Yama Rising

Even through the thick layer of accumulated snow, one could still just barely make out the stone path underneath. There were also some pine trees and even some antiquated stone lanterns on either side of the path.

Qin Ye gently leaped upward, and his body seemed to be completely weightless as he quickly drifted over to the top of the mountain. From this vantage point, he could see the vast sea of clouds below him, as well as the bright red sun in the distance.

"The mistake we've made is that we've failed to take into account the location of Xu Fu's laboratory!" He sat down with his legs crossed on the peak of the snowy mountain, and despite the beautiful scenery before him, he didn't have any interest in appreciating it as he murmured to himself, "In order to invent the new energy resource, Xu Fu traveled all over the world and even visited Albert Einstein, but his laboratory had always been inside Gui Xu! Gui Xu was half an immortal, holding Mount Penglai in its belly and possessing rich immortal energy. As a result, all of the items in Xu Fu's laboratory had constantly been immersed in immortal energy! During the past eight months, we've constantly been trying to find one or both of electron Yin runes and proton Yin runes, but we never had the right conditions to begin with as we didn't have access to immortal energy! With that in mind, the path that we're currently going down may well lead to a dead-end!"

Upon making this realization, he felt extremely grateful and elated.

What was the most terrifying thing in scientific research?

Not being able to see the path forward was one thing, but pursuing a path for decades, only to find that it led to nowhere, was a far more terrifying prospect!

Back before the invention of dynamos and electrical motors, countless scientists had been competing against one another, but in the end, it was only Michael Faraday who had had the last laugh.

"Even Xu Fu himself most likely didn't realize this. He thought he had developed the new energy resource using only materials from the mortal realm and the underworld, but in reality, he unwittingly used things from all three realms!"

He closed his eyes and quickly leafed through Xu Fu's notes in his mind. Line after line, sentence after sentence crossed his mind, and in the end, his eyes sprang open as an enlightened look appeared on his face.

As expected, according to Xu Fu's notes, regardless of what experiment it was that he had performed, the most important experiments related to the new energy resource had all been completed in Gui Xu.

Gui Xu wasn't just a divine beast, its body had transformed into a natural ecosystem with an island, a lake, a mountain, everything that a healthy ecosystem would have.

According to Heaven's records, Gui Xu's body was going to transform into a blessed paradise following its failed tribulation transcendence.

How was that transformation process supposed to take place?

"It could only have undergone that transformation on its own," Qin Ye mused as he stroked his own chin with a contemplative look on his face. "Immortal energy is a source of kinetic energy just like Yin energy, and it was immortal energy that was fueling its transformation! Over the course of centuries, the immortal energy would've transformed Gui Xu into a blessed paradise, but Xu Fu's arrival put a premature end to all of that as he modified Gui Xu's body into a floating fortress! This process most likely caused Gui Xu's immortal energy to dissipate at an even slower rate, and over time, even its organs and the things inside them were immersed in immortal energy."

Qin Ye had to admit that he was extremely fortunate.

If he hadn't made this realization based on the Aurogon's message, then the research team could've toiled away for decades without getting anywhere!

There was an innate hole in Xu Fu's notes that even Xu Fu himself didn't know existed!

"As for whether my theory is correct, that's very simple to confirm." He stood up, and even though the light of the sun was illuminating his entire body, there was no shadow of him cast onto the ground.

He had discovered the true path forward, and a heartfelt smile had appeared on his face.

"All we need to do is completely isolate the constituent parts of the new energy resource to see how many parts there are!"

As soon as that thought occurred to him, he couldn't help but slap himself on the forehead.

This was something that they should've done from the very beginning, but no one had thought of this!

They had always thought that the new energy resource consisted of two things, one of which was Yin energy, while the other was true energy, and that all they had to do was extract the true energy. Thus, they had always been performing their experiments with the intention of finding something that could react with the true energy, but they never considered that there could be a third component at play here.

Gui Xu's cause of death had been mentioned very vaguely in Xu Fu's notes, but the mystery had been solved here.

He didn't want to think about this any longer, and thus, he immediately vanished from the mountaintop as a gust of Yin wind.

……………………………………

Shortly thereafter, Qin Ye appeared in the Yin Mountains research center, and Secretary Jiang, who was in the process of helping him sort out his documents, was given quite a fright. "Your Excellency! I didn't think you'd come back so soon!"

Qin Ye was absolutely ecstatic as he ordered, "Get Qian Duolai to come and see me."

Qian Duolai was also present in the research center.

As the supervisor of the darkfeathers and a top spy during his time in the mortal realm, he was responsible for the safety of the entire research center, as well as the safety of all of the scientists in the laboratories.

During the past eight months, there had already been three major explosions and several dozen minor accidents. If it weren't for Qian Duolai's dedicated efforts, there would've most likely already been scientists injured during the experiments.

Qian Duolai quickly strode into the room before extending a respectful bow.

"No need for formalities," Qin Ye said with a serious expression. "How many isolation laboratories are there and where are they?"

Qian Duluo immediately replied, "There are a total of four isolation laboratories focused in area two with a total of 12 scientists and 53 assistants. At the moment, they're still stuck on the basic matter isolation stage."

This essentially meant that they hadn't made any progress at all.

Qin Ye was becoming more and more convinced that the possibility that had occurred to him was the truth, and he forcibly repressed his own excitement as he said, "Instruct the five main architects to travel to the isolation laboratories. Also, instruct the scientists in the isolation laboratories to stop what they're doing and prepare high power microscopes and the unit containing the new energy resource!"

"Yes!"

Qian Duolai departed, and Qin Ye immediately conjured up a messenger bird before speaking into it. "Please come to the Yin Mountains research center right away."

With a flick of his finger, the messenger bird was sent flying away, and he also vanished from the room at the same time.

By the time he reappeared, he was already in the conference hall neighboring the isolation laboratories in area two. He could hear a flurry of commotion and activity in the laboratories nearby. This was the sound of people cleaning up the experimentation sites. If no one kept these laboratories in order, then these scientists would transform them into complete pigsties. Out of all of the assistants that had been recruited, most of them were responsible for cleanup duty.

The sound of footsteps ringing out from the corridor indicated the passage of all of the assistants who were busy at work, and unbeknownst to all of them, their King Yanluo was seated in the neighboring conference hall, seperated from them by only a single wall.

Qin Ye sat alone in the conference hall with his brows furrowed in deep thought. He had to organize his own thoughts.

If we discover three types of energy, then that means the creation of the new energy resource must depend on Heaven. That would make sense, considering natural lightning also comes from Heaven. All we need to do is find the true particles, then select similar things in the underworld, and perhaps this path will yield a positive outcome!

Selecting things with similar properties to a certain point of reference was certainly going to be far easier than searching aimlessly for a needle in a haystack!

They couldn't directly use Xu Fu's energy resource as it was both connected to all three realms, yet also disjointed at the same time.

The reason that it was disjointed was due to the inherent differences in matter. The Yin runes of the underworld, the immortal energy of Heaven, the true energy of the mortal realm… It was like the evolution of monkeys, some evolved into humans, while some others evolved into gorillas.

The origin was the same, but the final outcome was different. Such a thing would undoubtedly be rejected by the outside world.

Thinking back, these past eight months of work hadn't actually been completely in vain.

With that in mind, Qin Ye raised a hand, and a file of documents appeared in mid-air, which he immediately opened and began to read through.

These were the records of the work that had been done during the past eight months, and what he was looking for was…

"This is it!" He traced a line of text with his finger as he read aloud, "Under an environment simulating the underworld, where there is only pure Yin energy, the energy resource created by Xu Fu is less than 30% as effective as it normally is (the degree of efficacy fluctuates between 27.321% and 30.452%), whereas in the mortal realm, it's efficacy reaches 100%. The constituent parts of the energy resource from the three realms haven't completely fused together. After all, they exist in different realms altogether. However, if we can find out the energy resource's fundamental constituents, we'll be able to find substitutes in the underworld!"

That would undoubtedly significantly speed up the development of the new energy resource!

"Lord Qin." Right at this moment, the door was opened, and Qian Duolai made his way into the room. "All of the scientists are ready."

Qin Ye nodded in response before immediately leaving the room, then entered the neighboring laboratory.

Inside the laboratory were all types of equipment, some of which had been purchased from the Russian Underworld and the Alkebulan Underworlds, while the rest had been crafted based on models from the mortal realm. This was the main laboratory of the isolation area, and it was very spacious. Just like in the main laboratory of the Yin Mountains research center, there was a pane of glass up ahead, behind which was the experimentation area.

All of the scientists were present, and Qin Ye cut straight to the chase. "Everyone, I went to visit an old friend during the past couple of days, and he showed me something that leads me to believe that we may have gone down the wrong path."

"Are you sure?" Xu Chengyang immediately asked in a serious voice. "Yanluo Qin, pardon my rudeness, but you're not a scientist, and this is no laughing matter!"

It was very difficult to see whether the wrong path had been pursued in scientific research.

At times, the equations worked out, the models were fine, and the experiments could also be conducted, but the desired effect simply couldn't be achieved.

In situations like that, it was very difficult to realize that the wrong path had been pursued until practically the very end. It was often the case that by the time the realization was made, years, perhaps even decades, had already passed by.

Regardless of how they conducted their current experiments, there always seemed to be something missing, and they had also suspected whether they were pursuing the wrong path, but the most important quality for a scientist was conviction and belief.

They had to firmly believe that their path was correct.

If Qin Ye were a scientist himself, then perhaps they would be willing to listen to his ideas, but he didn't know a thing about science, what right did he have to claim that the path being pursued was wrong?

Most successful scientists were as stubborn as mules, and they certainly weren't going to back down just because Qin Ye was the ruler of the nation!

"I'm not certain," Qin Ye said in an earnest manner. "But please listen to what I have to say, and after that, I'll conduct an experiment right here in front of all of you. What I discovered was that there may be a third type of energy hidden within this energy resource!"

"That's impossible!" Zu Chongzhi immediately countered in a serious voice. "All of us can practically recite Xu Fu's notes back to front, and no third type of energy was every mentioned! Every single step and all of the tools used in the process of developing the new energy resource were either from the mortal realm or the underworld, there's no way there can be anything that goes beyond the scope of those two realms!"

A smile appeared on Qin Ye's face as he turned to the underworld emissary beside him. "Bring me an energy resource unit that can still be used."

"Your Excellency!" Lu Ban stood up with an urgent expression. "Please be careful! Following Gui Xu's explosion, we were only able to salvage five usable units, and during the past eight months of experimentation, we've already used up three of them! The remaining two units can provide us with samples of the new energy resource, and we must cherish them! We have to develop the new energy resource before we use up the energy in those two units!"

Qin Ye shook his head in a reassuring yet firm gesture.

Scientists undoubtedly excelled in scientific research, but their understanding of the three realms was far lacking compared with Qin Ye's, so there wasn't even any point explaining the situation to them.

Thus, he was going to use irrefutable, scientific proof to tell them that there was very likely a third type of energy hidden within this new energy resource, one that was from Heaven!