The next day, Socrates took ‘Roman’ and his apprentices to the Purple Forest and met Finoia’s apprentice, Taranna.
“Sir Socrates, I’m sorry, my teacher is currently studying behind closed doors on the magic circle related to the giant dragon language, so he is not seeing anyone during this time. Please don’t be offended, sir.”
“Sir grand master is studying behind closed doors?” Socrates initially came excitedly, so he was disappointed when he heard these words. Hearing the magic circle of the giant dragon language, he became very interested again, “I brought something that sir grand master is interested in this time. Can you tell him…”
Taranna looked awkward, “I’m sorry, sir, teacher ordered…” At this time a voice sounded, “Taranna, Sir Socrates is a guest from far away, take him to the Purple Heart Treehouse. “
This was the voice of Grand Master Finoia. Taranna immediately bowed and took the lead.
Soon, Master Socrates followed Taranna to the Purple Heart Treehouse. Finoia’s youth surprised Socrates’ apprentices, but everyone knew that this handsome elf, who looked like he was only in his 20s, was actually dozens of times older than their teacher.
“I’m sorry to interrupt the sir grand master’s study.” Socrates knew that Finoia had already given him face during this exceptional meeting, so he was straight to the point, “A few years ago, I got an old stone slab with an inscribed pattern that looks like a magic circle, but it is profound and difficult to understand. My research has not made any progress so far, so I came to the Silver Moon Celestial Capital to ask sir for advice.”
Finoia took the stone slab handed by Socrates, looked at it, and showed a surprised expression, “This inscribed pattern… seems to be an ancient language, but it is not a dragon language, nor is it a legendary god rune language. I don’t know why, this stone slab makes me feel uneasy.”
“Uneasy?” Socrates showed a puzzled expression. He didn’t feel that way when he was studying it. However, the elf tribe was a race that advocated nature. It might be a breakthrough as their senses of elements and nature were far beyond human’s reach.
Socrates never showed this ancient stone slab along the way. Chen Rui saw it for the first time. He only felt that the strange lines on the stone slab that seemed to be a magic circle did imply a mysterious power. Unlike Finoia, he did not feel uneasy but a bit familiar. It was not the texts, but the feeling was familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he saw it.
Finoia was indeed interested in the stone slab. “If Sir Socrates doesn’t mind, you can leave the stone slab here for some time. If there is progress, I will send someone to notify sir.”
This request seemed excessive, but Socrates was not surprised at all because when he encountered a problem previously, the elf grand master also helped to solve the problem, so he agreed immediately, “Of course, I heard that sir grand master is studying the magic circle related to dragon language. Can you let me see it?”
“Little guy, your curiosity is still as great as before… okay.” Finoia took out a blueprint.
The way the elf grand master called Socrates made his face a little red in front of the apprentices, but the last word made him automatically ignore the embarrassing situation. His attention immediately focused on the blueprint.
“This is a hybrid product of the Dragon Inscription and magic circle…” While Finoia was introducing, Chen Rui who was behind Socrates suddenly whispered, “Dean, the third sub magic circle can at least double the activation time. “
“What did you say?” The elf grand master’s ears moved.
So, a pre-directed script was staged. Socrates brazenly introduced the ‘talent’ of college’s teacher ‘Roman’ to the elf grand master. After the elf grand master verified it, he became very interested as he asked Socrates to leave ‘Roman’ here for research requirements. The reward was the interpretation of 2 difficult magic circles.
Since this condition was quite attractive, Socrates agreed without hesitation. After leaving the ancient stone slab and ‘Roman’, in order to avoid disturbing the research of the grand master, sir deputy dean carried 2 difficult magic circle interpretation blueprints and left happily with his apprentices.
Of course, before leaving, the deputy dean did not forget to ask Teacher ‘Roman’ to rush back to the college after more than a month, so as not to miss the opening of the Star Tower. With the approval of Socrates, Chen Rui had no obstacles to use that extra spot to enter the Star Tower.
“How do you know Socrates will definitely request to see the magic circle you studied?”
“Because that little guy’s curiosity has not diminished with age.” The answer of the elf grand master made Chen Rui a little speechless, “By the way, Teacher ‘Roman’, the third sub magic circle is actually Dragon Inscription’s trigger point, are you really sure that it can halve the activation time?”
“You only need to make proper adjustments to the second-level grammar of the Dragon Inscription…” Chen Rui just said a sentence, and he was shocked to see the passion of the elf grand master’s gaze, “Sir Finoia, if you look at me that way, I will be under pressure, especially it’s from a male elf.”
“Your words gave me the urge to inform the Holy Church immediately.” Even if Finoia was well-tempered, he almost choked, “But you have never mentioned that you’re a master of Dragon Inscription.”
“This is not the point.” Chen Rui shrugged, “The purpose of my visit is to improve my mechanical skills, sir grand master.”
“I have notified Bernd in the morning, and now the forest hobbit should be on the way. Before he arrives, I think you have an obligation to explain to me clearly how to adjust the grammar of that inscription.”
Before Chen Rui answered, the hobbit grand master’s loud voice sounded from the tree house’s voice messenger, “Finoia, I’m here, don’t drink up the wine alone!”
Chen Rui smiled as he looked at the elf grand master with a depressed expression, “It seems that our hobbit friend came at the right time.”
In the following days, Chen Rui put aside all distractions, concentrated, and accepted the guidance of the elf grand master and the hobbit grand master. Not only guidance, but also some mutual competitions.
Before he knew it, he had been at the Purple Heart Treehouse for almost 10 days, which was actually several years for him in the Super System’s training room time rule. Not only mechanics, but he was also studying pharmaceutics, especially when mechanics encountered bottlenecks, changing the focus could avoid continuing to hit the dead end. The pharmaceutics memory crystal in the alchemy civilization also gave Chen Rui a lot of inspiration.
“Ding! Ding! Ding…” The rhythmic hammering sounds stopped suddenly. Chen Rui froze the action of holding the hammer high. As he looked at the metal block clamped by the iron tongs, his eyes seemed to be gleaming.
The 2 grand masters who were facing each other put down the wine glasses together, and they did not make any sound for fear of disturbing him.
This was not the first time the ‘frozen’ state appeared, especially in the past few days, it had appeared more and more times.
After the ‘freeze’, Chen Rui would sometimes be downcast and sometimes thoughtful. Every time was different.
In fact, the 2 grand masters were very clear that this was a sign of the tipping point. Once this hurdle was crossed, a qualitative change would occur.
Although he had failed so many times previously, it also showed that he was now very close to the highest point. If the average person failed, it would take months or even years to realize again, and some people would not be able to have this kind of inspiration even for life. In just a few days, Chen Rui actually continuously had tipping points, which surprised the 2 grand masters.
Although Chen Rui’s movements were frozen, the thoughts in his mind were running at high speed. The scenes of hammering, production, and compilation flashed past like a television screen.
Mechanics is creating life.
Life, soul, spirituality… countless concepts and insights are intertwined.
The movements and rhythms of Finoia and Bernd’s hammering appeared in front of Chen Rui’s eyes, and they gradually merged with his own movements as if he became the avatar of Finoia and Bernd repeating their every movement.
In the eyes of the 2 grand masters, Chen Rui made his hand-raising posture again after hammering a few times.
No, it’s still not right. There must be something wrong.
Life! Life? Life?!
Yes, life!
In a sense, every life entity is equal, but there is no identical life entity in the world, even twins.
Chen Rui kept asking himself in his mind.
Even if you can imitate Finoia successfully, are you Finoia?
Since you are not Finoia, why must you create the ‘life’ that only Finoia can create?
What you want to create is just life, your own unique life.
You’re Chen Rui, not Finoia, Bernd or others.
You’re already familiar with how to take this road based on the experience of countless predecessors, but following the path of the predecessors, you have now reached a dead end because you are not ‘predecessors’. You must find your own way. This is the most critical step. Once you succeed, you will re-embark on a starting point, a starting point that keeps pace with the ‘predecessors’ or even transcends the past.
It’s like the pharmaceutics’ memory crystal of the ancient alchemy civilization. The true essence of alchemy is life, and the true meaning of life lies in creation, not imitation.
These words echoed in Chen Rui’s ears now as if a light flashed through the dark night. Chen Rui’s changing expression suddenly stopped. He dropped the hammer in his hand and laughed.
“Come, grand masters, let’s drink wine.” Chen Rui dropped the materials and tools on the forging platform and went straight to Finoia and Bernd.
The elf grand master was watching Chen Rui’s every move. The hobbit grand master’s eyes narrowed slightly too. He also realized something and smiled boldly, “Come, cheers!”
The 3 of them drank wine and ate food without mentioning the topic of mechanics. After 3 rounds of wine, Chen Rui stood up and walked step by step toward the center.
“Finoia, I think we are going to witness a miracle happen. A mechanics grand master who is no more than 30 years old is about to debut!” The old hobbit’s small eyes flashed straight as he poured a big mouthful of wine.
“Yes, very much looking forward to it.” The elf grand master slowly put down the glass and looked at the young human intently.
However, when the human walked to the forging platform, he didn’t stop. Instead, he walked over to an empty space.
A table suddenly appeared in front of the empty space with rows of test tubes, bottles, and many materials and reagents on the table.
Chen Rui’s eyes suddenly showed unprecedented brilliance as his hand reached for a bottle.
The next series of motions made the hobbit look dumbfounded. Even the wine in his wine glass spilled on his body, “Elf, tell me, did I see it wrongly?”
The elf grand master was also stunned. After looking at the black liquid in the potion bottle in Chen Rui’s hand, he took a breath, “We didn’t see it wrongly, but we have made a key concept wrong. By the age of 30… duo-specialized grand master.”
TL: Is the stone slab related to the Abyss Family?
