That night's work, Shen Cong spent the whole of it researching the mercury lake.

Having sent the Diamond Park people packing, he could finally enjoy his research in peace and quiet — using the Great Vajra to guide the mercury into resonance, and then crack the mercury lake's secret.

The mercury lake was a single whole, a failed living body of the natural-carrier-vehicle sort — only in liquid form.

When Shen Cong ringed off a portion of the mercury so it wouldn't go inactive, then guided the Activity into resonance — in that moment, the liquid-metal mercury began to shudder, trembling out ripple after ripple across its surface. And just as Shen Cong thought it was about to fail again, those ripples didn't keep growing.

In Shen Cong's perception, he saw the mercury, under the resonance's influence, thoroughly diluted from its originally somewhat viscous state.

Of the diluted mercury, a portion turned into fine bubbles — not rising, only suspended within the liquid. They were then drawn toward the section of the Great Vajra submerged beneath the surface, adhering to its outer armor.

"There's a chance!"

Shen Cong's heart stirred, then settled again, and he went on focusing intently on guiding the resonance while ceaselessly observing the phenomenon.

The bubbles the mercury had turned into were only about the size of a hair's tip, and when they adhered to the Great Vajra's surface, they seeped into its metal-iron armor at a slow speed.

It was a very subtle sensation. The Great Vajra fed the feeling back, and Shen Cong felt as if he were sitting in a sauna.

Once the warm bubbles had seeped in, they were immediately taken up by the Great Vajra's metal-iron structure, and then underwent a change more intense than what he'd observed yesterday.

This change carried strong rejection. Shen Cong watched as many bubbles, on the verge of completing full fusion, were expelled one after another.

But an expression of pleasant surprise appeared on Shen Cong's face.

This rejection wasn't total — only about 95% of the bubbles were expelled, while the remaining 5% completed…