“I would never have thought you could use a solid to catalyze a reaction with another solid like that,” He Yin said as they watched the rapidly climbing number. The power output was in cultivation equivalents. It had already passed initial core formation and was climbing steadily to early core formation.
“It’s not about having them react together but having a pathway for energy transfer,” Cha Ming said. “Just like any good weapon doesn’t have qi directly react with the weapon, this power source uses the heat from the crystal dragon grass to drive the steady spontaneous combustion of the material beside it. The combustion is regulated by the heat output and the contact area dictated by the runic network. As the sacrificial metal shrinks, the formation will act accordingly.”
They waited for a few more seconds before, finally, the power output reached peak-core grade. It struggled there for some time before finally reaching half-step-rune-carving intensity. The golden metal bars were glowing bright white behind the blast shield. The reading struggled there for around thirty seconds before finally dropping down. Then, the glow faded, revealing only ashen remnants of the golden plate.
“We did it,” He Yin whispered. “Finally we did it. A half-step-core-formation power source.”
“Only for thirty seconds,” Cha Ming said, shaking his head. “We’ll need longer-lasting sources, and a much larger quantity, not to mention a corresponding accumulation and intensifying diagram.”
He Yin blinked in silence.
“What I mean is that we have a long way to go, and no time to rest.”
“I’ll go report the results to Tian Zhi,” He Yin said, nodding.
“And I’ll make another trip to the vault,” Cha Ming said. “This experience has given me a few more ideas to think about.”
Cha Ming remained deep in thought as he made his way to the vault. He’d been there so many times by now that he barely had to think at all as he made his way through winding corridors and security checks. He nodded politely to the secretary at the entrance and paused before the quartermaster’s door. The older man waved him through casually. Though he probably should have accompanied him, just as he’d done almost religiously for the first three weeks he was allowed access, Cha Ming’s seamless paperwork and his return of unused materials had caused that initial mistrust to fade.
The power source is more or less complete, he thought, sticking his arm into the lock contraption. It assessed his access mark and opened, allowing him inside the fortified structure. Now all that’s left is the distribution network and the primary weapon heads.
The Breaker, in the end, resembled a thick spear. Its tip could pierce a good way into the wall, by virtue of its materials and construction. That part was easy. What really did the damage, however, was the vast number of smaller spearheads that sprung out at angles with intense piercing force. They needed to do this with minimal distance for acceleration, a difficult task even for Cha Ming.
Sometimes he wondered if he should be worried about what he was teaching them. Then again, it would only take a few years for them to regain the knowledge he’d imparted to them. Instead, he’d decided to railroad the entire project down a specific pathway. At the end of the path was a sure way to achieve the mission’s goals. The trick was designing the thing so it would perform a very different purpose by the time it was assembled yet have all the pieces function normally, leading up to the product prior to final assembly.
As for reverse engineering it, he was even less concerned. Step by step, he’d made the project increasingly reliant on himself. The power source was a prime example. No one else would know how much strain it placed even on his transcendent soul to stabilize the crystal dragon grass compound. Since this was a confidential research and development project, only Tian Zhi at most would try to replicate it. He was unlikely to succeed for all but the simplest of portions.
Now for the spearheads, Cha Ming thought. He walked around the vault, examining several shelves of metals he could potentially alloy. He looked over metal after metal, figuring out their potential hardness as well as their resistance to heat. They would need to take a tremendous amount of energy over a short period of time, so heat resistance was paramount. As for hardness, he’d determined some time ago that even transcendent-grade walls were built more with toughness and regeneration in mind as opposed to hardness. With hard enough starting materials, it was possible to pierce through the transcendent wall. It was only a matter of how far the projectile would go before either stopping or breaking.
As Cha Ming picked up piece after piece of metal, he simultaneously probed at several formations he’d discreetly placed in the vault. He first checked the one monitoring the quartermaster. As usual, he was keeping a careful but relaxed eye on Cha Ming through his monitors on the other end. After confirming this, Cha Ming probed the various formation eyes for his concealment formation. Still intact.
The third and most important check was on something he’d been monitoring since he’d arrived: the Gold Source Marrow. It was still there, and unsurprisingly, no one had checked on it. It still glowed in its transparent case, its power clear for anyone to see. He’d wanted to take it earlier just in case, but the risk had been too great.
Now, however, things were different. Zhou Li had moved up the deadline yet again, and it was likely that he would do so once more. Cha Ming couldn’t wait around any longer. So, using his transcendent force and peak-core qi, he activated the concealing formation he’d taken great care to set, one piece at a time, inside the vault. He then took out
