628: Chapter 623 Tidal Energy?

Shen Yan's gaze swept slowly across the jagged reef clusters.

These reefs had been scoured by the waves for thousands of years; every single one was incredibly hard.

"Beneath the reefs" was too broad a scope.

Searching by brute force would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

The System never presented unsolvable riddles.

There must be another clue hidden within the prompt.

Shen Yan did not act rashly. He found a relatively flat reef, sat down, and quietly watched the tide rise and fall.

One hour.

Two hours.

The sun slanted westward, its golden afterglow shimmering on the sea surface.

The tide began to recede.

The reefs that had been submerged gradually revealed their menacing full forms.

A flash of inspiration struck Shen Yan.

Storm.

What is the greatest "storm" for the ocean?

Is it a typhoon? Is it a tsunami?

No.

It is the tide that never ceases, day after day.

This power, originating from the gravitational pull of the stars, was the most magnificent and primal "storm" on Earth.

And "beneath the reefs" might not refer to the physical downward direction, but rather... the place revealed only after the tide recedes.

Shen Yan stood up and walked along the slippery reefs in the direction the tide was retreating.

His leather shoes trod on the moss-covered stones, nearly causing him to slip several times, but he walked steadily.

His eyes, like a falcon's, searched every inch of the newly exposed rock face.

Half an hour later, his steps stopped before a massive reef wall.

This was the lowest point in the entire Black Stone Reef area.

During the high tide just now, this spot had been completely submerged under several meters of seawater.

Now, as the tide went out, it revealed an extremely unnatural fissure.

It was called a fissure because it was indeed a gap between two giant rocks.

It was called unnatural because, at the bottom of this gap, about a person's height up, there was a small notch that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, looking as if it had been artificially chiseled.

Something seemed to be stuck in the notch.

Shen Yan stepped forward and carefully reached his hand in.

His fingertips touched something cold and smooth.

He pried hard and yanked the object out of the rock crevice.

It was a glass bottle.

The bottle was covered in scratches from age and calcareous deposits left by marine life. It looked like it had been there for a very, very long time.

The mouth of the bottle was sealed with a cork and thick wax, ensuring that its contents were isolated from the seawater.

A message in a bottle?

Shen Yan's heart skipped a beat.

Holding the bottle, he returned to the shore and found a multi-tool knife in his car.

He carefully scraped off the sealing wax and pried open the decayed cork.

A puff of stale, dry air rushed out from the bottle's mouth.

He turned the bottle upside down and gently tilted it.

A roll of paper, tightly wrapped in oilcloth, slid from the bottle into his palm.

The roll wasn't large, but it felt weighty.

Shen Yan untied the thin hemp rope wrapped around the outside and unfolded the oilcloth layer by layer.

Inside the oilcloth was another layer of wax paper.

When the last layer of wax paper was peeled away, a dozen pages of yellowed but perfectly preserved letter paper appeared before him.

The letter paper was filled with dense text and formulas written in fountain pen.

The handwriting was powerful and vigorous, the strokes sharp, as if threatening to pierce through the back of the paper.

Shen Yan's breath hitched abruptly.

[Theoretical Feasibility Report (Draft) on Establishing a "Resonant Tidal Energy Matrix"]

Tidal Energy?

Shen Yan was not unfamiliar with this field.

As a clean energy source theoretically possessing massive reserves, humanity's research into it had never stopped.

However, constrained by technology and cost, current global tidal power stations were limited in scale and inefficient, far less widespread than wind or solar power.

But the concept proposed in the report in his hands completely subverted his past understanding.

"...Abandoning the traditional turbine model, instead utilizing the 'sonoluminescence' and 'piezoelectric inverse conversion' generated when specific frequency ocean currents impact special alloy materials to construct a coverage-style seabed energy matrix..."

"...The core of the matrix is not collection, but 'resonance.' Through ultra-low frequency sound waves, inducing specific frequency resonance in the surrounding seawater, converting the disordered kinetic energy of the tide into an orderly, high-density energy flow..."

"...The theoretical peak energy conversion efficiency can reach 97.3%."

"...Its stability and output power will far surpass all current forms of power stations, including nuclear power."

Shen Yan turned the pages one by one.

His foundation in software engineering and physics allowed him to barely understand a portion of the theory.

But the more he understood, the more turbulent the waves in his heart became.

This was not a report.

This was a divine oracle written by a madman!

If everything written here could be realized...

What would that mean?

It would mean humanity would completely escape energy anxiety.

It would mean an era of truly clean, highly efficient, and nearly infinite energy was about to arrive.

This was the next direction the System had pointed him toward after he stepped into the field of Artificial Intelligence!

Energy.

The ultimate racetrack of the future world.

He had to find Fang Zhizhuo.

Only the originator of this theory would know whether the door to this "New World" led to Heaven or Hell.

Shen Yan's hands trembled slightly.

He forced himself to calm down and turned to the last page of the report.

At the end of all the formulas and derivations, there were only two lines of text.

[The theory is dead, the path ahead is cut off. One step further is a god, and also a demon.]

The signature was three characters.

[Fang Zhizhuo.]

Below that was a line of extremely small annotation.

[Concluded in the Physics Department Office at Donghai University.]

Fang Zhizhuo?

Shen Yan immediately took out his phone and typed the name into the search engine.

A few seconds later, related information popped up.

Fang Zhizhuo, male, internationally renowned physicist, former head of the Physics Department at Donghai University, specializing in ocean dynamics and high-energy physics.

Fifteen years ago, he was the most dazzling genius scholar in the country, having published dozens of highly influential papers in top international journals.

But at the peak of his career, he suddenly announced his resignation from all positions, withdrew from academia, and vanished without a trace.

Some said he went mad from delving too deep into his research.

Some said he touched upon a domain he shouldn't have and was suppressed.

For fifteen years, there had been no public reports about him.

He seemed to have evaporated from the face of the earth.

Shen Yan looked at the information on his phone, then at the report in his hand, and everything connected.

This genius scholar had already deduced an energy theory capable of changing the world fifteen years ago.

Yet, he ultimately chose to give up, leaving behind such a desperate and cautionary statement.

Why?

Was there an irreparable flaw in the theory? Or did he foresee some terrifying consequence?

Shen Yan didn't know.

But he knew this report was the next direction the System had pointed him toward after he stepped into the field of Artificial Intelligence.

Energy.

The ultimate field of the future world.

He must find Fang Zhizhuo.

Only the creator of the theory would know whether the door to this "New World" led to Heaven or Hell.