84: Burning a Ming Dynasty gold Buddha statue as scrap? The Silver Valkyrie is here, her combat power skyrockets!

Deep within the bottom hold of the black iron ghost.

The air here was no longer cold and damp; instead, it was permeated with a suffocating, scorched ozone smell.

And that sweet, metallic, bloody scent of volatile gases unique to high-temperature metal.

This was no longer the cluttered cargo hold it once was, but a precision hell operating at full power—the [Precision Manufacturing Workshop].

"Zzzzt—!!!"

The ear-piercing shrieks of high-energy laser cutting rose and fell, sounding like countless cicadas screaming under the scorching midsummer sun.

Four thick industrial Mechanical Arms moved like tireless steel giants, dancing frantically in the narrow yet uncrowded space.

The hydraulic hiss of rotating joints and the hum of servo motors intertwined, playing a violent industrial symphony.

They gripped priceless "spoils of war" with precision and cold indifference.

Then, without mercy, they fed them into the roaring high-frequency induction furnace nearby.

Jiang Ran stood before the main control console, his dark eyes flickering in the crimson firelight from the furnace, reflecting an absolute coldness.

At his feet lay the entire fortune emptied from Golden Tooth's private vault.

Boxes of pre-war gold bars, platinum jewelry encrusted with large diamonds, and even several pure gold Ming Dynasty antique Buddha statues... wealth that would have been enough to buy half a city in the old era was, in Jiang Ran's eyes, merely a pile of raw materials waiting to be processed.

"Commander, are you sure you want to smelt these 'works of art'?"

zero's voice carried a rare hint of questioning data fluctuations:

"According to database comparisons, the craftsmanship of this Ming Dynasty gold Buddha is extremely rare, and its market valuation is exceptionally high.

Preserving its integrity might allow it to be traded in certain large survivor settlements for..."

"Traded for what?"

Jiang Ran interrupted coldly, picking up the heavy gold Buddha and weighing it in his hand.

His fingertips brushed over the Buddha's benevolent face, feeling its cold, heavy texture:

"Traded for others' awe? Or for a useless pass?"

He tossed it upward.

The priceless gold Buddha traced a golden arc through the air, fell into the feed chute with a "clang," and was instantly swept by the conveyor belt into the high-temperature furnace reaching thousands of degrees.

"In this deep sea, the dead don't need art, and the living only need armor."

Jiang Ran watched the conductive metal reserves soaring on the screen, his gaze sharp as a knife:

"Gold is just an excellent superconducting material, and diamonds are just industrial cutting heads with decent hardness. Beyond that, they are worthless."

"Understood. Full-scale smelting program initiated."

As zero ceased its hesitation, the Mechanical Arms' movements became even more brutal and efficient.

Boxes of gold and silver jewelry were dumped into the furnace; former glory and splendor collapsed instantly under the high heat, turning into a flowing gold-red liquid.

After purification and restructuring, they finally became the high-precision circuit board substrates and superconducting coils that the black iron most desperately needed.

On the other side of the workshop, even more "hardcore" remains were being processed.

These were the core wreckage of an aviation engine torn directly from that crashed judgment-class gunboat.

Though charred and deformed by fire, the special metallic texture shimmering with a cold blue light still proclaimed its extraordinary origin.

"Isolate the Rhenium-Nickel Single-Crystal Alloy inside."

Jiang Ran's finger slid across the holographic blueprint, circling the core area of the engine's turbine blades:

"This is the crown jewel of the old era's aviation industry. It's heat-resistant and creep-resistant, ten times stronger than the common zirconium alloys we use now. Extract it; don't waste a single gram."

"Performing molecular-level stripping..."

A massive laser cutter dropped, precisely slicing open the engine casing.

The black iron was like an insatiable gold-devouring beast, frantically digesting all the gains from this Jinling trip, squeezing out every bit of value.

Jiang Ran watched it all without a ripple of emotion.

Many people in the apocalypse liked to hoard supplies like hamsters, looking at warehouses full of junk with self-satisfaction, thinking that was wealth.

But he was different.

He believed in the ultimate "conversion rate."

If these supplies weren't turned into fired bullets, pressure-resistant armor, or thruster fuel, they were just a pile of ballast in the cargo hold increasing fuel consumption.

"The place we are going is a forbidden zone for humanity."

Jiang Ran looked at the prototypes of several new pieces of equipment gradually taking shape on the screen and whispered to himself:

"Only by sharpening one's teeth to the keenest edge and forging one's bones to the hardest state can one be qualified to knock on that door."

... "zero, bring that silver box over." "Yes, Commander."

A Mechanical Arm retrieved a silver briefcase from a temperature-controlled storage compartment in the corner—it was spotless even amidst the dust—and placed it steadily on the workbench.

The surface of the case had no markings, only a low-profile matte texture.

This was something recovered from Golden Tooth's most secret collection room, and it was also the "gift" Jiang Ran had prepared for Su Qingyu.

"Call Dr. Su over."

Jiang Ran pressed his hand on the fingerprint lock. The lid popped open, revealing special equipment with a texture like flowing mercury inside:

"Tell her that her surgical scrubs have arrived."

The airtight door slid open, bringing in a hint of coolness. Su Qingyu stepped into the heat-filled workshop.

She had just finished dealing with those "test subjects" brought back from Dragon King Stockade, and she still carried a faint scent of disinfectant.

When she saw the open silver briefcase on the workbench, her footsteps noticeably faltered.

The case did not contain medical instruments. Lying quietly inside was a set of bodysuit armor shimmering with a cold silver light.

It was different from the ruggedness and bulk of Jiang Ran's "Tyrant" exoskeleton; there were no exposed hydraulic rods or thick bulletproof steel plates.

It looked incredibly thin, its surface woven from countless fine silver nanofibers.

Under the lights, it looked like a layer of liquid mercury, exuding a sense of deadly elegance.

"This was the only piece of individual equipment in Golden Tooth's collection that was worth a second look."

Jiang Ran pointed at the equipment, a hint of appreciation in his eyes:

"[Shadow Dancer · Prototype]."

Light power armor developed by old era special forces for 'decapitation strikes'.

It doesn't mount heavy weapons and has even discarded most of the armor layers meant for frontal confrontation.

In their place are non-Newtonian fluid bulletproof layers and bionic artificial muscle fibers."

Jiang Ran looked at Su Qingyu's slender yet explosive hands:

"My 'Tyrant' is a hammer used to smash everything."

But you are different; you hold a scalpel.

What you need is absolute speed and precision without any hindrance."

Su Qingyu reached out to stroke the cold silver fabric. Her fingertips felt a delicate texture similar to biological skin, both tough and soft.

She didn't speak, but skillfully took off the dust-stained combat vest she was wearing, revealing a tight sports bra.

Then, she picked up the silver battle suit that seemed to possess a life of its own.

"Zzz—Click."

The process of putting it on was unexpectedly smooth.

The moment Su Qingyu stepped into the armor, the nanofibers seemed to sense the host's body temperature, automatically contracting and fitting.

Accompanied by a faint sound of magnetic suction, the entire suit wrapped around her body seamlessly.

It outlined her powerful curves without a hint of tightness.

The silver-white streamlined helmet finally clicked shut automatically, and a V-shaped cold blue light lit up on the faceplate.

Standing in the center of the workshop, Su Qingyu now looked like a silver valkyrie from the future—cold, noble, and extremely dangerous.

"Try it." Jiang Ran pointed to an alloy steel plate nearby used for testing cutting depth.

Su Qingyu tilted her head slightly, a strange light flashing in her eyes behind the faceplate. She couldn't feel any weight.

On the contrary, the armor seemed to be pushing her to move; every tiny muscle nerve signal was amplified tenfold by the artificial muscle fibers.

"Hum."

She raised her right hand, and a high-frequency reinforced monomolecular vibration dagger silently popped out from a hidden slot at her wrist. In the next second, her figure vanished.

It wasn't invisibility, but because she was so fast that she left a silver afterimage in the dim workshop lights.

"Swish—!"

Only an extremely faint sound of tearing silk came from the air.

Su Qingyu's figure had already appeared on the other side of the steel plate, the dagger in her hand not even stained with a single iron filing.

"Crack."

Two seconds later, the three-centimeter-thick alloy steel plate finally reacted.

A cut as smooth as a mirror sliced diagonally through the entire plate.

The upper half of the steel plate slid down slowly.

It hit the ground with a heavy "clang," the cut glowing slightly red from the instantaneous high heat, emitting a burnt smell.

"So fast..."

Su Qingyu looked at her hands, her voice coming through the faceplate with a hint of mechanical resonance: "There's no delay; it's even faster than my own neural reactions.

It's like... it knows what I want to do."

"That is the purpose of the 'Shadow Dancer'."

Jiang Ran looked at the severed steel plate and nodded with satisfaction:

"In the high-pressure environment of the deep sea, the resistance to movement is several times that on land.

With this skin, you can be as agile underwater as you are on the operating table."

He walked up to Su Qingyu, their faceplates only a few centimeters apart, the cold blue and silver-white lights reflecting off each other.

"I am this ship's armor and heavy cannon."

Jiang Ran's voice was low: "And you, Dr. Su.

From today on, you are the black iron's sharpest—scalpel."

... Leaving the precision equipment workshop, Jiang Ran followed the main corridor, which was slightly hot from energy transmission.

He arrived at the deepest part of the black iron—the power room.

The atmosphere here was completely different from above.

There was no shriek of laser cutting, nor the silence of nanomaterials.

It was filled with the dull thuds of heavy hammers, the twisting sounds of hydraulic wrenches, and that blood-pumping mechanical roar that could only be heard in the era of heavy industry.

"Slow down! Slow down! That's single-crystal alloy! Don't you dare dent it for me!"

Old Chen was hanging like a monkey on the outer wall of the massive reactor,

waving a pair of oil-stained calipers and shouting at the engineering robots below.