Chapter 270: The Cycle of Lavagold (1/2)
Chapter 270: The Cycle of Lavagold
Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ye Chong was holding a piece of Lavagold plate in his hand. It glowed brilliantly, with ripples of curves over the surface. Imagine the craze that could happen if this piece of Lavagold ever rolled into one market of the 5 major galaxies! Exclaimed Ye Chong in his mind. It was reasonable as a piece of rare mineral would be far more precious than a piece of jewel. So, pieces like the Teardrop, the Do-Kun stone would be obviously something of the other world, with a heavenly price if one were to describe it.
The assistants around were expressing their overwhelmed excitement, as their eyes seemed to have been bewitched by the beauty of the Lavagold, they were intoxicated. And their eyes, when towards Ye Chong, were showing their highest regards and deepest respect.
Yes, you heard it right. There was more than one assistant, as the crew of Ye Chong had expanded from one single man called Sang Fan to a team of 5 members, whom the chief of the village selected from the young generation and all of them were intelligent and adaptive. Certainly Ye Chong knew the intention of the chief - he wanted more men of his to learn, whether they would learn a little bit or none, from this talented teacher of the outside world. Ye Chong would not reject this, considering having more assistants would do him no actual harm.
The 5 men of his team, despite having a rather weak foundation in their studies, possessed a one-of-a-kind diligence. They were the potential, a clay to be sculptured. Yes, one could agree that there would always be a difference in how talented a person would be compared to others, but that did not mean the innate talent could replace acquiring diligence. Though it did not mean Ye Chong would be motivated enough to teach them from the very first page of his textbook, he did not have the interest for that. Glad that Sang Fan was there to do the talking for him.
While they were progressing incredibly slow on metallurgy, they were learning fairly quick on alchemy, it felt somehow as if they were made for alchemy, which was shocking to Ye Chong. So Sang Fan explained, on one occasion when Ye Chong asked, that everyone here was very much exposed to the norm of distinguishing plants. And yes, the Guan’s approach of alchemy was a product of the ancient botanical knowledge, and most of Ye Chong’s alchemical processes were chiefly related to plants, so no doubt the men were progressing quickly.
And we did it!
Phew…
Ye Chong gave a sigh of relief. Although he had probably been completely isolated from the modernity while being stuck without the tools to perform even the most fundamental process of mineral extraction, he made it anyway, as he extracted the fluid from Portabella and produced a reagent with it to extract the Lavagold from the ore instead. The joy faded away quickly however, as he calmed down, remembering the fact that… he was in a race of time, where Mu Shang would never be able to last for him in all eternity.
I wonder… if Mu Shang were doing fine… Thought Ye Chong, his mind sinking into a fact that seemed to be changing history anytime.
He bucked up and spoke to Sang Fan, ”Bring the chief here.”
Sang Fan responded agreeably as he set off sprinting excitingly.
The piece of Lavagold flowed from one assistant to another, and every one of them was more than enthralled to see their breakthrough.
Ye Chong was pondering at the side. Yes, they did extract Lavagold successfully but it remained as a problem if they could massively extract and produce these golds. He did inquire Sang Fan on Portabella, the Sang’s response was… Portabella was a common fungi indeed but not common enough in numbers, as it only grew within the gravity region. Assuming they had to go with the Lavagold option, the supply of Portabella would be an issue.
Noises poured from the outside suddenly, as a group of people flooded into the place, with the leading one, of course, the chief himself, while Sang Pu and Sang Ling tailed right behind.
”Did you get it sir?” Sang Pu could no longer hold his excitement, his voice was shaking, Sang Ling was also expressing that mesmerization towards Ye Chong.
”Mhm,” nodded Ye Chong as he turned his head to the few assistants. And Sang De the really old shifted his sight along with Ye Chong’s head and landed upon that piece of glittering precious resting in one of the assistant’s hands. The old man’s eyes sure were large, as his breathing intensified. The assistant went to the chief and passed him the Lavagold with both hands solemnly.
Loud gasps were heard in the room, along with few waves of whispers.
The old chief reached his trembling hands over that piece of beauty. His hands were so shaky that Ye Chong was worried if the chief, at this rate, would have funeral a week from today.
He had to admit that, the Lavagold was truly a beauty to behold, even for someone who had seen countless jewels and mineralites like Ye Chong, as he could imagine himself bowing before this piece of gorgeous. So it would not be far-fetched to see one man isolated from the world like Sang De the chief dramatically reacting towards Lavagold. But well, Ye Chong was more concerned about its functionality rather than its beauty. Lavagold was limited in number within the 5 major galaxies, and so were the researches about it, even the information in Mu’s databank only contained a very vaguely described entry on it. Ye Chong did test out its functionality, briefly, of course. It could never be precisely accurate, but he believed in the excellence of this piece that it would surpass the alloys containing Black Gold.
Ye Chong learned a lot from the extraction process using alchemy’s approach this time. Lots of stuffs regarding alchemy suddenly made very much sense to him ever since.
”Sir…” Spoke Sang Ling, ”Why does the metal look… a little different than the color of the mechs in shrine?”
”Why must the metal have the same colors as the mech from shrine?” asked Ye Chong, bewildered.
”Because… weren’t mechs from the Sanctuary made out of metals too?” The villagers could see Ye Chong slamming himself towards the ground.
Pure ignorance! Oh my Fal galaxy… Ye Chong looked at the breasts of Sang Ling. And one word, an odd terminology from Shang returned to his mind… what was it again? Dumb blonde? Wait, that was discriminative Shang said… Oh. Bimbo. Yeah. I guess it fits her.”Brainless with great peaks!” Shang once said, hmmm... wow, first time a word from Shang that made logical sense, Shang actually wasn’t talking meaningless crap the whole time…
And out of sudden… he missed the artificial indulgence.
The inappropriate gaze of Ye Chong was sending blushes over her face.
”Well…” And Ye Chong whispered his explanation, ”This metal is known as the ‘Lavagold’. The mech inside the shrine uses a metal known as the ‘Tritanium’, an alloy.” The team of assistants, including Sang Fan, all took out a handy notebook from their pocket and jotted down the lesson of the day. And everybody else was stupefied by their synchronicity.
”So sir, what exactly is Tritanium? Which one is better? Lavagold or Tritanium?” asked Sang Fan courteously, while the other assistants were listening.
”Find it out yourself. The processor is there.” Ye Chong was too lazy to elaborate, ”For your information, Tritanium had been a goner since 300 years ago.”
The diligence of the 5 young men was a satisfying sight to the chief, he spoke, ”All of you shall learn something from your teacher. He is a very talented teacher and every word of his could count, learn even the tiniest bit of it and you would live with it for the rest of your life.”
”Yes chief!”
”Yes!” The group hurriedly showed their approval. The little instance resolved that awkward situation of Sang Ling just now.
Sang Pu received the Lavagold from the chief and exerted brute force on it. The piece did not change at all! Not even a mark of his fingerprint! ”Great!” Exclaimed Sang Pu and the whispers brewed again among the villagers as they stretched their neck, desperately trying to have a better look at that piece of precious.
”Sir, would it be possible…” Sang Pu’s eyes were passionate, ”for sir to turn this into a weapon?” The very question got everybody else as they held their respiration simultaneously, the hustle and bustled settled out of the blue.
Right, making a weapon had always been the primary concern of every Sang.