Chapter 93: Feng Yan's

In Feng Yan's office, Wang Hao stared at the message from "Tie Jiang Li", his eyes wide like copper bells.

"Damn! Feng bro, what... what's going on?"

Wang Hao pointed at the communicator screen, lowered his voice, his face full of disbelief.

""Tie Jiang Li"? That name sounds like an old blacksmith at the village entrance!"

"How... how does he know what we lack?"

"And a 'non-mainstream technical route'? Could he be a con artist?"

"Whether he's a con artist, we'll know when we meet." Feng Yan spoke calmly, but his eyes were sharp.

"Being able to contact me precisely right after the ban was issued, and knowing our internal technical bottleneck code name, is not simple in itself."

"Moreover, the 'old place' refers to an offline safe house we agreed upon during an informal video chat I once had with him."

He quickly operated the computer, pulling up limited information on "Tie Jiang Li".

On the screen appeared an unremarkable middle-aged man.

The background was a smoky shack piled with various metal materials and rudimentary equipment.

In the video, "Tie Jiang Li" was processing a metal ingot flashing with an odd luster using a set of smelting equipment that looked utterly primitive.

"I previously followed him because he posted some videos about 'folk' metal smelting techniques."

"The tested performance parameters even approached those of some imported high-end alloys."

"But the cost is said to be extremely low, and the technique is entirely his own unorthodox method."

Feng Yan explained, "At the time I only thought it was a strange oddity, never expecting..."

"Never expected that at this critical juncture, he would come to us on his own!" Wang Hao smacked his lips.

"Feng bro, you were just scrolling videos to kill time... and you actually fished out a treasure?"

"Cut the chatter." Feng Yan glared at him, then quickly made a decision.

"Come with me. Bring two reliable security members and drive an inconspicuous civilian-plate vehicle."

"Notify Old Li and Guangzi, the meeting continues; let them first internally discuss backup plans and steady everyone's emotions."

"We'll go quickly and return quickly."

"Understood!" Seeing Feng Yan's solemn expression, Wang Hao also dropped his joking attitude and immediately turned to arrange things.

An hour later, a gray domestic SUV silently drove out of the Longyin Research Institute.

Merging into city traffic, it eventually turned into an old industrial zone at the urban-suburban fringe.

Here, small processing plants, scrap recycling stations, and warehouses are scattered everywhere.

The environment is noisy, contrasting starkly with Dragon Chant's futuristic new campus, as if they were two different worlds.

Following the navigation, the vehicle finally stopped at the gate of a large courtyard bearing a weathered sign that read "Li's Metal Processing".

The courtyard walls were mottled, the iron gate half-closed, and from inside came the clinking of metal strikes mixed with a distinctive smell of coal soot, metal, and oil.

"This is the place." Feng Yan took a deep breath, pushed the door open, and stepped out.

Wang Hao and two plainclothes security members, eyes alert, followed closely behind.

The courtyard was piled with various shapes of scrap metal and semi-finished products.

A middle-aged man wearing oil-stained work clothes, muscular build, dark skin.

He had his back to them, swinging a large hammer, striking a red-hot metal piece, his movements full of primal strength.

"Master Li?" Feng Yan called out.

The man stopped, turned, wiped sweat with the towel around his neck, revealing a weathered yet bright-eyed square face.

He sized up Feng Yan and the others, his gaze lingering on Feng Yan's face for a moment, then nodded.

His voice boomed: "Section Leader Feng? You came fast. Let's talk inside."

He set down the hammer and led them through the clutter-filled courtyard.

They entered a side room equally cluttered but resembling both a laboratory and an office.

Inside, it was a jumble of unnamed instruments, crucibles, grinding equipment, computers, and 3D printers all mixed together.

The walls were covered with dense data sheets and the periodic table.

In the corner there was even a modified microwave oven and pressure cooker, looking extremely bizarre.

"Conditions are simple, don't mind." Tie Jiang Li pulled out a relatively clean chair for Feng Yan.

He himself sat on a toolbox, while Wang Hao and the security members could only stand.

"Master Li, let's skip the pleasantries." Feng Yan got straight to the point, locking eyes with him.

"Your information is timely. I want to know what you mean by the 'non-mainstream technical route'."

"What exactly does it refer to? And how do you know we urgently need these?"

"Tie Jiang Li" grinned, revealing a mouth of smoke-stained, slightly yellow teeth, his eyes showing shrewdness and confidence:

"Section Leader Feng is a straightforward person. How do I know?"

"Dragon Chant is now a big tree attracting wind; with Eagle Country's crackdown, anyone with a bit of insight in the circle can guess where it hurts you."

He picked up an inconspicuous metal chunk from the table, its surface marked with strange cloud-like patterns, and weighed it in his hand:

"As for the route, put simply, it's just not taking their Yangguan Road."

"They use vacuum arc furnaces and electron-beam levitation melting, pursuing extreme purity and uniformity."

"Here, I use folk methods."

He pointed to the modified microwave oven and pressure cooker in the corner:

"See? Microwaves trigger in-situ reactions of metal powder, the pressure cooker..."

"Oh no, it's a homemade hot isostatic press, used to treat some special composite materials."

"My approach is to use non-equilibrium solidification and rapid cooling, deliberately creating 'defects' in the material to form special nanoscale precipitates and grain boundary structures."

"By the wording of their textbooks, this is called 'unorthodox methods', but the thing we make sometimes has performance that's devilishly good!"

He walked over to a material testing device that looked like he had assembled himself, and fixed that metal block onto it:

"Words are unverified; let's try this."

"This is the 'Luandu-1' alloy I hammered together from scrap aluminum, scrap titanium offcuts, and a few other things."

The instrument started up, applying pressure.

The numbers on the data display began to soar!

Wang Hao leaned in to look, and when he saw the final strength and toughness figures, he couldn't help but gasp sharply:

"Damn! This… this is almost catching up with our 'Cloud Eagle-3 series'!"

"Are you sure this was made from scrap?!"

"It's genuine, no doubt." Tie Jiang Li said flatly, as if mentioning something trivial.

"The cost is less than one‑tenth of imported material."

"The only issue… performance is a bit unstable; out of ten furnaces, maybe one or two produce top‑grade batches."

"The rest might just be solid scrap iron."

Feng Yan's heart pounded. The performance neared top‑tier special alloy, with extremely low cost!

Although there are stability issues, this is undeniably a hopeful path!

If it can be mass‑produced, even with a lower success rate, it would be enough to solve the supply‑cut crisis of the 'Cloud Eagle-3 series'!

"And the motor?" Feng Yan pressed, "Do you have a way to make a high‑power‑density motor?"

"I'm not very good at core motor design," Tie Jiang Li shook his head, but then changed tack.

"However, I can supply a key material—a high magnetic‑energy‑product, high‑Curie‑point amorphous soft magnetic material."

"This stuff is one of the cores of an efficient motor magnetic circuit; my homebrew method can produce samples whose performance is comparable, even more stable at certain extreme temperatures."

"With it, when you design your own motors, won't you have fewer concerns?"

He again rummaged through a pile of junk and pulled out a few small discs, handing them to Feng Yan:

"This is a sample; you can take it back for testing."

Feng Yan took the seemingly unremarkable small disc and felt its weight was not light.

He suppressed his excitement and asked in a deep voice, "Master Li, you know the nature of our project."

"If you are willing to help, what are the conditions?"

Tie Jiang Li's smile faded a bit, and his eyes grew solemn:

"Group Leader Feng, old Li is just a craftsman who likes to tinker with these iron lumps."

"In the past, when I produced something good, no one recognized its value; either I was called a fraud, or big factories bought the patents for a pittance."

"I'm aggrieved!"

He pointed at the cluttered room:

"I just want a place where I can safely work on my unorthodox methods."

"My methods need more professional equipment and systematic research to verify and refine them."

"I've heard that Longyin is unconventional."

"It can accommodate geniuses like Engineer Li who emerge from a warehouse, and talents like Engineer Wang who treat missiles like fireworks…"

He stared intensely at Feng Yan:

"I have only one condition: let me join you! Not just a name on paper, but to work with real steel!"

"Give me a laboratory, even the smallest kind!"

"Let me turn these homebrew methods into materials for a true 'national heavy equipment'!"

"Money doesn't matter; I just want the things I've spent my life refining to be put to great use, to hit the faces of Eagle Country bastards!"

Feng Yan looked at the hot‑eyed, rough‑handed folk craftsman before him, as if he saw Li Yang, who once toiled away in a warehouse.

He no longer hesitated in his heart.

"Alright!" Feng Yan stretched out his hand and firmly grasped Tie Jiang Li's hand, which was covered with old calluses and burn scars.

"Master Li, welcome to Longyin!"

"In the name of the head of the Longyin Research Institute, I formally invite you to serve as chief consultant of our special materials laboratory!"

"The laboratory and equipment, I'll take care of!"

Tie Jiang Li's hand trembled slightly, his eyes reddening, and he returned the grip firmly:

"Thank you! Thank you, Group Leader Feng! I… old Li will certainly not betray your trust!"

At that moment, another encrypted communicator at Wang Hao's waist suddenly vibrated.

He stepped aside to answer, listened to a few sentences, his expression changed slightly, and he hurried back to Feng Yan, lowering his voice:

"Brother Feng, a message just came from Brother Li; they were discussing internally."

"Guangzi discovered… our institute's internal network shows traces of abnormal access."

"The source is unknown, the method very covert, like a… professional‑level probe."

Feng Yan's heart sank sharply.

"The Glass Cage just fell; have the hidden snooper already been impatient?"

He glanced at the newly found spark of hope, Tie Jiang Li.

Then recalling the possible lurking danger inside the institute, his gaze instantly turned icy and sharp.

"Tell old Li and Guangzi to raise the security level of all systems and activate the 'Firefly' standby protocol."

Feng Yan whispered instructions to Wang Hao, then turned to Tie Jiang Li:

"Master Li, time is of the essence. Please gather the key data and samples immediately and return with us to the institute."

Here... is no longer safe.