Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

There were very mature and reliable technologies on the production of air circulation devices and cartridges. Even in the Great Dark Age tens of thousands of years ago, people had been roaming in space on the starships that boasted air circulation magical equipment.

No matter how technologies declined in the ten thousand years of warfare, this most fundamental technology was never lost. Even the Star Glory Federation at the edge of the cosmos had developed it to such a high level that the gigantic air circulation system in the space fortresses could provide fresh air for millions of people at the same time.

The technologies of the Imperium of True Human Beings were at least decades more advanced than those of the Star Glory Federation. They certainly had more knowledge about air circulation too.

Li Yao had received tremendous files about the starships of the Imperium in Li Linghai’s Deep Sea Palace. He had profound studies on the air circulation systems of the starships.

Even the heavy starships more than ten kilometers long produced hundreds of years ago had never met any technical difficulties in terms of air cleaning, filtering, and recycling. With a tiny bit of highly-compressed “catalyst”, the wastes could be transformed into fresh air incessantly, before the “sieves” in the molecular level filtered the toxins in it. Even when there was a huge fire on a starship yielding intense poisonous smoke, the battle performance of the entire starship would not be affected at all.

The air circulation devices adopted in the underground world were slightly different from their counterparts on the starships. The requirement on airtightness was lower, but the requirements on anti-heat and anti-vibration abilities were much higher.

But that was not a big problem either. Li Yao himself knew quite a few special porcelains that could significantly improve the performance in anti-heat and anti-vibration as long as they were sprayed on the surface of the components. It was not complicated, and the cost was certainly not high.

However…

In the core units of the air circulation magical equipment of the 10,084th district, all the cleaning chips and exchange units were rusted and deformed. The rune arrays on the surface and inside were all as twisted as the scribble of naughty kids. Absolutely no anti-heat measures were taken.

Because of the continual work day and night and the lack of a decent cooling system, the temperatures inside the units were so high that one would leave a dent on them by jabbing at them softly with a finger.

“Crude” did not even begin to describe such components. They were far behind the current age. Even the assembly lines five or eight hundred years ago wouldn’t have produced such lousy products. God knew which unqualified factory crafted them!

Something would be terribly wrong if the air in the town could be fresh when such unworthy components were used. That explained why Li Yao had been smelling dirt and rust the whole time while he was here!

Li Yao was infuriated and even disgusted. For a master of refining like him, to watch such shi*ty components was almost sullying his eyes and his mind. Holding back his fury, he stood straight and shouted at the locals outside, “Who purchased those components? Who installed them? And from whom did you buy them? You’ve been tricked!”

Li Yao’s exclamations echoed in the giant cave and crashed into pieces on the stalactites and stalagmites, only to be greeted by silence. The locals who were hiding behind the spikes and the fungi and observing them in secret all quickly retreated their heads like shocked snakes.

“It’s useless, Brother Yao, stop shouting. Except for the few designated talents trained by Sister Long, nobody will talk to us.”

Li Jialing explained, “The locals thought of us as the Immortal Cultivators, or at least people who come from the surface of the planet.

“For hundreds of years, the Immortal Cultivators from the surface of the planet have never brought anything for the locals except slavery, destruction, and catastrophes. In the past, wherever the Immortal Cultivators showed up, it often meant that precious mother lodes and relics had been discovered in the area, and it also meant that the villages nearby would suffer a disaster!

“As time went by, the dread for the people from the ground has been deeply branded into the flesh and bones of the underground locals, whose only way of resistance is silence.

“There are too many lessons for that. When the Immortal Cultivators heard that new mother lodes and relics were discovered below the ground, they came here pretending to be kind and friendly, even offering resources that the locals were in dire need of in the name of His Majesty or the major sects. But they were simply trying to elicit information concerning the mother lodes and the relics from the underground locals.

“After the information was retrieved and the coordinates and reserve were figured out, the Immortal Cultivators would immediately change their attitudes. The whole village would be destroyed, and the villagers would either be annihilated on the spot or enslaved until they died.

“Such things happened hundreds of times before and cannot be entirely kept a secret. As time goes by, all the locals know that talking to the people from the ground will lead to disasters and that they have to remain silent and keep a distance from the strangers.”

Li Yao frowned. “Aren’t we the honorable guests of that…’Serenity Seraph’?”

“It is exactly because we are Sister Long’s honorable guests that they are bold enough to watch us and a maid can slightly talk to us.”

Li Jialing said, “Otherwise, when the people from the ground like us came here, chances were that all of them would’ve hidden themselves in the caves, shuddering in fear together with the rock worms!”

Li Yao sighed and looked through the fog again. His eyes even pierced through the cold and hard shell of the underground locals, almost allowing him to feel the panic, anxiety, confusion, and even a tiny bit of… expectation under the nonchalant appearance.

Li Jialing continued, “In fact, you don’t even need to ask them such a simple question. The answer is obvious if you think about it. If the components sold to them are not so lousy that the facilities break down on a daily basis and can be used steadily for a long time, then, there will be no problems for the supply of oxygen at all, will there?

“If the oxygen supply does not have any problem, and there are sufficient rock worms, this place will be totally able to feed itself. Then, how can the three-digit and four-digit towns up above control the five-digit towns such as the 10,084th district, and how can they get dozens of rock worms by paying a tiny can of compressed air?”

Slightly dazed, Li Yao gradually became cold.

Li Jialing said with a bitter smile, “After living half a year of a carefree life with the help of the omnipotent Brother Yao, I seem to have returned to the days when I had to activate my brain cells to the maximum to deal with Li Lingfeng and Wuying Lan in the past in order to see everything clearly. This is really… uncomfortable!”

Li Yao stopped talking but fell on one of his knees before the air circulation magical equipment. With his eyes half narrowed, he listed the materials inside his Cosmos Rings and drafted the plans of maintenance in his head.

Maintaining a piece of air circulation magical equipment was really nothing for an expert like him who could even repair a Colossus.

However, Li Yao considered the plan for five minutes and polished the whole plan in the most cautious and careful attitude. Then, he cleaned and whetted all the components with his best for an entire hour. The garbage that was too crappy to be used was simply thrown away and replaced by the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that he tricked from Li Linghai. By using his soul that was still extremely feeble, he reorganized the entire circulation and cleaning system with the micro-engraving techniques in the molecular level.

As for the catalysts to transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, he did not have any of them in his Cosmos Rings. Thankfully, it was not complicated to mix them. Without even frowning, Li Yao combined a bucket of them with a few kinds of invaluable cooling liquids and combustion improvers. Considering the consumption rate of all the residents of the 10,084th district and the rock worms, it should suffice for the next couple of years.

“Nailed it!”

Li Yao smiled at the renewed, glittering components and then closed the cover of the core units. Then, he adjusted the activation rune arrays nearby.

Immediately, a wave of cool and fresh air spurted out of the roots and branches of the “giant tree” which spread out to the entire tire. It was as refreshing as a drizzle on a hot summer afternoon.

Many locals had been snooping on what Li Yao was doing from far away carefully. They did not dare to stop him, and they did not know what he was doing exactly until this moment. Almost finding it impossible to believe what their eyes and their skin had sensed, they were all utterly dumbfounded.

It had been for a long time, perhaps thousands of years since the ancestors of their ancestors, that they had forgotten the feeling of “ecstasy”. The darkness and destitution of reality even forced them to accept Long Yangjun’s “kindness”, abandoning their feelings that had nothing but pain and desperation.

But right now, their brains that had been sealed for a long time were suddenly rippling. Rigid, twisted, and weird expressions appeared on their faces, where sunny flowers were gradually blossoming regardless of their ages and genders. They were all staggering and dancing as if they were drunk.

“Dear folks, I have just repaired your air circulation system. The oxygen percentage in the air is gradually restoring to normal, and the toxins in the air have been filtered. You have been used to a low oxygen intensity for a long time, and you will encounter a phenomenon called ‘oxygen intoxication’ after the sudden increase of oxygen intensity. But it will not harm you at all and will only make you smarter and stronger. There is no need to be anxious!”

Li Yao stood straight again. Not caring if the locals were following him, or if they would believe him even if they understood what he was talking about, he simply went on and announced, “It has occurred to me that the general cooling system of this town has a lot of hidden problems too. I will help you fix the problems after I return from the deeper parts. Then, I will compile all the maintenance procedures into an operation manual for you so that you will be able to maintain them in the future on your own. Trust me, it is not complicated at all.

“However, for safety reasons, you’d better elect two representatives who are smartest and deftest. By then, I will teach them hand by hand, and they can teach the rest of you. Then, you will no longer need to trade the rock worms that you’ve raised through all the trouble for the insignificant compressed air, and you will not be exploited by the upper levels anymore!”