The most aggravating thing in the world is when someone practically begs for a slap right at the peak of your good mood.
And if there is anything even more aggravating than that, it is realizing you cannot beat him in a slapping match...
Every time I start to respect you, you open your mouth!
Confronted with Ji Jue's classic strategy of offering a sweet carrot followed by shameless barking, Lou Feng glared straight at him. Several times, he started to speak, only to swallow his words: *You really aren't even going to put on an act, are you?*
*Is behaving like a decent human being truly that hard?*
Still, with so many Profound 'local specialties' serving as greeting gifts and safety talismans, Lou Feng ultimately managed to maintain a shred of customer service etiquette. Without even checking what was in his hands, he skipped straight past the 'shine my shoes' routine, gestured with a wave of his hand, turned, and took the lead.
He led the way toward the workshop's testing grounds.
With Lou Feng in front, massive blast doors slid open one after another through twists and turns. The subterranean levels beneath Haian Tech's office building had long since been excavated into a labyrinth, riddled with who knew how many traps and safeguards. Ji Jue clicked his tongue in wonder, thinking Old Lou's paranoia was truly getting out of hand.
His own testing area was right next door. All these defenses felt completely unnecessary—wouldn't they just hinder him from dropping by whenever he had free time to visit?
At the thought that his heart yearned toward the bright moon while Lou Feng's shone only on the drainage ditch, Ji Jue could not help sighing in melancholy.
Then, purely on instinct, he glanced left and right.
Diligently casing the joint.
"As per your request, on an expedited rush order, I cleared everything off my plate and went through four revisions, only wrapping up two days ago. You'd better not give me any of that 'the first draft was the best' bullshit now."
Lou Feng looked back and glared at Ji Jue—the bastard's hand was already practically brushing against his security terminal, not even bothering to disguise his intentions anymore.
"Ah, well, a reasonable amount of revisions and feedback helps hone your craft!" Ji Jue widened his eyes, his voice booming. "I am a Crown of Glory Master! Out in the world, people would pay good money on their knees just for my guidance, yet couldn't get it even if they begged."
"Then would you please inspect the goods and promptly get the fuck out?"
Lou Feng did not take the bait in the slightest. He pointed toward a containment cabinet. "The prototype is right here."
A wisp of faint light rose from the platform, and the creation sealed within finally revealed its form. It looked like a multi-legged mechanical spider, yet each of its limbs was so slender and elongated that it seemed to sway in the breeze.
Amidst intricate layers of spiritus architecture, a single microchip was encased inside machinery smaller than a palm, quietly pulsing with a faint glow.
Clearly, an enormous amount of effort had gone into it. From the inside out, there was not a single redundant element. Its various components complemented each other seamlessly—lean, restrained, not a millimeter too much, not a millimeter too little.
Just right.
"It's practically a work of art," Ji Jue murmured in appreciation as he gazed at it, sensing its internal structures and underlying theories. After a long pause, he asked, "Are there test logs?"
"If there weren't, how could it be called a prototype?"
Lou Feng snapped his fingers, and numerous logs manifested in the workshop's projections, unfolding recorded scenes before Ji Jue's eyes.
On an operating table, robotic arms danced with fluid grace, effortlessly slicing down the subject's back. Flesh parted, laying bare the spine.
The prototype activated and unfurled, crawling over the incision like a living creature. Once it found its mark, slender limbs pierced into the flesh, intertwining with the nervous system. At last, the entire prototype locked onto the vertebrae, fusing with the subject into a single whole.
A brief suturing and healing procedure followed.
Five minutes later, no trace of the gruesome incision remained; only a single crystal lay flush against the skin, looking as if it had been there from birth.
"The materials utilize technology from the Hospital side to minimize rejection to the greatest extent, ensuring integration with the user and cutting complications down to the absolute minimum. As for the results, look here."
Lou Feng snapped his fingers again, pulling up another video.
"Visual checks normal. Sensory checks normal. No abnormalities in spatial perception... Relax. It's completely normal to feel dizzy at first. Just maintain your current state; there's no need to panic."
Lou Feng's voice came from off-camera as the lens focused on the recent surgical subject: "Can you briefly describe what you're feeling?"
"Ah, um, well... it's kind of weird. I feel unsteady on my feet."
The test subject shook his head, looking as though he might throw up, and took a deep breath. "My body feels heavy, like there's something extra attached, but I can't really explain it."
"Normal. Your nerves and perception register a new limb, but your physical body hasn't changed, creating that illusion until you grow accustomed to it." Lou Feng asked, "Do you see the table in front of you?"
"Y-Yes, I see it."
"Describe it."
"A plate, an... apple? And a robotic arm beside it?" The subject rubbed his eyes. "What is this?"
"Very good. Now, sit there and use your consciousness to operate that robotic arm. Pick up the apple."
"Huh?" The subject looked toward the camera in confusion. "H-How do I operate it? I..."
"You can operate it. As long as you intend to, you will," Lou Feng reminded him. "The transmission of spiritus signals is seamless. You don't need to understand the underlying principles; you just need to know that you can do it. Now, don't waste time. Do it. You must believe—believe in yourself."
Completely baffled, the subject stared intently at the mechanical arm, muttering under his breath and gesticulating with his hands. Yet through it all, the arm did not react in the slightest.
He sighed and was about to speak when Lou Feng's voice cut in: "If you can't do it, any talk of sentence reduction is off the table. But if you succeed, I can arrange for you to have a private cell for the remainder of your sentence and cut your daily labor by half."
"What?" The subject whipped his head around in disbelief.
Lou Feng added, "Meat with every meal."
In an instant, the subject's eyes practically ignited. He spun back, glaring at the mechanical arm with a flushed face and veins bulging on his forehead, flailing his arms and mumbling frantically.
Watching this, Ji Jue clicked his tongue in amazement. Young Master Lou's methods were getting filthier by the day; heaven only knew who he had learned them from.
Yet just as Ji Jue watched at his leisure, the mechanical arm on the table suddenly twitched!
It spasmed and shook, trembling continuously.
As if finally getting the hang of it and learning how to move this newly acquired limb, amidst tremors reminiscent of Parkinson's disease, the mechanical arm shakily nudged the apple.
After a prolonged struggle, it crushed the plate, but finally grasped the apple in its hand.
Such a simple action was enough to make the subject shout with joy, while Lou Feng remained unperturbed: "Very good. Next item. Swap out the test article."
Next, a car was placed before him.
After ten minutes of attempts, the car was actually started under the subject's control, followed by smooth gear shifting, driving, and reverse parking.
Though there were deviations and awkward hitches, it was clear that using the prototype was becoming smoother and smoother.
The complexity of the tests escalated step by step.
Operating assembly-line mechanical arms, controlling the takeoff, landing, and sensory feedback of drones, maintaining drone pursuit while driving, locking onto targets while commanding three drones simultaneously, and even controlling a machine-gun turret on the far side of the room.
Across fragmented video clips, the subject's control grew increasingly proficient. In the end, it was as if he were operating his own body—watching through an observation window, he guided an exoskeleton through layers of obstacles and a maze, ultimately reaching the finish line.
"Haha, I did it! I succeeded!"
Just as the subject danced with joy, Lou Feng's voice came through: "Good. You may lie back down now... Have a good sleep. When you wake up, it will all be over. By the way, Sprite, execute memory erasure, and bring in the next one..."
"..."
In the ensuing silence, Ji Jue turned his head to look at Lou Feng, hesitating several times before speaking. Lou Feng's expression was calm and indifferent, as though nothing had happened.
"Old Lou," Ji Jue hesitated.
"Yeah?"
"You're really a piece of work, aren't you?"
"Right back at you."
Lou Feng sneered. "Just tell me whether it worked or not! You wanted an external control module within half a month across four different revisions... Aside from me, even a god couldn't have pulled it off!"
To be fair, he was right.
The Lou family had long cultivated the path of Ascension; their foundation and mastery in spiritus manipulation ranked among the absolute top tier in the mortal realm. Combined with Lou Feng's Embers research and transmutation, as well as the presence of the Lord of the Flies and the amplification from Three-Phase Alchemy, the success was natural.
An external module capable of interfacing with a soul and connecting to the Paradise control system, built to Ji Jue's specifications—if given to any other workshop or craftsman, they might not have made this much progress in three to five years, let alone two weeks.
Now, they had completed the crucial first step.
Through the Spirit of Creation within the external module, anyone could communicate with, influence, and control other creations equipped with the Lord of the Flies, operating third-party equipment.
A small prototype that looked insignificant was, in reality, a monumental breakthrough for the next phase of the Lord of the Flies system, holding boundless potential!
To this, Ji Jue did not hold back his praise: "Old Lou, exceptional work!"
"Don't celebrate too early."
Lou Feng's expression remained stern. "A prototype is called a prototype because it's still far from mass production... You should know that to facilitate the prototype's operation and decoding, all test subjects underwent specialized tuning and adaptation. It was done to minimize decoding difficulty and reaction latency. Otherwise, with our current technological foundation, every single motion would suffer at least a two-to-three-second delay before responding."
Three seconds?
Ji Jue's brow arched slightly. "Can't that be shortened?"
"The spirit of the Lord of the Flies possesses learning and self-adaptive capabilities. With extended use, the latency can probably drop to around one second. Without a comprehensive technological overhaul, that is the absolute limit."
"Still too slow."
Ji Jue could not help shaking his head.
In critical situations, even half a second of latency was far too sluggish. If the delay was this high, its practical utility would take a massive hit, let alone precision control.
He engaged his super-wisdom, turned back toward Lou Feng, and began barking shameless demands:
"Can't you figure something out?"
Chapter 837