Chapter 3149 — The Pill Cauldron

It is a matter of subtle adjustments in perception, and things are entirely different when one actually refines pills with this first-grade automatic cauldron. A pill refiner may believe his pill fire has reached a certain temperature, yet what the cauldron's liquid crystal display actually shows is slightly higher or slightly lower—and the coefficient of that deviation differs for every kind of pill being refined!

One could say that refiners work entirely by feel. Asking them to record the temperature, flame intensity, and timing of their own refining is simply impossible; if anyone else tried to refine according to those records, they would likely fail, because each person's perception is different!

Just as some people find salty dishes delicious while others prefer sweet ones—it is hard to please all tastes—the same principle applies to pill refining! The saying "the master leads the way, but cultivation depends on the individual" could not be more apt for describing pill refiners.

Thus, Patriarch Xuanchen simply shook his head and said, "That is impossible. Pill refining is something that can be sensed but not put into words. If you truly asked me to describe the refining time and flame intensity for each pill, I could not do it! Different refiners may use different times and temperatures when refining the same pill—this involves the question of personal habit. But this first-grade automatic cauldron not only calibrates itself to each refiner's individual attributes the first time it is used, it can also display on its screen at any moment the true temperature of the pill fire the refiner is currently condensing."

Dr. Benjamin II had only asked in passing; he understood nothing of pill refining, and hearing how complex and troublesome Patriarch Xuanchen made it sound, he abandoned the idea of rebuilding one—after all, rebuilding seemed even more difficult!

It was only that Dr. Benjamin II felt somewhat puzzled: who on earth had invented this thing? The inventor's mind was in no way inferior to his own, the genius doctor's! Yet even so, Dr. Benjamin II still felt that if this inventor were to face his master, it would be mere child's play—because he himself had not even learned a tenth of his master's skill!

Still, Dr. Benjamin II knew that his master was currently engaged in a great undertaking and had no time at all to bother with such trifles.

"Then I'll open it up and take a look." Dr. Benjamin II examined the exterior of the first-grade automatic cauldron and said, "The only way is to cut it open. This cauldron uses the most advanced seamless welding technology available—there are no screw mounts to be found."

"Very well, Little One, cut this cauldron open," Patriarch Xuanchen ordered Little One, who stood nearby.

Dr. Benjamin II had intended to use a laser cutter, but to his surprise, Little One produced a long sword—a heaven-tier divine weapon—and with a single stroke around the cauldron, it split open with a resounding crack!

Looking at the perfectly cut-open cauldron, its internal structure not damaged in the slightest, Dr. Benjamin II's mouth twitched twice. These cultivators really are madmen, he thought—though fortunately, if my modified cyborg succeeds, it will be no weaker than these people!

However, after prying the cauldron open, Dr. Benjamin II paid no attention to the structural components; instead he continued dismantling it and removed the microcontroller chip from the final circuit. To his considerable disappointment, he found that the pin layout and shape of this microcontroller were completely nonstandard, wholly incompatible with international component standards. It must be a custom-made, non-universal microcontroller!

Though Dr. Benjamin II had long anticipated this possibility, seeing it with his own eyes still left him somewhat disappointed. Previously he had clung to a faint hope—after all, whoever could invent such a thing might not necessarily be skilled in electronic circuits and encryption!

Those are two separate fields, and he did not believe anyone could master both at once. But now it seemed this person was extraordinarily capable: the microcontroller was custom-made, with no parameter data whatsoever, and cracking it would be even more difficult!

"Here's what we'll do—give me a few days. I'll go back to my laboratory and study this microcontroller, try to crack it. If I get results, I'll notify you; if I don't, I'll tell you that as well. But the path of reverse-engineering through cracking—that road is a dead end." Dr. Benjamin II frowned and said, "I must also warn you: the odds of cracking and counterfeiting are rather slim, because this microcontroller is a nonstandard, custom-made special unit—extremely hard to crack!"

"Is that so..." Hearing Dr. Benjamin II's words, Patriarch Xuanchen felt somewhat unwilling to accept it, yet there was nothing he could do. After all, Dr. Benjamin II had made it quite clear: this was not something to be forced—it was not simply a matter of wanting to counterfeit it and being able to. It contained a very high degree of technical sophistication!

Even the scientific expert from the Center, renowned for its high technology, said as much; Patriarch Xuanchen therefore abandoned the idea of seeking anyone else, for although he did not study such things himself, he had some understanding of the Center's technological level.

It was only that Patriarch Xuanchen felt rather puzzled: Wei Zhao was clearly a cultivator—how did someone like that have such a scientific expert at his side? Even Boss Bai would surely be powerless in such a matter, wouldn't he?

Dr. Benjamin II left—arriving in haste and departing in haste. However, on the very night after Dr. Benjamin II departed, Patriarch Xuanchen and Kang Jingming received a phone call from him!

"No good—give it up." A single sentence from Dr. Benjamin II sent the anticipation in Patriarch Xuanchen's and Kang Jingming's hearts plunging instantly to rock bottom.

"Dr. Benjamin II, what exactly is going on? Can it not be cracked?" Patriarch Xuanchen asked, somewhat unwilling to let it go.

"To be frank with you, after returning I conducted a detailed study of this microcontroller based on the peripheral components and circuitry on the board. This microcontroller is not a conventional one; rather, it is a conceptual microcontroller proposed in hacker circles more than a decade ago. By the technical standards of that time, the concept was merely a conjecture, impossible to realize for the time being. I never expected that years later I would see a finished product. Yet even knowing some of the original data, there is simply no way to crack it!" Dr. Benjamin II declared with absolute certainty.

"Oh? Then could you find the person who first proposed the concept for this microcontroller? Perhaps he might have a way to crack it? This thing, even if he did not manufacture it, must be connected to him somehow, no?" Patriarch Xuanchen asked tentatively after hearing this.