Butterflies fly, gold foil butterflies flutter by

His junior fellow students had worked out the technical plan. The rest was all up to Shen Le.

He brought back a sample that his junior had lifted, separated, and cleaned, and placed it at the front of the workbench for reference.

Then he took out some gold foil he had lifted himself, switched on the Steam Iron, and followed the procedure his junior had given him, pressing down—

"What are you doing?!"

The shout made Shen Le's hand jerk. The Steam Iron nearly tipped upright, its heel about to jab straight into the gold foil.

Reacting swiftly, he tossed the Steam Iron aside, then turned to glare at Alloy Master.

"What are you doing?!"

"You're ironing gold! What did that gold foil ever do to you? Why are you roasting it with an iron?!"

To be fair, this procedure did defy common sense a little... Shen Le grudgingly forgave Alloy Master for interrupting and patiently explained it to him.

Understanding dawned on Alloy Master, and he gave a snort.

"You want to separate them sheet by sheet! That's easy. Just let me do it!"

Without any visible movement on his part, the clump of gold foil in front of them suddenly floated into the air.

Then, one after another, six or seven thin golden sheets flew out of the clump.

Some were brilliant gold, some dark gold, and some even reddish gold. Like butterflies, they fluttered all around the room. After circling once, they returned to the workbench and settled quietly, lying flat and still...

Shen Le gave Alloy Master an admiring thumbs-up. Alloy Master lifted his chin and grinned smugly.

"Well? Everyone has their specialty. You should just leave this sort of thing to me!"

Unfortunately... that probably wouldn't work. Shen Le closed his eyes slightly, carefully sensed