28: Chapter 28 Moore's Law is obsolete, ushering in the era of the cultivation industry.

Silence.

Deathly silence.

The smile on the USA's face froze, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

0.1 nanometers?

Is this old man crazy? How big is an atom anyway? 0.1 nanometers means you have to carve words onto a single atom! Is this even allowed by physics?

"Bullshit!"

The USA roared, "This is a scam! This is pseudoscience! Atoms are larger than 0.1 nanometers! You Chinese people should at least draft your lies before bragging!"

"Atoms are indeed larger."

Zhou Weimin explained unhurriedly.

"But what if we used some... hmm, special force field (actually a micro-carving array), to confine photons at the subatomic level for etching, and changed the spatial structure of the material?"

As he spoke, he beckoned.

Jiang Chen handed over the thermos he had been carrying.

"To prove this isn't a model."

Zhou Weimin snapped the chip onto the lid of the thermos—there was a simple test interface there.

"This is a little toy we made on the fly, a portable terminal capable of real-time rendering of global meteorological cloud maps."

As the chip was inserted.

"Hum—"

A holographic projection instantly popped out from the thermos lid.

It wasn't one of those blurry 3D projections, but a massive holographic globe, two meters in diameter, so clear that you could even see the texture of every single cloud!

Moreover, this globe was rotating in real-time, and could even be zoomed in to see the pleasure boats on Lake Geneva!

The entire room of reporters gasped.

This kind of computational power... this rendering speed...

Forget a thermos, even if you brought over the supercomputer that the USA just demonstrated, it would take half a day to run this, right?

Now, it was actually being run by this tiny black square that Jiang Chen had casually picked up and wiped the dust off of?

"This... this is impossible..."

The USA turned pale and sat down on the ground with a thud, "This isn't scientific... this violates Moore's Law..."

"Moore's Law?"

Zhou Weimin laughed, a look of contempt from someone delivering a dimensionality reduction strike, "That is a law for you mortals. In our Huaxia, we call this—Tao follows nature."

"How much for this chip?"

The Foot Basin Chicken representative reacted the fastest, trembling as they pulled out a checkbook, "We'll buy it! We'll buy it at any price!"

Zhou Weimin glanced at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen shrugged, remembering Old Zhao's instructions before they left.

"It's not expensive."

Jiang Chen said, his tone carrying a hint of the 'humblebrag' style he'd learned from Ji Linglong, "The raw materials for this thing are quite cheap (the star sand was a gift from the Saintess), so let's just sell it by weight."

"One hundred USD... per jin."

Pfft—!

At least three representatives from Western countries spat out their coffee on the spot.

A jin?

You're selling chips by the jin?

Do you think these are Chinese cabbages?

"But there's one condition," Jiang Chen added, "For every jin of chips purchased, you must also purchase one ton of our 'Goddess's Tears' skincare product. It's a bundle deal, no credit."

...

If the chip demonstration was a slap in the face to the USA, then the next segment was rubbing their faces into the ground.

"Besides the chips, we also brought a few other little trinkets."

Zhou Weimin opened the second box.

Inside were metal plates glowing with a red light.

"This is Vermilion Bird Alloy (actually Fire Bird inner cores fused with titanium alloy)."

Zhou Weimin picked one up and tossed it on the ground casually, "It's heat-resistant up to 3000 degrees, and its hardness exceeds diamond. Most importantly, it's light."

"How light?"

The German representative didn't believe it and walked over to try and lift it.

As a result, the moment he exerted force, he nearly threw out his back—because it was too light!

That thing, which looked like a steel plate, was actually lighter than Styrofoam in his hand!

"This... is this anti-gravity material?" the German representative shouted in terror.

"Something like that," Zhou Weimin said casually, spouting nonsense, "We originally intended to use it to build airplanes. But later we discovered that the production volume of this stuff was too high (Ji Linglong gave us one hundred tons of inner cores), and we couldn't use it all up."

"So..."

Zhou Weimin pointed to the thermos in Jiang Chen's hand.

"We just used it to make a thermos. It's drop-proof, has excellent thermal insulation, and if you put boiling water in it, it won't even cool down for three years."

The whole room looked at the gray, dusty cup in Jiang Chen's hand, which everyone had just assumed was a cheap knockoff.

This thing was made of top-tier aerospace material?

Heat-resistant to 3000 degrees?

Harder than diamond?

And used for drinking water?

"What a waste! This is a complete waste!"

The USA crawled up from the ground, grabbing his hair and roaring, "You use such strategic-grade material for everyday items? Are you Chinese people crazy?"

"We have a surplus of supplies, can't help it."

Jiang Chen took a sip of water, the cup feeling as light as nothing in his hand, "It's mainly because my family member (Ji Linglong) gave us too much, and if we don't use it all, she won't be happy. We have no choice but to begrudgingly use it for civilian purposes."

"Oh, right."

Jiang Chen seemed to suddenly remember something and pulled a pair of nail clippers from his pocket.

The nail clippers were gleaming with a cold light, with mysterious runes faintly flowing on them.

"Someone asked earlier why we didn't bring a lithography machine."

Jiang Chen used the nail clippers to trim his nails, "Actually, we did. This is it."

"Huh?"

The entire room was dumbfounded.

"This is a micro-carving knife polished from a fragment of the Immortal Slaying Array."

Jiang Chen blew off some nail clippings, "Our chips were carved one by one by hand using this thing (it was actually an automated array, but Jiang Chen was bluffing). Purely handmade, craftsmanship, get it?"

Thud.

The USA knelt down again.

Hand-carving 0.1 nanometer chips?

Is this even human? Is this a god?

...

The expo ended.

But this storm had only just begun.

The Huaxia booth was packed solid, and orders flew in like snowflakes.

The USA's 2-nanometer chips? What kind of electronic trash is that? Not even dogs would use it!

And beyond all this clamor.

In a hidden cafe by the shores of Lake Geneva.

Several men in trench coats and sunglasses were gathered together, looking at a photograph in their hands.

In the photo, Jiang Chen was carrying that priceless thermos, yawning with a bored expression.

"That's him," a man speaking in perfect American English said in a low voice.

"The CIA's big data analysis is out. All the technological breakthroughs—the chips, the alloys, even that mysterious organic skincare product—all clues point to this person."

"He is not an assistant, he is the core," another blond man added coldly, "Intelligence shows that he spent a full month in the Taklamakan Desert. That fireworks show was put on for him. The Huaxia military has placed him under the highest level of protection."

"Conclusion?"

"The conclusion is that he is a super scientist disguised as a college student. Inside his brain, he holds a technological tree that is fifty years ahead of human civilization."

"As long as he is alive, the USA's hegemony will collapse within a year."

The man with the American accent stubbed out his cigarette, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.

"Issue the 'Broken Wing' order."

"Put a bounty of one billion USD. No, two billion."

"Mobilize the top ten assassins on the Black List. Whether it's poisoning, sniping, or creating an accident."

"I want him to never return to Huaxia."

The photo was swallowed by flames.

In the ashes, Jiang Chen's young, smiling face gradually twisted and disappeared.

Meanwhile, Jiang Chen was sitting on the private plane back home, looking at the clouds outside the window, still bargaining with the system.

"System, can you give me more of that 'Immortal Slaying Sword Array'? I see that Old Zhou from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology wants to install this thing on the Nantianmen Space Station to use as an orbital cannon..."

[Ding! Detected that the Host is being targeted by top global assassins.]

[It is recommended that the Host put on the 'bulletproof vest' first.]

[Additionally, the female party 'Saintess of Taichu' is currently embroidering a new sachet for you. It is said to be made from the material of the 'Immortal Binding Rope', which is impenetrable by blades or bullets, and resistant to water and fire.]

When Jiang Chen heard this, he chuckled.

Assassins?

In this world where even nail clippers are divine artifacts, what are assassins worth?

"Bring it on."

Jiang Chen touched the pocket on his chest where the heavenly thunder talisman was hidden, a mischievous smile curling the corner of his lips.

"It just so happens that my wife's hands have been a bit itchy lately, and she's been worrying about having nowhere to test her sword."