Chapter 294 The Academy of Sciences' First Transformation Attempt

"Clang—Sizzle—"

Synchronous orbit main platform, No. 1 connection port.

With a dull mechanical locking sound and the hiss of the high-pressure airlock being emptied, the "Broken Army" completed the docking, its surface covered in frost.

The passageway door opened, and Qin Lie and Lin Feng, dressed in heavy pressure suits, walked out one after the other. Between them, on an anti-gravity isolation vehicle suspended in mid-air, sat a sealed container of superconducting titanium crystal with a surface covered in fine ice cracks.

The entire temporary core experimental area has entered the highest level of complete closure.

All unrelated personnel were evacuated, and six high-precision psionic light-filtering searchlights intertwined to form a light net, completely covering the isolation vehicle.

Signals from the joint control room in Kyoto on the surface were transmitted in real time to the center of the laboratory through the highest-encryption channel. Holographic projections of Wang Mingyuan and Wu Di stood in front of the control panel at a one-to-one scale, their expressions even more solemn than the vacuum outside the cabin.

Everyone knew that the nearly destroyed jar contained a tiny amount of stellar matter—[Stellar Origin Energy]—that humanity had just painstakingly "scraped" from this desolate starry sky.

It was dangerous; it almost left the entire escort vessel forever in the ruins of Tianyan-04.

However, it is extremely expensive, requiring enormous human and material resources to acquire even a single strand.

"The wear rate of the tank's super-powerful pressure array is 87%, and it's on the verge of collapse." Lin Feng walked to the control panel and, without exchanging pleasantries, reported directly, "Professor Wang, we must immediately conduct transfer and conversion tests. Every second this thing stays in the tank increases the risk of it freezing."

"Have the materials team and the array team prepared their contingency plans?" Wang Mingyuan asked directly in the holographic projection.

Several senior engineers nearby immediately gathered around, but their opinions were clearly not in agreement.

"Professor Wang, since it has a high affinity for the titanium crystal system, I suggest we directly embed it into a pre-formed superconducting titanium crystal armor plate and test the increase in physical hardness!" The head of the materials group spoke rapidly.

"Nonsense! That's a complete waste!" the chief engineer of the formation team retorted, glaring. "This thing can solidify the formation nodes! It should be used as the core of the formation, integrated into the base of the high-frequency pressure-resistant hub, and we'll see how much it can raise the formation's pressure resistance threshold!"

"Stop arguing."

Qin Lie's cold, hard voice interrupted the argument, "That thing isn't like those obedient synthetic materials in your lab. It doesn't recognize people."

Wang Mingyuan raised his hand on the projector screen, silencing all other sounds: "Conduct small-scale composite experiments. No large-scale equipment allowed; use a miniature titanium crystal array disk as a base. Combine the materials group's and the array group's solutions and measure their overall conversion rate."

The robotic arm started operating.

Everyone held their breath, watching the operations inside the isolation chamber.

An extremely precise micro-carving extraction probe was inserted through a specially designed valve on the titanium crystal jar. A tiny wisp of dark blue cold mist was forcibly extracted and pressed into the center of a palm-sized titanium crystal array plate.

This array plate simulates the underlying pressure-resistant structure of the second-generation heavy-load transport module.

"First group, import and test directly, start!" Lin Feng pressed the start button.

As the miniature spirit-gathering array operated, the wisp of stellar energy was forced to seep into the physical texture of the titanium crystal alloy and became stuck in the core node of the array.

The next second, astonishing data exploded.

"Structural strength is skyrocketing! Three hundred percent... five hundred percent... breaking through the limits of conventional testing equipment!"

The materials team leader slammed his fist on the table in excitement: "See that?! No deformation, no embrittlement! The physical density of the titanium crystal alloy has been forcibly increased at the psionic level! With this hardness, even a direct collision with a high-orbit micrometeorite swarm wouldn't leave a single scratch!"

The engineers in the formation team were also staring intently at the screen: "The pressure resistance threshold has stabilized! The previously loose spiritual energy nodes have been completely locked down. At this level of pressure resistance, penetrating the turbulent spiritual pressure of the ionosphere is child's play!"

In the holographic projection, a hint of ecstasy had just appeared on Wu Di's face.

"etc."

Lin Feng's voice suddenly came like a bucket of ice water poured over everyone's heads, "The formation... has stopped rotating."

Everyone looked up sharply.

Inside the isolation chamber, the titanium crystal array plate, which should have been shimmering with a faint cyan aura, had now turned into a deep, light-absorbing dark blue.

It didn't shatter or explode.

However, the data representing the efficiency of spiritual energy transmission is plummeting at an alarming rate.

Fifty percent, ten percent, one percent... zero.

"The spiritual energy circulation is blocked." Lin Feng typed on the keyboard, his face grim. "This wisp of stellar source energy has completely blocked the spiritual energy conduction channels in the titanium crystal."

"Try inputting external true energy!" The formation engineer refused to believe it.

Qin Lie stepped forward, placed his hand on the transmission node outside the cabin, and forcibly injected a stream of Foundation Establishment True Essence.

Like a clay ox entering the sea, it leaves no trace.

That array plate was like a solid lump of iron frozen in the depths of space for hundreds of millions of years. It was extremely hard and extremely stable, but it had lost the meaning of an "array".

"It's unusable."

Qin Lie withdrew his hand, his tone extremely firm, "It's like a once incredibly sharp sword, now frozen into an absolutely hard iron rod. It won't break, but you can't wield it either. If the formation doesn't flow, how can it provide power and trajectory thrust to the transport capsule?"

A brief silence fell over the technology area.

The first attempt at conversion failed.

The Star Origin Qi ruthlessly suppressed the vitality of surface spiritual energy in metals and formations.

"It's too 'cold' and too 'heavy'."

Wang Mingyuan looked at the data, his brows furrowed. "Compared to spiritual energy, it's like water vapor meeting liquid lead. The difference in their levels is too great. If they were to mix directly, the higher-level quality would instantly crush the lower-level activity."

"If we can't use it directly, then let's add a buffer!"

A flash of inspiration struck Lin Feng, and he quickly drew a three-dimensional structure diagram on the virtual drawing board with both hands.

"Professor Wang, let's build a hierarchical order reduction model!"

Lin Feng enlarged the blueprint. "Since stellar energy is extremely compatible with titanium crystal and suppresses conventional spiritual energy, we'll prevent them from direct contact. We'll compress an extremely small amount of stellar energy into the deepest titanium crystal framework, wrap it with a layer of [symbiotic spiritual gold] as a buffer and guide layer, and then lay out a conventional surface spiritual energy loop on the outermost layer!"

"We don't intend to use stellar energy to power the entire device; we'll only utilize its 'boning' and 'suppressing' properties to solidify the pressure-resistant base. The external dynamics will remain with the earth's spiritual energy!"

This ingenious "sandwich" idea instantly enlightened everyone present.

"Theoretically feasible! The ductility and inclusiveness of the accompanying spirit metal are excellent, and it can serve as a barrier between high and low-level energies." The materials team leader immediately began to allocate resources.

"The formation can be split into a core circulation system, creating an inner and outer dual circulation! The inner circulation locks in the stellar energy to maintain the framework, while the outer circulation draws on the earth's spiritual energy for power!"

In less than twenty minutes, a new composite experimental specimen was sent into the isolation chamber.

"Second down-dilution test, begin!"

As the command was given, the wisp of dark blue mist was once again precisely pressed into the innermost titanium crystal core. Immediately afterwards, the accompanying spirit gold layer activated, and the outermost conventional spirit-gathering array began to frantically absorb energy.

"The inner framework is sturdy and meets the required hardness standards!"

"The mid-layer accompanying spiritual metal buffer is functioning normally; there is no spiritual energy caking!"

"The outer spiritual energy circulation is smooth, and the power output is stable!"

Looking at the various green data bars, a few suppressed cheers even rang out from the technical area.

Succeeded?

Qin Lie did not relax. His intuition told him that the cold beast that had been wandering in the vacuum for who knows how long was definitely not so easy to tame.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds...

"Warning! There is a misalignment between the internal and external spiritual pressure!" Lin Feng suddenly roared.

On the screen, the virtual model representing the three-layer structure began to distort violently.

"What happened?!" Wu Di asked urgently in the holographic projection.

"The mass of the stellar source energy is too great!" Lin Feng frantically adjusted the parameters, but to no avail. "It certainly didn't directly freeze the outer loop, but its 'gravity' and 'cold pressure' are constantly seeping in! The accompanying spiritual metal in the middle layer simply can't withstand this continuous pressure from a high dimension!"

Inside the isolation chamber, the metal experimental components, which were originally tightly sealed, suddenly emitted a teeth-grinding "creaking" sound.

It wasn't crushed by external pressure, but rather it collapsed from the inside out.

The extremely high-quality stellar energy instinctively "sinks" downwards, while the active surface spiritual energy on the outer layer tries to "dissipate" outwards. The accompanying spiritual gold buffer layer sandwiched in the middle is like a piece of rubber being torn apart by two tractors moving in opposite directions, and it only lasts for less than a minute.

"Crack—Bang!"

The middle buffer zone completely broke. The aura of stellar source energy instantly leaked into the outer loop, and the originally high-speed flowing spiritual energy nodes were as if someone had pressed the pause button, resulting in large-scale hardening and necrosis.

The second experiment also failed.

But this time, no one felt disappointed.

This damaged experimental subject clearly pointed out the direction to move forward.

"The direction is right."

Wang Mingyuan stared at the piece of scrap metal, his eyes burning with an unprecedentedly bright light.

"Lin Feng's idea of ​​'layered downgrading' is correct. Stellar Origin Qi is definitely not something to be burned directly as fuel, nor is it a high-level spiritual energy that can be absorbed by the meridians in the traditional sense."

Wang Mingyuan turned around, looked at everyone, and made his final judgment, word by word.

"It's the skeleton! The bottom load-bearing layer! The absolute weight used to anchor the higher-order physical structure!"

"The earth's spiritual energy is responsible for bringing the machines 'to life,' while the stellar energy is responsible for keeping them 'firmly standing' in this cruel vacuum!"

Qin Lie looked at the broken piece of metal and added coldly, "But it's too hard and too cold. Although we've managed to pry a piece off of it from space, our technology isn't yet sufficient to perfectly integrate it into the backbone of our existing civilization."

Humanity has found the finest steel to build interstellar warships, but all they have is a wooden hammer for blacksmithing.

The technical area quieted down.

After these two rounds of extremely rigorous practical conversion tests, everyone has reached a very clear understanding: Star Origin Qi is a good thing, but right now, it is still an extremely dangerous semi-finished product.

"Professor Wang, buffer materials and conventional arrays simply cannot 'tame' this level of stellar matter." Lin Feng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "What we lack is a 'conversion mechanism' that can slow it down, stratify it, and smooth out its violent and cold properties midway."

Upon hearing the words "conversion mechanism," Wang Mingyuan fell silent.

He turned his gaze back to the holographic main screen, to the radar map of the sky marked with the former site of "Tianyan-04".

Why, over an extremely long period of time, did the stellar gas, which was dispersed throughout the vacuum of high orbit, form a stable enrichment zone only in the dilapidated observation station of Tianyan-04?

Qin Lie wrote clearly in his report: because there were broken flow-guiding arrays, shadows from backlighting, and special radiation dead zones there. Over a long period of time, the natural environment formed a passive "sedimentation pool" there.

What nature can do...

Wang Mingyuan's gaze gradually deepened.

Back then, since that person left behind the incredibly precise clue, "Coldness and solemnity forge bones," then wouldn't that man, who seemed to have calculated everything, have also left behind questions and materials along with...

In fact, they had already quietly left the "hammer for blacksmithing" in some corner that they hadn't discovered yet.

Wang Mingyuan took a deep breath and gave Lin Feng a new instruction:

"Lin Feng, retrieve all the hidden blueprints related to the completion of the first phase of the space elevator project."

"Especially those... high-orbit array node groups that we considered 'useless' back then, and marked as redundant and abandoned!"