In the courtyard, a young man was hammering away at a red-hot steel ball.
In the distance, a nearly completed small civilian aircraft shell stood parked.
The young man's name was Fang Yuan. Lately, he had seen numerous people on the internet building their own airplanes and gaining viral fame.
Who doesn't like being famous?
So, Fang Yuan used his savings to buy many materials online and, using his family's inherited blacksmithing skills, decided to make an airplane and gain some fame himself.
However, Fang Yuan discovered that the wheels needed for the plane's takeoff and landing required steel balls of very high quality, and the ones he bought online were not durable enough.
He then had a sudden idea: since he could buy high-quality steel, why not forge his own durable steel balls?
This led to Fang Yuan tirelessly forging steel. He had already forged five steel balls, each the size of a billiard ball, very smooth and seemingly machine-made.
Now, Fang Yuan was forging the sixth steel ball, almost finished.
Through continuous forging, he felt his blacksmithing skills had greatly improved, with many fine details crafted perfectly.
"Clang…"
Another hammer strike landed, but the red-hot steel ball remained unmoved. At that moment, Fang Yuan suddenly had a peculiar feeling, as if the internal patterns of the steel ball had been connected by that hammer strike.
"Just an illusion?" Fang Yuan shook his head and smiled, ready to continue hammering when suddenly something unexpected happened.
The steel ball suddenly emitted a radiant multicolored light, causing Fang Yuan to squint.
But this phenomenon lasted only a second before all the colors disappeared, as if it were a dream.
"What's going on? Am I seeing things because I'm too tired?" Fang Yuan was uncertain, holding the hammer in mid-air for a long time.
He then noticed, to his surprise, that the once red-hot steel ball had cooled down, turned dark, and its temperature seemed to have dropped drastically.
Moreover, he felt an unusual connection with the steel ball, as if it were an extension of his own body.
"Clang…" Fang Yuan dropped the hammer in shock, thinking he might be ill.
However, the special connection felt so real that even with his eyes closed, he could sense the steel ball's presence.
Steadying himself, Fang Yuan forced himself to calm down. Using tongs, he placed the steel ball in a cold water tank, but it didn't produce the usual white mist, confirming it had indeed cooled down. He then took the steel ball out and held it in his hand.
As soon as Fang Yuan picked up the steel ball, his mind buzzed, and he seemed to see a dim gray space.
"What the heck is going on?" Fang Yuan was shocked, but his vision quickly returned to normal, leaving him puzzled.
"What's happening today? Why am I having so many hallucinations?" Fang Yuan was very worried, fearing he might be suffering from some mental disorder.
"Huh, what's this? The weight of the steel ball…"
Coming back to his senses, Fang Yuan was amazed to find that he couldn't feel the weight of the steel ball.
To be precise, he could feel that the steel ball had weight, but strangely, the weight didn't seem to affect his hand.
This sensation was very peculiar and hard to describe.
The steel ball, the size of a billiard ball, seemed small but was very dense from being hammered many times, weighing about a kilogram, yet in Fang Yuan's hand, it felt as light as a feather.
"I need to calm down!"
Fang Yuan quickly put down the steel ball, washed his face, and after calming himself, picked it up again.
Still as light as a feather, the steel ball had weight, but it didn't affect his hand.
Now Fang Yuan was truly astonished; this was simply unscientific!
"Not a dream, so that dim gray space I saw before…"
Just as Fang Yuan thought of this, the strange space appeared before his eyes again, as if his consciousness had entered a mysterious space, making him widen his eyes.
"Oh my god, did I accidentally create a legendary spatial artifact?"
Fang Yuan's mind surged with excitement, hard to suppress.
After calming down a bit, he found that the dim gray space was pitifully small, only about one cubic meter.
Through the magical connection with the steel ball, Fang Yuan felt he could freely store and retrieve things from this space.
"This really is a spatial artifact, it actually exists?!"
Fang Yuan was astonished. After withdrawing his consciousness from the mysterious space, he tried putting things inside.
With a wave of his hand, the hammer he used for forging disappeared, appearing in the dim gray space.
Another wave, and the hammer reappeared.
Then Fang Yuan tried placing other items inside, and after multiple tests, he found that time seemed to stand still within the steel ball's space; items placed inside remained unchanged, even the temperature stayed the same.
"This is simply the ultimate thermal insulation!" Fang Yuan exclaimed. Then he had a sudden thought: could he put living things inside?
He certainly couldn't go in himself; if something went wrong, he'd be done for. And he couldn't just put other people inside; causing someone's death would be serious trouble.
Fang Yuan looked around the courtyard and finally found an earthworm, which he put into the steel ball space.
At first, nothing happened, but gradually, Fang Yuan saw the earthworm start to struggle, and after five minutes, it stopped moving, completely dead.
"Sure enough, living things can't survive inside, probably because there's no air." Fang Yuan guessed, then suddenly froze, noticing that at the moment of the earthworm's death, the steel ball space gained something.
It seemed to permeate the entire steel ball space but also appeared to exist in a special space independent of the gray area. Fang Yuan didn't know what it was, but he sensed it could improve the steel ball space.
Unfortunately, the amount generated by the earthworm's death was too little. With a single thought, Fang Yuan easily placed it into the steel ball space but noticed no change.
"Is it because it's too little?" Fang Yuan was amazed and decided to try with more creatures.
Without further ado, he stopped making the plane, picked up his phone, and called an earthworm farm in the nearby county to order some earthworms.
After making the call, to verify if other creatures also produced that substance upon death in the steel ball space, Fang Yuan caught some ants and mosquitoes and put them into the steel ball space.
He found that any creature, upon death in the space, would produce that peculiar substance, but the amount was very little.
Using the special connection with the steel ball, Fang Yuan knew that the substance was absorbed by the steel ball space when the creatures died, but he was sure it wasn't the so-called soul.
"Let's call it the essence." Fang Yuan named the substance.
Soon, the earthworms were delivered: one box, fifty pounds, twenty yuan per pound, totaling one thousand yuan.
After the delivery person left, Fang Yuan eagerly put all the earthworms into the steel ball space, nearly filling it up.
Perhaps due to the moisture, it took over ten minutes for all the earthworms to die.
Finally, when all the earthworms were dead, the steel ball's essence condensed into a drop, appearing liquid but Fang Yuan knew it wasn't; it was just a form of existence.
Without hesitation, Fang Yuan directly injected the drop of essence into the gray space.