Chapter 311 The Oppressive Feeling of a Vacuum Environment

On the grayish-white surface of the moon, there was no moon dust stirred up by any wind.

Chu Qing knelt on one knee and forcefully drove a half-meter-tall titanium crystal beacon into the hard rock. With the activation of the miniature array core, a faint blue frequency band, invisible to the naked eye, instantly pierced through 380,000 kilometers of deep space and stably connected to the joint network between the high-orbit forward base and the surface.

"Lunar Beacon 1, handshake successful at the lower level. Environmental data transmission has begun."

Inside the joint control room on the surface, a massive waterfall of data cascaded down the main screen. There was no poetry, no romance; the holographic screen depicted a starkly silent, cold, and radiation-filled real moon.

Looking at those glaring parameters, Wang Mingyuan and Lin Feng frowned simultaneously.

"The environment is too harsh." Lin Feng stared intently at the Taiyin cold pressure and the cosmic ray index. "Chu Qing is a top-notch sword cultivator. His true essence reserves and physical strength are enough to withstand the lunar surface. But the ones who will actually go up there to do the work are not the Golden Core cultivators, but the Foundation Establishment stage engineering cultivators, array masters, and cold forgers."

"They are the main force in lunar exploration," Wang Mingyuan replied in a deep voice. "If ordinary cultivators run out of spiritual energy or suffer frostbite to their meridians after only half an hour, then there is no point in us clearing this path."

Having roads doesn't mean that people can move up there on a large scale.

The high-orbit control center swiftly issued instructions. Twelve hours later, a small, mixed test team of three elite soldiers painstakingly completed their crossing, following the gravity array nodes established by Chu Qing, and landed smoothly near the lunar beacon No. 1.

There was a Foundation Establishment stage engineering cultivator, a junior array master from the Array Academy, and a logistics cultivator responsible for recording parameters. Chu Qing, carrying a heavy sword, stood beside them as a backup force and a stabilizing anchor.

"The ultimate test of the lunar aura shield begins now. Phase 1: Pure stay."

The three test team members simultaneously activated their protective aura shields. A faint halo of light illuminated the desolate, gray-white earth.

On Earth, Foundation Establishment cultivators can raise their spiritual energy shields as naturally as breathing, consuming negligible amounts of energy. But on the Moon, the situation is entirely different.

"The spiritual energy is being lost at an extremely rapid rate." The engineering cultivator stared at the portable spiritual pressure monitor on his arm, his expression grave. "The vacuum here isn't just 'no air,' it's more like a black hole that can never be filled, actively sucking in our spiritual pressure. In order to maintain the internal and external pressure balance of this 'living environment,' my true essence is being passively consumed at ten times the rate at the surface."

Simply "standing here and surviving" without taking any action is a brutal war of attrition.

"Record parameters. Enter Phase Two: Low-Intensity Operation." Lin Feng's voice came through the communication channel.

The engineer pulled out a lightweight alloy anchor, while the array master took out a makeshift pressure-stabilizing array. The two began coordinating the most basic construction work on the lunar surface.

Extremely clumsy and slow.

What could be accomplished in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn on Earth turned into a protracted battle here. As the engineering cultivator channeled his true energy to try and drive the anchor into the lunar surface, the spiritual energy shield around his body flickered violently.

"Report! The exertion of force and the release of true energy are severely interfering with the stability of the protective shield!" The engineering cultivator gritted his teeth. "We're not simply lacking spiritual energy; we're lacking a stable environment to envelop ourselves. Maintaining the shield's resistance to pressure while simultaneously outputting true energy to drive the projectiles has doubled the load on our meridians. I can only continue working for a maximum of thirty minutes!"

Chu Qing watched them quietly. He could clearly see that the two cultivators had beads of cold sweat on their foreheads, and in a vacuum, these beads of sweat would instantly turn into ice crystals once they left the edge of the protective shield.

"Entering Phase 3: Extreme Environment Switching Test"

"Everyone, move forward 120 meters ahead into the shadow of the crater."

This is one of the deadliest traps on the moon. Three test team members, shielded by a crumbling aura shield, stepped from the sunlit side, where the temperature was over 100 degrees Celsius, into the shadow behind the crater.

The temperature plummeted by more than 200 degrees Celsius in a fraction of a second.

"Warning! External cold pressure is surging! Cosmic background radiation parameters are fluctuating violently!" the logistics clerk shouted in the channel.

Click!

With the extreme temperature difference and the weak deep space radiation, the aura shield on the surface of the array master's body suddenly emitted a barely perceptible crisp sound, and a "thin spot" the size of a coin instantly appeared at the edge of the shield.

The deadly vacuum and the chilling Yin energy, like sharks smelling blood, surged wildly towards that thin spot. The array master's face turned deathly pale instantly, and a sharp, knife-like pain shot through his meridians.

Just as the protective shield was about to shatter, a large, heavy sword silently appeared in front of him.

Chu Qing made his move. The heavy sword emitted a rich and warm quality from the starry sky material, forcefully cleaving the violent radiation and cold air in the middle, creating an absolute safe zone for the array master.

"Test complete. Immediately retreat to the sunny side and replenish your true energy." Chu Qing calmly sheathed his sword.

Those few breathtaking seconds made everyone realize one fact: the most terrifying enemy of the moon now is the environment itself.

In the joint control room on the ground and the high-orbit forward base, everyone fell into deep thought as they looked at the set of extreme parameters that had been measured with their lives.

"It's absolutely impossible for a cultivator to withstand it with their own physical body and true essence."

The old dean looked at the report and shook his head. "Without external assistance, a Foundation Establishment cultivator can only work on the lunar surface for a maximum of thirty minutes. It's impossible to carry out infrastructure construction under such conditions."

"We must use an external system." Lin Feng quickly drew several drafts on the star map. "We need a specialized lunar life support array, heavy-duty external voltage stabilization nodes, and a protective shield coordination system that can cover the entire construction area. People can't work naked; we must first establish the concept of a 'base'."

Wang Mingyuan nodded in agreement, then his gaze fell on the Earth-Moon line illuminated by the gravity array, his eyes flickering slightly.

"In addition, although the gravity array link can send the first batch of people up, the redundant computing power of the high-orbit star-gathering platform was consumed a lot during the crossing just now." Wang Mingyuan made a long-term judgment with extreme calmness. "Once the development between the moon and the earth becomes routine, it is impossible to rely on 'stepping on gravity nodes' to fly for high-frequency personnel travel. The efficiency is too low and the consumption is too great."

"Professor Wang means..." An elder of the Array Court was slightly surprised.

"Once the energy, array materials, and spatial coordinates of the first station on the moon are completely stable, we must establish a stable teleportation gate between the moon and the earth," Wang Mingyuan declared decisively. "But that's a matter for later. Right now, the top priority is to keep people alive on the moon."

Commands were transmitted rapidly via radio waves and spiritual pressure networks.

On the moon, Chu Qing stood beside the beacon he had just shot down, looking up at the dark sky.

At the edge of his vision, on the gravitational array line connecting Earth and the Moon, tiny specks of light began to flicker. These were the first batch of small life support components, large array bases, and lightweight modular modules urgently allocated by the high-orbit forward base.

Chu Qing knew that the test was over.

From the moment these cold metals and array plates fell, humanity would no longer be merely passersby on the moon. On this desolate extraterrestrial body, they would use steel and array patterns to forge the first star outpost of their cultivation civilization.