Chapter 258: Chapter 252: Cultivation and Satellite
The moment the question left his lips, Allen had already dismissed it.
The word "satellite" is fundamentally a product tied to the concept of spherical celestial bodies. A planet generates gravity due to its mass, and a satellite uses its initial velocity to balance with that gravity, forming a stable, repeating orbit.
But this world has no planets.
Nor does it have so-called "orbits."
Allen closed his eyes, piecing together the fragmented astronomical knowledge he had accumulated at the Wizard Academy.
The fundamental structure of this world was completely different from the universe he was familiar with. The heavens were round, and the earth was square. The sun overhead wasn’t a star but a pure ball of fire solidified by Law. The moon was a solid sphere made of moonstone; it didn’t wax or wane, and its glow even contained a gentle Magic Power that aided Meditation.
And at the edge of the sky, there was no vacuum, no outer space.
There was the Crystal Wall.
The Planar Crystal Wall was a Force Field that covered the entire sky. It contained the power of Law, was extremely difficult to breach, and enveloped the whole plane like the shell of an egg.
Furthermore, the Crystal Wall was not a single layer but a three-layer structure, extending from the inside out.
The innermost layer was the troposphere. At the top of the atmosphere, it was filled with rapidly flowing energy turbulence, where temperature, pressure, and Magic Power were all in a state of violent fluctuation.
The larger the plane, the farther the troposphere is from the ground. For this current plane, the troposphere was at an altitude of over twenty-four thousand meters.
The middle layer was called the Law Layer. Here, the power of rules materialized. This wasn’t a metaphor; it was literal "materialization." Anyone foolishly attempting to cross it would experience attacks from concepts themselves, like "fire is hot" or "gravity pulls down."
The outermost layer was the Absolute Boundary. It bordered the Sea of Magical Power, the junction between existence and nothingness. The more powerful a being, the stronger its constraints.
As for the points of light in the night sky that most people called "stars"?
They were the blurry projections formed on the inner surface of the Crystal Wall after the light from other planes penetrated the sea of magical power. That’s why astrology was classified as advanced Magic at the Wizard Academy—because you weren’t glimpsing a star, but another world.
There were no gravity wells, no orbits, no thermosphere or ionosphere.
The entire plane was just a sealed, flat box.
A satellite had no theoretical basis for existence.
’This wasn’t the first time my Earth-based thinking had hit a wall, and it wouldn’t be the last. The important thing is whether I can adapt the relevant ideas.’
’What’s the core function of a satellite? Wide-area reconnaissance coverage, provided by altitude.’
’It doesn’t need to enter orbit, nor does it need to circle around. I just need to get the Demon Eye high enough and have it hover there.’
"DSeek, amend the plan. Set altitude to twenty thousand meters. Assess feasibility."
[Altitude of 20,000 meters is within the safe zone below the troposphere. No threat from the Law Layer.]
[Primary challenges are as follows:]
[1. Low Temperature. Estimated ambient temperature of -10 to -30 degrees Celsius. Risk of freezing and failure.]
[2. High-Altitude Storms and Magic Turbulence. Irregular storms exist at this altitude with peak wind speeds of up to sixty meters per second, accompanied by magical interference.]
[Conclusion: Theoretically feasible. Engineering difficulty: High.]
Although this was only doubling the Demon Eye’s altitude, the increase in difficulty was far more than double.
’Theoretically feasible is good enough.’
He bookmarked the two core technical challenges and set them aside for the time being.
The Odyssey landed smoothly outside the workshop. Allen walked back inside and first made a round of inspection.
The automated mining operation was running normally, raw ore was piled high in the materials area, and the several pieces of Alchemy Equipment on the processing line were working in an orderly fashion under Jarvis’s direction.
’Good, no problems with the base of operations.’
He didn’t linger, heading straight for the Meditation Room in the deepest part of the workshop.
The Meditation Room had been modified several times. It was soundproof, magic-proof, and climate-controlled. The Rune Array embedded in the walls could filter out all external interference. Allen retrieved a deep-blue conch from his storage space—the Deep Sea Echo Shell.
The shell was cool to the touch. The moment he held it, an extremely faint tremor traveled through his fingertips, as if something were breathing deep within its chamber.
He placed it on the core node of the meditation-assistance Rune Array.
A deep blue halo slowly seeped from the shell’s surface, spreading silently in all directions like seawater washing over a beach, enveloping the entire Array. The air in the Meditation Room grew moist and still, and a low hum, as if from the deep sea, became faintly audible.
Allen sat down cross-legged, took out a high-grade meditation-aiding potion, and drank it. Although he hadn’t undergone any physical modifications, this was the only cultivation potion left on the market that he could use. It cost 1,500 Magic Stones a bottle, and during high-intensity cultivation, he went through one bottle a day.
The warm medicinal effects began to take hold, and his soul’s frequency started to synchronize with the Echo Shell.
The feeling was difficult to describe.
It was as if he had been swimming in the shallows, only to be gently pulled into the deep sea by an undercurrent. The boundaries of his Sea of Spirit slowly expanded under this force, and the lines of every Will Rune grew clearer.
His Spiritual Power became like a sharpened carving knife, cutting into the Rune templates of his Meditation Method. Strokes that would have originally required careful calibration became much smoother under the Echo Shell’s amplification.
「An hour later.」
Allen opened his eyes, a flicker of blue light flashing through his pupils.
’It’s faster.’
Before, carving a single Rune took over a month on average. Based on what he just felt... he could probably cut that down to about 20 days. A nearly fifty-percent increase in efficiency, just as he’d estimated during the trade.
’So this is the effect of a wondrous item. If only I could get a few more of these.’
[Cultivation progress prediction model updated.]
[Based on current amplification efficiency, estimated time to complete construction of the fifth Core Matrix: 20 months.]
[Estimated time to advance to Second-level Wizard: 2 years ± 1 month.]
He collected himself. His primary consciousness withdrew from the state of Meditation, handing off the task of continuous meditation to his second and third sub-threads. They would continue cultivating with the aid of the Echo Shell’s amplification.
Meanwhile, he and his other threads immediately switched to another battlefield.
DSeek laid out all the data from the memory crystal before him.
Optical correction Runes, anti-interference designs, magic wave reflection modules, Multi-spectrum Detection Arrays...
’It’s a lot of information, but the logic is clear. I’ll have it all mastered by tomorrow.’
He focused his primary consciousness on the two challenges.
The problem of extreme cold at high altitudes. The Magic Conductivity of conventional Rune Conductors plummeted below minus ten degrees Celsius. But if he replaced the core conductor with the Deepsea Sunken Silver he bought today... that metal could withstand extreme magical loads, and its temperature tolerance far exceeded that of ordinary materials.
’And since it’s only for Rune inscription, it won’t require much material.’
The problem of Magic Turbulence interference. High-altitude turbulence would constantly batter the Rune Circuits, causing distortion in the detection signals.
Allen called up the parameters for the Demon Eye’s current Silent Iron shell. Silent Iron itself had Magic Power-focusing and shielding properties; he just needed to reinforce the anti-interference Runes on the casing.
The Demon Eye was a relay node. It could also transmit signals in a cascading chain. Once they formed the Celestial Net system, they would become a complete high-altitude reconnaissance network. The signal issue wouldn’t be hard to solve.
As for the high-altitude storms, that would require improvements to the Anti-Gravity Rune Array.
In Allen’s mind, a new blueprint was taking shape.
Demon Eye Mark IV: detection radius of eighty kilometers, deployment altitude of twenty thousand meters, resistant to extreme cold and turbulence, with a silent hovering endurance of over three hundred hours. It would be more than sufficient for his current intelligence-gathering needs.
[Some improvements have no existing reference in the current knowledge base. Estimated R&D period: 1-2 months.]
’One to two months. Acceptable.’
Allen’s fingertip traced a line in the air—an information link stretching from the workshop on the ground to an altitude of twenty thousand meters.
’The next upgrade for the Celestial Net will be to hang its eyes above the clouds.’
