75: Chapter 75 The Aesthetics of Scrap Metal and the Birth of the Iron Pillar

Sparks flew in the warehouse, and the sizzling sound of the welding gun echoed through the empty space.

Lin Qi wore a pair of oil-stained goggles, holding a welding gun in his hand, busy performing the final assembly on a pile of bizarre-looking metal parts.

"The weld points are too rough."

Old Mo lay on his rocking chair, the comic book in his hand now replaced by Calabash Brothers.

"The load-bearing structure here has issues. If you weld it like this, it will fall apart within three seconds of moving."

Lin Qi stopped his work and wiped the black soot off his face.

"That's the standard for ordinary machines," Lin Qi said, pointing to the semi-finished metal frame. "I'm installing high-density rubber, and I have to stuff springs into the joints. It needs to be welded tight to be durable."

"Suit yourself, just don't let it explode on me," Old Mo said, flipping a page of his book. "What are you planning to do with that pile of essence dregs? Stuff them directly into its chest?"

Lin Qi picked up the lead box filled with blue crystal fragments and walked over to the metal frame.

A hollow slot had been reserved in the chest cavity of the frame, surrounded by wires salvaged from discarded circuit boards.

"Stuffing them in directly would cause an overload," Lin Qi said, grabbing a handful of crystal dregs and shoving them into the slot like he was force-feeding a duck. "I added a current limiter salvaged from that scrapped centrifuge."

Half an hour later, a two-meter-tall metal monster, covered in patches with a left arm longer than its right, stood in the center of the warehouse.

Its head was an inverted aluminum bucket with two red crosses painted on it for eyes. Its chest featured a semi-transparent reinforced glass cover, inside which a faint, eerie blue light could be seen flickering.

Ugly.

It was uniquely ugly, breathtakingly ugly.

"Give it a name?" Old Mo sat up, observing the monster built from scrap with great interest.

"Tie Zhu." Lin Qi patted the monster's aluminum head, producing a dull thud.

Old Mo was silent for two seconds. "...Good name. A lowly name is easier to raise."

Lin Qi walked to the wall and pulled the power switch.

Zzz—

Current surged through the wires into Tie Zhu's chest cavity, instantly activating the pile of essence dregs and causing a brilliant blue light to flare up.

Click, click, click.

Tie Zhu's body emitted a teeth-grinding friction sound, and immediately after, those red-crossed eyes seemed to brighten.

Without any warning, its long left arm swung out violently.

Whoosh!

The speed of this punch was astonishing, even generating a gust of wind pressure.

Lin Qi instinctively raised his hand to block.

Bang!

A dull impact sound rang out. Lin Qi slid backward half a meter, a sharp, piercing pain radiating through his arm.

"That's some serious force," Lin Qi said, shaking his numb arm, his eyes lighting up. "And there was no warning for that strike; it completely defies mechanical logic."

"Nonsense," Old Mo said, slowly sipping his tea. "The energy within the essence dregs is inherently chaotic. Its power output fluctuates, which causes its attack rhythm to be completely random. It's much harder to deal with than those S-level Puppets that only know how to attack according to a program."

As soon as he finished speaking, Tie Zhu moved again.

This time it was a sweeping kick with the right leg, followed immediately by a chaotic headbutt.

Lin Qi didn't retreat; instead, he stepped forward to meet it.

"Well done!"

Bang, bang, bang!

The dull sounds of hand-to-hand combat echoed continuously in the warehouse.

Tie Zhu was tireless and felt no pain; every blow it struck was heavy and powerful. Although its movements were ugly, that chaotic rhythm gave Lin Qi a hard time.

Ten minutes later, Lin Qi panted as he retreated from the combat zone, his body covered in bruises.

"How does it feel?" Old Mo asked.

"Great," Lin Qi grinned, casually pulling a short black rod from the pile of scrap nearby.

He had fashioned this by polishing the core materials of several broken Advanced magic staves.

Although their magic conductivity was ruined, the material had been processed under high pressure, making it as hard as alloy, with excellent handling and a perfect weight.

Lin Qi gripped the short rod and charged at Tie Zhu again.

Clang!

The short rod struck Tie Zhu's joint, producing a crisp sound.

For the next two days, the warehouse was filled with the sounds of metalworking and Lin Qi's muffled grunts.

Until the evening of the third day.

Lin Qi sat cross-legged in a corner of the warehouse, shirtless.

Scattered around him were a dozen of those glowing blue essence dregs. Their placement looked random but actually contained a certain pattern.

This was a simple "Spirit Gathering Array."

The principle was simple: use the high-concentration energy escaping from the essence dregs to create a high-pressure zone in a small area, forcibly compressing the essence in the air into his body.

This was what he called "physical charging."

Lin Qi closed his eyes, his skin flushed red, sweat evaporating into white mist.

The Qi and blood within his body surged wildly. The feeling of being forcibly infused with energy was unpleasant; his Meridians felt as if they were being repeatedly scrubbed with steel brushes.

Yet, he could clearly feel the Bottleneck of Flesh Refining Major Achievement loosening bit by bit.

Beneath his jade-like, supple muscles, a certain power was accumulating, ready to erupt.

At this moment, the warehouse door was pushed open a crack.

A round figure squeezed in, carrying two huge food containers.

"Brother Qi? Still alive?" Zhang Wei called out, poking his head in.

Seeing Tie Zhu, who was furiously beating the air, Zhang Wei shrank his neck in fear.

Lin Qi slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air.

The surrounding essence dregs instantly dimmed, turning into greyish-white stones.

"Why are you here at this time?" Lin Qi stood up and grabbed a vest to put on.

Zhang Wei placed the food containers on the table and opened the lids, the aroma wafting out.

"I've brought you your last meal... pfft, I mean, a meal to boost your morale before the fight." Zhang Wei wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Brother Qi, you really don't know what people are saying outside right now."

Lin Qi picked up a roast chicken, tore off a leg, and took a bite. "Saying I'm dead?"

"Pretty much." Zhang Wei plopped onto the floor, making the three-legged chair creak. "That brat Li Shaobai is broadcasting every day. He says you're a coward, that you wet your pants when you saw his Sword Controlling Technique and are hiding in some rat hole, too scared to come out."

Zhang Wei grew angrier as he spoke, waving his fists. "He also said he's going to beat you back to your original form on the ring and let the whole school see that so-called 'Dao of Martial Arts' is a joke. The betting odds are insane now; betting on you to win is one to twenty!"

Lin Qi didn't stop eating the chicken, his expression unchanged.

"One to twenty? Wouldn't that make you rich?"

"Is that the point?" Zhang Wei said anxiously. "Brother Qi, aren't you angry at all? That brat talks so trashy, I want to go up and bite him myself."

At this moment, a fly buzzed by and landed on the edge of the food container, rubbing its front legs.

Lin Qi swallowed the meat in his mouth and casually picked up the black short rod from the table with his right hand.

Without any preparation or aiming, he tapped.

Thud.

The tip of the short rod tapped lightly on the edge of the food container.

The fly didn't fly away, nor was it crushed into pulp.

It remained there, its wings even still intact.

Zhang Wei paused, leaned in to look, and immediately gasped.

The fly was dead.

But it hadn't been beaten to death; its internal organs had been shattered by a blast of Penetrating Force, while its exterior remained perfectly intact.

This level of control was a hundred times harder than just smashing it flat with a stick.

Lin Qi put down the short rod and continued gnawing on the chicken leg, his voice as calm as if he were saying the weather was nice today.

"Let him bark."

Lin Qi looked up at Zhang Wei's shocked, chubby face.

"The louder he barks, the harder he'll hit the ground when he falls."