I live in the Martian wilderness!

"The shelter's water treatment unit has a single-pass filtration rate of up to 99.97% for perchlorate. It just consumes more energy and extends the lifespan of the filter cartridges."

"What? In other words, we were prepared to eat nothing but pickled vegetables, but instead we unearthed a Manchu Han Imperial Feast!"

"The analogy is very vivid, Captain. But there's a logical flaw in your analogy," Xuanjian interrupted his laughter, correcting him seriously.

"The core nutritional components of pickled vegetables and the Manchu Han Imperial Feast are vastly different. However, the core chemical component of perchlorate brine and purified water is H₂O, with the only difference being the content of impurities."

"A more accurate description would be: We prepared a high-energy-consuming 'three-stage reverse osmosis' purification process, but now we've discovered that only a 'boiling sterilization' process is needed."

"According to calculations, this will save us about 70% of our water treatment energy consumption and extend the life of the filter cartridges by 8-10 times."

"From the perspective of surplus survival resources, this is a major positive development."

Gu Yu shook his head helplessly. Expecting an AI to understand human joy was indeed asking too much of it.

"Alright, Xuan, you're right." A huge weight was lifted from Gu Yu's shoulders. "Anyway, we've found our water source!"

"But now is not the time to celebrate. A 10-centimeter pilot hole is only the completion of scientific verification; the next step is the engineering conquest."

"To obtain a continuous water source, a well shaft that can accommodate heating rods and submersible pumps is also needed."

"Xuan, retrieve all core extraction components. Proceed to the fourth stage: 28-centimeter diameter borehole reaming."

"Understood, Captain. Switching to 'Heavy Engineering Drilling Tools'."

Tissot's robotic arm started up again, retrieving the precision core extractor back into the drilling rig.

Immediately afterwards, the rack on the drilling rig moved laterally, bringing forward rows of significantly thicker, heavy-duty engineering drill pipes that resembled cannonballs.

The robotic arm replaced the drilling rig with a large-diameter reaming drill bit covered with carbide cutting teeth.

"Start reaming!"

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This time, the drill bit no longer carefully excavated, but instead violently pushed downwards along the existing pilot hole in an almost crushing manner.

"Squeak—!!"

The reaming drill bit frantically cut into the well wall of the pilot hole, and the red powder was no longer being carried out like volcanic ash.

Instead, like a flood bursting its banks, the water was violently ejected upwards by the thick auger drill pipe, quickly piling up a small hill half a meter high around the wellhead.

The drill's torque reading instantly soared to the red alert zone, and the entire drill rig trembled slightly due to the enormous reaction force, with the four hydraulic spades deeply embedded in the ground.

Even with AI, Gu Yu remained fully focused, steadily monitoring the descent speed of the drill pipe to prevent the drill from getting stuck due to excessively rapid advance.

Connect one more branch, expand by two meters. Connect another branch, expand by another two meters.

Another hour later, the hole enlargement operation was completed.

When the last thick drill rod was retracted, a deep well, 28 centimeters in diameter with rough but perfectly straight inner walls, appeared before us.

"The well shaft is complete. Xuan, what's the next step?"

Xuanjian immediately offered professional advice: "Before lowering the heating rods, I recommend performing 'wellbore insulation and reinforcement' work. Otherwise, we will face two serious problems."

"First, heat loss. The well wall is surrounded by permafrost at temperatures below minus sixty degrees Celsius, which acts like a giant heat sink."

"According to thermodynamic model calculations, without an insulation layer, most of the energy generated by the heating rod will be absorbed by the surrounding permafrost, resulting in a reduction of water extraction efficiency by at least 60%."

"Second, structural instability. During the subsequent long-term heating and cooling cycle, the ice-containing soil around the well wall will repeatedly melt and refreeze, which can easily lead to the collapse of the well wall."

Gu Yu nodded; all of this was within his expectations. "And what's the solution?"

"The best solution is to deploy a 'composite thermal insulation sleeve'."

Xuanjian displayed a 3D model on the helmet HUD; it was a round tube that was entirely black and had threaded joints.

"We can use the Shen Gong module to print out 10 sections of 2-meter-long hollow carbon fiber composite tubes with precision threaded interfaces."

"Then, you will be responsible for assembling them section by section into the shaft."

"This composite pipe adopts a three-layer structure with a dense inner wall, a porous middle layer, and a rough outer wall."

"The dense inner wall ensures a smooth, waterproof surface; the porous middle layer utilizes vacuum insulation; and the rough outer wall allows it to bond tightly with the frozen soil."

"Its thermal conductivity is less than 0.01 W/(m·K), making it a perfect ultimate thermal underwear."

"Very good." Gu Yu looked at the perfect plan, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes. "Do it as you said. Activate the Divine Craft Module and switch to tubular structure printing mode."

"I'll provide the materials."

Gu Yu walked to the auxiliary filling port on the side of the Divine Craft Module and activated the [Carbon Control] ability.

Threads of extremely fine black carbon powder, like an endless stream of black quicksand, fell from his fingertips into the filter of the filling port.

[Begin printing the first section. Outer diameter 26 cm, wall thickness 3 cm.]

As the command was given, the electron beam scanned frantically on the printing platform, sintering the toner provided by Gu Yu layer by layer into shape.

This time, however, it printed not a solid iron rod, but a hollow, 3-centimeter-thick round tube with a precision threaded interface.

In just ten minutes, a two-meter-long, incredibly light carbon fiber composite tube was slowly pushed out of the printing chamber.

This pipe has a perfect three-layer structure: a dense inner wall, a porous middle layer, and a rough outer wall.

The 23-centimeter inner diameter is large enough to comfortably accommodate the U-shaped heating rod and submersible pump that will be lowered later.

Gu Yu stepped forward, and despite the enormous size of the tube, he easily lifted it with just one hand due to the low gravity on Mars.

"Xuan, begin assembly."

Tissot's robotic arm automatically moved forward and used its end gripper to clamp the carbon tube that had just been printed.

The whole process was like completely repeating the drilling process we just went through.

The robotic arm first vertically inserted the first section of pipe into the wellhead until the threaded interface at its top was flush with the ground.

The Shenggong printer continued to work, and when the second section of the tube was printed, the robotic arm immediately stepped forward and picked it up.

It precisely aligns the thread of the new pipe with the interface at the end of the first pipe section at the wellhead, and then tightens it by rotating it clockwise.

With a "click," the two pipe sections were joined together.

Immediately afterwards, the robotic arm descended again, pushing the 4-meter-long combined pipe down two meters, so that the end of the second section of the pipe was once again flush with the ground.

Print one, assemble one, and move one section down. The whole process is filled with the mechanical coordination of an industrial rhythm.

Xuanjian is like a top-notch Swiss watchmaker, meticulously executing this tedious but absolutely reliable procedure.

An hour later, a 20-meter-long "composite heat insulation sleeve" composed of ten carbon tubes was completely deployed inside the well wall.

[Scan complete. Well casing deployed, structurally intact, thermal conductivity below 0.01 W/(m·K).]

"Now, proceed with the final step: cementing," Gu Yu ordered.

"Understood, Captain. Switch to 'In-situ Resource Utilization' cementing mode."