Chapter 87: The Spatial Furnace Is Completed, and the Terrifying Output (Bonus for Reaching Two Hundred Average Subscriptions)

The numbers before his eyes flickered upward.

Math had risen to Level 33.

Physics had risen to Level 29.

Computer Science had risen to Level 28.

At last, Jiang Chen lowered the book in his hand, An Advanced Application of Quantum Entanglement in Interstellar Communication, and withdrew from the system library.

Though his attributes had continued to climb, and though his learning efficiency had risen with every specialty he acquired, the deeper he went, the more profound and intricate the knowledge became.

More and more often, a single field of study would intertwine with several others, until even Jiang Chen, with all his mental agility, found it taxing to absorb.

Fortunately, the system library ensured that, in learning and mastering any knowledge, Jiang Chen would never encounter a true bottleneck. So long as he invested enough focus and time, he would ultimately grasp it.

Still, the pace of advancement inevitably slowed.

Yet Jiang Chen did not mind.

So long as he was still growing, even a slower pace was enough.

His consciousness returned to reality. Jarvis had already prepared several thousand components requiring the enhancement of magic construction, and even the extraordinary materials needed for the engraving had been roughly processed. All that remained was for Jiang Chen to perform the final steps.

Whoosh.

Jiang Chen vanished from the base and appeared within the world inside the ring.

The making of a magic construction was not especially complicated: prepare the reagents, inscribe the magic array, and then activate it.

In most magical worlds, constructions were directly applied to a person, or to a mount.

But a few gifted construction masters had discovered ways to apply them to weapons, armor, or other inanimate objects.

Of course, this required additional energy supply, and the object itself had to possess adequate carrying capacity.

Any construction imposed a corresponding burden upon its bearer. Without sufficient carrying capacity, forcibly activating one would drain the victim’s life away and leave them to die in agony.

If applied to an inanimate object, it would simply ruin it.

Still, in the world of construction masters, there were more than enough means to test a target’s carrying capacity.

Jiang Chen entered the warehouse and looked at the thousands of differently shaped components arranged in orderly rows. Then he began to stir his spiritual power.

Not psychic force, but the power of spirit rooted in the soul.

It could interfere with the material world to a certain extent, though not as directly as psychic force.

Yet in terms of resonating with the primal energy of heaven and earth, it was far superior.

A strange string of syllables emerged from Jiang Chen’s mouth, a language belonging to none of the known tongues of the universe.

Indeed, even the structure of the language itself differed from that of any mainstream speech in the cosmos.

As Jiang Chen’s voice fell, the primal energy of heaven and earth seemed to tremble faintly, as though the language itself touched upon some force at the level of law, capable of directly summoning that primordial power.

His spiritual power pulsed according to a certain pattern, communicating with the primal energy while simultaneously altering his perception of the surrounding world.

After a moment, Jiang Chen opened his eyes.

On the rows of shelves before him, strings of numbers suddenly appeared.

Eighty-nine, one hundred seventy-two, six hundred fifty-four...

Each number corresponded to a different component.

Components with identical structure and craftsmanship displayed exactly the same numbers, without the slightest deviation.

At least within the range Jiang Chen could perceive with precision, there was no error at all.

“They all meet the requirements,” Jiang Chen said with satisfaction.

His spiritual power surged once more, and the world in his eyes quickly returned to its original form.

“Next, the reagents.”

On a shelf in the corner of the warehouse lay the extraordinary materials that had already undergone preliminary processing.

Most of them came from the bodies of powerful creatures, though a small portion were ores that had absorbed the primal energy of the universe and acquired unique properties.

However, after such elaborate treatment, few ordinary people could recognize their original origins unless they were experts in this field.

“First, we make Wind Breath. The materials are powder from annihilating windstone, blood from a giant-winged beast...”

Jiang Chen took down the materials one by one and carried them to the adjacent room, where he began further processing.

Naturally, these materials differed from the “formula” given in the system’s blueprint.

Once one entered the extraordinary realm, every world, by virtue of its own uniqueness, would give birth to different kinds of extraordinary resources.

Even if an extraordinary resource from two different worlds appeared similar at first glance, its details would inevitably differ in greater or lesser measure.

Still, for the manufacture of any construction or other object, so long as the materials satisfied certain properties, they could be substituted.

Even if there were subtle differences, they could be smoothed out through fine adjustments during processing, or at the very least reduced to within an allowable margin of error.

The treatment process had to be handled with extreme care, and strictly according to procedure. At specific moments, spiritual power and psychic force had to be used to alter some inherent quality of the material.

This alone consumed a great deal of Jiang Chen’s time.

A mountain of materials passed through a complicated sequence of steps, leaving only a small vial of pale green potion.

With sufficient perception, one could discover that this tiny vial contained an extraordinarily violent fluctuation of wind-attribute energy.

An SCV carried over a cylindrical object etched with exquisite patterns and set it upright before Jiang Chen.

“Next, the reagents must be traced into a magic array along a specific path, then fused into the component...”

Jiang Chen drew a deep breath, took out a pen-like tool, and fitted the bottle of magical reagent onto it.

The next instant, a pale green radiance rose around him—he had unfolded his domain.

If a detector of D rank or above were present, it would discover that Jiang Chen’s Wind Domain had already reached the standard of a ninth-layer domain.

Indeed, the power contained within it had already surpassed that of an ordinary ninth-layer domain.

Jiang Chen did not use his hands. Instead, he controlled the specially made magic pen with his domain and psychic force, and etched a line upon the metal cylinder before him.

Pale green strokes emerged from the pen tip, moving at a deliberately unhurried pace.

A line scarcely a dozen centimeters long took Jiang Chen nearly five minutes to complete.

The demand for exactitude, strict to the point of cruelty, was only a small part of the reason.

More importantly, during the drawing process, Jiang Chen had to continuously infuse his own spiritual power, and even the force of law contained within his domain, into the array.

Only then could the completed array achieve the desired effect.

There were no other living beings in the ring world.

Jarvis knew that Jiang Chen was occupied with work requiring absolute concentration, and would not disturb him, giving him sufficient time and focus to complete the making of the magic construction.

Two hours later, the first component was finished.

“Jarvis, run a test and see whether the performance meets the requirements,” Jiang Chen instructed.

“Yes, Master.”

Jarvis’s voice sounded, and at once an SCV came in, took away the metal cylinder, and delivered it for testing.

Only a few minutes later, Jarvis reported back. “Master, after the construction is applied, the energy transmission efficiency of the Gamma-III conduit has increased by forty-five percent, losses during transmission have fallen by seventeen percent, and the physical parameters have not declined. In theory, compared to an unenhanced component, it is expected to improve the overall operating efficiency of the Space Furnace by three to four percent.”

After a brief pause, Jarvis added, “Of course, that is the total improvement after all Gamma-III conduits are replaced.”

The Gamma-III conduit was a rather important part of the Space Furnace, with a total of twenty-one units.

Enhancing all twenty-one components would raise the overall operating efficiency of the Space Furnace by three percent, a rather substantial improvement.

The figure matched Jiang Chen’s calculations, which meant the magic construction process had proceeded without any unforeseen complications.

Jiang Chen nodded in satisfaction. “Understood. Keep working.”

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Immersed in his work, time seemed to flow even faster than usual.

When the final component was assembled, the Space Furnace, which had cost Jiang Chen a vast sum of money, was finally complete.

But whether it could achieve the desired effect, Jiang Chen could not say with absolute certainty.

On the ship bound for the edge of the solar system, a rare trace of tension appeared in Jiang Chen’s heart.

Ten mixed-origin units of materials was no trivial expense.

There was also the time and effort consumed in the process of fabrication.

If it failed, the loss would be catastrophic.

After passing beyond Neptune’s orbit and continuing for another two hours or so, the ship came to a stop.

At this distance, even if the Space Furnace were to suffer a violent explosion, it would not affect Earth.

“Jarvis, time to work,” Jiang Chen said, then swiftly left the ship.

First he put the ship away, then activated the world ring.

The next moment, an oval structure as vast as a small asteroid appeared in the starry void.

Its central cavity was completely hollow, with enormous conduits aimed toward the middle.

Around the outside were honeycomb-like chambers, layered upon layer, making for a very strange sight.

Jiang Chen entered one of the chambers, then quickly passed through the channels and the many functional areas of the outer layers until he reached the control room.

“Self-check complete. No problems found. Would you like to begin trial operation now?” Jarvis’s red face appeared on the large screen.

“Begin,” Jiang Chen said, his heart tightening slightly.

“Unit starting...”

Jarvis’s voice rang out.

With a hum, a slight vibration began throughout the entire Space Furnace.

But within only a few minutes, the vibration subsided.

“Protection layer starting...”

“Energy conversion module starting...”

“High-energy oscillation device starting...”

“Second self-check commencing... no anomalies detected. Preparing to initiate space oscillation...”

In just a few minutes, the Space Furnace entered full-power operation.

From outside, faint lights glimmered in the conduits aimed at the central cavity.

The next instant, countless beams of light converged at the center of the void.

Boom.

A violent tremor shook the void, and space was torn open into a great rift.

The cosmos itself was already black, but distant starlight still lent it a faint sheen.

Yet within that rift there was only the purest darkness, devoid of all impurity.

A tremendous swallowing force appeared, as though it sought to devour everything around it.

Fortunately, the spatial fissure was not large, only a little over two meters wide and more than a dozen meters long.

Under the self-healing power of cosmic space, it was already mending at a speed visible to the eye.

In just over ten seconds, the fissure vanished completely.

Within those few seconds, countless probe-like devices frantically drew in the immense energy produced by the space oscillation and, through a complicated process, converted it into high-density energy blocks for storage.

“High-energy oscillation device cooling...”

“Energy extraction complete, beginning conversion...”

“Conversion complete...”

Less than thirty seconds later, Jarvis rapidly reported the results of the trial operation.

“Master, 15,584,547 fifth-level energy blocks have been converted. According to the pressure data of each module, if operated at maximum power, one cycle can be completed every forty-three seconds!”

Fifteen million fifth-level energy blocks!

Jiang Chen could not help but reveal a look of delight.

The Space Furnace’s normal design was one cycle per minute.

The high-energy oscillation device consumed roughly three million fifth-level energy blocks to tear space apart, and a single cycle yielded about thirteen million.

But after being enhanced by magic construction, the cooldown between cycles was even shorter, and the energy obtained was greater.

Although consumption had not changed, the efficiency of energy production had increased by nearly two-thirds!

“Forty-three seconds per cycle—isn’t that a bit too much pressure on the equipment?” Jiang Chen hesitated slightly.

A hundred percent load was not impossible, but it would drastically shorten the lifespan of the Space Furnace.

In particular, those components enhanced by magic construction—whether they could still fully satisfy the demand under such extreme pressure, Jiang Chen could not guarantee.

“We can operate on a forty-five-second cycle. The extra two seconds of pressure reduction would lower the stress on the core components by eleven percent, which would significantly extend their service life,” Jarvis suggested.

“Do as you say,” Jiang Chen agreed.

At a forty-five-second cycle, after deducting costs each time, the furnace would yield a profit of around twelve million energy blocks.

Of course, although the energy contained in fifth-level energy blocks was nearly identical to cosmic crystals in both quality and quantity, they were not true cosmic crystals after all, so their value was somewhat lower.

Still, however it was measured, selling twelve million energy blocks for ten million cosmic crystals would pose no problem.

At a profit of ten million cosmic coins every forty-five seconds, that came to seven trillion in a year, or seven mixed-origin units!

With a cost of ten mixed-origin units, the entire investment could be recovered in just over a year, and everything after that would be pure profit.

That rate of making money was even more terrifying than a printing press.

A quick calculation was enough to send Jiang Chen into a wave of exhilaration.