Chapter 345 Project Nine Cauldrons Initiated

"Buzz—!"

In the center of the joint control room, the giant supercomputing array used for interstellar communication suddenly emitted an extremely bright red alarm light.

Immediately afterwards, the entire super earthquake-resistant bunker, 700 meters underground, without any physical damage, suddenly developed a visible spatial ripple.

"Warning! Extremely high spiritual pressure detected crossing the spatial barrier!"

"The internal array patterns are undamaged! It's a spatial teleportation!"

The internal security forces instantly drew their armor-piercing heavy swords, and the clicking sound of guns being cocked filled the air as they held Wang Mingyuan and the core experts firmly behind them.

At the center of the ripples, a streak of azure sword light, carrying an overwhelming sharpness, appeared out of thin air. It hovered with pinpoint accuracy on the tactical conference table in front of Wang Mingyuan.

The sword light slowly dissipated.

It was an ancient and unadorned flying sword. At the end of the hilt hung a jade slip that emitted a soft, bluish light.

"Cough... This is... Kunlun's flying sword!" Lin Feng was forced back two steps by the sword energy, knocking over the water glass behind him. He hurriedly adjusted his glasses, and a burst of wild joy suddenly appeared in his eyes.

An extremely cold yet seemingly profound divine message resounded directly in the minds of everyone in the control room.

"The gates of deep space are about to open; a great calamity is imminent."

"The Dao Lord bestows upon us the [Nine Cauldrons Star Anchoring Array of the Nine Provinces]."

"The mortal realm's heavy industry forms the outer shell, while the Kunlun disciples control the core. Activate the formation immediately, without fail."

Wang Mingyuan gasped for breath. He pushed aside the guards blocking his way and grabbed the jade slip with trembling hands.

boom!

A massive flow of information, large enough to overwhelm an ordinary person's brain, poured into his consciousness like a flood bursting its banks.

That wasn't some fragile light curtain floating in space.

It was a massive, breathtaking blueprint for the ultimate defense project, based on the physical mass of the entire Earth and the gravitational pull of its veins!

On the blueprints, the nine main ley lines of the Earth are marked with dazzling golden light. Kunlun, Taishan, Tianshan... At each node stands a "steel cauldron" thousands of meters high, assembled from countless heavy metal modules.

"The shield...this is the shield that was given to us..."

Wang Mingyuan suddenly opened his eyes and slammed the jade slip onto the central supercomputer's readout array. "Lin Feng! Transfer the data! Maximize the holographic projection!"

Swah——

The structural diagrams of nine enormous, almost spectacular metal cauldrons were displayed before everyone, and the only sound in the command room was gasping in astonishment.

Lin Feng's hands moved across the keyboard like blurs as he stared at the scrolling parameters on the screen: "Mixed casting of Star Iron and Deep Sea Cold Iron... Total mass of a single unit: 24 million tons."

boom!

The military representative slammed his fist on the table, causing the tactical tablet to bounce: "Twenty-four million tons? And nine of them?! Old Wang, even if this furnace explodes, we still won't be able to produce that much! Where are we going to find a casting furnace this big to mold it in one piece?"

"The drawings didn't say it had to be molded in one piece."

Wang Mingyuan loosened his tie and pointed to the magnified details of the holographic projection.

"Modular design. It's disassembled into hundreds of thousands of hexagonal modules with physical snap-fits. These are then sent to the heavy industry assembly line for stamping, and finally transported to the earth vein nodes for physical assembly."

"What about the welding?!" The chief expert of the formation team slapped his thigh in frustration. "With hundreds of thousands of fragments pieced together, how are we going to handle the physical gaps without using real fire to weld them? This is a magical artifact! How can it function if the array patterns are broken?"

No welding is required.

Wang Mingyuan coldly interrupted him, his fingers tracing the edges of the modules on the projection screen.

"You're too stuck in traditional weapon-forging thinking. Even the largest volcano on Earth couldn't contain a cauldron weighing 24 million tons!"

"The blueprints provided by the Dao Lord are for 'matrix docking.' Each hexagonal module is inscribed with an independent sub-array. The edges of the modules are not for welding, but rather have extremely high-precision physical conductive contacts!"

"As long as the physical latches of the two modules fit together perfectly, with a tolerance of less than 0.01 millimeters, the array patterns on their surfaces will automatically form a spiritual energy circuit! Just like assembling a circuit board, once plugged in, it can conduct electricity!"

"And those famous mountain ley lines we're looking for are the sockets! They're the energy sources from which the Great Cauldron absorbs the Earth's gravity and spiritual pressure!"

The experts in the control room were stunned.

No need for welding, just direct physical connection of array patterns? This revolutionary heavy-duty cultivation concept completely shattered their blind spots in understanding.

"But this raises a new problem."

Lin Feng adjusted his glasses, looking at the production capacity report filled with red lines. "To achieve a physical fit tolerance of 0.01 millimeters, the requirements for casting precision are extremely high. These Class A heavy industrial plants on the Earth's surface simply cannot meet the production capacity. Even if all orders were stopped, it would still take at least half a year to assemble all nine cauldron modules."

Wang Mingyuan remained silent, shifting his gaze from the Earth's projection to the grayish-white satellite.

"The Earth's production capacity is insufficient."

Wang Mingyuan's voice was deep and powerful, "Then let's add the moon."

"Transmit my instructions: Connect the dedicated line to the Guanghan base."

A few seconds later, Xu Zhao and Chen Ge's faces appeared on the screen.

"Xu Zhao, what is the current state of the Taiyi Bagua Furnace on the moon?" Wang Mingyuan cut straight to the point.

Xu Zhao paused for a moment, then immediately pulled up the data on the keyboard: "The Taiyi Furnace is in low-frequency standby mode. All the large-scale psionic vibration devices were turned off to maintain secrecy. Moreover, the far side of the moon is currently experiencing polar night, and the solar array cannot provide the furnace with the initial ignition energy."

"Remove from stealth mode."

Wang Mingyuan slammed his hand on the table.

"Start the furnace right there on the moon!"

"The absolute vacuum and extreme temperature difference on the lunar surface provide a perfect natural cooling environment. The Taiyi Bagua Furnace is large enough to cast a core load-bearing module weighing over a thousand tons in a single operation!"

"Earth will produce the standard peripheral components, and the Moon will cast the core base. Grind the industrial gears of both planets to a pulp!"

"But the ignition energy..." Xu Zhao was interrupted by Chen Ge before he could finish speaking.

"Leave the ignition to us."

Chen Ge gripped the ship-slaying sword in his hand and turned to look at the five hundred defense army cultivators behind him.

"Would the true fire of twelve Golden Core cultivators, combined with the overload output of five hundred exoskeleton reactors, be enough to ignite the Taiyi Furnace?!"

"That's enough! Absolutely enough!" Xu Zhao's eyes lit up.

"Let's get to it." The military representative grabbed his cap and put it on. "I'll go get the engineering corps right away and have them dig the foundation at the key point!"

"Transmit my highest combat readiness order!"

Wang Mingyuan pressed the broadcast button for all channels.

"The Nine Cauldrons Project has been officially launched! All heavy industry companies on Earth, immediately cease all non-essential civilian orders! All production capacity must be transferred to the stamping of the 'Nine Cauldrons' modules!"

"Guanghan Base, fully activate the Taiyi Bagua Furnace! Use local materials to cast the core of the Nine Cauldrons!"

……

New Chang'an City. Third Heavy Industry Ritual Instrument Casting Plant.

The factory manager looked at the blueprints for the [Jiuding - Standard Hexagonal Module] that he had just received on the terminal, kicked over the waste bin next to him, and roared at the workshop below.

"Stop it! Shut down every single civilian production line!"

"Go and bring out all the 100,000-ton hydraulic presses!"

"No welded surfaces! The drawings require 'interlocking,' with an edge tolerance of no more than 0.01 millimeters! Anyone who bends the clips will be stuffed into the furnace and remade!"

"Factory manager! The machine tools aren't precise enough!" the workshop foreman shouted. "Such a large piece of star iron undergoes extremely slight physical deformation when it cools; the clips simply can't engage properly!"

"If the precision isn't enough, fill in the gaps with divine sense!"

A cool, clear voice came from above the workshop.

A Kunlun Golden Core cultivator dressed in a blue Taoist robe landed precisely on top of a 100,000-ton hydraulic press. He ignored the astonished looks of the workshop workers and brushed the dust off his robe.

"This humble Taoist is a disciple of the inner sect of Kunlun, and has entered the world by imperial decree."

"The moment the machine tool presses down, I will use my Golden Core divine sense to lock onto the molecular structure inside the star iron. I will suppress the cooling and deformation."

The factory manager suddenly came to his senses, ripped the towel off his neck, and slammed it hard on the main start switch of the hydraulic press.

"A 100,000-ton hydraulic press! Smash it for me!!!"

boom!

The heavy mechanical hammer crashed down, sparks flying like a waterfall throughout the factory. At this moment, the cultivator's divine sense and the CNC machine tools of heavy industry completed their most precise cross-boundary integration.

……

And on the moon, 380,000 kilometers away.

Guanghan Base.

Deep underground, the colossal, long-silent structure—the Taiyi Bagua Furnace—finally emitted an extremely deep hum.

This super industrial machine is like a metal monster with its jaws wide open.

"Prepare for ignition!" Ma Cheng roared from the control panel.

The twelve Golden Core stage sword cultivators retreated directly from the two-kilometer-high aerial defense line and hovered cross-legged in the eight directions of the Taiyi Furnace.

"Charge!"

The twelve golden pills circulated wildly, and pure extreme yang true fire flowed along the array patterns, pouring into the base of the furnace like a golden waterfall.

Five hundred defense force cultivators directly inserted the energy output lines of their exoskeletons into the furnace's external ports.

Rumble—!

The entire Guanghan base trembled violently.

The temperature inside the Taiyi Bagua Furnace exceeded the critical point for melting star iron within just ten seconds.

Tracked vehicles dump hundreds or even thousands of tons of unrefined star iron ore into the furnace entrance like dumping garbage. Impurities instantly vaporize at extremely high temperatures, and pure molten iron tumbles in the mold.

The extreme cold environment on the far side of the moon became the perfect tempering ground.

In less than an hour, a dark golden core base weighing 1,500 tons and covered with mysterious array patterns was forcibly dragged out of the furnace amidst a piercing cooling hiss.

"Core number one is complete! Send it into the teleportation array!" Ma Cheng roared, his eyes bloodshot.

The massive robotic arm propelled the still-intensely hot iron lump into the interstellar teleportation array.

A flash of white light, and the heavy module vanished instantly on the moon.

……

Earth. Sichuan, on the edge of a sinkhole deep in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

The wind howled, carrying the acrid smell of sulfur. The earth's strata had been forcibly breached by thousands of heavy tunnel boring machines, revealing the deep veins beneath, where dark red currents surged.

In the sky, a burst of bright light erupted from the connection point of the teleportation array.

A kilometer-long anti-gravity transport ship, suspended by thick alloy chains, slowly descended above the sinkhole, carrying the 1,500-ton core base that had just been sent from the moon.

"The core components of the moon have arrived!"

Instructor Zhao Yi stood on the edge of the cliff, sweating profusely from the heat surging up from the ground, and suddenly swung his one arm.

"Place the base in place! Mount the engineering mech! Connect all the standard parts!"

Click—!

When the core base forged by the moon slammed heavily onto the ley line node at the bottom of the sinkhole, the entire mountain emitted a dull echo.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of heavy engineering mechs carrying hexagonal standard modules produced on Earth's assembly line surged toward the base from all directions.

There was no welding torch, and no sparks.

The moment when the standard module weighing 300 tons makes physical contact with the core base weighing 1,500 tons.

A crisp "click" sounded.

The dovetail grooves fit together perfectly.

It's like turning on a power source in the dark.

The originally dim array patterns on the two metal surfaces instantly formed a complete spiritual energy loop within a thousandth of a second of the physical latch locking them in place.

The spiritual energy deep within the earth flowed smoothly into the module through the physical contact point.

Om-!

A beam of blue light shone from the joint between the two pieces of steel.

"Array One connected! Physical loop complete!" the engineer roared with ecstasy over the communications channel.

"Keep going! Next piece! Stack it up layer by layer!" Zhao Yi roared.

There is no fiery casting, only an extremely cold, precise, and seamless array of pieces.

The energy reserves of Earth and the Moon are perfectly aligned in this deep geological abyss in the most incredible way. Like building blocks, they are gradually raising the Nine Tripods, which are enough to anchor the dimensions of planets, within this sinkhole.