Jing Yang stood with Denanfry in the ship’s command center, watching the technicians and soldiers set up the mining equipment. The planet had just gone through a cosmic storm and was a mess. Jing Yang was sitting on a wheelchair so it wasn’t convenient for him to go down. He could only watch them from the command center to make sure that they didn’t make any mistakes during the installation.

Morgan led the mechanics team to also keep watch in the command center. When they heard that the experiment with the equipment Jing Yang had created was successful, their moods were quite complex. Ever since the first time Denanfry occupied the Jinming star cluster, it was them who had first started to research this mining equipment, but they weren’t able to succeed. Later, they could only pass it along to the Mechanics Science and Technology Institute in the capital star to continue research, but they still had not sent news of the success of their simulation experiments. Hearing that Fetani’s progress was far ahead of them, they were actually extremely anxious. Getting those precious metals meant that the treasury would be full for at least the next one or two hundred years. Now they finally had a successful experiment, but it was still from one of Fetani’s people.

The installation of the equipment alone took a whole morning, and after it was finally done, the technicians were ordered to activate the equipment and conduct the first field experiment.

Twenty minutes later, the monitoring staff reported, “The first layer of rock, successfully excavated, depth 30 meters.”

At this time all of the spectators were still very calm, because the first layer of rock was only slightly harder than the ordinary layers of rock on other planets. It wasn’t difficult to dig.

Fifty minutes later, the monitoring staff reported for the second time, “The second layer of metal earth, successfully excavated, depth 50 meters.”

Now everyone’s expressions started to change. Even though the metal earth layer was called earth, it was several times harder than that of the top rock layer. They had heard that Fetani had already been able to excavate the metal earth layer, and now they had also succeeded. Then at least their progress wouldn’t be much different from Fetani’s.

Another hour later, the monitoring staff reported for the third time in an excited voice, “The third layer of , successfully excavated! Depth 40 meters!”

The mechanics team stared in disbelief, looking at each other, their expressions inscrutable. Even the combat team members who just came to watch the fun were all excited. Even hemiore could be excavated, that was an ore that even explosive artillery couldn’t break, the best material for mecha armor. Even if no precious metals could be excavated this time, being able to get these hemiore was already an extremely difficult matter. And now they were only one step away from the precious metals, they might have already surpassed Fetani.

Denanfry turned to look at Jing Yang’s side profile. Using little more than a month of time to be able to achieve these results, had already exceeded his expectations. He suddenly had a feeling that choosing to believe in this person may have been the best decision he had made in his life. And saving him was not the other person’s luck, but his own blessing.

“Suc-successful!” The monitoring staff’s voice trembled from agitation. He shouted, “Successful! Really! It’s true! The final layer of corrosive liquid did not corrode our mining equipment, and when the liquid was sucked up, it did not corrode our storage equipment! We have mined the precious metals! The first field experiment, succeeded in the first try!”

Not only the technical staff on the planet boiled over in cheers, but the people in the command center also were beside themselves in excitement. Some people didn’t even dare to believe that it was true, even suspecting that they were dreaming.

“Did we succeed?! Did we really succeed?! Oh my god! I’m not dreaming, am I?! Or am I hallucinating?!”

“It’s too amazing! It’s really incredible, the first field experiment actually was completely successful!”

“Is this real? Is it real?” A member of the mechanics team shook another person by the shoulders, his face full of disbelief, even his eyes round as saucers.

“I-I also don’t know, it should be true ba, or maybe, maybe it’s just a dream.” The person being shaken was even more surprised and disbelieving than the person shaking him.

“He actually really did it, and only took a month. How is that possible?!” One of the mechanics team members who had previously said with certainty that Jing Yang wouldn’t succeed looked at Morgan incredulously. “Team leader, how could this be real?”

Morgan was so excited his hands were trembling. Instead of responding to the team member’s questions, he stared fixedly at the screen, watching the technicians dig up the first piece of precious metal.

They saw the technicians on the ground standing next to a huge piece of precious metal, jumping excitedly to wave at them, and showing that they really did it, they really finally mined the precious metal in the Jinming cluster.

The combat team members who saw everything were all crazily excited, but their focus was different from that of the mechanics. The mechanics team couldn’t believe that Jing Yang had actually produced this mining equipment in only a month, while the combat team were focused on more practical matters.

“Are all of those precious metals ours now?! They’re really all ours?!”

“I even thought that we could only wait and watch Fetani bring all of the precious metals away, I didn’t think that we would still seize them first, hahaha…”

“With all of the precious metals in the Jinming cluster, our empire will be the wealthiest nation in the universe! That would be a real wealthy atmosphere!”

“With these precious metals, our people can live better, and our military will definitely be treated even better!”

“Too great! It’s really too great! Before, we chased away those insects with such difficulty and occupied the Jinming cluster, and I was even injured severely for this. But then it was actually seized by Fetani for nothing, and I had been furious for a very long time. If Fetani knew that their previous efforts were in vain and that the precious metals would come to us in the end, they will definitely explode from fury!”

Everyone was ecstatic and endlessly excited, and only Jing Yang was very calm. These precious metals would be a huge amount of wealth for any country, but only a powerful enough country could hold on to such an immense amount of wealth. So even if he invested effort but couldn’t get these precious metals himself, he didn’t care at all, and he didn’t regret it. His purpose was just to prove himself, and he had already achieved it, so it was fine. And he clearly knew that with this success, he would be valued by the empire and would be valued even more by Denanfry. For him, this was much more important than those precious metals.

Morgan managed to calm his excitement slightly with great difficulty and walked over to Jing Yang. “May I ask if you can let me see the design and the record of the manufacturing process for the equipment?”

“I have already handed over all of the data and reports to General Denanfry, and during the creation process I taught those assistants without reservation. If you want to know, you can go find them.” After Jing Yang finished speaking to Morgan, he looked at Denanfry. “This is only the first batch of equipment, and is also an experimental product. If you want to mine all of the precious metals in the shortest amount of time, you will still need to manufacture a lot more. You can send those assistants back to the capital star to help with the manufacturing. I will not participate in the later manufacturing, but if there are any problems that need to be resolved, I can come forward.”

“I will deal with everything afterward, these days you can take a proper rest.” Denanfry looked at Jing Yang. “I will first send you back.”

Those people still immersed in their excitement and exhilaration didn’t notice Jing Yang and Denanfry leaving. Only Morgan looked at the backs of the two men, his expression thoughtful.

Jing Yang had stopped living in the ward a long time ago. When Denanfry arranged a studio for him, he had also prepared a suite for him on the ship.

After sending Jing Yang back to his room, Denanfry said to him very seriously, “It’s been hard on you this time. I will help you apply for commendation, and let the entire empire remember your credit.”

“Thank you General, but I hope not to reveal my identity for the time being. Right now I don’t want to let John know that I am still alive, and I want to wait for the right moment to give them a ‘surprise.’” Jing Yang said.

Denanfry thought a bit before saying, “Then according to your wishes, we will first not announce your identity for the time being.”

Jing Yang smiled. “Then now, does the general think that I can talk to you about cooperation.”

Denanfry sat down on the couch and spoke with him face to face. “You can cooperate with me, and not us. I will do everything in my power to help you achieve your goals and keep you safe, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the interests of the empire.”

“That’s also good.” Jing Yang nodded. “It’s much easier to cooperate with the general than your entire army. Then in the future I will have to trouble General with helping and taking care of me.”

Denanfry stared at Jing Yang’s face for a moment, his heart full of tenderness. He stood up and unconsciously raised his hand, ruffling Jing Yang’s hair. “Rest assured…”

Jing Yang’s heart trembled. He looked up at Denanfry’s eyes and felt that familiar feeling. The two men looked into each other’s eyes for a long time.

After Denanfry returned to his office, he had a virtual meeting with five other top officials of the empire. After sitting at a round table, it wasn’t long before five other people’s virtual images appeared in the other seats.

Denanfry informed them of the success of the research on the mining equipment and also discussed with them his encounter with Jing Yang and his identity.

Denanfry had the highest voice in military affairs, and prime minister , who had the highest voice in political affairs, was his close friend who had grown up with him. Over the years, the two had never been at odds and had always mutually supported each other. After the two of them came to an agreement, the other four had no objection to their proposal, so the decision on how to handle Jing Yang was left to Denanfry, who would also be held accountable if Jing Yang ended up making a move against the empire.

The Wilkesa Empire already started manufacturing mining equipment in large quantities, but in two months there would be another cosmic storm. No matter how fast the manufacturing speed was, it was impossible to mine all of the precious metals in two months. So they began discussing how to ensure that after each storm they could quickly occupy the Jinming cluster.

Jing Yang properly rested for three days and then once again began drawing designs and writing a plan. When he handed over the completed proposal to Denanfry and Denanfry confirmed the feasibility of the plan, he immediately ordered its implementation.

After the cosmic storm passed by again, John had already prepared beforehand and had thought that no matter what they could first occupy the Jinming cluster, but found that the Jinming cluster was once again occupied by the Wilkesa Empire.

When the soldier reported to John, he said that he couldn’t even discover how the Wilkesa Empire had managed to preempt the capture of the Jinming cluster this time.

Even though John was anxious and angry, he was helpless and could only continue to wait for the next storm to pass. But when the Wilkesa Empire captured the Jinming cluster for the third time, John began to get nervous. He sent people to investigate and ordered them to make sure they found out how they could get ahead of them.

“What did you say?” When he received the report, John opened his eyes wide, thinking that he misheard.

“Reporting to General, according to our investigation, the reason Wilkesa’s troops were able to preemptively occupy the Jinming star cluster was very likely because they did not leave the Jinming star cluster during the storm.” The soldier paused and then continued. “And they have a large number of cargo ships flying to and from the Jinming star cluster. We have detected from afar that there seems to be a large amount of precious metals on the ships, it is very possible that they have already been able to successfully mine them.”

“Impossible!” John roared. “No country can withstand the cosmic storms, if even we can’t achieve it, Wilkesa definitely can’t either! Successfully mining the precious metals is even more impossible! Our mechanical level is so far ahead of them, something that we have spent so much time on and still haven’t succeeded with, how could it be possible for them do it in such a short period of time! Continue to investigate the real reason, don’t be deceived by their deliberate falsifications!”

“Yes!”

Wilkesa’s unusual behavior in the Jinming star cluster had also attracted the attention of other countries, and they were all thinking of ways to investigate.

Denanfry knew that at first no one would believe that they had not only started mining the precious metals but had also completely occupied the Jinming star cluster. Thanks to the design Jing Yang gave them, they used the extremely hard geology of the planets, as well as some building materials made out of the hemiore, to construct buildings two-thirds underground and one-third aboveground. And Jing Yang designed the shape of the building to allow the winds to pass directly through the building, rather than forcing the building to withstand the strength of the wind.

———

[1] – 異礦層, not a real word. 異 means like different, and 礦 means ore. when i googled 異礦 the top result was 異極礦, or hemimorphite, a type of mineral. i decided to just take the hemi- prefix and slap it onto ore

[2] – 布洛赫, pinyin bu luo he, actually a real person’s translated surname, so i’m using it