The Concept of the "Body Refining Furnace"

Time quietly passed amid the Puppet Manufacturing Department's orderly, fulfilling routine. Like a stream merging into a river, Shaye quickly adapted to his new environment. His exquisite craftsmanship and keen understanding of structure soon earned the recognition of the third team's members, especially Tota. The doubtful looks once directed at him because of his age and size gradually gave way to admiration and curiosity.

Yet beneath this surface-level integration, a deep sense of anxiety grew day by day within Shaye. The department's work exposed him to more advanced Puppet Technique, but it also allowed him to see more clearly the vast gulf between himself and a true puppet master.

He could polish the most precise components, understand the most complex transmission structures, and even inscribe basic runes with minimal error on practice boards. But whenever he saw his coworkers pour immense amounts of chakra into puppet cores, driving war machines several meters tall through all kinds of complicated movements; whenever he saw puppet arms on the testing grounds shoot scorching flames or sharp blades, he could feel with absolute clarity just how pitifully inadequate his own chakra reserves were.

No matter how sophisticated his "Spider" was, it could not change the fact that his own body was frail. He was like an engineer with the mind of a top-tier designer but equipped with an old-fashioned tractor—endless ideas and blueprints, yet lacking the most basic power needed to drive it all. In an environment where strength was so plainly compared, that sense of helplessness became especially glaring.

This had to change! This body had to be repaired at its root! This was no longer a vague desire, but the ultimate problem that urgently needed solving.

He began seizing every opportunity to frantically search through the medical materials and human meridian diagrams Elder Chiyo allowed him to read, looking for records concerning "physical improvement," "foundation restoration," and "potential stimulation." However, the results were discouraging. Traditional Medical Ninjutsu focused more on treating acquired injuries and illnesses. His congenital, fundamental weakness was regarded as an almost irreversible problem, with very few records on it, most of them vague and incomplete.

Once, he watched a large puppet energy core being tested in the department. The core operated violently, radiating vast yet stable energy fluctuations. Then, a fragment of a memory from his previous life flashed through his mind—the wondrous transformation chamber that frail Steve Rogers had entered in Captain America! Using some unknown energy, it had forcibly rewritten his life blueprint and forged a perfect soldier!

"Energy... external energy injection... transformation..." Shaye's black eyes suddenly lit up!

Was chakra not an all-purpose form of life energy? It could be used for destruction, but also for creation and healing! Since microscopic Medical Ninjutsu stimulation had limited effects, could he instead use refined chakra energy on a macroscopic, large-scale, targeted level—like tempering steel—to subject the entire body to a kind of "baptism" and "reconstruction"?

The idea made his heart race. He immediately seized upon the inspiration and began feverishly devising possibilities. He envisioned building a device similar to an "energy chamber." A person would lie inside while a stable, refined chakra energy source was supplied from outside. Through a complex energy-conduction system, the energy would permeate every cell in the body, forcibly activating cells, stimulating division and regeneration, and repairing congenital defects...

To that end, he specifically sought Elder Chiyo's guidance again, discreetly proposing the idea of "using a stable external energy environment to strengthen oneself."

After listening, Elder Chiyo pondered for a long time. At last, she slowly shook her head and poured cold water over his idea. "It is quite an ingenious thought. But chakra is not water without a source; it carries a powerful personal spiritual imprint. Chakra from another body is practically poison to others. Forcibly infusing it will only trigger intense rejection, perhaps even irreversible damage. This path... will be difficult." Her words identified the most critical technical barrier—energy rejection.

Unwilling to give up, he later found an opportunity to consult Sasori, discussing the possibility from the technical perspective of pure energy conversion and injection.

Sasori had been assembling a puppet's eye structure at the time. Without even looking up, he gave a cold assessment. "An inefficient and dangerous method of energy application. Pursuing physical enhancement is meaningless. The end of frail life is nothing but decay. Only by abandoning the fickle flesh and embracing the eternal art of puppetry can one reach the ultimate path." Sasori's obsession gave Shaye a warning from another direction, but it likewise rejected his idea.

Having been denied twice by authorities from different angles, Shaye fell into deep despair. Was this path truly impossible? Could the shackles of his body really not be broken?

He sat despondently before his workbench, his fingers unconsciously tracing across the dust-covered surface. In his mind, fragments of memories from his previous life and the knowledge system of this life tangled and churned chaotically... super-soldier serum... energy chamber... the nature of chakra... Medical Ninjutsu... energy rejection...

Just as despair was about to swallow him whole, a term—a miraculous creation from a Chinese animated series he had once watched—struck his mind like lightning splitting the darkness!

Under One Person... Ma Xianhong... the "Body Refining Furnace"!

That miraculous artifact could transform the abilities of gifted individuals and even grant supernatural abilities to ordinary people! Its core principle seemed to lie in "conversion" and "bestowal"! It did not directly infuse foreign energy, but instead used the furnace itself to "purify," "convert," and "harmonize" it!

"Conversion... harmonization...!" Shaye abruptly rose from the workbench, his eyes wide and his breathing suddenly quickening!

That was it! The key was not to directly infuse foreign chakra! What he needed was a "relay," or rather, a "converter"! Something capable of taking external energy—whether natural energy, tailed beast chakra, or chakra supplied by multiple people with differing attributes—and "purifying," "converting," and "harmonizing" it, erasing or neutralizing its personal imprint and turning it into the most fundamental, neutral, and easily absorbed form of pure energy!

Then, this "furnace" could safely, controllably, and precisely inject it into the target's body, gently and continuously repairing their foundation, improving their physique, and awakening their potential!

This concept perfectly bypassed the greatest obstacle: "energy rejection"!

"Body Refining Furnace... Yes! I'll call it the 'Body Refining Furnace'!" Shaye trembled with excitement as he suppressed his voice and cried out! At last, he had found a theoretical breakthrough! An incomparably clear direction suddenly opened before him!

This concept was wildly ambitious, and its technical difficulty far surpassed anything he could currently reach. It involved chakra technology, Sealing Technique (energy restraint and conversion), Puppet Technique (the furnace's structure and control), Medical Ninjutsu (life-energy guidance), and perhaps even advanced energy theory. Yet it was undoubtedly a theoretically viable path!

Never had his goal been so clear.

He knew that this would be the foremost project into which he would need to pour all his efforts for a very long time to come. And the first step was to design and manufacture that most crucial component—the "energy core" capable of steadily supplying and converting energy.

Shaye took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the wild joy in his heart before sitting back down at the workbench. His gaze became incomparably sharp as it fell upon those cold tools and components.

The blueprint of his dream had already been drawn. Next, he would use these hands, little by little, to turn this fantastical concept into a light that shone into reality.

Starting with repairing this body.

(End of Chapter)