PCJ – Chapter 745 Finding the Meteorite

Since the Celestial Sword spacecraft had no need to worry about fuel shortage, it continued accelerating nonstop. Many times, it simply broke away from orbit, taking the fastest and shortest path straight toward the moon. The Celestial Sword was already much faster than ordinary spacecraft, so its travel time to the moon was cut dramatically.

In less than a day, the Celestial Sword had already reached lunar orbit. With a direct descent, they could land on the moon.

Everyone in the Meishan Group grew excited. Even though they were cultivators, at this moment, their emotions were overwhelming.

“We’re about to land on the moon!” Zhang Yuanbao shouted excitedly.

“Yuanbao, you’ve said that at least five times already. Can’t you be a little more ambitious? This is only the moon. In the future, Meishan Group will venture into interstellar tourism. If landing on the moon makes you so smug, how will you handle going further out into the cosmos?” Dumbie joked.

“If you kept your mouth shut, nobody would know you’re a mute,” Zhang Yuanbao snapped back.

The landing process was simple, though Kong Fangzhou carefully chose the landing site. It was by no means random.

The purpose of this trip wasn’t scientific research but resource extraction.

With the guidance of detectors, the ship was led directly to the target. The Celestial Sword touched down on the surface, its hatch opened, and Kong Fangzhou led a dozen cultivators in controlling their robots out of the craft. Excavation equipment automatically rolled out from the mechanical bay as well. Each machine was equivalent to a smart robot, capable of operating without direct control.

Inside the simulation interface, Zhang Jiaohua and the others saw exactly what the robots saw. At this point, the robots were like extensions of their own bodies. These dozen units represented the pinnacle of robotic technology.

Holding a detector, Kong Fangzhou waved: “Everyone, this way.”

The light, buoyant sensation of walking on the moon was something they could all truly feel. A light hop could reach the height of a world champion’s jump. Zhang Yuanbao had his robot perform a graceful backflip.

“Haha, I’m way too handsome!” he laughed.

Of course, any of them could easily perform such stunts back on Earth. But controlling a robot to do it on the moon was particularly thrilling.

Like children, everyone rushed to show off different moves. This lunar landing wasn’t treated as some sacred scientific mission at all, but as a joyful trip.

After playing for a while, Kong Fangzhou urged: “That’s enough. We only get to come to the moon once in a while. Let’s finish our work first. You can keep playing later.”

Zhang Yuanbao suddenly thought of something. “Old Kong, after mining, will these robots return to Earth?”

“Of course. What would they be doing left here otherwise?” Kong Fangzhou asked.

“Wouldn’t it be great to keep them here on the moon? They could keep mining. We could control them remotely whenever we have free time, and come here to play. Don’t you think that’d be fun?” Zhang Yuanbao said.

Kong Fangzhou admitted the idea wasn’t unreasonable. Besides those mysterious elements, the moon held plenty of rare mineral deposits. For the Meishan Group, these robots weren’t particularly expensive. Leaving them on the moon wouldn’t matter—no one else could get them. And if someone really did try to make trouble on the moon, the outcome of who played who was far from certain.

“That’s not my decision. You’ll have to ask the Sect Master,” Kong Fangzhou replied.

Zhang Jiaohua smiled: “Leaving them on the moon isn’t bad. Why don’t we establish a base here? Things inconvenient to do on Earth could be handled here instead, without so many constraints.”

“Sect Master, if you agree, then I’ll establish a branch of the Refining Hall right here on the moon,” Kong Fangzhou said.

“Decide for yourself. But for now, don’t expose anything here. We don’t need unnecessary trouble,” Zhang Jiaohua quickly reminded.

“Don’t worry. Even if ordinary people stared at the moon every day, they’d never see a trace of our activity,” Kong Fangzhou replied confidently.

He then led everyone to a depression. “This should be a crater formed by a meteorite impact. The radiation intensity of elements inside is the strongest here, which means our three mysterious elements must be present.”

“Everyone stand back! I’ll do it!” Zhang Yuanbao volunteered again. He leapt high, and in midair activated the robotic arms attached to his machine. They transformed into two rapidly spinning drills, which he drove straight into the ground with a rattling roar.

Pulling the drills out, he asked: “Old Kong, how deep?”

“More than a hundred meters. Don’t rush, dig slowly,” Kong Fangzhou chuckled.

Everyone laughed—using Zhang Yuanbao’s method, who knew how long it would take to dig that deep.

Zhang Yuanbao scratched his head awkwardly. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“You never let me speak!” Kong Fangzhou said, exasperated.

At such depth, of course they couldn’t rely on that method. Everyone stepped aside as the massive mining machines rolled forward. At Kong Fangzhou’s command, they began digging.

The seemingly hard rock layer was like tofu in the machines’ grasp, carved into large square blocks and carried away piece by piece. Kong Fangzhou planned to use these blocks directly to build the lunar branch.

Since the depth was over a hundred meters, the mining machines cut the shaft into a spiral descent. With no energy limitations and little resistance from the lunar surface, the work progressed quickly.

In just a few days, the machines reached the meteorite of mysterious elements. This was what Kong Fangzhou prized most—it weighed dozens of tons, enough to make him ecstatic.

“Perfect! With this ore, refining out the three mysterious elements will give us enough to build a whole spacecraft’s worth of metal,” Kong Fangzhou said excitedly.

“Old Kong, once you finish building the ship, can we go to Mars?” Dumbie asked.

“You could go to the sun if you wanted,” Kong Fangzhou joked.

Of course, the sun was impossible. Even a refined Celestial Sword would melt there. But higher speed was indeed possible. For instance, during this lunar trip, the Celestial Sword’s speed tolerance had already reached its limit. To go farther into deep space, an even faster vessel would be required—something the current Celestial Sword could not endure.