“Young Friend Lu, regarding the high-energy substance you mentioned last night, we took the words literally and had a nearby laboratory urgently send over a batch.”
“There are also six rarer Materials that haven’t arrived yet. They’re being flown here now and should reach us before tonight.”
“The 327 Materials here almost cover every type of high-energy material currently known to humanity. I wonder... whether they can activate that method of opening a long-distance call?”
Elder Wang looked at Lu Yang expectantly, feeling unexpectedly nervous.
According to Lu Yang, the reason the Sakura transmigrator from his previous life could communicate between the Cultivation World and Sakura Country was that they had found some kind of high-energy substance.
Taking the words literally, he had someone send over Materials that might be high-energy substances.
This was the absolute limit of what Great Xia could do.
But the Sakura transmigrator had only managed to contact Sakura Country using the high-energy substance they found after transmigrating to the Cultivation World. They had no idea what that substance actually was.
As for whether these more than 300 Materials could successfully activate the means of long-distance communication, Elder Wang wasn’t entirely sure.
“I’ll give it a try.”
Lu Yang took a deep breath, put on a radiation suit, and walked into the room filled with various high-energy materials.
Then,
under the collective gaze of everyone present, he picked up the Uranium-235 cube at the very front, which was about the size of a fingernail.
【High-energy substance detected. Absorb and convert into time duration?】
As a line of small black text appeared in front of Lu Yang’s retina, his breath caught.
“Did it fail...”
Seeing Lu Yang simply standing there dazed, with no change in the Uranium-235 cube in his hand, Elder Wang and everyone present felt their hearts clench.
As a raw material for making atomic bombs, Uranium-235 ranked among the top high-energy substances on Blue Star, and they had placed great hopes in it.
If even Uranium-235 couldn’t activate it, could any of the other Materials possibly work?
However, the next second,
under the gaze of everyone at the scene,
the cube, about the size of a fingernail, suddenly vanished from Lu Yang’s hand, as if it had never existed.
At the same time,
a line of small text appeared before Lu Yang’s eyes.
【Remaining time duration: 9 minutes 59 seconds】
“It worked! The Material I just absorbed gave me nearly ten minutes of time duration!”
Lu Yang excitedly threw a punch. At last, the heavy stone weighing on his heart quietly rolled away.
The room fell silent for a few seconds.
Then cheers erupted. Even Elder Wang and the two Elder Longs, who had held high positions for many years, couldn’t help laughing aloud.
If these high-energy substances couldn’t help Lu Yang activate the communication method, it would be difficult to find more once he transmigrated to the Cultivation World alone.
Fortunately, they had succeeded.
As long as there was something on Blue Star that could provide Lu Yang with call time, they could give him so much call time that he’d never run out!
Over the following hours,
Lu Yang picked up more than 300 other Materials one after another. Only a little over twenty could be converted into time duration; the rest elicited no reaction at all.
Among those twenty-odd Materials, Uranium-235 had the highest conversion efficiency.
By their calculations, one ton of Uranium-235 could provide a year of time duration, while the other Materials required hundreds or even thousands of tons to provide a year. The difference was enormous.
After some experimentation,
Lu Yang discovered that contacting the Motherland was very simple. He only needed to silently think of a location, and he could project himself there in the form of a light screen. The location being projected would also appear in front of him.
At that moment, everyone watched the light screen floating in the middle of the hall, with Lu Yang on it.
None of the Great Xia officials or Academicians present doubted his identity as a Reborn anymore.
Even more surprising to everyone was that
while Lu Yang was exploring its functions, he discovered that he could send objects through the light screen in front of him to the other side, and people on the other side could send objects to him as well.
This directly solved the problem of objects being unable to pass between the two worlds!
However, sending even a single ballpoint pen required five minutes of time duration.
The larger the object being sent, the more time duration it consumed. Clearly, this function had significant limitations.
Obtaining high-energy substances in the Cultivation World was far more difficult than in modern society.
In his previous life, Lu Yang had spent two and a half years struggling in the Cultivation World. Even after becoming a Qi Refining cultivator, he had never encountered any so-called high-energy substances.
Ordinarily,
it would be difficult for Transmigrators from any country who transmigrated to the Cultivation World to contact their Motherland, let alone use their spare time duration to send objects.
After all, sending objects from the Cultivation World to Blue Star would inevitably have a huge impact on modern society, so it was normal for there to be restrictions.
However, these restrictions didn’t seem to have much effect on Lu Yang, who had been Reborn.
It was difficult to obtain high-energy substances in the Cultivation World—that was the Cultivation World’s problem.
Right now, he hadn’t even transmigrated yet, and he had all of Great Xia backing him as his support team. It made perfect sense to build up his time duration before transmigrating!
............
That evening,
as an order came from Purple-Gold City,
mines across Great Xia received urgent notices to requisition Uranium-235.
In areas without uranium mines, the military directly requisitioned the ore-mining machines and rushed them to mining areas at three times the market price.
Mining of iron ore, copper ore, gold ore, and other minerals was all suspended.
Under orders from the Great Xia authorities, mines across the country had to focus on mining uranium ore, and purchase finished Uranium-235 at five times the market price!
As soon as the order was issued,
a large number of mines quickly began operations, though some mine owners were reluctant.
“Why do we have to mine uranium? I signed a huge contract with the Kangaroo Country. If I can’t deliver the ore on time, I’ll have to pay triple the amount in damages!”
“Our mine only has one large mining machine. If you take it, what am I supposed to use?”
“It’s tough for everyone. Why not ask Old Wang over at West Hill? He’s got three large mining machines. If you ask him, you can’t ask me.”
In response, the Provincial Military Regions sent officers to visit them, explaining that this matter concerned Great Xia’s national fortune and asking them to cooperate with the country’s efforts.
Although these coal bosses weren’t very well educated, they had heard a little about the truck-blockade incidents that had happened across Great Xia early that morning.
Combining that with the news that the country was going all out to mine uranium and requisitioning Uranium-235 from all over,
they quickly began to put two and two together.
“Holy crap, I get it! Our country’s making atomic bombs, right? You should’ve just said so! If you’d told me earlier, would I really have refused to lend them to you?”
“Is nine days enough? How about I let you use them for free for a year? Then make a few more Little Boys and send some to Sakura as a thank-you gift for me.”
“Rent? You think so little of me? We’re all brothers here. I, Zhao Dahai, stand by my word. Anyone who tries to pay rent will have me to answer to!”
Though quite a few owners misunderstood the situation, the mining issue was finally resolved.
However, as the news spread overseas, a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed dealmaker immediately grew restless.
............
United States, White House.
“Fuck, fuck! What exactly is Great Xia transporting all over the country, and why are they suddenly requisitioning Uranium-235? Are they really going to war?”
“Are all of you at the Intelligence Agency a bunch of useless fools? Why do you know nothing about Great Xia’s actions?”
President Mitro smashed the glass of Coke on the floor and pointed at the head of the Intelligence Agency, James, as he cursed furiously.
James lowered his head and didn’t dare speak. He was also baffled.
By rights, with Great Xia making such a large-scale move, they should have received intelligence beforehand.
But their spies planted in Great Xia hadn’t sent back any relevant intelligence in recent days, suggesting that this operation might have been decided on at the last minute.
Still, Great Xia had stood firm at history’s table for thousands of years. He didn’t believe this ancient Eastern nation would act rashly on such an important decision.
So the answer was obvious: Great Xia had indeed managed to keep them in the dark...
“Three days. I’m giving you only three days!”
“Find out exactly what Great Xia is transporting, and why they’re requisitioning Uranium-235. Otherwise, pack your things and get out!”