Visitor from 301

The match against Crossing Sea Academy was even simpler than expected.

The two power-type Soul Masters both possessed bear-type Martial Souls; they were thick-skinned and possessed astonishing strength, but their speed and agility were fatal flaws.

Ye Xinglan drew the fire at the front while Yun Jingheng applied marks from the back; it was over in less than three minutes.

When the referee blew the whistle, the two hulking figures on the opposite side were still dazed, not knowing how they had lost.

The applause from the stands was sparse—this match truly had nothing worth watching.

Yun Jingheng sheathed his sword and walked back to the rest area.

Ye Xinglan followed behind, somewhat dissatisfied, "We agreed you would charge the front, yet I ended up doing it anyway."

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment, "Next time, for sure."

Ye Xinglan glared at him, but the corners of her mouth were curled upward.

There were no matches in the afternoon.

Yun Jingheng informed Ya Li and then stayed in his hotel room alone.

He took the Blue Pregnancy Copper out of his storage Soul Tool; the palm-sized metal ingot cast a blue halo under the light.

He then dug out those half-drawn blueprints, spread them on the table, and began to revise them.

He drew very slowly.

The direction of every circuit, the parameters of every node, and the curvature and loss of soul power flow all had to be calculated repeatedly.

It was a habit he had formed in the laboratory in his past life—speed was not a skill; stability was.

After finishing the first version, he reviewed it and was dissatisfied.

The curvature of the circuits was too steep, the soul power loss was too great, and it would overheat after only a few uses.

He crumpled it up and started drawing again.

In the second version, the circuits were smoothed out and the loss was reduced, but the core's response speed was too slow.

He thought for a moment and added a few micro-amplifiers at key nodes; the response speed increased, but the material usage was insufficient.

He crumpled it up again.

Halfway through the third version, he stopped and stared at the blueprint for a long time.

He was pondering a question—how to make this thing change the direction of gravity without consuming too much soul power.

This was not simple attraction or repulsion; it was changing the force itself.

He had spent his entire past life studying one thing: gravity.

But in this world, no one had ever researched it.

There were no formulas, no parameters, and no reference materials whatsoever.

He had to start from zero.

He picked up his pen and wrote a string of formulas on a blank sheet of paper to the side.

This was knowledge from his past life, reinterpreted through the Soul Tool theory of this world.

After finishing, he reviewed it, adjusted a few parameters, and reviewed it again.

Then, he began to draw the third version.

This version was drawn even more slowly, with every circuit requiring repeated confirmation.

His fingers moved across the blueprint, light and steady; his breathing was shallow, and his entire being seemed frozen in place.

When Ye Xinglan arrived, he was drawing the final section of the circuit.

She stood at the doorway, not entering, leaning against the doorframe to watch.

The table was covered in blueprints, and the Blue Pregnancy Copper sat at the very edge, untouched.

Yun Jingheng kept his head lowered, the tip of his pen scratching softly against the paper.

She could not understand what he was drawing; it was not the circuits she had learned, but something else entirely.

The lines were finer, the structure denser, like a precise web.

She looked at his profile and suddenly felt that the way he looked when focused was different from usual.

Usually, he was always indifferent, as if nothing mattered.

But now, there was something burning in his eyes.

She watched for a while, chose not to disturb him, and turned to leave.

After walking a few steps, she looked back once more.

The door was open, and the light spilling from within cast his shadow onto the floor—long and very quiet.

Yun Jingheng finished the final section of the circuit, set down his pen, and let out a long breath.

He picked up the blueprint and reviewed it from beginning to end.

The third version was much better than the previous two.

The curvature of the circuits is just right, the soul power consumption is kept within an acceptable range, and the response speed is fast enough.

But there is still one problem left unsolved—the materials he has on hand cannot be used to make this thing.

The key nodes he requires need other types of metal to be realized.

He looked at the blueprint and fell silent for a moment.

Then, he picked up a pen and wrote a line on the edge of the blueprint: "Requires other compatible metals."

After writing, he folded the blueprint and put it away into his storage Soul Tool along with the Blue Pregnancy Copper.

The object couldn't be made, but the blueprint was finished.

He would figure out a way when he returned.

He stood up and stretched his neck.

Ya Li was sitting in a chair reading a book; seeing him stand up, she looked up, "Finished drawing?"

Yun Jingheng nodded, "Can't make it, but the blueprint is done."

Ya Li smiled, "No need to rush then."

Yun Jingheng sat down beside her, leaning back against the sofa.

Outside the window, the sky had already turned dark.

The sea breeze blew in, carrying a salty scent.

He closed his eyes, his mind still turning over those circuits and parameters.

Ya Li glanced at him and reached out to ruffle his hair, "Hungry?"

Yun Jingheng opened his eyes, "A little."

Ya Li stood up and took his hand, leading him toward the dining room.

Ye Xinglan was already in the dining room, a bowl of noodles set before her, untouched.

Seeing Yun Jingheng enter, she looked up, "Finished drawing?"

Yun Jingheng nodded, "Can't make it, but the blueprint is done."

Ye Xinglan frowned, "Why can't you make it?"

Yun Jingheng sat down across from her.

"Not enough materials. There are a few key nodes that require other metals to function."

Ye Xinglan thought for a moment, "Find them when we go back?"

Yun Jingheng shook his head, "I actually have an idea..."

Ye Xinglan didn't ask further and lowered her head to eat her noodles.

After one bite, she looked up again, "That thing you drew, what exactly is it?"

Yun Jingheng thought about it, "A small device. It can alter gravity within a certain range."

Ye Xinglan's chopsticks paused, "What is gravity?"

Yun Jingheng fell silent for a moment.

This question was not easy to explain.

He picked up a cup from the table and placed it on the surface.

"Do you know why the cup falls downward instead of floating upward?"

Ye Xinglan looked at him, "Because it's heavy."

"Correct. Heaviness is a manifestation of gravity."

Yun Jingheng said, "Gravity is the force of mutual attraction between objects. The earth attracts the cup, and the cup also attracts the earth. It's just that the earth is so massive that the cup's attraction is imperceptible."

Ye Xinglan was stunned, "The cup is also attracting the earth?"

"Theoretically, yes."

Yun Jingheng said, "But the force is too small to be measured."

Ye Xinglan stared at him for several seconds, "How do you know all this?"

Yun Jingheng was prepared, "Read it in a book."

Ye Xinglan didn't ask further; she lowered her head to continue eating her noodles, but the thought was still turning in her mind—the cup is also attracting the earth.

She looked up at Yun Jingheng.

The books this person reads don't seem to be the same kind as the ones she reads.

Ya Li sat to the side, listening to the two children's conversation, the corners of her mouth curving upward.

She said nothing, simply placing a helping of vegetables into Yun Jingheng's bowl.

The next day.

The Shrek exhibition match teams had all ceased participation; with the semi-finals approaching, there was no need to continue.

Yun Jingheng lay on his bed, spreading the blueprint out beside his pillow.

Sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, falling upon the dense, intricate circuits. He had studied them countless times; every circuit and every node was etched into his mind, yet one problem remained insurmountable: the materials were insufficient.

The items he had brought back from the Soul Guidance Teaching Building had been partially consumed by the telescope project, and the rest remained in a box.

The cores, conductive wires, and metal frames were all high-quality, but they were incompatible with this blueprint.

He required a high-purity soul guidance core as a base; the existing ones contained too many impurities, which would lead to significant soul power loss.

He needed at least three ultra-fine conductive wires; the ones he had were too thick to fit into the circuits carved onto the Blue Pregnancy Copper.

He needed a stable soul power output terminal; the current ones had fluctuations that were too erratic, which would cause the gravity regulator to pulse inconsistently.

He flipped the blueprint over and began to list the requirements on the back.

Base core, conductive wires, output terminal, and a few smaller components.

Beside each item, he noted the specific requirements—purity, diameter, and fluctuation range—all written out clearly.

After finishing the list, he stared at it and fell into a brief silence.

He could not acquire these things on his own.

Shrek's warehouse had them, but Aunt Cai had mentioned that the Soul Guidance department's budget was not exactly flush, and he felt embarrassed to ask for more.

He could also go to his mother and ask her to help him find a Divine Craftsman to forge them, but he felt that would be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

For a palm-sized device, there was no need to disturb a figure of that caliber.

He pondered for a moment, and suddenly, a person came to mind: Tang Wulin.

That piece of Blue Pregnancy Copper had been forged by him, and its quality was excellent.

Moreover, as a blacksmith, he should know quite a few material suppliers, or at the very least, know where to acquire such things.

He picked up his communicator and scrolled to Tang Wulin's number.

He had added it when he bought the Blue Pregnancy Copper, but they had never spoken since.

He hesitated for a moment before sending a message.

"Tang Wulin, where are you?"

Tang Wulin was sitting at his desk, lost in thought.

He was happy to have taken second place in the forging competition today, but upon returning to his room, he began to dwell on the piece of metal he hadn't forged perfectly.

He kept feeling that he could have done better.

His communicator lit up; he picked it up, glanced at it, and froze.

Yun Jingheng?

That Yun Jingheng from Shrek?

Why was he suddenly sending a message?

Tang Wulin stared at the line of text for several seconds, feeling a bit bewildered.

He instinctively wanted to reply, "Do you need something?" but after typing a few words, he deleted them.

In the end, he only replied, "I'm at the Sky Sea Hotel, room 301."

After sending it, he paused.

Why did he give him his room number?

They weren't even close.

But the message had already been sent and couldn't be recalled. He stared at the communicator for a long time, but the other party didn't reply.

He assumed Yun Jingheng wouldn't come, breathed a sigh of relief, placed the communicator on the table, and went back to his daze.

Some time later, there was a knock at the door. He assumed it was Xie Xie or Teacher Wu.

Tang Wulin stood up, walked to the door, and opened it.

Yun Jingheng stood in the doorway, wearing that silver-white jacket, his hair draped over his shoulders.

He looked at Tang Wulin, and Tang Wulin looked at him.

"You... why are you here?" Tang Wulin asked.

"...Didn't you send me the address?"

Tang Wulin: "..."

I didn't think you'd actually come...