Chapter 672: The Eve of the Launch

The pace of technological development is explosive.

A hundred years ago, no one could have imagined that humans could fly without using Magic. Fifty years ago, no one could have dreamed that, in an era of waning Spiritual Qi, humanity could use “Magical Artifacts” forged from “Mortal Materials” devoid of Spiritual Energy to approach the domain of the Taiyin Star Monarch and the Moon God, landing on the “Celestial Palace” in mortal bodies.

It was just as how mortals five hundred thousand years ago never imagined that their crude imitation of Spirit Beast breathing techniques would one day lay the foundation for Immortality and give rise to a civilization of Immortal Gods.

All of this was a Miracle, yet in a way, it was also an inevitability of this world.

This was by no means the first moon mission for any of the major world powers, but that didn’t stop the public from getting excited when they heard the news. After a hiatus of more than a decade, the manned extraterrestrial landing program was being restarted, and the unmanned construction on the Moon Surface, which had been stalled for three years, was also resuming.

What secrets lay behind this? Was it purely a desire to test recent developments in rocket technology, or was it an attempt to land on the Immortal God Ruins that might exist on the Moon?

Naturally, some were supportive and encouraging, while others voiced their dissatisfaction and opposition.

[Anonymous]: “They haven’t even sorted out Earth’s problems, and now they’re going to the Moon? If they have that kind of money to burn, why not make Immortal God Inheritances more widespread?”

[Anonymous]: “There are so many Secret Realms on Earth that haven’t been developed. What’s so great about developing the cosmos? The Moon is just a big rock, to put it bluntly. The Beast God Realm and the Celestial Pool Realm haven’t even been fully explored, so why go there?”

‘Do they really think all Otherworlds are as scenic, simple, honest, and hospitable as the Beast God Realm?’

Sitting at a table in the cafeteria, tapping on his phone screen to roast the commenters one by one, Su Zhou couldn’t help but wonder aloud, “As far as I know, the environment in the Netherworld Realm is so harsh it’s practically like Venus, full of corrosive Negative Energy everywhere. Putting other goals aside, exploring the Moon is still a good way to gain experience. Besides—has the government really not released any concrete intel on the Aliens yet?”

“The Central Committee doesn’t think it’s time yet.”

To Su Zhou’s left, a short-haired man with a resolute and simple face was clearing away his utensils. Meng Jin, a veteran astronaut, had overheard Su Zhou’s complaint and replied seriously, “The information release is scheduled to begin once we start exploring the Moon’s Far Side. Accompanying camera drones will publicly reveal the existence of parts of the alien spacecraft.”

「February 27th, 2017. 12:15 PM.」

There was one week to go before Zhengguo’s seventh lunar construction and Moon’s Far Side exploration mission began.

By this point, the four astronauts had undergone a long period of simulation training and developed a degree of rapport.

Bai Jingtiao was a spitting image of his older brother, Bai Canglang. He was handsome and fit the Bai Family mold: tall and sturdy with long hair and prominent canine teeth. However, his personality was calmer and more taciturn. He was a former high-speed fighter pilot, and his performance in training was in no way inferior to that of Meng Jin, who was an astronaut to begin with.

Gu Yaoluo’s Talent could be considered that of a prodigy. As everyone knew, before the Spiritual Energy Revival, even the most talented Cultivators in the world would find it nearly impossible to advance after spending several years of Cultivation to reach High-level Awakening. Even if they elevated their realm and made all the necessary preparations, they had no Spiritual Power to replenish themselves.

However, once Spiritual Qi became abundant, they could advance their realms rapidly, turning all their accumulated preparations into real power. This was why a group of Cultivators quickly advanced to Extraordinary High-tier, or even its peak.

And they were not completely ignorant of the Commander Tier, making their progress in the Cultivation of Divine Techniques extremely fast.

Generally speaking, a Cultivator starting from scratch would, at most, reach mid-to-high-level Awakening within three years. A genius might have already advanced to the Extraordinary tier, like Shao Qiming and Guan Wanjing. But Gu Yaoluo’s Talent was different. In a way, he was a perfect match for the inheritance of the Artisan Saint’s ‘Celestial Craftsmanship Creation Path.’ He had faced no bottlenecks on his journey and, after just three years of starting from scratch, had already reached Extraordinary High-tier Cultivation.

Once an ordinary, scrawny rocket engineer, Gu Yaoluo had risen to prominence overnight, receiving such incredible Talent and attention. It was inevitable that his personality would become somewhat arrogant and conceited. But he wasn’t an idiot, after all, and none of his three teammates were pushovers, so he had been keeping a low profile recently.

While Su Zhou was the team leader in charge of personal combat strength, and Bai Jingtiao and Meng Jin were responsible for piloting the spacecraft and landing shuttle, Gu Yaoluo was the expert for handling emergency engineering problems. He also controlled the various intelligent machines accompanying them.

Unlike the old-fashioned rockets of decades past, today’s rockets had far greater thrust. In the past, sending a living person into space required rocket fuel weighing over fifty times their body weight, which was why previous designs were always compact and streamlined.

But things were different now. Although ‘Astral Winds’ now existed at the top of the atmosphere, with the aid of Extraordinary Technology, the fuel-to-payload ratio had dropped from over fifty-to-one down to seventeen-to-one, and it was still improving. This meant the lunar exploration team could carry much more equipment.

There was no need to worry about safety, either. Zhengguo had already sent several shipments of intelligent machinery to the Moon to carry out base construction tasks. So far, aside from a few design flaws during the first mission, there had been no accidents.

In the last two days of February, the biggest difficulty Su Zhou faced was actually adapting to space food. Of course, with current technology, sending gourmet food to the Moon wasn’t a problem, but it was a great luxury. Especially since he would be spending a long time on the Moon’s Far Side in the future, convenience would be key. That meant he would only be able to eat various food pastes and mushes.

‘My rapid regeneration depends on having sufficient protein, other bodily tissues, and nutritional reserves,’ Su Zhou thought. ‘Although my massive True Body can serve as a source of regeneration material, I also have to consider the possibility of my True Body being injured.’

Su Zhou also reported this to the Central Committee, but it was currently an unsolvable problem. No one could possibly stuff a rocket full of food. The committee could only tell Su Zhou to avoid high-intensity combat as much as possible unless absolutely necessary. The lunar exploration team would be granted authorization from the United International to use a miniature nuclear weapon with a yield of 150,000 tons, which could be deployed with the consent of three members.

With training complete and the rocket long since tested, the next step was to build hype for the moon mission.

Just like the global live broadcast of the Dragon King Ruins exploration, this lunar exploration mission was of the same scale and level. And after several similar precedents, netizens could roughly guess that this rather abrupt moon mission must have some special purpose behind it. Just as the Dragon King Ruins exploration had revealed the Mimic Dao, could it be that this lunar exploration was going to reveal Moon People?

Of course, while the scale was the same, the specific details were different. The exploration of the Dragon King Ruins had been quite entertaining, with a lot of leeway and low risk. This moon mission, however, was extremely serious and highly dangerous. Most of the invited media outlets were world-renowned corporations.

Even for someone like Su Zhou, who could fly back to Earth on his own power, the process was still fraught with danger and unknowns—to say nothing of his three teammates. They didn’t possess Su Zhou’s immense power and Life Force. If they failed, the result would be death.

Soon, on March 10th, 2017, the eyes of the entire world were gathered on them.

Those who didn’t know the true purpose were simply looking forward to seeing what changes outer space, and even extraterrestrial planets, had undergone in this era of Spiritual Energy Revival. They wondered if Su Zhou, who was rumored to be able to survive on the Moon Surface, could represent all Transcendents and walk freely in the vacuum of space like the Immortal Gods of old.

But those who knew the true purpose were filled with a mix of excitement and apprehension. An alien shipwreck. How much technology beneficial to humanity could be obtained by exploring these high-tech creations capable of traversing the Star Sea? And were there any Alien corpses or remains inside? Could they obtain biological data on these extraterrestrial lifeforms?

And then there was the mysterious Deep Space Caller… When did he come to the Moon, and why?

Both sides were filled with anticipation. And for the moon-walkers, it was a journey that was both dangerous and glorious.

On the morning of March 10th, Su Zhou met with his parents, the Shao Family, and other friends and relatives at the Zhengguo Northwest Aerospace Center.

Father Su and Su’s Mother were naturally quite worried. After all, just a few years ago, Su Zhou had been nothing more than a perfectly ordinary student. Now, he was carrying out missions in the Beast God Realm, suppressing a Mysterious Organization in the Demon Realm, and was about to head to the Moon on another mission. He was constantly on the move, with each task more dangerous than the last. In fact, they felt that their son’s task of eradicating a group of homicidal Transcendents was somehow easier than going to the Moon, though they weren’t sure if they were right or wrong about that.

“When I was raising you, I never actually thought about you inheriting our Su Family’s business or becoming a Patrol officer. I just hoped you would grow up to be an upright and kind person, someone who dared to step up in a crisis.”

At the aerospace center, Father Su, Su Beiluo, patted Su Zhou’s shoulder and said earnestly, “Looking at it now, I think I might have been a little too successful in raising you. But next time you eat a Divine Beast like that Ghost Car, don’t eat it raw. Who knows if a wild Divine Beast like that carries some kind of Extraordinary infectious disease? It would be terrible to bring that back to Earth!”

Su Zhou nodded. “Okay, okay. Next time I’ll cook it first.”

Nearby, Jin Qiong, who had come with the team, tilted her head in confusion, a giant question mark practically floating above her head.

‘What is wrong with this family… The Su Family is terrifying!’

Meanwhile, Su’s Mother, Ning Shiyu, knew about the Aliens because she was involved in the relevant project. She pulled her son into a corner and whispered, “Son, be careful. Don’t be clumsy and break the spaceship that might have Aliens on it… The department’s research for the next few years is riding on your exploration!”

Su Zhou nodded repeatedly. “Okay, Mom, no problem. I’ll be gentle.”

The Shao Family couple, Shao Nantian and Wen Yuefeng, had also come. Aunt Wen’s legs had long since recovered. After offering Su Zhou some encouragement and saying their goodbyes, the two didn’t say much more. Then, with an introduction from a guide, they began to tour the aerospace center, leaving their two children behind.

“Brother Zhou, Brother Zhou, I want some Moon Soil as a Holy Relic… no, a souvenir!” This was the eager request from Shao Shuangyue, who rarely got to go out. Su Zhou readily agreed, “No problem. I might even be able to pick up a few meteorites for you. Consider it a reward for all your hard Cultivation recently.”

“Be careful. Don’t feel like you need to hold back.” Shao Qiming, however, didn’t say much, as he and Su Zhou had already talked. He made a hand gesture, implying that Su Zhou should use it if he had to—meaning the nuke. After all, what was the point of having it if he wasn’t going to use it?

After that, Su Zhou chatted with other students and friends from the academy. After exchanging some words of encouragement, he and the other three astronauts, who had also just met with their friends and family, got into a vehicle and headed for the rocket launch center in the Gobi Desert.