Pillar… Awakening level?
Zhou Zhengde was dumbfounded, unable to digest the news for a moment.
Wang Jixuan nodded calmly, asking with some bewilderment, "How do you determine the awakening level of a Pillar?"
"Three indicators."
"One indicator is the degree of spiritual energy gathering within the body. A Pillar-level Blade Beast in a dormant state has its spiritual energy dispersed throughout its body, with three to five massive cores. When they begin to awaken, spiritual energy converges towards these cores."
Fu Jian explained simply:
"Another indicator is a method similar to brainwave detection, but the brainwaves of Blade Beasts are different. You'd have to ask the technical personnel for specifics."
"And then there's the exchange of information between the Pillar-level Blade Beast and nearby Blade Beasts, which is the most important indicator."
"We divide the awakening level of Blade Beasts into three stages: 24% indicates a tendency to awaken, with spiritual energy beginning to gather; 52% indicates entering the awakening cycle, beginning to exchange information with nearby Blade Beasts; and 80% indicates imminent awakening."
"In the past twenty years, the highest level we've detected is 52%, the second stage."
Daoist Wang lowered his head to ponder, took a bite of the squid, and felt… that the taste of this thing was only slightly better than Blade Beast meat.
[After the Blade Beasts defeated human civilization and occupied most of the surface, twelve Pillar-level Blade Beasts fell into slumber in different areas.]
The Daoist then asked, "Have humans ever directly confronted a Pillar-level Blade Beast?"
"Yes, the twelve Pillar-level Blade Beasts have different forms, each only appearing once in history, and each time we suffered a crushing defeat."
Fu Jian said solemnly:
"The massive city circles created during humanity's golden age were all directly destroyed by Pillar-level Blade Beasts in different regions."
"After they destroyed the main body of human civilization, they took the main Blade Beast groups and went into hibernation underground."
"To this day, we haven't won a single war involving a Pillar-level Blade Beast."
"Currently, all the efforts of humanity in the Fortress Era are focused on producing military equipment, using our limited occupied areas and limited resources to produce all kinds of military equipment. We are desperately manufacturing nuclear weapons, but we dare not launch a counterattack… This is the powerful deterrent of the Pillar-level Blade Beasts."
"Currently, the strategic nuclear weapons in each war zone are fixed quotas and cannot be used indiscriminately. Only low-yield tactical nuclear weapons can be used."
"Most of the strategic-level nuclear weapons have been gathered in the space fortresses, precisely to deal with possible Pillar-level Blade Beast disasters."
Wang Jixuan frowned and asked, "Haven't you tried bombing them while they're dormant?"
"They're deep underground, and the upper, middle, and lower layers are covered with high-level Blade Beasts."
Fu Jian shrugged, continuing to stir-fry noodles skillfully, and said calmly:
"Many high-level Blade Beast individuals have sub-general-level combat power. You can't imagine what a charge of a hundred thousand high-level Blade Beasts would be like."
"The King-level Blade Beast groups currently active on the edge of our war zone are only their peripheral forces, generally only having basic and intermediate Blade Beasts."
"So, there's basically no way to fight them."
Wang Jixuan picked up a tissue to wipe his mouth, looking at the movements of the three teams in the holographic sand table, pondering slightly.
It seemed that the things he had taken out at this stage were far from enough.
Subsequently, Wang Jixuan had to continue searching in his own Immortal Cultivation civilization technology tree for things that could be adapted to modern technology and could pose a sufficient deterrent to the top-level Blade Beast combat power, and share them with the D5 war zone.
This was mainly to give human civilization a sense of participation in fighting back against the Blade Beasts.
Wang Jixuan urged, "Let's go take a look at those stone slabs first. When they come back, I'll have to teach again."
Fu Jian clicked his tongue, "Why don't I feel any pressure from you?"
"What brings me pressure is never the Blade Beasts," Wang Jixuan smiled confidently, "but whether I'm strong enough, and whether I can become stronger."
"Then can you?"
"Classified."
Fu Jian sent the stir-fried noodles to the plates in front of Wang Jixuan and Zhou Zhengde, made a fist, and popped out a middle finger.
Wang Jixuan looked disgusted.
Zhou Zhengde silently lowered his head and slurped his noodles.
Zhou Zhengde had already discovered…
Perhaps, at some point, he would no longer be Wang Zheng's most important male friend, and the guy who stole this crown might be his life idol and direct blood relative!
…
Before observing the stone slabs, Wang Jixuan was asked to put on his signature black helmet.
Fu Jian took him and Zhou Zhengde to a nearby warehouse, which was completely under martial law. A dozen elderly people in white coats were already waiting, lining up to applaud.
"They have studied these stone slabs in the past and are authorities in their respective fields."
Fu Jian briefly introduced the two sides:
"This is Black Storm, an envoy from an alien civilization, a suspected savior of human civilization."
"Well, don't worry, these dozen old men and women are equivalent to imprisoned scientific research prisoners. Their brains are valuable assets of human civilization, and the risk of leakage is extremely low."
A dozen elderly people each showed a smile.
They didn't mind this level of teasing.
These elderly people immediately surrounded him, warmly shaking hands with Wang Jixuan, constantly saying:
"I've heard your story! Black Storm!"
"Don't think that we're locked in the laboratory, in fact, interesting information will be sent over for us to study and analyze."
"I made the prediction chart of your power growth trajectory. I predicted at the time that you are a special spiritual energy user who can grow, and you are more advanced than other spiritual energy users!"
"I've long seen those spiritual energy users as disgusting, well done!"
"Thank you sincerely for providing us with a new track to scam funding!"
"Hello Black Storm, can you share your special paper? We can only research that you used Blade Beast blood to change the internal structure of the paper, adding surface and internal spiritual energy pathways to them, but those symbols we imitated according to the photos have no effect at all, why is that?"
"Why can your spiritual energy grow?"
"Everyone!"
Wang Jixuan swayed, leaving two afterimages, appearing outside the circle of these elderly people.
He reminded, "Let's look at today's focus first. If there is a chance later, we can find a place to boil tea and discuss the Dao, but today, time is indeed limited."
Zhou Zhengde quickly explained, "There is a battle going on outside. The front line will soon have to deal with eight King-level Blade Beast groups launching attacks simultaneously. We must seize the time to train new tactics for the half-human mecha team!"
A group of elderly people were full of disappointment, but all expressed that they could understand.
Fu Jian said, "Let Director Chen introduce it later, please take out the stone slabs that you are responsible for researching and arrange them in order."
A dozen top scientific researchers turned their heads and began to get busy.
In order to maintain confidentiality, they also had to do some hard labor.
Soon, a total of one hundred and twenty stone slabs were placed on steel frames.
Each stone slab was 33 centimeters long, 20 centimeters wide, and 5 centimeters thick, with simple reliefs on them. Some reliefs looked like some kind of ancient font, and some reliefs were part of a picture.
Chen Wuchou, the director of the D5 Military Equipment Research Center, a middle-height, peaceful-looking old professor, gave a brief introduction on the side:
"The material of these stone slabs is very special, and it is also difficult to destroy. We have painstakingly cut off a tiny corner for testing, and the results show that the molecular structure inside is very ordinary, as if it is… pottery? Mud?"
"But the stone slabs have unbelievable characteristics."
"Fifty years ago, the Commander-in-Chief brought this thing back. At that time, I was one of the interns in the research team."
"I clearly remember that the Spiritual Energy Capital once tried to take back these stone slabs at all costs. Later, in order to deceive them, we developed a new material to simulate the characteristics of this stone slab, and blew up the fake stone slab in front of them… Those brain-dead guys actually believed it and stopped looking for these stone slabs."
"In fact, according to our estimates, even using tactical nuclear weapons would not completely destroy these strange things."
"It can even be sent to the surface of the sun without melting."
Wang Jixuan nodded, the eyes behind the helmet with a few doubts.
He had never seen these symbols.
He could say with certainty that this thing had nothing to do with his hometown's cultivation world.
However, the application of spiritual energy, that is, Qi, should have something in common.
Fu Jian said, "Everyone, give Black Storm some space, go to the conference room and wait, Zhengde, go pour some hot water for these grandpas and grandmas."
"Okay Grandpa, everyone, this way please!"
Zhou Zhengde quickly entered the state, and began to accept the researchers' 'worldly wisdom' level of praise.
A projection screen popped out on Fu Jian's mechanical arm. He slid it slightly, and a dozen autonomous robots in the corner of the warehouse were activated and stepped forward to take orders.
Director Chen put his hands behind his back, trying to observe Wang Jixuan's expression and eyes, but was blocked by the helmet.
Wang Jixuan asked, "Have you only studied the material for decades?"
"Not really," the white-haired Director Chen smiled confidently, "It's just that there were too many people just now, it wasn't convenient to show… Commander-in-Chief, is it okay?"
"Otherwise?" Fu Jian responded unhappily, "Did I let you come here today to drink hot water?"
A dozen autonomous robots moved forward to work, changing the positions of the stone slabs with independent numbers, and lifting these steel frames together and placing them side by side.
A gray-white incomplete wall appeared in front of Wang Jixuan.
Through the years, as new as ever.
The overall wall, tilted by the angle of the steel frame, was complete, missing only two corners. Looking directly, it was like a three-dimensional map, with complex three-dimensional structures.
But when Director Chen took a strong flashlight and squatted behind the wall, shining it towards the center of the wall…
The light seemed to penetrate a layer of thin纱, and a three-dimensional projection appeared two meters in front of the wall.
Wang Jixuan saw an exquisite dynamic scroll.
The main subject of the painting was a sparkling sea, with waves lapping against a silver-white beach. Two discs, one large and one small, hung in the sky, and a towering silver spire could be seen in the distance.
Director Chen called over an autonomous machine to hold the flashlight steady. He was over seventy years old, but he excitedly rushed back to Wang Jixuan.
"Look! A brand-new projection technology! A completely different technological route from our human technology!"
Wang Jixuan: … …
No, this thing clearly contains some kind of formation!
How did it become projection technology!
He asked, "What other research results are there?"
"Uh," Director Chen smiled awkwardly, "That's all. Other research routes have all hit walls. Research on this thing has actually been stagnant for more than thirty years. We assigned it to several trusted laboratories, letting everyone tackle it independently, but there's been no news…"
Fu Jian said, "Can you tell what it is?"
"An object of a spirit cultivator, and a relatively important one."
Wang Jixuan carefully enveloped the object with his spiritual sense, carefully sensing it, and casually replied:
"Since we all know that the church where the Six Elders were trapped is located above the ruins of a spirit cultivator, and you took this thing from the Six Elders' hands, and they valued it so much, then it must be very important."
Fu Jian nodded.
Director Chen frowned and asked, "Wait a minute, since we all know… why don't I know? Chief Commander Fu Jian, are you still hiding information from me?"
Fu Jian cleared his throat: "The information about the spirit cultivator ruins beneath the Six Elders' residence was only discovered a little over a decade ago, and we haven't had time to share it with you. After all, we know nothing about spirit cultivators."
Director Chen put his left hand on his waist and his right hand on his forehead, unable to resist complaining: "Okay, ten, several, years, ago, these four words, combined with the word 'just,' are surprisingly harmonious!"
"The war zone didn't focus on this aspect in order to allow everyone to concentrate on new weapon development."
Wang Jixuan smiled and smoothed things over:
"Only by relying on technology can we fight against the Blade Beasts. This is the creed that Chief Commander Fu Jian has always emphasized to me."
Director Chen smiled in relief, and Fu Jian nodded with an air of importance.
"Hmm?"
Wang Jixuan suddenly frowned, his spiritual sense detecting a trace of abnormality.
He jumped up directly, crossed the stone slab, landed behind it, and squatted down to observe carefully.
It's reversed.
The side without any carving marks is the front, and the relief on the other side is more like a decoration.
Invisible to the naked eye, invisible to instruments, but visible to the spiritual sense, the wall contained extremely complex and incredibly delicate spiritual energy pathways. These spiritual energy pathways had the same effect as the magical artifact restrictions of their cultivation world.
Constructing pathways to allow spiritual energy to pass through, thereby stimulating various different effects.
But the logic of these pathways is completely different from the magical artifact restrictions of the cultivation world.
For Wang Jixuan, this was a brand new path to artifact crafting!
This thing was extremely precise, like… a spiritual energy integrated circuit board, using 'qi' as energy, and using methods similar to human technological civilization to release the energy in 'qi'!
Then, what is the function of this thing?
Spiritual energy infusion? Spiritual energy advancement?
Wang Jixuan carefully compared.
The wall in Ji Xiao's memory had obvious crystal core embedding holes, which was obviously rougher than this wall.
He raised his hand to touch it, but forcibly restrained the impulse.
This thing is unknown, so he must not be careless.
His spiritual sense carefully explored these stone slabs, and Wang Jixuan also thought seriously.
More than ten minutes later, the three groups of students he had sent out returned to the fortress one after another. This news was temporarily suppressed by Fu Jian, who didn't want to disturb Wang Jixuan's research.
Unexpectedly…
"They're back. I'll look at this for now and go back to class first."
Wang Jixuan came out from behind the wall and said simply:
"Get a pen and paper and record what I say."
"First of all, the direction is wrong. The smooth side is the front."
"Hang this up vertically, don't move the position. The current arrangement is correct. The pictures on this side helped you a lot."
"Secondly, the structure of this thing is very delicate. The two missing corners do not affect its operation. Its main function should be concentrated in the central circular area. The patterns and projections on the front are temporarily unknown, but the artistic value is quite high."
"As for what it specifically does, I'm not very clear, but I should be able to activate it."
Fu Jian asked, "Then why not activate it directly now?"
Wang Jixuan couldn't help but pursed his lips: "Who knows if it will explode! What if it opens a teleportation formation and teleports us away!"
Fu Jian muttered, "Why are you young people more cautious than an old man like me?"
Director Chen quickly asked, "Then can you tell us the activation method? We'll arrange the experiment."
"Yes, it's very simple."
Wang Jixuan said:
"Get a hydraulic press and crush thirty pure crystal cores near it, the kind without Blade Beast remnants. You will discover some amazing reactions."
"In short, it's the concentration of spiritual energy."
"But be sure to pay attention, don't touch it. Keep living people away from it, and it's best to prepare large-scale weapons of mass destruction. This thing might really be a teleportation… cough, teleportation means transmission."
"It might really be a portal."
After saying that, Wang Jixuan naturally patted Xiao Chen on the shoulder and said solemnly:
"Alien civilizations really exist. Obviously, this thing is one."
He turned to leave. Fu Jian had already opened the map projection and started looking for a suitable test site. Director Chen's eyes lit up a little.
At this moment;
Buzz!
The wall made of stone slabs suddenly vibrated slightly, and Wang Jixuan heard a faint call in his ear.
"Save… save me…"
