Chapter 17

After that... Ling clan heir vomited some blood at my insult, his entourage took him away and I had one pressing question in my head. "Is his name actually Ling Clan Heir or something?" I asked with honest befuddlement.

And at my random question, Keqing lost the tension in her shoulders as she snorted and quickly retorted. "Heh, with how he and the other profligate heirs run around Liyue relying on their clan's power to shield them from their misdeeds... You might as well just call him that as it's not like he provides anything to his clan or Liyue as its heir."

My lips twitched at that thought as unbidden I thought of fucking lucky it was to be born literally into a cultivation noble clan and have the heirship and the clan's resources at your negligent disposal. But regardless I coughed and I spoke up. "Anyway! Back to work then!"

The men under Ningguang's orders followed the previous workers in expanding the Dome and adding supports in case something bad happened while I went to my design table to map out another productive line. This time, I was going to start a mine that was going to collect iron, refine it, and then shape it into motors with some of the copper being injected into the assembly line from my copper mine system.

Keqing watched me work and then she spoke softly. "I am surprised you are still so focused on your work. Aren't you scared of him coming back with an elder?"

I paused for a moment at her question before I said coldly. "Ningguang knows my value... She won't allow an asset like me to die without her people fully understanding the creation and maintenance of these machines, to say nothing of future blessings I can bring." 

And my cold logic made Keqing grimace and for a moment go silent before she responded. "She isn't that cold you know. She won't throw you to the Noble Clan's for a crime that they committed."

I couldn't help but look up at Keqing in disbelief and my face went flat as I simply retorted. "You just said they get away with crimes all the time. Whether Ningguang puts me under her protection or not, if they kill me. What do the consequences for them matter to me?" 

I shook my head as I realized Keqing's mind was looking at my side from a position of power. I had little to no spiritual energy in the slightest after only cultivating for a single night. She was a strong martial artist with a vision who could escape from even a fourth-stage cultivator or martial artist... I didn't have such luxuries and wouldn't for a long while.

I took a breath and shook my head as I tossed down my drawing pencil as I walked towards the machinery and tuned them up to increase their production rate while I considered things.

'My cultivation is going to be slow due to my innately piss-poor talent. I inherited supreme 'scientific' knowledge from my reincarnation, not the ability to channel otherworldly energies through my body.' I thought as I used my knowledge to enhance my cultivation process. 'I physically cannot just sit there absorbing the dregs of spirit stones due to my poor talent...'

Then it struck me! Spiritual energy was basically a more benign radiation in its simplest form, if I couldn't increase my absorption of spiritual energy by laying down on the radioactive spicy rocks... I could refine the spirit stones in the same process of refining standard fissionable materials and then using a sunbathing equivalent machine. I could completely bath my form in the activated radiation coming from the spirit stones!

'Wait so does this mean I could make spirit stone nukes?' I thought with my lips twitching as this line of thinking in enriching the spirit stones a critical mass... Had some interesting connotations.

Regardless I smiled and got to work on my new idea as I blended both science and the smatterings of cultivation I knew to begin working on a large tube with several poles mounted in the tube that I could put the enriched spirit stone rods within later on.

"Is this supposed to be a cannon or something?" One of the workers asked me as I worked to make a minature enrichment chamber that would fuse the spirit stones together and at the guards question I couldn't help a snicker as I answered quickly.

"Yup! Totally a cannon." The guard's face twitched and although it was clear he wanted to say something, but seeing me continue to work so quickly he went back to his post while Keqing was also likewise busy in checking out the perimeter and making sure no monsters were coming. 

Thankfully though, due to the dome we made, the majority of the industrial noises we were creating were broken up and weren't filling the surrounding mountains with the sounds of the drillers and other machines acquiring the materials.

Once I finally created the tanning booth... Which was going to flood my body with helpful spiritual energy rather than harmful ultraviolet radiation, I had some of the guards move the storage container-sized machine over next to my metal cabin so I could mount it onto my cabin while also feeding a conveyor line from the storage units containing the spiritual stones onto the conveyor belt which would feed into the centrifuge which would refine the spirit stones with powerful pressure, heat, and great electromagnetic energy which would break down the mundane elements and leave only the spiritual energy which would then be channeled into the tanning booth.

The tanning booth itself was a tube with a sliding door with the tube was completely covered in emission plates on all sides so I would have the spiritual energy beamed onto me at all angles including the floor and roof.

Besides that invention which I was going to save for later as the guards and workers were looking... Very longingly at the seemingly endless line of spirit stones funneling into my cabin, I began laying out the plans for the next most important part of my plan for world domination.

Trains...

"Using underground extremely powerful magnetic rails I can keep them from getting destroyed by saboteurs and beasts... The only issue beyond the actual method of supplying so much power is making the rail line itself." I muttered to myself as hummed in thought before I considered making large bombers or cargo planes that could ferry the shipping containers I created that had very minor spatial abilities. 

I quickly shoot that thought aside... Partially as I knew the sky was the territory of large migratory monsters or the stupidly powerful monsters and cultivators who could fly under their own power. 

'Maybe, I can get barrier talismans or formations to make the plane durable enough to survive in the air?' I thought frowning as while I now had a good supply of materials. I needed a way to spend those materials to get specialty materials. Most importantly be able to go a good distance to make the next installation to mine for more resources as I already hit the maximum number of drillers I could have in this area.

Then while my mind was filled with the thoughts of slaying monsters with the glory that was a B-52 bomber laying down 'air support' via excessive ordnance in the privacy of my cabin I got undressed and entered the 'tanning both' I really needed a new name for and with a hum the machines hummed to life.

A few minutes later I damn near was choking as the air was thick... Literally blindingly foggy with congested spiritual energy that was so thick that I couldn't even see my nose when I tried to go cross-eyed. But it was working. I could feel my body filling up with spiritual energy finally!

"Jake, what madness are you doing now? It's like I am sitting in a Sect's holy ground with dozens of high-grade formations running!" I heard Keqing yell and then a creak rang out and my eyes went wide, mentally freezing as the thick spiritual energy fog billowed out blinding Keqing for a moment and then we both stared at one another in dead silence.

As I was butt naked.