Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!

"He believes that the Holy Trinity is an unknowable force, but he hasn't deified it; rather, he's instrumentalized it."

"That's good, it actually aligns quite well with our belief system."

"As long as he can create a branch that can rival the 'Holy Hall Orthodox' of the Mechanical God Sect, everything will naturally develop from there."

"Understood."

Chen Jian exhaled a long breath.

"So, this Church Protection Army is a gift you've prepared for him?"

"Not just the Church Protection Army."

He Shuo shook his head.

"This expeditionary force as well."

"I've left enough defense power in Han Shui City, which is enough to secure Han Shui as our new base."

"All other forces can be handed over to him."

"The fire will spread quickly, and it won't take long... this fire will burn through the entire Jinling."

There was a flicker of yearning on He Shuo's face, and Chen Jian then asked:

"Are you so confident?"

"Of course."

He Shuo looked at Chen Jian and answered solemnly:

"Jinling City, or rather the entire Mechanical God Sect, is at its most turbulent stage."

"Their new Saint hasn't been chosen yet; right now, the Archbishop is still acting in that position."

"At such a timing... if we don't seize it, who will?"

"Makes sense!"

Chen Jian nodded slowly.

"Then go ahead and do it."

"I'll leave this matter to you!"

...

Meanwhile, in Shen City.

Following Shen Yue, Lei Jie also hurried over as soon as he received the news.

Of course, he had a longer journey, and the process was more difficult.

But fortunately, the landing process went smoothly.

At least he didn't almost get hung on a tree like Shen Yue.

As soon as he saw Shen Yue, he couldn't wait to ask:

"How is it? Have you checked the equipment?"

"I have."

Shen Yue pointed to the main passage behind him, then said:

"I've scanned all the external structures of the equipment according to Fu Xi's requirements, and according to the information from Lingxi over at Mountain City, this thing does indeed look like some sort of generation device."

"But there's no way to confirm what the Time Crystal is all about."

"Of course, there's also no way to confirm whether the information from Lingxi is accurate."

"It might just be some kind of smokescreen after all."

"Could be."

Lei Jie impatiently headed towards the underground passage, immediately asking:

"What's the news from the Ring Chamber of Commerce? Did they provide more accurate intelligence?"

Shen Yue glanced at his watch and then replied helplessly:

"Wang Lizhi should have just arrived in Guangshen by now... He has to report back to headquarters first before he can give us information."

"The efficiency is frighteningly low... never mind him for now. In your perspective, do you think the Time Crystal could be manufactured?"

"Impossible."

Lei Jie answered without hesitation:

"This thing has completely exceeded the limits of physics as we understand it."

"To manufacture a Time Crystal, we'd probably have to solve the Grand Unified Theory first."

"But clearly, our predecessors didn't solve the Grand Unified Theory."

"Naturally, the Time Crystal couldn't be manufactured either."

At that, Shen Yue looked puzzled.

"But Lingxi shouldn't lie about something like this, right?"

"If it's negotiating with us, could it rely on false information for the negotiations?"

Lei Jie slightly frowned, walking forward as he replied:

"This is exactly what I'm most worried about."

"I'm concerned that Lingxi doesn't truly understand the real purpose of the 'ring.'"

"Or rather, it knows a part but is missing the critical information."

"Anyway, let's take a look first."

...Do you understand?

Shen Yue didn't voice what was in his heart, but when Lei Jie finished a round through the underground structure, he had the answer he wanted.

"...Don't understand."

Lei Jie said helplessly:

"Damn it... I recognize some of the equipment, but I don't understand it at all when it's all put together."

"I just checked Fu Xi's database. Part of this is optical dipole traps, and part is laser coolers."

"These are indeed used in manufacturing Time Crystals, but only for experimental verification."

"...Strongly interacting room-temperature Rydberg atom gas--that's probably the name."

"This was once seen as a hope to create stable Time Crystals, but in the end... their so-called measurement data was proven to be a failure of the measurement equipment."

".....Absurd."

Shen Yue shook his head in disbelief.

"Nothing absurd about it; the exploration of basic physics is filled with many such blunders, but actually, human understanding of basic physics has grown through such blunders."

"I understand."

Shen Yue nodded thoughtfully, then asked:

"How do you know so much?"

"I don't know shit."

Lei Jie rolled his eyes.

"I only searched the database for this before coming!"

"...Alright, fair enough."

Shen Yue was speechless.

"So what's next? How do we handle this set of equipment?"

"Try powering it up to see?"

"It has to be powered up to see."

Lei Jie nodded decisively:

"Before it was opened, Base 016 was quite well-sealed, and the preservation state of the equipment is very good."

"I think even if powered up, it wouldn't lead to catastrophic damage to the equipment."

"The risk is low—but if we can power it up successfully, the rewards are great!"

"Then let's give it a try?"

Shen Yue asked:

"Report to the captain now?"

"...Report my ass."

Lei Jie looked at Shen Yue as if he were an idiot, then said:

"I only said we should power it up, not that we can."

"Open your eyes and look, is there any energy in this construction that can support such a large piece of equipment now?"

"The fusion reactor's fuel is almost used up; we need to bring fuel over, inspect the reactor, and then we can power it up."

"This process... will take at least a day."

"Once everything is in place, we will report it to him."

"Now... let's attempt a partial startup first."

"What does partial startup mean?"

Shen Yue asked in confusion.

Lei Jie pointed to the equipment behind him and began to explain:

"This thing's main part is huge, but there's also a significant part of it that's monitoring equipment, and measuring equipment whose purpose we don't yet know."

"This part of the equipment doesn't consume much power and the existing power supply can sustain it."

"Let's connect the circuitry of this part first and see what it does."

"If we can figure out what the creator of this equipment was measuring, it will be beneficial to our subsequent power-up work."

"Then let's do it your way!"

Shen Yue nodded decisively.

Lei Jie didn't hesitate and immediately instructed Fu Xi to connect to the main system of Facility 016.

Like the fusion fuel that was almost completely consumed, the quantum computer at Base 016 had long been using up most of its computational power at an illogical rate.

Fortunately, it could barely maintain the computational power needed for Fu Xi's access.

A few minutes later, Fu Xi's voice echoed within Facility 016.

"System ready, equipment partition mapped."

"Attempt startup?"

"Start!"

At Lei Jie's command, the massive equipment began to emit a humming sound.

Shen Yue instantly perked up, but Lei Jie nonchalantly waved his hand, saying:

"Don't get excited, it's just the small cooling fans turning."

"Fu Xi, report the measurement readings; let's see what they were measuring!"

"Understood."

Fu Xi paused for a moment before answering:

"The main data currently received is... gravitational constant data."

"Electromagnetic flux data."

"Spectrum and frequency data."

"Calibration material oscillation data—material empty, data zero."

"Homogeneous oscillation—abnormal data detected!"

"External signal received!"

"Detected gravitational fluctuation."

"Confirmed, on the damping platform, is a small gravitational wave detection device!"