"Every time I think the teacher already places enough importance on you, you surprise me again," Luo Chuan sighed.
"Senior, actually..." Li Ming began, intending to explain to prevent Luo Chuan from taking a darker view.
"Don’t worry, I understand," Luo Chuan patted his shoulder, "Just don’t let the teacher down."
The arrival of Sain and Youke was merely a minor incident and did not disturb Li Ming’s focus; developing gene seeds remained his priority.
During this time, Ding Hui visited occasionally, but there were no major tasks, mostly minor ones.
Thus, five days passed in a flash.
That day, Zhang Huaiyuan came again, this time with more metal boxes than before.
"Fourteen million in Flame Blue Alloy, along with a few other items you requested, are all here," Zhang Huaiyuan said, sweating profusely.
Fourteen million? Li Ruoning was stunned.
"You previously transferred eight million to me, and here are the invoices for the remaining six hundred thousand plus," Zhang Huaiyuan tapped the smart terminal.
Hmm? Li Ming gave him eight million, where did he get so much money? Li Ruoning was puzzled but also relieved.
If Li Ming really bought fourteen million worth of alloy, other departments would probably explode.
"Li Ruoning, take him to finance," Li Ming ordered, and Li Ruoning led Zhang Huaiyuan away, knowing the way well.
"Your Highness, should all the items be placed in the workshop? Some of them might not fit," the lead worker came over to ask.
"Put the excess in my room; we should be able to squeeze them in."
The workers bustled about, carrying loads, with passing lab members stopping to stare in astonishment, whispering among themselves.
This time it was a real eye-opener, fourteen million worth of metal materials, and he really bought them.
In previous instances, Zhang Huaiyuan had delivered them in batches, but the shock was far less than this time.
And when they found out that eight million of that fourteen million was paid out of Li Ming’s own pocket, their astonishment intensified.
Everyone knew Li Ming came from a small planet; how did he manage to get so much money?
Could it be that Professor Wu gave it to him in private? Could this guy really be his illegitimate son?
For a moment, people exchanged glances, recalling the many rumors about the lab.
Zhang Huaiyuan quickly completed the expenses and hurried back to Li Ming’s side, watching the workers and talking about recent events.
"The group from Sela Royal Academy really think too highly of themselves," Zhang Huaiyuan complained, "They live at the University of Science and Technology in the capital and we run into them frequently. They are extremely annoying when they talk, even calling us inferior."
Zhang Huaiyuan complained; according to him, several bloody conflicts had occurred.
"Doesn’t the academy handle it?" Li Ming asked.
"How can they handle fights? They are people of the Sela Civilization, with diplomatic immunity. They can’t be touched over such minor conflicts," Zhang Huaiyuan said helplessly.
"Those people are shameless; we always meet at least D-level life forms, and even those D-level seniors can’t beat them at the same level."
Li Ming pondered; the development progress of the D-level gene seeds was severely decaying. Even with relatively high potential, many couldn’t reach C-level life forms by graduation.
Even among the seniors, the majority were D-level life forms, with some even being E-level.
"There was an incident before, Roth was badly injured by someone named Youke, who apparently is also a prince and the top student in the latest assessment at Sela Royal Academy," Zhang Huaiyuan glanced at Li Ming,
"That Youke even mentioned you on the spot, saying it was a pity you weren’t a D-level life form; otherwise, it would have been somewhat interesting."
"But because you never show up..." Zhang Huaiyuan paused, lowering his voice, "they later said you were scared of battle and didn’t dare to show your face."
"There were also a few arguments with them, which got pretty heated."
Li Ming remained impassive; this Youke clearly came with a mission, overtly and covertly provoking him.
Only by engaging him was there a chance to obtain his blood.
Of course, he wasn’t going to be provoked, telling Zhang Huaiyuan, "Don’t worry about it, and tell the others not to engage either."
"Understood," Zhang Huaiyuan nodded.
After talking some more, and over half an hour later when everything was finally moved, Li Ming sent Zhang Huaiyuan away, feeling a surge of heat within him.
Not until nightfall did he completely absorb these metal materials. The fourteen million worth of Flame Blue Alloy directly expanded his metal energy to over two hundred thousand.
There was also the D-level genetic radiation device that Zhang Huaiyuan purchased, consuming thirty thousand metal energy to upgrade it to C-level.
All five D-level control bars were filled during the gene seed development, achieving an overall eighteen-fold developmental enhancement.
Since merging the D-level gene seeds, his development progress had reached 5%; although it had also decayed, it was much better than others.
With this C-level genetic radiation device, it should be even faster.
Afterward, he took out a few metal devices the size of fingernails.
These were all educational control objects that he had Zhang Huaiyuan collect for him.
He had thought he could control all similar items.
But that was not the case; of about a dozen educational buttons, only one was a controllable object.
[Design Textbook—E-level: Contains [Basics of Mechanical Design],[Operation of Graphic Software], [Prototype Production] teaching materials.
Control Conditions: 100 metal energy
Control Effect: Mechanical Design—Beginner
Control Ability—Teaching: Temporarily enhance mechanical design to intermediate]
Optimizing others’ blueprints no longer brought much benefit, so he decided to start designing and selling his own plans.
After some time exploring and trying, he discovered that [Mechanical Engineer] could master most D-level items, quickly understanding their operational principles and component functions.