Chapter 311: Chapter 197: Discovery of the Spirit Stone Mine?! Where’s the Second Battalion Commander—Bring Out the Italian Cannon! (Part 2)

It’s almost laughable. Since Madam Curie discovered radium, the wheels of science have kept rolling forward, even producing particle colliders. And yet, we still can’t grasp the surface of spiritual qi.

If direct perception doesn’t work, then we must adopt a strategic approach, conducting experiments on these items containing spiritual qi and extract as much value from them as possible.

Ning An did his best to articulate his feelings, while the researchers struggled to translate his babble into scientific language for easier understanding by others.

About a dozen items were sensed by Ning An, and the last one was handed over to him.

It was a Solvent Pillar cut out from the cave by the researchers!

Just ten meters underground, a cave appeared out of nowhere—it’s simply incredible.

To know that the shallowest cave to date holds a world record of fifty meters deep!

"The basic structure of this Solvent Pillar hasn’t changed."

The young man who once laughed wildly holding a saw, now looked somewhat melancholic: "We thought this was something valuable, but after bringing it back for spectroscopic testing and structural analysis, we found it seemingly unchanged."

As if afraid Ning An would not understand, the young man thoughtfully explained: "In a limestone region, due to long-term water erosion, the insoluble calcium carbonate in limestone can be converted into soluble calcium bicarbonate under the action of water and carbon dioxide."

"The Solvent Pillar forms due to varying limestone content in different parts of the limestone layer, resulting in differing erosion levels. It itself is part of the limestone."

The young man looked at the Solvent Pillar like it was a mere worthless stone, somewhat regretful: "We thought that a place fiercely guarded by mutated cobras would surely undergo changes, but unfortunately, our scientific techniques revealed nothing unusual."

Upon hearing this, the researchers showed no change in expression—they had already concluded this after their experiments in the afternoon.

On the contrary, the military officers beside them exchanged bewildered glances.

After all, this sounded like a tale straight out of fantasy.

A group of mutant snakes, fiercely guarding this spot, suppressing their violent nature, not even caring whether food was abundant nearby, and never moving an inch.

Unless there’s something here that completely overrides their other instincts, rendering it incomprehensible by conventional reasoning!

Elder Shi did not offer an explanation, simply looking at Ning An.

Ning An’s face lost its usual playful demeanor as he stared gravely at the Solvent Pillar before him.

Yesterday, upon his arrival at the base, the Dragon-Seeking Ruler began spinning wildly in the direction of the cave, but he thought nothing of it, assuming it to be an ordinary Grotto Heaven Blessed Land.

Only today, upon stepping into the cave, did Ning An immediately sense something amiss.

He couldn’t sense even a hint of spiritual qi!

With the world revived, he thought, even crowded cities should have traces of spiritual qi, albeit too faint to use.

Yet, in this evidently more unusual cave, there wasn’t the slightest fluctuation of spiritual qi. It was as if these mutant snakes had appeared out of thin air.

At the time, with a tight schedule and a heavy task, the primary mission was to bring samples back to the base.

Thus, Ning An didn’t carefully sense anything, not even stepping into the clear spring, as he both held off the mutant snakes and covered the group’s retreat.

But now, without using his cultivation technique, he could feel spiritual qi spilling out from the broken end of the Solvent Pillar.

"Could it be..."

Ning An took a deep breath, doubt lingering, as he placed his hand on the Solvent Pillar, using his cultivation technique to probe its interior.

In an instant, Ning An’s expression changed dramatically, and he stood up abruptly: "Elder Shi, seal off the base immediately, no information must leak out!"

...

The meeting was quickly halted, the base immediately went into lockdown, alarms blared, and all the soldiers were awakened. In just a few minutes, everyone was in position, ready and waiting!

"Hurry up, don’t dawdle, level one alert, move fast!"

"Put all your energy into this, keep your eyes wide, radar can detect what you see, but even the undetectable must be seen by you!"

"Where’s the second battalion commander? How come you’re empty-handed! Go back and bring your prized Italian cannon!"

"Huh? But I..."

"Get moving! Now’s not the time to be stingy. If it breaks, I’ll get you a new one!"

"..."

The atmosphere outside the base was chilling, while those in the meeting room sat upright but somewhat puzzled, simply following orders, waiting in place.

Ning An took Elder Shi with him, remaining silent until they reached Elder Shi’s quarters.

Elder Shi, confused, asked: "Xiaoning, what is this all about?"

Ning An didn’t answer directly, instead questioning: "Elder Shi, how did you determine this location?"

Elder Shi pointed to the sky, smiling: "It’s simple enough. Though we can’t detect changes brought by spiritual qi, the sky has eyes watching. By observing and comparing changes in terrains and famous mountains, we might not directly find spiritual lands but can approximate their locations."

Clever!

Ning An marveled internally. Modern science may not directly observe spiritual qi, but shines in other areas.

Ning An continued to ask: "How do you plan to develop this area?"

"No real plan—just make good use of resources."

"Now isn’t the time for empty talk. Be specific, like with those earlier data."