Chapter 548: Sample

Chapter 548: Chapter 548: Sample

Shen Hao hadn’t expected Flying Dragon to move this fast—he’d only sent word two days ago, and already a reply had arrived. What’s more, it wasn’t just a brief message via Thousand-Mile Sound, but a document more than a dozen pages long, delivered through the Black Water Plan’s information channels.

According to Flying Dragon, setting up an array capable of hot and cold exchange wasn’t really all that difficult. If you wanted the place cool, you just added some Five Elements Water-derived frost to the room—so long as you got the proportions right, it wouldn’t form actual ice, only cool the room down quickly.

Similarly, if you wanted the room warm, you’d add some Five Elements Fire. Again, as long as you kept control and didn’t produce actual flames or excessive heat, you could easily keep things at a comfortable range and get the effect you wanted.

In other words, the threshold for Shen Hao’s idea wasn’t all that high. As Flying Dragon’s recruited Array Master put it: as long as the array master wasn’t totally incompetent, it could be done.

However, even though the bar was low, how to really pin down "comfort" was still quite hard to define. That would take lots of hands-on trial and summary.

The word flashing through Shen Hao’s mind was: control of temperature.

This might be a bit of a hassle, but as long as you figured out the pattern, it’d be straightforward—just like precise temperature control in another world: you set whatever degree, you get that exact degree.

Did he need to help them figure out how to make a thermometer too? Forget it—Shen Hao didn’t even know how that thing worked, understood the what but not the why, so might as well let Flying Dragon and his people experiment themselves.

There was also a one-foot-square iron box that arrived with the document. Inside, array patterns were inscribed, plus a slot set for General Spirit Stones, with a metal lever next to the slot that could pivot in a semi-circle. Moving it left or right altered the array’s pattern within—it was basically an array mechanism.

This was the prototype Flying Dragon had rushed to make overnight, to back up what was written in the documents he sent.

Curious, Shen Hao inserted a General Spirit Stone into the slot. Instantly, the temperature inside the iron box started dropping noticeably. The effect was obvious—when you put your hand inside, the difference between inside and out widened rapidly, then quickly stabilized at a very low level, but not quite freezing.

"This is at least one or two degrees," Shen Hao estimated. Then he flipped the lever to the other side. Immediately, the chill inside the box started climbing; not too fast, not too slow, and after about ten seconds it was almost too hot to touch—around fifty or sixty degrees.

The effect was very successful, but still some way from practical application.

He picked up a brush and sent his follow-up ideas back to Flying Dragon. He told them not to rush—never mind if nothing came of it for a few months, as long as it was done this year. The main thing was to get familiar with all the tricks and, at the same time, keep the core participating Array Masters close. No need to tie them up for good, just make sure they couldn’t switch jobs for a few years—the pay could be taken higher if necessary.

As long as they could lock down the exclusive business for the first year or two, they could get a head start and grab the market early. After that, Shen Hao had all sorts of ways to shut the door, at most leaving imitators with only scraps, and making it impossible for them to scale big.

Thinking as he wrote, by the time Shen Hao sent off the document it was already afternoon.

He’d only come up with the idea for "air conditioning" because he was sick of the stifling summer heat in Fengri City, and now, seeing Flying Dragon’s "small sample," the prototype was already taking shape. He was sure that once this was done, it would be an absolute best-seller.

The only real choke point for this business was the General Spirit Stone. These days, they were strictly regulated—private possession had to be registered at the Government Office, with the number, usage, and source all accounted for. What’s more, due to tensions in the south, General Spirit Stones were no longer freely traded, which would affect the market in the short run. But for the upper-tier market, it wouldn’t matter much—what big house couldn’t get their hands on one?

What weighed on Shen Hao now was where this business would go next. Should he let Flying Dragon keep running it, using it as an opportunity to turn himself from a "mob boss" into a massively wealthy "merchant"? Or wait for Flying Dragon to set things up and then pick someone else to take over?

He shook his head. Shen Hao wasn’t about to hand over a business bound to involve huge sums of silver coins, and destined to grow rapidly, to just anyone. For now, Flying Dragon was the best fit he could find. The worry was whether this would go to Flying Dragon’s head—and end up making him too big for his boots?

Shen Hao didn’t think there was anything wrong with being careful like this. People changed—their greed, anger, fear, and jealousy could so easily make them do foolish things. In the Qin family case not long ago, hadn’t Qin Yurou been blinded by fury, then taken over by fear, and in the end even managed to kill her own younger brother?

After sending word back to Flying Dragon, Shen Hao took out Thousand-Mile Sound and sent a brief message to Zhang Lie, telling him to keep an eye on Flying Dragon and report his everyday activities promptly.

Thinking this, Shen Hao paused, realizing he’d always overlooked a point that should have been crucial: constant control over internal core personnel.

By "core," he didn’t mean any specific post inside the Xuanqing Guard Black Banner Battalion, but the people, resources, and channels Shen Hao personally held sway over—centered mainly on the branches of the Black Water Plan.

As for Flying Dragon and company, he could use the ready-made "Four Divisions" for covert monitoring, and use the Document Library information the Four Divisions had set up for initial analysis and daily oversight.

But who would monitor the "Four Divisions"?

Should he have Zhang Liao act as an "inside man" within the Four Divisions to keep watch on themselves? Shen Hao shook his head—not the kind of job Zhang Liao could handle.

After a long think, Shen Hao still didn’t have a concrete solution. All he could do was proceed step by step. As of now, the core positions he controlled were all secure, and he still had plenty of time to make up for his earlier oversight.

"Sir, Shopkeeper He from the auction house is here to visit."

Shen Hao was resting at home—normally, few would dare disturb him. Even if someone did show up, Hu Tian would see them off. But today He Huan had come in person, and since he’d heard that this man and Master Shen had some sort of connection, Hu Tian didn’t think it was right to turn him away, so he came to report it instead.

"He Huan?" Shen Hao asked, coming out of his study, and then he added, "What’s he here for?"

"He said he heard Master Shen was at home and came by to deliver something."

"Deliver something? What is it?"

"He said it’s some sort of Gold Medal from the auction house."

Hearing that, Shen Hao remembered. Before he’d been seconded to the Imperial City, the auction house in Fengri City had sent invitations everywhere, even registering with the Xuanqing Guard, saying there’d be a big auction soon. But the invite sent to Shen Hao had been refused by him. He hadn’t expected He Huan to pay a personal visit.