Chapter 301 Cutting and Initial Refinement

The Peregrine Falcon 07 hovered silently in the vacuum of high orbit, 200 kilometers above sea level.

This 6,000-ton metal mountain was firmly locked to the escort track outside the main platform by twelve thick titanium crystal anchor chains. The enormous shadow cast on the outer armor of the main platform resembled a deep-space behemoth utterly deprived of its freedom.

Along the outer edge of the main platform, three heavy engineering trusses equipped with radiation-resistant shields slowly extended, creating a temporary vacuum cutting zone on the side of the Peregrine-07.

After completing their mission, the six Golden Core cultivators have retreated to the main platform for deep meditation. Standing at the forefront now is the track engineering team led by Old Liu.

"The isolation light curtain has been deployed, and the microgravity environment is stable."

Wearing a heavy high-pressure protective suit, Lao Liu hovered on the surface of the Peregrine-07, holding a heavy-duty vibrating saw wheel about half a person's height in his hand. "Engineer Lin, I'm going to make the cut."

"The entry point is chosen at the protrusion ten meters below anchor point number three." Lin Feng stared at the various X-ray scan data in the control room. "First, use a standard spirit steel blade to test the internal hardness gradient."

"receive."

Old Liu pulled the trigger, and the vibrating saw wheel burst into a high-frequency hum. The steel saw teeth at the front end, carrying a scorching light, slashed fiercely at the rock layer on the surface of the Peregrine-07.

laugh--!

The expected scene of sparks flying did not occur.

The saw wheel cut through the outermost half-foot-thick gray weathered shell as smoothly as cutting tofu. But when the saw teeth actually made contact with the inner dark blue metal base, the entire machine suddenly stopped.

Old Liu felt as if he had shoved a high-speed spinning wood saw hard into a solid block of steel.

There was no flying debris, and the high temperature generated by the high-frequency friction of the saw teeth did not make the cut red; instead, it became dull and lifeless the moment it came into contact with the metal. The heat was rapidly absorbed by the metal layer in a way that defied conventional thermodynamics.

It lasted for less than five seconds.

With a crisp "crack," the steel blade in Old Liu's hand, covered with dense cracks, shattered into countless fragments.

"I can't cut it!" Old Liu took half a meter back, staring at the dark cut that was only a few millimeters deep, his face full of disbelief. "Engineer Lin, something's not right! Yesterday, when General Chu and his men were driving the piles, they were able to crush even the tungsten carbide nodules inside, weren't they? How come today they can't even do the most basic cutting?"

"It's different." Lin Feng decisively called a halt in the channel, quickly reconstructing the spiritual pressure feedback data from before in his mind.

"Yesterday, General Chu and his men used their Golden Core bodies combined with pure explosive power to drive the piles, which was essentially 'smashing' the rock strata. Moreover, the twelve traction anchors were pre-infused with [Stellar Origin Qi], which is of the same origin as this meteorite in terms of attributes, so they were not rejected."

Lin Feng stared sharply at the rapidly dropping temperature curve of the saw wheel on the screen: "But the principle of your chainsaw just now was 'high-frequency friction' and 'active spiritual energy cutting'."

"This thing has been floating in a vacuum and high-radiation environment for countless billions of years, and its interior has long been refined by the cold pressure of the starry sky. It has a natural ability to absorb and suppress the active spiritual energy and high temperature on the Earth's surface."

Lin Feng succinctly revealed the secret: "The faster your saw wheel spins, the more heat and spiritual energy it absorbs from the friction. The blade didn't break off; it was the heat that was instantly drained, causing the material to become 'cold-brittle,' and it shattered on its own."

"This isn't raw ore; it's 'starry sky material' that has been naturally refined by the universe." Lin Feng quickly offered a revised plan. "Old Liu, step back. Use special cutting method number two."

Soon, the robotic arm delivered a brand-new miniature device.

Following Lin Feng's instructions, Lao Liu first set up four miniature "star-gathering nodes" around the cutting point, artificially creating a very small "slow flow field" to soothe the restless starlight pressure in this area.

Next, he switched to a specially made monomolecular cutting blade. Before leaving the cabin, this blade had just been "forged" with the last bit of controllable stellar energy remaining on the main platform, and its surface shimmered with a layer of eerie blue homogeneous cold light.

"General Chu." Lin Feng looked at the communication screen beside him.

With his right shoulder still wrapped in bandages, Chu Qing carried a brand-new heavy sword as he walked out of the airlock and arrived at the edge of the cutting zone.

Without a word, Chu Qing's gaze darkened, and he gripped his sword with one hand. He didn't use any fancy techniques; a Gengjin sword aura, condensed to its extreme and no longer pursuing explosive range but absolute penetrating power, precisely and accurately pierced into the surface crack that Old Liu had cut open!

Click!

The stress structure inside the rock strata was violently destroyed by the Golden Core Sword Qi, resulting in a crack half a foot deep.

"Now's the time, make the cut!"

Old Liu immediately pushed up the cutting blade coated with star energy and slashed it hard through the stress gap that Chu Qing had created! The star energy of the same origin perfectly offset the cold and brittle suppression of the meteorite, and the cutting blade finally tore through the stubborn defense inside the Peregrine-07.

A piece of metal, about the size of a watermelon, was neatly peeled off and caught by Lao Liu.

The moment the cut surface was exposed to the vacuum, everyone watching the screen held their breath.

Completely different from the rough, crater-covered outer shell, this piece of the original internal material, once cut off, has an extremely fine, cold, and hard texture in cross-section. Its grain is so uniform that it resembles the product of some liquid solidifying instantly. Under the illumination of a searchlight, it does not reflect light but instead faintly radiates a deep, dark blue, deep-space luster.

"The first rough blank has fallen off; send it back to the laboratory." Qin Lie had been monitoring the risks on the Po Jun ship the entire time, and after confirming that no abnormal resonance of the meteorite had been triggered, he issued the recovery order.

Twenty minutes later.

Temporary technical area of ​​the main platform, in front of the miniature vacuum refining furnace.

Lin Feng and several array masters and weapon refiners gathered around the workbench. The cut raw materials were sent to the forging platform to begin the first initial refining.

This is not about creating some groundbreaking divine weapon, but about verifying the technological process of this new material—whether it can be absorbed by the human industrial system.

"Connect to third-tier true fire and attempt conventional smelting." An old weapon refiner pushed the spiritual pressure valve.

The high-temperature spiritual fire instantly enveloped the dark blue rough blank.

The disheartening scene unfolded once again. The real fire, which was invincible on the ground, proved utterly powerless against this raw material. After five minutes of flames licking at it, the material showed no signs of melting or softening; instead, fine cracks, similar to the "cold brittleness" seen with the chainsaw blade, began to appear on its surface.

"Cease fire!" Lin Feng immediately stopped them. "It resists high-temperature activation! The 'melting gold with fire' approach used in surface crafting won't work on materials from outer space. High temperatures will destroy its stable internal structure formed over millions of years."

"Then how do you shape it? How do you hammer it if you don't heat the iron until it's red-hot?" The old blacksmith was stunned.

"No need for fire, use pressure."

Lin Feng interlaced his fingers, the construction logic of the space elevator's main cable appearing in his mind: "Remove the spirit fire. Activate the vacuum chamber and lower the temperature to the lower limit of the high-orbit environment."

"The formation team will switch to a multi-layered [Heavy Pressure Formation] and [Gathering Flow Formation] for cold forging! A trace amount of stellar source energy will be introduced as a binder, and the formation will be layered and slowly compressed along its original texture!"

The parameters on the control panel were completely reset. The original high-temperature furnace was transformed into an extremely cold, high-pressure vacuum forging platform.

As the invisible array pressure was layered upon layer on the rough blank, and as the stellar energy seeped into its texture along with the pressure, a miracle occurred.

The stone, which had remained unyielding and even cracked under the fiery subterranean fire, exhibited an astonishing "metallic toughness" in the extreme cold and pressure. Instead of being crushed, it slowly changed shape during the cold forging process, guided by the array.

It doesn't require sparking hammering or complex quenching. This material is inherently suited to the cold, high-pressure, and stagnant environment of high orbits. As long as you follow its natural tendencies, it can exhibit perfect structural stability in a vacuum.

After two hours of careful exploration and cold forging, the isolation cover of the operating table slowly opened.

A short, dark blue blade, about a foot long, crudely designed, and without even a handguard, lay quietly on an alloy tray. It was rough; the blade hadn't been finely polished, making it a completely unattractive industrial byproduct.

Qin Lie stepped forward and picked up the short blade. The moment he touched it, he didn't feel the warm, spiritual energy-connected sensation of a high-level magic weapon from the ground; instead, he felt a deathly stillness, colder and heavier than solid ice.

"Use the high-speed rail load-bearing armor plate for testing," Qin Lie said.

A thick titanium alloy plate, used for building heavy-duty transport modules, is fixed on the test bench.

Qin Lie did not infuse any true essence; he relied solely on the physical strength of his Foundation Establishment stage body to wield the dark blue short blade and swing it down at the armor plate.

laugh--!

Like a hot knife slicing through butter. Without a harsh scraping sound, the armor plate was easily sliced ​​in two, the cut as smooth as a mirror.

The surrounding engineers gasped. This was composite armor that even a third-tier demonic beast couldn't break.

"Under the vacuum and high-orbit radiation, its molecular structure is frighteningly stable, with almost no 'material fatigue' or 'psychic embrittlement'." Lin Feng looked at the data on the scanner and gave the final assessment, "It is sharper and more pressure-resistant than any material we have from the Earth's timeline."

Lin Feng paused, then added a crucial limitation: "But its density is too high, and it repels active spiritual energy. If it were brought back to the oxygen-rich and spiritually-rich environment of the Earth's surface, it might become extremely heavy and difficult to control with true essence. It might not become the divine weapon that cultivators yearn for on the surface, but in the sky, it would be an engineering blade capable of cutting through everything."

This is more than just a knife. Its existence proves that Peregrine-07, a material from the cosmos, can be perfectly crafted into the base of a high-orbit array, the skeleton of a transport capsule, and the extension node of a space elevator.

It is not a panacea; it is the very essence of heavy industry, specifically designed for high orbit and deep space.

Inside the joint control room on the ground.

Wang Mingyuan looked at the rough short blade on the screen, and the huge meteorite still bound by chains in the distance.

"Let's set a release date. Peregrine-07 will no longer be classified as a meteorite. Its internal core area will be officially named No. 1 Starry Sky Material."

Inside the main platform's technical area, Lin Feng looked at the short blade that remained intact after being cut, but deep down, he was not completely relaxed.

"Professor," Lin Feng looked up at the communication screen, "we've obtained the raw materials, and we've also figured out the cold forging process."

"But the 6,000-ton mine is hanging outside. Old Liu and his men are struggling to cut even a rough piece the size of a watermelon using their specially made blades and Golden Core sword energy. Although General Chu and his men can break through solids, Golden Core cultivators can't stay in the sky forever to be our miners."

Lin Feng turned his head and looked out the window at the dark, deep, silent, and unknown universe.

"The first piece of raw material has already been put into the furnace. What we're lacking now is no longer ore."

Wang Mingyuan watched him quietly, knowing what Lin Feng was about to say.

"We're short of people," Lin Feng said, emphasizing each word. "We're short of spacefaring cultivators who can wield hammers, set up formations, and forge weapons for extended periods in this extreme cold, high radiation, and high-pressure vacuum environment."