Chapter 248 — Section 250: It Is Called the Mechanism Soul Armor [First Update]

"Why use such shoddy materials?" Mo Leng's tone was thick with displeasure, anger stirring in his eyes. In his view, how could a design this excellent be built from materials this poor?

Sailei explained, "Cost. Lei Xue costs four and a half million star coins. The largest expense is our black gold, worth two and a half million; the remaining materials come to only two million star coins."

For secrecy's sake, Sailei had shortened raven gold to black gold—a change of a single character, and no outsider could possibly guess.

"Two million star coins?" Mo Leng's beard and eyes fairly bristled. "You actually spent a mere two million star coins on the body of a mechanism bell!"

Mo Weitian's attention, however, was caught by the "black gold" Sailei had just mentioned. "What is black gold?"

"A metal that can replace soul jade." Sailei had been waiting for this.

"Soul jade!" Mo Leng's interest sharpened; a sudden gleam burst in his eyes. "This mechanism bell has a martial soul?"

"Your eye is keen as a torch!" Sailei flattered him. She knew how to deal with a man like Master Mo Leng, and she spoke fluently: "I have long been thinking about how to forge a truly powerful mechanism bell. Today's mechanism bells have declined for ages compared with the era of the Three Great Legions; our mechanism bells now are far inferior even to those of the Southern Cross Legion era. Why?"

These words struck home in Mo Leng's heart. Hailed as a mechanism master, he knew well the decline of mechanisms today—a decline across the board. Every generation of mechanism masters cried out for the revival of mechanism craft, yet to this day they had seen not the slightest omen of it.

Apart from that hideous bloodline martial armor.

"Because the times are different. In the age of the Three Great Legions, the martial arts system was vague and unclear, and little was known about martial souls; the power of mechanisms could make a person stronger. But now the martial arts system has reached its peak, research into martial souls grows by the day, and individual cultivation has become more effective and can go farther. And we mechanism masters? We merely cling to the old things. However glorious the past, it is only the past, and it has nothing to do with us. The future and the present are ours."

A fanatical light kindled in Sailei's eyes, as though a flame were dancing there.

"What kind of mechanism bell does our age need? Everyone would say a powerful mechanism bell—but what kind of mechanism bell is a powerful one? In my understanding, a sufficiently clever one. Clever tools are always more welcome than powerful tools."

"A mechanism bell is not a tool!" Mo Leng retorted in displeasure.

Sailei did not care to argue this point with him, and went straight on: "Why is it, then? Because martial arts are so powerful now. Every kind of martial skill can satisfy almost every need a person has; and if the power is not enough, there are star secret treasures. So what role do we define for the mechanism bell? In my understanding, support—support in cultivation, support in battle. We can increase the power of projected true force; we can let a martial artist use martial skills he has never trained in. But all of that requires it to be clever enough, nimble enough. Otherwise, in this age of refined martial arts, it has no room to survive at all!"

Clap, clap, clap!

Mo Weitian could not help applauding. "In all my years," he said in admiration, "that is the most insightful argument I have heard. On the strength of it alone, you may already be called a master."

Sailei was not the least bit modest. She lifted her exquisite, beautiful face, a trace of pride in it: "I am already a master!"

Mo Weitian and Mo Leng could not help but be shaken.

The meaning contained in that sentence set them both to brooding.

Mo Weitian's eyes flickered, but he laughed at once: "It seems you two came prepared. And I doubt you came all this way merely to deliver such a lecture to me."

Sailei answered frankly: "Exactly. I came to sell black gold to the Mo family."

Surprise showed on Mo Weitian's face; he had never imagined the other party had come to peddle black gold. He mused aloud: "Miss Sailei's argument is splendid, and Lei Xue is formidable, but our Mo family, after all, does not possess such technique..."

Generously, Sailei said, "Of course. I also intend to sell Lei Xue's blueprints to the Mo family."

Mo Weitian and Mo Leng both quivered. They exchanged a glance, and in an instant Mo Weitian read Mo Leng's eyes: buy it at any price!

Yet Mo Weitian knew the tricks of business well, and his face betrayed nothing: "Lei Xue's design is, of course, something we should like to have..."

But Sailei suddenly cut him off and went on of her own accord: "We hold roughly five billion star coins' worth of black gold, and as for Lei Xue's blueprints, we do not intend to sell them to the Mo family alone—we also mean to approach the Zhang family, the Bronze Tribe, Iron Mist City, the Furnace Constellation, and several others."

Mo Weitian's eyelid twitched. The Zhang family was Zhang Zhimo's family; the rest were all powers famed for mechanism craft.

"The Mo family is the first we have come to; we are sincere. If you raise Lei Xue's cost to six million star coins, then Lei Xue's fighting power can be greatly increased as well. The perfected design of Lei Xue is meant for sixth-rank martial artists. This batch of black gold can build a thousand Lei Xues!"

A thousand Lei Xues—that number made Mo Weitian and Mo Leng draw a sharp breath.

Mo Weitian was a decisive man. Without a second word: "Five billion in black gold—we will take it all!"

Tang Tang and Sailei exchanged a glance, both wild with joy.

"For Lei Xue's blueprints, I bid two hundred million!" Mo Weitian was utterly decisive.

Sailei was taken aback. For Lei Xue's design she had originally hoped for a mere ten million star coins or so. Her design was excellent, true, and the notion of a martial soul novel, but once her mechanism bells flowed into the market, imitators would soon appear. To those mechanism masters, such slightly low-end technique was no more than a pane of window paper.

"But I have one condition!" Mo Weitian said solemnly. "I need one year. Within one year, your side may not sell this technology to any other power."

Only then did Sailei and Tang Tang understand: Mo Weitian meant to swallow it whole and seize the initiative.

Do not underestimate that one year. The Mo family had Mo Leng, a mechanism master; with Lei Xue's technology they could develop entirely their own new type of mechanism bell. To spend two hundred million for a year—even Sailei could not help admiring Mo Weitian's resolve.

"Agreed!" Sailei accepted.

Five billion two hundred million star coins!

To Tang Tang and Sailei this was an enormous sum—enough to buy a rather remote planet. And they could not help secretly gasping at the Mo family's vast wealth: five billion two hundred million, without so much as a blink. Truly a grand gesture.

With the agreement reached, Tang Tang and Sailei, Mo Weitian and Mo Leng all wore smiles. From the fact that Sailei and Tang Tang were selling black gold, Mo Weitian understood that they did not intend mass production. Mo Leng, meanwhile, circled around Lei Xue, utterly absorbed; now that he knew Lei Xue had a martial soul, he saw far more in it, and marveled inwardly. When Sailei had said she was already a master, he had rather doubted it; now he had not the slightest doubt left.

"You don't intend to go into the mechanism bell business?" Mo Weitian glanced at Sailei. Anyone who meant to mass-produce mechanism bells would never sell black gold.

Sailei shook her head. "We have little interest in business."

Mo Weitian asked no more. Many mechanism masters were wholly absorbed in research and cared nothing for worldly affairs.