341: Chapter 341 Let's...begin!

Lin Yuan looked at the message on his phone screen, his lips curling into a faint yet profound smile.

The efficiency of the state machinery had never disappointed him.

In just a few days, the first batch of core materials on the list, which were scattered across the globe and capable of hurting any superpower to its very core, had already been collected in full.

Such an unreasonable ability to mobilize global resources—looking across the Blue Planet, only the Xia Kingdom of today could achieve this.

And the arrival of this batch of materials meant...

The grand blueprint of "Universal Ascension" that he had personally drawn for the 1.4 billion citizens could finally begin to be "kneaded" into shape.

He casually stuffed his phone back into his pocket; the sound of news broadcasts from the television in the living room remained lively.

Sitting at the other end of the sofa, the old man, Lin Wen, had put down his newspaper at some unknown moment, his gaze falling upon him as he spoke slowly.

"Is it starting again?"

Lin Yuan turned his head, meeting his grandfather's all-seeing eyes, and nodded gently.

"Yes. The higher-ups are very supportive; they prepared everything I needed in just a few days."

"So... I need to get busy too."

"Go."

Lin Wen's reply was concise and to the point, without a single word of hesitation or reluctance.

"The nation's affairs come first."

"I understand, Grandfather."

Lin Yuan acknowledged this and stood up to bid farewell to his parents.

His mother, Zhou Xiulan, gave the same instruction she repeated over and over again: "Take care of yourself."

His father, Lin Jianguo, merely waved his hand, his eyes filled with a mixture of pride and a complex sentiment that "his son no longer fully belongs to this family."

Lin Yuan smiled and acknowledged them, said nothing more, and turned to leave.

...

Outside the door.

A black official car had been waiting quietly downstairs.

Qin Meng opened the car door, and Lin Yuan bent down to sit in the backseat.

"Go to Xishan Base."

Qin Meng started the engine crisply, without a single superfluous question.

The car slid smoothly out of the special residential compound, merged into the main thoroughfare of Jingzhou, and then turned onto a wide avenue lined with poplar trees.

The scenery outside the car window gradually transitioned from a bustling city to an empty and solemn military-controlled zone.

When the car passed through the final security gate that required dual iris and genetic verification, it slowly stopped in front of an unmarked, gray-white building deep within Xishan Base.

Lin Yuan pushed open the car door.

In front of him, a figure standing as straight as a pine tree was already waiting on the steps.

Yang Tongan.

"Old Yang."

Lin Yuan ascended the steps, his gaze quickly sweeping over Yang Tongan.

"You look exceptionally energetic today."

Hearing this, Yang Tongan stepped forward to meet him, looked at Lin Yuan, and showed a knowing smile, his voice lowered to a whisper.

"That is all thanks to the thing you gave me a few days ago."

"The effect... it's truly incredible."

Lin Yuan smiled, his tone calm.

"It's just using things to their fullest potential."

"Since you are in good health, you must continue to serve as this anchor for a few more years."

Upon hearing this, Yang Tongan said nothing more, merely extending his large, fan-like hand to pat Lin Yuan's shoulder heavily.

"Haha, good!"

A thousand words could not express what was understood between them.

"Enough of that. Come, let's go inside and see your new position."

Yang Tongan turned around and led Lin Yuan toward the heavy metal door.

As the dual verification of pupil iris and biological magnetic field passed, the isolation door, weighing several tons, slid silently to the sides, and air mixed with metal and ozone rushed to meet them.

Behind the door was an underground space so vast it left one speechless.

Beneath a dome dozens of meters high, sterile vacuum chambers were arranged in a matrix, and hundreds of superconducting condensation pipelines, thicker than an adult's thigh, wound and intertwined against the dome like giant pythons.

Countless micron-level multi-axis intelligent robotic arms hung their heads slightly in standby mode, radiating an ultimate industrial aesthetic under the illumination of cold lights.

On the other side of the laboratory, within a sealed storage area the size of several football fields, the mountain of cargo containers held the very first batch of core materials that had just been urgently shipped from all over the world.

"According to your requirements."

Yang Tongan pointed to this magnificent steel jungle, his tone unable to hide his pride.

"We mobilized the most elite engineering troops, with tens of thousands of people working in three shifts, to forcefully hollow out half of this mountain. We even ran an independent power supply line for you directly from the main nuclear reactor of Xishan Base."

"The level of this intelligent laboratory is currently one of a kind on the entire Blue Planet."

Lin Yuan strolled among the precision instruments, his fingers gently sliding across the edge of the console, and he nodded with satisfaction.

"It is perfect, completely meeting my expectations."

"As long as you are satisfied."

Yang Tongan followed by his side, looking at this massive and complex automated assembly line, but still couldn't help asking:

"However, with such a massive workload, are you sure you can handle it alone?"

"Are you really sure you don't need to transfer a few top expert teams from the Xia Academy of Sciences to assist you?"

Lin Yuan stopped, turned to look at Yang Tongan, and shook his head very decisively.

"No need."

He looked at those robotic arms poised for action, his tone gentle, yet it carried a confidence that made it impossible to refute.

"Old Yang, this research is different from the past; it has already exceeded the cognitive scope of the existing scientific system."

"Calling those experts over would not only be of no help, but I would also have to re-teach them from the most basic theories."

Lin Yuan's lips curled slightly, carrying a touch of calm indifference.

"That would be too much of a waste of time."

"Rather than being their mentor, it would be faster for me to directly connect the Artificial Intelligence to these robotic arms."

"After all..."

He raised his finger and tapped his temple gently.

"All the technical blueprints, preparation processes, and underlying logic are right here."

Yang Tongan fell silent.

He looked at Lin Yuan, finally nodding slowly, his eyes showing a sense of complete conviction and relief.

"I understand."

He knew better than anyone what "here," as spoken by Lin Yuan, truly meant.

"From now on, this underground area will be classified as the highest-level top-secret restricted zone of the Xia Kingdom. Without your authorization, even I will not step foot in here again."

"Sorry for the trouble, Old Yang."

Lin Yuan smiled.

Yang Tongan did not linger, turned around, and left with long strides.

The heavy metal isolation door slowly closed with a dull boom, completely isolating the inside from the outside into two separate worlds.

In the vast laboratory, only Lin Yuan remained.

He walked to the central control console and pulled over a floating chair to sit down.

The entire space was so quiet that only the slight hum of electricity from the instruments in standby mode remained; this silence, instead, highlighted a grandeur akin to that before a storm.

Lin Yuan's distinctively jointed fingers tapped a few commands quickly on the virtual light screen keyboard.

"Xiaolong."

Then, he spoke softly.

"I am here, Sir."

A mechanical yet somewhat vivid, human-like voice echoed in Lin Yuan's mind through his earpiece.

"I have now fully taken over the underground master control system of Xishan Base. The nuclear reactor power output is stable, the multi-axis robotic arms have completed self-checks, and the material database scanning and matching are complete. We can begin executing the mission."

Lin Yuan looked at the data stream refreshing like a waterfall on the main screen, his deep eyes flashing with fervent anticipation.

"Then..."

"Let's begin."