21 Inventions
Two people stood in a room filled with various obscure devices and their components. A tired middle-aged man and young boy. Vermand, despite his own fatigue, looked at Connor in surprise.
-What? Conduits? Firstly, what are they, and secondly, how will you produce them?
A couple of minutes ago, Connor burst into Vermand's room and began to actively tell the poor man, still in shock after experiencing the boy's cultivation level, about his Qi wire idea.
-They are a way to turn arrays from useless toys for the rich into a must for everyone! Master, imagine the array in every house, how it gives light at night, how it allows you to heat the water, how it allows you to silence out the noise from the street! It will be a revolution!
The old array master, although he was still a little out of his mind, was beginning to understand the enormity of the plan.
-Okay, let's assume you're right, but the main question remains: how will you bring this to life?
Connor, who noticed that he was finally heard, was visibly inspired and continued to talk with burning eyes.
-It's going to be a massive system! We use the top of our tower to collect a massive amount of Qi energy and use the upper floors to store it, creating batteries....
-What? Batteries? What is this?
Connor was overly enthusiastic about the future prospects and therefore forgot that the batteries, at least in this world, at the moment, exist only in his imagination.
-The thing that we will use to store Qi, it doesn't matter, I'll tell you later, so .....
Unfortunately, this amount of information was too much even for Vermand.
- Stop! Stop! Stop! First, how will you collect energy? I doubt that at least someone will agree to just sit and cultivate on the top of the tower without benefit, and on top of that, we have nothing to pay them at all! Secondly, how is it related to the wires? Thirdly, how are you going to build all this?!
Realizing that one should not reveal too many of his ideas to an unprepared mind, the boy calmed down and decided to explain everything gradually.
-We will build a large array at the top of the tower, which will collect Qi, using conduits to distribute this energy to the buildings in the city, thus allowing the arrays to work without the participation of cultivators.
Vermand, having finally received a clear explanation, fell into thought
"Sounds good on paper, but how are you going to create these conduits and this huge array?"
Connor, restoring some of the fire in his eyes, continued to speak.
- I already have an almost finished idea for conduits. I just need materials to test it. And with that colossal array, I call it a "generator", I will need help, I also have a few ideas, but I will need your experience and ideas.
Vermand, who for the first time in a long time felt that his work was appreciated, cheered up a little and was delighted.
- Okay, what's your idea with the conduits?
After that, the boy began to tell the story of his new discovery. Let's get back to the moment after he woke up ...
Connor tried to sense everything nearby with his new ability, the bed, the chair, the table, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the door, the mirror, and even the air itself. Having enough "seeing" the environment, he remembered his original motivation.
"That's right. I wanted to know how Qi moves through my meridians."
With that thought in mind, he sat down on the bed and focused again on his own body. He focused his attention on the meridians and took in as deep a breath as possible. Qi rushed uncontrollably deep into his meridian as if traveling unhindered along pre-laid paths.
"Why are you moving? What moves you? Think, think. If there is movement, then there is a force. Where does it come from? Think, think."
The young scholar used all his mental strength to concentrate on the flow of Qi, but even with his efforts, the riddle did not want to be solved. Frustrated, he decided to spray his attention on his entire body. Perhaps this power was taken from somewhere outside his meridian.
"Maybe it's the heart? No, the meridians and the circulatory system don't intersect at all, but what then? Muscles? From my experience in Snojfell, I remember that energy can move even when the entire musculoskeletal system of a person is powerless, so this is not it, either. But then what?
After spending another hour in this restless meditative state, Connor still came up with no answer.
"Well, it can't move on its own. It's impossible! Since there is movement, there must be a force due to which this movement occurs! Something cannot be under pressure without a source of pressure! Stop, pressure?"
The idea came instantly. Perhaps the source of strength is not the place but the environment itself? Do the meridians themselves create the conditions for constant movement? As if fearing to lose this thought, Connor quickly began to peer into the meridians themselves, not into what is inside them, not into what is outside, but into the very walls of the channels through which Qi continuously flows.
"What's so special about you that you create constant pressure? What's special about... Wait, what?"
After the young scientist peered deeply into his meridians, he saw an extremely extraordinary picture. The meridians were thoroughly saturated with Qi. Each cell contained a lot of highly concentrated energy, which, after a minimum of thought, seemed quite obvious because if, according to Alric, regular flow of Qi can turn ordinary objects into spiritual ones, then the meridians must be saturated with energy to the limit, but here's the problem .... Based on Connor's knowledge, such an extreme concentration of Qi should attract violet energy, not repel it. What is happening in the meridians begins to seem to the boy somehow alien, unnatural, and unknown. This something kindled in him the briefly extinguished interest of a scientist, an interest in knowledge, an interest in discovering the unknown.
"How... Why... Why..."
He plunged into deep thought, but not for long. A new idea quickly dawned on him.
"Perhaps that's because of the occupied space, Qi tends to shrink only in unlimited space, but after a certain limit of compression, on the contrary, it tends to break free."
The young scientist quickly formed the experiment plan in his head and proceeded to execute it. He created a tiny sphere of Qi, so small that all the energy spent on it was replenished with the next breath.
"And now I'll look into how you work, little purple ball..."
The tiny sphere suddenly began to shrink, becoming barely noticeable. It became so small that even with Connor's new ability, he had to concentrate not to lose sight of it. When it shrank to a size that would be difficult to see without a modern microscope, Connor felt that he had reached a specific limit, as if now the sphere began to resist compression.
"Wait, really?...."
Concentrating on it with all his mental powers, he began to observe the reaction of the sphere to external stimuli.
"Let's check if it's true."
Connor blew lightly on his sphere, as if afraid to scatter it, and was shocked to find that the absolutely microscopic amount of energy that flew towards the sphere due to the exhalation of the young scientist began to go around the sphere! And with all this, the sphere itself seemed to want to expand and explode at that very moment. After a successful but morally exhausting experiment, along with a long and strenuous meditation, the boy was tired. Because of that, he had neither the strength nor the desire to restrain this sphere. He let go of control and let the sphere disappear into the atmosphere without a trace, but to his surprise, it didn't just disappear.
PSHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The sphere literally exploded and created a strong current of air. Of course, strong only by the standards of an ordinary person, it was difficult to impress Connor after that snowstorm and hurricane, but the mirror, which hung quietly on something like a carnation, began to wobble a lot, the linen on the bed shifted noticeably, and the chair near the table moved quite noticeably. But the young scientist was more surprised not by this but by the fact that such a small sphere caused such a strong flow of air, and what would happen if this sphere became a little larger? What if this airflow is directed in a particular direction? The young scientist had the feeling that he had discovered a way to recreate pneumatic technology from his home world.
But, quickly coming to his senses from the thoughts that suddenly filled his brain, he realized that his main goal had been achieved.
"Apparently, the question is really about the amount of Qi per unit of space, but my meridians do not explode, which means that, in fact, when Qi turns objects from ordinary to spiritual, most likely just enough energy is accumulated in this object to fill it with purple energy all the space available inside it, due to which Qi still repels everything from the environment, but at the same time remains stable. It is worth doing a couple more experiments to clarify the details, but I think the main hypothesis is complete... This means that if we create a tube, the walls of which will be saturated with Qi, the energy will flow through it without problems and with minimal losses, and this, in essence, is the principle of the conduit or a wire."
Finally, the solution has been found...
Vermand stood and listened to this story with a very thoughtful look and finally spoke after a long time of thinking.
"So you're saying that if we collect enough spiritual material, we can distribute Qi like we do with the water, just through the channels?"
Connor, visibly relieved that his idea was finally understood, replied
-Exactly! Moreover, if we can shrink these channels to the size of a meridian and saturate it to that level, the energy will flow so fast and far that we can supply Qi even to Aros in a matter of minutes or even seconds!
Vermand, who picked up the boy's enthusiasm, suddenly furrowed his brows and asked.
- This is all, of course, nice, but where are you planning to get so much Qi?
The young scientist replied with quite a strange expression
-Well, from the same source, I got Qi for my breakthrough, but this exact step will require your assistance, Master.
-What's your idea?
Connor collected his thoughts for a bit, then began his lengthy and complex explanation.
-Our goal is to create a huge array consisting of 2 layers, inner and outer. The inner layer should hold the huge Qi ball in a compressed state. This huge amount of energy will attract Qi to itself, which is constantly raging in the sky.
Vermand nodded thoughtfully.
-Okay, what will the outer layer be responsible for?
-It will essentially be a huge acceptor. Its task will be to collect all the attracted energy and then redirect it along the conduits to the storage. It will also be possible that it will have to give some of the collected Qi to the inner layer in order to maintain the contraction, although I think this is unlikely because the energy at high concentration begins to be attracted by itself.
The old array master quietly pondered for a long time over what he had heard. After a couple of minutes, he finally said
"Do you understand how much it will cost the entire clan if we decide to build it?"
Connor expected such an answer, so he immediately answered
I understand, and that's why I need your help. I want to make calculations and evaluate future workload, and then go with this to Alrik. I need your experience in creating arrays and your ideas for trading with the clan, Master.
- And what will you do if you are not given permission? What if the calculations fail? Do you even realize what responsibility you take on?
- If they don't give permission, I'll think of something else and do it myself, it will be more difficult, but I can handle it. If the calculations fail, we will carry out another. If those also fail, then another, and so on, until we finally come to a working version. I know what I'm signing up for, and I can imagine what the consequences could be, but that's the way of innovation, isn't it?
The young scholar looked directly into his teacher's eyes as he spoke, and the latter never looked away either.
- Heh, kid, you're not a timid one. You know what? To hell with it! My old blood boils when I hear such ideas! If you can, no, if we can do it, then it really will be a revolution! An array in every house, right? Let's turn this idealistic fantasy into reality!
The boy grinned
- Yes, Master.
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