""""

Well, Hu Li's argon fox welding is actually quite high-quality; the fox fire, enhanced by Immortal Law (or perhaps Sorcery), sizzles as it melts. The result of her welding is more aesthetically pleasing than any welding machine, exuding a beauty of strength and numbers—and more importantly, she can cut and weld in one go.

Thus, after a brief exchange and preparation, sparks began to fly all over the alchemy table.

Several threaded steel bars were cut into reinforcing bars of different lengths in proportion, and then, based on the positions marked by Yu Sheng on the alchemy table, were placed and assembled into the outline of an automaton skeleton. Hu Li directed her floating tails through the air, as nimble as a bunch of anti-gravity mechanical arms, adjusting angles, and welding with precision. The air was filled with the scent of metal fusion, and the continuous hissing sounds and dazzling sparks illuminated Yu Sheng's face.

Erin sat expressionlessly with a picture frame on her back, the flashing light from the steel welding reflecting on her palm-sized face. Every few seconds, she couldn't help but grumble: "This isn't alchemy... This isn't alchemy..."

"How is this not alchemy?" Yu Sheng, with excitement on his face, immediately retorted upon hearing Erin's mutterings, "Isn't smelting a part of alchemy? Isn't metal 'gold'? Why can't metalworking be considered alchemy?"

While speaking, he simply sat down next to Erin, raising his hand to point at the scintillating scene on the alchemy array, his tone leisurely: "How beautiful... The Cyber Fox Deity's demon arts, the hidden legacy of alchemy, modern industry's threaded steel—don't you think their combination has a kind of..."

"...an abstract beauty."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then nodded: "...Indeed."

Just then, the sparkling light finally ceased. Hu Li wiped the nonexistent sweat from her forehead, turned her head, and excitedly waved her hand: "Savior, it's all welded!"

"Great job, Hu Li!" Yu Sheng clapped his hands in joy and quickly rose, picking up Erin as well, "No more mulling over abstract beauty, let's hurry to the next step. Take a look at the skeleton we prepared and see if it satisfies you."

Erin continued to mumble, but her complaints ceased abruptly upon seeing the finished product.

Silently lying in the center of the alchemy array was an automaton skeleton welded to the height of a normal adult.

Erin looked at the skeleton in astonishment for a while, then reacted and looked up at Yu Sheng: "This size..."

"I promised you, I'd make one that's one meter and sixty-seven centimeters," Yu Sheng placed the little automaton on the ground, a faint smile on his face, "Now it's time for the next step."

"Yay!!" Erin finally cheered, her previous complaints instantly vanishing as she jumped up, hugged Yu Sheng's arm and shook it vigorously, and then rushed to the spirit injection node urging, "Quick, start! I want to see how you handle the next part."

Yu Sheng just smiled and did not speak further, instead, he began the next step of sculpting the automaton with earnest.

This time he did not prepare any clay, nor any dough or lotus roots. On this special "Erin shell", he wanted to try some bold ideas.

He spread those "alchemy materials" evenly across the threaded steel welded skeleton and the ground around the skeleton.

Then he took out a knife, made a cut on the back of his own hand, mixed his blood with those "alchemy materials", and likewise sprinkled it on the ground.

With Erin and Hu Li looking on curiously, Yu Sheng eventually retreated to the outermost concentric circle. He took a gentle breath, concentrated his consciousness, then crouched down and pressed his still-bleeding palm on the ground.

The platform began to tremble slightly, while faint sounds of friction and squirming arose from deep within the rocks, as if... the whole ground was gradually awakening.

Yu Sheng was about to craft Erin's new shell out of the soil and rocks of the Exotic Realm Valley.

After a few seconds of delay, the center of the "Alchemy Array" began to bulge. Immediately after, the soil and rock came to life, rapidly squirming and transforming into "Molten Magma" that swarmed over the iron-cast skeleton, accumulating in layers and emitting a rustling sound during the squirming and converging process.

Erin watched from the side, her eyes gradually widening.

"Soil squirming like a living thing..." she muttered softly to herself in surprise, "Did he really do it?"

The "Living Soil" formed the shape very quickly, and just after Erin's remark, the automaton body lying in the center of the Array had already taken a rough shape.

Yu Sheng was still earnestly sculpting its last parts—differentiating the fingers on its hands and forming the features of its face.

He simply went into the Array and sat next to the automaton shell, directly touching with his hands, fine-tuning its appearance bit by bit.

He suddenly felt this was much easier to control than clay.

"He's really... very earnest," Erin said quietly, tugging at Hu Li's tail, "He used to mess up my previous body, I thought he wasn't serious."

"The Savior has always been serious," Hu Li watched the automaton intently, very solemnly, "it's just that he usually cares about things that seem a bit different from others."

As the conversation went on, Yu Sheng finally completed his last adjustments.

Faster and smoother than he had imagined.

""""

The golem, shaped from steel, dirt, and stone, lay quietly on the ground. Though not yet awakened, it already bore the figure of a young girl and... an ambiance akin to a creature that could come to life at any moment, exuding a "vitality" of sorts.

"Let me think... how did I do it last time..." Yu Sheng muttered to himself, recalling the experience from when he created "Body Number Two" for Erin, "Guide the Spirit Injection, right, first guide the Spirit Injection to bring it to life..."

He stretched out his hand and gently pressed it against the golem's forehead—

"Wake up."

The stone began to pulse.

"It should be coming to life now."

The dirt rose and fell slightly.

"Ready to open your eyes—"

The steel skeleton moved slowly, the soulless shell emitted a faint breath—life appeared.

"Erin." Yu Sheng called out softly.

"Huh?" The small golem standing beside him unconsciously responded, but in the next second, she felt her consciousness swiftly being pulled away from her body... partially pulled away, a new "link" appeared in her perception, a brief and unavoidable disorientation struck her, causing her to be temporarily confused without a clear view of her surroundings. She only heard Yu Sheng utter a surprised "Huh?" and Hu Li exclaimed in shock beside her, and then she knew nothing more.

But in those two seconds of disconnection, Erin successfully entered and took over her new "shell." She tried to open her eyes, confirming the existence of a third perspective.

"Success, yay!" The small golem was dazed for a moment, then happily called out in the center of the Array and got up with a push of her hand and stood, hands on hips, looking up at Yu Sheng and Hu Li, "Even with such a mess, you managed it, Yu Sheng. You've got some real alchemy talent. Look at me, this one meter sixty-seven tall..."

The small golem suddenly paused, feeling something was off.

Yu Sheng looked so tall, and so did Hu Li.

She blankly lowered her head to look at the ground close at her feet, and through the eyes of another shell outside the Array, she saw her new body and realized what was wrong after a moment.

"Why am I still so short? Huh?!"

"I don't know," said Yu Sheng, looking even more puzzled than her, "a second before you opened your eyes that body was one meter sixty-seven, and then before my very eyes, it began to shrink, I was still not reacting when it was left only over half a meter tall... Hu Li can bear witness that I did nothing."

The demon fox girl immediately nodded vigorously: "I can testify, Savior did nothing at all! You shrank on your own!"

Erin stood there dazed for a long while, not speaking. Just when Yu Sheng was starting to worry that the golem might have taken too big a hit and would have issues, she suddenly burst out frustratedly, "Why... why does this happen?! Wasn't it already molded into a one meter sixty-seven body? Wasn't it already coming to life... why did it shrink down to just over half a meter when I dove in?! Why?!"

Yu Sheng silently backed up several steps, coming beside Hu Li and muttering softly, "I think it's best not to provoke her further..."

But before he could finish, the other Erin outside the Array had already turned her head around, taking a deep breath: "—Why·me·ahhh!"

Yu Sheng turned his head and sighed toward Hu Li: "I forgot there was another one here."

Then it was both Erins going round and round the Array, prattling on, one moment lamenting the unfairness of fate and the difficulties of golem creation, the next leaping up and down and howling, accusing Yu Sheng of being too sloppy, or even beginning to suspect that her own soul had goofed up. After several rounds, Yu Sheng's head was buzzing—he figured even an investigator listening to Ancient Gods rambling would probably have a similar experience...

When the small golem made its tenth lap, Hu Li finally had enough. The demon fox girl, using her tail, wrapped up both small golems in one swoop: "Erin, this is so loud..."

The two 66.6 centimeters tall small golems, unable to move wrapped in the fox tail, murmured a few complaints and then stared at Yu Sheng with utter dejection.

"Am I going to be this tall for the rest of my life?" Erin with the picture frame moaned woefully.

"What could be the reason..." Erin with the reinforced steel on the brink of tears.

"A temporary setback, just temporary..." Yu Sheng also didn't know how to comfort the unlucky golem; he could only make things up, "Look, I've already messed up so many bizarre alchemy methods, maybe I'll be able to create a properly proportioned shell for you at some point. Maybe, the shrinkage has something to do with the materials, or it's because of the unreliable Rose Oil... Next time I won't buy it from a five-dollar store."

Erin (reinforced steel version) paused, and after a moment, she reacted, suddenly wriggling out of Hu Li's tail, straight onto Yu Sheng's arm: "Five-dollar store?! You said last time it was from a ten-dollar store!"

The next second, Yu Sheng experienced what was different about this enraged small golem—

The reinforced steel is really strong.

Those two small claws, they twist like a freakin' bench vise!

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