Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 790
The Fire Ant King used to be the leader of the Blade of Chaos. After the Elder Nether Spring died, most of the relics of 'Chaos' Ba Yanzhi fell to his hands. The development and utilization of such relics were his primary concern.
"Forty thousand years ago, Ba Yanzhi, the leader of the Chaos Demons, fought against the Ultimate One Demons with the Blood Demon Sector as his last fort. He left countless relics and secret treasures on the planet!
"The largest of all the relics is the place of Ba Yanzhi's burial, namely the Mausoleum of Chaos deep inside the White Silver Death Desert of the Blood Demon Sector.
"There, Ba Yanzhi conducted a series of incredible research projects based on the relic of the Pangu civilization, which can shed a lot of light to us even today!
"After the situation in the Blood Demon Sector stabilized, I led an exploration team of Skyfire to excavate the Mausoleum of Chaos a second time. We sorted through the key technologies inside. Three of them are of paramount importance for the three Sectors today.
"Firstly, the man-made spiritual root technology. Once it succeeds, it will be possible to plant a man-made spiritual root into the head of an ordinary person and transform them into a Cultivator easily!
"Of course, due to the lack of training, such Cultivators will definitely be far from real ones. They might even not be able to advance and will stop at the beginning level of the Refinement Stage all their life.
"However, for the ordinary soldiers in their thirties who have almost no hope of becoming Cultivators in the first place, is there anything wrong with improving their combat ability quickly in such a way?
"Secondly, the gold core technology! If the man-made spiritual roots can only significantly expand the number of the bottom-level soldiers, the gold core technology will be able to produce experts in bulk!
"In fact, this is also the technology that is closest to realization. My brother, Elder Nether Spring, built a strong special force named the Nether World Watch through a similar technology!"
The Nether World Watch had been Elder Nether Spring's personal army. The soldiers of the army were embedded with tremendous demon cores to enhance their combat ability. They were indeed much tougher than normal demons and had even caused a headache for Li Yao.
After Elder Nether Spring died, part of the Nether World Watch had resisted and been executed, but part of them, having no leaders, had chosen to surrender. The secrets of their training had then fallen into the hands of the Fire Ant King and Skyfire.
Methods of training were neither righteous nor evil after all. What Elder Nether Spring used to commit crimes, the Fire Ant King and Li Yao could use to protect their homeland and help the people.
"Thirdly, the technology to blend magical equipment with flesh! The essence of the technology is to grant a piece of magical equipment certain self-control and identification abilities. They can be called 'ware spirits', if you will, which can perform a mission for a long time without any manipulation!
"The intelligence of such 'ware spirits' will not have to be as high as an adult. They will be able to play an important role in many military fields as long as they are as smart as army dogs!
"Imagine such a picture. A batch of blood-sucking flying swords are produced and deployed to the space zones at the frontier of the New Federation. Once the invaders from the Imperium of True Human Beings are detected, they will immediately be awoken from their hibernation state. With self-control, they will dash into the warships of the Imperium of True Human Beings and keep themselves functioning by absorbing the flesh and blood of the Immortal Cultivators. Then, they will slaughter and sabotage!
"Even if they cannot stop the enemy, they will at least buy us more time and will consume the enemy's resources as much as possible!"
Man-made spiritual roots, synthesized gold cores, and cannibal ware spirits!
Each of the three technologies was groundbreaking enough. If they were all successfully developed, the capability of the three Sectors would be enhanced by at least ten times!
All the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors nodded in approval.
Like Professor Mo Xuan, the Fire Ant King left the podium swiftly after sending the project proposal regarding the development of the Mausoleum of Chaos to everybody.
Li Yao had seen the toughness of the blood-sucking flying swords in the Mausoleum of Chaos himself. He was quite interested in the mysterious magical equipment, too. So, he declared confidently to the Fire Ant King that money was not a problem, and he could provide however much the Fire Ant King needed.
However, after the Fire Ant King gave him the budget of the preliminary phase, Li Yao was so shocked that he could barely keep mouth closed.
Good heavens. So much money?
Li Yao's personal assets right now, if used for his own training and entertainment, would be more than enough for the rest of his life even if he were to do nothing from this moment on.
However, compared to the budget of a super project that would take decades to accomplish and influence multiple Sectors, his money was nothing but a glass of water in front of an entire ocean.
Chapter 1207: Solar Soldiers! |
It appeared that 'Chaos' Ba Yanzhi's mausoleum was not so easy to excavate after all. Li Yao could only scratch his nose in embarrassment and focus his attention on the introduction of the next Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator.
This time, it was Professor Sa Ranbing, the president of the Capital Medical College as well as one of the best biologists of the federation.
He was also the project leader on the Heaven's Origin Sector's side about the Human Hibernation Technology, which had been quite a hit recently.
In fact, the preservation of Jin Tuyi through the Human Hibernation Technology would be implemented by Professor Sa Ranbing.
The plan that Professor Sa Ranbing brought with him was named 'Wind Sail'. On the 3D light beam behind him, a giant sail was indeed flapping in the infinite universe. Judging from the plotting scale in the corner, the sails that were as colorful as the wings of butterflies were all more than ten kilometers in diameter. They seemed to be thin metal membranes made of a certain extremely-light material. With their memory function, they were stretching out to the maximum and constricting to a cluster. They changed their angles in the light of the stars, absorbed the radiation, and cruised in the boundless universe.
They were both like lone boats that were striding forward and like dandelions that were flying along with the wind.
A hibernation capsule, which was utterly disproportional to the sails, was in the middle of every two sails. They looked like the dust between the two wings of a butterfly.
"It is well-known that we have made a significant breakthrough in Human Hibernation," Professor Sa Ranbing said. "We have preliminarily achieved the instant freezing of a human body, allowing the cells to be preserved for decades perfectly!
"The Human Hibernation Technology can be applied to many fields. It can allow the terminally-ill patients who are suffering from untreatable diseases to hibernate until the medical technology is more developed. It can also allow Cultivators with high combat ability to hibernate until the expedition army of the Imperium arrives. It is also an indispensable technology on our long journey to explore more Sectors!
"Without the technology, not only will the long, lonely journey in the universe sabotage one's body and soul, the crew members will also consume tremendous materials during their daily activities and through their metabolism.
"More life-sustaining materials means less fuel and ammunition. The distance of the voyage will be shortened, and the anti-risk ability during the voyage will be weakened, too!
"With the Human Hibernation Technology, the crew members who travel in the sea stars will not consume as many materials in their hibernation state. So, there will be more room in the star ship for fuel, crystals, and ammunition. The starships will be able to be designed with fewer restraints because the zones for the crew members' activity can be eliminated!
"It is safe to say that the Human Hibernation Technology is the indispensable prerequisite for us to walk out of the three Sectors to a broader universe!
"However, the technology has a flaw, too, or something that can be improved, if you will, which is that Cultivators in the hibernation state cannot train themselves!
"A Refinement Stage Cultivator will still be in the Refinement Stage after a century of hibernation. He cannot be automatically upgraded to the Building Foundation Stage. Or rather, because of the long hibernation, his Cultivation will even slightly decline after he wakes up, and it will take a period of physical therapy for him to fully recuperate.
"In our eyes, it is truly a shame because 'time' itself is an extremely valuable resource. If the Cultivators spend a hundred years hibernating while gaining nothing, it will be a great waste!
"Therefore, the Capital Medical College and the Refining Department of Deep Sea University hereby propose the 'Wind Sail Plan'!
"Please look at the 3D light beam. The metal membranes that look like butterfly wings are made of a new material known as Seven-Colored Membrane that has been developed by the Novem Stellae, the most excellent research group in the Refining Department of Deep Sea University, and Jiang Sheng and Jiang Shaoyang, who are among the most excellent refiners in the federation. The greatest feature of such a material is that it can absorb all the radiation in the universe and transform it into the spiritual energy absorbable for Cultivators through reactions on the microcosmic level.
"It is clear to us all that radiation is everywhere in the universe, the most important of which is the light and heat emitted by the stars, which is also known as solar energy. Such Seven-Colored Membranes, which look like wind sails, are essentially a system to collect and transform the solar energy!
"In our design, we will invent a 'hibernation capsule' that is heatproof and radiation-proof in the near future. Then, we will attach one hibernation capsule to two or even more Seven-Colored Membranes before we launch them to the orbit near the sun!
"When the Seven-Colored Membranes are stretched to the maximum, they can be hundreds of kilometers long theoretically. Also, different membranes can be connected to each other into an enormous membrane with a coverage of tens of thousands of square kilometers. The solar energy will be absorbed and transmitted to the hibernation capsule incessantly!
"Then, through the crystal wires implanted into the bodies of the hibernators, the solar energy will nurture the hibernators as time goes by and cleanse their body and improve their capability. Essentially, they will be training themselves while they are hibernating!
"Yes. That is our purpose. Train with the solar energy!
"The solar energy is truly the source of strength for all the lives on every planet. There will be no lives without the sun. The utilization efficiency of solar energy implies the development level of a civilization, too. Right now, we are utilizing the solar energy at an appallingly low efficiency. In the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector, too much energy from the star has been wasted. It is often the case that we can only use less than one ten thousandth of the whole!
"In the legends, the Kuafu Clan, which belonged to the Pangu civilization, could chase after the sun and establish an enormous magical equipment system to absorb the solar energy on the orbit of the star. They could even envelop the entire sun with a Kuafu Sphere, which could utilize one hundred percent of the energy from a star!
"What an incredible civilization it must've been!
"Of course, we are still not able to produce such marvelous magical equipment as a Kuafu Sphere right now, but building thousands of Seven-Colored Membranes as sails and sending Cultivators to the nearby of the sun where they will absorb the solar energy for a hundred years is totally feasible!
"In a hundred years, after we retrieve the solar hibernation capsules and activate the solar soldiers inside, they will definitely be the most terrible nightmares for the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings!"
Everybody was so shocked by the magnificent plan of Professor Sa Ranbing and the Refining Department of Deep Sea University that thunderous applauses did not burst out until he left the podium.
Even Li Yao secretly complimented the excellent design of Jiang Shaoyang and the Refining Department of Deep Sea University.
It was not just about the 'Wind Sail Plan' itself, but more importantly, their ambitions to utilize, develop, and conquer the sun showed Li Yao the future of the federation and the hope for the civilization of mankind!
Jiang Shaoyang the bald is truly not simple. It appears that he is really determined to defeat me!
Li Yao could not help but fantasize about what would happen if the plans of Professor Mo Xuan, the Fire Ant King, Sa Ranbing, and Jiang Shaoyang all worked out.
By then, the federation would boast an army of star spirits, a troop of solar soldiers, and legions based on the man-made spiritual roots and synthesized cores, which would be ten times stronger than the Nether World Watch today!
That way, the Imperium did not seem to be invading at all; it was more likely to be feeding the expedition army to them!
After Professor Sa Ranbing, more than ten Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and demon emperors went to the podium and proposed their own splendid, extraordinary plans.
Three of them left a deep impression on Li Yao.
Firstly, the Deep Sea Plan.
It was raised by a demon emperor of the Sea Clan in the Blood Demon Sector. He pointed out that, on a planet that was suitable for the survival of human beings and demons, seventy percent of the surface was usually covered by the ocean in order to maintain the atmosphere and the ecological circulation. The ratio could not be lower than fifty percent.
The boundless ocean was virgin lands yet to be fully developed. Although people had walked to the sea of stars, they were not bold enough to say that they knew every detail about the seas of their hometown.
The Sea Clan, on the other hand, specialized in the development of the ocean. They had accumulated tremendous experience in exploiting undersea mines or building undersea cities and even fortresses in their thousands of years of heredity.
In the future, they could share the experience with the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector so that more undersea cities could be built in the oceans of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector. The rare crystals and mines deeply buried in the ocean would be excavated and purified, too. A batch of human beings could also be trained to live under the ocean, too!
When the expedition army of the Imperium came, the cities, mines, and soldiers hiding in the ocean would be an unexpected force that would give the expedition army thunderous strike when the battles in the outer space and on the surface of the planet were most fierce!
One day, they could even march to the territory of the Imperium. As long as there was ocean within the Imperium, they would find their paradise!
Secondly, the Ice God Project.
It was proposed by Si Koulie, the leader of the Star Fighters' Alliance and a specialist in the refinement of starships. It was not a new plan but a restarted one.
When Li Yao was in the Flying Star Sector, Si Koulie was the second most influential person in the Flying Star Sector who was almost on par with Xiao Xuance.
To deal with the space pirates, a Meeting of the Next Millennium had been hosted in the Flying Star Sector, where Xiao Xuance proposed the Grand Illusionary Soldiers Project while Si Koulie put forward the Ice God Project, in which he tried to finish Ice King, a semi-product of a planetary warship left by the Star Ocean Imperium.
At that time, the project had been vetoed because of the time cost and the huge investment. In the end, even Ice King had been modified into an enormous Cosmic Slingshot, losing all its functions as a warship.
Si Koulie, as the best professional of starships in the three Sectors, had never been too happy about the outcome. He had been dreaming about restarting the Ice God Project. Finally, he had another opportunity!
Chapter 1208: Li Yao's Grand Strategy! |
Last time, the Ice God Project had been disapproved because of the time cost and the huge investment.
After all, the Flying Star Sector was a relatively loose civilization made of starships. Every starship was a small government itself. When so many governments were added together, nothing could be organized.
Without a powerful central government to concentrate the necessary resources on the projects that were really important, how could a piece of stellar magical equipment such as a planetary warship be built?
Besides, the threat of the space pirates had been right next to them and need to be addressed within a couple of years. There was no time for them to develop slowly.
Therefore, the Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector had chosen the Grand Illusionary Soldiers Project, which apparently had a lot of hidden problems, not because they were unaware of the problems but because their ability limited them to produce smaller magical equipment such as the Grand Illusionary Soldiers. They could only hope to build enough ants to bite an elephant to death.
But right now, everything was different.
The Star Glory Federation had a very powerful central government and a highly-efficient resource planning and utilization system after five hundred years of bloody wars. Besides, the expedition army of the Imperium of True Human Beings would not arrive until at least a hundred years later. They had a whole century to develop slowly. It was exactly the time that the production of a planetary warship required!
A warship the size of a planet, even if it was the smallest planet, would still be intimidating in the universe!
It was hard to tell whether or not there were planetary warships in the homeland of the Imperium of True Human Beings, but the expedition army was unlikely to drag a planet on their long journey.
Therefore, as long as the Ice God Project worked out, in the battle of resistance in the future, the federal army would even surpass the expedition army of the Imperium in regard of tonnage!
