Chapter 587: Imminent Departure
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The warship was almost ready. Ye Chong was now bringing troops to the Sea of Threads. He had synthesized a special transparent gel that could hide all kinds of electromagnetic signals. Ye Chong used this transparent gel on their mechs and the warship. By applying a layer of this gel on the exterior, the mechs and the warship would be effectively invisible to the enemy. The only way to detect them would be by direct visual observation. Compared to full-skeleton mechs, the gel offered better stealth, since it was also effective against red-tailed beasts.
Thus, the demand for this colloid fungus in the stronghold skyrocketed overnight.
The wild animals around the Sea of Threads were not as strong as the likes of the red-tailed beast or the snowshade leopard, but they were still formidable. Hence, Ye Chong led the expedition himself. Harvesting work would have to be done manually since all signals would be impeded here. The remaining problem was about how to build a small harvesting base here.
Aside from harvesting, Ye Chong was also interested in the crack that ran along the entire Sea of Threads.
Construction of the harvesting base proceeded rapidly. This was all thanks to Sha Ya. Sha Ya found that the para-psychic wave nature of the place could stimulate shooters to improve quickly. Hence, Ye Chong ordered all the shooters to serve as workers in the Sea of Threads. Sha Ya was proven to be correct. Once their para-psychic abilities were inhibited, the shooters rapidly improved. They became excited of their work because of this. In the end, they arranged to sleep in the Sea of Threads, a place that even the red-tailed beasts were afraid of.
The mission to investigate the crack proceeded with great caution exercised.
The crack that ran along the Sea of Threads was very well hidden. It was blocked entirely by an ancient tree that was over thirty meters tall, and was only visible up close. The tree had a thick main stalk at ten meters in diameter, making it look short and strong. The purplish brown bark of the tree was as hard as metal. The leaves were also in a dark purple shade, with a strong metallic luster.
Compared to the thick girth of the tree, the crack was very narrow, barely five meters wide.
Only Ye Chong and Rui Bing went on this investigative expedition. Ye Chong thought that the students were already good in battle as a team, but their individual strengths were still lacking. If he and Rui Bing encountered any dangers that they could not fend off, they could always pull back much easily.
Rui Bing put on Guardian, which traced her bodily curves faithfully. She sat quietly on Celest's shoulder.
His archaic lance was not a suitable weapon in the narrow crack, so Ye Chong took out his parrying spear.
Celest carried Rui Bing and entered the crack with half lidded eyes.
Once they were inside, the view brightened. This was a naturally formed valley. They could see the marks left by tectonic shifts in the past.
It was very quiet in the crack. Not one sound was heard. Ye Chong and Rui Bing kept their guard up since they saw animal skeletons scattered along the bottom of the crack. Even skeletons of very powerful animals like the red-tailed beasts and snowshade leopards were common in here.
This made Ye Chong and Rui Bing felt even more wary. The skeletons told them how dangerous the place was.
"Be careful." Ye Chong warned softly. His eyes never left the holographic screen.
Rui Bing acknowledged quietly and switched her posture. She put one hand on Celest's shoulder for support and bent her body forward slightly, so that she could be ready to attack when necessary. Her daggers were already in her hands.
Suddenly, a mist began to spread inside the crack. The white mist clouded their view instantly. However, it did not affect Celest's holographic scanning system.
Ye Chong looked at the stats from the photon processor. "This mist is poisonous."
Rui Bing nodded. "No wonder the animals died here."
Celest carried Rui Bing and advanced quickly. The terrain was complicated, with rocky protrusions here and there.
Aooh! They heard a quiet howl.
They were surprised by it, and carefully approached the source of the sound. It was a snowshade leopard. It had inhaled a lot of white mist. Its body had some odd blue tinge. The snowshade leopard stared sadly into the mist as it howled weakly. The unchallenged animal of Darkniss, the snowshade leopard, was now so weak that even a human child could kill it.
Ye Chong observed in a neutral tone, "The poison is strong."
Just as he finished, the snowshade leopard went motionless and stopped breathing.
They continued to see animal bodies along the way. Some of them were extremely tenacious. There were signs indicating that they had stayed in the crack for a long time before the poisonous mist invaded their bodies and caused them to become immobile. Nevertheless, the mist was not immediately fatal. It weakened the animal's body until it was left with only skin and bones, and finally died of starvation.
Rui Bing could not bear to see these animals suffer. Whenever she saw any animals that were still alive, she would end their suffering with her dagger. When the animals died, their eyes showed relief.
The crack was long. It took Ye Chong and Rui Bing five days to travel along it. Ye Chong soon found a pattern in the release of the poisonous mist. Only parts of the crack would be shrouded in the mist at one time. If you were fast enough and understood the pattern of the mist release, it would be possible to traverse the crack and survive.
So far, Ye Chong saw no signs of the six-fingered red-tailed beast. It had most likely survived its journey through the crack.
On the fifth day, they finally reached the exit out of the crack.
The exit brought them to the mountains.
Rui Bing stared at the mountains for a while. "We've been here before. The mountains extended far into the distance. This is close to where we first came to this world. If you go further along this direction, there is a flesh nest of the red-tailed beasts. However, we only ever saw low level red-tailed beasts there, not six-fingered ones."
Ye Chong made a mark on the map and eyed the seemingly endless mountain ranges. He said to Rui Bing, "Let's head back. We will come back here later."
They returned to the stronghold as fast as they could.
"Opening a spatial window required vast amounts of energy. Naturally occurring spatial windows usually draw energy from objects with high energy content, like the teardrop mineralite. I don't know whether the red-tailed beasts found those naturally occurring spatial windows or if they created their own, but they obviously know how to use teardrop mineralite to enlarge spatial windows. Naturally occurring spatial windows are not very big. It's usually enough to fit just one mech. The spatial window that the red-tailed beasts traveled through is obviously a lot bigger."
Aried reported his findings to Ye Chong. Sha Ya was tremendously helpful to him. He could study the structure of spatial windows through her. Aried never imagined it possible for someone to sense the structure of spatial windows without the aid of any equipment. It was miraculous!
Even in the He Yue Galaxy, no equipment could do this!
Since Sha Ya did not have relevant background knowledge in spatial science, her descriptions were vague. Nevertheless, she was of great help to Aried.
"I am now studying how to enlarge spatial windows. As long as we have high energy materials like the teardrop mineralite, it should not be a problem. Of course, there must first be an existing spatial window to work on. That would be much easier than creating a spatial window from nothing." Aried explained frankly. Compared to common scientists, Aried's career path had been harder, exposing him to all sorts of human factors in the research process. Sometimes, Aried behaved more like a businessman. He would try to conduct his research in the direction favored by his investor. This would help him financially. He knew what Ye Chong needed and wanted right now, and had structured his research accordingly.
Ye Chong frowned. He needed to find the way back to return to the He Yue Galaxy, not enlarge spatial windows. He asked, 'How will that be useful?"
Aried said, "If you want to bring that starship back with you, it would be very useful."
"I see." Ye Chong nodded, commending him. He continued asking, "Do we have a way to find the path back to the He Yue Galaxy now?" This was a problem that exasperated him the most.
Aried shook his head. "That will depend on our luck. If we can find a spatial window that leads back to He Yue Galaxy, then all our problems will be solved."
"Where can we find a spatial window that leads to the He Yue Galaxy?" Ye Chong could not help but ask. Bio-photon processor technology here had improved somewhat, but they were still far from building an advanced bio-photon processor.
Aried hesitated, and then explained his hypothesis.
Ye Chong went into deep thought. After a long moment, he looked up and said, "Your theory makes sense, but we have searched the surroundings of the Sea of Threads. Aside from the spatial windows to Northern Lands and Western Frost, there are no other spatial windows. If your hypothesis is correct, it should have been just by the Sea of Threads."
Ye Chong had already searched his end of the Sea of Threads with his Hummingbirds. All the empty spots on their holographic map were complete. Ye Chong had discovered many ore reserves in the process, but did not mine them since the warship was near completion. He only extracted rare minerals from them. Ye Chong kept thinking about Mu and Shang's lost arm. He now had enough materials to restore it. Aside from extremely rare materials like the Do Kun stone and coraplatinum, he had sufficient amounts of other rare materials in his hands.
The students from the stronghold were now aware of the Sea of Threads, but they dared not enter the strange place yet. However, all the wild animals roaming near the Sea of Threads became target practice for them.
…
The massive object could fly. All the students in the stronghold looked flabbergasted. Aried would look at them with a face that said he thought the students were all ignorant barbarians.
When the warship first went airborne, it immediately dived sideways and crash landed. This was probably because the crew was feeling nervous. Fortunately, the hull was tough and safety measures were in place. No one was hurt. Eventually, the crew got familiar with flying the warship.
Ye Chong named the warship Darkniss. The lavish materials used for this ship were unrivaled. Just the materials used to build this warship could be sold at a sky-high figure.
There were 70 passageways built for the mechs inside to exit and engage. The ship cannons were powerful, but not the most advanced. Nevertheless, they were made of top quality raw materials, and thus were still very deadly. Besides these, Ye Chong also added a very important upgrade - shooting stations. These shooting stations were manned by professional shooters. They were more accurate than auto lock-on systems, and certainly much better than simple laser firing devices.
These shooting stations were difficult to maneuver, and were built especially for the shooters. Without atmospheric interference, shooters could extend their para-psychic senses further in outer space. These shooters were used to aiming at thumbnail sized targets. If it was something over ten meters tall like a mech or a red-tailed beast, their aiming would be flawless. To unleash the maximum potential of their aiming accuracy, the training program for shooters include studying a mech's structure and commonly vulnerable parts in wild animals. Shooters could not withstand the physical burden of piloting a mech in battle, but that problem was moot when they were shooting from a warship.
This amazing idea immediately improved a shooter's value in battle significantly, despite Ye Chong believing that shooters had limited capabilities before this. Every warship was vulnerable to close range enemies; for Darkniss, their firepower was strongest at close range.
"Looks like it's time to depart," Ye Chong muttered to himself.
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