Chapter 144: Chapter 118 Machine Tool (Seeking Recommendations, Seeking Monthly Tickets!)_2
This took place within the sect, where deception was impossible. Yun Ze couldn’t afford it, and Li Shiming didn’t have to worry about such an occurrence.
The trade required a contract to be backed up onto the Identity Jade Disc. Once one party broke the contract, the sect would intervene.
This was the benefit of trading with a sect-approved merchant, which is why Li Shiming readily paid with Spirit Stones.
“Contact me if you need anything in the future!” Yun Ze said with a sincere smile, taking out his Identity Jade Disc.
The two exchanged contact information, and afterward, Li Shiming could contact Yun Ze to order items within a thousand li of the sect.
Watching Li Shiming’s departing figure, Yun Ze wore a look of triumph.
He had expended favors to precisely learn Li Shiming’s task location and had intercepted him outside before other trading houses could.
He had managed to attract Li Shiming, a potential beginner Array Master, as a client of the trading house before others could.
Just this one order had earned him far more than the value of ten favors he had paid.
Li Shiming was also pleased. In his cultivation plan formulated for his return, he had included the “Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,” but he had been unable to purchase Soul Stabilizing Incense, a basic resource for cultivating Spiritual Thought, thus unable to begin proper cultivation.
Indeed, the sect did sell Soul Stabilizing Incense. After this mission, he would have enough good deeds to exchange for some Soul Stabilizing Incense. He hadn’t expected to run into Yun Ze and be able to purchase Soul Stabilizing Incense with Spirit Stones, which saved his good deeds.
The next morning, Yun Ze personally delivered the goods to Eagle Beak Island, where Li Shiming received them.
After receiving the goods, Li Shiming immediately returned to the underground space.
Here, a machine tool was almost fully assembled.
Aside from cultivating and completing tasks, he had been manufacturing this machine tool these days.
This machine tool was not just any machine tool; it should accurately be called an industrial mother machine.
An industrial mother machine is a metalworking machine tool, in layman’s terms, a machine that makes machines.
Soon after settling down, he had planned this, and now he had finally started the manufacturing work.
The industrial mother machine’s design blueprint was archived in IBMz15 and was highly confidential, specially encrypted.
It included not only domestic design blueprints from his previous life but also foreign industrial mother machine blueprints. How he obtained them was beyond his knowledge.
The model of the industrial mother machine he chose was the most mature design, featuring a five-axis linked double-swing milling head. The numerical control part needed to be connected to IBMz15, which would control it.
This was a necessity, as he currently couldn’t manufacture chips himself, so he had to use IBMz15 for the most critical part of the numerical control in the industrial mother machine.
Without chips, many technologies from his previous life couldn’t be replicated.
However, aside from the data part, he could ensure that the rest of it met or even surpassed the most precise standards of machine tools from his previous life.
Because the manufacturing of this machine tool was entirely done in the space of a mechanical room, he used micron-level control. His clone, using a Third Grade Sword Base, meticulously carved it bit by bit.
Even the most complex metal structures, with the Third Grade Sword Base acting as the smallest cutter and under micron-level conscious control, could achieve 100% micron-level precision.
This was unachievable in his previous life. The “Sword Manipulation Technique,” along with the incredibly sharp and versatile Third Grade Sword Base, achieved the most perfect machining.
Of course, the machine tool in front of him was not without flaws; the problem was with the metal material.
He couldn’t find all the rare metals that fully met the standards, which meant that he couldn’t produce the most qualified synthetic metal. This could cause the machine tool to deform slightly from heating or cooling during the machining process, thus reducing the machining precision.
He had found a solution to this problem and was currently accumulating good deeds to prepare to purchase knowledge about formations from an Array Master.
The so-called attaching of runes is the most important step in the process of refining a magical artifact. This step requires the addition of specific attaching runes onto the artifact, thus endowing it with special effects.
The most basic attaching runes include the Storage Spirit Rune, Speed Rune, Solidity Rune, Delay Rune, Flame Rune, Frost Rune, and others. Only with attaching runes does an object truly become a magical artifact.
Attaching runes requires extremely accurate sensitivity to the spiritual energy of the artifact’s blank. It is necessary to find the balance point of the spiritual energy at the blank for the runes to be effective, and this is what an Array Master excels at.
Many Artifact Makers seek the help of Array Masters for attaching runes; of course, some Artifact Makers can attach runes themselves, but they are a minority among their fellows.
Because attaching runes requires not only precise sensitivity to spiritual energy but also dedicated learning of the attaching runes, studying each rune is like learning a new spell and requires understanding its true essence.
Attaching runes to magical artifacts is a relatively lucrative task for Array Masters.
During the Qi Refinement Realm, earning from attaching runes to a single artifact is not much, but the high demand compensates for that, and collaborating with a trading house long-term can still be quite profitable.
By the time one reaches the Foundation Establishment Stage, the earnings per attachment increase significantly, but of course the difficulty also increases greatly.
Li Shiming wanted to learn how to attach runes not to earn spirit stones, but for his machine tools.
Even for substandard metals, by attaching a Solidity Rune, he need not worry about deformation even under high temperatures.
The tools for the machine tools are simplest; just need to custom order the most ordinary low-grade magical artifacts and shape them according to the dimensions required by the machine tools; more precise processing can be completely managed in the workshop space with a Third Grade Sword Base.
At present, this machine tool could not be used, but just looking at the machine tool, Li Shiming felt a sense of satisfaction.
This was the beginning of his civilization alone; the day the machine tool was activated, those complex processing machines could all be manufactured one by one.
And as for the raw materials he worried most about, with the assistance of Yun’s Trading House, most could still be purchased; for those truly unavailable, he could find alternatives.
This was a process of discovering and solving problems; integrating the technologies of two worlds with cultivation techniques, achieving his design goals was not an issue.
Li Shiming took out the array materials he had purchased this time, recreated some Formation Flags, and after completing them, placed them over a spirit vein to nurture.
In the future, in the underground space, he did not plan to remove the Gathering Spirit Plate anymore, as removing it each time would affect the accumulation of spiritual energy in the workshop space, thereby influencing the progress of his avatar practicing ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique.’
To ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, the Gathering Spirit Plate remained precious, but for Li Shiming, who had mastered formation knowledge, replacing it with his own formations, and even improving upon them, was entirely possible.
Li Shiming took out the Soul Stabilizing Incense, which was the most expensive resource in this purchase, with one stick valued at one hundred spirit stones.
These ten sticks of Soul Stabilizing Incense accounted for more than half of the spirit stones paid, which shows how great the consumption is for cultivation beyond the abilities of the Qi Refinement Realm.
In the Qi Refinement Realm, Soul Stabilizing Incense is generally used by cultivators during the recovery period after encountering issues with a cultivation technique.
Even Foundation Establishment Cultivators have a need for Soul Stabilizing Incense, which is also effective for them during the recovery when cultivating Spiritual Thought.
Thus, when Li Shiming ordered ten sticks of Soul Stabilizing Incense, Yun Ze thought it was intended for some Qi Refining cultivator who had gone through cultivation deviation, not realizing that it was meant for cultivating Spiritual Thought.
Looking at the Soul Stabilizing Incense, Li Shiming hesitated for a while, considering whether the main body or the avatar should cultivate first.
The avatar had previously practiced the ‘Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique,’ but the original soul of the avatar had disappeared, replaced by a new Corpse Refining spirit, and he did not know if the avatar still retained some of the Spiritual Thought.
The state of the avatar was indeed too peculiar, encompassing both life and death, able to switch freely between the two, surpassing his understanding of life.
“Let the avatar try practicing first!” Li Shiming made up his mind, placed a stick of Soul Stabilizing Incense in the workshop space, and lit it.
His consciousness also entirely entered the avatar’s body, starting to concentrate his spiritual power in accordance with the ‘Ice Heart Jade Thought Technique.’
The aroma of the Soul Stabilizing Incense, with the avatar’s breath, was fully absorbed into the avatar’s body, making his mind exceptionally clear, as though a basin of water had been poured over his head.