Chapter 292

Liang Zhanglao looked at his disciple, who ran out of the tent.

A quarter of an hour later, he returned, holding a wooden bead in his hand.

This was the Deep Sea Wood bead where the beast soul resided.

He Lingchuan took it and looked; it seemed to be the soul of a giant ape.

Hmm, not bad, no passing off inferior goods as superior; the transaction was complete.

Liang Zhanglao smiled at him, his expression calming down, still neither cold nor hot.

Watching his departing back, He Lingchuan shrugged.

Although the history spanning nearly three thousand years is complex, it cannot be blamed solely on the gods and demons for being good at tempting people's hearts, or solely on the world for forgetting their ancestors. The immortal sects also did many dishonorable things, not only obliterating the heavenly merits established by their predecessors but also squandering their goodwill among the common people.

These were things Liang Zhanglao deliberately didn't mention, but He Lingchuan had read many such works while gnawing on books as food in the Panlong dream library, so he wouldn't just listen to one side.

See, reading more leisure books really has its benefits, right?

Next, he gulped down his breakfast and went to the military camp to find someone.

Two quarters of an hour later, he went to find Lingguang again.

The monkey had occupied a tent all by itself to study intently, and no one was allowed to enter. For the sake of Young Master He, and also because of its remarkable ability to help the endangered and heal the sick, the logistics officer didn't mind that it had just turned the whole camp upside down last night.

As soon as He Lingchuan entered the tent, Lingguang turned around, glared, and wanted to scold, but when it saw it was him, the monkey's mouth shrank back.

"Did you come up with anything?"

Lingguang wilted instantly, "It's going to take some time."

He Lingchuan saw its two monkey eyes were red, knowing it had stayed up all night without sleep. "Even the great medieval immortal beings didn't figure out the way, and you want to claim credit in one night? Alright, you rest for a while, and by the way, lend me your alchemy furnace."

The monkey became nervous immediately; as a medicine ape, the alchemy furnace was its lifeblood: "What are you going to do?"

"I want to refine a treasure, and I don't have a suitable furnace on hand. Just lend it to me for a moment; it'll be very quick."

"What medicine do you need? I'll refine it for you."

"I want to refine a prop; can you do it?" He Lingchuan scanned the tent, not seeing the alchemy furnace.

The monkey was even more surprised: "Refining artifacts? You?" Refining what kind of artifact on the front lines? Why not go back to Dunyu City and find Li Fubo? "Hurry up, don't dawdle, I won't break your furnace!" He Lingchuan was impatient, "I'm just refining a copper man, extremely simple!"

"Refining a copper man?" Lingguang was stunned, "My furnace won't fit it."

"A small one." He Lingchuan gestured, "Just half the size of my palm."

He urged it repeatedly before Lingguang reluctantly took out a toy-like three-legged small furnace from its pocket and placed it on the ground, muttering a few incantations.

The brass furnace grew larger instantly, about six feet high, its whole body bright enough to reflect light.

It was evident how much Lingguang usually cherished it.

He Lingchuan had pondered the Jin Jia Copper Man technique in the Panlong dream, going over every detail repeatedly; after all, the refining cost was extremely high, and even if there was a slight mistake, he couldn't afford it.

Fortunately, this secret technique had a characteristic:

The difficulty of the copper man technique lies in how the master controls it, while refining it is actually simple, with a total of only four or five steps.

For a novice like him, it was quite friendly.

The furnace was already heated, the heat was at three levels, and He Lingchuan followed the diagrams in the secret scroll, putting materials like Yu Gold and refined iron into it one by one.

When he checked the blueprints in the dream, he found that he actually had six of the seven or eight materials needed to refine the copper man on hand! Those were all scraps left over from remaking the Floating Life Treasure Blade; he hadn't had time to clear out his storage ring, and now they had become ready-made materials. Especially Yu Gold and refined iron, which were the most critical; without them, the copper man would just be copper mud, with no roots or bones to speak of.

As for the remaining one or two that were missing, at worst, the copper man's outer skin wouldn't be as thick and strong, and its movements wouldn't be as flexible. The secret scroll also explained that if the maker had insights later, they could add extra materials during refining to DIY a more distinctive Jin Jia Copper Man.

He Lingchuan didn't need anything more distinctive at this stage; he just wanted a set of copper skin and iron bones that could defend, fight, and assist.

He also understood Lingguang's surprise, but after the dream last night, Wen Daolun reminded him again that he was burdened with baleful omens that were not easily resolved, which made his sense of urgency even greater, so he decided to refine the copper man as soon as possible.

There is no such thing as perfect preparation in this world; what is suitable right now is the best.

He kept urging Lingguang to raise the furnace temperature, otherwise the Yu Gold wouldn't melt at all. It was thanks to the treasure furnace in Lingguang's hands that it was powerful, and some special elixirs actually required adding metals and various hard woods that were difficult to burn, otherwise ordinary medicine furnaces could only heat up to four or five hundred degrees, not even melting iron.

The alchemy furnace continued to heat up, and Lingguang didn't know its limits either, becoming increasingly cautious. Fortunately, the Yu Gold, which was the most difficult to melt, began to soften, and Lingguang carefully controlled the furnace temperature while He Lingchuan took out a set of templates from his bosom: "Pour it here."

Lingguang didn't dare to speak, its eyes clearly asking: "Where did you get this?"

This template was two palms wide in total, with a human-shaped groove in the middle, and was divided into many layers and parts; it was a very standard metal molding template.

This was the front line of a war; where did He Lingchuan get this whole set of templates in a rush?

He grinned, "Someone summoned a Green Scarf Warrior to beat a cow yesterday, remember?"

Lingguang nodded.

"He had it there; I borrowed it for two taels of silver, and I have to return it when I'm done." The person didn't refine a Jin Jia Copper Man, but the appearance of such large summoned objects was not much different, so borrowing a universal template was fine.

Inner, men focus on the inner! The monkey rolled its eyes; what kind of person is this.

Next, it was time for layered and sectional casting. Fortunately, there were compartments in the medicine ape's alchemy furnace to avoid confusing the medicinal properties. At this time, He Lingchuan instructed Lingguang to pour refined iron, red copper, frost silver, and Yu Gold into the molds separately to correspond to the copper man's roots, muscles, tendons, and vitality.

The monkey's hands were steady, and He Lingchuan's incantations were fast, so there were no mistakes.

After the first layer of roots was cast, while the molten iron hadn't completely solidified, He Lingchuan cut his wrist to let out some blood, finished the master-recognition procedure, and then dipped the blood to engrave runes on the iron bones.

Each rune was smaller than a fly's head, written in the Ancient Immortal language. At this time, he had to thank Sun Fuling; Teacher Sun's strict tutoring over the past few days had made his foundation in the Ancient Immortal language more solid, allowing him to not write a single symbol wrong in this race against time—

If he wrote even one wrong, the copper man would have to be refined again.

Before the roots solidified, he finally engraved all the runes.

The subsequent processes went normally one by one, and when all the metal liquid had completely solidified, he obtained a copper man... complete set of components.

He Lingchuan assembled this DIY copper man, installed the beast soul he had just obtained as its brain, stuffed a small piece of mysterious crystal into its back heart, and began to try reciting the incantations to control it.

It is said that the first communication is the most critical; whether you can be as one with it later depends on the first time.

Under his repeated trials, perhaps because it was annoyed, the little copper man finally tilted its head, looked at He Lingchuan, and then gave him the middle finger.

This was the action the master wanted it to make. It's just that He Lingchuan originally wanted it to raise its index finger.

"It's done, it's done!" He Lingchuan clapped his hands; this kind of excitement was only comparable to the first time he received a toy seventeen or eighteen years ago. As for the minor error of raising the wrong finger, it should be fine after multiple control adjustments, or perhaps it was because he cut corners during refining and missed two types.

Lingguang watched eagerly, having sweated profusely from controlling the fire just now: "How big can it get?"

"At least it should be a zhang high, right?"

The man and the monkey looked at each other and said in unison: "Let's go, let's go out and try!"

The personal guards outside the tent were terrified: what tricks do these two ancestors want to play now? Didn't they play enough last night? ￥￥￥￥￥

Baili Qing's deputy commander, Fu Xin, took more than a dozen personal guards north, walking mountain roads for a whole day before arriving at Xinqiao Township.

Before they even entered the township, two men jumped out from the bushes by the roadside.

Fu Xin was startled and drew his sword to look, only to find they were his own people.

The other side said, "General Hong ordered us to wait here to receive General Baili."

Fu Xin's hand gripping the sword tightened: "General Baili has already sacrificed himself; at the mine pit... only we have come over."

The two were shocked: "The others, what about the others?"

Fu Xin shook his head.

The two looked distressed, and Fu Xin said bitterly: "You followed Hong Chenglue; tell me, did you intercept the government troops coming from the west?"

The two soldiers looked at each other and didn't say a word.

Fu Xin also knew the answer and gritted his teeth: "Lead the way."

The two still had to ask as a matter of routine: "Are there any pursuing troops behind?"

"No, we've verified it several times!" The muscles on Fu Xin's cheeks twitched, "Hurry up and lead the way!"

The two then led them into the mountain forest, sneaking toward the northeast.

"Hong Chenglue is not in Xinqiao Township?" Fu Xin was no longer polite now, calling Grand General Hong by his full name.

"No, General Hong chose another location."

The dozen or so people walked further and further into remote areas, but there were always animal trails to follow, and Fu Xin also found many fresh horse hoof prints.

They walked for another four or five hours like this, even climbing to the mountainside, before the guide said they had arrived.

"Right here?"

Fu Xin looked up at the stronghold above.

Wooden fence walls, anti-horse stakes, watchtowers, and hanging gates, everything was there, and looking at it, it had been there for some years; it didn't look like it had just been built.

He followed the guide inside, not missing the traces of sword and axe cuts everywhere, as well as bloodstains that hadn't been cleaned up.

There were seventeen or eighteen rows of houses in the mountain stronghold, all connected together, with thick earthen walls, small doors and windows, and the windows were positioned quite high; it was clearly a combination of a bunker and a house.

Most importantly, there were traces of people having lived here for a long time.

"What was this place originally?"

"A thief's den." The guiding soldier said, "The local name is Jin Yin Mountain. We just took the bandit's lair last night. General Hong said we will stay here for the time being."

The main text yesterday mentioned that He Lingchuan didn't provide his birth date to Wen Daolun because he came from more than a hundred years later, and his real birth date didn't match.

I'm talking about the birthday more than a hundred years later, not the birth date more than a hundred years later; these are two completely different things. Modern people are already used to the Gregorian calendar, and this stuff is troublesome to explain, so I glossed over it without expanding.

Usually, I don't interpret the content of the text to avoid affecting everyone's reading pleasure. But since a reader specifically brought it up, I'll tell you why the protagonist refuses to say it.

The birth date corresponds to the four pillars of the year, month, day, and hour, each pillar having two characters, totaling eight characters. Sixty years is a cycle, which is a reincarnation, repeating over and over.

There's nothing that can't be said about the month, day, and hour.

It's mainly the year.

Let's take an example: suppose you were born in 2000 (Gengchen Year) and are 22 years old this year. You travel to 1750 and tell Qianlong that you were born in the Gengchen Year; then Qianlong understands the Gengchen Year you mentioned as 1700.

Good fellow, you were born 11 years earlier than Qianlong, and you are already 50 years old but still have the baby face of a 22-year-old; then there are two possibilities:

One, you are deceiving the emperor.

Two, you are an ageless demon.

Either way, the outcome won't be good.

The same applies to He Lingchuan and Wen Daolun.

Just a shallow annotation, everyone can just take a look.

(End of chapter)