Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 297 We Are Really Awesome

After looking at it for a while, Chen Xuan put down the semi-finished bell with fine grooves and began to draw the silk.

He is not a silkworm and cannot spin silk by himself, but he can spin gold and silver threads. The Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bell requires three materials: gold, silver and copper. Before this, he only used copper, which was the main material.

A set of Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bells can be used to "set up an array", and the production process can barely be called refining equipment, but it is the basics of the basics, not even entry-level. At most, it can only be said to be practice and accumulate experience, just like the Xiaoyao Pills that were the basis of Chen Xuan's alchemy.

His talent is limited and he doesn't even know the basics. He can only grope around when it comes to advanced refining artifacts and formations.

Taking out a silver ingot, Chen Xuan melted it, and then stretched out his hand to draw a thread as thin as a hair from the molten silver liquid. After it cooled down, he got a roll of silver thread. He did the same thing and got a roll of gold thread.

"I don't know if it's a coincidence or if many things have something in common. The technological creations of my previous life required precious metals. The higher the technology, the more precious metals were needed. The same is true for this refining creation."

With this idea in mind, Chen Xuan picked up the unfinished bell again and inlaid the gold and silver threads in the grooves that he had previously outlined with a fine needle. The two grooves connected end to end were inlaid with gold and silver threads respectively. After inlaying, he carefully controlled the temperature to calcine the whole to make it one piece. Then, after it cooled, he gently polished the inner and outer surfaces with a piece of jade.

When the surface of the bell became smooth, Chen Xuan took it in his hand and looked at it. The golden bell was covered with beautiful folded and twisted textures, as well as line patterns outlined by gold and silver threads. It was magnificent and clearly a work of art.

Could it be true that the more beautiful something is, the more dangerous it is?

"At this point, one of the nine bells has been completed, but whether it is a finished product or a waste product remains to be verified."

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan noticed that the diligent Su Roujia had gone to the woods around the house to plant mushrooms because he had not assigned her anything to do, so he went to fetch a basin of water.

When the water in the basin calmed down, he tied a bell with a string and hung it one foot above the water. Although he could make the bell float in the air, the effect of the bell could not be detected due to interference from martial arts.

He flicked the hanging bell lightly with his finger, and a crisp sound was heard, which was light, pleasant and lingering for a long time. Amid the sound of the bell, Chen Xuan carefully observed the changes in the water surface below caused by the vibration of the sound waves.

Chen Xuan frowned slightly and looked speechless at the first sight. The slight vibration on the water surface was chaotic. He did not give up and played it a few more times after the ringing stopped. Even if he adjusted the height, the water surface fluctuations were still disordered.

In this situation, he could only scratch his head, took off the bell, held it in his hand, looked up to the sky and sighed, then slumped in the chair with a look of despair on his face.

It’s too difficult. I don’t know how many times he has sighed this way.

After spending seven or eight days making a bell, it's still a dud. What's the problem? I've been very careful and meticulous, but it still doesn't work.

How can I describe this feeling? It's like I spent two hours downloading a blockbuster movie, closed the doors and windows, pulled down the curtains, and opened it excitedly, but it turned out to be Calabash Brothers. Who can I complain to?
Tired, destroy it...

He remained in that position, as listless as an eggplant hit by frost.

After an unknown amount of time, Su Roujia's concerned voice rang out from the side. She asked cautiously, "Master, are you okay? If you have any troubles, why not give me a beating to calm your nerves?"

"I'm afraid of beating you to death. It's okay, Roujia, just go and do your own thing," Chen Xuan said weakly.

She hummed, noticed the bell in Chen Xuan's hand, her eyes lit up and said: "Master, the bell is so beautiful, did you make it recently? I see you have been busy..."

Chen Xuan got angry when he mentioned the bell. He wanted to crush it into a ball. This thing was just a waste.

At least he held back, after all, he spent so much effort, Chen Xuan still said weakly: "Well, I did it, don't disturb me, I want to be quiet, if you like, take it and play with it"

As he said that, he threw it to Su Roujia. This thing is useless. It's just for looking good.

Su Roujia frantically caught it, fearing the beautiful bell would break. She was hesitant to refuse, afraid to accept the Master's priceless gift. But Chen Xuan said he didn't want to be disturbed, so she swallowed her words back. Then, carefully carrying the bell, she left, intending to store it in the storeroom for safekeeping. She wondered in her heart, "Who is Jingjing? Is she the Master's favorite girl?" She wondered which girl would be so honored...

The finished product he made with great difficulty turned out to be scrap. Chen Xuan was discouraged for a long time, and finally rubbed his face and cheered up again.

Nothing is so easy in this world. We should do things step by step. Failure is the mother of success. If we copy it more, we will succeed.

Experience is the result of summarization. A palace wasn't built in a day, and an old woman was also made by a young girl...

He kept encouraging himself and regained his confidence. The next day, Chen Xuan was fully recovered and started working again.

I'm all liver, I don't believe that a few bells can't produce liver.

Having had previous experience and having produced scrapped products, the next step is to meticulously polish the details to perfection.

This is just the basics of refining equipment, not even the entry level. Even those skilled Chen Xuan would feel overwhelmed just thinking about it.

Even so, he worked hard on trial and error, and it took him a full fifteen days to complete the first finished product without leaving his house.

The money spent in total is enough for a poor family to live comfortably for hundreds of years. It is worth about a thousand taels of silver. The actual gold and silver consumed is not large. After all, the thing is drawn into thin threads, so not much is needed. It is mainly copper coins. If it is a semi-finished product, the copper bell can be melted into raw materials. However, it is not possible to make it with inlaid gold and silver threads. It is better to start over than to peel them off.

Except for the first piece of scrap that Su Roujia took to the warehouse for storage, Chen Xuan would occasionally get angry and crumple the rest of the scrap into a ball and throw it away randomly, which made the little girl feel very distressed.

Ding! With a clear and pleasant sound, the bell hung above the basin of water. The sound waves caused the water surface below to ripple. The slight ripples formed, after they were relatively stable, clearly formed a standard snowflake shape!

"It's done. I finally made a finished product. It wasn't easy," Chen Xuan said with a smile and gritted teeth.

He who practices the way of nature does not hide his emotions. He is happy when he should be happy and irritable when he should be irritable, following his heart.

"Congratulations, Master. Congratulations, Master," Su Roujia said excitedly. Although she didn't know what the Master was doing, she was happy too because the Master was happy.

After repeated tests, the water surface affected by the sound waves was in a standard snowflake shape. Chen Xuan took off the bell, held it in his hand like a treasure, and said to Su Roujia, "The master is happy today. Roujia will prepare some hard dishes. I want to have a drink later."

"Okay, master," Su Roujia went happily.

Originally, this happy event should be celebrated, but Chen Xuan couldn't find anyone to share it with for the time being. Gao Jingming had already set off for the provincial examination and would stay in the provincial capital for a while to prepare for the "challenge", so he could only be happy by himself.

But then again, there was nothing to celebrate. After all, a set of Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bells consisted of nine, and he had only made one of them. The others were the same size but completely different in details.

But it doesn't matter, he has already done it for the first one and has accumulated considerable experience, so the difficulty of the subsequent ones has dropped sharply. It's like pursuing a girl. After sleeping with her for the first time, the most you can do afterwards is to play hard to get.

Next, Chen Xuan took advantage of the victory and worked day and night. It took him only ten days to complete the second product. The sound was clear and the water surface affected by the sound waves was crescent-shaped. The third product took him five days. The sound was low and the sound waves vibrated the water surface to form a five-pointed star.

Then the fourth, the fifth..., the more skilled you become, the faster you can make the finished products. After all, the hardest part is to start from zero to one, until the ninth set of Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bells is completed. The sound of each one is different, and the water surface under the influence of the sound waves presents different wave shapes.

By the time he finished a set, almost two months had passed since the first day he started trying to make it.

The sadness in it... well, there's nothing sad about it. At most, the repetitive attempts are a bit boring. But after all the hard work, it pays off. It has laid a little foundation for the real refining of equipment in the future.

But the consumption is also very high. After all, this thing is burning money. Chen Xuan roughly estimated that the total consumption of gold, silver and copper is worth more than ten thousand taels of silver!

But it is worth it. A set of Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bells, properly arranged, is enough to kill an innate master. The value is subjective, and even if the waste is sold as art, more than ten times the profit can be earned.

After getting a complete set of Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bells, Chen Xuan asked Su Roujia to prepare a table of delicious dishes to celebrate, and he was so happy that he drank a pot of wine.

The next step was the real arrangement. For this purpose, he also sent Su Roujia away to prevent her from losing her life accidentally.

The actual arrangement is also very particular. Except for the core one at the beginning, the distance, angle, height and other eight bells are not properly arranged. Even the slightest mistake will not achieve the ideal effect.

There were eight bells. Chen Xuan casually rolled some thin chains and hung them at the eight corners of the house. They were all finished, and it didn't take much effort to adjust their angles and distances.

After confirming that everything was correct, he took out the core bell at the door and flicked it lightly with his fingers in anticipation and curiosity. Then, strangely, the bell that should have made a clear sound did not make any sound.

He felt it carefully and found that the normal sound of the bell was no longer audible to the naked ear. It was similar to infrasound or ultrasound, and formed a silent resonance area with the other eight bells, covering the front and back of the house.

At the same time, Chen Xuan saw some birds and insects falling down with a crackling sound within a diameter of fifty meters in front of and behind the house. They died miserably, as if their juice had exploded!

Fortunately, he checked before the experiment that there was no one around, and the little girl was sent away in advance, otherwise innocent people would be harmed. When thinking this in his heart, Chen Xuan hung the bell in his hand, snapped his fingers again, and then distanced himself from the core bell.

He had only moved less than half a meter away, but even with his current level of cultivation, he felt slightly dizzy without any preparation, especially his heart, which suddenly started beating rapidly, as if it was about to explode.

Naturally, this influence did not cause any harm to him, and he calmed down in the blink of an eye. Instead, he stood there with his eyes slightly closed, carefully feeling the silent resonant sound wave area around him, and making judgments based on his own feelings.

He soon concluded that if one left the two-foot range of the core bell, he would be affected by the invisible sound wave force field in the area. Even the strongest people below the innate level would have their hearts burst after a few breaths. Even if one was an innate master, his strength would be reduced to only one-hundredth of what it was within the affected range, making it difficult for him to move. If he did not leave in time, depending on his own level of cultivation, it would be considered amazing if he could survive for a quarter of an hour!
The premise is that the other party stands and resists and has no way to restrain it. To put it bluntly, this thing is only effective because it is sudden and silent. If someone is prepared in advance, it does not pose much of a threat. After all, the bell itself is very fragile, and the holder is also the key. Anyway, for Chen Xuan himself, it is better than nothing, so just treat it as a practice.

"But it's quite impressive, no wonder it was left behind by Old Liu. Even though it's a basic thing, it's not quite up to the level of a true formation, but it's still above mechanical techniques and has its own extraordinary qualities."

After figuring out the general situation, Chen Xuan returned to the core bell, and the influence within the range no longer existed.

Holding the bell in his hand, he suddenly looked up in the direction of the Gao family and smiled.

He has been busy here for two months, and Gao Jingming has not been idle either. He went to the provincial capital to brush up his achievements. Look, the person who brought the good news has arrived.

Young Master Gao Jingming of the Gao family in Yang County ranked first in the current provincial examination in Shangyun Prefecture and won the title of Jieyuan!
Hearing the good news from afar, Chen Xuan flicked the bell in his hand lightly, and said happily in his heart: "We are really amazing. You won the title of Jieyuan, and I created a quasi-formation. Congratulations."

When he rang the bell, all the birds and insects within a 50-meter radius responded: "First of all, we didn't offend anyone..."

Holding the bell, the silently vibrating bell calmed down. Chen Xuan pondered for a moment. Gao Jingming had already won two prizes in a row. It would probably be no sooner for him to go to Beijing to take part in the Autumn Examination. He had promised Madam Gao and the others that he would accompany him on the trip.

"Alright, let's go see if we can meet our online friend. Xiao Gao has a chance of winning the top three prizes, so we should start preparing a gift for him. Then, the little maid will stay behind to look after the house. It's really hard for her to travel through mountains and rivers, so let the Gao family take care of her. Leave the Nine-tone Soul-Calming Bell to her for self-defense, so her safety is guaranteed..."

(End of this chapter)