Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex fell into thought, wondering if he could do anything about the metals quickly. Metals that were both durable for what was being attempted, along with allowing for high Qi conductivity, were simple enough to find.

But one also had to consider something else.

“What about heat?” Alex asked.

The old man gave a confused look. “What about it?”

“Expansion and contraction,” Alex said. “Wouldn’t having different metal plates that react easily to heat make things difficult? The change in size could lead to some problems, wouldn’t it?”

The old man’s eyes widened slightly. “You’re right,” he said. “I didn’t even consider that.”

Alex nodded. “You’ve only ever used single formation plates, so you don’t have to worry about them expanding or contracting with the change in temperature. But if you’re going to use separate metals in separate locations, you have to consider it very carefully.”

“I understand,” Battlesage said, thinking to himself. “So on top of it being durable and having a high Qi conductivity, we’ll also need the metal to not easily change its size when in the presence of heat, right?”

“Yes,” Alex said. “We might also want something that’s a little less malleable and has high elasticity. We don’t want random objects to leave dents in it easily.”

The old man tugged on his beard. “I didn’t think this through completely, it seems. You’ll have to work harder.”

The problem wasn’t really that difficult to solve for Alex. It was just going to cost him a lot, which he was willing to spend for the sake of the secret realm in his Soul Space.

“I hope it’s fine if they are of different shapes, sizes, and materials,” Alex said in the end. “I can’t guarantee I will only get the same metal plates, so you’ll have to make do with what I can get you.”

“That’s fine,” the old man said. “As long as I can carve the runes onto them and not have to worry about them being destroyed, it should work.”

Alex sighed in relief. “Then I will get right to searching for them. I’ll get your 5000 pieces of metal as soon as I…”

He paused.

“Do it whenever you can. There’s no rush,” the old man said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Alex looked up. “Their sizes really don’t matter, do they?” he asked, as if confirming something.

“No, not really. It’s the size of the runes that matters, so as long as they are as large as the formation plate you showed me earlier, it should work,” the man said.

“And what about the texture? Does it matter if they have textures?” he asked.

“So long as the textures don’t interfere with the runes, that doesn’t matter either,” the old man said.

Whisker looked toward Alex with a strange glint in his eyes. “What’s going on, brother? It looks like you’ve thought of something.”

Alex grinned. “I did. I have been thinking of where I could use this for a while, and it seems we’ve found the right home for it.”

As he said so, Alex brought out a small blue metal plate with a small curve to it from his Soul Space and placed it before them all.

Battlesage looked at the metal plate and found it fascinating. He picked it up, touching along the surface. “What is this? This looks closer to a naturally forming mineral than a piece of metal.”

“It should. It is naturally formed. Can it work?”

The old man tried bending it and found it surprisingly resilient. “It’s strong enough,” he said. “We shouldn’t be expecting many attacks in there, so a metal piece of this caliber should be more than good enough. Do you have more of this?”

Alex grinned. “Oh, I have a ton.”

Whisker’s eyes widened. “Brother, is that…”

“Dragon Scales,” Alex said. “Azure Dragon’s Saint-grade Dragon Scales, to be precise. I have about 6000 of them for you to use. 1200 more as well, but those are slightly better, and I would rather use them elsewhere if I can.”

“These are dragon scales?” the old man asked with a fascinated look on his face. “I’ve never seen one before. They look surprisingly similar to fish scales, don’t they?”

“They do,” Alex said. “But they have metallic properties to them and are widely used by the Azure Dragons to make their artifacts. Speaking of which, they contain some space attribute in them. Do you think you could make use of it?”

“Uhh…” the old man hesitated a little. “I’m not sure what I can really do with the space property. Give me some time to think.”

“Of course. I’ll leave you two to discuss the plan,” Alex said. “Take as much time as you need. We aren’t in any hurry.”

The old man nodded. “Would you leave some more dragon scales with us? I may want to experiment a little with them. See what I can do.”

Alex agreed and brought out four more scales, handing them all to the man. “Waste them if you have to for the sake of experimenting. I should have enough. Even if we run out, we’ll just use some metal bases instead for the remaining ones.”

Battlesage was visibly excited at the prospect of getting to experiment with scripts on a material he had never worked with before. The gears in his head were already turning.

“I’ll be back in a few days,” Alex said, finally leaving the two to work by themselves.

With Whisker and Battlesage working together, Alex didn’t believe it would take them that long to come up with the necessary idea.

Even if they were late, what was there for him to worry about? His only worry was his family, and they were already in the Sky God’s palace, which he would go to after 5 more years.

At this point, his only task was to spend the remaining 5 years however he could, and he pretty much knew what he was going to do to spend that time.

“Between my remaining Creations, Sunfire, and the Pillbugs, I doubt I’ll get any free time anyway.”