Chapter 133: Chapter 115: Some Secrets of the Nuclear Facility
"Alright, continue." Chu Bamboo’s fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of his chair. "How are resources plundered from inside? What’s the process for creating Fushui and Radiant Stones? What is their fundamental nature?"
"...What’s the use of me telling you? Don’t tell me you can actually get that key?" Lin Youcai retorted. "Even if you have people backing you..."
"I’ve already made myself clear several times!" Chu Bamboo’s voice turned cold as he spat out a single, concise word, "Speak!"
After a brief pause, Chu Bamboo said, "This is my final warning! Do not change the subject again."
"I understand!" Lin Youcai pressed his lips together, finally lowering his head. With a hint of resignation, he said, "After you enter, make about three turns, and you’ll..."
"Don’t say it. Draw me a map!" Chu Bamboo directly took out a pen and paper and pushed them in front of Lin Youcai.
"..." After a short silence, Lin Youcai picked up the pen and began to write, his voice slightly hoarse as he explained, "If you follow the route I’m drawing, you’ll be able to reach the lowest level!"
"And on the lowest level, there are... things that can filter the most primordial contaminated liquid and contaminated stones. The water and stones that have been filtered several times become Fushui and Radiant Stones!"
"As for their fundamental nature and creation process... I’m not too clear on that!" Lin Youcai hesitated. "I’ll tell you a rumor, and I’m not trying to change the subject... Um, it’s said that the First Forbidden Ground is a strange place built by an ancient Divine Being, and it leads straight to the Underworld."
"These Fushui and Radiant Stones are the supreme foundation forcibly plundered from the core of the Underworld... Our Cultivation is a way of borrowing this heavenly secret stolen from the Underworld to break free from its shackles, gradually extending our lifespan until we are finally free and unrestrained!"
Lin Youcai glanced cautiously at Chu Bamboo. "Although it’s just a rumor, I personally feel it’s quite credible! Even if it’s not entirely true, I’d guess it’s at least sixty or seventy percent true."
Chu Bamboo mentally filtered out the useless information. ’So, that means the nuclear facility is actually still operating, continuously extracting from deep underground? The Earth’s crust? Or even deeper? In any case, it’s still endlessly excavating...’
’Hmm, no wonder the nuclear fuel hasn’t run out after at least a thousand years. So there’s an incoming supply... But if it can still operate now? Could it be... artificial intelligence?’
A storm surged in Chu Bamboo’s heart. ’Could there be an unrestricted artificial intelligence still in existence?’
’And by the looks of it, it clearly still retains a considerable level of power!’
’One must understand, engineering is always tied to danger and violence—’
’For example, mining requires explosives. Ancient coal miners were natural-born elite soldiers. And an excavator, with a few modifications, is basically a tank!’
’If it can blast open ore, it can bring down a building!’
’If it can dig through earth, it can crush the fragile human body.’
’If I could control it... then this power, even against a formidable Transcendent—at least one in the Third Realm—would give me a fighting chance, wouldn’t it?’
Chu Bamboo’s heart hammered uncontrollably, but he quickly calmed himself with his Extraordinary self-control. ’I don’t even know what the situation is yet! Besides, even if it is an AI, I might not have the authority to control it.’
’Thinking about all this now is pointless! Ultimately, I still need to investigate it on-site.’
"That’s all I know." Finally, Lin Youcai pushed the notebook toward Chu Bamboo.
"You wouldn’t... try any funny business, thinking you could get me killed in there, would you?" Chu Bamboo rubbed his chin, staring at Lin Youcai with a hint of suspicion.
"How would I dare?" Lin Youcai ground his teeth, finally unable to hold back a sliver of resentment. "What if you’ve set up some contingency! If you die and the Vice-Consul finds out it was because of me... wouldn’t I be taken down with you for sure?"
Lin Youcai naturally hated Chu Bamboo, but he would also cooperate with him obediently... precisely because he understood the current situation all too well.
"You have a bright future! I admire you." Chu Bamboo nodded with a hint of satisfaction. He liked people like this, who knew how to adapt to circumstances and weren’t shortsighted.
He asked casually, "By the way, are you a Cultivator?"
"...Yes."
"Then let me ask you this!" Chu Bamboo’s interest was suddenly piqued. "If I have a Cultivation Technique and I’ve obtained a Radiant Stone, how would I go about my Cultivation to step into the First Realm? Do you have any illuminating warnings for me? Or any words of experience?"
"???" Lin Youcai almost suspected he’d misheard. He stared at Chu Bamboo in disbelief, his body trembling as he let out a sharp cry, "You’re not a First Realm Cultivator?!"
"What, are Body Cultivators so discriminated against?" Chu Bamboo crossed his arms.
’No, that’s not the issue! The issue is, how is your body so normal? And also...’
"Are you insane?!" Lin Youcai was losing his composure. "What Cultivator breaks through directly in the wild?"
"Did you think having enough resources was all it takes? You must have the support of a senior Cultivator! Besides, at the Captain’s Office, if you make enough contributions... there are methods to reduce the risks of a Cultivator’s breakthrough!"
"With your status, it would be absolutely no problem... Why are you making things so hard for yourself?"
"Speak!" Chu Bamboo still had only one word, his meaning perfectly clear: stop talking nonsense.
"I can’t say!" At this, Lin Youcai clenched his jaw, shook his head firmly, and withstood Chu Bamboo’s chilling gaze. "If you really die in there, then I’ll certainly be a dead man too... You don’t have to deny it, isn’t that what you said earlier?"
’Damn, my own words came back to bite me!’
"...Alright! To be honest, I wasn’t planning on doing anything that high-risk." After a brief silence, Chu Bamboo’s tone softened.
He returned to his lazy demeanor. "Like you said, with my status! I can just wait. When the time is right, I’ll naturally be able to break through safely... My life is far too precious, isn’t it? I was just... simply curious!"
But as he spoke, a thousand thoughts raced through Chu Bamboo’s mind. ’So it’s true. The Captain’s Office, or more accurately, the Daqian Dynasty, also has methods to reduce the risks of breakthroughs, similar to the God Worship Sect—’
’Except they only reduce the risk, unlike the God Worship Sect, which directly promises you won’t die.’
’Is it that the Daqian officials are less capable than the God Worship Sect, or is it that Lin Youcai’s status is low, so his information is limited? I’m leaning toward the latter.’
"Fine." Although still uneasy, Lin Youcai thought about it and felt that Chu Bamboo really had no reason to court death. He immediately said, "The experience is! There is no experience."
"?"
Seeing Chu Bamboo’s gaze sharpen, Lin Youcai quickly explained, "I’m really not tricking you or trying to fool you! It’s really just... absorb it and that’s it..."
"All the key points are recorded in the Cultivation Technique! If you can withstand the backlash on your body, you become a Cultivator! If you can’t, you die... That’s why I said that for this thing, having protection is extremely important."
Chu Bamboo’s brows furrowed tightly. "Then how did you break through? Or did you receive official protection back then?"
"How could that be possible? As for why... I guess it was luck!" After a short silence, Lin Youcai said with a hoarse voice, "Back then, they had us choose a cultivation method, luring us to choose Cultivation... Heh, out of everyone in my batch, only two of us survived!"
A deep shadow clouded Lin Youcai’s eyes, along with a trace of uncontrollable grief.
"..." Chu Bamboo very wisely chose not to ask how many people were in that batch.
"So, you’re now preparing to enter secluded cultivation to the death!" Chu Bamboo mused for a moment. "Can I assume, then, that once you break into the First Realm, the subsequent Cultivation isn’t much of a threat?"
"...Do you believe that?" Lin Youcai asked in return.
Chu Bamboo shook his head.
"See? You know it too!" Lin Youcai spread his hands, speaking with the recklessness of someone with nothing to lose. "Anyway, I’ve only got this one miserable life, and I’m already on this path! As far as I can see, my future is either going mad or dying as a disposable pawn for Daqian..."
"Since that’s the case, I have to get stronger! I have to keep climbing! To do that... I’ll pay any price."
A crazed and savage look appeared on Lin Youcai’s face. "If I really die, it just means this is as far as my fate takes me! Isn’t that right?"
"So, is every breakthrough as dangerous as the first one?" Chu Bamboo fell completely silent at this.
"Not exactly!" Lin Youcai took a deep breath, steadying his emotions slightly. "If your own contamination is low enough, then... the next breakthrough! The risk is controllable."
"Conversely, if the contamination is very high, then even if you *can* break through, you *must not*... That’s the same as seeking death."
"!" Chu Bamboo suddenly straightened up, his expression turning serious as he abruptly thought of something.
’Li Kang... Contamination: Extremely high!’
’That was the assessment from Nuwa No. 17’s monitoring.’
’Is it possible that Li Kang could have broken through to the Third Realm long ago, but because of that assessment rating, this breakthrough is almost impossible for him to survive? Is that why he’s been stuck in the Second Realm?’
’If so, that would explain a lot of the previous questions I had...’
"Is there any way to lower contamination?!" Chu Bamboo asked suddenly. "I don’t mean preventing it. I mean when it’s already high, how do you bring it down!"
"I don’t know," Lin Youcai said flatly. "Maybe there isn’t one! Or maybe there is, but worthless grunts like us would never be qualified to have it... So, only the big shots would know about it and keep it for themselves!"
"Good." Chu Bamboo’s eyes lowered slightly as he mentally reviewed the information he’d gathered. After confirming he had what he needed, he nodded and put the notebook away.
"Then thank you for your cooperation and support, Director Lin! We’ll meet again if fate allows."
"If fate allows! Goodbye." Lin Youcai watched impassively as Chu Bamboo left. Only after a good while did he grit his teeth, sit back down in his chair that Chu Bamboo had occupied, and curse internally.
’Meet again... I hope I never see you again in my life!’
’Damn it all, with that Mr. Zhu’s undisguised spoiled-rich-kid attitude, what good could possibly come from meeting him again?’
Lin Youcai knew these damn rich kids all too well... These profligate heirs were experts at this logic: if you don’t help me, you’ve offended me. If you do help me, that’s what you’re supposed to do! It’s fine for me to offer a few polite words, but if you actually take them seriously and come looking for me—Huh? I was just saying!
He had genuinely been treated like a dog on a leash before!
’And the idea that Chu Bamboo isn’t one of those profligate heirs... Impossible. Absolutely impossible!’
’He felt like he could smell that arrogant, pampered attitude Chu Bamboo had displayed from a mile away!!’
