Envisioning a 3D Printer

Yi Xuan shook his somewhat swollen, aching head and nodded. "Looks like this thing was just a fantasy of that senior from the sect! It could never be made to work!"

Hearing Yi Xuan's words, the Supreme Elder waved his hand, and a strand of True Essence lightly struck Yi Xuan on the head.

"Ow! Why did you hit me?" Yi Xuan asked, a little displeased. He had only just managed to ease the effects the Spirit Refining Instruction had on his head, and now the Supreme Elder had hit him there again. Yi Xuan didn't know whether everything was going wrong for his head today.

"You have the nerve to be angry? Since you found the sect records about that senior creating the Spirit Refining Instruction, how did you miss what came after?" the Supreme Elder asked, looking at Yi Xuan with a hint of reproach.

"There was more?" At Yi Xuan's question, the Supreme Elder couldn't help waving his hand again. Yi Xuan failed to dodge once more and took a solid hit to the head.

"Hmph! The records clearly stated that the sect senior succeeded in cultivating the Spirit Refining Instruction. The strength of his Divine Sense even reached that of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator!"

"What?" Yi Xuan said in surprise, holding his head. "How did he do it?"

The Supreme Elder shook his head. "Nobody knows. There's nothing about it in the sect records either. But I do have a guess!"

Yi Xuan waited curiously for the Supreme Elder's conclusion.

"That senior relied on his astonishing willpower to complete his cultivation of the Spirit Refining Instruction!"

Yi Xuan thought it over, then nodded in agreement. Apart from that explanation, he couldn't think of how the senior had done it either.

Remembering how it had felt when he was cultivating just now, Yi Xuan was still a little shaken. He really had no idea how strong that senior's willpower must have been to force himself to persevere all the way through.

Although Yi Xuan was usually very easygoing and didn't care much about many things, deep down he was a very particular person.

Yi Xuan was convinced that since that senior had succeeded in cultivating it, there was no reason he couldn't.

Having made up his mind, Yi Xuan said to the Supreme Elder, "Elder! May I take this Cultivation Method with me and study it more carefully?"

The Supreme Elder glanced at Yi Xuan in surprise, but nodded. "Take it. Nobody cultivates it anyway. As long as you don't lose it, you can keep it for as long as you want. But remember to return it when you're done with it!"

Yi Xuan nodded, left the sect grounds, and returned to his small courtyard.

Yi Xuan had originally planned to spend most of the day in the Scripture Repository and come down the mountain before dinner.

He hadn't expected that looking through the records alone would take two days, and talking with the Supreme Elder afterward would take nearly half a day more. He wondered how that kid Liang Shi's grenade assembly practice had gone in all that time.

He pushed open the courtyard gate and saw Liang Shi just as he had been two days ago, sitting at the stone table and fiddling with grenade parts.

Hearing the courtyard gate open, Liang Shi saw Yi Xuan walk in and said with delight, "Sir! You're finally back!"

Yi Xuan nodded and looked at the parts on the stone table. The intact grenade he had left behind had also been taken apart by the kid.

Yi Xuan went over and sat down at the stone table. Looking at Liang Shi, he asked, "How's your progress? Can you put it together?"

Liang Shi nodded, then shook his head. "I can put it together, but I don't know if I've done it right."

Yi Xuan was quite pleased to hear that. After all, he had only demonstrated the assembly process once. Putting a grenade together hadn't looked complicated in Yi Xuan's hands, but that was because he had designed it and knew every part of its construction like the back of his hand.

For anyone else, hoping to learn it after watching just once was nothing but a fool's dream. Yi Xuan had never expected Liang Shi to assemble it perfectly. He had only wanted to see whether the child would keep practicing and whether he would use his head during the assembly process.

"All right, put one together and let me see!"

At Yi Xuan's words, Liang Shi sat down, placed both hands on the table, and began assembling it.

Yi Xuan silently kept time while watching Liang Shi's hands.

As Liang Shi's hands moved faster and faster, Yi Xuan grew more and more surprised. The assembly was already more than halfway done, yet there hadn't been a single mistake in Liang Shi's steps.

Even if Yi Xuan watched something else of the same complexity being assembled once, he wouldn't be confident he could do as well. He hadn't expected Liang Shi to be so gifted in this area.

When the final part went in, the grenade was fully assembled. It had taken less than nine minutes!

Judging by assembly speed alone, Liang Shi had already surpassed Yi Xuan. Even Yi Xuan's fastest previous assembly had only just matched Liang Shi's time on this attempt.

Looking at the kid in front of him, Yi Xuan no longer knew what to say.

Holding the newly assembled grenade, Liang Shi asked, "Sir, how did I do? Did I take too long?"

Yi Xuan was somewhat speechless and didn't know how to respond. What could he say? Liang Shi had completely surpassed him in the steps, accuracy, and time.

Yi Xuan could only let his gaze wander and say, "Not bad! Keep it up!"

Hearing Yi Xuan's approval, Liang Shi broke into a delighted smile.

"Starting tomorrow, come over every morning. I'll have the grenade parts ready, and you'll assemble the grenades! Understood?"

Hearing that Yi Xuan had finally given him work again, Liang Shi nodded happily and skipped out of Yi Xuan's home.

As Yi Xuan walked toward the secret chamber in his home, he thought, Does this mean I'll be idle again? Hehe, an evil capitalist!

In the secret chamber, Yi Xuan restarted the two artifact-refining cauldrons that had been on standby. After inputting some more information into No. 01, he sat in front of the stone table where No. 01 was and stared into space.

"Boss? Is something troubling you?" The flight attendant image on No. 01's screen interrupted Yi Xuan's thoughts.

At the same time, inspiration flashed through Yi Xuan's mind, and he had an answer.

Yi Xuan had been considering how both of his existing artifact-refining cauldrons were fully occupied, and how the cauldrons he made later would likewise have to be put to work producing grenades. That would leave the production capacity in his secret chamber entirely devoted to grenades, with none left for his other research.

That wouldn't do.

So Yi Xuan had been wondering whether to make a few CNC lathes, milling machines, and other machining equipment.

But such equipment took up a lot of space and was very bulky, and its machining methods were also very limited. That didn't meet Yi Xuan's requirements. After thinking for a long time without coming up with anything, Yi Xuan had begun to let his mind wander into the vast beyond.

He hadn't expected that the moment No. 01 brought him out of it, he would think of something useful he had used in his previous life—a 3D printer.