The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

The morning mist swirled through the nine-curved corridors of Zhanghuatai. The chill of early winter condensed into frost in the breath of the gilded bronze animal heads. The bronze bells on the eaves made clanging sounds in the wind.

This nine-story platform, built by King Ling of Chu with all the national strength, still has traces of the former "No. 1 Palace in the World" between its eaves and brackets - lacquer paintings with dragon patterns remain on the dark brown nanmu beams and columns, and the surface of the white jade steps has been polished to a shine, with faint dents visible where the princes stepped on the platform when they paid homage.

"Yuanwu is really brave. Once the excavation of the royal tombs of the previous dynasty is exposed, it will be a huge risk to public opinion and international reputation... Speaking of which, it is time to remind Changsun Qianxue that even if there is only one person left in the family, it is intolerable to destroy the ancestral tombs."

"'Destroying the tombs of the holy kings and ending the worship of the ancestors' is a direct violation of the ethical foundations of 'respecting heaven and following ancestors' and 'treating the dead as if they were alive', and it shakes the legitimacy of the emperor's status. I taught Yuanwu to flexibly acquire resources and to value ancient classics, but I didn't expect him to use them in such a way."

"However, judging from the fact that several nameless ancient tombs in the Changling area have long been used as hidden military bases and have been hollowed out, this move is just an expansion of the existing grave-digging operation and an acceleration. We need to consider our response carefully."

"The use of prisoners as cannon fodder to test the riding of exotic birds can be combined with the previous investigation. Zheng Liren has been left as a chess piece for a long time, but it is time to use him."

Zhao Qing, wrapped in a cloak with a blue phoenix pattern, walked through the triple gates and glanced at the metal sword forest that stretched for ten miles outside the main hall - six thousand four hundred standard copper swords etched with cloud and thunder patterns were arranged in a Yagi antenna array, with the poles inserted into a grounded base inlaid with shells, and the red copper feed lines wrapped around the hilts glowed bloody in the early sun.

The main body of Zhanghuatai is composed of 27 staggered prisms. The surface of each platform is made of East China Sea pearls crushed into powder and mixed with South China Sea coral glue to form a translucent crystal layer.

This material, which was originally used to show luxury, has now become a natural energy reflector and resonance cavity enhancement structure.

A dense metallic hum could be heard faintly in the distance. That was the antenna detection array - a vital energy receiving network covering twelve phase zones. It was using the sword spine as a wave inducer to convert the received star vital energy fluctuations into an optical spectrum that could be recorded.

Countless light silver ripples intertwined into mysterious patterns above the sword formation, making the sky full of mist glow with starlight, as if they were the scales of an ancient behemoth lurking in the sea of ​​clouds.

Further away, there are twelve astronomical observation towers rising from the ground, each holding up a parabolic antenna built with black ice crystals and with a diameter of 99 feet.

The reflective interface made of 3,600 ice mirrors has an arc accurate to the millimeter, and at the center of the feed point is suspended a master's natal sword.

The surface of the Que Sword reflected a light golden grid with clear longitude and latitude, while the fluctuations of the Cong Sword showed completely transparent ripples, a spectrum of blue rainbow, and dark purple wandering spots...

Under the guidance and control of the programs loaded by Zhao Qing into their "sword spirits" through the sword world, they can keenly sense the faint changes in starlight.

To be more precise, these phased array radar towers, which are specially used to detect fluctuations of distant vital energy, are constantly adjusting their inclination angles with micron-level precision, scanning the sky at a frequency of 70,000 times per second, and focusing the collected rays on the tip of the ancient sword hovering in the center for in-depth analysis.

When necessary, it can also be switched to air defense warning combat readiness mode. Although it is difficult to say whether it can detect the actions of the Seventh Realm Grandmaster, it should not be a problem to target cloud chariots, strange birds, and dragons. At least there is no worry of being cracked in a short period of time.

Naturally, these high-tech devices were all designed by Zhao Qing. She first asked the Chu Dynasty craftsmen to complete some material transportation and basic modifications, and then she spent most of the day to complete them step by hand, involving many new fields such as mind focusing, entanglement projection, vital energy sensing, frequency band analysis, etc.

"The phase calibration completion rate is 0.03 percent, and the signal reception bandwidth covers the 300-GHz low frequency band."

She stepped on the "Star Track Trail" paved with 96,000 South China Sea giant clams. The magnetic field flowing from her sleeves was pulling three high-level Yin-Yang Zhaosuan to rotate in the air, casting a data light curtain linked to the radio array on the top of the platform in the sunlight. Her mind swept across the three-dimensional star map that was being generated:
"The feed sensitivity of the Lieque Sword has increased by 20%, but the phase noise of the Zhulong Sword is still above the threshold. Overall, the focusing accuracy has been improved to one thousandth of an arc second... The lunar energy tides stimulated by the comet impact last night, the residual energy spectrum actually contains the characteristic bands of thirteen unknown techniques..."

Before he finished speaking, four water tornadoes suddenly rose from Yunmeng Lake, dozens of miles away. These vortices, seemingly natural phenomena, were actually the manifestation of the geomagnetic monitoring network. Hundreds of black crystal filaments were floating inside each water dragon, using the abundant conductivity of the water vapor in the marshland to construct an induction coil covering thousands of square kilometers.

"It shows obvious signs of artificial modification, and its complexity far exceeds that of almost all existing sword techniques. This should not be a natural phenomenon... The ones with the highest matching degree seem to be the Black Water Scripture, the Blood River Divine Book, and the Mingshan Sword Scripture?"

"But there is no way to rush this matter... Let's first assist in the practice of communicating with the stars outside the domain." Zhao Qing's mind moved slightly, and a huge head as big as a hill suddenly popped out from the clear water pool a few miles away, and the crystal clear horns suddenly broke through the water surface.

The scales of the ancient dragon's incarnation glowed with a cold silver light, and a naturally formed star array pattern floated on the surface of each scale. The Xuanming True Water entangled between the dragon's whiskers turned into thousands of silk threads that hung down.

"rise!"

As she tapped the jade pendant at her waist with her fingers, the six thousand four hundred bronze swords outside the main hall suddenly trembled at the same time, and the cloud and thunder patterns etched on the sword spines seemed to come alive and move along the sword bodies.

Countless beams of light reflecting starlight refracted repeatedly between the twenty-seven prisms. The originally silver-white ripples of vital energy were instantly dyed with blue-purple glow, projecting a grand starry sky projection covering an area of ​​dozens of miles on the sky.

hum-

The twelve black ice parabolic antennas began to deflect synchronously. Each ancient sword hanging at the feed source emitted a beam of vital energy that penetrated the heaven and earth. The beams converged into a spiral refractive lens above the sky, causing the entire crystal foundation of Zhanghuatai to glow with a faint blue halo.

"The fifth quadrant of the Tianshiyuan star field, the coordinate offset correction is three microarc seconds."

Zhao Qing's fingertips slid across the three-dimensional star map floating in front of him, and seventy-two suspended ice crystals slowly rotated along the mysterious trajectory: "The frequency of the void interaction of the Tianlong clone will increase by another seven percentage points, focusing on the discrete celestial bodies thirty degrees north of the ecliptic plane."

The ancient dragon clone that rose from the Yunmeng Lake raised its head and let out a long dragon roar, and the surface of its nine-foot-long dragon horns lit up with seven layers of nested runes - this is the "Xuan Ji Star Crown" unique to the Tianlong clan when they sense and communicate with the star energy.

Within the stratum corneum condensed with innate water essence, there are now flowing ripples of vital energy synchronized with the radio array, converting its instinctive talents into quantifiable resonance parameters.

"Beginning the first full-area scan."

Two clusters of silver fire lit up in the depths of her pupils, and her divine thoughts instantly penetrated the twelve radio arrays and the six thousand four hundred bronze sword antennas. "The seven Azure Dragons correspond to the 3.14GHz frequency band, the seven White Tigers switch to 18.9GHz, and the Black Tortoise Room loads the pulse modulation mode—"

The whole world suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

The water tornado in Yunmengze solidified into an ice sculpture-like column, and fine frost flowers condensed on the surface of the bronze sword forest. Some kind of fluctuations beyond auditory perception were spreading into the deep space with Zhanghuatai as the center. Even the sunlight underwent observable polarization when passing through this area.

The pupils of the dragon clone suddenly shrank into two vertical lines, and the sensor scales covering its head stood up collectively, stimulating a standing wave pattern visible to the naked eye in the air. The starry sky projection in front of Zhao Qing shook violently, and an originally dim quadrant suddenly burst into an ice-blue light spot.

"An unusual source of gravitational disturbance has been detected!"

The three Yin-Yang calculators made sharp beeps, and the projected spectrum graph showed jagged waveforms. "The distance is about 98 billion kilometers, the mass is about 5.3 times that of the Earth, the surface temperature is minus 226 degrees Celsius, and the spectrum type is dominated by methane absorption..."

The air suddenly made a crisp sound like shattering glass.

Zhao Qing's heart trembled slightly, and he clearly felt that some kind of extremely cold energy was penetrating back along the radio array. The tip of the dragon horn of the Tianlong clone actually began to condense hexagonal black ice.

"An ice giant? At this distance, is it the legendary ninth planet?"

She sensed the mood of annihilation and bitter cold, and various inferences flashed through her mind. The dragon horns of the Tianlong clone burst out with dazzling blue light again, and then the natural star array began to rotate in the reverse direction, converting the extremely cold energy that was penetrating in the reverse direction into spectral ripples that could be analyzed.

"In deep space focusing mode, the main peak wavelength of the spectrum is 477 nanometers, and the secondary absorption peak appears in the 890 nanometer and 1.3 micrometer regions... a mixture of methane and ammonia ice, and trace amounts of ethane and carbon monoxide molecular vibration characteristics."

"Start array redundancy mode!"

As her mind changed, the six thousand four hundred bronze swords outside the main hall suddenly let out long roars in unison. The cloud-lightning patterns on the sword spines seemed to detach from the metal surface, interweaving in the air to form a three-dimensional lightning net that covered the entire Zhanghuatai and directed the cold wave that fell from the sky towards the direction of Yunmengze.

Huge ice flowers with a diameter of more than three miles exploded on the water surface, and the four waterspout monitoring networks were instantly frozen into ice pillars that reached the sky.

But it was this deliberately created channel for the release of vital energy that allowed Zhao Qing to capture more key data - the gravitational disturbances emitted by the ice giant showed a unique spiral attenuation pattern during the freezing process.

"The mass distribution shows a clear hierarchical structure..."

She stared at the gravitational lens model projected by Yin Yang Zhao Suan. "The density in the core region is about 2.3 grams per cubic centimeter, and gradually decreases to 0.5 grams layer by layer outwards. This does not conform to the hydrostatic equilibrium state of a conventional ice giant."

"The ecliptic coordinate system offset has been corrected... The target object's orbital inclination is 17.8 degrees, the perihelion is about billion kilometers, and the aphelion is more than billion kilometers."

What really surprised Zhao Qing was the faint pulsation captured by the spectrometer - every thirteen minutes and seven seconds, the energy fluctuations emitted by the ice giant would show a periodic attenuation of 0.03%.

"The source of gravitational disturbance has secondary oscillations..."

She waved her sleeves across the projection of the starry sky covered with frost, and moved the focus to tens of thousands of miles outside the ice giant. "There are at least five satellites with a mass greater than Pluto, and hundreds of thousands of debris rings - wait! The orbital resonance ratio of these satellites..."

When Zhao Qing substituted the orbital parameters of the ice giants and their satellites into the Roche limit formula, the calculated results showed a surprising contradiction - the distances of these celestial bodies had long exceeded the critical value of tidal disruption, but they still maintained stable operation.

“Unless…” She suddenly turned around and looked at the Yunmengze monitoring network that was melting and reorganizing, “It’s a biological matrix reinforcement!” “Most of these satellites have some kind of self-repairing biological structure inside—similar to the roots of trees but closer to mycelium networks, which can achieve dynamic balance by absorbing the energy generated by tidal tearing!”

This thought was like the North Star shining through the fog.

Zhao Qing suddenly activated the magnetic field, and seventy-two ice crystal compasses exploded into light spots all over the sky, and then reorganized into a three-dimensional fractal structure in an instant.

When she matched the ice giant spectral data with the comet composition library, more than 90% of the characteristic peaks were exactly consistent with the nucleus samples of millennial-period comets.

"A methane ice core with a diameter of more than 30,000 miles... The surface is covered with cracks that are thousands of miles deep..."

She lightly touched the blurry image in the projection that was magnified ten thousand times, and saw that its surface was covered with spider-web-like dark blue rifts, and thousands of comet debris were surging in the depths of each crack.

These celestial fragments frozen in the methane ice layer retain the ferocious posture at the moment of impact, like prehistoric monsters sealed in amber, and the polar regions burst out with plasma arcs that stretch for thousands of miles:

"This is a typical feature of billions of comets slowly gathering together in a weak gravitational environment!"

Even more shocking is the ring of ice crystals suspended near the equator of the planet - millions of comet fragments are bound by gravity to form a debris belt as wide as 120,000 miles. Each angular piece of ice rock reflects ripples of vital energy in different bands, forming an ion light belt stretching for millions of miles under the influence of stellar winds.

"It can be said that it is the mother of comets in the inner solar system... Periodic gravitational disturbances pumped the outer celestial bodies of the Oort Cloud and the Kei Belt into the orbit of Neptune, becoming the origin of the Centaurs... 'Living comets' like the Astrophysical Protozoa should be one of them."

In response, Yin Yang Zhao Suan projected an enlarged satellite profile simulation image - tens of thousands of crystalline rootlets extended from under the surface methane ice shell. These biological material fibers composed of alkane polymers were running through the entire ice body in a fractal geometric pattern, forming an adaptive stress compensation network under the action of tidal forces.

"This is not only a miracle of materials science, but also a dynamic energy cycle."

Zhao Qing stared at the satellite model that began to rotate spontaneously, and waved his hand to reconstruct a dense gravitational streamline diagram like a spider web: "This type of biological structure can convert tearing kinetic energy into chemical potential required for growth, just like mangroves grow more luxuriantly in the intertidal zone as they are washed away - so they break through the Roche limit without any harm."

"What's even more ingenious is the energy recovery system." As her mind moved slightly, hundreds of millions of fluorescent green dots suddenly appeared on the surface of the satellite model. "These colonies will release stored stress energy every thirteen minutes, and the pulse phase just happens to resonate with the gravitational oscillation of the ice giant—"

"Using a conservative orbital eccentricity of e=0.01, the tidal heating power of the nearest large satellite is probably on the order of 10^17 watts, but it is concentrated on a planet with a radius of only about 1850 km... Normally, it is enough to cause the melting of the ice shell and drastic geological changes."

"But in fact, in addition to being absorbed, transformed and utilized by the bacteria, this part of energy should have gradually turned into rich heaven and earth energy under the influence of special energy laws, nourishing the environment of the entire planetary system... No wonder, the planet, which is obviously frozen, has a high stellar energy radiation 'luminosity'."

"This kind of activity of constantly extracting the gravitational potential energy of the satellite actually accelerates the process of foreign comets falling into the planet, promoting the mass growth and volume expansion of the ice giant. The weakened impact kinetic energy also coincides with the burial depth of the comet debris..."

Zhao Qing pondered secretly in his heart, and soon roughly found out the reasons for the other party's abnormality, and knew the real origin of "Tai Sui". At the same time, he smoothly established a vital energy sensory communication connection with it, and noticed that after leaving the icy environment of the planet, the vital energy returned to its cool and gentle state.

Although she has been busy and multi-faceted during this period, after creating this dragon clone, she had already decided to restore its abilities, physique, and magical powers to herself. She has tried this kind of communication and induction process many times in her spare time, and it has indeed improved her strength a lot.

With the help of new technical equipment, Zhao Qing's practice efficiency has also greatly increased, far exceeding the normal speed, and breaking through the range limitations of perceiving and communicating with the stars outside the domain. Theoretically, he can reach the realm of hundreds of thousands of heavens, which is more than a hundred times stronger than the three thousand heavens.

Although her thinking speed has long surpassed that of an ordinary genius in ten years in one minute when it comes to comprehending, studying techniques, and designing new things, she still needs to figure out some new methods if she wants her progress in cultivation to keep up with this advantage.

……

The bitter north wind swept across the branches of the Qilian Mountains, whimpering around the exposed reddish-brown rock formations.

On the wooden watchtower about four meters high, the bronze statue of Fengwu is pointing to the southwest, and the twelve copper bells hanging on its tail are motionless in the cold wind - this is the "wind-fixing instrument" specially made by the chief engineer, which is used to measure the ventilation conditions of the mine.

The ochre barracks that stretch for five miles at the foot of the mountain are looming in the morning mist. On the roof of each mud house, there is a wooden sign with white characters on a black background written in official script: "Bing Camp Sanwu" and "Shu Camp Qishi", which complies with the provisions of "Qin Law·Workers Law" that "For all labor, ten people are organized into a group, and five groups form a group."

After three morning drum beats, the jailer holding a two-meter-long bronze club kicked open the camp gate.

The prisoners huddled in the straw piles mechanically got up. Without even having a bite of breakfast, they were forced to line up and march towards their own labor sites. The iron "clamps" on their wrists and ankles collided with each other, making a crisp sound like a glacier cracking.

The original color of these serious criminals, who were arranged in a centipede formation, had long lost their original ochre-brown prison uniforms. Words of punishment such as "Chengdan" and "Guixin" were written in cinnabar on their chests and backs. Some even had crimes such as "counterfeiting" and "exceeding the regulations" tattooed on their faces.

At the entrance of the mine, twenty "dragon-turning carts" were being driven by prisoners stepping on wooden wheels. This hydraulic machine, improved from the "Kaogongji" of the Zhou Dynasty, could lift the deep water in the mine to the surface ditch under the guidance of the underground channels designed by engineers along the mountain.

The three-story-high wooden water wheel drives a fine steel drill embedded with black iron prisms, which can crush the hardest rock layers; the tunnel supports cast with bamboo reinforced concrete allow the mine to go hundreds of feet deep underground.

When mining, the prisoners all used controlled fine iron mattocks. Each tool was engraved with a unique number and had to be returned to the armory for inspection when they finished work. The sparks produced by the collision of metal with the rock wall were even brighter than the remaining light in their eyes.

As for the nitrate gunpowder used for blasting, it was strictly sealed in a stone "firearms warehouse" on the mountainside. Military craftsmen dispatched by the Ministry of Industry and Construction collected a fixed amount of it every day at noon. Whenever a muffled sound was heard, the prisoners would rush into the smoke that had not yet dissipated to carry the ore.

Article 12 of the Qin Law on Criminal Labor clearly states: "Anyone who commits a serious crime punishable by beheading, cutting off the nose, or pounding rice in the city for a year can be transferred to the Mining and Metallurgical Bureau and his labor term will be doubled" in order to achieve the ideal goal of "all prisoners in the world can be used."

This policy of transforming serious criminals into strategic resources resulted in the Qin Dynasty's 17 first-class mines, each of which was staffed with more than 3,000 criminals. The mine site selection followed the "trinity" principle:
First, it must be close to the Great Wall defense line or important passes and be supervised by border garrison troops nearby; second, there must be rich mineral veins, especially tin and lead ores required for bronze smelting; third, it must be located in a place with rugged terrain, and the natural environment must constitute an invisible prison.

Li Chongtai, the mine supervisor of the Fifth Duke rank, stood on the observation platform wrapped in fox fur, holding a heater in his hand embedded with a "self-heating stone" from the Western Regions, and watched from afar the newly arrived Western Qiang slaves being chained and escorted into the mine.

These barbarians from other places could not understand the drum commands. They were just sent here by the Hexi horse caravan yesterday, and there was a triangular slave mark branded on the back of their necks.

Farther away, the black bird flags flying on the beacon towers blended with the red dust raised by the ore-carrying carts. Several military officers waved copper-covered birch flags, spewing white steam from their mouths: "Today, the excavation must reach a depth of nine feet. Those who are an inch shorter will be whipped twenty times!"

In the miner's office on the west side of the valley, the charcoal basin heated the blue brick floor. Wang Xu, a warehouse official of the Duke of Gong, leaned on a lacquered table and used an ivory-handled knife to cut open the newly arrived bamboo slips of official documents.

The intermittent sounds of prisoners carrying stones drifted in from outside the window, making the room even quieter.

The ink on the "granary food books" piled up on the desk was not yet dry: 3,720 people were supposed to report for service today, and 200 dan of millet were actually distributed.

However, according to the standard of "Six liters of rice per day for pounding grain in the city" in "Qin Law·Gan Law", this number should have been 223 shi.

Wang Xu crossed out the difference in the "Death due to illness" book and added a note in the header, "Forty-one people died this month due to the invasion of miasma." The thirty Western Qiang slaves sent by the Hexi Caravan the day before were just enough to fill the vacancy, so there was still enough food for eleven people.

"Sir, the Bing Camp reports the loss of mattocks." The voice of the clerk outside the door startled him, and the cinnabar pen left a long red mark on the bamboo slips.

Wang Xu grabbed the copper paperweight and threw it at the door frame, shouting, "Why are you here in the warehouse instead of reporting the damage to the engineer?"

Listening to the hurried footsteps fading away, he sneered and unfolded the "Black Book" that he had secretly kept in the secret compartment. He used red ink to add the five words "actually fifty men were recruited" next to "October Bingxu, thirty-one men were recruited from the Western Qiang."

The extra nineteen people should appear in the account books of the Border City Pawnshop tomorrow. These strong barbarians are ten times more durable than the prisoners in the Central Plains - after all, the latter have been in the mine for a long time and have already suffered too much torture.

……

On the rock walls deep in the mine, white frost condensed from the breath of prisoners from past generations.

Zhao Sanlang, who had the word "private casting" tattooed on his face, was leaning his mattock against a crevice in the rock when he suddenly hit something hard.

He dug through the rubble and saw a half-broken bronze crossbow glowing under the torchlight - it was a relic of a prisoner that was buried when the building collapsed last month. Just as he was about to take a closer look, he heard the sound of the supervisor's leather boots stepping on water from behind, and he hurriedly stuffed the crossbow into his crotch.

According to the "Explanation of Industrial Laws", "all military equipment fragments found in mines must be turned over to the armory immediately", and those who keep them privately will be torn to pieces.

"What are you dawdling for!" The copper-covered whip whipped his spine, and the old wounds opened and pus and blood gushed out. Zhao Sanlang stumbled towards the mining face, and the old jailer in the same camp warned him: "In this damn place, living people are cheaper than ore. Do you see those underground channels?"

He looked at the bamboo reinforced concrete arch at the top of the alley. The engineers designed drainage canals that extended in all directions. It was said that the longest branch led directly to the Great Wall Garrison. "Last winter, the relief grain was withheld. Three hundred brothers climbed halfway along the canal and were all crushed into meat paste by the sluice gate."

...(End of chapter)