What does 500 square kilometers mean? Our residential communities are quite large, right? A typical community is about 0.5 square kilometers in area. In other words, a space elevator of this size could fit 1,000 communities.
Some smaller cities might be this size, or even smaller.
There's no need to study the payload capacity of a space elevator of this size. Even if you cram everything needed for the next hundred years of launches onto it, it could carry it all at once.
It's no wonder that some people on Old Tang's side lost their composure when they heard Li Xingkong's words. After all, this wasn't just a technological leap forward; it spanned several eras.
The main reason for this effect is that cultivation itself is highly technical, and Li Xingkong also has the assistance of a system that brings with him the knowledge crystallization of countless civilizations. This gave him a large number of examples to refer to when he first learned formations. He directly learned a mature technical system, and this technology, when applied to reality, is naturally much stronger than existing technology.
It's like going back to ancient times with modern technological knowledge. If you lack hands-on skills, you can only start with the steam engine and climb the technological ladder step by step. But if you go back with a full set of high-tech tools and enough hands-on skills, why bother with the steam engine? You can go straight to nuclear-powered trains.
The most distinctive feature of spiritual practice is that it is embodied in the individual; it integrates knowledge and practice. The more knowledge one has, the stronger one's practical skills will be, and there is no such thing as being all talk and no action.
Therefore, in Li Xingkong's case, although he was only a beginner in formations and had just learned a little bit, it did not prevent him from using this rudimentary knowledge to create something that was considered a spectacle by today's standards.
After ending the call with Li Xingkong, Old Tang put down his phone and looked around.
He was currently in a place resembling a conference room, except that the tables and chairs here were relatively low. Besides Old Tang, many laboratory directors Earthly Capital also present.
On the large screen beside them, a detailed explanation of insights into cultivation was being given. These insights were collected from numerous soldiers who had already begun cultivating, and after multiple rounds of summarization, they were finally derived.
Old Tang and the others gathered together to facilitate their cultivation, and there were also a lot of instruments here to help record relevant data about their bodies during cultivation.
In theory, spiritual cultivation is very fair, with everyone having the opportunity to achieve immortality. However, in reality, there are still significant differences between people. People like Old Tang can obtain a great deal of spiritual insights and enjoy top-notch material services and equipment assistance, while ordinary people can only cultivate at home and rely entirely on themselves.
This is unavoidable, and Li Xingkong has no good solution for it. All he can do is provide all the Divine Land People with an opportunity for cultivation. As for eliminating social injustice or promoting social development, those are too far-fetched for Li Xingkong.
Cultivating oneself, regulating one's family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world—as a cultivator, he can't even achieve immortality now, let alone cultivate himself properly, so how can he talk about governing the state and bringing peace to the world?
"You've heard the contents of the phone call, so I won't say anything more. Produce a plan by this afternoon, and then immediately begin the relevant approval preparations."
After looking around, Old Tang said calmly.
"500 square kilometers? That's outrageous!"
The speaker was a young man sitting to one side, who also worked in aerospace fuel research. His reaction to Li Xingkong's request was the strongest.
How could I not be excited? If they had this capability, what would be the point of them researching fuel? They could research for another hundred years and still not produce anything of this caliber.
"Cultivation is something that's right in front of us, so what's so strange about a space elevator appearing?"
An old man sitting next to him, eyes closed as if searching for something, sniffed and said with a touch of emotion. This man had spent his entire life studying human genes, but the Gene Dictionary that Li Xingkong had given him almost made him unemployed. His life's work was contained in just a few words in that dictionary, which left the old man speechless for a long time.
Fortunately, his frequent research failures toughened him up, and he quickly found a new research direction. However, this setback still bothered him for a long time until he began his spiritual practice, at which point he finally came to terms with it.
"You haven't met Xingkong much, so you're not very familiar with him. He's a man who basically doesn't lie; if he says something is great, then it is."
Old Tang picked up his tea and took a sip.
"It's not that I doubt his ability to do it, but rather that his approach makes me feel like our research so far seems completely pointless."
The young man didn't doubt whether Li Xingkong could do it, after all, the example of Guanghan City was right in front of him, and it was a fact that Li Xingkong could physically land on the moon. What he was worried about was that they had been researching aerospace for so long, but Li Xingkong had just casually pulled something out and smashed it to pieces, which made their research seem to have no value at all.
Sometimes I even doubt myself. Do I even need to do research? Why don't I just ask Li Xingkong if I have any questions?
"Of course it's meaningful. You've been so confused by his words that you're a bit overwhelmed."
Although Old Tang doesn't understand aerospace, he does know a lot about the research itself.
"If you're full after the fifth steamed bun, does that mean the first four were a waste? With computer-aided calculations, is there no need to use an abacus anymore? That's not a good idea."
" The Xingkong -related things that Xingkong has come up with, in my view, are also a kind of high technology that we can't understand now. It's just that its application methods are more accessible and its effects are stronger. But these methods must ultimately follow the laws of physics. They were also researched by humans, perhaps aliens, perhaps ancient cultivators."
"When we research something, we certainly can't use its usability as the standard. Instead, we should aim to understand its principles. The current fuel efficiency is not as good as the array. Does that mean we should completely abandon rockets? Of course not. From rocket launch to array ascent, there are many eras in between. There is a huge technological gap. Does that mean we don't need to make up for it? Of course not."
"Cultivation is necessary, and formations are essential, but our research cannot stop. Only when we can develop a decent cultivation method based on our own research capabilities, and even create our own Spiritual Qi from scratch, can we truly be considered a cultivation civilization."
"That's true, but prolonged research without results can be quite discouraging for researchers."
Young people certainly understand what Old Tang is saying, but the thought that all the research results of the future are already being used in advance makes something seem a bit off to him.
"I've heard of people taking out loans to buy houses, but this is the first time I've seen someone actually get the loan approved and then slowly work on paying off the debt."
"Heh heh, kid, you haven't seen much, have you? Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture are just like this, haven't they? They've been using them for thousands of years, and they still haven't figured out the underlying principles."
Speaking of this, the old man next to him smiled. Their research on genes is inseparable from medicine, and medicine is inseparable from traditional Chinese medicine. Before the emergence of cultivation, the research on traditional Chinese medicine was in a similar state. The results had been used for thousands of years, but the relevant theoretical basis had not been found much.