135: Chapter 135 Kunlun Joins and the Ecological Closed Loop: On Whether Zombies Can Drink Engine Oil
Edge of the Chaotic Star Domain, pangu-003 (Cultivation World) synchronous orbit.
As the final screw engraved with ancient Talismans was violently dismantled from the ship's wreckage, that bronze giant vessel that once dominated the galaxy and struck terror into countless deep-space civilizations finally ended its mission as a 'warship.' In its place was a massive transport fleet, like interstellar locusts. They dragged massive Star Fine Gold Armor Plates, Anti-gravity Keels thousands of feet long, and the Divine Thought Amplification Lens (formerly the ship's main cannon sight) sealed by layers of Talismans and radiating terrifying Spiritual Pressure, continuously passing through the Cultivation World's atmosphere to land on the surface.
At the Beihai Branch of Tianhe Academy—now transformed into a massive Scrap Iron Clan Settlement Area and Abyss Cold Chain Logistics Center—a great 'cultural clash' spanning life, death, race, and aesthetics was intensely unfolding.
'No! Absolutely not! This does not conform to industrial aesthetics! Even less so to hygiene standards!' T-9, leader of the Scrap Iron Clan, waved its freshly polished mechanical arm, the red light in its electronic eyes flashing rapidly as if about to overload. Standing on a massive ice floe, it pointed at the group of bronze-armored soldiers before it, who were radiating decaying corpse Qi and wearing rusted armor, its voice as shrill as nails scraping a blackboard.
'You are the corpses of carbon-based lifeforms! Although you've hardened for some reason, you are essentially still a mixture of protein and calcium! How can you weld steel plates directly onto your bodies? Do you understand rejection reactions? Do you understand metal fatigue? Most importantly... you shed debris! Look at this corpse dust on the ground; it's clogging our precision gears!'
Standing opposite it was the newly joined commander of the ship's Corpse Soldiers—General Gu. This old antique who had lived (or rather, died) for tens of thousands of years held a Titan alloy leg bone dismantled from who-knows-where, still stained with lubricant. He crunched on it like sugarcane while retorting in a raspy voice like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together:
'What science? What hygiene? I've fought for a lifetime and only know that hardness is the truth!' 'We lay in that hellhole, the Graveyard of the Gods, for tens of thousands of years; our skin and flesh were long ago made brittle by void storms! If we don't weld some steel plates on, are we supposed to use our ribs to block light cannons in the next battle?' 'Besides, the smell of engine oil on you iron lumps is too faint, no kick! Can't you get us something... punchy? Like high-grade lubricant mixed with corpse poison? Or coolant tempered with equinox flower juice?'
The surrounding atmosphere was tense. On the left were thousands of Scrap Iron Clan robots eager to showcase their 'mechanical maintenance skills' in their new home; on the right were over ten thousand Corpse Soldiers who had just eaten their fill and wanted to strengthen their Physical Body defenses. Both sides stared each other down, electricity and corpse Qi crackling in the air. One side consisted of zombies wanting to achieve 'Mechanical Ascension,' while the other side was germaphobic robots who felt 'this is too unhygienic.' The scene was extremely chaotic and even a bit sanity-dropping.
What's more, several hot-tempered Corpse Soldiers had already begun trying to dismantle the robots' casings to wear for themselves, while several robots held high-pressure water guns attempting to 'bathe' the Corpse Soldiers.
"All of you, shut up."
A flat voice suddenly rang out in everyone's minds. It wasn't loud, nor was there any desperate shouting, but it carried an irreversible weight, like a Law of heaven and earth, the weight of Administrator Privilege.
Space distorted slightly as Li Mo, dressed in a cyan robe and holding a yellowed thread-bound ancient book, appeared out of thin air on the frigid ice of Beihai. Behind him followed Xiao Hei, chewing gum with an expression like he was watching a play, and Butcher Xiao, covered in engine oil and holding a large wrench.
"Dean!" Upon seeing the newcomer, the previously arrogant flames of T-9 and General Gu were instantly extinguished, and they bowed their heads obediently like schoolboys who had made a mistake.
Li Mo pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his gaze calmly sweeping over these two groups of 'crew members' who had completely different styles yet were unexpectedly well-matched. "What's all the shouting about?" "One wants to undergo mechanization for ultimate defense; the other finds the counterpart unhygienic and worries it will affect precision operations." "Is this such a big deal? Is it worth blocking traffic over?"
Li Mo waved the book in his hand. It was a Fragment of Mohist Mechanism Art he had just found in a corner of the Scripture Pavilion, combined with the Undead Construction obtained from the fourth layer of the Abyss and the Bio-metal Fusion Theory snatched from Titan Star. Under the analysis of the Eye of Truth, these three completely unrelated books were undergoing a marvelous chemical reaction in Li Mo's mind, generating lines of brand-new golden rule code.
"T-9, you think the Corpse Soldiers are dirty because their corpse Qi corrodes metal and affects your precision, right?" "General Gu, you think the robots are too fragile because they lack the nourishment of spiritual power, right?"
"In that case, let's just change the settings." Li Mo tapped lightly in the Void Realm, and the ancient book in his hand flipped pages automatically. Countless golden runes flew out, merging into the cold air of Beihai.
"System, load new entry."
Buzz—! A pale golden ripple of rules, centered on Li Mo, instantly swept across the entire Beihai campus. All the robots and Corpse Soldiers felt their bodies shudder, as if some underlying gene (or code) had been forcibly modified.
[Entry Generated: Industrial Necromancy.] [Effect One: Perfect Fusion of corpse and metal. Allows 'Cold Welding' and 'Psionic Riveting' on the surface of Corpse Soldiers without rejection reactions. The skeletons of Corpse Soldiers will automatically transform into a 'semi-metallic medium.'] [Effect Two: Complementary energy cycle. 'Industrial exhaust' emitted by Scrap Iron Clan engines (mainly carbon oxides and thermal energy) will, under the influence of the rules, automatically convert into the 'High-purity Yin-Evil Industrial Gas' required by Corpse Soldiers; meanwhile, the 'Ten-thousand-year Cold Poison' emitted by Corpse Soldiers will serve as 'super coolant' for Scrap Iron Clan engines, increasing engine efficiency.]
With the descent of the rules, a miracle occurred. T-9 was surprised to find that the choking black smoke originally spewing from its exhaust pipe turned into a pale green gas as it drifted in front of General Gu. General Gu took a deep breath, and his withered, gaunt face actually showed an expression of intoxication, as if he were inhaling the finest incense. "Sss—ha! This scent! It's pure! It's even purer than the toxic mist mixed with void radiation in the Graveyard of the Gods! It even tastes a bit sweet!"
As he inhaled that breath, General Gu's shriveled skin instantly filled out a bit, even taking on a metallic luster like bronze. At the same time, the bone-chilling cold Qi he constantly emitted, which caused frost to form around him, was sucked into T-9's chest intake fan. "Beep! Ultra-low temperature refrigerant injection detected!" "Heat dissipation efficiency increased by 200%! Overclocking Mode activated!" T-9 felt its processor, which was constantly overheating and overloaded, instantly cool down. Its calculation speed became incredibly fast, and even the world in its vision became clearer.
"Is this... is this an ecological closed-loop?" T-9 was so shocked that the parts on its jaw almost fell off. Is this the method of a cultivator? To take two species that are completely conflicting in Physics and biology and forcibly turn them into perfect symbiotic partners by 'modifying the settings'? This is far superior to the technology of the Titan God Clan!
"Alright, stop dazing off." Li Mo closed the book and pointed toward Tianhe Peak (the main cannon battery) where construction was in full swing in the distance. "Since everyone is family now, don't just stand around." "Scrap Iron Clan, take orders: use your technology to build full sets of Exoskeleton Armor and Power Assist Systems for the Corpse Soldiers. I want them not only to be able to take a hit but also to run faster than a Flying Sword!" "Corpse Soldiers, take orders: use your undead nature to go to the abyss cold storage (inside the glutton's belly) and transport those radioactive 'high-energy munitions.' That's dirty, exhausting work that only you can do."
"I want to see the Kunlun Sight installed and the first test firing of the main cannon completed within three days."
"Yes, Dean!" "By your command, Boss!"
This time, there was no more friction between the two sides, and they happily gathered together to work on infrastructure. The scene became very 'warm' and 'eerie': a two-meter-tall robot was using a welding torch to weld steel plates onto a zombie's ribs. Amidst the flying sparks, the two were chatting pleasantly. 'Brother, your ribs are a bit brittle; want me to swap them for some titanium alloy ones?' 'Sure! While you're at it, swap my kneecaps too; they always ache when it rains lately.' Meanwhile, that zombie thoughtfully placed his cold hand on the robot's CPU heat sink, acting as a human (corpse) radiator.
Watching this, Butcher Xiao couldn't help but exclaim, "Dean, your move is truly brilliant. Now our Tianhe Academy engineering department is practically the most hardcore construction crew in the Universe."
Li Mo smiled, his gaze looking deep into the starry sky. "This isn't enough." "This is just logistics." "The Starry Sky Ancient Road we are about to face cannot be traversed merely by patching things up." "What we need is firepower... the kind that can make all worlds shut up."
...
Three days later, at the summit of Tianhe Peak.
The main peak of the Wanfa Immortal Sect, once shrouded in mist and filled with Immortal Qi, had now completely changed its appearance, filled with violent industrial aesthetics. The entire mountain had been leveled, revealing a massive metallic cannon barrel structure within. Countless thick superconducting cables crawled over the mountain like blood vessels, connecting to the subterranean titan core. At the very front of the cannon's muzzle floated a lens a hundred feet in diameter, composed of ancient bronze and star crystals. This was the Divine Thought Amplification Lens removed from the ship. It rotated slowly, and the space around it presented a strange sense of refraction due to its presence.
"Dean, debugging is complete." Lei Wanjun (Head of the Physics Department) had two massive dark circles under his eyes and hair as messy as a bird's nest, but his eyes were frighteningly excited. He held a tablet with countless complex data flickering on it. "This thing is too strong! It's simply ridiculous!" "It doesn't just amplify energy beams; the most insane part is that it can connect with the user's Divine Sense to achieve a 'Karma Law Lock-on'!" "As long as your Divine Sense locks onto a target, this lens can use Karma to automatically correct the beam's trajectory!" "Even if the enemy hides in sub-space or performs a short-range jump, this cannon can curve to hit them! This isn't just a cannon; this is Heavenly Punishment!"
Li Mo stood in the battery command room (formerly the Wanfa Great Hall), looking out through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows at the chaotic Graveyard of the Gods in space. [pangu OS System Self-Check Report:] [Main Engine: titan core Drive (power output stable at 100%).] [Secondary Weaponry: Pea Gatling Array (ammunition sufficient, peas genetically modified to Armor-piercing Explosive Type).] [Main Weapon: Tianhe-Kunlun Composite Main Cannon (Online).] [Fire Control System: Divine Thought Lock-on Cheat (Activated).]
"Very good." Li Mo nodded with satisfaction; this feeling of controlling all power was indeed fascinating. "The ship finally looks a bit like a 'warship' now, no longer just a sitting duck that can only take hits."
Just then, the main control AI (that blue light sphere) floating in the center of the command room suddenly emitted a rapid and shrill alarm, breaking the silence. Red light instantly filled the entire command room.
[Warning! Warning!] [High-energy spatial fluctuations detected!] [Coordinates: 0.5 light-hours from this ship (Extremely Close).] [Signal Signature Identification: Chaotic, greedy, aggressive.] [Database Comparison: Interstellar Marauder Alliance (commonly known as Space Pirates).] [Enemy Scale: Large Combined Fleet (approximately 500 warships of various types).]
Lei Wanjun's expression changed. "Pirates? Five hundred ships? They're looking to swallow us whole!" Butcher Xiao, on the other hand, excitedly licked his lips and gripped the wrench in his hand. "Good timing! My mecha squad was just worrying about where to test their blades!"
Li Mo raised an eyebrow, showing no sign of panic. He picked up his teacup, gently blew on the floating tea leaves, and the corners of his mouth curled into a radiantly kind smile, as if he were looking at a Wealth-bearing Boy. "Pirates?" "Those aren't pirates." "These are clearly 'road test data' delivered to our door, and walking 'supply crates.'"
He set down the teacup and picked up the red broadcast microphone, his voice steady and powerful, reaching every corner of the ship: "All departments, take note." "This is not a drill." "Live-fire shooting test begins." "Civil Engineering Department, responsible for adjusting the muzzle angle." "Physics Department, responsible for charging the main cannon; don't be stingy with the power, crank it to the max." "Let's see just how accurate this sniper rifle with a 'scope' really is."