Under One Person, Engage in Black Technology

Chapter 167 Body Cultivation Furnace

The conversation between Liu Ke and Village Chief Ma was still very brief, and naturally, there was no result.

After all, Liu's purpose in coming to Biyou Village was to recruit Ma Xianhong, not to be recruited by him.

If you get carried away with the conversation and think the place is nice, and end up getting yourself hooked up with the other person, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse?
Although there are old sayings like "the accomplished come first," "among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me," and "choose the good and follow it"...

But in reality, humans are inherently influenced by certain factors. If someone initially aligns themselves with Old Ma as a villager, and later attempts to recruit others become more difficult…

Although Liu Ke didn't know if Village Chief Ma would feel awkward about it, he certainly found it very 'strange'.

Therefore, joining is impossible.

However, since Old Ma hadn't treated him like an outsider yesterday, and had spoken frankly with him, explaining his purpose in wanting to regain his memories, Liu Ke couldn't just remain silent.

Therefore, as a sign of acknowledging the honest Lao Ma, Liu Ke, after saying he "needs to observe for a while longer," still said to Village Chief Ma, "Speaking of which, whether I register my household in this 'rural area' or not doesn't really matter to the whole of Biyou Village, does it?"

"In my opinion, what is needed, whether for you or for the entire Biyou Village, is not 'my' participation, but the improvement of the Body Cultivation Furnace."

At this point, Liu Ke paused, stood up, and said, "In that case, I'll go check on your furnace tomorrow and see if I can come up with an 'idea' for you."

"However, I suggest you don't get your hopes up too high. Our methods are a bit different, and I might not be able to figure it out either."

Then, as if remembering something, Liu Ke scratched his head and said:
"Also, while your stove is one method, but..."

"If you are looking to restore your memory, I have a 'folk remedy' that may not work, but you can try it after some time."

"If your memory is truly lost due to illness, my method might be able to play a somewhat unorthodox role."

Upon hearing this, Ma Xianhong's expression shifted slightly, and he asked, "Alright, my goal is to cure the illness; the Body Cultivation Furnace is merely a means to an end."

"I'm willing to try your method, Brother Liu. But, may I ask, what's your..."

Liu Ke raised an eyebrow and immediately knew what Old Ma wanted to ask. He didn't try to hide anything and said directly, "Don't worry, it's not some strange or mysterious technique."

"Well, to put it simply, it's like first extracting the 'memories' from your brain as if they were copied data."

"Then, it's shown to you like a movie, and the whole process is mechanized."

"The former naturally uses brain-computer interface technology, while the latter's playback method is called [Mewtwo]."

The next day, Liu Ke washed up and ate breakfast before going to find Ma Xianhong.

The village chief of Biyou Village was not hard to find. At least according to Liu Ke's observations over the past two days, as well as the 'evidence' from the villagers of Biyou Village, Ma Xianhong seemed to have inexhaustible energy.

He usually sits cross-legged at the 'construction site' at night, directing the women to work and issuing instructions with his qi, while also silently carrying out 'design work' in his mind.

If he comes up with a particularly interesting or insightful idea, he will take out a piece of refined paper and pen from his pocket and write down his thoughts on it.

This act of a "scab" working two jobs was ironically transformed into a "model of ambition" worthy of praise because he was a "village leader."

Of course, it's not comprehensive enough to only talk about the work he did 'at night', because he also had other work during the day.

As the sun rises higher in the sky, Ma Xianhong, who has maintained a 'Zhang Chaoyang'-level quality sleep for three or four hours, will get up from the construction site, hand over the many complex control tasks to 'Qiu Rang' and others, and then head to the 'village center'.

There, he would coordinate the various basic administrative affairs of the village, working like an ordinary 'village chief'.

The tasks of supplying the village with necessary external resources, monitoring the production capacity and demand of tool workshops, livestock farms, and slaughterhouses, supplementing housing construction, and registering new residents are currently only something that Village Chief Ma can do, with at most one or two ordinary people assisting him.

Of course, it's not that others can't do this kind of thing. The main problem is that the main body of Biyou Village is people of different kinds, and their daily lives are mostly focused on 'cultivation', so they rarely have time to care about worldly affairs.

At least in Biyou Village, where the "village and town operation" mechanism is not yet perfect and there is a lack of "public officials", public service work is so "wild" that it can be described as "whipping the fast ox", and "with great power comes great responsibility".

Therefore, in a sense, the trip to "observe the furnace" proposed by Liu Ke actually allowed Lao Ma to rest for an extra half day today.

In fact, Liu Ke could understand why Lao Ma was so enthusiastic about 'work'. After all, a person without a past can only focus on the present and the future.

Biyou Village and the [Cultivation Furnace] represent Village Chief Ma's [present] and [future].

------

When Liu Ke went to Ma Xianhong's 'laboratory,' which was the courtyard where the furnace was located, he saw the [Cultivation Furnace] in operation, having just finished 'correcting' a middle-aged man.

After the uncle shakily jumped down from the stove, the first thing he did was to sit down, then take off his shoes and socks, and carefully examine the soles of his feet.

After a while, as if waking from a dream, he was covered in sweat and bowed to Ma Xianhong with a joyful expression, as if he had endless words of gratitude and praise.

His actions naturally revealed his problem; this middle-aged man likely had some kind of foot problem, and judging from the way he acted, it was probably a life-threatening condition.

Even though Liu Ke wasn't a proper supernatural being, after careful observation, he could tell that the uncle's feet were like a dammed lake that had finally been released, with innate Qi surging in and frantically repairing itself.

Upon seeing Liu Ke arrive, Village Chief Ma hastily saw the uncle off and handed him over to his family for care. Then he said to Liu Ke, "Brother Liu, I really didn't expect you to come so early today."

Liu Ke nodded and then said, "If you go to bed early, you should get up early too. You should rise with the rooster's crow."

"By the way, what's wrong with this uncle? Can this stove cure it completely?"

After hearing this, Village Chief Ma shook his head and said, "Not necessarily. He has a disease called melanoma in modern medicine. To put it simply, the mole on the sole of his foot has become cancerous due to long-term friction."

"Although I said before that this Body Refinement Furnace is not very effective in treating cancer, this kind of cancer caused by a mole is the type that the Body Refinement Furnace can handle the best, and it might be able to cure it."

"But... it's only a possibility."

"The Body Refinement Furnace can currently only restore the worsening mole on the sole of his foot to normal and barely turn it into ordinary skin." "However, because the furnace's current power is insufficient, like other cancers, even if the 'mole' is 'removed' by the furnace, it will easily recur."

"Compared to going to a hospital in a big city for surgery, using a furnace can only help him stay in this 'near-death' state. The only advantage is... that it will not spread and deteriorate, and he doesn't have to gamble on being a 'survivor'."

After hearing this, Liu Ke let out a deep breath and said, "That's good too, compared to relying on sheer luck to gamble on 'survival rate'."

Then he turned his head and looked at the large furnace, which had a strange function but a haphazard design, and could even be described as ugly.

After watching him 'admire' for a while, Village Chief Ma asked, "My furnace is not yet complete. I can only ask someone with sufficient talent and innate ability to be the furnace master."

"How about it? Want to give it a try?"

"Although you are an acquired superhuman, the level you demonstrated at the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony is more than enough."

After saying that, he called out, "Little Dragon, come out. Thank you for your hard work."

Upon hearing his words, a young man with purple hair and dark skin emerged from the center of the furnace. He glanced at the two 'inventors,' smiled and greeted them before quickly leaving.

Liu Ke looked at this scene without saying anything, but said, "I don't need to try. I just took a quick look and I roughly know what's going on."

After saying that, he walked over to the cultivation furnace, raised his hand and said, "Can I touch it? This thing looks pretty sturdy, it shouldn't be as fragile as a glass toy, right?"

Upon seeing Village Chief Ma nod, Liu Ke placed his outstretched hand on the stove and began the 'detection' using the 'projection' scanning capability.

To be honest, this was the first time Liu Ke had ever seen a proper 'magical artifact' other than the Devouring Pouch. Of course, given the exquisite structure of this Body Cultivation Furnace, it naturally also utilized divine power.

With his current learning ability, although it's somewhat 'out of his expertise', he can still understand the basics of how this furnace works.

As he watched, learned, and analyzed, Liu Ke frowned after about twenty breaths, sensing that there was a 'problem'.

He discovered a very strange and discordant 'structural component' in the center of the furnace.

And something that even an 'outsider' like Liu Ke could detect as amiss would naturally be particularly noticeable in the structure of the Body Cultivation Furnace. In other words...

Old Ma naturally knew about that 'structure', and in fact, that was how he designed it from the beginning.

As for what this thing actually is...
If Liu Ke were to describe it, he would definitely call it "a well-structured yet utterly disgusting mass of flesh and blood".

Brain, heart, liver, spleen, stomach, kidneys—it seems that all the conventional organs of a living organism can be found on that mass of flesh and blood, yet only a portion of them can be found. 'It' is like a stitched-together assembly of those parts, operating and breathing qi inside the furnace.

If we were to use a metaphor, the flesh and blood, though lacking mouthparts, is like a fish, hidden within a mass of qi, pulsating and breathing within that qi.

In general, its shape is definitely not normal.

After sensing the furnace, Liu Ke asked in a very strange tone, "Village Chief Ma, could you have designed and built this furnace all by yourself?"

"How come there's... a piece of 'meat' inside?"

Hearing his slightly surprised question, Ma Xianhong did not show any feeling of his secret being discovered. Instead, he became excited and said, "As expected of you, you were able to find out with just a little handling. Your special ability can analyze the structure of magical artifacts?"

After saying that, he turned to Liu Ke and said, "That was something my sister provided for me."

"As you can see, that is part of the Body Refinement Furnace."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ke frowned and asked, "Sister? Didn't you say you had already lost..."

As he spoke, Liu Ke raised his hand and pointed to his head.

Ma Xianhong didn't take it to heart after hearing this, but explained, "I was able to grow up not by eating food from many families."

"Instead, he was raised by someone."

After hearing this, Liu Ke nodded, understanding what Lao Ma meant, and continued, "That thing inside is probably the key to the operation of this cultivation furnace, although it's a bit disgusting."

"This shows that your sister is no ordinary person either."

"And if I'm not mistaken, your furnace has partially inherited the effects of your Divine Refinement Technique."

"The flesh and blood inside is like a template that can be temporarily modified and suppressed, but can also be refined and restored on its own."

"The refining properties of the furnace accumulated on that unknown mass of flesh and blood, and then, through some mysterious method, the transformation and enhancement of the flesh and blood were transferred to the recipient of the furnace."

After saying that, Liu Ke narrowed his eyes again, his expression unreadable, and said, "Then, in that case..."

"If your core cannot be changed, increase the furnace's [imprint], [stimulate] the furnace recipient's power, or strengthen the effect of that mass of flesh [replicating] the furnace wielder."

"This is the most intuitive method of reinforcement."

"But if we simply modify the furnace in this direction, I feel..."

"This furnace will indeed improve the effectiveness of treating difficult and complicated diseases, but it won't make much difference in restoring your memory."

At this point, Liu Ke paused again, and after Lao Ma's look indicating that he was 'following my train of thought,' he continued:
"Whether your memory loss is caused by organic lesions, by extraordinary means, or by congenital factors, the key is that it affects the brain."

"As for the 'imprinting' and 'reprinting' of the Body Refinement Furnace, at most it can only help you 'develop' your brain, find your memories, and eliminate the methods of the supernatural. It shouldn't be able to do those things."

"It's like trying to use a 'printer' to fix a 'lost' hard drive and retrieve the 'files'—how is that even possible?"

(End of this chapter)