Chapter 110: Scientific Artifact Refining (Bonus for Sanjiang)

The moment Counter-Strike was released, Fang Qi’s immediate priority lay not with the game itself, but with handling the collaborative proposals from An Huwei and his peers.

Only after dealing with these mundane trifles did Fang Qi begin to address the third task bestowed by the system:

Believe in Science: Disseminate the Fundamental Knowledge of Firearms.

Task Description: Participate in the fundamental theoretical research and discussion of at least three types of firearms.

The task reward was the Game Cultivation Room. Though the system omitted specific details, anything offered as a reward by the system was bound to be extraordinarily practical.

Given the potency of the system's previous rewards, such as the T-Virus with no side effects and the Infinite Rocket Launcher, Fang Qi held rather high expectations for this Game Cultivation Room; it seemed designed to elevate one's personal strength.

After all, he truly needed to bolster his own power. The system could deter everyone for a time, but it could not deter them forever.

Furthermore, while wandering the immediate vicinity was fine for now, if he had to travel far in the future for matters like selecting branch locations, possessing too low a cultivation level would indeed pose quite a challenge.

Fang Qi was currently inside a research room specially cleared out within the Blue Flame Pavilion.

Seated there were not only Nalan Mingxue and Li Haoran, but also several of the most elite artifact masters from the Blue Flame Pavilion, who had been specially reassigned for this purpose.

Li Haoran looked glum as he stared at the materials in his hands. "Owner Fang, must we really study three pistols? Wouldn't adding a submachine gun work instead...?"

Fang Qi did not answer, his eyes fixed intently and brilliantly upon Nalan Mingxue.

"...Let it be three pistols then," Nalan Mingxue said, her beautiful face darkened with vexation.

One who seeks trouble will surely find it.

Tickling, was it? Serves you right.

Fang Qi snorted coldly in his heart.

"But among the three pistols, one must be a Magnum revolver or a Desert Eagle." Nalan Mingxue believed Fang Qi would not reveal everything he knew all at once, considering this was merely their first collaboration.

Well, she had brought this upon herself, after all.

Yet, business was business, and she continued to bargain at Fang Qi's bottom line.

Fang Qi shrugged. "That depends on whether you students can thoroughly digest it."

He would not be overly stingy. After all, he held the right to have his weapons modified for free and with the highest priority. All participants in this project had signed a covenant sealed with the essence blood of cultivators and warriors, making it quite reliable unless some catastrophic event occurred.

As long as it did not breach the constraints of the covenant, he could indeed afford to distribute some benefits.

"Owner Fang may teach as he pleases," a gray-haired, middle-aged artifact master remarked. "My fellow brothers and I have, at the very least, immersed ourselves in this craft for over a century. We possess that much foundational skill."

Beside him, a mature and voluptuous woman dressed in black spoke with equal pride, "Grand Owner Fang must not look down on us. If even we cannot digest this, then no one in Jiuhua City can. Is the knowledge of the senior backing you truly that profound?"

These two were named Wang Zongyu and Chen Rong. In the Blue Flame Sect, they belonged to the same generation as Li Haoran. Li Haoran had been admitted as an exception, which explained his high seniority despite his youth, but these two were official members of that established generation.

Their attainments in the art of artifact refining were absolutely not to be underestimated.

Though they knew a senior of immensely profound cultivation stood behind Fang Qi, when it came to the Dao of artifact refining, unable to digest it?

They simply refused to believe it.

"It is well if you can digest it." The research room contained a blackboard meant for drawing diagrams. Though its manufacturing method differed from those in Fang Qi’s previous world, its utility was quite similar.

The crowd watched as Fang Qi first wrote four large words on the blackboard: Approaching Science.

Immediately following that, he wrote another five words: Periodic Table of Elements.

Before long, a chorus of voices echoed from within the research room: "Everyone, read after me: 'Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon.'"

"Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon."

"Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon."

"Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Silicon, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chlorine, Argon," Wang Zongyu, Chen Rong, and the others chanted, swaying their heads back and forth.

"..."

...

No one knew how long they spent memorizing, but when the crowd finally committed these bizarre characters to memory...

"...No, what exactly are we learning these things for?" Finally, Li Haoran, looking thoroughly bewildered, voiced his doubt.

It sounded like an incantation, yet it lacked any of the responses an incantation ought to provoke.

"Good question." Fang Qi wrote another four large words upon the blackboard: Scientific Artifact Refining.

"Do you know why the ammunition manufactured by your Blue Flame Pavilion is of such shoddy quality?"

The faces of Wang Zongyu and Chen Rong twitched. Yet, the remark was truly difficult to refute, for they had indeed spent massive amounts of time and energy on research, only for the resulting ammunition to be far inferior to even the lowest-grade ammunition in the game.

It was not a question of destructive power; those with greater power were too unstable, which was why they ultimately reverted to low-power, inferior ammunition for the sake of control.

"Is this not precisely because you lack the support of foundational theoretical knowledge?" Fang Qi pointed at the blackboard and spoke, "Now, we shall first cover junior high school chemistry, followed by junior high school physics. Once you understand these basics, I will teach you the refinement of ammunition."

"Oh..."

The crowd stared at the row upon row of grand and sophisticated letters on the blackboard, deeply impressed despite their lack of understanding.

By the time Fang Qi finished his lecture, it was already the following morning.

Concepts such as "iron replacing copper in a vitriol solution," "nitroglycerin reaction equations," and "propellant ratios" continuously reverberated within their minds.

In the span of a single night, the crowd felt as though the gates to a whole new world had been flung open!

Despite having stayed awake all night, they were now bursting with energy—excluding Fang Qi, of course.

"That is all the foundational knowledge I will give you today. In the future, I will teach you high school mathematics, high school chemistry, trigonometric functions, and the like." Fang Qi stretched his limbs and yawned deeply. "Cultivating immortality through the night until this hour, one might as well transcend the tribulation and ascend."

"Cultivating immortality? Transcending the tribulation and ascending?" Nalan Mingxue cast a strange look at Fang Qi.

"Ah, so the method of refining pistols is actually this profound!" The moment they watched Fang Qi depart, an incredibly heated discussion erupted within the research room.

"No wonder these things are so difficult to replicate!" Wang Zongyu exclaimed in amazement. "To think they utilize such profound junior high school chemistry knowledge!"

"Owner Fang said that junior high school chemistry is merely the foundation," Chen Rong remarked. "To understand the creation of propellant, one must at least learn high school chemistry and high school physics. To fully comprehend it, there is an even longer road ahead. Owner Fang teaching us the creation of firearms right after the basics is already akin to pulling crops to help them grow."

"Science? Is it a unique method of artifact refining created by that senior?" Li Haoran pondered deeply. "To think such an eccentric genius exists in this world? Is he not even more... than Master?"

"Master often says there are heavens beyond heavens, and people beyond people. It is truly so..."

"Junior high school chemistry... junior high school physics... why does it sound so peculiar...?" Nalan Mingxue fell into deep thought at the side, inexplicably connecting it to the primary school students Fang Qi had once mentioned...

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