Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Five

After Tisiya finished speaking, she continued with the exams.

When it was Baisha and Xino Us's turn, they both forced Teacher Tisiya to truly resist. Each held out for about ten minutes before the teacher announced their grades as A.

No one raised any objections.

It wasn't so much that White Sand and Xino's combat abilities exceeded the students' imagination.

"Where exactly is the limit in Baisha and Xino·Us's battle?"

"The teacher hasn't reached her limit either, right? Teacher Tisiya is engaging in a war of attrition."

"Does it take the teacher more than five minutes to handle each of us?" The student who initially spoke looked back at his peers, "Five minutes, what kind of war of attrition is that?"

But there's no way around it, the students' mental power levels have a huge disparity. However, the teacher doesn’t solely grade based on personal strength. As long as one improves rapidly, they can still achieve a B+ or even an A grade.

After midterms, Baisha returned to her dormitory and discussed with Cen Yuehuai the issue of mass-producing "Rainbow Rain." In terms of costs, Cen Yuehuai, being more knowledgeable than Baisha, the mech engineer, had clearer insights.

"If you already have the design, you can directly commission a manufacturer to transform the design into reality," Cen Yuehuai explained, "As for the manufacturing costs, it depends on the materials used and the complexity of the designated processes."

Baisha opened her design software and imported the design of "Rainbow Rain." The software also provided a material cost calculation feature, showing that the total cost would be around ten million.

"I can re-select materials to ensure maximum durability while reducing the budget as much as possible. As for the crafting cost, the complexity lies mainly in the transforming parts of the weapon, which will require extra effort."

"I'll try my best to manage the costs," Cen Yuehuai scratched her head, "I know custom weapons are essential, so I borrowed some money from friends I used to be close with... but I've only managed to gather seven million."

With the Cen family's reputation, even though Cen Yuehuai had run away from home, people were still willing to lend her money, hoping to earn good karma.

Thus, Cen Yuehuai's budget, including crafting costs, totaled only seven million.

After the exam week, it was the weekend. Instead of returning to Youdu Star, Baisha went to Master Jiang Gui's lab to help with his experiments. Naturally, she also brought her design, placing the floating holographic screen in front of Jiang Gui, "Dear teacher—could you please take a look at this design for me?"

Jiang Gui raised his eyebrows and glanced at Bai Sha.

He initially insisted on "not taking any students," but after a few months with Bai Sha, they naturally assumed a teacher-student relationship.

... It's just that every time Bai Sha called him "teacher," he felt a slight twinge of discomfort.

"What design is it? Let me take a look."

Jiang Gui took off his experiment gloves and flicked through the holographic screen for a few minutes, then frowned slightly—

"It's quite average."

Bai Sha: "......"

Although this was a design she had worked on and revised many times over two months, Jiang Gui was, after all, a top-tier designer, and her work indeed didn't seem impressive enough in front of him.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Gui, with his cool voice, added another line:

"Too average, I'm afraid it won't qualify as 'excellent.'"

Bai Sha: "......"

Bai Sha was completely at a loss for words.

Mech weapons are special; they can be evaluated as part of the mech as a whole for association grading, or they can be assessed separately.

"But do you understand what 'exceptional' means in this context?"

"Even for a grand master, not every design they create can be classified as 'exceptional.'"

"I am still a mid-level mech engineer," Baisha said somewhat numbly, waving her hand, "I understand that you renowned grand master engineers start at an 'exceptional' level, but isn't it a bit exaggerated to expect the same from me?"

Jiang Gui disagreed, "You clearly have great potential, so why not hold yourself to strict standards? Besides, I never started at 'exceptional,' but at 'legacy' level."

Baisha fell silent.

Indeed, since turning thirty, Jiang Gui had created a series of mechs, light, medium, and heavy, named "The Twelve Rhythms" — twelve mechs, all of legacy quality. He even crafted two legendary mechs, both treasured as national artifacts.

"Your design is not far from reaching 'exceptional' level," Jiang Gui stated firmly, "but for a newcomer's mech weapon to be rated as exceptional, it must have a distinctive feature. Otherwise, the Mech Association might downplay the grade of your work."

Is the specialty of "Rainbow Rain" its transformation? That's not enough. There are too many weapons capable of transforming. While "Rainbow Rain's" design is ingenious, it lacks a strong personal touch.

Jiang Gui asked, "Do you know what a grand master mech designer’s creations revolve around as their focal point?"

Baisha pondered for a moment before replying, "Is it around inspiration?"

"And where does that inspiration come from?" Jiang Gui revealed, "Inspiration comes from the identity of your design subject, which is what we call 'custom mechs.' Or it can come from a unique material, like the mucilaginous material we are studying."

Many outstanding warriors have distinct personal styles, and mech engineers can tailor mechs to fit their characteristics. But as a solo mech warrior, Cen Yuehuai is just starting and lacks distinctive features.

As for unique materials, they are even rarer and harder to come by for Baisha.

"I'll lend you my personal account so you can check out the Association's high-level auction site," Jiang Gui said as he rummaged through his desk and tossed a silver ID card to Baisha, "That auction site is usually only accessible to senior mech engineers and above. It has a lot of high-quality materials and even components made by mech designers... That's why I'm urging you to elevate your work to 'exceptional' level. Just two exceptional designs and you can advance to a senior mech engineer, and you won't need to borrow my ID anymore."

Baisha accepted Jiang Gui's ID card with surprise, scanning its encrypted pattern with her cyber-brain. A golden interface popped up, the internal auction site of the Empire's Mech Design Association — the homepage displayed a variety of auction items, each with the designer's name, current bid, and countdown to the auction's end.

Scanning through, Baisha noticed that although most items were expensive, they were considerably cheaper than those available on the open market.

No wonder it's an internal auction site for mech engineers.

Baisha pulled up a chair next to the test bench and, full of excitement, began browsing the auction website.

"This one's nice."

"I want that one too."

"Hiss, this design looks quite novel... let's see how much it costs..."

Jiang Gui gently closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them again to say to Bai Sha, "Don't just want everything you see. Be serious about selecting materials, or else those things will just pile up in the storeroom, possibly unused."

Bai Sha, undeterred, continued placing orders: "It doesn't matter; my palace is spacious enough."

Jiang Gui: "..." He had forgotten that the person in front of him was a member of the royal family. Even if lacking in other aspects, they should have enough money. This was far from his own early days when he would split a penny in half to make ends meet.

Finally, Bai Sha slowed down in scrolling through the interface. She added some items to her wish list and then fell into deep thought while staring at them.

Jiang Gui paid her no mind, turning to arrange experimental data on the console.

About an hour later, Bai Sha jumped off the chair, walked over to Jiang Gui, and showed him her wish list.

"Teacher, how much will it cost to get these materials? Some of them are still in auction."

"If you're in a hurry, you can directly message the seller to inquire about their expected price. Generally, if it meets their price range, you can buy it directly," Jiang Gui glanced briefly at the materials' sellers, paused, then added, "Before placing an order, investigate the sellers' reputations in the industry. Some of them might have good materials, but they overcharge or even have questionable sources."

Bai Sha nodded in agreement.

With Jiang Gui's approval, Bai Sha used his account to buy two pieces of liquid metal and some coating materials. For the remaining miscellaneous but important items, she returned to her dormitory and contacted Tai Shi Rong to arrange reliable sources for her.

Bai Sha didn't have her own mech manufacturing space, so she simply borrowed Jiang Gui's. He had about four or five manufacturing spaces under his name. One of them was transformed from his dormitory. Bai Sha only then realized to what extent this master had utilized his allocated personal space — the dormitory building allotted to him was converted into a small personal workshop, and he usually used a movable hibernation pod. Sometimes he worked through the night testing data, and when exhausted, he would clear the books off a shelf, stack them up with a soft pad, and sleep right there, only to wake up and continue with the tests.

The physical constitution of the Empire's citizens was robust, but Bai Sha felt inferior to Jiang Gui's resilience.

A week later, the materials Bai Sha ordered arrived one after another. She checked off the final items on her list, then moved them all into Jiang Gui's manufacturing space.

From then on, Bai Sha was as if she had disappeared.

Cen Yuehuai, noticing Bai Sha's busyness, said with a tinge of guilt, "Your Highness, you really don’t have to do all this for me—"

"It's not entirely for you," Bai Sha responded, "As a mech engineer, being able to draw designs isn’t enough; I need to learn how to build them too."

She had attended many courses on manufacturing and architecture before, but those were mostly theoretical. Ultimately, hands-on experience was essential to accumulate real knowledge.

Jiang Gui's workshop was filled with high-tech equipment. She learned how to use and control them precisely... Each experiment not only honed her skills but also deepened her understanding of mechs, aiding in the refinement of her designs.

Another month passed, and Bai Sha showed her final design to Teacher Jiang Gui. After he nodded in approval, she submitted the design to the Mech Association for grading.

The grading was even quicker this time: Exceptional level.

Bai Sha decided to attach this "Exceptional" achievement to her virtual identity.

Since then, on the intermediate mech engineers' leaderboard, a mech engineer named "Euo King" rose rapidly from the lower to the middle ranks, backed by the record of "Exceptional level mech weaponry."

Now, her alias ID was getting close to her real name ID.

"Euo King's" debut was at the Exceptional level, and another record of the same level would smoothly advance her into the ranks of advanced mech engineers. Meanwhile, Bai Sha’s own name was associated with the legendary mech "Liu Ting," but as it was a joint effort of several special-class designers, it couldn't count as her solo achievement. Therefore, she still needed to create two Exceptional level records to advance further.

Only then did Bai Sha realize what the Association meant when they advised her against using an alias too casually.

Achievements under two different names are counted separately, which is not conducive to climbing the ranks and building fame.

Shaking her head to clear these extraneous thoughts, Bai Sha returned to the workshop, focusing intently on crafting the bow she was working on.

Flames forged the metal, bringing the weapon, so vivid in her mind, to life, bit by bit.

……

Ghost Capital Star.

The dazzling lights shone on the exquisite, translucent silver goblets, creating a shimmering radiance. The long table was draped with a snow-white tablecloth, and delicate, softly colored flowers blossomed in the decorative metal-glass vases.

The Emperor sat at the dining table, eating slowly and elegantly. Every move he made was so proper it could serve as a template for etiquette teachers. Yet, his gaze was lowered, his face almost expressionless, gradually casting a pall of silence over the entire dining room—

It was clear to any discerning eye that the Emperor was not in a good mood.

Wei Li and Marquis Uss, guests invited to dine on Ghost Capital Star, exchanged a glance, both silently sighing.

Ding.

The Emperor listlessly set down his silver fork. The metal meeting the porcelain plate produced a brief, crisp sound.

“My niece hasn’t been home for a month and a half,” the Emperor frowned, “Is it common for children nowadays to avoid coming home after making new friends at school?”

He had already indulged her by allowing her to keep over a dozen cats in her sleeping chamber!

But now, what of it? Those dozen cats couldn't even capture her attention. It was practically a waste.

In an attempt to console the Emperor, Marquis Uss chimed in, “Your Majesty, it’s typical for children of this age. They avoid home because they find it too restrictive and crave the freedom they enjoy outside. But deep down, they know that home is the most important place. That’s indisputable…”

“You needn’t worry too much, Your Majesty. Once she’s through with this phase, she’ll naturally return home.”

The Emperor took a sip of water, raising an eyebrow: “How long would that be?”

Marquis Uss: “At most four or five years, I suppose…”

The Emperor huffed coldly and placed the glass cup on the table, neither gently nor forcefully.

Wei Li caught Marquis Uss’s eye and spoke up, “Your Majesty, hasn’t Princess Bai Sha already communicated with you? She’s staying at the Tianquan Military Academy to study under Master Jiang Gui.”

To receive guidance from Master Jiang Gui is a dream for many; seeing Bai Sha’s performance, it's apparent that Jiang Gui intends to take her as a student. As an elder, Cecil Ronin should be proud.

“Actually, there’s a simple solution,” Wei Li suggested, “Why not build a mech manufacturing workshop right here on Ghost Capital Star?”

After all, as Bai Sha grows, she will eventually need a workshop of her own.

After a moment of contemplation, Cecil Ronin said, “Let’s do that.”

Cecil·Ronin asked, "What kind of workshop would you like?"

Baisha: "..."

How could she forget that she could also build her own workshop at home!

She jumped off the chair, hopped onto her flyer, and zoomed straight towards the White Tower.

Jiang Gui was organizing a report on the mucilaginous material and arranging the next experimental schedule when he heard two soft knocks. Thinking it was Baisha's psychic entity coming to mooch off him again, he looked up to see Baisha lightly tapping on his window.

Jiang Gui: "..."

He somewhat reluctantly went to open the window for Baisha.

"Teacher!" Baisha, clinging to the window frame, agilely vaulted inside and said with excitement, "Could you give me a list of equipment from the manufacturing room?"

Anticipating this, Jiang Gui pulled up a prepared list from his cyber-brain, "Where do you plan to set up your personal workshop?"

Jiang Gui asked casually, knowing that if he truly took Baisha as a student, they would inevitably be sending each other materials, components, and tools in the future.

Baisha's lips curled uncontrollably as she confidently announced a location, "Youdu Star!"

Jiang Gui paused mid-action, his eyes narrowing in doubt as he sized up Baisha again.

Youdu Star?

Wasn't that the Emperor's domain?

On closer inspection, Baisha did bear a resemblance to...

"Master Jiang," Baisha interrupted his thoughts, rubbing her hands together, "Well, it will take some time to set up my private workshop there, but the final touches on 'Rainbow Rain' can't wait. I noticed the polishing machine in your manufacturing room doesn't seem to be the latest model. Could we consider upgrading the equipment?"

Jiang Gui chuckled dryly, "Are you paying?"

"Sure," Baisha agreed without hesitation, "Consider it my initiation fee for becoming your student. What do you think?"

Jiang Gui: "..."

Suddenly, he wasn't so keen on taking this student anymore =_=.