Once Ves convinced Venerable Joshua to make use of the upgraded Gray Lotus in the next deployment, he went back to his original research. After conducting extensive studies, he realized that maximizing the use of companion spirits in mech combat was not simple. There was a lot of depth behind this subject. If Ves wanted to do a proper job, he needed to gather a lot of specific data and get his hands on a lot of prime materials. He already had a good idea on how to accomplish both objectives. In order to complete the first requirements, he composed a detailed memo and transmitted it to Director Pesca Aduc. Ves saw no reason to waste his time on performing tedious and time-consuming grunt work when it could easily be handled by a bunch of lab workers. The internment camps of the Dragon's Den had grown even more crowded than before. The camp holding the orvens had become a lot more populated after the Larkinsons dumped a lot of former officers and crew members taken from the latest orven battleship defeated by the expeditionary fleet. The Larkinsons also added a brand-new internment camp holding several thousand captives of the wheednar race. Although few people thought that this poor and ugly race had any value, Ves insisted on adding a little more biodiversity to the pool of test subjects. "All of those races can better test the efficacy and versatility of our newly developed companion spirit fruits." He grinned. With the T Institute taking care of data collection, Ves turned his attention to the generation of prime materials. Ves wanted to bring up this subject with his mother. He had long wanted to know the secret to creating materials that could store spiritual energy or interact with it in another fashion like B-stones and F-stones. While his mother refused to elaborate too much on this subject, she told him the basics on how they came about. "As you may have already surmised, what you call prime materials are actually substances that have been affected by the power of heaven. This is why they are referred to as heavenly materials, mystical materials and so on." Cynthia Larkinson lectured to Veronica. "Exotic materials are products of the power of earth, so it is not strange that the Milky Way still has them in abundance." Though she did not say much, her words absolutely had a massive effect on Ves! So that was why the Milky Way and all of its satellite galaxies contained an abundance of exotics but a shortage of prime materials! Considering that Messier 87 was flooded with the power of heaven, the supply of prime materials must be astronomical inside this supergiant galaxy. The closer to the center, the greater their abundance and potency! Veronica looked up at Cynthia. "If prime materials are a product of ambient spiritual energy, is there a way to artificially increase their production? For example, what if I find a way to flood a bunch of materials with E energy radiation?" The Oblivion Empress smiled as she scratched the cyborg cat behind the ears. "You are thinking in the right direction. There are entire inheritances that center around channeling and shaping the power of heaven and earth in the environment. However, you don't need to be in a hurry. The Red Ocean is undergoing a galaxy-wide renewal. Heavenly materials will emerge in large enough quantities that you will unlikely suffer a shortage of them. Only the tougher and more powerful types of materials will still be difficult to obtain. You will need to expose materials to a higher concentration of the power of heaven in order to obtain them in greater quantities." Veronica grew a little frustrated at her mother's habit of withholding information again. "Can't you teach me how to increase the concentration of the power of heaven in a given area? I don't think something as basic as this is exclusive knowledge. By the way, can you also give me the material composition or recipes of the 'heavenly materials' that you are familiar with? I need a large amount of uniform prime materials in order to empower my mechs?" Ves knew that his mother possessed expertise in this area. Her entire meditation room was a clear example of how she was able to generate more ambient spiritual energy and contain much of it within this compartment! Cynthia held her silence for a few seconds before she relented to an extent. "I suppose I can teach you the basics. I do admit that I know much more about this subject, but it is exactly due to this reason that I wish for you to build a proper foundation. In order to become a master in this field yourself, you must experiment and explore by yourself. Only through personal experiences will you truly be able to learn how to bend the power of heaven to your will. This is especially helpful for Blinky's future development. If you want him to become a powerful ruler of his own universe, then it is essential for him to develop a greater affinity for qi. It is not without reason that True Gods are inherently associated with the power of heaven." Despite her restraint, she still gave him a crash course in the field of qi formations. She lifted up her hand and formed a strange symmetrical array that was filled with lines and curves made out of spiritual energy. The ambient spiritual energy of the Nyxian Gap began to get attracted by this simple formation. Even though the suction force was not all that great, it was already pretty amazing that Cynthia was able to make this happen just by forming a simple spiritual construct! "This is a qi formation." She said. "As you can see, it is constructed in a way that exerts a specific influence on the power of heaven and earth. How they work is a deeper subject that touches on the truth of the universe. What I want to tell you is that this is not a new phenomenon to you. Formations have already become a part of your life. Can you guess what aspects are powered by formations?" Veronica looked confused for a second. "Wait... my battle formations... when those mechs adopt specific positions in order to form a formation that feels natural to the mech pilots, is that akin to forming a spontaneous qi formation?!" "Correct! That is one of the most direct and dramatic uses of qi formations that you have managed to develop on your own!" Cynthia said with pride in her powerful eyes. "This is exactly the sort of ingenuity and experimentation that you are so good at. However, formations encompass far more than this narrow application. Can you make another guess?" "Uhhh..." "Your mechs." "Huh?" "Do you think that mechs can gain life and acquire other attributes that are difficult to explain through technological means just by infusing them with qi?" She asked. "Now that you mention it..." "Every material object or artifact that is empowered by qi can be called an artifact." Cynthia said. "What distinguishes an artifact from a mundane item is that the former is embedded with a fixed qi formation that enables it to hold the power of heaven and earth and make use of it in specific ways." Ves widened his eyes as he was able to connect a lot of dots all of a sudden! "If that is the case, then that would explain the nature of mechs, totems and other empowered objects!" He gasped. "Mechs are essentially mass-produced artifacts. Mech designers like myself never truly realized this because the design seed, which is formed by the Kingdom of Mechs, automated all of the complicated processes in the background. If it didn't exist, then people like myself would have to learn the theories and methods ourselves so that we manually form and shape a specific spiritual foundation for our products!" The mech designer profession centered around designing mechs that were unwittingly imbued with qi formations. This was what made mech designers special. A mech designer such as Ketis was able to increase the sharpness of the swords that she designed because her design seed likely acted as an automated processor that did all of the heavy lifting. Ves felt as if he had discovered yet another profound truth about mech design. "Qi formations are the root of creation cultivation." Cynthia explained with a smile. "Creators became viable cultivators when they discovered that they could not only affix qi formations into the objects that they personally designed and produced, but also enabled them to become more familiar with the forces that make up the universe. The more they excel in their craft, the greater their understanding of these forces. This means that they can imbue their works with stronger and more elaborate qi formations and more. Once they are able to master one of these forces, they have fulfilled the qualifications to become a True God." That was rather astounding. Ves gained a deeper understanding of the nature of creation cultivation and how it all tied to these so-called qi formations. Every spiritual construct was a permanent qi formation in a sense. This made a lot more obvious how creation cultivation originally started out as an off-shoot of qi cultivation. An artistic conception could be considered another variety of qi formation. It was fixed in the mind of the cultivator himself and served as the nucleus of his own extraordinary strength. As Ves continued to form a lot of conclusions based on new associations, his mother revealed the truth about heavenly materials. "There are materials that happen to respond particularly well to the power heaven. What is actually happening is that their molecules and internal structures are set up in such a fashion that they have accidentally formed into natural formations." She said. "Ancient cultivators have developed entire disciplines based around their observations of these naturally occurring phenomena. They have even taken it a step further and developed new materials and alloys in order to produce artificial formations that are considerably stronger or produce effects that do not occur in nature. This is how Unending alloy originally came about." What his mother taught him might not be a ready-made recipe on how Ves could reproduce a version of Unending alloy in his own fleet, but it was so much better. Now that Ves understood the fundamental theory on heavenly materials, he could theoretically develop all kinds of different spiritually reactive materials from scratch! Cynthia gently stroked Veronica's back. "The power of heaven and earth is different in every galaxy. I have explained to you before why that is the case. It may not be possible for you to reproduce a useful material such as Unending alloy in the Red Ocean. However, as long as the power of heaven is abundant enough, the emergence of heavenly materials is a given. If you wish to obtain them faster, then you must find them and speed up the growth of their natural formations. Every material responds differently to each element, so if you can match heavenly materials with the right elements, you can develop methods to purposely expose them to a higher concentration of elemental energy." The cyborg cat's eyes glowed brighter. This was an effective method to produce prime materials! While Ves understood that it was not easy to complete all of the aforementioned steps, he was confident that he would be able to solve every problem in time. He already had a few ideas on how he could overcome a couple of challenges with ease. As a Senior Mech Designer, he already formed a lot of tools that could perform specific functions. Engineers excelled at combining different tools in order to produce more complex results! While it would still take a lot of time before Ves could obtain a batch of 'heavenly materials', he should at least be able to get his hands on them a lot sooner than the general public!