Yama Rising

Qin Ye raised a hand, and the entire room began to fall into darkness. Within the darkness, a burst of golden light began to slowly emerge.

Aside from Xu Chengyang's trio, other scholars, the minister of energy, and Gu Qing were the only other people present. Xu Chengyang's trio didn't make much of this, but Gu Qing and the minister of energy could extrapolate just how important a meeting this was from this lineup alone.

No servants had been allowed to be present in the meeting. The two of them exchanged a glance and gave each other a slight nod. Didn't this entail that no one else aside from them had permission to know about the content being discussed? Was it something strictly confidential?

Before they could ponder this any further, the golden light became clearer and clearer, and the first thing to appear was a line of text that read "discussion for the scope and widespread usage of energy resources".

Sure enough, this really was a meeting regarding the new energy resource!

All of the scholars present felt their hearts skip a beat at the sight of this line of text.

Throughout the course of history, each time a new energy resource had emerged, the arrival of a brand new era had followed. As such, it was an incredible honor to be able to participate in the research and development of a new energy resource.

As renowned professors of the mortal realm, Xu Chengyang's trio were thinking even deeper than that.

The term "widespread usage" was essentially the same as "civilian usage".

Only energy resources fit for civilian usage could be used on a widespread basis and act as a foundation for nuclear energy, the form of energy that they were most familiar with.

There was virtually not a single nuclear energy apparatus that didn't require electricity to function.

Level sensors, level gauges, nucleon scales, nuclear reactor cores, nuclear reactor pressure vessels, nuclear reactor internal parts, control rod drive mechanisms… All of these things required energy to function!

If nuclear energy were the tip of the pyramid, then all of the building blocks beneath it would be other energy resources.

No one wanted to disrupt this historic moment, and as the golden text slowly appeared, a male voice also rang out. "I've always wondered why there is no energy resource in the underworld."

The voice belonged to Xu Fu.

"It was just a question that I had in my mind, but I wasn't too interested in knowing the answer. Having lived for so long, very few things interest me. However, my interest was sparked when I stumbled upon Gui Xu's body."

The Harken explained, "Gui Xu is one of the four divine turtles that reside offshore. It's around 187 square kilometers in size, making it far larger than the average small island, and it belonged to Hell."

All of the underworld emissaries present nodded before continuing to listen.

"I suddenly developed an idea: why don't I transform Gui Xu into a floating fortress on the sea? This world is not safe for me. There are powerful beings in all three realms, and even though I'm already standing at the pinnacle, I am but one lone man. In the face of Heaven and Hell, I would be no match if they decided to target me. Hence, I need a secure fortress. Thus, I began to contemplate how to transform Gui Xu into a floating fortress. First, I would need an enormous source of kinetic energy. Only the most explosive of energy resources can move such a massive body at a satisfactory speed. If I could invent a super energy resource, a reactor as large as a room would be enough to drive Gui Xu's body, and it would rule over the sea! All of this can only be fulfilled on the basis of a suitable energy resource and I have limitless time to complete this project."

Boom!

As soon as the voice trailed off, the netherfire in the eyes of all of the scholars present immediately sprang up to two meters in height.

Zu Chongzhi and the others were rather desensitized, but Pang Hai, Xu Chengyang, and Deng Ruifeng were astonished beyond belief!

"Isn't this bioengineering?!" Xu Chengyang couldn't help but exclaim. His voice was quite loud and was trembling from excitement. "Is it possible to power a giant living being using this new energy resource?! This is something that can only be seen in science-fiction movies in the mortal realm!"

"No, this is a living being powered by nuclear energy!" Never did Pang Hai think that he would be struck by such a massive bombshell from the get-go.

At the same time, he was overcome by a sense of joy, the joy of seeing another academic peak to be conquered in the distance.

"If such a massive Yin beast could be powered using nuclear energy, its destructive power would be unmatched in the sea!"

In this instant, all three of them became completely enraptured by this project.

It was a whole new peak to conquer, another opportunity to have their names go down in history!

The ambition of their youth was being reunited in their hearts, and even though they had only heard a brief introduction, they could already predict just how monumental this project was going to be.

Qin Ye was very pleased to see the trio's reactions, and he smiled as he said, "It's too early to be discussing this matter now, so please keep watching. However, let me make this clear: what you're seeing here is only just barely scratching the surface."

Xu Fu's voice continued, "Over several centuries of research, I finally discovered that this was feasible! However, it's extremely difficult. I've tried everything that I could get my hands on from both the mortal realm and the underworld, and finally, I was able to decide on my first subject: voidsilver. Voidsilver is a metal produced only in the underworld. It's produced at very high quantities, but it's not very useful, and most of it is used to craft jewelry and ornaments. However, when voidsilver accessories are moved quickly, such as being pulled quickly down one's arm, one would be struck with a sense of numbness and sharp pain. Obviously, the most prevalent energy resource in the mortal realm is electricity. It is the pillar that is supporting modern society, and it's produced by the forces of attraction and repulsion between the subatomic particles of electrons and protons. These two types of subatomic particles are constantly clashing to produce electricity, and going off this principle, I suddenly realized that I had been too intent on testing out precious ore and metals, neglecting the more common things around me in the process. For example, is the phenomenon produced by voidsilver accessories a case of static electricity in souls?"

No one said anything.

In the face of such an enthralling monolog, everyone chose to maintain a respectful silence, irrespective of the identity of the heinous individual who had made these discoveries.

Xu Fu's voice continued, "With voidsilver as my primary test subject, I began to conduct experiments by creating physical friction between voidsilver and other objects to see whether anything else will trigger a similar reaction to the one seen between voidsilver and spirits. I was disappointed to find that most of the things I tested yielded no reaction or minimal reactions, until I tested graphite. Graphite of the mortal realm yields an extremely strong chemical reaction with voidsilver of the underworld! When I create friction between the two and observe their atomic makeup in a laboratory, I find that these two things are somehow able to fuse as one to form a type of macroparticle that can reach as large as one micrometer! I could sense that success was on the horizon, and after more and more refinement and experimentation, I finally succeeded! I named this brand new substance wishpower as it arose from my wishes and it transcends beyond the borders of the underworld and the mortal realm!"

The voice abruptly cut off here, and the image also fell still. One Yin jade lantern was lit up after another in the hall, but everyone still remained deathly silent.

Everyone had already guessed that this would be the reason they had been summoned here, but actually witnessing this was something different altogether.

It was only a short presentation, yet it had completely tipped their worldview on its head and left them scrambling to recover the function of their brains!

After several thousand years of darkness in the underworld, someone had finally stepped forward with a proposal of light!

A lantern had been lit up within the darkness, and even though it was still extremely dim, its faint radiance represented hope and countless possibilities.

This was a meeting that deserved to go down in Hell's history books, even though it wasn't a grand occasion and only had about 10 witnesses!

On either side of the hall, five secretaries were frantically recording everything that had been said. They weren't idiots, and they also knew what this entailed. There was a very good chance that their notes would become teaching material for Hell in the next decade!

Qin Ye finally broke the silence as he said, "Everyone, a new energy resource has already appeared, but this is not the end of our work."

He stood up with his hands pressed against the table, looking around at everyone with an authoritative expression like a ruler inspecting his own territory as he continued in a rousing voice, "Our journey has only just begun! Wishpower is the name given to this new energy resource by someone else, but this energy resource can be used across both the mortal realm and the underworld. What we have to do is remove its dependence on mortal realm resources, creating an energy resource that is self-sufficient in the underworld and can be used by all underworlds! This new energy resource will stem from wishpower, but will transcend beyond wishpoewr! That is our ultimate objective!"

Zhao Yun took a deep breath. A new era was coming, but at the same time, there wasn't much time left for them.

He cleared his throat as he interjected, "Xu Fu has a limited understanding of the underworld, so he's made a mistake."

He also stood up and looked around at everyone as he said, "This isn't a macroparticle formed by friction between subatomic particles. Instead, it's the attraction and repulsion between Yin runes!"

Everything in the underworld came from Yin runes.

"In other words, it contains a type of Yin rune similar to electrons and protons!"

Qin Ye continued where he left off. "The foundation of electricity are electrons and protons. We've already found one half of the combination, all we need to do is to find the other half, a Yin rune that can create a violent reaction with this one. Once we do that, we'll have the foundation of the new energy resource!"

The Harken didn't say anything.

It knew that this meeting was more of a motivational meeting rather than a discussion meeting.

It was designed to captivate and excite everyone. All of the Yin spirits present had to participate in the research of the new energy resource, but the Harken knew just how difficult this was going to be.

There were countless types of objects in the underworld, and finding one that contained the precise Yin rune to react with the Yin rune harbored by voidsilver would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

The corresponding Yin rune could be hiding in any one of the levels of Archimedes's Yin Rune Wheel, which meant that there were over a billion candidate Yin runes that they had to sift through to find the right one!

Qin Ye turned to everyone with an implacable gaze as he said in an authoritative voice, "We must find this Yin rune within five years! It is the key to the new energy resource and will allow us to take that all-important first step."

Developing a new energy resource was far from a simple task.

If it was only a matter of finding two specific Yin runes, the combination would've been discovered long ago throughout the course of the underworld's lengthy history. Given the vast population of Yin spirits in the underworld, there would've definitely been some coincidence that had led to such a discovery.

The truly difficult part was whether they would be able to find a Yin rune with sufficient repulsive and attractive properties with the one found in voidsilver. Would the reaction be strong enough to produce electricity? What was this other half? Was it suitable for civilian usage? What was going to be the cost price for producing this new energy resource? How violent was the reaction between the two types of Yin runes going to be? Could the reaction be harnessed, and if so, how cold it be harnessed?

These were the key problems that had to be answered.

"We plan to complete this first step within the next three years," Qin Ye said with an intense look in his eyes. "Who wishes to volunteer for this task?"