With Ren back on the mountain, the quiet, scholarly hum of the workshop was replaced by the excited, happy sounds of creation. Their new, grand project, the hovercar, had finally begun.
Their first task was to build the frame, the skeleton of their flying machine. They used the same strong, special metal from the hoverboard, but Xianyun had a clever new idea to make it even better.
She showed Ren how to use alchemy, a science of gentle, magical change. Instead of just forging the metal with fire and hammers, they would carefully heat it and then, at the perfect moment, add a small, glowing powder. The powder, a alchemically synthesized recipe of finely ground crystal marrow and cor lapis, would magically lighten the metal without making it any weaker.
Ren was fascinated. He would watch, his eyes wide with wonder, as Xianyun, with the delicate, precise movements of a master chef, would sprinkle the glowing powder onto a piece of hot, glowing metal. There would be a soft, gentle hiss, a puff of sweet-smelling smoke, and the metal would emerge, still strong as rock, but as light as a bird's feather.
They worked together, a perfect, happy team. Ren, with his engineer's mind, would look at the glowing blueprint and tell her the exact shape and size of each piece they needed. Xianyun, with her adeptal skill and her newfound alchemical knowledge, would then craft each piece perfectly. Slowly, day by day, the chassis of the hovercar began to take shape, a beautiful, sleek, and unbelievably lightweight frame that looked like the skeleton of a graceful, flying fish.
Once the frame was complete, they moved on to the most important part: the engine. This was the heart of their creation, the part that would give it the power to fly.
It was, in essence, a much bigger, much more powerful version of the hoverboard's propulsion system. They needed a bigger electro crystal to act as the battery, and a more complex system of wires to carry the power.
"The hoverboard is like a small stream," Ren explained, pointing to a new, more complex diagram he had drawn. "The power just flows in one, simple path. But the hovercar… it's like a big river, with smaller rivers branching off from it."
He showed Xianyun his design for a "power distribution hub." It was a central, crystalline block that would take the raw, powerful energy from the main electro crystal and then safely, efficiently, divide it. A large, powerful stream of energy would go to the main propellers for lift, while smaller, more controlled streams would go to the steering propellers, the lights, and even a small, internal heater.
Xianyun was a master at this kind of delicate, energy-based work. She crafted the hub from a single, flawless piece of noctilucous jade, her hands moving with a surgeon's precision as she inscribed the intricate, energy-directing runes onto its surface.
They worked side-by-side, the brilliant adeptus and the wonder boy, their quiet, happy chatter filling the ancient, magical workshop. They were not just building a machine; they were building a shared dream, a beautiful, wonderful, and utterly impossible, dream of a future where anyone, and everyone, could touch the sky.