Kun-12 Subject Three

For seven days, Yang Ning was inside a tank, but his heart remained at the bottom of the river.

The bacteriophage did not linger in the great river, nor did it intend to salvage any sunken ships. Instead, it traversed the lengthy river channel and arrived at the estuary of the Taiheng Heavenly River.

Before it lay a four-hundred-meter-high dam: the Seacloud Great Dam!

This dam was established to prevent Fierce Beasts in the sea from entering the land and rivers, and therefore set up rigorous monitoring measures.

Magic Treasures, rune arrays, human surveillance, and even a monitoring room set up at the bottom of the river, where two Qi Refining cultivators stayed year-round.

Yet this structure was strict on entry and lax on exit; fish entering the inner river were subjected to inspections that practically ripped out their hearts and lungs, but fish swimming outward from the river were hardly regulated at all.

Let alone a rod without blood-qi fluctuations, spiritual fluctuations, or demonic-qi fluctuations. It simply could not compare to those giant fish stretching several meters, tens of meters, or even hundreds of meters long. The exact moment it was swept by silt into the open sea, the Qi Refining cultivators were still sitting with eyes closed in meditation, not even lifting an eyelid!

Ten breaths later, feeling the vastly different aura, biological community, and buoyancy, Yang Ning felt a surge of joy in his heart.

He had finally entered the ocean!

Though not as unrestrained as a bird entering the blue sky or a fish entering the sea, the restrictions weighing upon Yang Ning's shoulders had practically grown quite a bit lighter!

After all, the ocean was a world that no single sect had ever truly controlled!

Copy myself, then scout the entire sea area, choose a spot far from the coast, head toward Qionghua Prefecture's territory, and develop there!! Yang Ning circled a location on the map.

Qionghua Prefecture lay 5,400 kilometers southeast of Seacloud City, an island with an area of 300,000 square kilometers.

Because there were no Spirit Veins on the island, naturally no sects existed there. Four nations and thousands of lineages sprawled across it, relying primarily on farming and sugarcane cultivation.

Yet based on the stones transported over from there, Yang Ning judged that Qionghua Island possessed rich aluminum ore, titanium ore, and possibly lithium ore.

Because aluminum required electrolysis to extract, it had not achieved large-scale utilization in Taiheng. Only a small amount of manufactured goods were sold as jewelry and luxury items, hailed as soft jade gold.

If aluminum preparation was that difficult, let alone titanium—the people of this world had not even discovered magnesium to prepare titanium!

As for lithium? It was still treated as ordinary dirt by the locals!

And the circle Yang Ning drew lay 200 kilometers east of Qionghua Prefecture.

At this distance, even Gao Qiqiang would not come this far out to fish.

Three hundred li south of this place was the Yingzhou Loose Immortal Alliance, and one hundred and fifty li southwest was the South Sea Exchange. Both places were notorious for their rich commercial atmosphere. If Yang Ning had thoughts of trading, he could come to these two locations.

If he didn't want to spend money, that was fine too; neither place was suppressed by major sects, cultivator strength was generally weak, and local managerial organization was feeble, making them notoriously rife with bandits.

An old saying put it well: if bandits could plunder, so could he!

It seems I don't even need to stay here anymore! Yang Ning thought of himself once again.

The constraints in Taiheng were too great; cultivation methods could not be exposed, and inventions had to be kept hidden away.

His artifact refining and Taiheng's artifact refining were not the same thing either, completely at odds with each other.

In truth, he preferred the atmosphere of Jiang Yuan, where everyone was of one mind and united.

However, remaining in Taiheng had its benefits as well: Supreme Dao Arts!

In the world today, only the Taiheng Sect, the Tianyi Sect, the Myriad Saints Alliance, and the Demon Alliance possessed Supreme Dao Arts. In the past, Jiang Yuan was destroyed firstly because its development speed was too fast, and secondly because it was suspected of possessing Supreme Dao Arts.

Possessing a Supreme Dao Art did not necessarily guarantee one could become an immortal, but without a Supreme Dao Art, the probability of ascending to immortality would undoubtedly be extremely low.

Yang Ning possessed Supreme Dao Arts, but who would ever find too many Supreme Dao Arts?

With one Supreme Dao Art, the probability of becoming an immortal was fifty percent; wouldn't two make it one hundred percent?

As long as he remained in Taiheng, there was a possibility of getting his hands on Taiheng's Supreme Dao Arts. If he left, plotting to acquire them later would prove rather difficult.

Let's try again; perhaps there is still a turning point! Yang Ning thought, with the path to immortality at stake, one must always fight for it!

On this day, the four of them gathered once more at the training ground.

Yang Ning drew a white line on the training ground, then distributed the route map to the three of them.

"Tomorrow is the day of the Demon Subduing Valley trial, so today is also our last day of practice. Over these past few days our tacit understanding has formed, but it's still lacking just a tiny bit. I hope today we can meet the standard, ideally passing on the very first try! Do you have confidence?"

"We do!" Xun Hu, Ning Rong, and Su Bai shouted in unison.

"Then, Kun-12 Subject Three, first test: begin!"

The four immediately broke into a run. Xun Hu was the fastest, Ning Rong second, Su Bai third, and Yang Ning fourth. Then Xun Hu reached the top of the vehicle first, opened the hatch, and vaulted into the tank, with the following three entering in single file.

"Total time: eight seconds!" As the last one, Yang Ning, entered and looked at the expectant gazes of the three, he crisply announced the result!

"Yeah!" The three cheered in unison.

They still remembered that during the first training session, just entering the tank alone had taken a full minute.

Yet now, with clear order, precise timing, and not a shred of wasted movement, they had managed to control the time to this degree.

To create a record relied on the four's flawless cooperation and unremitting efforts!

"Second item: traverse the thousand-meter labyrinth!" Yang Ning clocked the time, then pressed his hands onto the steering wheel.

The four gathered their spirits and immediately began stepping on the pedals, the tank rumbling forward.

"Turn 90° right!" shouted observer Ning Rong.

The four immediately spun the steering wheel. Without losing speed, they had already completed the turn.

"Turn 75° left!"

"Straight fifty meters!"

"Right 30°!"

"Straight!"

"Left!"

"Right!"

"Ahead, a curve!"

The wheels rolled forward. Three among the four already felt their legs growing numb, yet no one cried out in fatigue, no one shouted to accelerate.

Because they knew the Kun-12 was a weapon that had never before appeared in this world, and tomorrow would be its maiden debut!

This debut had to be flawless!

"Straight twenty meters, reached the finish line!"

"Screech!" A harsh screech of brakes rang out, and the tank stopped accurately within the white line.

Yang Ning swiftly checked the time, then jumped out of the tank.

The remaining three hurried out as well, following Yang Ning along the original route to inspect the wheel tracks and white line bit by bit.

Unawares, even their breathing grew soft.

Until a few minutes later, the four returned to the finish line.

Yang Ning let out a long breath, then declared, "Times grazing the line: 0. Times crossing the line: 0. Total time: 17 minutes and 43 seconds!"

"Full marks!"

"Wah!" Ning Rong clenched her fists and leapt up on the spot. Last time it had taken 18 minutes and 20 seconds, and she had even scraped the line 4 times!

This time it was a direct perfection!

Su Bai hugged the tank in excitement, refusing to let go.

Even Xun Hu's heart hammered thump, thump, thump. He didn't know why he felt so excited. Clearly he could run faster than a tank, clearly in the future a single person with a single sword could confront a Fierce Beast, yet he felt this happy over such a record.

"It's not over yet!" Yang Ning smiled. "The final item rests entirely on you, Ning Rong!"

"Moving targets, I've long since... hit every single one, you know!"