peach Blossom Lane is renovating their house, so I'm going to build a wall."

"Alright, then you be busy."

The ox cart continued to move forward slowly.

Soon, they left the city and arrived at a green wilderness.

"Mingyuan, we're here."

Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan glanced at the fields, now full of green, and jumped off the cart with his second uncle, helping to unhitch the ox cart.

However, the two of them did not unhitch the curved-beam plow from the cart.

Because this time, Lu Mingyuan planned to use the plow he summoned to till the land.

In fact, this was also the reason why he and his second uncle came to the fields, to further test his farming tools.

Whether these farming tools were good or not still depended on his second uncle, an old farmer, to give his assessment.

If there were any problems, he could make timely modifications.

As for Lu Mingyuan himself, he had no place, no draft cattle, and no skill. He couldn't even distinguish whether the plowing effect was good or bad.

So, last night, he went to his second uncle's house and asked Second Uncle Lu Yi to come out of retirement.

Second Uncle heard that his nephew was going to test a supernatural power and naturally agreed readily.

The land.

At this moment, Lu Yi was staring blankly at the brand-new curved-beam plow placed at his nephew's feet.

His nephew, Lu Mingyuan, had actually made this supernatural power?

Speaking of which, with this, could they even save money in the future?

He knew that the curved-beam plow set at his home had cost nearly thirty taels back then, and it had been difficult to acquire. Moreover, it had undergone several major repairs in between, costing more than ten taels.

This new one didn't need repairs and could be carried around, which was indeed much more convenient.

One investment, a lifetime of benefits.

And according to his nephew, there were many models of this curved-beam plow, large and small, that could be chosen freely. There were even tools like hoes, iron shovels, and sickles, and even something called a hand-pulled plow?

Thinking of this, Lu Yi could already see the bright future of this supernatural power.

His Old Lu family would also produce a celebrity this time.

"Mingyuan, when this supernatural power of yours is ready, your second uncle will be the first to buy it."

"Second Uncle, let's test it first. I only uploaded it after I fixed it."

"Okay, okay! Then let's start quickly!"

Next, the uncle and nephew cooperated and worked together, testing and modifying as they went.

"Mingyuan, if you modify it like this, plowing will be smoother."

"Also, adjust the angle of this hoe a bit more, bend it a little more. This way, it's more labor-saving."

"And this sickle..."

In the time that followed, the two not only tested all the various tools within this supernatural power but also made reasonable adjustments based on Second Uncle's suggestions.

Of course, countless tools were also damaged in the process.

In fact, if these tools weren't summoned through supernatural powers, it would probably cost thousands of taels of silver to sustain them.

It wasn't until noon, with the sun hanging high in the sky, that the two finished their work, packed up, and prepared to go home.

Accompanied by the warm spring breeze, the ox cart began to head back to the city.

"Mingyuan, that hand-pulled plow you designed is quite useful. In the future, when I grow vegetables or plant garlic, I won't have to dig slowly with a hoe anymore. And our kiwi orchard..."

"It's good that Second Uncle finds it useful."

Lu Mingyuan was overjoyed to receive the affirmation from his Second Uncle, a master farmer. His face instantly lit up with a joyous smile. Now, he shouldn't have to worry about selling this supernatural power.

"By the way, Mingyuan, did you get this plowshare made at Tie Zhu's place?"

"Mm~ Yes, I got it made at my Brother Tie Zhu's place. Second Uncle, what's wrong?"

Hearing his Second Uncle's question, Lu Mingyuan felt a bit bewildered. Why was his Second Uncle suddenly asking about this, and why did he seem unhappy?

He thought it should be fine to have acquaintances make the plow.

Lu Yi sighed. His nephew was good in every way, smart since childhood, knowledgeable and sensible, gentle and refined, but when it came to human relationships and worldly affairs, he was always a little bit lacking.

"Mingyuan, after this supernatural power of yours comes out, will fewer people go to the blacksmith shop to forge iron?"

Lu Mingyuan was stunned when he heard this, then fell silent for a moment. "There probably won't be."

Generally, people go to blacksmith shops to forge some farm tools. This had already been solved by his supernatural power, and they wouldn't need repairs in the future.

The other common tools, such as scissors, kitchen knives, or even hammers and pliers.

These—once his supernatural power was uploaded and became popular, it was estimated that someone would soon create supernatural powers to summon these.

Therefore, the business of blacksmith shops in the future was likely to plummet, or even cease to exist.

Unless they changed their technical route and started forging weapons.

But weapons also had summoning supernatural powers, so this was indeed difficult to resolve.

At this moment, Second Uncle Lu Yi said melancholically, "If no one forges iron, the blacksmith shops won't have business. However, this won't affect you much.

But, if those people know that Li Fuhong made the plowshare for you, which led to the creation of this supernatural power, do you think Li Fuhong's life will be easy?"

"Uh, this..."

Lu Mingyuan was speechless. This situation could indeed happen, so he could only remain silent. He didn't need to care about these things since he wasn't in the blacksmithing trade, but what about Li Fuhong and Li Tiezhu?

They had to rely on forging iron to make a living.

Their business was already going to be difficult in the future, and if they were ostracized by their peers, wouldn't they be even more miserable?

"Second Uncle, I really didn't think that far. I didn't expect it to implicate Uncle Fuhong. Then this..."

Just as Lu Mingyuan was about to ask what to do, he suddenly remembered what his father-in-law had told him yesterday.

"Hey, Second Uncle, my father-in-law saw this supernatural power of mine yesterday and said he wanted to create one that could summon kitchen tools. He also said he wanted to bring Uncle Fuhong along to create one for forging tools. I agreed at the time."

After speaking, Lu Mingyuan turned his gaze to his Second Uncle, wanting to see his Second Uncle's opinion on the matter.

"Your father-in-law? Jing Zhi's father?

Wait... let me think first...

Your father-in-law and Li Fuhong both served in the army before. They understand how to create supernatural powers. And they probably haven't used that Supernatural Power Stone yet. This time is indeed a good opportunity to try."

After pondering for a while, Lu Yi patted his nephew's back and chuckled, "Alright, no need to worry. You've found a good father-in-law, kid. He's already resolved all these issues for you. You don't need to fret about it."

Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan fell silent for a moment, then also smiled faintly.

His father-in-law resolved it for him?

But why didn't his father-in-law explain it to him directly?

Was he supposed to guess?

Regardless of his internal speculations, Lu Mingyuan still felt a sense of relief, grateful for having a good father-in-law.