Chapter 749

Chapter 749: A Breakthrough

Year 6435 of the Xia Calendar, Haigang City

In the fifth year of his retreat, a powerful pressure spread from Lin Jiang’s meditation room, causing all the surveillance and electronic devices in the villa to black out, and the formation around the villa quietly appeared.

Cao Ying, who was handling matters in the office, turned pale and instantly disappeared, arriving at the door of Lin Jiang’s meditation room.

"Uncle, how are you?"

Through the door, Cao Ying asked anxiously; that pressure felt wrong, it was the pressure of a breakthrough to Tao Achieving.

"I broke through."

"What?"

"Let’s talk after I finish, in one month."

Lin Jiang’s voice came, causing Cao Ying at the door to change her expression dramatically.

Breaking through to Tao Achieving should be a good thing, but Cao Ying couldn’t feel happy at all because she knew Lin Jiang’s skills. He shouldn’t have broken through this time; this was only the first attempt at Tao Achieving.

A month went by quickly, and Cao Ying waited at the door for Lin Jiang to finish. The two of them went into the office.

"What happened? Why did you break through?"

"It came naturally, just like water flowing."

"Hehe."

"I also couldn’t control it."

Lin Jiang shook his head. He wasn’t lying; it really came naturally, and he suddenly broke through that barrier.

It was like there was a wide cliff in front of you. You only wanted to see if you could jump across, but suddenly you found yourself at the edge. You couldn’t control it and jumped, and you actually made it across. If you told someone about it, no one would believe you.

"I’m getting more and more worried."

"I am worried too; maybe this is something we can’t escape."

"What should we do?"

"There’s nothing to do. We’ll take it one step at a time. Trust me, there’s always a way out."

Lin Jiang shook his head. This situation scared him too; it felt like his life was being controlled. Void Achieving to Tao Achieving was hard, many people got stuck there, but he passed it easily. This mysterious power was terrifying.

"I’m too afraid to practice."

"This is something to think about. I feel like this situation isn’t that simple. We don’t yet know what will happen, whether it’s good or bad."

Lin Jiang said that what Feng Jiu mentioned might not be true. Becoming an immortal and living forever has been a trick since ancient times, but tricks are not always dangerous. At least, Lin Jiang didn’t sense any malice now.

"I am afraid."

"Don’t be afraid, I am here."

"Okay."

In that moment, Cao Ying suddenly felt very safe. With Lin Jiang by her side, she thought that even if they faced great dangers ahead, she wouldn’t be scared anymore.

·········

Lin Jiang quickly reviewed the major events that had happened during his five years of seclusion. Overall, it wouldn’t change much, even if the Ying Continent started to take action against the countries in the western part of the Shen Continent, competing for economic markets.

This wouldn’t greatly affect Huaxia, because Huaxia’s exports mostly consist of high-value products, like high-tech items, while the Ying Continent mainly exports low-value goods, such as everyday items.

It would actually be easy for Huaxia to defeat the products from the Ying Continent by using automation. They could use robots or unmanned production lines to drive the prices down very low, making it difficult for Ying Continent to compete, no matter how cheap their labor is.

However, there is no need to do this, as it would be a way to harm themselves while trying to harm others. Huaxia also considers the employment rate in their own country, and cannot measure everything just by profit. Besides, no matter how much money Ying Continent makes elsewhere, they still have to spend it in Huaxia, because the dominant international currency for the human race is the Huaxia coin, which holds a significant status, just like a ruler in terms of currency.

Lin Jiang finished reading the information and went to find Cao Wang. The new generation of the Space Mother Ship had already set off. Thanks to breakthroughs in space technology, the new Space Mother Ship’s speed and efficiency had improved several times, so it began exploring new planets again.

"Old Ancestor"

When Cao Wang saw Lin Jiang, he was very happy because he could always gain some benefits. This is the big investor.

"Where is the Space Mother Ship now?"

"It’s still half a year away from the edge of the solar system. The new generation of the Space Mother Ship is faster than we expected, especially with the help of gravitational forces. Its speed exceeds six thousand mach, and it usually maintains over four thousand mach."

"That’s great! Have we decided on new exploration directions?"

"We will continue to explore Cape III Planet. Additionally, we are preparing for planet development. We have marked three resource planets that can be developed for some special minerals."

Cao Wang said that the planets they discovered did not have life, but being lifeless did not mean they lacked resources. For example, some planets had minerals, and certain minerals were scarce on Blue Star.

These are not resources for cultivation but are essential for developing high technology, such as a certain rare earth element. This element is very scarce on Blue Star, often requiring the excavation of dozens of tons of ore to extract a little. However, on one planet, the metal content is very high—hundreds of times more than on Blue Star—making it very valuable.

They are preparing to build some unmanned bases, using robots to mine and process materials, then sending them back with spaceships, which will be very valuable.

"This is a good thing! You can arrange it."

"We are short on money, Ancestor. We plan to renovate the old Space Mother Ship; it’s cheaper than building a new one, but we still need funding. Your support is essential."

"Every time I see you, you are looking to get money from me. I can’t make money myself. If I could, I would give it to you. You’ll have to figure it out on your own."

Lin Jiang shrugged, showing he had no money to give. Cao Wang always expected him to provide funds, as if his money would never run out.

"Alright, we understand the difficulties, Ancestor. We will figure it out ourselves."

"Is the alien exploration project still ongoing? How is the Interstellar Teleportation Array?"

Lin Jiang continued to ask, as he was in charge of the entire space project. It was correct to ask Cao Wang about these subordinate projects.

"The alien exploration project has resumed. We have launched many unmanned spaceships for interstellar travel; the earliest ones have been flying for decades, crossing several star systems. However, we have not found aliens yet. We also followed your instructions and did not randomly send out the coordinates of Blue Star; everything is kept secret."

The Interstellar Teleportation Array project is led by Zhu Bin. He has built teleportation arrays on three planets in this star system. He is gaining experience, and the distance of teleportation has improved, reaching over ten million kilometers. However, this is still far from enough. Zhu Bin’s goal is to achieve teleportation in hundreds of millions of kilometers. They have begun designing a brand-new teleportation array, but they have not yet made a breakthrough…

Cao Wang spoke passionately about the progress of these projects. The technology has all grown, but there have been no large-scale breakthroughs, and they have not yet created anything substantial.

After listening, Lin Jiang could only encourage them to keep working hard and to persevere. After hundreds or thousands of years, they are sure to make progress.

Afterwards, Lin Jiang also visited other project teams at the Spiritual Energy Research Institute. It is important to share the benefits equally and not to favor one project too much.

Other project teams at the Spiritual Energy Research Institute have also made many breakthroughs. For example, there is a new product of the watch in Lin Jiang’s hands. It has gone through several generations of updates, and the new watch has even more powerful features. Lin Jiang unhesitatingly requested the latest model.

In the area of secret techniques, there have also been encouraging achievements. The Void Achieving Ancestors are organizing the secret techniques from the cultivation era. They have not only restored many ancient techniques, but also created a lot of innovations, which piqued Lin Jiang’s interest.

"Ancestor Lin, after studying the secret techniques from the cultivation era, we found them to be very rough. Now, we are improving some of these techniques, making them much stronger compared to before."

For instance, in attack techniques, we have learned from modern energy dissipation and have improved the current techniques…

A Void Achieving cultivator said to Lin Jiang, demonstrating as he spoke. They have researched countless secret techniques, upgrading them based on knowledge from disciplines like human anatomy and mechanics. Today’s techniques are much more powerful than before.

The same type of attack technique, after being modified by them and performed by the same person, increased its power by about thirty percent.

There are many similar events; if a cultivator learns a brand new technique, their overall strength is much greater than before.

This made Lin Jiang immediately request all their information, planning to take it back and study it slowly. No one ever thinks their attack power is too strong, right?

The few of them were also happy to give Lin Jiang the information, but they also tried various ways to pull more investment from him. Now, who doesn’t know about the Spiritual Energy Research Institute? If they want funding or investment, it’s better to approach Lin Jiang than to report to Huaxia Official. Lin Jiang can solve it with just one word, and he gives more too.