187: Chapter 187 Furnace Explosion? No, it was a chemical reaction!

The assembly line of the Tianhe No. 1 Pharmaceutical Factory (formerly Dan Ding Peak) was operating in an orderly manner.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

The sound of massive reaction kettles stirring and the friction of conveyor belts merged into a symphony belonging to the industrial age. Factory Director Dan Chenzi stood with his hands behind his back, surveying the scene like an old farmer inspecting his wheat fields, watching with satisfaction as crates of packaged "Top-Grade Rejuvenation Capsules" were transported to the warehouse.

"Efficiency, this is what efficiency looks like."

Dan Chenzi stroked his beard and lamented, "At this rate, within three years, the Heavenly River Sword Sect's Medicinal Pills will drive the Sects in the neighboring provinces into bankruptcy through sheer competition."

However, just as he was immersed in his commercial blueprint of market monopoly—

"RUMBLE——!!!"

A world-shaking explosion erupted without warning from the Special Chemical Engineering Workshop on the back mountain.

The sound was so loud it even drowned out the noise of Ye Guyun's previous "Electromagnetic Cannon." The entirety of Dan Ding Peak shook violently, as if an earthen ox were turning over. The medicinal liquid in the reaction kettles splashed out from the tremors, and the workers (Disciples) on the assembly line were knocked every which way, falling flat on their backs.

"What happened? An enemy attack?!"

Dan Chenzi's beard curled up in fright. "Has the Blazing Fire Sect fought their way back?"

He hurriedly rushed out of the workshop and looked toward the back mountain.

He saw no enemy flying ships there.

There was only a massive, ring-shaped, spreading... pink mushroom cloud.

This cloud was not only flirtatiously colorful but also carried a cloyingly sweet fragrance (the scent of some volatile Spiritual Plant). It slowly rose into the sky, refracting an eerie seven-colored halo under the sunlight.

"This... what kind of Prodigy is this?"

Dan Chenzi was dumbstruck.

...

By now, the Special Chemical Engineering Workshop had been reduced to ruins.

The originally sturdy defensive Formation had been torn to shreds, the three-foot-thick basalt walls had a massive hole blown through them, and the ground was covered in scattered glass shards and twisted metal pipes.

In the center of the ruins, a figure with a pitch-black face, hair blown into an afro, and several large holes in their hazmat suit was crouching on the ground, giggling at a test tube in their hand.

"Hehehe... it's a success... hehehe..."

This person was the chief lunatic of Dan Ding Peak and the current Chief Engineer—Liu Qingqing (Junior Sister Liu).

"Cough, cough."

Li Mo waved his hand to disperse the choking smoke and dust in front of him, stepping over the debris on the ground as he walked in.

The [Static Field] tag on his body automatically repelled the dust in the air, making him look exceptionally pristine amidst the mess.

"Engineer Liu."

Li Mo glanced at the still-giggling charcoal-head, then at the surroundings which looked like they had been struck by a meteorite.

"I recall the research topic I gave you was 'High-Energy Spiritual Liquid Purification,' not 'Pre-job Training for the Demolition Office.'"

"Even though I said explosions were permitted, isn't this yield... a bit over the limit?"

Hearing Li Mo's voice, Liu Qingqing suddenly jumped up.

Ignoring the black soot on her face, she held up the surviving test tube like a precious treasure and rushed toward Li Mo (though she was repelled three meters away by Li Mo's Static Field).

"Teacher! It wasn't a furnace explosion! This definitely wasn't a furnace explosion!"

Liu Qingqing was so excited she was incoherent, her eyes shining like two searchlights.

"This is... this is a celebration at the molecular level!"

"Look!"

She carefully shook the test tube in her hand.

The test tube contained half a tube of clear, pale-golden liquid.

The liquid looked very viscous, clinging to the glass like honey. But upon closer inspection, one would find countless tiny bubbles frantically emerging and vanishing within the liquid, emitting a terrifying fluctuation that made one's heart skip a beat.

"What is this?" Li Mo asked knowingly, but his gaze had turned serious.

He could feel that this tiny half-tube of liquid contained enough energy to level half a mountain peak.

That wasn't gentle Spiritual Qi; it was... Destruction Laws, forcibly compressed to the extreme and on the verge of collapse.

"I followed the 'Organic Chemistry' logic Teacher gave me, attempting to use 'Nitric Acid' (a certain corrosive poisonous plant juice) and 'Sulfuric Acid' (Earth Core Fire Poison liquid) to process the essence of 'Blazing Sun Grass.'"

Liu Qingqing swallowed hard and continued:

"Originally, I wanted to make solid explosives, but during the reaction process, I found the temperature was too high and solidification failed."

"So on a whim, I added a bit of 'Glycerol' (Deep Sea Whale Oil) as a stabilizer..."

"Then, the Spiritual Qi structure inside the reaction kettle suddenly collapsed!"

"All the fire-attribute Spiritual Power molecules began squeezing and bonding with each other like crazy, finally turning into this... extremely unstable high-energy liquid Spiritual Power."

Liu Qingqing pointed at the tube of liquid, her voice trembling:

"Teacher, I just accidentally dropped one drop... really just one drop! Into the waste bucket on the ground."

"And then..."

She pointed to the ten-meter-diameter crater behind her.

"It became like this."

Li Mo looked at the crater, then at the "honey" in Liu Qingqing's hand.

Good heavens.

Nitroglycerin?

No, this was far more powerful than the nitroglycerin on Earth.

This was the Cultivation Version · Spiritual Power Multiplier · Nitroglycerin.

It wasn't just a release of chemical energy; it triggered a localized "Spiritual Qi Chain Reaction." With one drop, the surrounding Spiritual Qi was instantly ignited and detonated, its power increasing exponentially.

"Does this thing have a name yet?" Li Mo asked.

"Not yet." Liu Qingqing shook her head. "I wanted to call it 'Super Invincible Big Explosion Liquid,' but I felt it wasn't elegant enough."

"Crude."

Li Mo took the test tube (wrapped in Spiritual Power, being extremely careful).

Looking at the pale-golden liquid, he felt as if he were seeing a sleeping God of Death.

"Since it is so volatile, so beautiful, and so lethal."

"Then let's call it—[Tianhe No. 1 · Purgatory Raw Sauce]."

"Purgatory..." Liu Qingqing muttered to herself. "Great name! Drinking it would definitely let you see your great-grandmother!"

"Drink?"

Li Mo's mouth twitched.

"If you drink this stuff, you won't just see your great-grandmother; you won't even find your ashes."

"However..."

Li Mo looked at the highly unstable liquid.

"Engineer Liu, have you noticed a problem?"

"This thing is too sensitive. It explodes with a slight shake, it explodes with a bit of heat. How do you plan to turn it into a weapon? Do you intend for the Disciples to carry it and perish together with the enemy?"

Liu Qingqing froze.

She had been so happy about the power that she forgot about this part.

"You're right... this thing can't be transported at all. That little vibration just now almost sent me away. If it were loaded onto a Flying Sword, it would explode before it even launched."

"Therefore, we need one final step."

Li Mo pulled something out of his System space.

It was a handful of greyish soil—Spirit Concealing Soil.

This was a very common low-grade material usually used for planting Spiritual Plants; its characteristics were being loose, porous, and having extremely strong adsorption.

"In the history of science, a Great Being named Nobel encountered the same problem."

As Li Mo spoke, he poured the Spirit Concealing Soil onto a jade plate, then carefully poured the tube of "Purgatory Raw Sauce" onto it.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle..."

The golden liquid rapidly seeped into the micropores of the soil.

The originally greyish soil instantly turned dark gold, looking like pieces of golden plasticine.

That violent, unstable aura miraculously vanished.

Li Mo picked up a piece of "Golden Mud," squeezed it casually, and even dropped it on the table twice.

It didn't explode.

"See."

Li Mo said calmly.

"When the violent liquid is bound within the micropores of a solid, it becomes docile."

"It is no longer a mad dog that bites at a touch, but an obedient... safety explosive."

Liu Qingqing was stunned.

"Just... add some dirt?"

"The stability issue that plagued me for three days was solved just like that?"

"This is knowledge."

Li Mo rolled the "Golden Mud" into a ball and took a Detonation Talisman from nearby, sticking it on top.

"Now, it is no longer Raw Sauce."

"It's called—TNT... oh no, it's the 'Art is an Explosion Pill'."

"Come, let's go test its power."

...

A moment later.

At the experimental firing range in the back mountain of the Heavenly River Sword Sect.

Dan Chenzi, Ye Guyun, Zhang Yuan, and the rest of the "Core Research Personnel" had all arrived. Everyone wanted to see what exactly had leveled the workshop.

"Everyone back up, back up five hundred meters!"

Li Mo held the fist-sized golden mud ball and warned sternly.

"Even though soil was added, the power of this thing hasn't decreased; instead, it has become more concentrated due to the compression."

Everyone followed instructions and retreated beyond the safety line.

Li Mo placed the "Explosion Pill" on a ten-thousand-jin Black Iron Sword-Testing Stone. This stone was usually used by Nascent Soul Stage Elders to test their moves and was incredibly hard.

"Detonate."

Li Mo snapped his fingers, igniting the talisman paper, and then instantly teleported five hundred meters away.

The talisman paper burned.

The sparks touched the Golden Mud.

There was no world-shaking roar.

Or rather, because the sound was too loud, everyone's ears went deaf for an instant.

At the location of the Sword-Testing Stone, a ball of blinding white light suddenly lit up.

Immediately after, a shockwave—more perfect than the one before and in a standard donut shape—swept outward.

BOOM————!!!

The delayed sound wave blew the people five hundred meters away every which way, their hairstyles suffering once again.

The earth trembled violently, as if a magnitude ten earthquake had occurred.

When the dust settled.

Everyone climbed up and looked toward the center of the range.

The ten-thousand-jin Black Iron Sword-Testing Stone... was gone.

It wasn't shattered.

It was gone.

All that remained was a fifty-meter-diameter, bottomless crater. The walls of the pit had a smooth, vitrified texture, proof of the rock being instantly melted by high temperatures.

And at the bottom of the pit, only those wisps of pink smoke that had yet to disperse proved that a reaction named "Art" had once occurred here.

*Gulp.*

Dan Chenzi swallowed hard, feeling his legs go a bit weak.

"This... this is a Medicinal Pill?"

"With one of these, even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator would have to kneel, right?"

Ye Guyun's eyes were shining.

"Teacher! Can this thing be made into bullets? If my Electromagnetic Cannon fired this stuff..."

He didn't dare think further.

The image was too beautiful; it might get censored.

Li Mo stood by the edge of the pit, watching the scene as the System notification arrived in his mind as expected.

[Observed "Purgatory Raw Sauce" explosion experiment.]

[Detected successful application of "Spiritual Power Nitration Reaction" and "Safety Passivation Technology."]

[Congratulations, Host, you have extracted a Purple Rare Tag: Art of Explosion (Advanced).]

[Tag Name: Art of Explosion]

[Rank: Purple]

[Description: Art is an explosion, and explosion is truth.]

[Effect 1: The power of all explosives you create is increased by 50%, and the explosion range is controllable (as large or small as you want).]

[Effect 2: Directional Blasting. You can set a direction for the explosion, making it only blast toward the enemy without harming your own people (ignores friendly fire).]

[Effect 3: Rainbow Visual Effects. Your explosions will come with built-in seven-colored light effects, and there is a certain chance to make enemies see their life flash before their eyes before they die.]

"Good tag."

Li Mo was very satisfied.

Especially that "ignores friendly fire"; it was practically a god-tier skill for team fights. In the future, when Disciples fought, they could just throw bombs into the crowd, blasting everyone including their own. The result would be the enemies dead while their own people just had soot-covered faces—the scene... just thinking about it was exciting.

Li Mo turned around and looked at the group of Disciples behind him who were already dazed from the shock.

He spread his arms wide, the smoking crater behind him, a fanatical smile on his face.

"Everyone."

"Did you see that?"

"In the past, we believed the Dao of Alchemy was for saving people."

"But today, Liu Qingqing has shown us that the Dao of Alchemy... can also be for sending people to the afterlife."

"From today on, the Heavenly River Sword Sect's way of fighting will completely change."

Li Mo pointed at the bit of Golden Mud remaining in Liu Qingqing's hand.

"Artifact Refining Hall, cooperate fully with the Pharmaceutical Factory."

"I want you to turn this stuff into various shapes."

"Make it into 'Hand Grenades' for Body Cultivators to use—throw one as a greeting when you meet. Make it into 'Missiles' for Sword Cultivators to use as mounted weapons on their Flying Swords. Make it into 'Landmines' for Formation Masters to bury outside the Sect gates—whoever steps on one ascends."

"Since we don't have profound cultivation levels."

"Then we will use yield... to fill the gap."

"Remember one sentence."

Li Mo's voice echoed through the valley.

"Dignity only exists upon the edge of a sword."

"Truth only exists within the range of a cannon!"

"ROAR!!!"

The Disciples erupted into a sky-shaking cheer.

Especially Liu Qingqing, who hugged Li Mo's leg (through the insulation suit) and cried her eyes out: "Teacher! You are my soulmate! I also think explosion is the most beautiful art!"

...

That night.

The Tianhe No. 1 Pharmaceutical Factory (Special Workshop) was brightly lit.

Liu Qingqing led a group of fanatical Alchemy Cultivators in a frantic "mud ball rolling" operation.

They no longer pursued the roundness of the pills, but rather the size of the "yield."

Meanwhile, on the top floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

Li Mo was drafting the new "Tianhe Weapon User Manual."

He wrote a warning on the title page:

"It is strictly forbidden to consume the 'Art is an Explosion Pill' inside the Sect. Although it looks like a jellybean and smells like honey, it really will explode if eaten. If accidentally swallowed, please immediately find the nearest enemy and self-detonate; do not let it go to waste."

After finishing, Li Mo glanced at the occasional pink flashes of light outside the window, the corners of his mouth curving slightly.

"With this, the 'Plagiarism Storm' in a few days... should be even more interesting, right?"

"After all, who would dare say our thesis is copied?"

"That is truth practiced with lives (others')."