Chapter 824: Strange Metal

The Shengnyu was taken aback, and even Gong Xiansheng, who had been smiling obsequiously and wearing almost no other expression, narrowed his eyes slightly, hiding a look in his gaze that was hard to tell if it was disdain or annoyance. The Shengnyu looked the red-haired boy, who was half her height, up and down and said, "If you have this much confidence, that is naturally good. Is my eye so dull that I failed to recognize a master? But the question I pose is not so simple. Among those present, besides myself and Gong Xiansheng, I do not hold out hope for anyone to answer it."

The Son of Fire said, "If I cannot answer, the God will answer; I will pray and then receive the answer."

The Shengnyu smiled faintly. She did not care about the Son of Fire's answer. Because in the Lingjie, there was no one who was not a believer in the gods, and it was normal for believers to mention the gods in every word. On the contrary, Wan Shen Gu, which was said to be the main altar for serving the ten thousand gods, was a place where everyone believed, but in essence, no one believed at all. At least, that was the Shengnyu's way. She had actually long since ceased to be a true believer, but she would not say it out loud; as long as she did not say it, no one would pursue it, and after all, she did her main job well.

Since this short red-haired boy was so confident, the Shengnyu felt he must have some ability, so she looked at him with a bit more regard for the moment, but still said to everyone, "Tell me, what is your tribe good at? Or what kind of technology are you working on?"

She asked this not to make things difficult, but because every tribe now bore, to a greater or lesser extent, one of the engineering technologies for the Great Ship. The actual hull was being built in the depths of the Shengdi and had already sailed out of Wan Shen Gu, anchored over at the Shendian, while the less critical supporting projects were distributed to the various tribes, to be finally accepted and inspected by the Shendian.

Many tribes kept saying they could not do it, that their tribe's foundation was not in hammering and tapping, but in going to the Qianxian to fight and kill, but the Wanshendian did not care about that: You can't? Then that means no contribution, right? What the Great Ship needed now was for everyone to be of one mind, a matter that required even more unity than fighting a war; anyone who refused to participate was setting themselves against the gods, so being abandoned by the ten thousand gods and having no way to board the ship to obtain salvation was only natural, right?

You say your tribe has low intelligence, that tens of thousands of people cannot scrape together a single brain, and that even if you wanted to do it, you couldn't? Well, there are some tasks that require brute force; if you can move bricks, you can do it. If you still can't do that, then I see no value in your tribe.

Therefore, any tribe of decent size, such as the Fire Spirit tribe, had supporting projects to do; the large tribes would directly provide technical personnel and laborers to enter the Shengdi and participate in building the hull, while the fellows before her mostly came from these small and medium-sized tribes responsible for the minor parts. If they were truly a large tribe, they would not still be begging the Shengnyu at this time.

Hearing the Shengnyu's inquiry, those few Tianmo also answered truthfully; some said, "We do frozen food storage." Others said, "We make wheels for landing vehicles." The most irritable Tianmo from before said, "Our tribe specializes in communications... that is, speakers at the level of a Lifeboat, used for shouting and communication."

When it was the Son of Fire's turn, he answered honestly, "Our tribe is responsible for forging materials."

The Shengnyu glanced at his flame-like red hair and said, "The god you believe in is the Fire God?" Seeing the Son of Fire nod, she said, "The tribe protected by the Fire God is indeed good at forging and smelting. The smelting and forging of the hull and various major internal materials are all carried out in Wan Shen Gu; the outside only handles the transport of ore, so the materials you forge should not be anything critical."

The Son of Fire said, "Naturally, they are not critical. However, it is not that my tribe cannot smelt truly supreme materials; it is just that it depends on divine grace. It does not depend on ordinary technology, and we cannot produce much, which limits our contribution."

The Shengnyu was slightly dismissive and said, "Truly top-tier materials have special uses; they are not used to cast the hull, but are used in small amounts in critical places. Even a single qian, or even less, must be put to great use. If you have any special materials, you should bring them out for the Shendian priests to see; perhaps they would become a special merit. If you don't bring them out, aren't you delaying your own contribution? Bring it out and let me see, what is called a supreme material?" She wore a smile; although she herself had no intention of mockery, a careful taste indeed carried the meaning of "What would a frog in a well like you know about top-tier?"

The Son of Fire said, "We were just about to offer it to the Shengnyu." He carefully took an object from the Space Bag he carried and offered it with both hands. After his boasting just now, the other Tianmo were also piqued with curiosity and could not help but look together; upon seeing it, it was actually a stone, and they immediately recognized it: "This is a Strange Stone!"

A few who lacked tact could not help but mock inwardly: This bumpkin really has no experience; what is so rare about this Strange Stone? As long as you find the right place, they are everywhere.

But most people who were not muddled knew it was not that simple; that Gong Xiansheng, who had been sitting quietly at the end of the table, suddenly stood up and went to the Shengnyu's side to look closely.

They saw that on the grayish-white Strange Stone, there were wisps of gold mixed in; that gold did not seem to be dazzling, and if it were special, it was that it was naturally integrated with the Strange Stone, completely indistinguishable from it. This was not inlaid, but rather some kind of mixed associated mineral that had appeared on the original Strange Stone ore.

The Shengnyu said nothing, slowly stroking the gold, and only after a long time did she say, "How did you produce this?"

The Son of Fire answered naturally, "By relying on divine grace."

The Shengnyu was somewhat helpless and said, "I naturally know it is by relying on divine grace, but how did divine grace achieve it?"

A few Tianmo could not help but look at her strangely: What is there to ask about this? Divine grace is a miracle, a wonder sent down by the gods; how can one reason with a miracle?

But the Son of Fire was able to keep up with the Shengnyu's line of thought and said, "Your Highness Shengnyu, you naturally know how the Strange Stone is formed. It is the friction between two worlds that affects a part of the matter in space, causing the rock to mutate into a Strange Stone. That is to say, the Strange Stone itself is changed by the influence of energy and even rules. Since it can be changed by the great power of nature, it shows that it has the basis for change; then, if we apply influence again, can the Strange Stone be changed once more?"

The Shengnyu listened to his words with a serious face and said, "That's right, someone actually thought of this line of thinking long ago. Before things were so urgent, we and the Human World both had research in this area, but there are two difficulties. The first is the external force to make the Strange Stone change; what the great power of nature can easily do, human power is very difficult to achieve. Just reproducing it within the dimensions is already very difficult. The second is that even if it is done, it is completely impossible to control the direction of the mutation; it mostly changes in an unbearable direction, truly like gambling. Humans say that in ten bets, nine are lost; in research, one might not win once in a hundred or a thousand bets, and even if you win, you don't know what the prize is. This kind of research is no longer of much interest to anyone. However, this mutated material of yours... is very good."

Although she had not performed a more accurate test, the Shengnyu, as a senior researcher, also had an intuition; she felt that the mutation direction of this stone should be the best.

A miracle, it can only be called a miracle.

That the gods can send down miracles seems to be a matter of course, but the Shengnyu still pressed, "Did you pray for the gods to change the Strange Stone in this direction?"

The Son of Fire said, "Why would we need to specifically request it? The gods always have the best arrangements."

The Shengnyu had no way to continue; at this time, Gong Xiansheng, who had always been cautious in his words, suddenly interjected, "I hear your tribe is good at forging and smelting; does that mean you can always forge and plan in a better direction every time?"

If this were asked of other Tianmo, they would mostly not get an answer, but the Son of Fire was considered Friendly and said, "Naturally, we cannot trouble the gods every time. But our god is generous and merciful; if we request and offer sacrifices, we can mostly get a response."

Gong Xiansheng smiled and said, "Pardon my rudeness, but if that god is truly so merciful and generous, then your tribe's reputation should seem to be greater than it is now."

Although the Son of Fire had a good temper, he could not help but get angry at this moment and shouted, "What do you mean? Are you questioning my words? We receive divine grace, so of course we keep it as the foundation of our tribe; how could we sell it wantonly and blaspheme the gods? Only you reckless barbarians would use the gifts of the gods to earn fame and profit for yourselves!"

This was Alie.

The truth was that before this descent of the True God, the Taixiong god would never specifically respond to believers or actively send down divine grace; it was all the Fire Spirit tribe passively using the Holy Fire to strengthen themselves. But if he said that, he would have to explain why things were completely different recently, and he would have to make clear the ins and outs of some of the gods' descents, and these things were not easy to talk about outside, so he had to take the first step to accuse the other party of blasphemy and incidentally pull out the identity of the barbarian to win support for himself.

Sure enough, this move to distinguish between friend and foe was very effective; the other few Tianmo were already resentful of this barbarian speaking without permission, and at this moment they glared at him even more fiercely.

At this time, the Shengnyu said, "I said Gong Xiansheng is my companion; whoever brings up the barbarian matter again, get out immediately!" She then said to Gong Xiansheng, "Gong Xiansheng, you are not a person of the Lingjie and do not know that here, one cannot casually bring up the gods."

Gong Xiansheng bowed and said, "Yes, yes, I will never dare again." The other Tianmo could only retreat in frustration.

Who knew that Gong Xiansheng would raise his head and say again, "However, I still want to see how rich the Fire Spirit tribe's collection is; can they really make materials better? This is very important, Your Highness Shengnyu!"

He slightly emphasized the last sentence, trying to stress it without appearing offensive. The Shengnyu paused, her expression changing slightly, as if she had suddenly thought of some key point.

Immediately after, she smiled and said, "That is exactly so. This Son of Fire, I value your tribe very much and wish I could go there in person. A tribe as outstanding as yours really should not still be running around for a few spots; leave this to me." Seeing the Tianmo behind him having something to say, she immediately said, "The others as well, since you are willing to come to the door, how can I let you return empty-handed? There are always a few spots."

She suddenly became generous, scattering some of the spots in her hand, and after sending the other Tianmo away, she became unusually enthusiastic, took the Son of Fire's hand, and said, "Come, follow me inside."