Insufficient Production Capacity

Over the next few days, although there weren't as many orders as on the first day, people waited outside Yi Xuan's courtyard gate every morning, offering up Spirit Stones and leaving their details.

Only when the grenade orders on his hands surpassed 150 did Yi Xuan have to stop accepting them.

"Senior Brother Yi? Why won't you sell to us? We're not in a hurry, so please just take the money!"

Looking at the sect disciples standing outside his courtyard gate, begging him to take their money, Yi Xuan almost couldn't resist. In the end, though, he steeled his heart and shook his head. "Fellow disciples, it's not that I don't want to sell grenades. Who would complain about having too many Spirit Stones? It's just that I've taken too many orders, and I can't keep up with making them!"

"That's all right!"

"That's right, Senior Brother Yi, we're in no hurry!"

Yi Xuan was weeping inside. In his previous life, he would never have dreamed that a day like this would come, when people would scramble to hand him money.

He shook his head and banished the strange thoughts from his mind. Looking at the people before him, Yi Xuan said, "It's not a matter of whether you're in a hurry. I couldn't bear to see my fellow disciples pay their Spirit Stones and then have to wait so long for their grenades!"

Seeing that they were still saying they weren't in a hurry, Yi Xuan continued, "Don't be anxious, either. Just because I'm not taking your orders now doesn't mean I'll never take them."

"Lately, I've been trying to improve the grenade manufacturing process. Once that's done, production capacity will increase. Then you might not even need to place orders—you could come and pick them up whenever you want!"

"Really?" a female disciple asked, her eyes sparkling with stars. Although they didn't know what Yi Xuan meant by manufacturing process or production capacity, they understood that he was trying to speed up grenade production.

Yi Xuan nodded.

Seeing Yi Xuan's attitude, the disciples stopped pressing him and left one after another.

Watching the people blocking his gate disappear at the mouth of the alley, Yi Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, but he also felt a headache coming on.

Seven days had passed since he had sold the grenades to Tang Haoqian. In those seven days, Yi Xuan had received orders for a total of 150 grenades.

Since the people who placed these orders had all heard about them from Tang Haoqian, they knew that Yi Xuan's current grenade production capacity was low, so they weren't in a hurry.

For the same reason, Yi Xuan had spent the past seven days lying flat.

It was only today, when Yi Xuan realized he had far too many orders on his hands, that he stopped accepting them and began worrying about making the grenades.

What he had told Tang Haoqian about needing a month to make one grenade was, of course, something Yi Xuan had made up on the spot.

If he really needed a month to make something like a grenade, he would be bringing shame on the Book of Technology in his head.

But Yi Xuan's current manufacturing capabilities were limited, after all, and he had to do practically everything himself. As a result, although making a grenade didn't take as long as a month, it still took Yi Xuan a full day to make one.

By that reckoning, 150 grenades would take five months. In other words, even if he started making them now, Yi Xuan would have to work without sleep or rest for five months to fill the orders on his hands.

So the question troubling Yi Xuan now was how to quickly increase grenade production capacity.

Yi Xuan had plenty of ideas in his head, of course. The simplest was to set up an automated production line. Then, let alone 150 grenades, even 1,500 grenades might be no more than a single day's output.

That was a little unrealistic for the current Yi Xuan, however. An automated production line involved too many things. To look no further, Yi Xuan didn't even have common components like pneumatic cylinders and motors. Was he supposed to develop them from scratch?

With that kind of time, Yi Xuan might as well just make the grenades by hand.

In a troubled mood, Yi Xuan went to the secret chamber where No. 01 was.

As Yi Xuan entered, the secret chamber lit up automatically, and a gentle voice came from all directions. "Boss! Welcome! No. 01 is at your service!"

Hearing No. 01's voice, Yi Xuan said helplessly, "If I'd known, I wouldn't have recorded the image of a flight attendant from my mind for you. Now every time I come down here, I feel like I'm about to board a plane!"

"But Boss, after analyzing it, I found that this is your favorite voice!" As No. 01 finished speaking, the computer screen lit up.

It was the same familiar windowa interface, but the middle-aged engineer who had been in the lower right corner was gone, replaced by a slender flight attendant.

The flight attendant stood with her hands folded over her abdomen, smiling at Yi Xuan.

Yi Xuan rolled his eyes. Not wanting to argue with No. 01 about it, he said, "No. 01, pull up the information on the True Essence Grenade."

Pop-up windows appeared one after another on the screen. Then No. 01 organized the True Essence Grenade information and displayed it.

Looking at the information before him, Yi Xuan muttered to himself, "How can I increase the production capacity of True Essence Grenades?"

As soon as he spoke, No. 01's screen began flickering again. Before Yi Xuan could stop it, a line of text appeared on the screen: "A mass-production plan for True Essence Grenades based on existing technology."

After reading a couple of lines, Yi Xuan suddenly understood. He slapped his head repeatedly, thinking, I'm so stupid. I couldn't even think of something this simple. Good thing I have No. 01, or who knows how long this would have troubled me.

The solution No. 01 proposed was also quite simple. In a word, it was mold processing.

By making molds and using them to manufacture the individual components of the grenades, Yi Xuan could free himself from making the parts and only need to assemble the grenades, greatly reducing the time required to manufacture them.

Yi Xuan sat down in front of No. 01 and began optimizing and adjusting the proposed plan.

Half a shichen later, a brand-new mass-production plan for True Essence Grenades appeared before Yi Xuan. He checked it again, and finding no problems, ordered No. 01 to begin designing the relevant molds according to the new plan.

Another half shichen later, No. 01 produced design models for all the molds. Looking at the three-dimensional images displayed on the computer screen, Yi Xuan nodded in satisfaction.

Yi Xuan copied the information from the three-dimensional images from No. 01's Jade Slip hard drive into his own mind. Then he went over to a strange-looking machine and placed a Spirit Stone in a slot. With a "ding," the machine started up.

This oddly shaped machine was the artifact-refining cauldron Yi Xuan used to refine artifacts. It looked nothing like a cauldron, however, being square and boxy. It was the artifact-refining cauldron Yi Xuan had improved using the power of technology. Though ugly to behold, its capabilities were more than a little superior to those of an ordinary artifact-refining cauldron.