Chapter 289

Natural Empire, northern coast of Kao.

In the southern part of the newly divided Longming Province, deep in the Misty Hills, lies a hidden circular valley.

Because of its special terrain, it earned the nickname "Eye of the Earth".

At this time, the originally uneven valley was leveled into a nearly absolutely flat open space, and paved with a layer of special dull-law black cement.

Then, on this flattened ground with a diameter exceeding 5 kilometers, stands a power law ring directly exceeding 2 kilometers! 'Whoosh~'

Amid the roar of the airflow, a medium-sized transport plane landed smoothly on the runway outside the valley.

After the plane came to a stop, a lightning vehicle convoy was already waiting at the side.

Then, Emperor Luosen, assistant Alice, Minister of Arcane Industry Anna, plus some assistant mages walked out of the cabin in turn.

After entering the spacious lightning vehicle, the three turned their heads to look at the enormous power law ring in the valley.

The main ring is a perfect circle, directly 2 kilometers in diameter, height reaching 25 meters, its main body made of arcane-property extremely stable black cement, then combined with various precious metals and special materials.

Besides the main ring, numerous auxiliary facilities have been built around it.

Some are responsible for data detection, some for concealing power fluctuations, some for producing soul mist, and there is even a large Black Stone power plant dedicated to providing activation power for the ring.

In addition, there are many redundancies for safety assurance.

Actually, according to theoretical calculation, a 300-meter power law ring would already meet the requirements for controlled fusion.

The reason it was built so large is to better study high-energy arcane properties.

Thus, it is both an artificial sun verification ring and, in the future, the Empire's high-energy laboratory.

Anna was seeing the power law ring for the first time, her face full of shock.

"I wondered why it consumes so much; turns out it's such a magnificent colossus."

As the Empire's Minister of Industry, she of course knew of the existence of the power law ring.

It's hard not to know, because over the past year, a quarter of the Empire's industrial output has been monopolized by this thing.

Her feeling is that the Misty Hills seem to hide a gluttonous demon that devours everything, no matter how much you feed it, it's never full.

Now, seeing this scene with her own eyes, she finally understood the reason.

Alice beside her said: "Auntie, building this thing cost a full 28 million Ogres."

The budget was 14 million, but during construction they found it insufficient and made two emergency additions.

What's more astonishing is that this money was spent within a year, accounting for one-tenth of the Empire's fiscal revenue that year.

Or put another way, of the money earned from the Radiant Empire, about half was poured into this thing.

The lightning vehicle convoy proceeded along the flat road outside the power law ring and soon arrived at its control center.

At the entrance of the control center, a large crowd of greeters had already gathered.

There were exactly 538 of them, the core mages responsible for the various nodes and hubs of the Heart of the Ocean plan.

This group not only possesses the Empire's top intellect, their arcane cultivation is also top-notch, averaging the seventh ring, with 80 already being legendary mages.

They are also quite young, with an average age of only 28, in the prime of their passionate vigor.

But they are not all; besides them, at least another million people are contributing their strength to the Ocean project.

With this group dedicating their intellect and passion to exploring the world's mysteries, and receiving almost endless resource support, it's hard not to produce results!

Luosen stepped out of the vehicle, and the first to greet him was none other than the former Queen of Kao, Nana.

Under the influence of Luosen's announced imperial unification plan, the former kingdom's royalty and nobility gradually became marginalized.

They certainly didn't want to be marginalized, but they had no military authority, the state's resources were not under their control, and the citizens did not obey their commands.

After a while, they naturally fell into destitution.

In this context, Nana's arcane cultivation nevertheless rose steadily.

She is now a legendary mage, and moreover the strongest among the legendary mages present, with her soul strength reaching Legendary 6.

In the rise and fall, she completely broke free from the shackles of royal authority and returned to her original aspiration of pursuing arcane mysteries.

The reason the power law ring was built in Kao is first because Kao's geography is suitable, being the core of the Natural Empire, and second because Nana insisted on it.

The ring could be built so quickly and smoothly also owes much to her coordination as the former Queen of Kao.

Naturally, she became one of the three main leaders of the Heart of the Ocean plan.

Outside the control center, the two formally shook hands and performed an embrace salute.

To onlookers everything seemed normal, as if they were complete strangers, but in fact, last night they were still entwined in bed.

Then came the construction supervisor of the power law ring, Mage Cavendi.

Cavendi specializes in research, his arcane cultivation is somewhat lacking.

He is now a ninth-ring mage, but no one understands the power law ring better than he does.

At this moment, he struggled to suppress his excitement, trying to keep his handshake with Luosen as plain as possible, but in the end he couldn't help blurting out a sentence.

"Your Majesty, its performance will absolutely astonish you."

Luosen had already seen the ring's trial operation data, which was indeed astonishing, and he now felt some anticipation.

He smiled and said: "I await with bated breath."

Next, Luosen shook hands one by one with the heads of each division, then, under Nana's leadership, proceeded all the way to the control center.

The control center is about one kilometer from the power law ring, its main structure built deep underground and very sturdy.

It was constructed according to Luosen's request, following the requirements for defense against a 'Great Sun' explosion.

In fact, all the buildings in the valley adopt this model.

Because the power infused into the ring is truly enormous, even a tiny point of the artificial sun being lit will erupt with astonishing power.

If the experiment fails, the uncontrolled power will be tremendously astonishing, likely flattening the entire valley in an instant.

After everyone was seated, Cavendi began conducting the first full-power operation test of the Heart of the Ocean.

According to the plan, it will continue operating for more than ten minutes.

He was extremely familiar with the entire experiment, and at this moment he directed it in an orderly manner.

Begin preheating the magic ring.

Preheat the high-energy fusion element.

The ultra-high energy light array is ready.

The spacetime collapse formation is ready.

Following his command, a vast amount of power was poured into this super-large power magic ring, and gradually a shocking twisted light ball condensed at the center of the magic ring.

This is the power compression ball; according to the new worldview, it is also called the "spacetime collapse point."

The collapse strength is astonishingly strong, so that not only can it compress elements, but even light passing through it shows a clearly visible distortion.

In the control center, through the observation formation one can see that a semi-transparent, crystal‑condensed light flame has appeared at the center of the magic ring.

It is the deuterium gas that is being continuously compressed and heated.

As power is continuously injected, the compression strength keeps rising, and the pressure and temperature of the deuterium gas increase linearly, gradually reaching an astonishing level.

Then it broke through a certain critical point.

The crystal light flame suddenly jolted, its emission intensity surged, and it slightly pushed back the continually collapsing spacetime.

This impact caused little disturbance in the elemental domain, but it had a huge effect on the surrounding planar magic rings.

One can see that the needle of the magic ring gauge jerked violently, as if struck hard by a heavy hammer.

The tremor of the magic ring also made the souls of all the mages present quiver slightly.

Kawendi's face lit up with excitement as he immediately said, "The fusion reaction has appeared!"

It merely appeared, but the scale is tiny and hard to sustain.

Once external power supply stops, the fusion reaction will cease.

This is certainly not the purpose of the experiment.

Thus, the magic ring continued to compress, the laser kept heating, and the scale of the fusion element gradually increased.

The whole process was very slow; after a full five minutes, Kawendi suppressed his excitement and whispered, "We have reached the power balance point."

He took a deep breath and said to Luosen, "Your Majesty, so far everything has been fairly normal, but in a moment something astonishing will happen."

Luosen of course knew the content of that astonishing scene.

It is called the "magic ring superposition state." Meaning, when the power density exceeds a certain critical point, an independent magic ring is born and superimposes onto the planar magic ring, producing a strange magic ring superposition phenomenon.

After the magic ring superposition, many peculiar effects arise.

For example, power transfer occurs, greatly charging the planar magic ring and enhancing its strength.

Once the planar magic ring is sufficiently sturdy, many benefits follow.

For example, it can greatly increase the training efficiency of nearby mages.

Moreover, it can greatly increase the difficulty for void gods and demons to interfere with the magic ring.

Finally, there is also an astonishing theoretical prediction.

That is, if sufficient power is poured into the magic ring, even the structure of the planar magic ring can become more complex, giving rise to eleven‑ring, twelve‑ring, and even higher‑ring existences.

In short, it is very wonderful.

Luosen eagerly looked forward to seeing all this with his own eyes, and immediately said, "Continue increasing the power."

Kawendi immediately carried out the order.

"Continue injecting the fusion element."

"Activate the power self‑sustain cycle and increase the fusion effect strength."

At this point, relying on external power supply makes it already difficult to maintain the fusion strength.

Only by using the power generated by the fusion reaction itself can the fusion scale become stronger.

That is "fusion self‑sustain."

This step is extremely complex, requiring control of many quantities with great precision.

Otherwise, lightly the self‑sustain fails and the fusion stops; severely, power runs out of control, resulting in an explosion equivalent to about 500 tons of TNT.

To accomplish this step, the smartest group of people in the Natural Empire thought day and night, consuming at least ten million Ogres worth of experimental materials.

In short, relying on Luosen alone would absolutely not suffice; collective effort is essential.

One can see that as the fusion enters the self‑sustain state, the fusion scale grows ever larger, and the output power gradually reaches an astonishing level.

When the scale breaks through a critical point, the mages present clearly feel a soul‑trembling sensation.

This comes from the tremor of the magic ring, and the original vibration source is the current fusion element deuterium.

Kawendi whispered, "It has appeared, the macroscopic magic ring superposition state!"

"This tremor has the same vibration frequency as the solar might."

Under sunlight, a precise magic ring gauge can measure the same frequency of vibration, but because the Earth is truly far from the Sun, the amplitude is extremely small, and ordinary people hardly perceive it.

But at this moment they are very close to the "Sun," so they clearly feel the Sun's might.

Nana beside him softly said, "The magic ring superposition state has always existed, and it is also the reason the magic ring appears."

"The difference is that before, it was only a microscopic superposition, almost negligible."

"But now, the magic ring superposition phenomenon has become very obvious. In this state, the power of the solar core will largely escape into the magic ring."

"The escape probability can reach as high as 44%."

"Therefore, solely in terms of power‑generation efficiency, it becomes uneconomical."

Luosen immediately asked, "Exactly how large is the area affected by the superposition effect?"

"Currently it is a radius of ten kilometers; if the scale is increased to the maximum, it can reach a radius of twenty kilometers."

Kawendi also added from the side, "Now, the maximum output power of this solar core already equals the total of ten large Black Stone power plants, about eight percent of the empire's total power generation."

"But its fuel consumption is less than one‑ten‑thousandth of that of Black Stone."

If it could be built on a large scale, and keep it operating before the critical point of the Magic Ring superposition state, power generation could be reduced to one-thousandth of its current level.

This power generation efficiency is indeed astonishingly high.

"How long can this situation be maintained?"

"As things stand, as long as the Power Magic Ring responsible for restraint works fine and sufficient fusion elements are provided, the Solar Core can continue to operate self-sufficiently."

"Is it not necessary to shut down and inject fusion elements?"

"No, we have developed a dedicated phase infusion technique that can transfer fusion elements directly into the fusion pool via a specially designed phase transfer technique."

Luosen carefully sensed the operation of the entire Fusion Magic Ring; the operation was very stable, and the power output was also very steady.

That is to say, the experiment succeeded!

In this other world that possesses magic, the difficulty of lighting the sun is indeed much lower than on Earth.

Facing this group of precious mages before him, Luosen first gave them great praise and handed out a large batch of rewards.

Then he began to lay out the Empire's next-step plan.

"Since the experiment succeeded, let's move on to the second step."

"The second step consists of three plans."

"The first plan is called 'Mortal Sun'."

"Over the next ten years, the entire Empire will continuously invest, building at least 100 solar power plants to completely replace the current Black Stone power plants."

"Externally it is called the Heart of the Ocean, to confuse opponents; internally it is naturally just called the Sun."

"This step is not difficult; with the technology in hand, as long as we provide funds and manpower, we can build it."

"When this plan was announced, the mages all flushed with excitement, clenched their fists, ready to get to work."

"At their level, material rewards no longer mean much."

"They just want to do great things, using their intelligence to change the world! Luosen understood this perfectly and immediately announced the second plan."

"The second plan is called 'High Heaven Blazing Sun'."

He glanced over the mages present and said seriously: "The Empire has gathered the world's greatest wealth, and to protect it we must forge the strongest war weapon in the world!"

"Therefore, the Empire plans to build a sky warship powered by the Solar Core."

"What do you all think, how long until this warship can take to the skies?"

The mages in the control center looked at each other, then whispered a discussion.

"After about half an hour, Nana concluded: 'If the resource supply is problem-free, we believe that within ten years we can lift a sky warship of no less than 1,000,000 tons into High Heaven.'"

Luosen smiled: "1,000,000 tons—that weight is quite large; can it be done?"

1,000,000 tons equals the weight of ten giant aircraft carriers; lifting it into the air is no different from lifting a mountain.

This is a weight that Earth in a previous life dared not even imagine.

Nana said: "If Black Stone is used as the power source, it simply won't work; but using the Solar Core as the power source, with the Power Magic Ring providing power, it is entirely feasible."

She paused, then added: "In fact, the larger it is, the easier; the smaller, the harder."

"Because the power of the Solar Core is truly enormous, a large weight is needed to balance it."

Luosen understood: "Good, then let's do it."

Ten years is not short, but he has his own ways to delay De Rui Tan's steps.

He continued: "The third plan is called 'World Shield'."

"This is an ultra-long-term plan, and also an extension of the first-step plan."

Luosen's gaze swept over the mages again: "Our enemies are not only mortals, but also the gods and demons of Huan Wai Xu Kong."

"As we keep growing stronger, we will surely provoke even stronger gods and demons, and may even draw the Legend 19 world-destroyer Gaomile'er."

"Therefore, I demand that henceforth, every Solar Core built in the Empire must have design specifications far exceeding normal operating standards."

"Under normal circumstances, the Solar Core is mainly used for power generation."

"But when needed, the Solar Core must immediately enter the Magic Ring superposition state to supply power to the planar Magic Ring, thereby strengthening the Magic Ring."

"Let the Magic Ring become a solid shield defending the Empire, and indeed the entire mortal world."

"And let our Empire become the most radiant sun among all planes!"

These words carry a truly magnificent spirit, containing an air of supremacy that places the Empire above heaven and earth.

One could say it is arrogant, or even reckless, yet it truly stirs the heart.

Every mage present is also a bunch who only acknowledge the Creator, feeling no awe toward gods and demons.

They unhesitatingly chose to follow His Majesty the Emperor.

(End of Chapter)