Little Tianshi and Elder Gu were doing SCIENCE!
Sort of. Not that the two ever heard of the scientific method or anything, Adam just suggested using her multiple flame producing ability to try and taint the local wine.
Side note, wine drinking is VERY culturally important, partially because (unlike the local water supply) it was hygienic and safe to drink... most of the time.
The only wine really available in this farming plot however was the 'Seasonal Blend' wine supplied by the Orphanage for the local Sect members and farmhands. So the massive man and tiny girl were working with that stuff.
Wine plus Blue energy? Stronger alcoholic content! Probably because it increased the conceptual 'Burning' of the liquid.
Wine plus Green energy? Increased volume of liquid. Something related to the growing nature of those flames.
But what the pair were testing now was Binding Energy... which for SOME stupid reason was able to easily stick to the wine when it ignored almost everything else. The pair's current goal was to find how little could be added to the Wine before it instantly boiled away into steam.
Because Elder Gu was VERY interested in getting to taste that enhanced drink... then see if he could combine it with the other two flame types to get a massive quantity of spiritually infused wine with near poisonous levels of alcoholic content. It might encourage or enhance cultivation, but more importantly: It might taste good.
Frankly, Adam was glad he was being ignored, as it allowed him more time to study these newly provided jade slips. Eventually.
Hundreds of them, each jade slip stuffed with massive amounts of compressed data.
Forget study or enhancement, the 'Burning Sage' was frantically using 'Research' to store all that data into his memory for later review first... Even if Elder Gu seemed 100% ready to sit around drinking for a week or two.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Tianshi carefully tapped the last glass, her Binding flame root barely coming in contact. "Right, ready Sister Quan?"
The Assistant Healer nodded, hands glowing while she monitored Elder Gu. "Yes. You may begin drinking sir, please wait two minutes or more between glasses."
With a grin, the old man slammed back an entire shot of modified alcohol like it was water. "BAH! This Binding stuff makes the drink really stick to ya! Normally stuff this weak wouldn't even catch my notice, but honestly it now has a bit'o kick to it!"
Quan nodded. "It is entering your system far more rapidly than expected. I'm detecting no problems so far though... even people with lower cultivation levels should be able to safely drink this batch. It just effects people more easily, not increase the potency of the brew."
He grunted. "Hey now, I gotta drink the other thirty glasses to be sure first! Can't shorten the first step, safety first and all that." He placed the glass back on the counter. "Girl, fill me up again." He paused. "For better testing and whatever."
The young girl sniffed. If drinking made you smell THIS bad maybe she wouldn't do it later herself. The small sip she secretly tried earlier didn't taste THAT amazing either. "After you finish this test batch. At least now I can charge liquid without it exploding into fumes or whatever."
Though she was curious if she could learn how to make other flames with her roots and how that would affect these drinks in the future.
He frowned. "Bah, fine I guess." Glancing back at the office, he paused picking up the next drink. "Still surprised the lad read those slips so quickly." He blinked. "The unrelated slips he brought in himself, not the stuff I was carefully studying." He glared at... something the girls couldn't see. "INNOCENT. AND. LEGAL. STUDYING. SESSION."
A nod. "That'll show them. Mind your own business you damn Sect spooks. Sheesh."
Sister Quan coughed lightly. "Brother Adam is well known for his information gathering speed. I'm sure he will have all sorts of ideas by now."
He grinned. "I'm just glad my lazy followers can continue duplicating those Formation patterns for later work outside. If testing holds up, the Sect will be giving us a massive contract to begin retrofitting most of the fields for decades. Can't touch some of the plots for years until the current crop is harvested, after all."
Gu chugged the next glass, burping a blue fireball. "Marvelous. This is a far better use of my time, really."
Though he WAS interested at what Adam would make of that mess.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Even at the high rate of memorization it took three days to store all those jade slips into memory, and Adam had 'Research' processing the mess now. He absently rubbed away a slight sting in his side as he moved to the next to-be-filed memory.
Not even trying to work with the data provided, just... just sorting it all, stripping out the stupid languages and junk language, translating stupid instructions into more basic phrases. Another round of analysis would be needed once this process finished before he could see what his real winnings were.
Even as meals were brought in by his servants and the sunlight came and went, Adam was just... very focused. No idea when the Elder or the girls left, no idea who exactly brought in the meals or took away the dishes... just. So. Much. Information.
Most of it? Worthless.
There were a dozen or so abilities that did the same general effect of 'Heat Modification' but... worse. More steps, more restrictions, harder to use, requiring more Qi, or that had physical side effects. Many had several of those issues. Anther batch of skills had similar problems, being more pathetic in ability, limited in scope, and dangerous during use when compared to 'Refinement', 'Heat Resistance', and 'Body Reinforcement'.
And NOTHING was similar to 'Qi Forms', which was interesting and opened up a lot of abilities to design.
However, even while one had to ignore a lot of the various abilities and tricks plus how they related to each other, they DID provide 'Research' with many enhancements to the previously mentioned skills belonging to the 'Metallurgy Art Techniques'.
All the skills were a bit more efficient now, required less mental focus to operate, were slightly more flexible, and, most significantly, all the abilities could be operated in tandem now. Group casting would be far more stable and less dangerous thanks to all the useful examples, as well as easier to use and more accurate to the user's wishes!
Most significant though, was two side notes discovered in a couple of esoteric technique examples. Near useless tricks that were there to serve as examples for other projects that 'Research' latched onto with a passion.
First, a skin hardening and vibration ability. Theoretically used for preventing the hands from acquiring splinters when one worked on handles and such for other projects. 'Research' had torn that into segments, the half for increasing skin durability being used for enhancing 'Body Reinforcement', theoretically preventing the body from being sliced, stabbed, or crushed instead of simply improving body strength (Useful in a dangerous work environment)... and probably other scenarios as well, really.
The second half, the body vibration trick? It was used as a foundation for the new skill 'Polish', a sub-skill to 'Body Reinforcement'. When activated, the skin would gain an absurdly durable texture and begin to vibrate at intense speeds... allowing one to grind or polish metallic or wooden surfaces. It generated a lot of dust from whatever was being ground down, but that was expected.
The other skill though had Adam overly excited: A method for controlling lubricant. The industrial kind, not the fun stuff.
While drilling metal, thin streams of lubricant were required to keep the drill bits cool during the process or the metal bits could snap and damage the tools, the product, or the worker. This... very badly designed ability was able to apply the needed liquid without getting too close to moving parts.
More importantly though, 'Research' was able to rebuild the concept from manipulating lubricant to a generic 'Fluid Manipulation' ability, though Adam's version of this skill was FAR better than the crippled near useless version other people would be able to use. Being able to control fluid and fluid like materials would be handy.
Why did that matter during metal work?
Liquid metal counted as a fluid. True, he still had to heat the stuff to stupid levels... but suddenly, moving that annoying mass from a 'Qi Forms' crucible into a 'Qi Forms' mold for casting? Super easy!
Well, Adam could just force the liquid material into the final form with this skill and then cool it, but if he told everyone that then he might get forced to do all that annoying detail work that those people outside were being forced to do. So he would emphasize that a group of Cultivators could now easily move fluid metal around and just... not go into detail about his OWN abilities.
He eagerly kept searching the jade slip memories 'Research' stored, who knew what else he could find in there?
Uh. Well, one of the slips was apparently full of adult material. Very explicit pornographic content mostly focused on muscled women working various heavy machinery.
It CAN'T be safe to wear so little around those things.
...This jade slip was probably not supposed to be included. Unless Elder Gu had tried to hide it in his 'personal collection' and his assistant just grabbed... all of it.
Which said things about Elder Gu.
...Shit, this was stored permanently in his memories now. The girls back home were going to find this hilarious.
Ah. Right, he had been trying not to think about them... and how long it would be until his next hug.
Sniff. Damn it.
Better get back to work. It may not address some of the emotional stuff Adam was so bad at handling, but it would keep him busy.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sister Quan sighed. "No, you should just start testing without Adam. He has no doubt this will work, so getting it done and starting work on the next farm in the plot will only make him happier."
Young Tianshi nodded, her (slowly transforming) green hair bobbing. "If work stops because of a ceremony or something, Master will be grumpy."
Elder Gu frowned. "Well, he has been a bit busy in that room. Saw a dozen jade slips being worked on simultaneously, no idea when he will finish... I guess we should get started then." He grinned at his people. "GET BACK! We bout to pop this system into FULL ACTIVATION!"
A pull of a large lever... and the air CRACKLED.
Near invisible shapes formed and slowly faded away even as the Control Hub began to light up, levers and dials glowing and the settings being activated in the three Formations placed around and in the field itself. For a moment, the air was a bit thin, the sounds slightly dim, the light ever so gray...
Then life returned, and the dirt filled field was... pulsing. A heartbeat of nature, hungry for seeds.
Everyone turned towards Sister Quan, who gave orders when Master Adam was distracted by... almost everything. She smiled at the farmhands. "Time to seed the fields! If you feel anything odd, any strange pains or unexpected sensations, please stop immediately and leave the field so I can verify you are alright!"
Elder Gu grunted. "Ah have you know I be the one that verifies these plans. Ain't nothing going to happen to them."
She shrugged. "Just in case. Unknowns are called that for a reason."
The first farmhand dug into the soil with his hoe... and paused as a short flare of colorful fire flared up and vanished.
Everyone froze.
Sister Quan coughed. "I... I think that is expected?"
Hopefully.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Cooling down metal safely was sometimes not wanted, as certain structural changes occurred during the quenching process (Dumping hot metal into cool or cold water or oil), so the new 'Quench' ability was developed. A variation sub-skill of 'Qi Forms' was developed easily enough called 'Vice' that would hold stuff steady in mid air to be worked on safely. After a LOT of reading, the sub-skills of 'Qi Forms' called 'Press' and 'Strike' were simple enough to design.
With 'Qi Forms' able to replace an anvil and the skills (while tricky to apply correctly) could replace a hammer or mechanical press... well, hopefully a skilled user could get rid of most equipment required for crafting.
Because Adam didn't want to carry that kind of crap around if he needed to do metal work in the future. For... some reason.
...Was he overthinking this? The subset 'Qi Forms' skills 'Pierce' and 'Weld' had been more or less crafted to fill out the tool set, not because he needed it for any of his own projects. Hell, he only designed the 'Crucible' subset of 'Qi Forms' because he got tired having to design the damn thing over and over again during testing.
Know what?
No, he wouldn't make a 'Smelting Forge' skill. All people had to do was use 'Heat Modification' on a sideways 'Crucible' and be done with it.
How long had he been crouched over, endlessly testing idea after idea, using 'Research' with cultivation breaks to refill his energy reserves...
Adam winced, a sharp sting in his neck... and another sharp sting in the lower half of his right leg.
OW. That... that really stung!
Looking at his filthy clothing, Adam sighed and moved to the side of the room. Everyone had cleared out a while ago anyway, and he felt too crappy to try and get back to his room or try and take a traditional bath.
Also, at some point the metal he had been testing had really piled up. With a groan and some stinging in his left arm, Adam waved a hand.
After all the upgrades and tricks gained, all of the new 'Metallurgy Art Techniques', at least the advanced version he could use, no longer required chanting or memory tricks. He could just activate the skills subconsciously at a whim.
Right now? His whim was wanting to be clean.
Even as he painfully took off his dirty clothing, he created a 'Qi Forms' combination of chair and tub, began using other structures to toss the many odd metal objects into the new structure, and ratcheted up the temperature with 'Heat Modification'.
Not that it would be easy to get INTO his bath. For example, salt water could make you float just because of all the heavy minerals in it... this quickly liquefying metal slurry would require some serious manipulation if he didn't want to pop up and down like a cork. Which would be embarrassing.
Ignoring a sting near his waist, Adam cheated with some 'Qi Forms' steps and gently moved onto the flaming hot metal liquid, using 'Fluid Manipulation' to shove the mass out of the way and slowly submerge into the mess.
Oh... oh yeah. It was like a super heavy thick blanket, raw heat soaking into his hungry Cells.
...Something was wrong.
The stinging hadn't stopped. A quick check of his own body... and he grew concerned.
He wasn't wounded.
Nothing should sting right now.
Adam quickly activated his 'Seven Pulse Cultivation Method' just in case there was some sort of conceptual issue with his body he couldn't detect.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!CRACKCRACKCRACK!
A surge of pain nearly had him losing focus! All limbs were flinching, only held down by the heavy metal heating his body. His teeth were clenched, his skin opened wounds... but the Cultivation Cells quickly slid back into place, the blood returning to his system.
His senses dove into his spiritual network... And the seven independent cultivation meridian routes, each path a trio of (now solid) meridian paths formerly filled with Battle Qi... were all now damaged. In multiple areas.
The seven loops, so stable and reliable, now had a strange new meridian route binding them... one that 'Research' was frantically examining, forcing his various new energy flows to change patterns and speed.
His previous networks were basically seven loops that were entangled, each line a trio of meridian routes intertwined... Now, those empty gaps in the middle of those loops had a weak, torn open cultivation route connecting them. Binding the preexisting loops, creating a structure that would theoretically support Adam's spiritual network firmly in the future.
But right now, the new path was weak. Even as new energy flowed from Adam's Shard, 'Research' was drastically changing the seven individual cultivation routes that were fresh carved into his soul, into his flesh... energy flowing faster... slower... wait...
PULSE.
The pressure vanished, as the seven NEW paths settled and began to stabilize.
The multitude of new loops slowly began to tighten, slightly moving the preexisting spiritual network into a tighter configuration, something stronger...
Another sting... from his Shard!?
Adam's spiritual senses flared in panic as he examined his
Martial Spirit.
...That didn't seem right.
Cute though.
Huh. Well, now that the rock had eyes and... yes, that was a mouth. Shit.
What would people say when they saw it?
The rock glared at him. Somehow. Without moving.
...Sorry.
What would people say when they saw her?
Did this count as a Martial Spirit evolution!? It was a big change... The thin crystal Shard was now a clump of Shards.
With eyes. And a mouth.
You have no damn lungs. WHY have a mouth!? Do you eat!? ANSWER ME!
'Ding!'
...Well at least her voice was pretty.
This wasn't Squishy. She was literally born from his new soul and his old Shard, a new existence.
And she was eagerly sucking down energy into her internal power storage pocket. While mostly ignoring him.
Then again, she was a rock. What else did he expect from her? She couldn't even move. Her MOUTH couldn't move. Eyes could somehow focus on different things, but they didn't rotate and the pupils were not shifting form.
Wait, he was supposed to have an innate talent now, right? He had somehow stumbled into Forth Order after a few hours of research!
'Ding!'
...A few weeks of research. Oops.
With a mental sigh, he examined the changes. The new meridian routes would need time to heal, as the damage was spiritual... his body on the other hand had already recovered without issue thanks to his unique cells.
First of all, he could see why these new steps were considered the 'Tendon Refining Stages'. Because the first 'Corded network' strengthened his muscles conceptually, focusing on increased power... but the second, 'Loop network' focused on making that strength usable. Flexibility, accuracy, dexterity. It restrained the previous power focused spiritual patterns and prepared for the eventual next step, enforcing durability to be enhanced eventually during the 'Bone Tempering Stages'.
These new routes were longer (because they looped everywhere around the existing patterns), and so would take much longer to stabilize and progress... but would also provide far more power than one would expect compared to the previous three stages at the same time. More room for power storage, really.
Honestly though, thanks to his Cultivation Cells Adam had been sure that his body would be fine in the first place... he was far more worried about changes to his Shard.
...Who wanted a name. Crystal? OUCH! Fine, too lazy. How about... uh. Rockette?
'Ding.'
Fine. He was worried about the changes to Rockette. Any idea what you can do now?
'Ding.'
...Holy shit.
He was honestly expecting the same boosts as previous Order advancements... but the 'jump' past the 'barrier' was significant, conceptually.
According to Rockette, Adam's new Domain range had stretched from around 9 feet from his heart... to 29.5 feet.
Or to be more accurate, his domain was now 9 meters in radius. Because for SOME REASON his new crystal friend used metric instead of the imperial system or... some internal Shard distance measurement Adam had never heard of. It explained why the numbers had been so fuzzy previously, as the first stages went one, two, three meters... but now?
According to Rocket, reaching the Fourth Order squared his maximum radius range. The same thing would happen after the NEXT barrier breach at Seventh Order... until which, his range will 'only' extend by nine meters for his next couple of advancements. Damn.
The 'Square previous amount' rule apparently ALSO applied to the volume of space within Rockette used for energy storage.
That space had gone from base amount, 10x, and then 100x... but now? Her storage had lept to 10,000 times more than her original base storage amount. At Fifth and Sixth Order it would be multiplied by 100x, but the amount would be squared AGAIN at Seventh. As if he NEEDED that much energy stored away for use. What would he NEED that much power for!?
...Well, he would probably find SOME use for it, eventually. If he could save up enough to even try and fill that storage up.
His Shard wasn't empty right now as he had guessed... No, the storage space was simply so DAMN BIG that the 'Full' amount previously tucked away was basically a rounding error now.
Like... good god. It wasn't like Adam's required daily energy expenditures had gone up by the same rate as his storage quantity. if he ever managed to fill that entire void it would last him... a damn long time. Ignoring any future increases, the time range was in the century range easily. Or power a Sect all on his own for decades.
'Ding.'
Yes, yes, good job Rockette. Now, what is our awakened martial spirit ability?
Hopefully it wouldn't be something lame like 'Research' or whatever being split off for special use or whatever.
'Ding.'
...Oh.
With a mental flex... Adam activated '
Recursion.'
It had... a negligible maintenance energy cost. So low that it was a bit concerning.
Then his body flashed a dim blue... and he felt MORE. Far... far more.
Carefully examining his own arm, Adam could feel... the layers. Below this fragile body illusion of Adam Adventure Burns, currently known as Adam Chongsheng, was another layer of Adam Chongsheng. If Adam was attacked and wounded, excess damage would pass on to another, stronger layer of Adam Chongsheng. If that wound was too extreme to survive, excess damage would pass on to another, more compact layer of Adam Chongsheng. And so on. And so forth.
The energy cost was literally negligible to activate and almost nothing to KEEP this ability activated.
The main drawback? The amount of Battle Qi required to repair damage suffered by his conceptual layers went up exponentially the further down the chain Adam had to heal... probably because the density and the structural integrity went up as well when someone tried to pierce the layers. His Cells would help his uppermost self easily enough, but at this early stage of advancement his lower conceptual layers could not use the same trick. Yet.
Miss Rockette's awakened ability was to grant Adam Endbringer flesh without Shards, Dimensional shenanigans, or odd (Impossible?) biology.
Holy. Crap.
These innate abilities came from the Martial Spirit herself... so at some point, far in the past, some rock like creature had this ability if he was understanding this situation correctly. Considering how few earth elemental like creatures existed TODAY, it must have been VERY far back in said past.
When he would eventually learn how to merge with his Martial Spirit, would he turn into a rock man? What would THAT do to his durability!? Goodness gracious.
...Focus.
Right, so... what happened.
Well, every time someone gives massive amount of Data to Adam, 'Research' goes through a major evolution... and he seems to go through a heavy session of enlightenment. Which helps his cultivation ability progress heavily.
It was a good thing he activated the 'Seven Pulse Cultivation Method'... those spikes of pain were his own meridian routes about to explode trying to reach the next stage. He... should be able to survive that? Probably?
Opening his eyes, Adam realized a few things.
First, he was clean. The overheated metal evaporated all the gunk produced while reaching the next stage.
Second, Adam had lost control of 'Metallurgy Art Techniques' entirely. Thankfully his 'bath' had solidified enough to only mildly melt through the floor, before the heat had been sucked into Adam's body for recovery purposes.
Third, the metal was cold, hard, and perfectly molded to his body. He was stuck in a massive blob of iron up to his neck.
Finally... he had an audience.
He blinked at the Elder, Sister Quan, his Disciple, several members of staff (And those 99 security morons, but no one seemed to care about them), and his cute little Martial Spirit, Rockette. Who was sitting on the blob of metal, a few inches from his face.
Adam tried to smile. "Hi?"
Elder Gu grinned. "He smelted himself into a statue mold! I'M NEXT!"
