stonecrandall Chapter 1094 Further Exploration of Tianxing!
Chapter 1094 Further Exploration of Tianxing!
With the turmoil in the court temporarily subsided and the dust of the power transition settled, Gao Yao once again embarked on the road to Mount Li. The three-horse carriage left deep ruts on the official road, flanked by rolling autumn fields and distant mountains. Accompanying him were thirty elite guards, three master craftsmen borrowed from the Imperial Household Department, and more than ten apprentices from the workshops that Gao Yao had personally trained over the past two years.
The entrance to Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum is no longer the desolate and secluded place it once was. In three years, it has been transformed into a semi-military engineering camp. Wooden watchtowers stand at the four corners of the mausoleum area, tents are neatly arranged, and the clanging of hammers and shouts echo from dawn till dusk. As soon as Gao Yao alighted from his carriage, the camp's commander—a middle-aged craftsman named Gongshu Mo—hurriedly approached and bowed deeply: "Sir, you've arrived."
Gao Yao nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping across the camp to the silent, massive earthen mound covered in rammed earth and vegetation. His first entry into the underground palace had nearly cost him his life, though he had ultimately escaped unscathed. Nevertheless, Gao Yao still harbored a certain amount of apprehension towards this underground palace.
"How's it going?" Gao Yao asked as he walked toward the command cabin in the center of the camp.
Gongshu Mo followed closely behind, his voice filled with excitement: "Your Excellency, the main passage on the east side was fully completed last month, and the iron frame support has been installed up to the ninth section. Now, to enter the front hall of the underground palace, there is no need to walk through that dangerous natural crevice anymore; we can go directly through our passage, and there is absolutely no risk of collapse."
This achievement was hard-won. Gao Yao's initial proposal astonished all the recruited craftsmen. He didn't want to dig a narrow tunnel like tomb raiders, nor did he want to build and seal it from the inside like the craftsmen who built tombs in the past. His goal was to "reopen" this magnificent underground palace from the outside in, using modern engineering thinking.
The first step was "gravity reduction." He ordered people to locally reduce the load on the outer perimeter of the burial mound, especially in the area above the planned passage. This was not a simple excavation, but involved a precise set of calculations—how much to excavate, how to layer it, and how to support the temporary slopes. The goal was to reduce the pressure of the soil and rocks above on the passage to be excavated, without compromising the overall structural stability of the burial mound, and without triggering any potential or unknown anti-theft mechanisms.
To this end, he introduced the concept of "segmented excavation and timely support" and improved the traditional "well-type" support method.
The second step, and the most groundbreaking, was the innovation of materials. The Qin people used massive timbers for support when building their mausoleums; while sturdy, these timbers ultimately could not withstand the erosion of millennia and geological activity. Gao Yao, overruling objections, decided to use iron on a large scale. Leveraging his position as Minister of the Imperial Treasury, he mobilized official iron ore resources and experimented with improving iron smelting techniques in his own workshops, increasing both the quantity and quality of iron.
These iron pieces were forged into standard beams, columns, and slabs, which were installed simultaneously during the excavation of the tunnel to form a robust arch and frame structure. Iron's load-bearing capacity far exceeds that of wood, and it is also more corrosion-resistant, laying the foundation for the tunnel's long-term stability.
The "two-pronged approach" was implemented for three full years. The investment of manpower, material resources, and financial resources was enormous, and some expenses were hidden in the various project accounts of the Imperial Household Department, making it extremely difficult to complete. During this period, there were problems such as water seepage, instability, and the craftsmen's fear of going deep into the imperial tomb, but Gao Yao resolved them one by one in the name of technology, power, or "divine will."
Entering the somewhat simple command cabin, which was covered with various maps and cross-sections, Gao Yao listened to a more detailed report and personally inspected the latest soil samples and structural test records taken from the passage. Afterwards, he changed into a neat short tunic, put on a specially made helmet inlaid with small fluorescent stones, and, surrounded by a group of guards and core craftsmen, stepped into this mysterious underground palace for the first time through the formal passage he had overseen the construction of.
The passageway sloped downwards, wide enough for three people to walk side by side, with cold iron frames on both sides and an ever-burning oil lamp every few feet along the walls. The air circulation was cleverly designed, so there was no noticeable stuffiness. Walking through it was a world apart from crawling through the narrow, damp, and treacherous crevices three years ago. After about fifteen minutes, the space suddenly opened up ahead, and a faint blue light emanated from it—they had reached the outer perimeter of the underground palace's front hall.
Standing at the end of the passage, gazing at the distant celestial body, which floated and rotated like a miniature universe in the darkness, radiating an eternal blue light, and below, the vast and solemn terracotta army, Gao Yao felt an unusual calm. The success of the passage meant that he had a "safe passage" to access and study this extraterrestrial wonder at any time, a crucial step in realizing his long-term plan.
After the underground palace passage stabilized, Gao Yao devoted a significant portion of his energy to researching "Celestial Star" itself. The system's ultimate mission was to "destroy Celestial Star," with the reward being the ability to traverse dimensions.
The reward was incredibly tempting, but Gao Yao's personality dictated that he wouldn't act rashly. The system offered no instructions, no customer service, and no explanation of what dimensional travel truly meant—was it random travel? Controllable travel? Could it only be done once or infinitely? Could one return after traveling? The unknown was the risk, a huge risk.
In Gao Yao's view, power must be built on a solid foundation. He comes from an era of information overload and deeply understands the value of order and stability. Therefore, his plan is clear: first, to completely pacify the world and build a stable, controllable, and orderly court and political system. Even if he chooses to use his time-travel ability someday, he must ensure that after he leaves, this world operating according to his will remains stable, and that the systems, power, and legacy he leaves behind do not quickly collapse.
This was his "escape route" and "base" for himself, and also the source of his sense of security. For this, he needed time, power, and other benefits that Tianxing might bring besides the time travel.
Therefore, the focus of celestial research is not on how to "destroy" it, but on analyzing and utilizing its characteristics, especially the mystery of "longevity" derived from it.
Through historical records, physical analysis, and personal observation, Gao Yao confirmed several points: The energy of the celestial body is immense but extremely unstable; direct contact or utilization carries extremely high risks, as Yi Yi's example serves as a cautionary tale. The core ingredient of the "elixir of immortality"—celestial body powder—consists of tiny particles that naturally shed from the celestial body under specific conditions or are artificially scraped off. These powders contain some of the celestial body's energy characteristics, but at a significantly reduced intensity, making them suitable for slow absorption and integration by the human body.
However, the elixir of immortality refined by Cui Wenzi and consumed by Yi Xiaochuan and others had a fatal flaw: its effects were deeply bound to the celestial body itself. While the consumer gained immortality, their life form seemed to become an "appendage" or "branch" of the celestial body, sharing in its prosperity and decline. If the celestial body was damaged or its energy underwent a drastic change, the consumer was likely to be simultaneously affected or even die. This kind of "immortality" controlled by external factors was far from what Gao Yao desired.