Chapter 17
Secretly Excavating a Passage to Connect to the Mine
For the next three days, Xie Yanchen's schedule became almost rigidly mechanical.
During the day, he lived in a secluded stone house, cultivating diligently behind closed doors, and using the low-grade spirit stones awarded by the leader to solidify his foundation.
The optimized breathing technique is like a precise and efficient furnace of spiritual energy. The spiritual energy contained in each low-grade spirit stone is completely squeezed out, leaving not a trace, and transformed into pure and immaculate spiritual power to nourish the meridians and fill the dantian.
For an ordinary outer disciple, a low-grade spirit stone can sustain one or two days of cultivation.
Xie Yanchen, by fully activating his cultivation technique, could completely deplete all the energy of a spirit stone in two hours.
Over three days, all forty spirit stones melted away, turning into gray powder that piled up in the corner of the stone bed.
The continuous infusion of massive amounts of spiritual energy allowed his cultivation at the third level of Qi Refining to steadily improve, making his foundation increasingly solid and profound, and bringing him only one step away from the peak of the third level.
When the night was deep and quiet and the sect's patrols were lax, he would quietly open a secret passage and sneak into the abandoned mine in the back mountain.
The small, temporary energy-gathering device that was temporarily set up had a limited coverage area and a limited energy conversion rate, and could only meet the basic needs of breath regulation.
Over the past three days and nights, Xie Yanchen has been working tirelessly to upgrade and transform the mine. Relying on the terminal for precise modeling and calculation, he used the natural crystals and ores in the mine as raw materials to set up eight sets of balanced spirit-gathering nodes in the mine hall, creating a complete spirit-gathering network covering the entire main hall of the mine.
Eight nodes lit up with a pale blue halo in succession, forcibly drawing in, gathering, and compressing the wisps of spiritual energy from the deep spiritual veins.
The originally thin and scattered spiritual energy in the mine instantly condensed into a hazy white mist, swirling and flowing in the center of the hall.
The concentration of spiritual energy increased tenfold, far exceeding that of a sect's top-tier cultivation room, and the purity was worlds apart.
Immersed in it, spiritual energy seeps into the body through the pores of the skin, silently nourishing the body's meridians, making cultivation twice as efficient.
Looking at the ever-flowing spiritual mist before him, a bold idea quietly sprouted in Xie Yanchen's heart.
Aura is particle energy artificially induced by the Federation; its essence is controllable particles.
Since they are particles, they can be artificially intervened in, compressed, purified, and reshaped!
"Terminal, initiate the Level 1 Spiritual Energy Compression Experiment," Xie Yanchen ordered in a deep voice.
Upon receiving the instruction, the Spirit Gathering Network reversed its operation and initiated the spiritual energy compression process.
The next second, the energy of the eight spirit gathering nodes was reversed, switching from the spirit energy extraction mode to the high-pressure compression mode.
The vast spiritual mist was instantly gathered, rapidly converging towards the center of the hall and exerting pressure layer by layer.
The white mist continuously contracted, purified, and condensed, its color gradually changing from milky white to pale blue, eventually transforming into a fist-sized, translucent pale blue ball of light.
The ball of light floated in mid-air, its spiritual light flowing, pure and flawless, without any impurities or impurities of ordinary spiritual energy.
Compression complete: First-grade purified spirit crystal formed. Energy density is fifty times that of low-grade spirit stones, zero impurities, easy to absorb, and without stagnation, suitable for cultivators of all realms.
Xie Yanchen raised his hand and gently clenched it. The blue light instantly contracted, condensing into a translucent crystal the size of a thumb. It was warm to the touch and contained a vast and pure energy.
A small compressed spirit crystal is worth as much as half of an outer sect spirit stone vault.
More importantly, this confirms his conjecture—spiritual energy can be artificially purified and its grade can be artificially reshaped.
The ironclad rule that the cultivation world has upheld for millions of years—that "the grade of spirit stones is predetermined and spiritual energy cannot be artificially purified"—has been shattered in the face of the technological capabilities of the terminal.
With this ability, he would have access to a continuous stream of top-tier cultivation resources, completely freeing him from the constraints of sect resources.
Xie Yanchen carefully stored the compressed spirit crystal together with the Federation alloy fragments, and then turned his attention back to the secrets of the fragments.
"Progress in deciphering the patterns on the Federal fragments?"
During the pattern analysis, the underlying ternary encryption framework has been cracked, confirming that the pattern is a federated high-density data storage array containing a massive amount of sealed information. The cracking progress is 47%.
While the terminal was working hard to decipher the fragmented data, Xie Yanchen turned around and went deep into the bottom of the mine to investigate the three abnormal federal signal sources that had been marked earlier.
The mine tunnels were deep, dark, and covered in loose rocks, damp and cold. The terminal blue light path accurately guided the way, avoiding all landslides, dangerous rocks, and old mine pit traps.
The first signal source was hidden deep within the collapsed rock face.
Xie Yanchen spent half an hour chiseling through the thick rock layer and took out an alloy fragment the size of a fingernail. The material was exactly the same as the main fragment, with no patterns or information, which could only prove that a large federal facility once existed here.
The second signal source was a severely damaged, dark red data chip. The chip had long since weathered and shattered, its internal data completely destroyed, leaving only the federal standard markings and no usable information.
The third signal source is located inside a sealed rock layer at the very end of the mine, and it is also the strongest and largest of the three signals.
After chiseling through a half-zhang-thick, hard rock wall, a natural cavity suddenly appeared, and in the center of the cavity lay a complete metal plate the size of a palm.
The metal plate is neat and square, with only slight cracks on the edges. The surface has intricate patterns and multiple standard data interfaces, clearly indicating that it is the core data storage module of a large federal equipment!
High-value target detected: Federal-standard core data storage board! Equipped with dual-layer military-grade encryption, containing core data stored on the XL-947 experimental satellite!
The terminal's mechanical sound carried a noticeable fluctuation in computing power for the first time, demonstrating the high value of this metal plate.
"Go all out to crack the double encryption and extract all the sealed data!" Xie Yanchen's eyes narrowed, and he decisively gave the order.
A slight warmth instantly spread from the depths of consciousness, and the terminal mobilized the entire domain's computing power to brute-force crack the federated high-level encryption.
Just as the computing power was operating at full capacity, a high-risk warning for the terminal suddenly went off!
Warning! Artificial spiritual energy fluctuations detected upstream of the mine! Unnatural spiritual vein flow, suspected to be a cultivator secretly investigating! Three sets of Qi Refining Level 6 spiritual energy characteristics, approaching the core mine!
Xie Yanchen's expression turned cold. He instantly suppressed his aura and all spiritual energy fluctuations, then his figure flashed and disappeared into the shadows of the dark rock wall.
Holding my breath and focusing intently, I quietly probed the source of the sound indicated by the terminal.
Deep within a fork in the mine tunnel, a man-made, spacious stone chamber is illuminated by a faint, ever-burning light.
Three cultivators dressed in inner sect green robes sat around a stone table, with an old mining map spread out in front of them, many places marked with red circles.
One of the red circles marks the exact spot where he just dug out the data storage board!
The leader had a sinister face and was none other than Meng Hanjiang, Zhou Yuanshan's trusted disciple with whom he had a previous feud.
The three of them lowered their voices and whispered, each word clearly reaching Xie Yanchen's ears.
"Elder Zhou repeatedly warned that the alien artifact lost in the mining disaster a hundred years ago is hidden in this deep mineral vein. This object is of great importance and must not be known to the sect leader or the Enforcement Hall."
"We only need to search discreetly. Once found, do not touch it or keep it to yourself. Report it to Elder Zhou immediately, and you will be richly rewarded."
"Speed up! There's been a lot of trouble outside the gate lately. If they find out we've trespassed into the sealed mine, it will be a disaster!"
Extraterrestrial objects, a century-old mining disaster, a clandestine search, and a cover-up by the sect leader.
In just a few words, the truth has become clear.
The so-called century-old mining disaster was never an accidental collapse and the death of miners, but a tragedy of cover-up and silencing.
Zhou Yuanshan knew a hundred years ago that there were extraterrestrial relics of the Federation hidden deep in the mine. He has kept this secret until now, secretly sending people to search for them generation after generation, in an attempt to monopolize the secrets of the extraterrestrials and control the truth of the experimental field!
The core data board that he had painstakingly unearthed was the very treasure that Zhou Yuanshan had been searching for for a hundred years!
A chill ran through Xie Yanchen's eyes as he silently turned back the way he came.
He quickly shut down the spirit-gathering network, erased all traces of cultivation, properly sealed the data storage board, and quietly returned to the stone house through the secret passage, restoring all the mechanisms flawlessly.
Zhou Yuanshan had been plotting for a century; he was cunning and treacherous.
Now that he holds the core secrets that the other party has been searching for, he is standing at the center of the storm.
A battle concerning life and death, and the truth of the world, has quietly begun.
During the day, he lived in a secluded stone house, cultivating diligently behind closed doors, and using the low-grade spirit stones awarded by the leader to solidify his foundation.
The optimized breathing technique is like a precise and efficient furnace of spiritual energy. The spiritual energy contained in each low-grade spirit stone is completely squeezed out, leaving not a trace, and transformed into pure and immaculate spiritual power to nourish the meridians and fill the dantian.
For an ordinary outer disciple, a low-grade spirit stone can sustain one or two days of cultivation.
Xie Yanchen, by fully activating his cultivation technique, could completely deplete all the energy of a spirit stone in two hours.
Over three days, all forty spirit stones melted away, turning into gray powder that piled up in the corner of the stone bed.
The continuous infusion of massive amounts of spiritual energy allowed his cultivation at the third level of Qi Refining to steadily improve, making his foundation increasingly solid and profound, and bringing him only one step away from the peak of the third level.
When the night was deep and quiet and the sect's patrols were lax, he would quietly open a secret passage and sneak into the abandoned mine in the back mountain.
The small, temporary energy-gathering device that was temporarily set up had a limited coverage area and a limited energy conversion rate, and could only meet the basic needs of breath regulation.
Over the past three days and nights, Xie Yanchen has been working tirelessly to upgrade and transform the mine. Relying on the terminal for precise modeling and calculation, he used the natural crystals and ores in the mine as raw materials to set up eight sets of balanced spirit-gathering nodes in the mine hall, creating a complete spirit-gathering network covering the entire main hall of the mine.
Eight nodes lit up with a pale blue halo in succession, forcibly drawing in, gathering, and compressing the wisps of spiritual energy from the deep spiritual veins.
The originally thin and scattered spiritual energy in the mine instantly condensed into a hazy white mist, swirling and flowing in the center of the hall.
The concentration of spiritual energy increased tenfold, far exceeding that of a sect's top-tier cultivation room, and the purity was worlds apart.
Immersed in it, spiritual energy seeps into the body through the pores of the skin, silently nourishing the body's meridians, making cultivation twice as efficient.
Looking at the ever-flowing spiritual mist before him, a bold idea quietly sprouted in Xie Yanchen's heart.
Aura is particle energy artificially induced by the Federation; its essence is controllable particles.
Since they are particles, they can be artificially intervened in, compressed, purified, and reshaped!
"Terminal, initiate the Level 1 Spiritual Energy Compression Experiment," Xie Yanchen ordered in a deep voice.
Upon receiving the instruction, the Spirit Gathering Network reversed its operation and initiated the spiritual energy compression process.
The next second, the energy of the eight spirit gathering nodes was reversed, switching from the spirit energy extraction mode to the high-pressure compression mode.
The vast spiritual mist was instantly gathered, rapidly converging towards the center of the hall and exerting pressure layer by layer.
The white mist continuously contracted, purified, and condensed, its color gradually changing from milky white to pale blue, eventually transforming into a fist-sized, translucent pale blue ball of light.
The ball of light floated in mid-air, its spiritual light flowing, pure and flawless, without any impurities or impurities of ordinary spiritual energy.
Compression complete: First-grade purified spirit crystal formed. Energy density is fifty times that of low-grade spirit stones, zero impurities, easy to absorb, and without stagnation, suitable for cultivators of all realms.
Xie Yanchen raised his hand and gently clenched it. The blue light instantly contracted, condensing into a translucent crystal the size of a thumb. It was warm to the touch and contained a vast and pure energy.
A small compressed spirit crystal is worth as much as half of an outer sect spirit stone vault.
More importantly, this confirms his conjecture—spiritual energy can be artificially purified and its grade can be artificially reshaped.
The ironclad rule that the cultivation world has upheld for millions of years—that "the grade of spirit stones is predetermined and spiritual energy cannot be artificially purified"—has been shattered in the face of the technological capabilities of the terminal.
With this ability, he would have access to a continuous stream of top-tier cultivation resources, completely freeing him from the constraints of sect resources.
Xie Yanchen carefully stored the compressed spirit crystal together with the Federation alloy fragments, and then turned his attention back to the secrets of the fragments.
"Progress in deciphering the patterns on the Federal fragments?"
During the pattern analysis, the underlying ternary encryption framework has been cracked, confirming that the pattern is a federated high-density data storage array containing a massive amount of sealed information. The cracking progress is 47%.
While the terminal was working hard to decipher the fragmented data, Xie Yanchen turned around and went deep into the bottom of the mine to investigate the three abnormal federal signal sources that had been marked earlier.
The mine tunnels were deep, dark, and covered in loose rocks, damp and cold. The terminal blue light path accurately guided the way, avoiding all landslides, dangerous rocks, and old mine pit traps.
The first signal source was hidden deep within the collapsed rock face.
Xie Yanchen spent half an hour chiseling through the thick rock layer and took out an alloy fragment the size of a fingernail. The material was exactly the same as the main fragment, with no patterns or information, which could only prove that a large federal facility once existed here.
The second signal source was a severely damaged, dark red data chip. The chip had long since weathered and shattered, its internal data completely destroyed, leaving only the federal standard markings and no usable information.
The third signal source is located inside a sealed rock layer at the very end of the mine, and it is also the strongest and largest of the three signals.
After chiseling through a half-zhang-thick, hard rock wall, a natural cavity suddenly appeared, and in the center of the cavity lay a complete metal plate the size of a palm.
The metal plate is neat and square, with only slight cracks on the edges. The surface has intricate patterns and multiple standard data interfaces, clearly indicating that it is the core data storage module of a large federal equipment!
High-value target detected: Federal-standard core data storage board! Equipped with dual-layer military-grade encryption, containing core data stored on the XL-947 experimental satellite!
The terminal's mechanical sound carried a noticeable fluctuation in computing power for the first time, demonstrating the high value of this metal plate.
"Go all out to crack the double encryption and extract all the sealed data!" Xie Yanchen's eyes narrowed, and he decisively gave the order.
A slight warmth instantly spread from the depths of consciousness, and the terminal mobilized the entire domain's computing power to brute-force crack the federated high-level encryption.
Just as the computing power was operating at full capacity, a high-risk warning for the terminal suddenly went off!
Warning! Artificial spiritual energy fluctuations detected upstream of the mine! Unnatural spiritual vein flow, suspected to be a cultivator secretly investigating! Three sets of Qi Refining Level 6 spiritual energy characteristics, approaching the core mine!
Xie Yanchen's expression turned cold. He instantly suppressed his aura and all spiritual energy fluctuations, then his figure flashed and disappeared into the shadows of the dark rock wall.
Holding my breath and focusing intently, I quietly probed the source of the sound indicated by the terminal.
Deep within a fork in the mine tunnel, a man-made, spacious stone chamber is illuminated by a faint, ever-burning light.
Three cultivators dressed in inner sect green robes sat around a stone table, with an old mining map spread out in front of them, many places marked with red circles.
One of the red circles marks the exact spot where he just dug out the data storage board!
The leader had a sinister face and was none other than Meng Hanjiang, Zhou Yuanshan's trusted disciple with whom he had a previous feud.
The three of them lowered their voices and whispered, each word clearly reaching Xie Yanchen's ears.
"Elder Zhou repeatedly warned that the alien artifact lost in the mining disaster a hundred years ago is hidden in this deep mineral vein. This object is of great importance and must not be known to the sect leader or the Enforcement Hall."
"We only need to search discreetly. Once found, do not touch it or keep it to yourself. Report it to Elder Zhou immediately, and you will be richly rewarded."
"Speed up! There's been a lot of trouble outside the gate lately. If they find out we've trespassed into the sealed mine, it will be a disaster!"
Extraterrestrial objects, a century-old mining disaster, a clandestine search, and a cover-up by the sect leader.
In just a few words, the truth has become clear.
The so-called century-old mining disaster was never an accidental collapse and the death of miners, but a tragedy of cover-up and silencing.
Zhou Yuanshan knew a hundred years ago that there were extraterrestrial relics of the Federation hidden deep in the mine. He has kept this secret until now, secretly sending people to search for them generation after generation, in an attempt to monopolize the secrets of the extraterrestrials and control the truth of the experimental field!
The core data board that he had painstakingly unearthed was the very treasure that Zhou Yuanshan had been searching for for a hundred years!
A chill ran through Xie Yanchen's eyes as he silently turned back the way he came.
He quickly shut down the spirit-gathering network, erased all traces of cultivation, properly sealed the data storage board, and quietly returned to the stone house through the secret passage, restoring all the mechanisms flawlessly.
Zhou Yuanshan had been plotting for a century; he was cunning and treacherous.
Now that he holds the core secrets that the other party has been searching for, he is standing at the center of the storm.
A battle concerning life and death, and the truth of the world, has quietly begun.