Equipment Upgrade

After finishing his shopping and returning to the dormitory, Yang Ning made a categorized list of what he needed to do, arranged by priority.

Standing tasks:

1: Cultivation

2: Gather Cultivation Technique Translation information and begin deciphering the Great Dragon Physiognomy.

3: Archive the books in the library.

4: Artifact refinement.

New tasks:

1: Test the limits of the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix.

2: Categorize and organize all kinds of information about Seacloud City.

3: Learn about the courses taken by other grades, as well as formal disciples, maids, and servants. Know oneself and know the enemy, and one could fight a hundred battles without defeat.

4: Find a way to secretly develop a power that belonged to him.

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

Yang Ning began with the academy's teaching buildings. The teachers at Ascension Academy were mostly at the seventh or eighth level of body tempering, but Qi Refining cultivators had begun appearing among the teachers of the upper grades. Elders such as Dean Fang Zhuo and Wei Daocheng were even Qi Refining Fourth Level cultivators.

After scattering Cloud-Mist Water Droplets into their courtyards, Yang Ning was still unsatisfied. He sent them directly into their bedrooms and cultivation chambers, openly scanning Qi Refining Fourth Level cultivators as they cultivated.

Yet they were utterly unaware!

"Just as I guessed!" Cultivators could naturally sense another person's mental scan, but Yang Ning was not scanning them. He gathered information through natural light—who would be wary of natural light?

As for the Cloud-Mist Water Droplets that gathered information, they were only three micrometers in diameter. There were countless water droplets of that size in the air. Who would pay special attention to any particular one?

Moreover, the mental power that had been altered by Nightmare Energy was not only minuscule in quantity, but also followed an entirely different path from orthodox cultivators. The systems were different. Even if Divine Sense swept over it, it would be dismissed as a naturally occurring foreign object.

After all, even Qi Refining cultivators, despite their greatly enhanced mental power, could not compare their brainpower to a supercomputer. Divine Sense was not meant for paying attention to such trivial matters.

"He's the strongest person in Ascension Academy!" Yang Ning searched around and confirmed that Ascension Academy had no Supreme Elder or secluded great expert. Even the library's five administrators were only at Qi Refining Third Level.

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

The Haiyun Army had been established to resist the Demon Beasts of the sea. This army had an even longer history than Ascension Academy, though in the past it had mainly been staffed with convicts. Only after Ascension Academy moved here, and the Haiyun Army gained the additional duty of protecting students, did it begin receiving attention.

But it had not received much attention. They had merely raised the commander's cultivation from Qi Refining First Level to Qi Refining Fifth Level.

The current head of the Haiyun Army was named Lin Fangyue. He was broad and burly, with a fat head and huge ears. At first glance, he looked like Dong Zhuo.

Yang Ning observed him for three days. He was either sleeping with women or sleeping with women. Forget cultivating immortality—even martial training never saw him move a muscle.

And this was not some act meant to deceive others. He truly was lying flat and rotting!

Oh, no. It should be called enjoying life?

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

The latter three were all Qi Refining Third Level, while Lin Zhice alone was Qi Refining Second Level. One look told him he was a nepotism hire.

"Looking at it this way, Seacloud City doesn't seem as terrifying as I imagined!" Fear mostly came from the unknown. The Cloud-Mist Information Matrix had swept up Seacloud City's secrets in one net, and the unfamiliarity in Yang Ning's heart vanished in an instant. It was like playing a game with the whole map revealed. He still had to remain cautious, but his strategies could be a little bolder.

"Sure enough, this is how something like this should be used!" Yang Ning had read The Three-Body Problem. He had even drawn lessons from the Trisolarans' failures: steal information only, and never expose yourself.

If they had only sent Sophon over to cause trouble but never revealed her to humanity, what need would there have been for Zhang Beihai?

Still, the Trisolarans had simply been too naïve. After being fooled once, they quickly changed their ways—and even fed humanity a colossal lie that humanity never saw through until death.

The Trisolarans do not lie.

The experience of the successful had to be learned from, and so did the experience of the failed.

After probing around, he found that Seacloud City could not test the limits of the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix. But there were no higher-level cultivators in Seacloud City, so he temporarily stopped and had Deep Blue work in other directions.

First, learn the schedules and course content of every student in every grade at Ascension Academy.

Second, learn about the operations and development of every trade and industry in Seacloud City, as well as its laws, regulations, and methods of commercial warfare.

Third, visit every Cultivation Technique Translation chamber of commerce and workshop to study and learn the tricks and secrets of translating cultivation techniques.

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

With the Cloud-Mist Information Matrix, he had already understood how the Ma Brothers monitored the dormitories. They used a crystal ball inscribed with the runes of the Heavenly Eye of Insight.

This Heavenly Eye of Insight increased observation distance, but reduced observation precision. Not only could it not observe souls, it could not control its angle either, because it needed to work in tandem with runes arranged on the ceiling.

In short, this thing only had an overhead perspective, and it was fixed at that—more primitive than a modern camera. Yang Ning could create a water curtain and simulate an image over it to fool the surveillance.

While fooling the surveillance, he could also counter-monitor the Ma Brothers. Once he identified the gaps between their monitoring, he could do his own things during those surveillance vacuums.

For example, manufacture some modern production equipment.

Iron furnaces, lathes, milling machines, hydraulic presses, angle grinders, and all kinds of machining equipment.

Throughout the process, the superpowers brought by the Dragon Pearl provided tremendous help.

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

Water could become water blades for cutting.

The essence of his wind-controlling ability was creating temperature differences and manipulating air molecules. The former could be used to generate electricity for his control, while the latter could supply oxygen to furnaces and raise flame temperatures.

Of course, limited by conditions, the processing precision of the equipment he made was severely lacking.

But what technology could not make up for could be made up for with mysticism.

Just as a pedal-powered tank could race past the speed of sound under Nightmare Energy corrosion, and a Sniper Rifle could produce infinite ammunition, once Yang Ning infused Nightmare Energy into these processing machines, their precision greatly increased.

What was more, as long as Yang Ning successfully activated a machine once, it would no longer need raw materials afterward. It could create parts out of nothing!

Yang Ning also tried to understand the principle behind it, but Nightmare Energy was simply that unreasonable. He studied it for ages without figuring out anything.

Even Ancestor Dragon, who could create universes, had been forced to move house by Nightmare Energy. So what was the big deal about conjuring an object from the void?

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

He could produce 8 points of mental power every day. If he did not cultivate the Black Tortoise Breath Concealment Technique to restrain his mental power, he could produce 15 points. But cultivation was the foundation, so 8 points of mental power was his current limit.

A bullet weighed 40 grams. 1,408 bullets weighed 56 kilograms. With 8 points of mental power, he could produce 448 kilograms of objects from the void.

A fifth-generation fighter jet weighed 20 tons. It would take a month and a half to save up enough for one.

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

In fact, his room was already nearly full.

Five hundred square meters, used for living, would be considered a luxurious large flat—or even a villa.

But five hundred square meters, if used as a factory for processing and producing goods, could only be called a home-based little workshop!

So when Yang Ning saw a piece of news, he was immediately beside himself with rage!