Section 344: Blue Platinum
"I won't teach you," Ye Zhong refused without hesitation. Although this training method wasn't some exclusive secret, Ye Zhong still wouldn't casually teach others what Mu had taught him. Moreover, given the boy's current poor physical condition, it would take years of training to see any results in hand speed, which wouldn't help the present situation at all. Ye Zhong had no intention of doing something so pointless.
The boy couldn't help but pout, his face full of displeasure. "Stingy! Who cares anyway!"
Outside the ship, the nebula stretched boundlessly, enveloping the entire starship like a veil of light gauze. The light-blue nebula wasn't a monotonous single hue; within it were varying shades of intensity, with occasional clusters of nebulae of differing densities scattered throughout the pale blue, barely noticeable unless one looked carefully.
Suddenly, a blank zone dozens of kilometers wide appeared on the starship's holographic screen. This empty path stood out starkly within the nebula, making it impossible to ignore.
"Ah, that's it!" Old Man Poche sprang to his feet, pointing excitedly at the image on the holographic screen.
"What is this?" Ye Zhong carefully observed the empty path.
After a brief pause, Old Man Poche, having calmed down from his excitement, explained, "Thirty years ago, we followed a path just like this to reach that jump point."
Everyone's spirits lifted.
"However, I can't be sure this is the same path!" Hesitating slightly, Old Man Poche scrutinized the empty path on the holographic image as he spoke.
Although this wasn't the best possible outcome, it was still unequivocally good news for everyone. The boy's bodyguards were all invigorated. Having just experienced a major battle, they hadn't yet recovered, and fatigue was evident on every face. Only Scarface remained unchanged, his expression as wooden and unreadable as ever.
Feisi was alone in the bio-engineering lab. The recent solitary tide had destroyed many instruments in the laboratory, and she was arduously cleaning up the mess. All the work fell on her shoulders, with no one to assist her.
The starship slowly entered the empty path, but everyone was stumped about which direction to choose. For such decisions, Ye Zhong, the sole authority, always employed a random method.
Flying within the empty path felt no different from flying inside the nebula. Just as they had encountered no obstructions within the nebula, the empty path offered no greater smoothness than the nebula itself.
How was this empty path formed? What prevented the nebula from diffusing into this area? No one knew. The universe was filled with far too many phenomena beyond human explanation. Ye Zhong certainly wouldn't waste his time on such questions.
The starship flew at high speed along the empty path. Without knowing the coordinates, they couldn't perform a space jump and had to rely on conventional flight.
On the tenth day, the monotonous scenery outside the window finally changed.
The light-blue nebula had disappeared, replaced by a cyan-brown nebula. This cyan-brown nebula was much denser than the light-blue one, resembling cumulonimbus clouds and giving a cotton-like impression. What was most terrifying was its violently unstable nature.
Occasionally, trails of fire darted through the cyan-brown nebula like wandering snakes. The further they flew, the more pronounced this phenomenon became. Eventually, it wasn't just occasional trails of fire but a chaotic dance of golden serpents—countless golden sparks flickering and weaving within the cyan-brown nebula.
The suspicion that the cyan-brown nebula was dangerous was soon confirmed.
A rock the size of a small hill slowly drifted from the empty path into the cyan-brown nebula.
Suddenly, it was like throwing a match into boiling gasoline. The already volatile nebula underwent a drastic change.
Countless golden sparks, like sharks smelling blood, swarmed toward the rock, enveloping it completely in the blink of an eye. Soon, the entire rock was covered by countless flickering sparks, with only its general outline visible.
From a distance, the rock now resembled a fiercely blazing golden sphere. Within the dazzling golden radiance, tiny sparks could still be seen darting rapidly.
This sudden transformation left everyone stunned. None of them had ever witnessed such a spectacle. Even Old Man Poche and his group hadn't encountered this during their previous visit.
Before anyone could react, the brilliant golden sphere began to change. It rapidly shrank, contracting inward at an astonishing rate—almost decreasing in size every three seconds.
After five minutes, the originally hill-sized, dazzling golden sphere had shrunk to a radius of just one meter, taking on the form of a perfectly spherical golden orb.
The radiance of the spherical light began to fade gradually, and the true appearance of the rock finally revealed itself before everyone. A perfect sphere of dark red magma floated quietly within the bluish-brown nebula, with occasional sparks flickering around it.
Everyone’s expressions changed involuntarily.
In just five minutes, a rock as large as a small hill had been burned into a spherical mass of magma with a radius of only one meter. How astonishing this power was! The might of the universe, in a way no one could comprehend, was laid bare before everyone at this moment.
Ye Zhong felt a chill run down his spine. If the starship accidentally flew into the bluish-brown nebula, what kind of scene would unfold? The starship would likely be reduced to molten metal, and everything else, including them, would vanish into ashes in the blink of an eye.
The Rock starship cautiously navigated through the empty path, careful not to plunge into the bluish-brown nebula by accident.
Fortunately, the professionalism of the little boy’s bodyguards was still trustworthy. So far, the Rock starship had not made any mistakes.
After another ten days of flight, everyone spent their time in trepidation, except for Feisi. Unaware of the situation outside while busily organizing the cultivation room, Feisi remained unworried.
The bluish-brown nebula began to change. Originally resembling cumulonimbus clouds, it started to fade, its color shifting to blue. Most astonishingly, the nebula began to emit a faint, glowing light.
The once frequent, heart-stopping sparks were now rarely seen. The aqua-blue nebula radiated a blue fluorescence, making the place resemble a blue fairy-tale world.
Compared to the turbulent bluish-brown nebula earlier, this area was as serene as a refined lady—no sparks, no explosions, only the vast, glowing blue nebula.
Moreover, unlike the previous bluish-brown nebula, this one was filled with countless floating rocks of various colors, most of which Ye Zhong did not recognize.
These rocks varied in size and shape, but without exception, they floated quietly within the fluorescent blue nebula.
Ye Zhong stood before the holographic screen, his eyes fixed unblinkingly. Though his expression remained calm, he was deeply astonished inside. This place was like a natural mineral exhibition, with no shortage of rare ores.
As his gaze swept over the floating fragments, a glimmer suddenly flashed in Ye Zhong’s eyes, and he couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise, “Blue Platinum!” Ye Zhong was usually composed, and it was rare for anything to startle him so.
“Blue Platinum? Where? Where?” The little boy hurried over, his light blue eyes sparkling with curiosity. “There’s Blue Platinum here?” He strained to stand on his tiptoes, stretching his neck, but he was still too short and too far from the holographic screen. After thinking for a moment, he turned to one of the bodyguards, gestured with his hand, and said in a childish voice, “Lift me up.”
The bodyguard quickly came over, picked up the little boy, and placed him on his shoulders.
The little boy patted the bodyguard’s head and urged repeatedly, “Move forward… forward… good… stop!”
Tilting his head back, the little boy murmured, “It really is Blue Platinum.” He was completely absorbed in what he saw.
On the holographic screen, an irregular gray-blue ore was covered with countless fine snow-white cross patterns. Each of these cross patterns was exquisitely detailed and perfectly symmetrical. From a distance, Blue Platinum looked like an unremarkable gray-blue stone with many white spots.
Staring blankly at the Blue Platinum, Ye Zhong’s mind was in turmoil.
Blue Platinum was something Ye Zhong had been searching for all along. It was the most critical and essential material for repairing Mu Shang. Finding Blue Platinum meant that the possibility of restoring Mu Shang had greatly increased. Yet, before this, even Mu Shang had no idea where this mineral known as Blue Platinum originated.
To think it was here! Ye Zhong stared blankly at the holographic screen, murmuring to himself inwardly.
Suddenly, a question occurred to him. He turned to the little boy and asked, “You know about Blue Platinum?” Given how rare Blue Platinum was, very few people would know about it. Where had this little boy learned of it?
The little boy replied nonchalantly, “Of course I know. Blue Platinum is quite valuable, but it’s very rare. This is the first time I’ve seen it in person.” To him, Blue Platinum seemed to be nothing more than a somewhat unusual curiosity.
Ye Zhong turned to Old Man Poche and asked, “Professor, is this nebula dangerous?”
“It shouldn’t be,” Old Man Poche said. “That time, the Snow Clan’s starship fired at us from inside here.”
“The Snow Clan?” Ye Zhong raised an eyebrow, lost in thought.
But at that moment, the little boy’s face lit up with excitement and enthusiasm. “Wow! Yellow hao stone, rose rock, sky star protrusion board…”
After a long pause, Ye Zhong raised his head and said, “Enter this nebula.”
The little boy looked at Ye Zhong strangely. “You want blue platinum? But what do you need it for? Its melting point is extremely high, and refining it is very difficult!”
Ye Zhong ignored him and instead turned to look at the bodyguards piloting the starship.
After hesitating for a moment, the bodyguards quickly changed course and flew into the nebula.
The entry of the starship immediately threw the area into chaos. Countless fragments of rock had been floating quietly here, densely packed together. The arrival of the Rock ship quickly set off a chain reaction. Rocks that were knocked aside collided with others, and some of the previously stationary rocks began to move.
This caused a lot of trouble for Ye Zhong and the others. In such a chaotic situation, finding their target was an extremely difficult task. The Rock ship had already slowed to its minimum speed, but the situation continued to spiral into greater disorder.
Ye Zhong stared intently at the piece of blue platinum, afraid that if he lost focus for even a moment, he would lose sight of it.
Fortunately, however, the blue platinum remained untouched by other ores, floating peacefully in place.
The Rock ship was equipped with numerous mechanical arms, making its collection capabilities exceptionally strong. Ye Zhong carefully operated one of the mechanical arms himself. When the arm successfully grasped the blue platinum, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
The blue platinum was larger than Ye Zhong had expected, weighing as much as three tons.
“Such a huge piece of blue platinum!” The little boy circled around the blue platinum, repeatedly walking around it and occasionally touching the naturally formed white crosses on its surface.
Ye Zhong was thrilled. With this piece of blue platinum, Mu Shang’s repair was now within reach. Mu Shang only needed a new arm and a small portion of the cockpit repaired. The amount of blue platinum here was more than enough for those repairs, and there might even be some left over.
Somewhat regretfully, Ye Zhong looked at the now highly chaotic scene. Debris was flying everywhere, making collection impossible. It was a pity to lose those rare minerals—he had already spotted several drifting farther and farther away.
With no other options, Ye Zhong ordered the Rock ship to exit the nebula.
The Rock ship returned to the Blank Path.
They continued flying along the Blank Path for another twenty days. Just as everyone, including the old man Po Che, began to suspect they had taken the wrong direction or that this wasn’t the right Blank Path at all, the space jump point that Po Che had been念叨ing about finally appeared before them.
The starship suddenly flew out of the Blank Path into a vast empty space.
Within a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers, there was no nebula. If the Blank Path had already astonished everyone, this enormous empty space within the nebula left them utterly bewildered.
Po Che suddenly stood up, exclaiming with joy, “Ah! It’s here, this is the place!” Everyone could hear the intense excitement in his voice.
The previously listless group immediately perked up, rising to their feet and clamoring, “Where? Where is it?”
“There!” Po Che pointed toward the center of the area.
At the very center of this empty space was a flat, colorful disk. The image of this colorful circle on the holographic screen was immediately magnified, allowing everyone to see clearly that its radius was only about one kilometer. It was composed of nebulae of various colors—aside from the light blue, bluish-brown, and fluorescent blue nebulae they had encountered before, there were also many vividly colored ones: deep red, bright yellow… It was as if an exhibition of colors was taking place. These multicolored nebulae were distributed chaotically within the disk. The most peculiar aspect was that this circle, made of countless colorful nebulae, was undulating extremely slowly.
Ripples spread outward from the center of the circle at a very gradual pace.
Although the center of the circle appeared empty, it pulsated like a beating heart, causing the nebula-formed circle to ripple continuously—an indescribably eerie sight.
“The jump coordinates are at the center of the circle!” Po Che’s voice seemed affected by the strange colorful circle, sounding ethereal to the entranced group.