With his hands behind his back, Li Yao walked past every furnace slowly, pointing out the problems of the furnaces one after another. When he got excited, he even activated the light beam of his crystal processor and drew the internal structure of the furnaces as fast as lightning, explaining the parts that had flaws and the reasons for the flaws in detail.
Ye Qingyun and the other refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet snorted in disdain at first, thinking that he was just bragging.
However, after a couple of sentences, sweat the size of beans was popping out of their foreheads. Their chewing muscles gradually lost their strength, and they could not help but open their mouths and stare at Li Yao in disbelief.
Shock!
Everybody could not have been more shocked!
"Vulture Li Yao", the refiner who showed up mysteriously, could not have seen the situation inside the refining workshop, but he was able to describe the features of their refining without the slightest error based on the tiniest gaps or scratches inside and outside the furnaces. He was even able to point out the advantages and disadvantages of some of their habitual tricks or unique techniques. It was almost as if a ghost was hanging behind their backs and watching them refining!
What — what was the guy's background exactly? His keen senses and knowledge about furnaces were too appalling!
Even Master Jin Tianzong was greatly surprised. After a long daze, he asked Li Linghai, "Your Grace, have you shown the videos of our refining workshop to this' Vulture Li Yao 'before?"
"Of course not."
Li Linghai couldn't help but put on a smile. "Master Jin, you want a miracle. It seems that … a miracle is already on the way."
"Fellow Cultivator Li!"
Inside the refining workshop, Ye Qingyun could not hold back any longer. Pointing at the furnace that Li Yao chose in the end, he asked, "So to speak, this furnace is the best-maintained one of the nine furnaces in this place?"
The furnace that Li Yao chose in the end was the one that Ye Qingyun often used.
Ye Qingyun was certainly one of the most distinguished refiners of the Deep Sea Fleet, but how could he be compared to Master Jin Tianzong?
Therefore, if Li Yao said that this crafting furnace was the best, it would mean that his taste was only so-so.
Unexpectedly, Li Yao smiled and shook his head, "No, this crafting furnace also has some problems, but compared to the crafting furnace just now, it's barely passable."
"Barely acceptable?"
Ye Qingyun angrily said, "What's wrong with this crafting furnace!"
"The most important problem is that the components of the furnace are not tightly connected. There are many gaps that are invisible to the naked eye. Some of the gaps are only a tenth of a centimeter thick and generally do not affect the refining process, but they do affect my perception and operation.
Li Yao touched the furnace that had been carved with a lot of radial runes on the shell and said solemnly, "Whoever used this furnace often must be an expert. Both the control of fire and the shaping skills must've reached a very high level. It wouldn't be a problem for them to design and craft a Crystal Suit independently."
Ye Qingyun had a smug look on his face as he snorted.
Li Yao, however, changed the topic and went on. "However, the refiner's problem is that he is too impatient and shows off too much. The simplest example is the skill that he likes to use very much, which is to reduce the temperature of the core of the furnace from more than five thousand degrees to below zero all of a sudden in no more than three to five seconds.
"The quick conversion between hot and cold helps to eliminate the internal stresses of the components, significantly increasing the ductility and the anti-interference abilities of the components. The Crystal Suit produced will have a higher survival ability on a complicated battlefield.
"It should've been a very remarkable skill, and the refiner must've been very good to achieve it in only several seconds!
"However …
"Mastering an awesome skill does not necessarily mean that you need to use it in every component, right? Other than the few critical components, most of the common components that are highly replaceable do not need to 'completely eliminate the internal stresses'.
"The refiner's skills, on the other hand, are not perfect. Or rather, adjusting the temperature of the furnace in such an exaggerated way every time will inevitably consume a lot of spiritual energy and mental strength. Then, in the last few furnaces, carelessness or even loss of control will be inevitable. As a result, the rate of defective products will increase, and even hidden problems and flaws that are hard to detect will be buried in the authentic products.
"Even the joints of the various units of the furnace are somewhat loose because of the frequent conversion between hot and cold and thermal expansion and contraction. Because of the interference of the overflowing spiritual energy, the joints of the components are somewhat loose. That is the price of 'showing off'.
"As a matter of fact, the art of refining is very simple. Many mass-produced components have been refined by the senior masters for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years. They have figured out the most reasonable and standard refining procedures and written them all in the relevant operation manuals.
"I'm actually quite excited to join the refining team of the Deep Sea Fleet, because I can tell that our team is rather young, and everybody has their own ideas. Also, everybody is rather 'whimsical and insane' when they are refining, which is actually quite my cup of tea. My own style of refining is also the more exaggerated and crazy, the better.
"However, the exaggeration and radicalization of the style of refining do not mean the exaggeration of the techniques of refining. Or rather, it is exactly because we are pursuing more creative new ideas in the overall design that we should be even more dutiful and meticulous when we are refining the fundamental components.
"If the ideas are exaggerated and the techniques are exaggerated, the magical equipment that we produce in the end will be completely 'impetuous'.
"After all, we are a practical refining team that follows a fleet, not a cutting-edge experimental refining team under a certain university or a certain research institute. Creativity is very important, but ensuring a stable, effective, and continuous output on a battlefield is the most important thing. Don't you think so, Fellow Cultivator Ye?"
Li Yao's eyes were as clear as water as he looked at Ye Qingyun sincerely.
Ye Qingyun was truly rendered speechless by Li Yao. His provocative words were uttered by Li Yao in such a way of "mutual discussion". He did not even know where to vent his fury. After a long daze, he pointed at the furnace that Master Jin Tianzong was used to using and asked, "What about this one? Why didn't you choose this one?"
"This furnace, on the other hand, is almost perfect."
Li Yao complimented, "It can be inferred from the internal abrasions of the furnace and the residual fuel and metal colors on the inner wall that the refiner who often uses it is exactly the type of refiner that I mentioned just now. He has the most solid basics, never shows off his skills, and always refines dutifully in every procedure.
"I'm not saying that the standard of the Armament Master who uses this furnace is definitely much higher than other Armament Masters, but he is extremely clear on where his own limits are. Every time he refines, he would not make any mistakes and would perfectly display his own limits.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The most difficult thing in life is self-awareness. Without a hundred years of hard work, it is absolutely impossible for you to have such 'self-awareness'.
"As time went by, even the smoke of the furnace itself was completely worn out by him. Look, look. If you tilt your head and look carefully, you will see that the surface of the furnace is covered in a layer of vague brilliance, as if it were covered in a layer of paste. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be 'smooth'.
"A furnace that has been used by a master refiner for a long time is like a teapot that has been played by a great collector for a hundred years. It is almost perfect and flawless!"
The workers of the Deep Sea Fleet were all fascinated. Ye Qingyun couldn't help but ask, "Then —"
"Then, why didn't I choose this one, right?"
Li Yao said with a smile, "Every master refiner has their unique refining techniques and habits, which will be deeply 'branded' into the furnace when they are refining. The refiner and the furnace will be melted until they reach perfection. It is why a refiner is often only used to one furnace. Once they are melted, they will not change their habits easily.
"The stronger the refiner, the more distinctive their personal features will be, and the more powerful the 'branding' ability will be.
"This best furnace has been polished by the master of refining that I just mentioned for at least a couple of years. Every unit has been soaked in the personal features of the master of refining. It's almost like the furnace has been branded by his soul.
"If I were to use the furnace, I would've been in conflict with the master's personal features and interfered with by his soul branding.
"In the meantime, if I were to debug it without bothering about anything and completely erase the master's branding, wouldn't I be destroying the master's hard work after years of hard work? How would he be able to refine the furnace in the future?
"A gentleman does not steal other people's favorite things. Since it is the furnace that the master is used to, it would be better for me to change to another one. So, I settled for the second-best and chose the one with the second best maintenance among the nine furnaces.
"Of course, I will also erase all the personal features left on the furnace during the refining process. I will even trigger all the potentials of the furnace through some rather extreme approaches. It is inevitable that other refiners will feel uncomfortable when they use it in the future. Fellow Cultivator Ye, and fellow Cultivators of the Deep Sea Fleet, you don't mind, do you?"
Everyone was stunned when they heard this.
Ye Qingyun stammered, "No — I don't mind."
"Thank you very much."
Li Yao smiled and said, "Then, I'll have to trouble Fellow Cultivator Ye to fetch crystals of the water class, the fire class, the wind class, and the thunder class for me. The purer, the better. Five thousand grams of each. I'm going to test the furnace."
The so-called furnace test was when a refiner came into contact with a never-before-used crafting furnace and performed some of the simplest crafting operations to test the performance of this crafting furnace.
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