95: Chapter 95 What the hell is this "Mortal World Heart Refining"?! Old B, do you have any shame?!

Six question marks.

Su Ming's heart skipped a beat.

He slowly crouched down and, through the special glass, stared at that unremarkable, charred broken bone.

What on earth is this thing?

Even the System can't calculate its value?

From behind, Shen Hongyuan's careless urging voice came: "Thirty seconds left."

Su Ming didn't turn back.

His voice was a bit dry: "Boss… what is the origin of this bone?"

The Hidden Vault went quiet for a moment.

Shen Qingci also walked over curiously, but after just one glance, her delicate brows furrowed.

"Isn't this just a dead bone? There isn't even any Source Energy fluctuation, and it's full of holes. Why are you picking this?"

A flash of complexity crossed Shen Hongyuan's eyes, as if he were recalling something, but in the end, he shook his head.

"Forgot where I picked it up," he said casually.

"It's as hard as a rock in a latrine and completely useless. Your taste, kid, is truly unique."

Su Ming knew better.

He wouldn't even believe a punctuation mark of what this old fox said.

"Hard as a rock" was probably true.

But "completely useless"…

that depends on who you ask.

A string of question marks.

This reaction was unprecedented.

The skeleton of a Peak Seventh-Order Golden-Winged Roc was valued at 40,000 mass points.

Yet, for this charred broken bone the length of a forearm, the System couldn't even provide a number.

This…

might really be a takeoff!

Time to gamble!

He stood up abruptly, grabbed the waist-high glass display case, and switched his expression to one of honest foolishness.

"Boss, I feel like this bone and I are fated! I want this one!"

Shen Hongyuan's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, and he gave him a deep look.

Ever since this kid came in,

he'd been browsing casually,

treating those Fifth and Sixth-Order treasures like rotten cabbage,

and even disdaining the Seventh-Order Source Beast organs.

Yet he chose this thing in the end?

Is there something wrong with his brain?

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, positively, definitely sure!"

Su Ming patted his chest, looking sincere,

"I just like this kind of primitive handicraft,

it has a sense of history,

I'll take it back to play with!"

Shen Hongyuan's mouth twitched.

Play with it?

He rubbed his temples,

too lazy to waste more breath on this kid who was spouting nonsense,

and waved him away: "Fine, fine, take it and get out."

Su Ming directly stored the black bone and the glass cover into his space.

Then he bowed with a grin:

"Thank you, Boss! And thank you, Senior Sister!"

Shen Qingci turned her face away, not looking at him.

As the three stepped out of the Hidden Vault,

Shen Hongyuan saw the smile Su Ming couldn't hide,

and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Wait…

did he…

did this kid just swipe something incredible from him?!

Impossible.

When he picked this up from an S-class ruin years ago,

he had several Eighth-Order Artifact Refining Grandmasters appraise it.

It was just a dead object that couldn't be analyzed or used.

Its only merit was being hard.

But… what use is being hard?

Shen Hongyuan shook this absurd thought from his mind.

The secret door to the space closed silently behind them,

and the bookshelf slowly returned to its place.

Just as they returned to the first floor,

and Shen Hongyuan was preparing to shoo them away,

his brows suddenly lifted.

His gaze passed through the hall,

and looked toward the factory gate,

a playful smile appearing on his lips.

"Oh? Finally here?"

He said this out of the blue,

then beckoned to Su Ming and the other:

"Let's go, time to watch a show."

Su Ming and Shen Qingci exchanged a look,

and followed.

Meanwhile,

at the gate of the Xinghuo Scrap Processing Plant.

A small, silver aircraft,

stamped with the logo of the Federal Research Institute,

hovered steadily.

In the open-air workshop,

Lu Beichen, who was being forced by a foreman to tighten screws,

suddenly raised his head.

The Federal Research Institute logo!

It was his brother! Lu Beiyuan!

Lu Beichen instantly teared up, dropped his wrench,

and scrambled toward the factory gate,

thinking his brother had come to flatten this crappy factory and save him.

The other workers in the workshop also stopped what they were doing,

looking with awe at the aircraft that represented the pinnacle of Federal technology.

Scarface Li's expression changed,

and he quickly turned to find the inspector, Liu Feng.

The aircraft hatch slid open.

Standing at the entrance was a man in his early thirties wearing rimless glasses,

with an elegant temperament.

But at this moment,

his face was livid,

and his eyes were full of anxiety.

"Brother! Brother! Why did you only just arrive?!"

Lu Beichen lunged at the hatch, incoherent with excitement,

"Quick! Hurry and have the Silver Wing Mecha Squad flatten this crappy factory!"

With snot and tears, he pointed at Shen Hongyuan, who was walking over slowly in the distance,

and accused him through gritted teeth:

"Brother, it's that old thing surnamed Shen!

He illegally detained me and even made me tighten screws…"

Before he could finish.

Lu Beiyuan's figure dashed out of the hatch like lightning.

It wasn't a warm embrace of brothers reuniting.

Instead—

"SLAP!!!"

A resounding slap echoed across the entire area.

Striking Lu Beichen hard across the face.

The force was so great,

that it sent the young master of the Lu family spinning half a circle before he landed on his butt.

Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth,

and as he clutched his cheek,

his eyes were filled with disbelief.

"Brother… why… why did you hit me?"

Lu Beiyuan was trembling all over.

He couldn't bear to look at this stupid brother.

He kicked Lu Beichen in the back of the knee,

forcibly pressing him to kneel on the oil-stained concrete floor.

"You beast, shut up!!"

Su Ming leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed.

The show was starting!

Then, under the gaze of Lu Beichen, whose worldview was collapsing.

His star chief engineer brother—who was always arrogant and wouldn't even look at the Mayor of Jiangcheng straight in the eye, the brother he admired most…

went "THUMP" and knelt on both knees.

Facing that "scavenger" Shen Hongyuan,

he kowtowed extremely humbly.

The workers in the entire factory were stunned.

Scarface Li and Liu Feng, who had just run out, were so scared their legs went weak,

and they almost knelt down too.

"Mr… Mr. Shen."

Lu Beiyuan's voice was trembling uncontrollably,

"My younger brother is young and ignorant and has disturbed your peace,

Lu Beiyuan… on behalf of the Lu family, has specifically come to apologize to you!"

Lu Beichen's brain buzzed, going completely blank.

A dream, this must be a dream!

Shen Hongyuan walked up to them with his hands behind his back.

He looked down at them, expressionless.

He waved his hand at Liu Feng and Scarface Li behind him:

"Knock off early today, all of you, leave."

The crowd felt as if they'd been granted amnesty and scattered in all directions.

Once everyone was gone,

Shen Hongyuan spoke slowly, his tone laced with sarcasm:

"Oh? I thought you brought people here to kill me!

Since not, I'm relieved!"

Sweat poured even more heavily from Lu Beiyuan's forehead.

"But your Lu family is really slow.

Since you're here, let's keep it simple: money first, then the person."

Shen Hongyuan didn't beat around the bush.

"Combat robot: 8 million.

My daughter's lost wages: 2 million.

Emotional distress: 2 million."

"Your brother's food expenses for these few days: let's call it 2 million.

Plus the recovery potions I provided for him: 1 million."

"He just ate two meals today, round it up to 1 million."

"Total: 16 million."

Lu Beichen, kneeling on the ground, was choked with anger.

Don't you know what kind of food this crappy factory has?

Have I ever even had a bite of meat?!

You want 300,000 to 500,000 for a meal?!

Why don't you just go rob someone instead!?

…

Lu Beiyuan suppressed his emotions and said:

"Mr. Shen… my father…"

"Pay up!"

"My great-grandfather he…"

"Pay first!"

Lu Beiyuan completely lost his temper and honestly took out a Federal black gold card.

He transferred 16 million from his account and handed it to Shen Hongyuan.

As soon as the money was in hand, Shen Hongyuan's expression instantly cleared up.

Having paid the "speaking fee," Lu Beiyuan was finally able to speak in complete sentences.

"Mr. Shen, as an apology, my Old Ancestor also asked me to bring two small gifts. I hope you can accept them."

As he spoke, he painfully took out two huge metal suitcases from his spatial equipment.

The cases were stamped with the highest authorization mark of the Federal Research Institute—Top Secret.

Lu Beiyuan presented them with both hands.

Seeing those two suitcases, Shen Hongyuan, who was impatient a second ago, had his eyes light up like lightbulbs.

He couldn't wait to take the cases and opened them on the spot.

The first case contained three sets of extremely precise energy engine devices that were glowing faintly.

Su Ming screamed in his heart:

"System! Scan!"

[Ding! Seventh-Generation Source Energy Matrix Core detected! Estimated mass points for conversion: 35,000!]

Holy crap!

35,000 for one?!

The second case opened, containing a fist-sized piece of meteorite iron emitting a cold, deep blue starlight.

In the moment the case was opened, frost faintly condensed on the edges, and the air temperature even dropped by several degrees!

[Ding! High-order energy substance detected… Starry Sky Meteorite Iron. Estimated mass points for conversion: 80,000!]

Eighty… eighty thousand?!

Su Ming gulped hard.

Just this piece of broken rock was worth double that big bird skeleton?

His understanding of this world was indeed just the tip of the iceberg!

He'd really opened his eyes today!

Then he looked again at the black bone in his System space.

The value of this thing already exceeded 80,000!

Shen Hongyuan remained calm on the surface, but he was overjoyed inside.

Both of these items were strategically restricted materials of the Federation; money couldn't buy them.

They were qualified to enter the second layer of his Hidden Vault!

It seemed that old thing from the Lu family was truly scared.

After inspecting the goods, he moved with a speed completely unbecoming of his status, "swish," and put the two cases away.

The movement was so fluid and the expression so natural that it was breathtaking to watch.

Shen Qingci looked at her money-grubbing father, then turned to look at Su Ming, whose eyes were glowing green nearby.

She helplessly covered her forehead.

These two… why were even their micro-expressions identical when they saw treasure?

Having accepted the heavy gifts, Shen Hongyuan's attitude improved significantly.

He asked with feigned concern:

"Is your Old Ancestor still in good health?

Has he touched the threshold of the Eighth-Order yet?"

Lu Beiyuan's heart was once again thrown into turmoil!

Even the top-secret information about his great-grandfather going into seclusion to break through to the Eighth-Order was mentioned by the other party so casually!

He answered even more respectfully:

"Thanks to Mr. Shen's concern, my Old Ancestor is in good health, and everything is going smoothly."

"Mm, very good, very good."

Shen Hongyuan nodded.

He put on the face of a kind elder again, glanced at Lu Beichen, who was still kneeling on the ground, then looked at Lu Beiyuan, and said earnestly:

"Beiyuan."

"You don't really think that I, an old man, am so bored that I'm detaining your brother here for forced labor, do you?"

"You Lu family are foolish!"

Everyone present was stunned upon hearing this.

Shen Qingci, hearing this, silently moved closer to Su Ming and whispered:

"Did you infect my dad?"

Su Ming looked blank:

"???"

"The younger generation these days, having grown up in luxury, have Foundations that are too superficial and Heart-Nature that is too impatient!"

"I kept him here, actually to help your Lu family polish an unpolished gem, do you understand?!"

Shen Hongyuan raised his voice, looking righteous:

"What is this called? This is called 'Mortal World Heart-Refining'!"

"I made him dismantle scrap iron and tighten screws to use extreme labor to temper his Dao Heart!"

"Look, after these few days of baptism by engine oil and the hammering of the wrench, isn't his Heart-Nature much more stable?"

"Doesn't he have an eye for work now?"

"In the future, whenever he sees a screw, he'll instinctively want to tighten it. This is muscle memory, this is cultivation!"

"…"

"???"

Lu Beiyuan's mouth twitched violently, but he still had to force a smile:

"Yes, yes, yes, Mr. Shen, you are far-sighted. It was our Lu family who measured a gentleman's stature with a petty man's heart!"

Meanwhile, Lu Beichen, who was kneeling on the ground, clutched his swollen cheek and looked at his hands covered in black engine oil that wouldn't wash off, tears welling up in his eyes.

What the hell "Mortal World Heart-Refining"!

What the hell "having an eye for work"!

You had people whip me to tighten 3,000 rusty screws a day, and now you tell me this is a free special training?

You old bastard!

Do you have any shame left!!!