Sage stared at the man for a few moments before the fellow stopped laughing at his own joke and finally introduced himself, “I am Pan Shun, the lead researcher of the Steam Army. As you can see we’re quite a group of misfits. The Sect has given me all the most unusual and eccentric professionals. We may not be the most talented, but I can tell you without a doubt we have collected all the most unique personalities.”

If the others here were as strange as the first two people he’d met so far, then this man’s claim was probably not far from the truth. It certainly seemed reasonable. The most skilled and powerful members of the Sect would be the personal disciples of the Peak Masters and there’s no way they would want to toil away in obscurity like this. Even the next tier of geniuses and skilled professionals would not want to come here. They’d all want to prove themselves by working hard and building a reputation for themselves. On the other hand, if the leaders of the Sect ran into a genius with a weird and unusual personality, one that might end up tarnishing their public reputation: wouldn’t a secret research facility be a great place for them?

In the situation that Pan Shun just described, if he’s the lead researcher he’s either a sort of babysitter for the others, or just the most talented of the oddballs. Maybe a combination of the two? He figured the Peak Masters wouldn’t want to be constantly overseeing this place so he asked a question to clarify the situation, “It is a pleasure meeting you, Pan Shun. I’ve been told you’ve been making some amazing advancements here and I’m eager to experience your collective genius. Please forgive me for asking, but who do you answer to? Is it Peak Master Lupeng?”

If these people were as odd as described, then perhaps his extremely rude question might actually get an answer. Normally, asking who someone’s boss is would seem rude, implying they weren’t capable enough and you needed to go over their head. Sage didn’t plan on staying too long in the Holy Flame Sect, and this man had already professed to being a bit odd, so Sage took the risk to jump right to the point. The man had already ignored a possible slight earlier so maybe he’d ignore this one too.

“Answer to? I report directly to the Peak Masters. They have given me a large budget and free reign to innovate. We are only an army in name at the moment. We have a small core of officers and elite troops who are training with your original designs. The plan is to finish the next generation of improvements and then fabricate enough copies to supply a few thousand warriors. Then, the officers and elites will use their experience to rapidly train them.”

Sage nodded his head, giving Pan Shun a sincere bow, “Thank you for your candor. I would love for us to exchange knowledge and ideas. Shall we begin?”

For the director of a secret research facility and army, Pan Shun was surprisingly nonchalant and easy going. Sage wasn’t sure if this openness was due to his identity, or perhaps it was this man’s oddity. If he was always so open and honest with his secrets and knowledge, it would certainly be a good reason to keep him confined to a closed research facility.

Sage stopped worrying about this man’s competence and personality quirks, focusing instead on what Pan Shun showed off for him. They walked around to the other side of the huge airship envelope and approached a half dozen workbenches covered with various pressurized tanks and Storage Treasures. He could already recognize some similarity with his simple steam engine, but these tanks were made of drastically different materials and were in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

“We all recognize your ability to accomplish a lot with inferior materials, but in order for it to be the Sect’s secret army, it needs more power. As you can see, we’ve been experimenting with different materials and sizes of steam engine to find the most powerful combination.”

Sage pointed to the liquid tanks that he was sure did not contain water, “Are you trying to use other liquids to replace water?”

Pan Shun nodded and started listing off different liquids and their properties. Sage was astounded by the vast difference. Liquids that boiled at very low temperatures and created vast amounts of pressure when they turned into a gas. Yet, impressive as they were, Sage pointed out an issue that was very important back on earth, “Changing the materials for the boiler and other parts is a good idea, but I don’t think you should mess around with the fuel for the steam engine. As a fuel source it will be needed in very large quantities, and also constantly consumed. It looks like you were putting these liquids into Storage Treasures so they don’t add weight, right? It’s not a bad idea, but it would probably get really expensive really quickly.”

“We’ve been working on a way to recollect the ‘steam’ that is released into another Storage Treasure and cycle it back into the system so that it can be run with a set amount of resources.”

Sage blinked and then realized he’d been silly for forgetting the inclusion of Storage Treasures in that way. He’d also used such ideas when he was building the weapons for the Jade Horde and his friend Kang Min.

“After hearing about the weapons you developed for your own forces, we were inspired to make more use of Storage Treasures in our devices.”

He nodded to the man, and realized that it had been many years that the Jade Horde was in operation. It would be no surprise for information about their weapons to make its way all the way over here. Manufacturing new Storage Treasures was very difficult even for the greatest craftsmen in the Holy Flame Sect, but just like Sage had done, it wasn’t hard to adapt already existing Storage Treasures to alternative uses. Sage’s misgivings about using high tier liquids instead of a simple water gathering array were no longer valid. If they could reclaim the high pressure gases and turn them back into liquids, then they might really come up with an immensely powerful engine.

They moved over to another part of the hanger where there were others working with a part of the half-inflated balloon they’d walked around earlier. Sage saw them working and couldn’t help but ask, “Do you have arrays that can create even lighter than air gases? I merely used the cheapest one I knew of.”

“We do, but we’ve been having issues with materials for the envelope that can properly contain the gas we’re using.”

Sage couldn’t actually remember what the different names balloon, blimp, and dirigible meant, but he did remember one of the features that separated them. He gave another suggestion without knowing if it would be useful, “To reinforce it, you can create a structure of a strong hard material, like a light metal, then put the envelope around it. If you have a light enough gas you can also just put many smaller envelopes inside another hull.”

Pan Shun made a note of his suggestion for them to try later, and also gave Sage information about the array they were using to create gas.

After that, they moved out of the hanger and towards a different one, where Sage saw many metallic hulks.

Ooo, the tanks!