Equipment Upgrade

After finishing his shopping and returning to his dormitory, Yang Ning made a list of tasks, categorizing them by priority.

Regular Tasks:

1. Cultivation 2. Gathering information on cultivation technique translation and commencing the deciphering work of the Great Dragon Physiognomy. 3. Cataloging books in the library. 4. Artifact Forging.

New Tasks:

1. Testing the limits of the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix to see who can detect this technique. 2. Compiling and organizing various information about Seacloud City. 3. Learning about the courses for other grades, as well as formal disciples, maids, and servants, to know yourself and your enemy for a hundred battles. 4. Finding a way to secretly develop his own influence.

The first thing to do was to test the limits of the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix and see who could detect this technique.

Yang Ning started with the school's teaching buildings. The teachers at Ascension Academy were mostly at the seventh or eighth level of Body Refining, but among the senior teachers, Qi Refining cultivators began to appear. Deans like Fang Zhuo and elders like Wei Daocheng were even at the Qi Refining Fourth Level.

After Yang Ning scattered Cloud-Mist water droplets into their courtyards, he was still not satisfied. He directly flew into their bedrooms and cultivation chambers, then openly scanned the Qi Refining Fourth Level cultivators practicing.

But they were completely unaware!

"As I suspected!" Cultivators could naturally sense others' mental scans, but Yang Ning wasn't scanning. He was collecting information using natural light. Who would be wary of natural light!

As for the Cloud-Mist water droplets used for information collection, they were only 3 micrometers in diameter. There were plenty of water droplets that size in the air. Who would pay special attention to just one of them?

Furthermore, his mental power, modified by Nightmare Energy, was not only extremely minuscule in quantity, but it also didn't follow the same path as orthodox cultivators. Since the systems were different, even if Divine Sense detected it, it would be dismissed as a naturally occurring anomaly.

After all, even for Qi Refining cultivators, while their mental power greatly increased, their brain's computing power couldn't compare to a supercomputer. Divine Sense wasn't meant for focusing on such trivial matters.

"He's the highest-ranked person in Ascension Academy!" Yang Ning searched around and confirmed that there were no Supreme Elders or hidden powerful figures in Ascension Academy. Even the five librarians were only at the Qi Refining Third Level.

"Then let's check out the Haiyun Army!" Yang Ning then turned his attention to the Haiyun Army stationed at the Seacloud Great Dam.

The Haiyun Army was established to resist the Demon Beasts from the sea. This army was even older than Ascension Academy. However, in the past, they only captured convicts. It wasn't until Ascension Academy moved here that the Haiyun Army took on the responsibility of protecting the students, and thus gained some importance.

But not much importance. They merely upgraded the Commander from Qi Refining First Level to Qi Refining Fifth Level.

The current commander of the Haiyun Army, Lin Fangyue, was burly with a large head and big ears. At first glance, he looked like Dong Zhuo.

Yang Ning observed him for three days. He was either with women or with women. Let alone cultivating, he didn't even move to practice martial arts.

Moreover, this wasn't even a way to deceive others; he was genuinely slacking off!

Oh, no, should it be called enjoying life?

As for the affairs of the Haiyun Army, he had handed them all over to his four subordinate commanders: Lin Zhice, Wang Xiao, Bo Yunlai, and Zhao Jiyun.

Among them, the latter three were at Qi Refining Third Level, while Lin Zhice was at Qi Refining Second Level, clearly a beneficiary of favoritism.

"Looking at it this way, Seacloud City doesn't seem as terrifying as I imagined!" Fear often stems from the unknown. The Cloud-Mist Information Matrix had directly captured all the secrets of Seacloud City. The unfamiliarity in Yang Ning's heart instantly vanished. Now, it was like exploring a map in a game. He still needed to be cautious, but his strategy could be slightly bolder.

"As expected, this is how such things should be used!" Yang Ning had read The Three-Body Problem and even learned from the failures of the Trisolarans. That is, only steal information, never expose yourself.

If you only sent a Sophon to cause trouble, but absolutely did not reveal it to humanity, where would Zhang Beihai have any role?

However, the Trisolarans were too naive. After being tricked once, they quickly changed and even told a lie to humanity that they never woke up from until their death.

Trisolarans cannot lie.

The experience of the victors should be learned from, and the experience of the failures should also be learned from.

After some probing, he found that Seacloud City couldn't test the limits of the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix. However, since there were no higher-level cultivators in Seacloud City, he temporarily stopped and then had Deep Blue work in other directions.

First, understand the class schedules and course content for all grades and all students at Ascension Academy.

Second, understand the business operations, development status, laws, regulations, and commercial warfare tactics of various industries in Seacloud City.

Third, go to various cultivation technique translation guilds and studios to study and learn the tricks and secrets of translating cultivation techniques.

Fourth, devise a method to strengthen his own power and influence.

With the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix, he already understood the principle behind the Ma Brothers' dormitory surveillance. They used a crystal ball inscribed with the runes of the Heavenly Eye of Insight.

This Heavenly Eye of Insight increased the observation distance but reduced the observation accuracy. It could not observe souls and could not control the angle because it required runes placed on the ceiling to cooperate.

In simple terms, this thing only had a top-down perspective, and it was fixed, even dumber than modern cameras. Yang Ning could create a water curtain and simulate the image to fool this surveillance.

While fooling the surveillance and counter-monitoring the Ma Brothers, by identifying the gaps between their surveillance, he could do his own things during the surveillance vacuum.

For example, manufacturing some modern production equipment.

Iron smelting furnaces, lathes, milling machines, hydraulic presses, angle grinders, and various machining tools.

During this process, the superpowers brought by the Dragon Pearl provided great assistance.

Electric current could be used to provide energy and for electrothermal metallurgy.

Water could be turned into water jets for cutting.

The ability to control wind was essentially creating temperature differences and manipulating air molecules. The former could be used to generate electricity for his own use, and the latter could provide oxygen to the furnace, increasing the flame temperature.

Of course, limited by the conditions, the processing precision of the equipment he created was severely insufficient.

But what technology couldn't compensate for, metaphysics could.

Just as a tank with foot pedals could run at supersonic speeds under Nightmare Energy erosion, and a sniper rifle could have infinite bullets, when Nightmare Energy was injected into these processing equipment, Yang Ning greatly improved their processing precision.

Even more, as long as Yang Ning successfully activated these devices once, they wouldn't need raw materials anymore; they could create parts out of thin air!

Yang Ning also tried to understand the principle behind it, but Nightmare Energy was simply unreasonable. After studying it for a long time, he couldn't figure anything out.

Considering that even the Ancestor Dragon, capable of creating the universe, was forced to move by Nightmare Energy, what was the big deal about creating an object from nothingness?

The only limitation was Yang Ning's own mental energy output.

He could produce 8 points of mental energy daily. If he didn't cultivate the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique to condense his spirit, he could produce 15 points, but cultivation was fundamental, so 8 points of mental energy was his current limit.

A bullet weighed 40g. 1408 bullets weighed 56kg. 8 points of mental energy could create 448kg of items from nothingness.

A fifth-generation fighter jet weighed 20 tons. It would take a month and a half to produce one.

Of course, even if Yang Ning had the technology now, he lacked the processing conditions and environment.

In fact, his room was almost full.

Five hundred square meters would be called a luxurious spacious apartment, or even a villa, if it were for living.

But five hundred square meters, used as a factory for processing and producing items, could only be called a small family workshop!

Therefore, when Yang Ning saw a piece of news, he was utterly furious!