Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

Chapter 761: Chapter 632: Energy Independence?

“I want to follow and see what Dr. Xie wants to discuss with Mr. Zhang, but I might get discovered. Brother Duan, do you have any good ideas?”

Fu Weijun sat in his wheelchair, watching Xie Yanshan and Zhang Su leave the parking lot, chatting and laughing, with a look of longing in his eyes.

Duan Wuhu was still tidying up. Upon hearing Fu Weijun’s words, he rolled his eyes, “Weijun, why are you so career-oriented? Isn’t it good to take a break? Look at tonight—if Brother Zhang hadn’t seen it coming, the two of us would have been scraped down the mountain. We never know what will come first, tomorrow or an accident. Give your mind a holiday, okay?”

“Ha, I’m just talking. I’m counting the days, not many left, locked in tight for now. Just talking, here, let me adjust the light for you, is it brighter this way?”

Fu Weijun didn’t dwell on it and changed the subject.

Zhang Su, who hadn’t gone far, overheard the conversation between Duan Wuhu and Fu Weijun and secretly found it amusing. He too thought Fu Weijun was overly career-driven.

The two arrived at the pitch black mountain gorge entrance. Zhang Su turned on the flashlight. Due to the terrain, this area was almost unaffected by the shockwave; it looked the same as during training in the afternoon.

“Besides when we train, we only come by here, and any other time, Good Fortune is the only one who wanders around here. What do you think? Is it open and hidden enough?”

“Very good, very good, this place is great, secluded and sheltered from the wind.”

Xie Yanshan casually praised, then continued, “After you left this noon, I immediately started testing this cubic crystal. The first test was with fire…”

“Ah! Fire! You can’t mess around with fire!”

Zhang Su was startled, just like Zhao Erhu when he heard Pang Qingyun say not to take military pay, he abruptly interrupted Xie Yanshan’s speech.

The explosion of the Venom Zombie happened just a few hours ago, the memory of the earth-shattering noise was still fresh, the terror not yet faded, and now fire was being used to test the Zombie’s energy source—how reckless!

“Do you know what caused tonight’s explosion?”

Zhang Su stepped forward, frowning tightly, and asked sternly.

Xie Yanshan nodded, “I know, I know. It’s most likely a Venom Zombie we dealt with earlier that exploded. Don’t worry, Mr. Zhang, I have a grasp on it…”

Feeling Zhang Su’s nervous and serious tone, he explained, “I heated the crystal very gently, constantly observing its activity during the process. As the temperature increased, I concluded that the Black Crystal is fire-resistant. Simply put, it’s not afraid of flames, and…”

Finished speaking, he took a large pair of tweezers from his pocket, took the Black Crystal out from a resealable bag, and then pulled out a lighter.

“Mr. Zhang, turn off the flashlight, here’s a big surprise for you.”

“Remember, it has to be a surprise, not a scare!”

Zhang Su turned off the flashlight and watched Xie Yanshan’s operations, understanding what he intended to do, assuming he wouldn’t joke around with his life.

Click.

Xie Yanshan lit the lighter, a small flame a few centimeters high flickered from the lighter, casting a weak little arc of light over the two, with their blurred shadows cast on the ground.

Once the flame was stable, Xie Yanshan moved the Black Crystal over the flame with the tweezers.

During the entire process, Zhang Su’s muscles tensed, but just under two seconds after the Black Crystal hit the flame, his expression tightened. His legs tensed and he sprang three or four meters away!

Whoosh.

A cluster of half-a-person-high flames surged from the Black Crystal, the ink-blue flame exuded enchantment, the scorching heat rushed forth.

“Hahaha, Mr. Zhang, look, isn’t this a surprise, more than a surprise, it’s a miracle, isn’t it?”

Xie Yanshan stretched out his arms, tilted his head back to stay as far from the heat source as possible, and his smile, illuminated by the light, appeared quite bizarre, his emotions unusually excited.

“This… a flame magnifier?”

Zhang Su didn’t need to get too close as he could see clearly that the lighter’s flame heating the Black Crystal didn’t spread out like flames onto a pot’s bottom but was directly absorbed by the Black Crystal, from which a large cluster of flames burst forth.

“Exactly, hahaha, can you believe it? This turns out to be a kind of flame enhancement device, Mr. Zhang, take another look!”

Xie Yanshan was clearly not finished with the demonstration; he carefully rotated the Black Crystal, changing the angle of contact with the flame on the lighter, and the size and color of the flame on top of the Crystal changed accordingly!

“This is the smallest state, with the lowest temperature!”

As he spoke, the flame on top of the Crystal shortened to about a foot high, a bit shorter than an adult’s arm; the diameter of the flame’s tail was just as big as a bowl, in a pale red color.

“Now I adjust the angle, move along this axis… excuse me.”

During the demonstration, the lighter in Xie Yanshan’s hand went out. Click click, it probably overheated for protection, wouldn’t light.

“Here you go.”

Zhang Su took out his own lighter and handed it to Xie Yanshan.

Relighting the lighter, Xie Yanshan continued, “Align this edge with the flame, see, the color changed. This kind of flame, no way, it’s too hot.”

The flame with flecks of white amidst the black appeared uniquely classy, yet due to the excessive heat, he couldn’t hold on until the explanation was complete; he redirected the crystal’s flat face against the lighter, reverting the previous black flame into pale red.

“The closer to the edge, the higher the intensified flame’s temperature—how do you adjust the size?”

Zhang Su asked curiously.

Xie Yanshan shook his head and smiled, “Each face of the crystal has X and Y axes; this one adjusts the size, this one the temperature. You see, different places, sizes, temperatures, they can freely combine, but the highest setting can only be shown at the lowest temperature, otherwise, it will cause burns.”

As he explained, Xie Yanshan used the Black Crystal over the lighter, making the flame exhibit various vivid colors. As he finished speaking, the flame on the Black Crystal suddenly whooshed and blazed, swelling to a person’s height, as thick at its greatest portion as a water tank.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh, the flame surged vigorously as if it had life, emitting a large amount of light and heat!

There was no way to sustain it for too long; Xie Yanshan once again adjusted the flame to the smallest setting, lowest temperature, holding it like a small torch, especially sci-fi.

Zhang Su watched the leaping flames in silence for a long time, the frog glasses reflecting the dancing flame spirits. After about half a minute, until the lighter flame went out again, he suddenly said, “With this, has our camp basically achieved energy independence?”

Energy, the eternal pursuit of mankind.

Xie Yanshan illuminated the ground with the flashlight, slowly shaking his head, “Energy independence is still far off. The Black Crystal only provides some enhancement. Without professional equipment, I can’t accurately measure the degree of enhancement. Rough estimates, combining flame strength and temperature, show the maximum amplification can be over ten thousand times, and even the minimum amplification is a hundredfold.”

This was a very conservative estimate given by Xie Yanshan.

“A tiny lighter flame can become that large, the energy released expands over ten thousand times… Dr. Xie, I don’t quite understand, I’ve only heard that nuclear fusion is powerful. As long as mankind controls nuclear fusion, there will be inexhaustible energy. Isn’t this thing similar to a nuclear fusion reactor?”

Zhang Su tried to touch the Black Crystal, Dr. Xie gestured that he could hold it. As expected, it was only slightly warm, around thirty degrees, quite magical.

“Mr. Zhang, there might be some misunderstandings here.”

Xie Yanshan smiled and said, “Though I have no professional equipment for measurements, I can confirm that the energy amplification factor for the Black Crystal has some gap with nuclear fusion. Do you know how much energy one gram of nuclear fusion fuel releases compared to how many tons of coal? Ten tons! This means there is a ten million-fold difference in one gram versus ten million grams.”

“Ten million times… no wonder they talk about energy independence, this technique is incredible!”

Zhang Su was amazed. One gram of fuel providing energy equivalent to ten thousand tons of coal is indeed one of the cutting-edge technologies of human civilization. Unfortunately, recreating it is unimaginable in the foreseeable future.