9: Chapter 9: Let's get started, right now!

Director Zhao Lixin drove, taking Jiang Ning toward the south of the city.

Outside the car window, the high-rises gradually thinned out, replaced by low factory buildings and old structures along the roadside. The air was filled with a scent of industrial exhaust.

Jiang Ning had no interest in any of this; she kept her head down, looking at the blueprints in her hands, her entire focus absorbed by them.

Director Zhao Lixin glanced at her furtively through the rearview mirror, still feeling as though he were in a dream. He would never forget the meeting from last night. Those big figures, whom one could only see on the news, had all been stunned after hearing his report.

"Pangu Project"—those four words weighed on him so heavily he could barely breathe.

He was no longer just the Deputy Director of The Ninth Bureau; he was now the key executor at a turning point in the nation's destiny. And this key person was sitting right beside him, a girl who looked plain and countrified.

"We're here," Director Zhao Lixin said, pointing to an area in the distance enclosed by gray walls.

Before the car had even arrived, Jiang Ning had already lifted her head, staring intently at the ruins.

In Director Zhao Lixin's eyes, the place was just a piece of wasteland in the city. Rusted factory buildings, collapsed chimneys, overgrown vacant lots, and that choking chemical smell. The pollution here was too severe, and the cost of redevelopment would be an astronomical figure, so it had been abandoned for nearly a decade, with no one wanting to touch it.

But in Jiang Ning's eyes, this place was an absolute treasure!

She didn't have much spiritual energy left in her body, but her senses as a cultivator remained. She could "see" a layer of black-gray "turbid energy" floating over the land. This was the residue of decades of industrial production; for ordinary people, it was poison, but for her, it could be converted into the purest form of energy using a Spirit Gathering Array.

Those collapsed factory buildings were excellent metal materials. Those abandoned chemical tanks were ready-made reaction vessels. Even the contaminated soil underground, with its various metal ions, could be used as the foundation for the array.

This wasn't wasteland; it was clearly an unmined treasure trove!

"Perfect," Jiang Ning couldn't help but mutter.

"Perfect?" Director Zhao Lixin slammed on the brakes, feeling a bit dazed. Did this place have anything to do with the word "perfect"?

"There are plenty of materials, and the foundation is suitable," Jiang Ning's eyes lit up. "It's much better than that crappy little site I had before. Here, I can build a Spirit Gathering Array ten times larger, and the effect will be a hundred times better."

Director Zhao Lixin's heart skipped a beat.

Ten times larger? A hundred times better?

That small array she had made from a pile of trash had already been considered a miracle by Professor Chen and his team. If she really pulled off what she described, what kind of effect would that have? Would it replace the air of the entire city?

The car stopped at the main entrance of the industrial park. A top-level cordon was drawn across the gate, and a squad of fully armed soldiers stood at attention. Upon seeing Director Zhao Lixin's car, they immediately saluted and let them pass.

Jiang Ning pushed the door open, stepped out, and took a breath.

Hmm, a familiar scent. Turbid energy, the aura of metal and iron, and the mixed odors of various chemical residues. Although unpleasant, to an "engineer," this meant there were plenty of raw materials.

"Comrade Jiang Ning, this place is yours from now on." Director Zhao Lixin followed behind her, his tone carrying a respect he hadn't even realized himself. "Starting today, this is a top-secret military restricted zone, codenamed 'Pangu Base.' Whatever you need, just tell me."

Jiang Ning didn't say anything; she just nodded and strode inside.

She didn't walk fast, her every step seeming to measure the ground. Her gaze swept over every ruin and every pile of trash, and in her mind, a massive blueprint for renovation was taking shape.

"That tallest chimney is not bad; it can serve as the base for the lightning-attracting pillar."

"The ruins of the smelting plant over there must have metal slag underground; it's perfect for stabilizing the earth's veins."

"Those few large oil tanks, with a slight modification, will be perfect purification pools."

She calculated in her heart as she walked. In the cultivation world, she was in charge of the sect's logistical construction. Every time she wanted to build something, just finding materials would run her legs off, and she would have to haggle with elders from other peaks, begging and pleading with everyone.

How different things were now!

The state directly allocated a piece of land, gave her people when she needed them, provided materials when she asked, and even sent soldiers to stand guard, terrified that someone might come to cause trouble.

This feeling was just too good!

This was the "client" she had dreamed of!

Director Zhao Lixin and the few experts and guards following her just watched Jiang Ning walk ahead. They couldn't understand at all what she was doing; they only felt that the way this girl looked at those scraps of metal was even more focused and eager than a jeweler looking at diamonds.

"Director Zhao," a young assistant asked in a low voice, "Is Consultant Jiang… checking Feng Shui?"

"Don't speak, just watch." Director Zhao Lixin replied in a low voice. He now had an inexplicable confidence in Jiang Ning. He didn't understand, but he believed that this girl was doing something that could change the world.

Jiang Ning stopped in a relatively open central area. This place had probably been a square before, and the cement on the ground was all cracked.

"Right here," she said, turning to Director Zhao Lixin. "This is the eye of the array. I want to build a core tower here."

She squatted down, picked up a sharp stone, and started drawing on the dusty cement floor.

She drew quickly, her lines straight and precise. A strange diagram that made one dizzy soon appeared on the ground. The diagram had precise angles, but was also filled with strange symbols and curves—it looked like both an engineering drawing and a mystical talisman.

The engineers who had followed her were all stunned.

They were all top-tier experts in the country, yet none of them could understand what this diagram actually was.

"This… what kind of structure is this?" An old engineer specializing in building structures leaned in, adjusting his glasses as he studied it for a long time, his face full of confusion. "The load-bearing is wrong. According to the principles of mechanics, this thing can't stand up; it would collapse on its own."

"And this… a circuit diagram?" Another electrical expert pointed at the dense grid lines on the drawing. "This isn't up to code. Many places are directly short-circuited; it would burn up the moment it's powered on!"

Jiang Ning finished, stood up, and brushed the dust off her hands.

She looked at the confused experts and explained simply: "This isn't supported by mechanics; it's supported by an energy field. And it's not an ordinary circuit; it's an energy channel."

Energy field? Energy channel?

The experts looked at each other, their minds filled with even more questions. What was all this? Was this science fiction?

Jiang Ning couldn't be bothered to explain further. Arguing about arrays with a group of people who didn't understand "spiritual energy" was more tiring than building a building herself.

She looked directly at Director Zhao Lixin and issued her first order.

"I need people, right now. Construction crews, the more the better. I want them working twenty-four hours without stopping. As I said, first, clear out and sort all the trash in the entire park."

She pointed to the complex diagram on the ground.

"Then, have them start digging the foundation according to this diagram."