Chapter 121: Feather Sheath Wings and the Tianyan Nine-Row Wings!
Compared to alchemists, refining masters are much easier to gather together.
The physical form of medicinal pills essentially restricts alchemists from banding together for rebellion. After all, you can't make a pill the size of a football, right? Or even bigger? But refining masters are far more free in this respect, which gives them much more flexibility in their combinations.
A few alchemists together might quietly keep their pill formulas and techniques secret from each other.
But when several refining masters get together:
"Hmm? You're good at engraving Dou Qi patterns?"
"Perfect! I'm good at material spirit forging!"
"Count me in! I've got top-grade materials!"
"Me, me, me! I've got a great idea!"
The personal nature of medicinal pills makes alchemy a solitary task, while the universal properties of Dou Qi devices create a team mentality among refining masters.
Of course, the most important thing is that when everyone works together to forge a new Dou Qi device, the blueprint for the device is shared. Additionally, compared to medicinal pills, one major advantage of Dou Qi devices is that substitute materials can be gradually tested and adjusted.
Within the alchemist guild, there are many ancient pill formulas that have become obsolete due to the extinction of their main medicinal ingredients. Replacing these ingredients is costly and requires trial and error with other rare herbs, which even the Pill Tower cannot afford.
On the other hand, refining masters have a much broader range of material choices. Even if their development fails, most of the precious materials can be recovered and re-forged, and the marks left by waste materials can even provide more experience for the refining masters. They can even develop special alloys from these failures.
At the Tianzi Refining Workshop, the seven-member refining team worked together, and within a single day, they had found the best materials that fit the Four-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings for the Fourth Grade. Meanwhile, Yuan Bao had successfully learned the techniques for the Feather Sheath and understood the flying control performance of the Four-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings. He began providing flying data to Haimer and Kle, both of whom were Fourth-Grade refining masters.
When Hu Lei and Han Yu passed by, they quietly glanced at the scene, said nothing, and silently left.
"This atmosphere is quite rare in the guild," Han Yu said quietly as he walked beside Hu Lei in the hallway, heading toward the night.
"Jiang Lin's flying Dou Qi control device ideas have a remarkable similarity to the Tianyan Nine-Row Wings from the Falling Wild Empire. The only difference at the moment is that Jiang Lin uses metal materials, while the Falling Wild Empire uses biological feathers," Hu Lei whispered.
"That kid's flying blueprints are very clear, and he has a complete system in place. The core of it—the Dou Qi engine—is a very innovative energy model, and it's based on the simplest Dou Qi technique model. There is space for future upgrades. What this means is that, at the beginning, Jiang Lin's Feather Sheath Wing designs might seem ordinary, but as the materials and technical research improve, the energy distribution and Dou Qi engine will also evolve, reaching a point where the technical level will form a generation gap. His upper limit may not be much worse than the Tianyan Nine-Row Wings of the Falling Wild Empire."
Hu Lei expressed his deep admiration for Jiang Lin's Feather Sheath Wing ideas and gave them a potential rating that rivaled the Tianyan Nine-Row Wings.
"That's quite the high praise," Han Yu remarked. The comparison to the Tianyan Nine-Row Wings was a very high standard. What were the Tianyan Nine-Row Wings? They were the pinnacle of the Falling Wild Empire's flying Dou Qi techniques. But now, Hu Lei seemed to believe that a young, unrefined boy's imaginative ideas might one day rival the best results of the Falling Wild Empire.
"High praise? It's true. Others are focused on researching flying Dou Qi techniques, but the human meridians are limited. This naturally restricts the potential of flying techniques. That's why most Dou Zong and above experts prefer using spatial power. But flying Dou Qi devices can open up an external meridian route, carrying more energy and improving the potential limit."
The Tianyan Nine-Row Wings were actually a special Dou Qi technique, which could be considered a Dou Qi device in some ways, but the integration of the wings into the human body was so perfect that it had become a technique.
"If this were another refining project, it would be impossible to gather these refining masters. Either their ranks are insufficient to participate, or they are just not interested. But Jiang Lin's flying Dou Qi devices have created a new project for the guild. These refining masters who are below the Dou Wang level are extremely passionate about it, and right now, the structure of the flying Dou Qi devices is simple. There's no difficulty for these masters to get started."
"This perfect refining project is worth encouraging," Hu Lei glanced back at Jiang Lin and the others, his gaze filled with admiration.
"You certainly have a lot of confidence in them," Han Yu remarked, impressed.
"A Dou Ling suppressing a Dou Wang in aerial combat... Only you would dare imagine such a thing," Hu Lei said, with a smile that seemed to be both amused and satisfied.
"Confidence? Yes, I do have some," Hu Lei added as he led Han Yu up to the top of the Refining Guild building to look towards the Imperial Capital, a faint smile on his face.
"By the way, there's one thing I don't quite understand. With the intelligence level of that mutated Lan Eagle, it seems like it's beyond the stage of 'taming,' right?" It was already deep into the night, and countless torches burned along the city walls of the Imperial Capital, casting a magnificent glow in the dark.
Although Han Yu had never raised a magical beast, he understood that magical beasts were best raised during their ignorant period or during the initial awakening of their intelligence, creating a strong bond through cohabitation.
The two guardians of the Gama Imperial Family, Ji Xingtian and the Youhai Jiao Beast, followed this second method. They were old friends with a certain bond and mutual interests.
The Lan Eagle, which had shown such intelligence, clearly wasn't something that could be easily tamed. Especially with that slick "Mission Impossible" move, where it directly captured Princess Yaoyue—Han Yu couldn't help but exclaim, "Impossible! How can a magical beast be so cunning? And still be only a Second-Grade magical beast?!"
"Yaoyue, that little girl didn't understand, but why can't you old fool get it?" Hu Lei gave Han Yu a look and explained, "Jiang Lin, a kid who just arrived yesterday, understood. So when he voluntarily suggested raising the Lan Eagle with Yaoyue, the old-timers in the Imperial Capital had already arrived nearby."
"They didn't know Jiang Lin's meaning, but when he guided Yaoyue into that bet, the old-timers understood. They quickly let it flow and had Fa Ma help settle the bet."
"Jiang Lin came to Gama with two purposes: the refining master assessment and to sell the flying Dou Qi device blueprints. He had already told me that he wanted me to use the guild's name to trade with the Gama Imperial Family."
"But clearly, Yaoyue's actions gave Jiang Lin a better choice."
(END CHAPTER)
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