After leaving the gambling house, Xu Mu quickly returned to the Hidden Dragon Inn.
Xu Mu locked the doors and windows tightly, and used his abilities to seal the gaps, isolating the space to ensure that no sound could escape and no one could peek in. Then, he took out the incomplete mechanical body of Charles that he had been working on.
This mechanical body was very small, only about half a palm in size, like a cold cicada in winter.
Xu Mu looked at the cold cicada, and then took out many high-tech instruments from his spatial ring. These instruments were all built by himself, with Charles' guidance, of course.
Charles transformed into a mass of white data flow, floating in front of Xu Mu, and said sternly, "The next steps will be very complicated. You must be careful and not be careless. Do as I say."
Xu Mu nodded, indicating that he understood.
What they were about to create was the final and most crucial step in reconstructing Charles' mechanical body: the chip.
"Let's start!"
Xu Mu took a deep breath, took out a mountain of metal, and skillfully began to dissolve it. At the same time, he used his abilities to constantly break it down and engrave it, shaping it into a square chip the size of a fingernail.
Charles' expression was grave as he began to direct. Xu Mu listened to him and etched intricate and marvelous patterns onto the chip, and then attached different metals. His movements were meticulous, and the young man's hair was soaked with sweat.
There was no other way. Xu Mu was too nervous. This chip was a simplified version, and the computational functions for Charles were greatly reduced. If he made another mistake, no one knew what would happen if Charles' soul possessed it. Perhaps Charles would go mad!
While Xu Mu was refining the chip, the little Qiongqi didn't disturb him, lying obediently to the side, squinting and sleeping.
He didn't know how long he slept. It wasn't until his stomach growled that the little Qiongqi opened its eyes and realized that the sky outside had become so dark that one couldn't see their hand in front of their face.
The little Qiongqi looked up at Xu Mu again and found him engrossed, his robes soaked with sweat.
Helplessly, he could only eat some dried meat and wait silently.
Thus, Qiongqi ate, slept, slept, and ate, occasionally cultivating. It was another noon when Xu Mu finally stopped what he was doing.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his movements were stiff. When he turned his neck, he made a series of cracking sounds, resembling a wight.
Xu Mu dazedly scanned his surroundings and realized that all the metal he had bought was gone, and the energy seals around him had weakened to the extreme due to the passage of time.
He laboriously stood up from the chair and looked at the sweat stains on the floor and the scorched table. After a moment of silence, he finally fixed his gaze on the fingernail-sized square chip.
"It's done."
"There shouldn't be any problems."
Xu Mu muttered to himself, picked it up, and held it in front of his eyes. With his extremely sharp eyesight, he could see through the layers of metal to the intricate and precise mạch veins within. Every stroke was personally etched by him, with countless layers of complex mạch veins overlapping and intertwining, inlaid with special materials, and connected together to form this high-tech chip.
The complexity of this chip was comparable to human cells, encompassing everything.
Xu Mu took a deep breath, then inserted the chip into the head of the cold cicada.
Instantly, the cold cicada's wings trembled slightly, and then its eyes lit up. Its metallic abdomen wriggled slightly, like a beast that had drunk water, full of true vitality.
Charles' human likeness collapsed and turned into a pool of silvery-white data flow, which instantly drilled into the cold cicada's brain. After a period of violent trembling, the cold cicada moved.
He tilted his head, making chirping sounds, as if curious about the world.
Xu Mu watched all this nervously, then swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked, "Charles?"
The cold cicada turned its head, its light blue eyes emitting a faint glow, meeting Xu Mu's gaze.
"It's me."
It was still that familiar voice.
Xu Mu's tired eyes brightened. He grinned and joyfully picked up the cold cicada to celebrate, "Great, we succeeded!"
"Put me down quickly, I'm so dizzy, I'm not used to this body yet!" Charles cried out in fear as Xu Mu tossed him around.
Xu Mu's chip production was extremely successful, even exceeding his expectations. It was fully capable of handling some simple research, even complex computational research, and possessed a certain degree of realistic anthropomorphism.
However, he hadn't experienced human sensations for a long time. As a data spirit, he didn't feel dizzy.
"Oh, I forgot." Xu Mu remembered this and scratched his head, placing Charles on the wooden table, then looked at him with a smile.
He was very proud because this task had been extremely difficult, but fortunately, it was successful in the end.
The little Qiongqi also came over with a curious expression and tried to reach out its claws to prod the cold cicada. However, Charles sensed danger and quickly flew to Xu Mu's shoulder.
Seeing this, Xu Mu smiled and said sideways, "It's okay, aren't you familiar with it? We're all on the same side."
After speaking, Xu Mu turned to Qiongqi again, "Little Qiongqi, this fellow's name is Charles, and he's our partner from now on."
"He hasn't adapted to his new body yet. You can talk to him, but don't bully him."
The little Qiongqi looked at Charles curiously, then nodded blankly and replied, "Okay."
"I still don't think he's very reliable," Charles' small claws clutched Xu Mu tightly, and then he continued, "Go get me some more metal, preferably the same amount as you bought before. I need to create some defensive measures in case of an accident!"
Xu Mu heard this and felt a bit helpless, "Come on, are you a vampire? I only have a little over a million gold coins on me right now. Where can I get so much money for you?"
"And haven't you heard the saying, rarity makes things precious? If we always exchange the Other Shore Root for money, what if this thing becomes worthless one day?"
Charles looked at the eager Qiongqi, quickly shook his head, and said aggrievedly, "No, I must have it!"
"In this life, if you have no power to... to subdue Qiongqi, then what's the point of living? And I don't want to be like this forever. I want to forge my own true mechanical body, just like in my Blue Star days, impervious to water and fire, and impenetrable to swords and spears!"
Xu Mu was helpless and asked with a roll of his eyes, "Then what now? I don't have that much money. How about I buy you some materials first?"
"Go gamble in the arena! That's a good place to make money. With the help of insiders, we can analyze who wins and who loses. It's like picking up money for free!"
Xu Mu frowned upon hearing this, finding it a bit risky. But then he thought about it, and indeed, there was no better way to make money, so he nodded.
"Alright then, I'll go after I rest."
Xu Mu said, as if he had thought of something, and turned to look at Qiongqi. Seeing its resentful expression, he smiled and said, "I'm very sleepy, but I don't plan to sleep."
"You must be starving. Let's go eat first."