Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

After repeatedly confirming, she didn't even have time to be overjoyed before shouting, "Mr. Tao! Mr. Tao, she seems to have woken up!"

Tao jumped up from his chair and rushed over.

Tito, however, did not join him. Instead, he walked to Vivian's side and glanced down at her painting—a man dressed in red, pulling at the front hoof of a lamb, holding a small knife in his other hand, about to kill it and offer it to the gods. Beside him, a ewe was butting the man's waist with her frail head.

The man in the painting has an expression full of anger and disbelief, as if he is questioning why this ewe dares to defy him.

Not far away, on a hillside, a knight on a red horse seems to be watching this scene.

"How is it?" Vivian asked with a smile. "Not bad, right?"

“Ha…haha…” Tito forced a laugh, “Truly worthy of being Theonado’s last disciple.”

"If this painting could be finished three months earlier, and then by various coincidences it could be hung in our lab so that I could see it as soon as I look up, then it would look even more like him."

Chapter 463: The Future is Brewing Here

"Um……"

He slept for what felt like an eternity, a truly surreal experience. If he had to describe it, the instant he woke up and saw the unfamiliar ceiling, Zhang Renfeng truly felt a sense of detachment from the world, like the one described in "The Peach Blossom Spring," where one was "unaware of the Han Dynasty, let alone the Wei and Jin Dynasties."

It took him a while to realize that he was in Tao's laboratory.

In this town, there isn't even a normal legal system structure like a mayor, sheriff, and judge; everything is decided by the Newman Hotel.

Even with these positions, he would only be Newman's yes-man. Although he didn't put everything out in the open like Hector, in practice, he was like the undisputed pope of this area.

After Zhang Renfeng completely extinguished the remaining "thoughts" at the inn, he returned to the laboratory around five or six in the morning. Everyone had been engaged in intense activity all night, their brains were practically shut down, and they fell asleep immediately. When he woke up again, looking at the sky outside the window, Zhang Renfeng couldn't tell if it was dawn or dusk; the light on the horizon was somewhat dim.

Not only him, but Ren, Yinshuang, and even Lang were all lying haphazardly on the bed, fast asleep.

Especially for the wolf, after several sonic booms, the Rama Technique was running at full speed and needed constant energy replenishment. Unsurprisingly, she ate a huge meal, almost emptying the laboratory's food reserves.

After finally filling her stomach, she lay down on the bed and fell fast asleep, and hasn't shown any sign of getting up since.

Seeing her sleeping in a carefree, sprawled-out position, Zhang Renfeng smiled subconsciously, got up, and gently covered her with his blanket.

Stepping out of the room, under the laboratory lights, a figure sat there, surrounded by broken metal and wires, as if separated from the rest of the world.

But just looking at that figure from behind, Zhang Renfeng didn't feel that he was lonely at all.

My master once said that in this life, there are 360 ​​professions, and if you master any of them to the extreme, you can attain enlightenment. It's unlikely that he can change professions in this lifetime. The only thing he can do is to keep running relentlessly down the path of martial arts.

And this young man, who is not yet thirty, has clearly found his own "path".

……

"You're awake?" Tao noticed the footsteps behind him, but didn't stop what he was doing. He simply asked in his usual calm tone, "What time is it?"

"Ask me?"—Zhang Renfeng had intended to say that, but quickly realized that Tao probably didn't even have time to look at the time, so he took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, and said, "5:13 PM... Ha, you haven't been working here all day again, have you?"

“It didn’t come to that. Tito forcibly carried me to bed and made me rest for eight hours. He threatened that if I didn’t rest, I would be banned from conducting any related research for the next month. I had no choice but to comply.”

"What about her?"

"Assistant Number One and Assistant Number Two are probably off preparing the ingredients we'll need tonight. Apparently, the town is in chaos, so they might have gone to other towns to buy ingredients. It'll take them even longer to go back and forth."

"Perfect, it allows the rest of the people to rest a little longer."

Looking at the pile of metal debris around him, Zhang Renfeng suddenly felt that it looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, it was clearly the remains of Icarus! Some of the pieces were severely deformed. He had been so focused on crushing the enemy that he felt a little guilty seeing these remains.

"So, you are now..."

"The machine has suffered severe damage, so replacing parts is no longer worthwhile. I'm trying to remove the important components inside, but... phew..." Tao put the disassembly tools on the table and let out a long sigh. "To be honest, things aren't going well. During the design phase, due to limited internal space, there wasn't much room to add a shock-absorbing layer. And after such a huge impact, even if we manage to remove it, it will probably be damaged."

"I'm sorry, I broke your big robot." Zhang Renfeng moved a stool over and sat down next to him.

“It’s alright. Getting it moving is already a pleasant surprise.” Tao’s tone was calm. “If… there were a way to generate a large amount of stable and reliable current in a short time by human means, without relying on natural lightning to drive it, the situation would be much better.”

……

Electric light.

electric wire.

A huge iron lump powered by lightning.

……

Everything seemed so incredible to Zhang Renfeng, as if it were another country, another world.

Deep down, he wasn't averse to new things, but the things in this room... were more than just new. He could vaguely sense that amidst this pile of clutter, humanity's "future" was quietly brewing.

"Speaking of which, we haven't officially met yet, have we?" Zhang Renfeng recalled the initial purpose of this trip, which, according to Igor, was to undertake a high-stakes gamble. This visionary strategist saw electricity as the ticket to the next era.

Having done so many ruthless and destructive jobs, this is the first time Zhang Renfeng has played the role of an angel investor.

Coincidentally, I heard there was some kind of exhibition going on in Dover. What was supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable trip—riding the train, feeling the breeze, and admiring the scenery of the vast grasslands—was planned. After arriving in Dover, I planned to find a nice hotel to stay in, visit the exhibition, and finally see Tao in person, experiencing the exhilarating feeling of spending a fortune.

Contrary to expectations, from the moment he got off the train until now, he has circled back to the destination. Zhang Renfeng himself can't help but laugh.

“My surname is Zhang, and my given name is Feng. Perhaps... you already know something about me from Tito.”

"Hmm." Tao finally put down what he was doing, turned around, and looked at him very seriously. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hongzhong."

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Zhang Renfeng asked, full of curiosity.

“From Titor’s description, I don’t think you are anything to be afraid of. You are one of the few strong people I have ever met who are willing to take action for the weak. If you weren’t standing in front of me, I would hardly imagine that someone like you could exist.”

"I think this is also the reason why most of the people who died at your hands never understood it."

……

Such a straightforward evaluation made Zhang Renfeng a little embarrassed.

He initially wanted to appear somewhat mysterious, but then he remembered that his junior sister was working for someone else. He knew her nature well; unless she was very much to his liking and he had something to offer that would move her, she would never remain subservient to someone for long.

However, the necessary formalities still need to be followed, as this is not a small amount of money.

“I hope you understand that I haven’t received much formal education, and the country I was born in… doesn’t teach these things.” Zhang Renfeng’s tone was somewhat helpless. “If possible, I hope you can explain to me what you are doing in the simplest language you can.”

“No problem, Mr. Red.” Tao immediately stood up. “Come with me.”

Chapter 464: Hey, the times are about to accelerate.

"First... is this."

The word "firstly" alone allowed Zhang Renfeng to glean a message—it seemed that Tao was able to show him more than one thing, or even more than one type of thing.

With his current knowledge, he couldn't judge whether this was good or bad, so he could only bite the bullet and watch as he "swished" off the white cloth covering a certain metal object.

Zhang Renfeng wanted to use a metaphor. The Icarus he had seen before was at least recognizable as humanoid. But for this completely different, purely metallic artifact, he couldn't find anything to compare it to. It lay quietly on the ground, gleaming with the cold light unique to metal, heavy and solid.

Like a metal heart.

Without blood or a body, it remained there quietly, motionless.

"Cylinder, piston, crankshaft, intake and exhaust ports—these are the most important structures. In one working cycle, the piston moves up and down twice to complete the processes of intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust. Its working principle is to continuously repeat this process, converting the energy of the fuel into power and continuously outputting it to the outside world."

Tao rummaged through the mountain of papers from top to bottom, quickly and accurately found one, pulled it out, and handed it to Zhang Renfeng.

Out of politeness, Lao Zhang reluctantly glanced at it and could only tell that it was a design drawing.

"The initial motivation for doing this was because I saw the work of Otto (Nicholas August Otto) and wanted to try to go a step further than he did. Perhaps it's a matter of fuel... I hope to refine a higher purity oil from petroleum to use as fuel."

"Oh~~" Zhang Renfeng didn't quite understand the workings of the machine, but he understood the part about fuel. "When you bombed the inn, was this the kind of thing you loaded onto the carriage?"

“That’s right.” Tao nodded. “Its original purpose was to serve as fuel for this machine, which can be understood as a substance like charcoal or firewood. However, after it is burned, it releases much more energy than the former.”

"So... this... can move, right?" Zhang Renfeng tapped the metal casing, making two clanging sounds.

"At present, such a machine alone cannot play any role. But if we regard it as the most important core, we may be able to build a vehicle that is completely different from the previous ones."

Tao turned around and pulled out two old-fashioned drafts from a large stack of manuscripts and drawings, handing them to Zhang Renfeng.

"A tricycle?" Zhang Renfeng raised an eyebrow.

“This is a sketch from 1478 by Leonardo da Vinci. He was describing what should be a vehicle with self-propelled capabilities.” Tao pointed to the second drawing. “Da Vinci’s design was realized in 1769 by a Frenchman named Nicolas Cunho using steam power.”

The sketch was indeed very rough, even making Zhang Renfeng wonder if it was drawn by Tao himself.

A small person is riding on a tricycle. Behind the tricycle is a chimney-like device that propels the tricycle by emitting steam.

"Of course, because it was steam-powered, the power was very small and the structure was very simple. This kind of vehicle did not become popular and quickly faded into history. I just hope that these two pictures can give you a general understanding of the application of this invention."

“Very…vivid…” Zhang Renfeng nodded, pondered for a moment, as if he had returned to his childhood school.

Before his parents decided to let him pursue martial arts, they had actually sent him to school for a while, but he couldn't concentrate at all, so they switched to another path. He only studied to the point where he could read and write, and that was it.

Compared to classical Chinese texts and the Four Books and Five Classics, Zhang Renfeng still found this big iron lump in front of him more interesting.

This is a physical object invented and manufactured by humans.

"It's like the heart, right? It pumps energy out, transmits it to the three wheels, and then controls them to move forward, backward, and turn."

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a three-wheeler,” Tao said in a deep voice. “The shape of the vehicle may change, becoming more robust, comfortable, and complex. But in any case, to drive this vehicle, you need to rely on this engine. Your analogy is very accurate, Mr. Red Center. It’s like the heart.”

"No matter how its shape changes, the heart is the most important organ. To put it more simply, this is a bomb. It is constantly on the verge of detonation and explosion. This process continuously provides energy, and I rely on this energy to drive a metal structure weighing more than 1 ton."

“My original plan was to apply for a patent first, and then find a suitable large company to sell the design to, but no one has shown any interest. As an ‘investment,’ the payback period for this technology is just too long.”

"Furthermore, there is no precedent in this field, and many links in the chain are still not fully established. If mass production is required, there needs to be assembly line factory operations and a fairly mature industrial system... Currently, the south generally lacks such production conditions."

“In this situation, investors are naturally very conservative about investing in this technology. Titu and I went to many places, but we couldn’t find anyone willing to invest in it. So the engine can only be shelved here.”

……

Zhang Renfeng stared at him for a long time, and it's no exaggeration to say that he was shocked.

This was something he had never encountered or understood before.

"Then...where's the horse?"

He suddenly asked a question that caught Tao off guard: "With this kind of vehicle, no one will ride horses anymore, right?"

“I don’t think so,” Tao said in a deep voice. “Nothing happens overnight. Even if this kind of car is invented tomorrow, it won’t immediately replace the function of horses. In some complex and uneven terrain, such as the wild and grasslands, they will still have their place.”

"However, in the long run, as towns expand, the wilderness will become less and less. Even if it's not the car I envisioned, more advanced vehicles will emerge sooner or later. At that time, the role of horses as a means of transportation will be further diminished, and this is irreversible."

Irreversible.

When Zhang Renfeng thought of the crimson Turkmen warhorse that had been with him for so long, those words became increasingly heavy.

“Long ago, our ignorant ancestors made fire by drilling holes in wood.”

"After they became more intelligent, they started using flint and steel."

"Until modern times, people started using matches... I believe that more advanced ignition tools will be invented in the future, and the advanced will replace the backward. This is an inevitable trend. It's just that the world developed quite slowly before, so it wasn't so obvious. It may have taken tens of thousands of years, or even longer, to go from fire by friction to flint, but it will never take that long to go from flint to matches."

"But after that, the times will start to accelerate. More things will come rushing in, making it hard to keep your eyes open."

Chapter 465: I am the King of the Near Seas!

The white sheet was covered again; it seemed decades too early for this metal heart to roar across the world. Since it had already spent so long in the cold laboratory, a little longer of restraint didn't seem so unacceptable.

“Let’s go, Mr. Red,” Tao said. “We’re going to the next place.”

"Huh?" Zhang Renfeng looked at the mountain of manuscripts and drawings, momentarily stunned. "Is there another one? Then... what is this machine...?"

"Didn't Tito mention to you what I do for a living?"

"Don't worry too much about this machine, Mr. Hongzhong. Consider it a gift from me."

Tao turned his upper body and looked at him calmly, his tone so nonchalant that it was as if what he had just shown was merely a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

For a fleeting moment, Zhang Renfeng suddenly found his gaze terrifying; he rarely used the word "terrifying" to describe someone. However, when the perceived worlds differed too much, he couldn't help but feel that he and the other person were two different species.

Newman's warning suddenly surfaced from the depths of his memory, like a goose feather floating in a stagnant pool—light and airy, yet impossible to ignore.

At least, for a very brief moment, Zhang Renfeng was moved.

He truly experienced how powerful the sense of oppression can be when a person possesses wisdom far ahead of their time.

"……it is good."

But soon, reason prevailed. He glanced at the engine, which had been covered by a white sheet and returned to being an inconspicuous background, and followed Tao's footsteps.

Leaving the laboratory, along a somewhat secluded mountain road, there is a lake.

The water level had risen sharply due to the torrential rain last night, making it murky and unclear, but Tao didn't care much about that. What he was holding was the ship model that he had been assembling until the accident. According to the original plan, this was the new invention he intended to exhibit at the exhibition to raise funds for himself.

Of course, after this incident, the exhibition and everything else were completely canceled.