Chapter 387

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

West Continent.

Rhombus Conference Hall.

Before a jujube-red long table, a crowd surrounded a flat little box, commenting and critiquing like evil traffickers buying and selling women.

Everyone circled around to look; before long Yu Weichao got dizzy from circling. He was the oldest, so he leaned on the table and hurriedly asked, "This is the Divine Box?"

"It's the Divine Box, no mistake." Da Yang nodded vigorously. He had also confirmed it again and again. This flat little box was not only unprepossessing in appearance, but also dilapidated beyond measure; more than one scratch proved its age was sufficient, yet it was even further removed from the word "Divine."

She Lei blurted out of the blue: "Open it and see?"

"The Iron Workshop people say it was passed down by the elders, cannot be opened, or it will lose effect." Da Yang hurriedly said this, but his face turned toward Chen Yi.

Chen Yi, who had just arrived on the West Continent, first heard of a bloody great battle, second heard that Shenqi Mountain had iron mines, and third heard of this "Divine Box."

Under the curious gazes of the crowd, Chen Yi asked, "Does it really produce metal just by putting it in a mine?"

【11】 "Correct. Two hours at most. Put it inside the mine, sit beside it and wait two hours, that's all. Normally the Divine Box can't be idle either; it must be placed in a room with ore, otherwise it might lose effect." Da Yang twisted his thick waist, relaying what he had heard, then laughed: "Anyway, there are plenty of strange things on the West Continent; I don't think this one makes a difference."

"That's right. At most two hours will do. Put it inside the Mine, sit Beside it and wait two hours, that's all. The Divine Box can't sit idle normally either — it must definitely be placed in a Room with ore stones, or it might fail." Big Yang twisted his thick waist, relaying what he had heard, then Laughed: "Anyway, the West Continent is full of strange things; I don't think one more matters."

Chen Yi smiled faintly: "How many are there?"

"9 Iron Workshop people, 4 Divine Boxes."

"Oh, then let's open this one."

Everyone had been waiting for this sentence. She Lei impatiently flipped the lid; a crowd of heads stretched over. Yu Weichao stretched his neck while shouting: "Be careful, if this is a chemical weapon, our West River Water Fortress will be wiped out in one pot."

"This 'be careful' is... a crow's beak." Only Jin Douna dared speak so coquettishly; the Water Fortress teachers none dared refute.

In fact, everyone's attention was on the box's interior.

Inside the box, a strand of black mud as thick as an adult's forearm was turning into gray-white powder at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"No way." She Lei's face changed color abruptly, turning waxy yellow as he looked at Chen Yi.

Da Yang and Li Feng's expressions were no better.

Li Changning asked in a low voice: "Have we been set up?"

The relationship between West River Water Fortress and Ma La could not be called irreconcilable, but at certain times it was perhaps worse than irreconcilable. If they used means to assassinate the Water Fortress upper echelon, that would truly need no strange reason, no need to inquire about motive.

Everyone automatically looked at Chen Yi, hoping to glean a clue from the face of the seemingly omnipotent Hall Master (Lord).

Chen Yi's complexion and eyes showed not the slightest change.

He was already a Divine Art Knight; "Exemption" could protect himself, "Bestowal" could save others; if pushed he would just destroy Ma La — even if it really were a biochemical weapon, it wouldn't count as any trouble.

The crowd thus admired him greatly.

Yu Weichao, infected by this, bravely took out a toothpick and began poking around inside the Divine Box, simultaneously saying: "Back when I was in the laboratory, I played with these things no small amount."

Chen Yi muttered "scum," took a gas mask from his Space Storage Ring and handed it to him, saying: "Be careful handling it. Look closely."

Ever since he had the Water Land God Box like a train carriage, his Space Ring had been mainly for personal items and equipment.

Yu Weichao put on the gas mask with tears of gratitude, then seeing everyone hiding far away, he alone lonely used a toothpick to draw circles in the white powder, looking exactly like a baker who had inhaled too much powder.

"That..."

"Is it a biochemical weapon?" Li Changning asked first. He was afraid of death.

"Might be bacteria..." Yu Weichao's voice had just fallen when the room was left with only Chen Yi — if the West Continent had any bacteria that could kill a Divine Art Knight who knew "Exemption," then what would everyone believe in, they might as well just raise bacteria.

Yu Weichao was deeply moved, weeping even more.

Chen Yi smiled slightly, like the Virgin Mary, and asked: "What bacteria?"

"This..." Yu Weichao hurriedly wiped his nose, said softly: "I can't be certain, but Da Yang said he experimented with this Divine Box and it indeed turns ore into metal; I think the possibility of a virus is low."

Chen Yi thought, could it be Magic? But even a legendary Magic Array needs energy to cooperate, right?

Yu Weichao naturally had no such understanding; he was a person with a Doctor title — if he met a foreigner he would have to be called "Doctor" Yu, not "Mister" Yu. So when considering problems, he first used a scientific viewpoint: "I've heard that Earth's mining industry uses bacterial metallurgy."

"Oh?"

Yu Weichao recalled, saying: "I remember reading in journals that on Earth currently only gold, copper, and uranium mines can use bacterial metallurgy; the cycle time is relatively long, but yield is high, cost low, it's a very important development direction. However, every time Earth conducts bacterial metallurgy, different bacteria must be selected according to ore type and composition, and magazine conditions; it's actually cultivated temporarily. The bacteria in this box, who knows if they have something special."

"Maybe anaerobic bacteria?" Chen Yi had soaked in the Library for a long time; with the Intelligence Scroll's help, not reading would be too much of a waste.

He looked at the already dead contents of the box, then said: "You immediately organize manpower to survey Shenqi Mountain; I'll take the bacteria back to study. Also, ask those artisans what exactly is going on."

Yu Weichao hurriedly nodded; if they could really find a mine, even discover a new strain suitable for bacterial smelting, that would be the place proving the West Continent's value.

Outside the room, Da Yang took the opportunity to question the Iron Workshop people, leaving a group of Water Fortress high-level officials looking at each other in dismay.

"Put the Divine Box away."

Chen Yi's interest in this mining method was not very strong. The Ma La people's metal smelting speed was so slow, probably not unrelated to their smelting efficiency being too low. In modern transactions where metal materials are counted in tens of thousands of tons, low-efficiency mining methods will inevitably be eliminated.

He was already considering introducing modern mining equipment to excavate Shenqi Mountain. Like those early deposits, Shenqi Mountain's veins were buried very shallow, at most two meters down they could be found. Once excavators and other modern equipment were employed, efficiency would inevitably multiply.

Yu Weichao's thoughts were even more idealistic. In his view, the Ma La people's metal smelting speed had a great relationship with the quantity of microorganisms they cultivated. Such a small box, how many microorganisms could be inside? Producing one piece of metal per hour was already a very fast speed; if on Earth they found biologists to expand this strain, perhaps it could produce quite good laughter.

Thus, while Chen Yi was still thinking, Yu Weichao spoke his idea first. He worried Chen Yi's "golden mouth jade words" would groundlessly increase the matter's difficulty.

"No matter how you put it, it's a green environmentally friendly mining method." Chen Yi did not taboo someone having ideas more advanced than his own.

Yu Weichao smiled and nodded, then changed the subject: "Mr. Chen, next we will confer medals on the Second Native Squad of the Native Company; will you attend?"

"How do you plan to do it?"

"Award the 'West River Collective Merit Medal,' and additionally specially produce the 'Shenqi Mountain Blood Battle Medal.'"

A special medal is an honor, meaning participation in an extraordinary battle. The "West Defense Once" medal is currently the most valuable medal; as the second specially produced medal, the "Blood Battle Medal" will surely play a huge role in the future.

"I'll confer the medals on them." Chen Yi nodded lightly. Material rewards are the cheapest rewards; West River Water Fortress can casually take out a bit and it's enough. The difficulty is spiritual rewards — they must neither flood nor be lacking, very hard to keep the bowl of water level.

"The Native Squad soldiers will certainly be grateful to you. Hmm... the conferment ceremony, will it be open to the public?"

Chen Yi personally bestowed medals only once for "West Defense," which invisibly elevated the level of this medal ceremony.

Chen Yi smiled faintly and said, "You can watch it. Hmm, I heard the Tank Company also participated in the battle; what about their rewards?"

"The Army Collective Merit Medal, plus the Shenqi Mountain Blood Battle Commemorative Medal. Additionally, Wang Zhaosheng, the tank commander who fired the first shot, receives the Shenqi Mountain Blood Battle Excellent Medal." After Yu Weichao finished speaking, he briefly introduced them.

The Army Collective Merit Medal ranks just below the Xijiang Collective Merit Medal First Class and is higher than the Armored Collective Merit Medal; for Sun Ruihe's Tank Company, which had both merit and hardship, it was a great encouragement. This mainly rewarded their effort to reach the foot of Shenqi Mountain in an extremely short time by crossing the bulldozer trail through the shrub swamp. And the Shenqi Mountain Blood Battle Excellent Medal rewarded that shell, which was accurate and extremely likely to have saved the entire Native Squad.

Essentially, whether the "Shenqi Mountain Blood Battle Commemorative Medal" will play a role in the future depends on the Tank Company's subsequent performance and the number of specially made medals awarded; it cannot be compared with the "Shenqi Mountain Blood Battle Medal." But from the Tank Company's own perspective, a single "Army Collective Merit Medal" is enough to put them far ahead of those who come later.

The inevitable future expansion of the army will make high-ranking medals bearing the title "Army" increasingly rare. And before the Temple War ends, Ma La dare not launch any hostile actions again, which also means the military will find it difficult to gain new merits.

The early bird catches the worm; the advantages of arriving early on the West Continent are becoming increasingly evident.

After respectfully seeing Chen Yi off, Yu Weichao, having removed his gas mask, convened another meeting, focusing on opening the medal ceremony to the public.

This was an important ceremony to display prestige and promote the concept of "the Lord"—Yu Weichao was precisely consolidating his position by promoting "the Lord." Otherwise, the strength of the many students of the Wuguan System alone would be enough to give him a hard time.

Naturally, no one would oppose the "Victory Celebration," especially after Jin Douna, who managed finance, stated that "supplies are abundant," whereupon everyone immediately became enthusiastic.

She Lei waved his arms and shouted for a parade; Da Yang thought about various safety issues, while Li Feng began to consider the relationship between students and native soldiers—future expansion is certain, and if nothing unexpected happens, Hong Bi and his Native Squad will become the backbone of the Second Native Company. Then, whether to expand the Inspection Team or the Tank Company will become an urgent question.

Chen Yi did not concern himself with the trivial affairs of the West River Water Fortress; he could declare himself a Divine Art Knight at any time, borrow the power of the Chinese Government and military at any time, and recruit a new student team at any time, so he only made demands of the West River Water Fortress and did not engage in detailed management.

After the medal ceremony concluded smoothly and Chen Yi's status and image as "the Lord" were further strengthened, he took two Divine Boxes back to Earth and asked Professor Wu Fangyu to introduce him to a microbiology expert.

Wu Fangyu thought Chen Yi had come to urge him on his progress; upon hearing this request, he laughed helplessly and put on airs, saying: "I've said it, Mr. Chen is a patient person; how could he urge me for results in less than two months?"

"Your results, I prepared to ask about them at the meeting." Chen Yi would not be dazed by his flattery. He was the investor, naturally he had to constantly make demands on the results. Everyone knows that academia and the market do not connect; in fact, it is not that they cannot connect, but that scholars are unwilling to connect. For them, the more basic the research, the greater the benefit—fame, honor, and status will come rolling in, while the more market-oriented things are, the smaller the benefit. So if one can use some sucker's funds to research the market, first help oneself research basic things, then the benefits will be the richest. If it were an official, this would be embezzlement of public funds, but academia has no such crime; one can only blame you for lax supervision, being a "good person."

In this regard, scholars are like young girls; the more "good people" they encounter, the higher their value, and the more "good people" they catch next time, thus forming a virtuous cycle.

Chen Yi clearly would not be a good person; Professor Wu Fangyu deserved to take a slight step back.

However, he was also a veteran of many battles, belonging to the most beautiful type of young girl; a calm smile appeared on his rough face, as if he completely did not understand what Chen Yi said, saying: "I need to check my contact list."

Then he slowly flipped and flipped, and finally said: "You see, how about I find it tonight and give you accurate news?"

Thus, Chen Yi was too embarrassed to ask about his results.

With a good thing like the Camel Beast to study, how could Professor Wu Fangyu be willing to just do a clone and let it go? Embryo cell cloning is very easy, technology from nearly 20 years ago, long since reduced to manual labor in the laboratory, no problem to hand over to graduate students; why would he, a great professor, need to go himself?

Chen Yi smiled like a camel's hump, took Professor Wu Fangyu's hand, and humbly said: "You are too kind. No need for so much trouble; we'll go directly to the best laboratory, find a professor who understands bacterial metallurgy, and visit in person to show sincerity."

"I still have a lot of work..." Professor Wu was unwilling to waste time.

Chen Yi caught the tail of his words and asked: "Oh, what work do you plan to do?"

This naturally turned into an inquiry.

Wu Fangyu helplessly said: "Sigh, we are about to enter substantive cloning; first we must study its cell characteristics, right?"

"Too slow," Chen Yi said in a pained tone.

As a good capitalist, whether facing impoverished workers and proletarians or refined and courteous scholars, one cannot let emotions affect reason; one must always remember one's social responsibility—making money.

As a good capitalist, painstakingly oppressing workers and scholars is the best help for them. Because whether they are impoverished workers and proletarians or refined and courteous scholars, their only demand of capitalists is "money," and if capitalists have no money, they cannot fulfill their social responsibility of "giving money." Furthermore, a capitalist who can give a lot of money is a good capitalist with a sense of social responsibility, and the reason he can give a lot of money is that he constantly oppresses workers and proletarians and refined and courteous scholars.

Whether it is a kind and approachable boss or a caring and solicitous boss, a boss who does not give money is a scoundrel.

Chen Yi was a good boss; when he glared at people, he used fighting spirit, his eyes were truly bright and piercing, wanting 20 watts meant 20 watts, wanting 200 watts meant 200 watts; his aggressive gaze made Wu Fangyu's soles ache, and he forced a smile: "At most half a year, no, three months, we will enter substantive cloning."

"I don't care about anything else; if I don't see a clone within two months, we part ways." Chen Yi considered this a promise, so he raised four fingers.

Watching this gesture made Wu Fangyu's scalp go numb. If an ordinary person made such a gesture, he would surely be despised to death, but Chen Yi was different.

He stammered: "If you give up, the money spent beforehand will be wasted."

"That's not it; you must compensate me."

"What? That... that is investment... investment... involves risk..." Wu Fangyu's voice grew smaller and smaller. This trick worked extremely well on ordinary merchants, but on Chen Yi it had no effect.

Student Chen said in a humble and gentle voice: "Two months, goods must be delivered."

"Thorough research in the early stage is for cloning in the later stage." Wu Fangyu struggled to say one more sentence. This was actually admitting he had done basic research.

However, for a merchant, basic research is meaningless. Merchants spend money for results; even if it is "social responsibility," that responsibility must be clear and transparent, otherwise intentional delay will only cause greater losses.

The Camel Beast was not Chen Yi's ultimate goal; he hoped to clone mounts similar to earth dragons, thereby enriching his diplomatic and military advantages on the West Continent.

Cloned animals also need pregnancy and birth; if researching a cell takes half a year, cloning takes another half year, and birth takes a year, he might as well develop a new armored vehicle.

Precisely for this reason, Chen Yi's tone was firm and unyielding.

"Alright, I'll try." Wu Fangyu's tone was extremely depressed. Usually, the relationship between scholars and merchants is that scholars bow and scrape in the early stage, and merchants bow and scrape in the later stage—like the relationship between Yang Bailao and Huang Poet. Who knew everything changed with Chen Yi; if not completed, he still had to refund the money... but he knew Chen Yi's identity, so he dared not say too much...

Chen Yi laughed lightly, his tone becoming polite again, saying: "Professor Wu, shall we set off?"

"Still going? I'll call for you." Wu Fangyu felt Chen Yi was too difficult to deal with.

"Must go; if you don't go, what if they claim to be busy?"

Wu Fangyu had no choice; he originally wanted to call an old friend to put off Chen Yi.

The two boarded the Raptor, and Wu Fangyu twisted uncomfortably for a while, drawing a series of complaints from the little lizard.

However, Professor Wu's dissatisfaction did not last long.

Because in the biology laboratory of Jiangning Agricultural and Forestry University, Chen Yi used the box in his hand to perform the "trick" of turning ore into metal for Wu Fangyu and Zhou Houyuan.

Burying the Divine Box in a pile of ore, after more than an hour, taking it out, one could pour out a neat metal ingot from its opening, weighing a full 15 kilograms of purple copper, with extremely high purity.

"Too amazing!" Wu Fangyu exclaimed; he began to regret introducing others to Chen Yi, and involuntarily said: "In cell engineering, I actually know quite a bit..."

If such research is done well, it is stronger than Camel Beast cloning.

"You be the Supervisor." Chen Yi had long decided.

The owner of the laboratory, Professor Zhou Houyuan, pushed his glasses, completely put away the surprise on his face, and asked: "Mr. Chen, are you not at ease with me?"

Chen Yi did not answer, but recited like reading a book: "You must sign a strict legal document with me personally, keeping secrets and guaranteeing that all rights and results derived from this strain belong to me, and accept dual supervision by the Accounting Firm and Professor Wu Fangyu in the use of funds."

"Too much!" Professor Zhou Houyuan was exactly 50 years old, in his prime, controlling a national-level laboratory, with considerable status in academia; seeing his square-jawed chin tilt up, he immediately put on a show of not fearing the powerful and leaving with a flick of his sleeve.

Chen Yi stood still without moving, putting on a Listening Scroll for himself. Sure enough, he heard Professor Zhou Houyuan comforting himself in a soliloquy: He will submit soon, he will submit soon... What a fine strain, it should be made public, made public...

Chen Yi imperceptibly tugged at the corner of his mouth.

So-called professors and experts are the same as ordinary people in terms of personality and character; they will not be more upright or have better taste just because they read more. Of course, because they live without worries and have higher status, they may show the posture of unworldly sages on some small issues, but when facing vital interests, they are still vulgar. Researching a special and valuable strain and making it public will greatly enhance Professor Zhou Houyuan's prestige, which is more meaningful than simply researching a patent for a certain company. After all, in China, such off-plan income is not high. Of course, if the strain belonged to Professor Zhou Houyuan himself, he would probably try every means to keep it secret and apply for a patent. This is a consideration entirely from his own personal interest; he has not considered the interests of the investor at all—capitalists are the target of the people's democratic dictatorship, what qualification do they have to make conditions?

Chen Yi did not mind Zhou Houyuan's thinking mode of only considering himself; all the world's experts and professors have the same thinking mode, and if there are differences, they are caused by different sources of funds and different distributions of funds, not by differences in moral character.

Jiangning Agricultural and Forestry University's national-level Laboratory has conducted research on Bacteria Metallurgy, and Zhou Houyuan is the leading figure among them; without Wu Fangyu's introduction, today he still might not have been able to see the man.

In the deadlock, Wu Fangyu extremely hoped that Zhou Houyuan would truly flick his sleeves and leave.

However, this matter ultimately would not happen. (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to come to Qidian (qidian. com) to push Recommendation Tickets, Monthly Tickets; your support is my maximum motivation.)