Under One Person: The Taoist Priest Descends the Mountain

Cheng Mo's gaze involuntarily drifted to the side, where Xia He was resting her chin on her hand, her eyes vacant, clearly lost in thought.

Hmm, this girl is talented, has good self-control, and most importantly... is obedient. Hmm, the perfect candidate for a tool.

Xia He suddenly jolted awake, snapping back to reality. She looked around warily, finally fixing her gaze on Cheng Mo's face: "Little Mo, what mischief are you up to now?"

Cheng Mo: "..." When did this girl's senses become so sharp?

"Brother Cheng," Qiu Rang interjected promptly, pointing to several twisted sections of pipe on the ground, "how about we try to repair this transmission pipe?"

Cheng Mo immediately gave Qiu Rang a thumbs up in his heart: Brother Rang, you're a lifesaver!

He immediately nodded: "Okay, Lao Chou, you take charge, and Xia He and I will assist you."

Xia He pouted: "You're only good enough to be a porter."

The three of them surrounded the pile of wreckage and began to rummage around it.

Qiu Rang was responsible for guiding the core Qi pathways and processing materials, Cheng Mo offered suggestions for structural adjustments based on his understanding and was responsible for the physical labor, while Xia He would output Qi according to the rhythm agreed upon by the two of them when needed, to conduct tests and make fine adjustments.

After working for half a day, a relatively complete Qi transmission channel was successfully connected.

Qiu Rang tried it himself and found that the flow of Qi was smooth. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "Let's stop here for today. It's getting late. Let's come back earlier tomorrow morning to continue."

The three of them went into the house and checked on Ma Xianhong, who was fast asleep.

Qiu Rang stayed behind to care for Cheng Mo and Xia He, while Cheng Mo and Xia He got up and left.

Back in the cabin, after practicing the longevity exercises as usual, the two went to sleep peacefully.

The next morning, as soon as the commotion from the training subsided, Ding Zihuan came running over excitedly, carrying a wild boar on his back: "Brother Cheng! Let's have some serious training this morning!"

Cheng Mo stared at the wild boar and remained silent for two seconds.

He really wanted to say that wild boar meat has coarse fibers and its nutritional value may not be as good as that of an old hen, making it especially unsuitable for nourishing the weak Ma Xianhong...

But then he thought that the chickens Ding Zihuan had bought were probably almost gone, so he nodded and took over the task.

After a flurry of activity, the three of them headed to the Xiu Shen Tang with a hearty and meaty breakfast.

Qiu Rang was in the inner room, carefully wiping Ma Xianhong's face with a damp towel.

Seeing this scene, Cheng Mo suddenly thought of the hardworking and devoted puppets in the original work.

Has Old Ma not built this thing yet?

Perhaps... we could suggest that we create some puppets to take care of his daily needs, so that he won't have to be accompanied by someone when he becomes immobile.

After finishing his porridge, Ma Xianhong felt a bit better and quietly gave Qiu Rang a wink.

Qiu Rang understood and said to Ding Ziheng, "Ziheng, you take care of the sect leader. Brother Cheng and I are going out to take care of some things."

Ding Ziheng patted his chest: "No problem, you guys go ahead with your work."

The three of them returned to the body of the body-refining furnace.

Yesterday's successful repair of a section of the Qi transport pipeline gave Cheng Mo a new idea.

He said to Qiu Rang, "Old Qiu, I'm thinking, could we make the Body Refining Furnace a modular design?"

"Modular?" Qiu Rang was taken aback.

"Yes," Cheng Mo gestured, "each functional part is made into an independent, detachable, and replaceable standardized component. This way, if any part breaks down, we can only repair that part; if we need to upgrade, we only need to replace the corresponding module, instead of having to deal with the whole system as before."

Qiu Rang's eyes lit up immediately: "That's a great idea! Actually, the cult leader had vaguely mentioned a similar direction before, but there were too many miscellaneous things to do in the village, and we hadn't had time to plan it in detail. If we can really develop this modular design, the cult leader will definitely be happy!"

Xia He listened from the side, completely bewildered. What components, modules, standardized interfaces... she couldn't understand any of it.

She silently complained to herself: Little Taoist priest, can't you speak in a way that people can understand?

Cheng Mo, of course, couldn't hear her thoughts and was already enthusiastically discussing the matter with her.

The two talked more and more in-depth, and soon finalized six basic standardized components:

First, there is the energy module, which prepares for the future realization of automatically guiding the Qi of heaven and earth;

Secondly, there is the Qi guiding module, which has adjustable precision Qi pathways etched inside to replace existing pipes;

Thirdly, a buffer module is planned to include a mechanical spring array. Once the study of Qi is more thorough, a Qi damping layer can also be added.

Fourth is the control module, which is the core of the current control panel;

Fifth, the interface module features a unified mortise and tenon structure and Qi conduction contacts to ensure stable connections and unobstructed Qi flow between components.

Sixth, the protective module adds external armor plates to improve overall sturdiness.

During the discussion, Qiu Rang mentioned that the Divine Machine Hundred Refinements has a special rune inscription technology for storing information and preset instructions. Once the basic structure is in place, it can be applied to the Body Refining Furnace to achieve a certain degree of automated operation.

Cheng Mo, however, had a sudden inspiration: "Let's put the fully automatic furnace aside for now. Could your rune inscription be used for something else? For example... to create automated puppets that can execute fixed commands?"

Qiu Rang was stunned for a moment, then slapped his forehead: "That's right! How could I not have thought of that! Puppets are much simpler than furnaces!"

However, the matter of the puppets must be put on hold for now; we can only begin refining weapons once the furnace is repaired.

The two began tinkering with standardized components, starting with the simplest interface module and Qi-guiding module.

With yesterday's experience, the two worked together better and better, and their movements became more and more synchronized.

Xia He watched from the side. Although she still had a vague understanding of the mechanical structures, she gradually began to understand some of the control processes of Qi from the two people's operations of adjusting the input and output of Qi and testing whether the pipeline was unobstructed.

She thought to herself: The young Taoist priest can't use Qi, but I can. I need to memorize these key points of regulation so that after we leave Biyou Village, the young Taoist priest and I can work together to refine weapons.

When Ding Zihuan arrived in the evening with a lunchbox, the two had already completed the initial stages of the three modules: interface, buffer, and Qi guiding.

Qiu Rang dusted off his hands, quite satisfied: "Let's eat first, and then we'll try connecting these modules to the core furnace."

He was somewhat surprised; the progress was much faster than expected.

After these two days of conversation, he discovered that Cheng Mo's comprehension and logical thinking in weapon forging theory were even stronger than his own, which was truly astonishing.

Cheng Mo nodded: "Okay, let's see if the main body of the core furnace is still usable."

Qiu Rang: "Let's just try making a small iron bead, nothing complicated."

"Ahem!" Ding Ziheng suddenly coughed as the three of them approached the door of the inner room.

The two immediately fell silent.

Xia He yawned widely, feeling that she had overused her brain today and needed to catch up on sleep tonight.

Ma Xianhong is now able to sit up in bed, but he still gets tired after standing for a long time.

He glanced at the people who had entered the room, somewhat puzzled: "Where's Grandpa Bi? I haven't seen him."

These days, Bi Yuan at least comes to have dinner with him in the evenings.

Ding Zihuan scratched his head: "Grandpa Bi said he was going to the market in town early this morning, but something must have delayed him."

Ma Xianhong simply said "Oh" and didn't ask any more questions. It's normal for things like going to the market to be delayed by a day or two.

Cheng Mo's heart skipped a beat: Bi Yuan was a member of the Yaoxing Society. Could his trip be to contact Qu Tong? Was it about the next step in modifying the cultivation furnace, or something else?

However, this thought only flashed through his mind. Once Old Ma's body recovered and the cultivation furnace was repaired, it would be time for him to leave.

The entanglement between Ma Xianhong and Qu Tong is too deep. Unless Lao Ma really faces a life-threatening crisis, he doesn't want to get too involved.