Li Ming had not yet reached the large factory when he heard a sharp, piercing voice faintly carrying over.
"Xia Yuanlun, did you really hand it over to these idiots?"
"With your skills, you might as well replace yourselves with a few forging robots."
"Still using stamping forging, such an outdated method!"
As the voice continued, Xia Yuanlun’s face grew darker and darker.
With a bang, he suddenly pushed open the door, and a blast of intense heat hit them. Cheng Tienan, Ding Hui, and a few other familiar faces were there.
Everyone but Cheng Tienan looked unhappy.
"Heh, Xia Yuanlun, I thought you had turned into a shrinking turtle, too scared to show your face."
Li Ming was slightly stunned before he looked down, his face turning incredibly expressive.
From behind a nearby workbench, a small red dwarf with thick arms and dense red beards on his cheeks emerged, looking sturdy and glaring angrily.
"What’s with that look, kid?" Castelon was unapologetic: "You humans just love racism!"
"Uh, sir, isn’t that stereotype a kind of racism as well?" Li Ming hesitated.
"Hmph, typical of Xia Yuanlun’s people, only know how to argue." Castelon clearly harbored deep resentment towards Professor Xia.
"Castelon, I told you three days ago that you’re not welcome here, how come you’re still shamelessly lingering?" Xia Yuanlun said coldly.
"I just love it here." Castelon scoffed, his gaze shifting to the metallic box Xia Yuanlun was carrying; through the gap, he seemed to have spotted something.
Then he smirked, his figure flashed, and he snatched the metal box from Xia Yuanlun’s hand.
So fast, Li Ming’s eyes narrowed, unsure what level of life form this guy was.
"Castelon!" Xia Yuanlun’s face changed dramatically.
But Castelon, as if he had discovered a secret, immediately opened it, and the Tan Guard Mecha appeared before everyone.
"Haha..." Castelon glanced down, touched it, and then burst out laughing:
"Xia Yuanlun, Xia Yuanlun, I thought that after all these years your skills had just stalled, but I never expected you to have regressed so much."
"Did you forge this Mecha?" he demanded.
Xia Yuanlun frowned: "What if I did?"
"I came specifically to humiliate you, seems like you’re not even worthy of that. Look at this forging craftsmanship, it’s soulless."
"For a heavy Mecha, it lacks an energy engine, ammunition storage, energized weapons, horribly low intelligence!"
"And these pointless edges and overly intricate patterns, tsk tsk... just for sheer defense, right?"
"It’s already a C-class Mecha standard, what use is mere defense? Where is the ability outlet? This is just a cage you built for yourself, afraid of being beaten."
"The shock absorption system is mediocre, hydraulic transmission lacks any uniqueness, not even using a magnetic axle? What about a temperature control system? Air filtration system? No different from those off an assembly line."
"Wrong, even worse than junk from an assembly line!"
After a series of scathing remarks, Li Ming touched his nose; he hadn’t noticed so many flaws.
This device directly used his physical strength, upgrading along the way, naturally not needing an energy engine.
The other features were all crafted by the control system; he hadn’t paid much attention, focusing mainly on defense.
As for an ability outlet, he could utilize the characteristics of the Sword Wing Knight, attaching his own elemental ability to the Mecha, thus not needing one.
"Of course, the only advantage is the integration technology between Mother Ore and alloy materials." Castelon, while not solely critical, acknowledged a merit, casually saying: "This alloy hardness is passable."
Actually, Castelon was quite surprised internally, as he had never seen such fusion technology, perfectly matching the inherent properties of the alloys.
It maximized the features of the Mother Ore, elevating the overall defense to another level, quite remarkable.
Of course, he wasn’t about to praise it, but after his tirade, when he looked up, he found Xia Yuanlun grinning broadly, laughing heartily.
"Gone mad because I scolded him?" he frowned.
Xia Yuanlun sneered, "Barely catching your eye? The fusion rate between heavy mother ore and its alloy materials is likely no less than 95%. And in your eyes, that’s just barely catching your attention?"
Castelon curled his lip, "It’s somewhat interesting, but if you couldn’t even manage this much, you wouldn’t be worth my while to come here and scold you."
"Even a high fusion rate can’t hide the many other flaws of this mecha. You’ve regressed too much."
Though he said this, he knew in his heart that it was probably an experimental piece by Xia Yuanlun. If he could maintain this fusion rate in other weapons,
the level might climb a great step.
"If it were truly made by me, your criticism wouldn’t be wrong," Xia Yuanlun then said leisurely.
Upon hearing this, Castelon was taken aback, "What do you mean if it were truly made by you?"
"Let me tell you the truth, Castelon, I didn’t make this mecha, he did." Xia Yuanlun pointed at Li Ming.
"Him?" Castelon turned to look at the silent Li Ming and scoffed, "How old is he?"
"Should be nineteen, I guess," Xia Yuanlun replied.
"Impossible!" Castelon asserted and then coldly laughed, "Has my pressure driven you to this?"
"Bringing some youngster to fool me?"
If the mecha had been crafted by Xia Yuanlun, then it would be flawed all over, for he was an advanced talent who had also trained at Yellow Bell Mechanical College. Xia Yuanlun did have talent,
but he was no match for him.
However, if this young person had crafted the mecha, then that was a different story altogether.
As he spoke, Cheng Tienan and Ding Hui hurried over and began to scrutinize the Tan Guard Mecha, mumbling to each other.
"Almost no trace of handcrafting, indeed looks like Li Ming’s handiwork," Ding Hui couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.
"Hmm, it’s not mass-produced, then it’s made by Li Ming," Cheng Tienan said with more conviction.
"Ganging up to trick me?" Castelon remained skeptical, while Ding Hui turned to explain, "It’s really him, the pair of gauntlets you criticized before were left by him."
"Hmm? He is Li Ming? The talented kid you mentioned." Castelon was suspicious; he had heard from Ding Hui in the past few days that this Li Ming had a high sensitivity to materials.
He had initially scoffed at it—how could anyone be more proficient than a dwarf?
But the fusion of mother ore with the alloy had indeed reached a staggering level.
It wasn’t hard to verify this claim. At worst, he could make him recreate it. If Xia Yuanlun used such tactics to frame him, it really wouldn’t be honorable, nor meaningful,
but rather it would attract even more fierce ridicule from him.
Castelon’s expression changed slightly, looking towards Li Ming. At nineteen to have crafted a C-grade mecha, though flawed in many respects, just a bit of nurturing, and he would surely become a great mechanic.
Could humans possess such talent?
And that mother ore fusion technique, even with his material sensitivity, assisted by a forging smart brain, it would be difficult to achieve such a high level.
In the interstellar age, the majority of hard labor and repetitive processes could be replaced or assisted by intelligent means.
But that final touch of extremity and finesse cannot be replaced.
Even through billions of simulations by an intelligent system, it cannot compare to that one instance of sudden inspiration.
"Just gave a little pointer, and the kid brought it out," Xia Yuanlun held his head high, slowly pacing, "By the way, I heard your son got admitted to Yellow Bell Mechanical College, haven’t congratulated you yet."
"I also toiled for two or three months, made a few mistakes, never truly reaching this level, just forcibly ground it out," Li Ming explained, "There are many other shortcomings in other aspects."
"I just remembered, I have something else," Castelon said without expression, walking straight past everyone.
"Don’t rush off, Li Ming still wants to learn from you," Xia Yuanlun called out.
As his voice fell, Castelon’s figure had already disappeared into the corridor.
"Ha!" Xia Yuanlun let out a breath of relief, his crow’s feet fully unfolded.