Super Mothership
The Immortal were not human to begin with, and Nie Yun’s own condition was extremely special as well, making him unsuitable as a research sample for “mental power.”
However, the facts demonstrated by the trio showed that the widespread adoption of this brand-new power among humans was indeed feasible. This carried strategic significance—not only for enriching Earth civilization’s technological tree, but also for increasing the combat strength of the human race.
That said, the output of the “Water of Life” was limited, so these psionic warriors could not yet be promoted on a large scale. For now, the trio remained a special case.
The reason Nie Yun had Yu Lao and the others establish a research group was precisely to discover a more widely applicable enhancement method—to mass-produce superpowered individuals, thereby completing the “psionic technology tree” and deepening his own understanding of mental power.
“I hope… you’ll be able to bring me some surprises,” Nie Yun murmured, leaving everyone behind as he walked out of the training room.
Mental power was directly related to Nie Yun’s upper limit in controlling the mechanical insects.
At present, the situation was that Nie Yun, as the CPU itself, could no longer keep up with the mechanical insect swarm’s exaggerated reproductive capacity.
Recently, however, Nie Yun had boosted his own mental attributes through the extravagant act of soaking in the “Water of Life.”
If his mental power had previously been at 1, it was now close to 5—multiplying several times over in a short period of time, with astonishing results.
The temporarily halted mechanical insect reproduction project was able to resume as well.
According to Nie Yun’s estimates, his evolved CPU could now support approximately 50 million tons of mechanical insects.
Although the upper limit of insects he could simultaneously control had increased dramatically, temporarily easing the development bottleneck, the effect of the Water of Life on Nie Yun also declined rapidly, to the point where it could hardly function anymore.
In other words, for the foreseeable future, Nie Yun would have to conquer the world relying solely on these 50 million tons of “Jiangdong warriors.”
Still, although the Water of Life could no longer provide further benefits, Nie Yun accidentally discovered that his control over the mechanical insects itself seemed to be a form of mental training. His mental power continued to grow slowly over time.
Even though the rate of increase was extremely slow, it proved that Nie Yun still possessed room for growth.
While the scale of the mechanical insect swarm was restricted, their core ability—devouring and replication—remained unaffected.
The ability to rapidly plunder the technology of other civilizations and convert it for one’s own use was undoubtedly Nie Yun’s greatest trump card!
Even the mithril fleet could be destroyed by high-energy weapons. No material was truly invincible—only powerful technology was the ultimate foundation of all cosmic civilizations!
…
After arranging the new projects for the research department, Nie Yun received a message from Chu Xiaoxiao.
Only after confirming that his prospective mother-in-law had already left and was more than ten kilometers away did Nie Yun, wearing an awkward expression, reappear in front of Chu Xiaoxiao.
“Heh… um, this was just a minor technical mistake. I promise that next time I’ll definitely scout the enemy situation first!”
Next time? You still want there to be a next time?!
Chu Xiaoxiao’s small face flushed red as she shot Nie Yun a fierce glare. That charming, coquettish look made Nie Yun’s heart thump wildly, and he couldn’t help but reach out with his roaming hands…
“Don’t… don’t mess around! I’m here for something serious!” Chu Xiaoxiao quickly grabbed the hand misbehaving at her waist, her body going a little weak.
“Something serious?” Nie Yun stopped, his expression suddenly turning solemn.
Could it be…
“Don’t worry! I’ll take responsibility. Tomorrow I’ll go to Aunt Chu and formally propose!”
“Y–You’re talking nonsense! I’m only eighteen!” Chu Xiaoxiao exclaimed, both annoyed and amused.
“Not that? Then what is it you’re talking about?” Nie Yun asked, puzzled.
“It’s about trade with Gemini,” Chu Xiaoxiao reminded him with an eye roll.
“Trade with Gemini?” Nie Yun quickly reacted, then waved his hand dismissively. “Isn’t that already handed over to your business department? Professionals should handle professional matters, Xiaoxiao. This won’t do—you’re shirking responsibility.”
Chu Xiaoxiao stared at Nie Yun speechlessly.
Shirking responsibility? If we’re talking about responsibility, whose is bigger than yours, the boss? If you want to be a hands-off manager, at least show some restraint!
“We have a plan, but it requires some commercial negotiations with Gemini. You know I don’t have diplomatic authority,” Chu Xiaoxiao said helplessly.
“Oh!” Only then did Nie Yun realize.
To maintain their side’s sense of mystery… cough! Actually, to prevent the leakage of Earth civilization’s true capabilities and to better maintain the fictional cover of the All for One Society, Nie Yun had always forbidden anyone except himself from contacting Gemini.
“What’s the plan? Tell me about it first,” Nie Yun asked with interest.
“It’s like this…”
Here is a clean, natural English translation, keeping terminology consistent (e.g., Gemini, Atlantis, Kara Civilization, Wolf Empire):
Next, Chu Xiaoxiao spent a full hour calmly and methodically explaining the comprehensive foreign trade plan drafted by the Atlantis Commercial Department…
Thanks to Nie Yun’s formidable technological foundation, Atlantis had now become an undisputed global commercial colossus, with its reach extending across energy, mining, and high-tech industries.
However, in Chu Xiaoxiao’s view, Atlantis’s internal development had already hit a bottleneck.
After all, excess is as bad as deficiency. Allowing such a massive entity to continue expanding would only squeeze out the living space of other business groups, create excessive monopolies, and ultimately suppress competition.
The more important role of Atlantis lay in uniting forces from all sides and using commercial means to guide the rational allocation of Earth’s resources, preventing waste caused by everyone acting independently.
This was also the situation Nie Yun most hoped to see.
Therefore, a structure with one dominant leader and many strong competitors—a hundred schools of thought contending—was the commercial landscape best suited to Earth’s current circumstances.
At present, the internal market of Earth’s civilization was nearing saturation, leaving limited room for further growth.
As the saying goes, when domestic demand is insufficient, external demand must make up the difference. As the head of the Atlantis Commercial Department, Chu Xiaoxiao had long since begun turning her gaze toward the stars…
Aside from the overly distant Wolf Empire, the only civilizations within her sights were the Kara Civilization and Gemini Civilization.
The Kara Civilization needed no explanation. Its remaining cultural and technological essence had already been acquired wholesale by Nie Yun. Now existing parasitically within the immortal, it had formed a unique system of its own—essentially a blank market.
However, being impoverished and numbering only a little over two million people, the Kara people’s purchasing power was not even comparable to that of a small city on Earth.
Such a market was hardly enough to stir Miss Chu’s appetite.
The Gemini Civilization, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
Its vast population and territory represented boundless purchasing power and countless rare goods.
Even as hostile civilizations, that did not prevent the two sides from cooperating for mutual benefit while simultaneously fighting each other to the death.
Using commercial means to pry open Gemini’s doors, expand into the interstellar market, and introduce external resources to accelerate the development of the Solar System had been Chu Xiaoxiao’s main focus recently.
The first trade cooperation with Gemini was brought about precisely under these circumstances.
And among all the trade items, the most important one was… the “Blank Crystal Exchange Program.”
After obtaining crystal energy-charging technology, Nie Yun had reached a preliminary agreement with Gemini to exchange blank crystals for energy crystals.
Recently, Gemini’s first batch of 30,000 tons of blank crystals was about to be delivered on Kara Star. However, the interstellar commercial blueprint planned by Chu Xiaoxiao went far beyond crystal trading alone.
Crystal trade was merely the first step of her plan. Its greatest function was to lay the “foreign exchange” foundation for further trade between the two sides.
Just like foreign trade between nations, for two civilizations to conduct trade, they must first establish a form of “foreign exchange” that both sides recognize as having value—a base equivalent.
Energy crystals, as precious and scarce high-density energy materials, possessed enormous value for both civilian and military use, and were also an important form of strategic reserves. They undoubtedly had the qualities required of such “foreign exchange.”
Using the blank crystal exchange as a starting point, it was foreseeable that vast quantities of energy crystals would soon become Nie Yun’s assets.
However, given Earth civilization’s current level of development, aside from limited military demand, the market had not yet reached the stage where energy crystals could be applied on a large scale.
As a result, a large amount of energy crystals would become temporarily idle, stagnant assets.
For a business elite like Chu Xiaoxiao, who placed extreme importance on capital liquidity, this was unquestionably a tremendous waste of resources.
“The Solar System is in a period of rapid development. We lack starships, rare minerals, and all kinds of civilian technologies and equipment!
If we can conduct a certain level of trade with Gemini and use this incoming batch of energy crystals to purchase various resources to accelerate our development, it would absolutely be worth it for us,” Chu Xiaoxiao said seriously.
After listening for a long while, Nie Yun finally grasped her point. He stroked his chin.
“Mm, not bad! Leaving this money sitting there means you can look at it but not use it, it earns no interest, and it’s not even as good as a bowl of beef noodles. Might as well use it to open a noodle shop first…”
“Uh…”
The meaning was technically correct…
But one had to admit—Nie Yun’s ‘beef noodle economics’ was as uniquely unconventional as ever.
TL Note- Economy...
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