Chapter 164 Xia Weiliang pulls out solid-state battery blueprints, the final death knell for gasoline-powered cars.

A deep blue light, like ripples on water, instantly flooded the wide, black metal laboratory bench.

Chu Xuan squinted, his breath hitching for a moment.

Lu Jingming supported himself with one hand on the table, leaning in close to the stack of transparent plates emitting a Holographic Projection.

In the blue halo in mid-air, a striking line of Chinese Song-style characters floated silently: "High-Density Polymer Solid-State Battery Mass Production Model."

Lu Jingming curled the corner of his mouth.

The lazy coldness in his eyes was instantly replaced by pure excitement.

"Doesn't Old Musk like to brag about his 4680 batteries on Twitter?"

Xia Weiliang hopped onto the laboratory bench.

Her fair, delicate feet dangled in mid-air, swinging back and forth.

She casually flicked through the floating virtual data and scoffed.

"Those oversized batteries filled with flammable electrolyte are just broken firecrackers in my eyes, ready to explode at any moment."

Chu Xuan gripped the edge of the table and rubbed his eyes hard.

"Wei—Weiliang, I don't understand the molecular structure on this Holographic Projection at all."

Xia Weiliang rolled her eyes dramatically.

The plastic lollipop stick bobbed in her mouth.

"You bumpkin, if you could understand it, I wouldn't be in this line of work."

Her fingertips swiped rapidly across the virtual panel, pulling up a row of bright red comparative data.

"Listen up, I'm only going to say this once."

Xia Weiliang lifted her chin, her face filled with that wild arrogance that defied all conventional logic.

"Energy density—the top-tier ternary lithium currently on the market tops out at three hundred watt-hours per kilogram."

She held up a finger, pointing at the core model on the blueprint.

"This thing starts at fifteen hundred. That's a fivefold dimensionality reduction strike."

The laboratory was so quiet that only the humming of the exhaust fan could be heard.

Chu Xuan gasped, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

"Five times?! If the xinghai su1 is equipped with this thing, won't its range break fifteen hundred kilometers?"

The sweat he had just managed to hold back on his forehead broke out again in a rush.

Lu Jingming pulled the lighter from his pocket and flicked open the metal lid with a "click."

"What about extreme cold testing?" he asked casually.

"Negative fifty degrees Celsius, and it doesn't need any thermal management system for insulation."

Xia Weiliang kicked the table leg, her tone dismissive.

"Freeze it in a freezer for three days, and the power loss won't exceed three percent."

Lu Jingming nodded in satisfaction.

He pressed his thumb against the grinding wheel, striking a cluster of deep blue flames.

"And what about puncture and fire tests?"

Xia Weiliang stared at the flame, grinning to reveal two sharp little canine teeth.

"It's filled with solid polymer, not even a drop of liquid water inside. What would it use to catch fire?"

She waved her hand violently at the Holographic Projection.

"Even if you shoot it through with an anti-materiel sniper rifle, it will only quietly leak electricity; it will never suffer thermal runaway!"

Chu Xuan stood by, swallowing hard.

His legs were shaking uncontrollably as if they had motors attached.

"Girl, this technology sounds divine, but what about the cost?"

He grabbed his messy hair with a distressed look.

"This kind of black technology is probably more expensive than gold. We sell our cars for two hundred thousand—we couldn't afford it even if we pawned our underwear!"

Xia Weiliang looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Who told you that high-end goods have to be expensive?"

She jumped down from the console, her bare feet hitting the cold metal floor.

"The extraction process for this solid polymer material saves forty percent of the purification steps required for lithium mining."

She walked over to the dusty safe and pulled out the rest of the blueprints.

"The mass production cost is one-third cheaper than the ternary lithium they're using now."

When she said this, Chu Xuan was completely stunned.

One-third cheaper?

Five times the range, cold-resistant, fireproof in crashes.

This wasn't just building a battery.

This was like throwing a nuke at the ancestral graves of global automakers!

Lu Jingming didn't waste any more words.

He snapped the lighter shut with a crisp sound and slammed the green plastic casing onto the table.

"Get to work. I want to see the finished product before dawn."

The underground laboratory in the early hours of the morning fell into a state of unreasonable, frenzied operation.

The two of them instantly entered a state of work where they were oblivious to everything else.

Huge metal robotic arms slid wildly along the ceiling tracks, emitting a low hum.

Xia Weiliang sat at the main console.

Her hands were a blur on the keyboard as she constantly adjusted the parameters of the nano-level 3D printer.

Polymer powder spun rapidly in the vacuum test chamber, being melted and stacked layer by layer by high-frequency lasers.

Lu Jingming took off his faded black T-shirt and stood shirtless in front of the synthesis bench.

A fine layer of sweat covered his forehead as he focused intently on calibrating the coating thickness of the positive and negative electrodes.

There was no unnecessary conversation.

Only the humming of the machines and the clatter of the keyboard.

Time ticked away second by second.

The exhaust fan wheezed, drawing out the stuffy air, until the sound of exhaust in the overhead ventilation ducts gradually quieted down.

The red numbers on the electronic clock on the wall jumped to six in the morning.

"Hiss—" The high-pressure sealed chamber let out a soft sound of depressurization.

The heavy explosion-proof isolation door slowly slid open to both sides.

A square, jet-black object lay quietly in the tray.

There were no complex wiring harnesses.

There was none of the heavy, cumbersome metal casing used for pressure retention in traditional battery packs.

It looked just like an ordinary black brick, with a slightly low-quality matte texture on the surface.

Xia Weiliang sported two large dark circles under her eyes.

She irritably spat out the almost-dissolved lollipop stick and unwrapped a new lollipop, popping it into her mouth.

Putting on thick anti-static gloves, she grabbed the "black brick" and pulled it out.

She turned directly and locked it into the titanium alloy slot of the high-pressure test bench with a "click."

Two wrist-thick purple copper busbar probes, like fangs, stabbed viciously into the positive and negative interfaces at both ends of the battery.

Lu Jingming pulled on his wrinkled T-shirt and rubbed his hair messily.

"Set to maximum power."

He stared at the large monitoring screen, his eyes as sharp as knives.

"Go straight to peak discharge; let's test its limit overload."

Xia Weiliang reached out without hesitation and pulled down the red heavy-duty power switch on the console.

"Hum!" The lights throughout the laboratory instantly dimmed by three degrees.

A powerful current surged wildly through the test equipment, emitting a low, teeth-grinding roar.

It was at this very moment that the door to the underground laboratory was pushed open from the outside.

Chu Xuan walked in carrying two cups of freshly brewed double-shot espresso, his eyelids fighting the urge to close from fatigue.

He swayed as he entered and let out a huge yawn.

"Boss Lu, Weiliang, drink some cat piss to wake up..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he glanced casually at the huge data monitoring screen on the wall.

With that single glance, Chu Xuan's sleepiness was instantly blown away, leaving not even a trace.

On the monitoring screen, the red numbers representing discharge power were like a blood pressure monitor gone out of control, jumping upward at a violent speed.

Five hundred... eight hundred... fifteen hundred!

The two thick purple copper wires connected to the test bench had already begun to glow red due to the high heat.

However, the black brick wedged in the middle stayed locked at a room temperature of twenty-five degrees, not even letting off a wisp of heat.

"Why... why is this voltage output curve a straight line?!"

Chu Xuan's eyes widened, and his hands trembled violently.

"Splat." The piping hot coffee, along with the cup, smashed directly onto the top of his leather shoes.

Dark brown liquid splashed all over his pant leg.

He didn't even have time to yell from the burn.

He only felt a chill rising, shooting straight from his tailbone to the top of his skull.

This wasn't a battery output.

This was practically a miniature, never-fading nuclear reactor!

Chu Xuan's lips trembled, drained of all color.

He stared fixedly at Lu Jingming's nonchalant face.

"B-Boss Lu... you're about to smash the rice bowls of Middle Eastern tycoons and gas station owners all over the world!"