Chapter 3615: True Person Takes Action

Wu Bolin, who had become the master of the Wu Han Palace, carried out a renovation and reorganization of the Wu Han Palace's interior.

First, he directly had people demolish a polar laboratory of nearly one hundred square meters, cleared out all the items inside the laboratory, and then used it as his own sleeping quarters.

Although called a sleeping quarters, it was actually a place for sitting meditation and cultivation, after all, for someone of his cultivation level, sleep had long ceased to be a necessity of life.

Secondly, he merged the dormitories of these Japanese scientific expedition members; previously some leaders and individuals could have single rooms, but now they were all converted into quadruple rooms, and the dormitories closest to his sleeping quarters had all been emptied, thus creating an additional layer of physical isolation between him and others.

However, Wu Bolin did not remain constantly immersed in this empty fame, nor in the illusion of being reverently worshipped by dozens of people.

After the simple internal renovation, he had Kikuchi Kohei find the largest and most detailed map of the Antarctic continent, and began planning future exploration directions on the map, searching for the legendary Ascension Gate.

He had Kikuchi Kohei, based on the situation of human activities in Antarctica, mark on the map with a compass the areas within a fifty-kilometer radius around all Antarctic research stations, and then also mark on the map with a compass the area within a one-hundred-kilometer radius around the Antarctic point.

Looking at the scattered circles on the map, Wu Bolin focused his gaze on those places farthest from the circles, or even areas where no circles appeared at all.

He felt that modern humans had already explored Antarctica for many years, these research stations and the surroundings of the Antarctic point had surely already been explored by them, and even if there truly were any traces of cultivators, they would have long been discovered, so he decided to directly ignore these places and instead pick those places rarely visited by humans, or even places where humans had almost no possibility of exploration.

Initially, he had considered going alone, after all, as long as he was stepping on land, this environment posed no trouble for him at all.

But soon he realized a most serious problem: he himself would have great difficulty discerning direction in the polar night of Antarctica.

Moreover, leaving so many free laborers from the East unused would be a waste.

Thus, he used a red marker to circle several areas on the large map, then pointed to the nearest one and asked Kikuchi Kohei: "If we drive to this place, how long would it take?"

Kikuchi Kohei took a ruler and measured on the map, then calculated on a calculator, saying: "Reporting to the True Person, going to this place is about three hundred kilometers, but we need to detour around some mountain ranges, so the total distance is roughly four hundred kilometers, and the snow vehicles would need two days to make the journey."

Wu Bolin said lightly: "Four hundred kilometers—why would it still take two days of walking? You go organize personnel, form a ten-person team, take three vehicles, we will depart in two hours, and must arrive within twenty-four hours."

Kikuchi Kohei had no hesitation, and immediately said respectfully: "Very well, True Person, I will go arrange this right away."

Two hours later, a ten-person team had already assembled in the courtyard of the Wu Han Palace.

They had prepared three tracked snow vehicles, each of which was very large and could hold ten people.

But Wu Bolin himself rode in one vehicle, with Kikuchi Kohei as the driver, while the remaining people were distributed and rode in the other two vehicles.

The three snow vehicles set out from the camp and proceeded toward the mountain ranges several hundred kilometers away.

The vehicle in which Wu Bolin rode was in the middle of the convoy; he did not rush to sit in meditation, but instead sat in the passenger seat, gazing at the vast icy continent surrounding them, and asked Kikuchi Kohei: "Kikuchi, how thick is the ice sheet of the Antarctic continent?"

"Ice sheet?" Kikuchi Kohei was stunned for a moment, then said: "True Person, do you mean the ice cap?"

Wu Bolin waved his hand: "Same thing—I just want to know how thick this ice sheet is from the true land beneath."

Kikuchi Kohei thought for a moment and said: "For the entire Antarctic continent, the vast majority of its flat areas are completely formed by frozen seawater into an ice cap, with an average ice cap thickness of over two thousand meters."

"Two thousand meters..." Wu Bolin was somewhat shocked.

The ancients said, "Ice three feet thick does not form in a single day's cold," and three feet converts to about one meter.

But here, the ice sheet averages over two thousand meters in thickness.

If the legendary Ascension Gate is not on the ice cap, but on the land beneath the ice cap, then wouldn't one need to drill down two thousand meters into the ice sheet to find it?

Thinking of this, Wu Bolin felt a sense of despair in his heart.

Having seen the Antarctic map, he already knew how vast the Antarctic continent truly was; he had originally thought he might be searching for clues on an ice sheet of several million square kilometers, but now it seemed he would have to search for clues within an icy expanse of several million square kilometers in surface area and two kilometers in depth. This difficulty could be considered hellish.

Yet, even if the difficulty were hellish, Wu Bolin still did not intend to give up.

He clearly understood in his heart that, under Wu Feiyan's command, he had no chance to free himself from her control, and if he could not find the path to longevity, he might not even outlive Wu Feiyan, so Antarctica might be his best opportunity.

Thus, he silently swore in his heart: if the legendary Ascension Gate truly exists, no matter where it is, he will find it!

After a full twenty-four hours of non-stop travel, the three snow vehicles finally arrived at the location designated by Wu Bolin.

This place was located at a north-facing mountain pass, with piercingly cold winds.

After Wu Bolin got out of the vehicle, he walked on the glacier, took a few steps, then stopped and pressed his palm against the ice surface, releasing spiritual energy to probe and sense the conditions and structure beneath the ice cap.

With Wu Bolin's strength, if his spiritual energy were to propagate in the air, any movement within a ten-kilometer radius would not escape his perception, but facing an ice cap over two thousand meters thick, this propagation ability was clearly much diminished.

Not to mention detecting conditions beneath a ten-kilometer-radius ice cap, even after his spiritual energy was released and penetrated the ice layer to reach the rocky ground, the dispersed range would be only about three or four li.

Seeing Wu Bolin stroking the ice surface with furrowed brows, his loyal Kikuchi Kohei could not help but ask with concern: "True Person, what are you doing?"

Wu Bolin said impatiently: "This is not something you need to worry about."

After saying this, he stood up and told Kikuchi Kohei: "Get in the vehicle, proceed south for two kilometers."

Kikuchi Kohei immediately nodded and said respectfully: "I obey your command!"

He then immediately called out to the others to prepare to board the vehicles.

Wu Bolin returned to the vehicle, continuously sighing and clicking his teeth, unable to help but lament: "Each probe covers only an area of about two kilometers in radius—how many years and months would it take to explore the entire Antarctic continent? Moreover, each time probing to a depth of over two thousand meters, the consumption of spiritual energy is not negligible; if this continues, spiritual energy will be exhausted, and at that point there will be no way to replenish it—wouldn't that just mean giving up?"

While driving, Kikuchi Kohei could not help but ask again: "True Person, do you have something on your mind? You might as well tell me; let me see if I can offer you some help within my ability."

Wu Bolin let out a cold laugh: "Just drive your vehicle properly—this is not something you can help with. If you keep talking nonsense, be careful I cut out your tongue!"

Seeing that Wu Bolin seemed somewhat angry, Kikuchi Kohei immediately dared not say another word.

Wu Bolin did not know that modern Antarctic research already had a device called ice radar, which can detect depths of two to five kilometers, can detect structures beneath the ice surface, and many subglacial basins, subglacial bedrock, subglacial lakes, and even ice layer fissures are detected by it; this radar comes in ground and airborne types, ground meaning operation on the ground, airborne meaning suspended in the air by aircraft or drones, and both types of equipment are available at the Japanese research station, that is, now within the Wu Han Palace.

However, due to the current winter season, aircraft cannot be used, but the use of ground ice radar faces no obstruction.

If Wu Bolin were to inform Kikuchi Kohei of his needs, Kikuchi Kohei would certainly recommend the ground ice radar to him immediately; one only needs to return and mount the radar on a vehicle, and then one could explore while traveling, with efficiency countless times greater than Wu Bolin's own method of probing bit by bit.

Unfortunately, having secluded himself for a hundred years, having read little, and having hardly delved into modern technology, Wu Bolin does not understand these things; he even harbors a sense of transcendent superiority, believing that apart from spiritual energy, no one could detect what lies beneath ice layers over two thousand meters thick.