103: Chapter 103 Trip to the Northwest: Meteorite Enhances Mental Strength

Three hours and twenty minutes later, at a certain military airfield in the Northwest.

The massive fuselage of the Yun-2 transport plane slowly came to a halt at the end of the runway. The moment the hatch opened, the unique dry heat of the Gobi Desert, laden with the scent of sand and dust, rudely rushed into the cabin. It collided violently with the lingering cool air from the air conditioning, creating a brief plume of white mist at the hatchway.

Chen Fan and Lei Zhen parted ways at the airstairs.

Lei Zhen would lead the entire 'Sharp Sword' special forces team to the Long Corporation laboratory ruins to carry out a top-level biochemical containment mission. Meanwhile, a fully armed soldier was already waiting for Chen Fan: "Mr. Chen, Captain Lei instructed that a vehicle has been prepared for you."

He pointed towards the edge of the tarmac—where a deep green military mengshi off-road vehicle was parked, its body covered in dust, fitted with special desert off-road tires. An auxiliary fuel tank and antenna were mounted on the roof, and a low idle rumble emanated faintly from under the hood.

"In this place, you can't go anywhere without a vehicle." The soldier handed over the keys, then passed him a folded map. "There are three military checkpoints along the route; they've already been notified."

Chen Fan opened the address sent by Fu Dong. Navigation showed it was about one hundred and thirty kilometers away—a two-hour drive.

Chen Fan took the keys and patted the soldier on the shoulder. "Thanks."

He pulled open the door and sat in the driver's seat. The military off-roader's interior was rugged and simple, but all the equipment was top-tier military spec. Starting the engine, the eight-cylinder diesel emitted a steady, powerful roar, and the instrument panel lit up.

"Xiao Zhi, scan the surrounding area for energy fluctuations."

The water droplet hovering above the passenger seat gave a slight tremble, its surface swirling with dark blue light patterns like breathing: 【No abnormal biological signals detected within an eight-kilometer radius. A high-intensity Stellar Core radiation source detected to the Northwest, approximately one hundred and twenty-five kilometers away. Signal characteristics highly match the coordinates provided by Mr. Fu Dong.】

Chen Fan looked towards the Northwest. The mengshi off-road vehicle surged out of the airfield, its wheels crushing over the cracked Gobi Desert, churning up a billowing yellow dragon of dust.

Two hours later, at the edge of the Gobi Desert, a Gobi town so small it didn't even have a name on the map.

Calling it a town was generous; it was essentially a three-hundred-meter-long dirt road, flanked by a dozen or so scattered low adobe houses and sheet-metal shacks. Wind and sand had worn every signboard blurry. Only a place with a faded red lantern hanging at its entrance, the 'Old Ma's Eatery', stood out somewhat.

This was the 'exchange point' Fu Dong had mentioned in the communication.

Chen Fan parked the car by the roadside. The moment he pushed the door open, dry, hot wind slapped him in the face. The midday Gobi Desert was like a red-hot iron wok, the air distorting in the heat haze. In the distance, the yardang landforms resembled crouching giant beasts.

"Chen Fan! Over here!"

A familiar voice came from across the street. Chen Fan turned and saw Fu Dong walking quickly out of a shop with a sign that read 'Exotic Stones Studio'.

Three months had passed. This senior researcher from the National Academy of Materials Science had lost weight, his skin bronzed by the Northwest sun, with a few fine lines etched by wind and sand on his face. He wore standard field gear—a multi-functional vest laden with a geological hammer, radiometer, magnifying glass, his pant legs stained with reddish-brown Gobi soil. But his eyes remained bright and sharp, radiating the focus unique to a research scientist.

"Engineer Fu." Chen Fan walked up to him, grasping his hand firmly. "I've really troubled you this time."

"Still being polite with me?" Fu Dong patted his shoulder vigorously, grinning to reveal teeth slightly yellowed from tobacco. "Come on, let me show you something amazing—the treasures you wanted are all right here!"

He pulled Chen Fan into the 'Exotic Stones Studio'. The shop was small, about thirty square meters. Shelves were crammed with all sorts of bizarrely shaped stones: wind-eroded rocks, agates, Gobi jade... Some were natural curiosities, others clearly artificially aged handicrafts, all dusty and crowded together.

Chen Fan's gaze swept over them, and his heart stirred slightly—amidst those ordinary stones, he 'saw' a few pieces that were different.

On the surfaces of those meteorites, extremely faint light and shadow flowed. It wasn't reflected sunlight, but a dark golden pulsation emanating from within the stones themselves, as if alive. Though faint, in Chen Fan's Energy Vision, they were as clear as fireflies in the night. This was an ability Chen Fan possessed after boosting his mental power through meteorites.

"Boss, the main guest has arrived," Fu Dong called out to a gaunt old man behind the counter who was polishing a stone while wearing reading glasses. "Bring out the goods from the back."

The old man looked up, squinting at Chen Fan for a few seconds, then put down his work and slowly rose. "Gentlemen, please come inside."

He lifted a cloth curtain behind the counter, revealing a narrow door. Passing through it led to a warehouse about one hundred square meters in area, windowless, with only a dim yellow incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling. Under the light, a large pile of stones was spread on the floor—precisely the meteorites Chen Fan wanted.

There were twenty to thirty pieces, large and small. The largest was the size of a small safe, the smallest about the size of a fist. They lay quietly on the rough concrete floor, their surfaces coated with the Gobi's characteristic dust. But beneath the grime, those dark golden pulsations were clearly visible.

Chen Fan walked up to the largest meteorite. It was an irregular ellipsoid, pitch black like ink, its surface densely covered with natural honeycomb-like pores. He reached out and lightly touched the stone's surface. His fingertips felt a cool sensation, but beneath his skin, he could clearly perceive a surging undercurrent of energy, like magma sealed deep within the earth's crust.

"Are they all here?" Chen Fan asked.

"All here, roughly two hundred kilograms in total," the boss said, rubbing his hands together, his eyes gleaming with the shrewdness of a businessman. "Sir, you see..."

"I'll take them all," Chen Fan interrupted directly. "Name your price."

The boss's eyes lit up. He sized up Chen Fan, glanced at Fu Dong, then extended two fingers. "These are all genuine meteoritic iron, high scientific value, and they weren't easy for me to acquire... How about this, give me a round number, eight thousand."

In a place like the Northwest, eight thousand for two hundred kilograms of 'rocks' was an astronomical price. But Chen Fan didn't even blink. "Deal."

He pulled out his phone to transfer the money. Fu Dong, standing beside him, seemed on the verge of saying something but ultimately remained silent—he knew Chen Fan never made a bad deal.

"Sir, you're decisive!" The old man grinned from ear to ear, hastily pulling out a QR code. "Let me help you load them into the vehicle!"

The three of them began moving the stones to the off-road vehicle outside. Chen Fan bent down, grabbed the largest meteorite with one hand—it must have weighed at least a hundred jin—the muscles in his arm tensing slightly. He exerted force from his core and actually lifted it easily, walking steadily towards the vehicle door.

The boss and Fu Dong, who were struggling to carry a smaller twenty-jin meteorite and breathing heavily, were stunned.

"Whoa!" The boss's eyes widened. "Young man, that strength... you've trained, haven't you?"

Fu Dong also shook his head with a wry smile. "Youth is a blessing. My old back couldn't handle that."

Chen Fan smiled but didn't respond. His body, preliminarily enhanced by Stellar Core energy, made lifting this weight truly easy. He made several trips, moving all the large meteorites into the vehicle, while Fu Dong and the boss worked together to move the smaller ones.

Twenty minutes later, all the meteorites were loaded. The mengshi off-roader's trunk and back seat were packed full.

Chen Fan pointed to a few stones on the shelf that had light and shadow flowing within them. "Give me these as a bonus."

The boss smiled. "Sir, you really have an eye for quality." He then handed them to Chen Fan.

Chen Fan and Fu Dong walked out of the shop.

"Come on, let me treat you to a proper meal," Chen Fan said to Fu Dong. "You've worked hard on this trip."

Inside 'Old Ma's Eatery', the two sat by the window.

The establishment was simple but tidy. The boss, a man in his fifties from the Northwest, served up hearty dishes: hand-grabbed lamb and a large plate of chicken. The aroma of meat mixed with spices filled the air.

Fu Dong gnawed on a lamb rib, asking indistinctly, "These meteorites... are they enough for you?"

"I'll take as many as I can get," Chen Fan said, picking up a piece of chicken. "I'll need to look around the area these next couple of days, search for more."

"I saw the news about Long Group's collapse," Fu Dong said, putting down the bone and wiping his hands. "Your Fanxing Technology is riding high now. You even developed a lithography machine?"

"Long Corporation brought that upon themselves," Chen Fan said dismissively. "As for the lithography machine... with foreign tech monopolies, we can't just let ourselves be strangled forever. Just doing what we can."

Fu Dong stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed. "You... thermal insulation materials, superconducting materials, and now a lithography machine. Honestly, if you suddenly announced you'd built a lunar landing spacecraft one day, I wouldn't be surprised at all."

He meant it half-jokingly, but Chen Fan thought seriously for a moment. "Lunar machinery... that's not a bad idea. If we could really get to the moon, finding meteorite resources would be much more convenient."

Fu Dong was taken aback, then burst out laughing. "You really dare to dream!"

They chatted as they ate, the meal lasting until the sun began to set. When settling the bill, Chen Fan took a folded black vest from his backpack and handed it to Fu Dong.

"What's this?" Fu Dong took it. It felt heavy, and the fabric had a special toughness to the touch.

"A bulletproof vest modified with special materials. Lightweight, but good protection," Chen Fan said. "Things have been unsettled around the Northwest lately. Wear it, just in case."

Fu Dong, being a materials expert, knew just by touch that this vest was extraordinary—the fabric weighed less than half that of a standard bulletproof vest, but the fiber structure and density screamed high-tech. He accepted it solemnly. "Thanks, brother."

They said their goodbyes at the eatery entrance. Fu Dong still had to return to a research station seventy kilometers away, while Chen Fan needed to find a place to process the newly acquired batch of meteorites.

At dusk, Chen Fan drove the car deep into a remote yardang landform area, far from any road.

It was desolate and uninhabited. A dozen or so wind-eroded earth mounds encircled a small depression, making for an excellent hiding spot. He parked, unloaded the meteorites one by one, and laid them out on the sandy ground.

The dying rays of the sunset gilded the edges of those black stones. The light and shadow pulsations within the meteorites became increasingly visible in the fading light, like slumbering hearts.

Chen Fan sat cross-legged in the center of the meteorites, hands resting palms-up on his knees, and closed his eyes.

"Xiao Zhi, secure the perimeter."

The water droplet hovered three meters above his head, its surface's dark blue light patterns shifting to a dark red: 【Alert mode activated. Detection radius expanded to five kilometers. Weapon systems on standby.】

Chen Fan took a deep breath, spreading his mental power out like a tide, enveloping every meteorite.

He began to absorb.

When the first thread of Stellar Core energy flooded into his body, his entire frame shuddered violently!

It wasn't pain, but something deeper, an impact touching the very source of life. It was as if countless stars were exploding within his blood vessels. Every cell cheered, trembled, and frantically devoured this high-level energy from the cosmos.

In his mind, the Amplification system's interface refreshed frantically:

【Absorbing Stellar Core energy... 1%... 3%... 7%...】

【Mental Power index soaring: 152%... 187%... 226%...】

【New ability acquired: Energy Vision (Advanced)—Can observe microscopic energy structures】

【New ability acquired: Material Analysis (Primary)—Can perceive internal defects and stress distribution within matter】

Even more wondrously, as the energy absorption continued, he 'saw' more things—

Those meteorites were not lifeless objects. Deep within their crystal structures, fragmented memories were sealed: coordinates of starry navigation routes, formulas for constructing energy matrices, smelting techniques for a certain silvery metal... even a few blurry images: a massive ship sailing through darkness, its hull engraved with patterns he had seen before in the Pioneer Civilization beacon.

But these fragments were too scattered, too broken, like a torn and waterlogged ancient text, leaving only scattered words and phrases.

Chen Fan gathered his focus, concentrating on the energy absorption. The Stellar Core energy contained within the two hundred kilograms of meteorites flowed into his body, his consciousness, every corner of his soul, like rivers merging into the sea.

He could feel his mental power undergoing a qualitative transformation—what once required concentrated effort to maintain, Energy Vision, had now become as instinctual as breathing. What he could once only vaguely sense as emotional fluctuations, he could now clearly distinguish their subtle layers. Calculations and deductions that once took seconds were now solved in an instant... More energy surged in. Faint golden, intricate patterns began to appear on Chen Fan's skin, like ancient runes or the trajectories of celestial motion. Deep within his pupils, dark golden flowing light rotated like a galaxy, lingering persistently.

When the last thread of Stellar Core energy was completely absorbed, the pile of meteorites on the ground had turned into ash-gray ordinary rocks, the internal light and shadow pulsations utterly gone.

Chen Fan slowly opened his eyes.

The golden light in his pupils gradually faded, but his entire demeanor was already different. He stood up, stretched his limbs. Every movement was precise and efficient, with no wasteful energy loss. He gently clenched his fist, the air in his palm compressed until it emitted a faint crackling sound.

"Xiao Zhi, comprehensive assessment."

The water droplet descended to his shoulder: 【Boss, current status: Physical strength increased by 2.3 times. Neural reaction speed increased by 1.8 times. Total Mental Power increased by 385%. New abilities fully integrated into combat database. Energy Vision range expanded to a twenty-meter radius. Analysis precision has reached the micron level.】

Chen Fan gazed deeper into the Northwest.

Out there, there were more meteorite craters, more Stellar Core fragments.

And over the next two days, he would use Xiao Zhi's upgraded detection capabilities to find more hidden Stellar Core resources in this vast Gobi Desert.

Night deepened, and a cold wind began to blow across the Gobi.

Chen Fan drove the car towards a nearby guesthouse.