Chapter 501 The Mount Everest Mass Accelerator (5200)

The Qingluan-class stealth supersonic aircraft is triangular, a creation that looks more like a missile than an airplane.

It utilizes the experience of ancient immortal gods in creating flying shuttles, using special transcendent materials to be wind-resistant and space-traversing, an 'aerospace plane' that treats the atmosphere as a vacuum.

The Qingluan-class was initially designed as an auxiliary aircraft, like a carrier-based fighter, that could be carried in a cosmic warship. However, it was realized that in cosmic close-quarters combat, specially designed, enhanced exoskeletal armor for superhumans was far more useful than aircraft. Therefore, after producing a few units, research and production were halted, and the project was shelved.

Now, the known Qingluan-class serves as a rapid transport device between lunar bases and for moving within certain special areas on Earth.

Su Zhou, Tang Yuan, and Craftsman Sage (匠圣, Jiàng Shèng) were sitting in the belly of the aircraft. The Qingluan-class aircraft ignited and took off, even causing Su Zhou to sense a familiar feeling of ‘Lan Seed activation’—because in the next instant, a layer of spiritual energy罡風 (gāng fēng, true wind) that isolated air resistance surrounded the aircraft, and pale blue flames erupted at the tail, instantly accelerating it to supersonic speed.

Five seconds later, they were already in the mid-stratosphere.

*Looks like I can imitate the structure of this aircraft for the Lan Seed next time. Always transforming my body into a missile and flying around isn't very aesthetically pleasing.*

Feeling the Qingluan-class's incredibly smooth acceleration, Su Zhou's heart stirred, and he immediately began using his spiritual power to perceive the structure of the aircraft beneath him.

Craftsman Sage didn't say anything about this, and even seemed quite happy to see it happen.

"Our destination is the location of the 'Mount Everest Mass Accelerator' in Tibet. The speed is very fast."

At this time, the Sage sat unhurriedly in his seat, giving the two a rather smug smile: "I am the designer of the core area of the mass accelerator, and one of the core designers of the spiritual energy constraint structure for the nuclear fusion device—I've been busy with this lately, so busy I haven't had a moment to spare."

"As expected of Craftsman Sage, you are truly a pillar of the nation!"

"Oh, not at all, Professor Su, you are a pillar of civilization!"

Although it sounded like a complaint of 'this work is killing me,' the underlying meaning was entirely 'I am simply too amazing!'

Su Zhou was very much in tune with this kind of temperament, and after they exchanged compliments on this point, the topic moved to the main issue.

"According to the detection feedback, the Seraphim's spaceship is still located around Jupiter. There are two ways to reach it. The stupidest way is to use a traditional spaceship to fly directly there—and the other is to use the latest design, a new spaceship equipped with a Thallin warp engine."

Ultimately an engineering technician, Craftsman Sage spoke straightforwardly.

He pushed up his glasses and directly revealed the subsequent plan: "The former would take several months to fly, and we don't have that kind of time to waste. The new spaceship just finished its cosmic tests a few days ago, and is currently undergoing repairs around 'Mount Everest Accelerator City.'"

"If Professor Su wants to depart, you may have to wait a few days. Captain Kotalen and Captain K-Clo will be participating in the mission this time, and they are waiting for you there."

As one of the strongest master craftsmen in the world, Craftsman Sage had been responsible for various highly classified related projects before the appearance of the aliens—the mass accelerator and the nuclear fusion spiritual energy scattering structure were only part of it. The core array hubs of the first Qingluan-class were all created by him personally using the 'Heavenly Crafting Method.'

After the appearance of the aliens, Craftsman Sage had been reverse-engineering the technology in various alien spaceships and trying to adapt various technologies to Earth.

Some time ago, the Earth spaceship, which incorporated the core cosmic ship technology of the Thallin and possessed a warp engine, secretly succeeded in its test flight, giving this Sage a short period of rest, even free enough to personally come and receive Su Zhou.

"Mount Everest Accelerator... the 'Stairway to Heaven Project'. Although I knew there was such a thing, you actually built a large-scale industrial base powered primarily by a large nuclear fusion reactor in a remote place like Tibet?"

Su Zhou pondered this slightly, finding the relevant terms and reports from the vast sea of various project lists in his mind.

——Stairway to Heaven Project.

Transforming a mountain peak into the acceleration channel of a large mass accelerator, and using it as the source point to create a large cosmic industrial area, as the core space center of Zheng Nation in the future.

That which extends from earth to heaven is the Stairway to Heaven.

In fact, the Mount Everest Mass Accelerator is just the most complete part of the plan. In other parts of Zheng Nation, there are other models of 'Stairways to Heaven' being planned and constructed.

Thinking of this, Su Zhou was immediately a little astonished and said, "Is it actually true? Gradually transforming the Mount Everest mountain into a large mass accelerator, and the Tibet region is gradually becoming the corresponding cosmic industrial center... I originally thought someone was joking, but I didn't expect it wasn't, and it's already been built?"

"When did we have this kind of engineering capability?"

"This is no joke... and Professor Su, you might be underestimating the spiritual energy revival, and various technologies, especially the productivity brought by nuclear fusion power generation, the engineering capabilities have exploded."

Hearing this, Craftsman Sage shook his head slightly: "The difficulty of construction in Tibet is nothing more than the physical condition of the personnel and the cost. But now, who among those who have cultivated would have altitude sickness? And when nuclear fusion power generation is officially put into use, the previously unattainable costs are no longer a problem."

"But I remember, isn't it not completely practical yet?"

Su Zhou really didn't know much about this aspect. He had been very busy lately and hadn't delved too deeply into matters outside of his responsibilities.

"It's just not completely commercialized yet. In many independent industrial cities and pilot operation areas, the various changes brought about by nuclear fusion have already begun to emerge, and have strengthened our idea of completely popularizing it in the future."

Craftsman Sage shook his head slightly. He turned his head and signaled with his eyes to Tang Yuan, who was looking out the window of the aircraft, "Your secretary probably knows more about this than you do."

"Ah? Yes, Minister!"

Although she seemed a little flustered at being named, Tang Yuan quickly calmed down, after all, she was someone who often dealt with Su Zhou and various Sages, and nodded to confirm: "A year and a half ago, the initial few nuclear fusion power plants were connected to the grid, and electricity prices dropped a lot."

"You see, everyone in every city can turn on their air conditioners as they please—although there are really fewer people who need air conditioning now."

"Is that so?"

Slightly widening his eyes, Su Zhou immediately felt a little annoyed: "I styled myself as a reformer, but I never paid attention to this!"

Although that's what he said, it wasn't entirely Su Zhou's fault—after all, he had been carrying out missions back and forth for the past two years, repeatedly jumping between different worlds and Earth.

Just like the Qingqiu Star incident, one round trip was almost a year, and counting the subsequent trip to the Reincarnation World, it was a year and a half.

In addition, with his strength, he really hadn't acted much among the people for a long time, so he would naturally be somewhat out of touch with contemporary social development.

A year and a half, even in the world before the spiritual energy revival, could make people feel things changing with each passing day, not to mention the explosion of various technologies and the comprehensive improvement of human physical fitness after the spiritual energy revival, which would definitely cause extremely huge changes.

However, Su Zhou was not stupid.

In Tang Yuan's narration, and the few details supplemented by Craftsman Sage, he had roughly understood the various changes on Earth during this period.

Since four years ago, various Taoist techniques, ancient traditions, had been restored, and the pace of nuclear fusion utilization, which was still in the exploratory stage globally, had rapidly accelerated, and in just two years, it had gone from the initial 'trial operation' to 'civilian operation'.

Of course, there was the reason that countries had to move forward as much as possible to seize the opportunities of the times, but most importantly, it was because countries already had corresponding mature designs, waiting only for the revival of transcendent power to fill in the last piece of the puzzle.

And what kind of changes would this have on the world?

The drastic drop in electricity bills that Tang Yuan mentioned, becoming less than one-twentieth of the original, being able to turn on air conditioners and use electrical appliances at will, and the price being almost free, was certainly the most important meaning from the perspective of ordinary people.

But as long as you think carefully, you can know how significant a 'change' and 'innovation' this is to the current world operating system!

Su Zhou could immediately think of those industries that require a lot of power, the production capital has dropped countless times... just like metal refining, mechanical processing, chemical industry and so on.

And in these heavy industries, there are many whose power consumption of just one machine is comparable to the civilian power consumption of a small city. Their operating costs were originally millions or tens of millions as soon as they were turned on, but because of the existence of nuclear fusion, this would instantly drop to an extremely low level.

In addition, there are also chemical fiber industries such as papermaking, glass, electrolytic aluminum, and various light industries, whose production costs will also be greatly reduced. And whether it is construction, transportation, and civilian electrical appliances, these industries closely related to people's livelihood, will also usher in a plunge in production and operating costs.

It sounds complicated, but it's actually very simple.

Because electricity bills have fallen, the cost of metal smelting and chemical production has also fallen, followed by the fall in the prices of these basic materials—and the fall in the prices of basic materials means that the cost of other subsequent processing and production of products will also fall.

In other words, the prices of food and goods will become cheaper, people's living and consumption standards will be greatly improved, and it will be difficult to see people starving to death again.

Exaggerated? Not at all.

Moreover, not to mention anything else, with the energy problem solved, many things that are not impossible, but unwilling to do, will be realized.

——For example, high-density three-dimensional crop cultivation sheds using solar lamps for cultivation 24 hours a day all year round.

——The re-exploitation of northern regions brought about by cheap heating.

——Large-scale seawater distillation equipment will solve the water resource crisis.

——Mountain development will be more convenient than imagined, and giant buildings and large-scale geological transformations will become a reality.

These people-benefiting plans and technologies that are not technical problems at all, but only cost problems, will further bring about a revolution in productivity.

The Earth is far more vast than humans imagine. Without the balance of energy, countless uninhabitable areas on this planet will become habitable. Not to mention outside the Earth, there are various other realms. The increased exploration efforts brought about by the increase in productivity will also bring many changes.

The chain reaction that follows, what kind of world will it create... just thinking about it, Su Zhou couldn't help but feel happy.

Moreover, in addition to this.

Sitting in his seat, Su Zhou raised his head, his gaze penetrating the stealth armor and coating of the Qingluan-class aircraft, directly into the high sky.

"For example, that thing, right?"

Su Zhou looked at the cosmic space with a smile, and Craftsman Sage was a little surprised at first, but quickly smiled and said: "That's right."

"The scale of space stations in various countries is expanding. Our related space race projects are trying to build large spaceports and the possibility of small space cities."

Speaking of this, Craftsman Sage couldn't help but take off his glasses. In his hand, the glasses began to deform as if by magic, eventually turning into a small 3D projection device, and presenting a mountain range and a giant mechanical structure attached to the mountain range in mid-air.

This mechanical structure looks a bit like a giant '入' shaped slide, and the track of the slide is long and winding, and cannot be completely seen until the end of the projection.

That is the preview of the 'Mount Everest Mass Accelerator'.

A super-giant artificial building attached to the highest peak on Earth.

Staring at the 3D projection in his hand, Craftsman Sage's eyes were soft and mixed with countless expectations.

"Although, with the excellent resources of Earth and other realms, space development is not such an urgent matter. But because of the existence of aliens, its development is still a top priority."

"The mass accelerator gives us the ability to build these things, and the power consumption of the mass accelerator, if it is traditional power generation, it is completely impossible to operate at low cost."

Saying this, Craftsman Sage showed Su Zhou and Tang Yuan a projection of four giant cylindrical buildings located around the mass accelerator—those were four nuclear fusion power plants, enough to supply the vast energy of half of Zheng Nation in the past, but now they are only used for a giant building.

"Amazing! However, if that's the case, why not build a little more and simply make electricity directly free? There is still a huge difference between charging and free."

Su Zhou's sincere praise made the expectations and smile on Craftsman Sage's face become even happier. He retracted his hand and transformed the 3D projector back into glasses, putting them back on his head.

He raised his head, his gaze leisurely: "In the past, the human race on Earth fought each other for energy. Crude oil, coal, natural gas, humans launched countless wars to compete for these things."

"The energy war more than forty years ago almost destroyed these traditional industries—although almost everyone was desperate at that time, and could only pin their hopes on the spiritual energy revival, but now it seems that it is precisely because the energy war destroyed these original industries that the development of nuclear fusion and related new energy has not been too hindered, and its replacement will not cause too much shock."

Hearing this, Su Zhou nodded slightly. The rejection of the old by the new is the most difficult part of all reforms.

But then, Craftsman Sage's tone suddenly changed.

"Nuclear fusion is a technology that is enough to change the fate of mankind, especially because of transcendent techniques, nuclear fusion generators that can be easily built, popularized, and are almost pollution-free, and there is even the possibility of miniaturization and light weighting in the future, that is the goal I will strive for in my future life."

Clearly at first, Craftsman Sage's speech was extremely firm, but as he spoke later, his expression suddenly became solemn.

Just like a Sichuan opera face change, just now he was happy with gratification, but in an instant he became somber.

He looked at Su Zhou and sighed: "As for why it is not completely popularized for civilian use, and the policy of building separate urban areas around nuclear fusion power generation facilities that is currently being implemented, the reason is actually very simple."

"Professor Su, Secretary Tang, you should all know about the recent 'Spiritual Awakening' incident, right."

That's for sure.

Both of them nodded together. The discussion and worries of Taoist Sage and Craftsman Sage about the vehicle-mounted AI 'Lie' happened not long ago, and their memories were still very clear.

And they both understood in an instant what Craftsman Sage was going to say next.

"Yes. That's it. After all, most of the spiritual energy in this world will naturally converge towards low-entropy entities."

Smiling somewhat reluctantly, Craftsman Sage's tone carried a trace of depression: "Just like the strongest natural spiritual entity holder in the entire star system must be a star, a nuclear fusion power plant is a small star burning on Earth."

"It has nothing to do with radiation. The density of spiritual energy around it is even better than the effect of a special giant fire attribute spiritual gathering array. If you put a fire attribute spiritual object around it, it will succeed in spiritual awakening in less than a year and a half—some time ago, we artificially cultivated the first batch of artificial 'fire spirits'. At this rate, recreating the Golden Crow lineage within three years is simply a certainty."

"In such a high-spirited environment, even a thought lodged can probably cause inanimate objects to give birth to spirituality."

Speaking of this, Craftsman Sage gave a wry smile: "And nuclear fusion power plants... their very existence is the center of the lodging of countless people's hearts."

"In this era, people who were previously using expensive electricity, every time they turn on an electrical appliance, every time they use an inexpensive service, every time they enjoy the benefits of nuclear fusion, they will naturally have thoughts in their hearts and lodge them on it... In addition, our nuclear fusion power plants originally used a lot of Golden Crow structures for stability and ease of control—this makes it too easy for them to awaken spiritually."

"Even if we put on spiritual dispersing talismans, if the power of vows is too great, then it is not impossible to directly force the spiritual awakening of the spiritual dispersing talismans themselves!"

"..."

Hearing this, not only Tang Yuan, but even Su Zhou showed astonishment.

But saying this, it is indeed not impossible.

Ultimately, the spiritual dispersing rune is also a spiritual power structure, and its effect has an upper limit—if it exceeds the upper limit, it is normal for it to fail.

The revival of spiritual energy does have its advantages and disadvantages, especially for human civilization that wants to explore a new path.

However, hearing this, Su Zhou was a little strange.

"So, is everything for the sake of avoiding the loss of control of the power of vows? In order to avoid disasters caused by the loss of control, and in order to avoid excessive condensation of the power of vows, that's why you build urban areas separately around them, so that the entire urban area collectively bears the power of vows instead of a separate power generation device."

He frowned slightly and said, "If that's the case, then why not directly guide the power of vows to form a 'God of Nuclear Fusion'? Or artificially create a god, and let a Quasi-Dao cultivator with Golden Crow bloodline bear these powers of vows?"

Yesterday's update...

Some things were delayed, there will be more updates later, I will rest for a while now