The Most Dangerous Scholar in History

"You're pretty good, kid!"

Mu Ye's voice came from the open hatch of the mecha, carrying a carefree and unpretentious tone that sounded particularly loud in the desolate ruins.

"Without any data, you secretly manufactured two level-12 Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonball and launched them without the knowledge of the world! You're probably the 'most dangerous scholar in history.' A scholar! Hahahaha!"

Yun Jingheng ignored the astonishment in his words.

His attention was completely drawn to the Red-Grade Mecha.

His gaze began with the sensor array on the mech's head, then slowly and systematically moved downwards, following the hydraulic joints of the neck, the multiple composite armor plates on the shoulders, the outer wall of the soul-guided reactor in the Core Area the chest armor, the auxiliary thruster lines on the inner sides of the arms, the shock-absorbing structure of the legs, and the vector nozzle arrangement on the back wing base.

His lips moved silently, and his right hand tapped lightly on the side of his leg, the same rhythm he used when he was deducing situations in the conference room.

Ye Xinglan stood beside him, silently watching his profile.

She noticed that Yun Jingheng had released her hand, which he had been holding tightly just moments before. He had completely forgotten that he was still holding her hand; his entire attention was now consumed by the Red-Grade Mecha.

She'd seen this situation far too many times.

This is how he looked when he was staring at his newly made Soul Tool prototype in the academy's laboratory.

He did the same thing when he squatted on the ground at the entrance of the shelter, calibrating that broken instrument.

So focused that he was almost oblivious to everyone else, yet so precise that he wouldn't miss a single crucial detail.

"Hey kid, are you even listening to me?" Mu Ye jumped out of the cockpit and landed steadily on the scorched ground.

His bronze skin gleamed with a metallic sheen in the moonlight, and his eyes were curved, making him look like a kind-hearted uncle next door.

Yun Jingheng struggled to shift his gaze from the mecha to Mu Ye.

His eyes regained their usual clarity and composure. He nodded slightly, his tone respectful yet neither servile nor arrogant. "Senior Mu Ye, it's been a long time. Thank you for coming in person."

"Stop with the formalities." Mu Ye strode over, circled Yun Jingheng, and looked him up and down.

"When you were carried back to the medical area, your face was as white as a wall, but now you can stand here staring at my mech without even blinking. Your recovery ability is good, and your physique is excellent!"

"My mom also said I recovered faster than she expected," Yun Jingheng said calmly.

He didn't continue the topic, but instead turned around and gently touched the leg armor plates of the Red-Grade Mecha. "So? Does my mech meet the standards of you, the 'most dangerous scholar in history'?"

Yun Jingheng took a few steps forward, stretched out his hand, and gently touched the dark gold soul guide pattern on the edge of the armor plate on the mecha's leg.

"The reactor's output power is at least three times that of a regular Black-Grade Mecha, yet the cooling system's volume has only increased by less than forty percent. How did you manage that?"

He asked without turning his head, his tone so serious it was as if he had already drawn three structural diagrams in his mind, just waiting for Mu Ye to give the final verification result of the formula.

Mu Ye paused for a moment, then threw his head back and burst into laughter.

His eyes gleamed brightly in the moonlight, the kind of excitement a craftsman only shows when he meets someone knowledgeable. "Conventional heat dissipation uses liquid cooling loops plus external heat dissipation fins, but I've modified it to plasma vaporization heat dissipation."

"The waste heat generated by the reactor is directly carried away by plasma and discharged from the thruster nozzles at the wingtips. The efficiency is five times that of liquid cooling circulation, and the volume is only 60% of the original. You have a sharp eye, kid! You spotted the biggest technical bottleneck of the Red-Grade Mecha right away."

"This isn't a bottleneck, it's a trade-off."

Yun Jingheng withdrew his finger and took out a notebook from his Storage Soul Tool, where he quickly wrote something.

After he finished writing, he looked up at Mu Ye, his tone still calm and unhurried as he analyzed, "Although the liquid-cooled loop is large in size, it has good stability and a low failure rate."

"Plasma vaporization has high heat dissipation efficiency, but it has extremely low tolerance for fluctuations in the reactor output. If the output power fluctuates by more than 7%, the vaporization chamber will overheat. At best, the heat dissipation efficiency will drop sharply; at worst, the entire vaporization chamber will explode."

"You must add at least three levels of power buffers between the reactor and the cooling system."

Mu Ye looked down at Yun Jingheng, staring at him for a full three seconds, then turned and yelled towards the mecha cockpit, "Wulin! Are you sure this kid is self-taught? Or is he some old monster who possessed and was reborn?!"

Tang Wulin's voice came through the mecha communicator, tinged with suppressed laughter. "I told you, he never lets anyone watch him make things. Once they see it, he can make it himself."

"This is beyond the 'can do it yourself after watching' level..." Mu Ye muttered, turning back to look at Yun Jingheng again, this time with undisguised admiration.

He reached out and patted Yun Jingheng's uninjured right shoulder heavily, the force precisely controlled so that Yun Jingheng could feel the weight of this Body Douluo's hand.

"Kid, come with me to the Soul Guidance Laboratory of the Blacksmith Association later, and draw out that Level 3 power buffer you just mentioned for me to see."

"No problem."

Yun Jingheng nodded, "It just so happens that I also need a high-precision soul-guided reactor test bench to modify my fourth-generation protective suit."

"Fourth-generation protective suit?" Mu Ye raised an eyebrow.

"The current one is the third generation, and the anti-radiation coating can only last for two hours in the red line area. For the fourth generation, I plan to add an active radiation neutralization module, which will require energy provided by a miniature soul-guided reactor."

Yun Jingheng spoke, he took out his notebook and made another note, as if he had completely forgotten that he was standing on a nuclear explosion site, with a mysterious Body Douluo in front of him and his girlfriend, whom he had confessed to less than half an hour earlier, beside him.

His girlfriend was looking at him with a complex expression that was somewhere between helplessness and doting.

Ye Xinglan looked down at her empty palm.

He was just holding her hand, and now that hand is rapidly drawing Soul Tool structure diagram in his notebook that only he can fully understand.

Mu Ye looked at the two young men. One was drawing blueprints for Soul Tool on the ruins, completely absorbed in his work. The other stood beside him, holding a sword, as quiet as a statue under the moonlight, but the statue's eyes reflected the shadow of a person.

"Alright, alright, let's talk more in the mech." He turned and walked towards the cockpit, then climbed into the mech.

The hatch was open behind him, and the six wings unfolded again. The blue exhaust flames of the plasma thrusters slowly switched from the retracted state to the preheating state, emitting a continuous and deep hum.

Mu Ye's voice boomed from the cockpit, amplified by the loudspeaker, echoing across the ruins. "Let's go! To Heaven Dou City! I'll treat you to drinks tonight!"

He glanced down at Ye Xinglan's slightly narrowed eyes, then at the bandage wrapped around Yun Jingheng's left shoulder, which was faintly visible from his collar. After a moment's hesitation, he decisively changed his words, "Have some tea!"

Yun Jingheng put away his notebook, took Ye Xinglan's hand, and walked towards the open hatch of the mecha.

Ye Xinglan's fingers curled quietly in his palm, the thin calluses on her fingertips pressed against the back of his hand, feeling slightly cool, but the force was a few degrees tighter than when she had held his fingers back earlier.

He turned his head to look at her, and she was looking at him too.

Their eyes met briefly in the interplay of moonlight and the blue glow of the mecha's exhaust, and then they both smiled slightly.

"Senior Mu Ye, could you teach me about Red-Grade Mecha?"

"Hmm? You want to make a mecha?"

"Yes, I'm very interested."