As a newcomer to the Great Holy Spirit surfing, Zhou Yi felt both nervous and excited.

"Now what am I supposed to do?"

Spirit Interface said: "Here are the nodes you can access."

An electronic image appeared in Zhou Yi's mind, dotted with many glowing spots.

To his surprise, the map only covered the Development Alliance and a few nearby regions, limiting the accessible areas.

The Heavenly Kingdom to the north was shrouded in fog, and the Mechanical City to the west was completely inaccessible.

Zhou Yi was puzzled, "Why can I only access such a small area? Why can't I go to other places?"

"I'm sorry, because your Consciousness is only strongly linked to this area. Although it is accessed through the Great Holy Spirit, your own Consciousness is equally important. If the correlation is too low, or your Consciousness cannot influence certain areas, it would be difficult to access."

Spirit Interface advised him, "For the restricted access areas, please explore them later."

"..."

Zhou Yi felt helpless.

However, the conscious side and the material side are inherently two sides of the same coin, influencing each other.

The Heavenly Kingdom expands its territories to maintain its power, while entities like Night God, a Concept Life, expand their influence and spread in a different form, but ultimately to the same end.

The competition in the realm of consciousness is also very important.

Zhou Yi refocused on the areas he could access.

To the southeast outside the Sand Port Region, there was a public node emitting a green light representing operational status.

You are the one.

After Zhou Yi made his choice, the surroundings suddenly changed.

He arrived on a mountain.

The mountain was made of black and white stones, and massive blocks and fragments piled up like discarded building materials to form this huge mountain.

There was no water, no blue skies or white clouds, just this mountain resembling ruins.

The borders were covered in gray fog, obstructing the view further.

Zhou Yi saw several shadowy figures like those from Conan standing there, all blurred.

He asked Spirit Interface, "What are those?"

"They are visitors like you. In a public node, all visitors are anonymous and concealed, so they cannot recognize each other's identities, allowing everyone to move around more freely."

4399 said, "Time is precious, aren't you going to mine?"

"Mine?"

"That is, to extract the needed Consciousness Fragments from the node. Everyone who comes here is here for that."

"How to mine?"

Zhou Yi looked around and saw the shadowy figures standing still.

He appeared the same in their eyes.

"Of course, you use your hands."

"If you need tools to enhance efficiency, we also provide them."

A price list appeared in front of Zhou Yi.

[Pickaxe 33/33]: For mining hard blocks of Consciousness.

[Shovel 25/25]: For digging.

The numbers behind the tools represent their durability, which is how many times they can be used.

Both tools were quite expensive.

The price of the pickaxe was 3300 Light Seeds, and the shovel 2500 Light Seeds, prices correlated with their durability.

A single use costs 100 Light Seeds.

Zhou Yi thought to himself, mining as a Skywalker sure is costly.

He decided to first try using his hands.

Zhou Yi began to clear the black and white stones beneath his feet. He discovered they were fragments of Conscious Keys, but for some reason, they were extraordinarily heavy, making lifting and moving them very laborious.

Manual collection was tough, and after a while, he found nothing of use.

Spirit Interface instructed, "The valuable Consciousness Fragments here, if you touch them, will react strongly. Just extract them to retrieve the information inside."

"But only the fragments related to your Consciousness will react."

"If it's something you have never encountered, no matter the value, you won't sense it."

Zhou Yi continued searching.

He asked Spirit Interface to time him.

After more than half an hour, and moving more than a dozen Conscious Keys and sifting through handfuls of fragments, he came up empty-handed.

Zhou Yi gritted his teeth: "One pickaxe and one shovel."

"Alright."

Spirit Interface said, "Afterward, we will settle the accounts, just feed the Light Seeds into any entrance. Of course, if you forget or refuse to pay, you will not be able to access the Great Holy Spirit again."

The tools, slender and zebra-striped in black and white, felt heavy in his hands.

Though expensive, they were indeed effective.

With one shovel, Zhou Yi easily scooped up a large amount of fragments, and after three scoops, he found a glowing point.

He pinched the glowing fragment and retrieved a piece of information from it.

[Sand rats have an obscure special habit; they naturally possess a desire for cross-species mating. This tendency to explode on a large scale increases with the number of individuals in the group; the fewer the sand rats, the more the tendency is suppressed. This is the result of my experiments.]

Is this the sexual fetish of sand rats?

Zhou Yi was a bit confused.

Although sand rats are indeed associated with him, this piece of information is somewhat niche and trivial.

He wondered who might be researching this.

He shoveled a few times and dug out a hole.

But it was blocked by two columnar white Consciousness Keys.

Zhou Yi wielded the pickaxe, swinging it 4 or 5 times to shatter them.

He broke the Consciousness Keys into four pieces and saw another glowing object.

He picked it up and read it.

This time, the information was substantial.

[Did you know? Aliens also excrete, or rather, metabolize and strip away some residue, which ends up forming an almost stone-like condensed shape and gets buried deep underground.]

[These fecal residues, after being modified by aliens, emit radioactive radiation. They need to be excavated and reburied elsewhere to prevent accumulation which could cause discomfort, diseases, or even death to other nearby organisms.]

[However, these fecal residues are also valuable research materials, as they release energy almost as if they're decaying. If this energy could be harnessed, new discoveries might be made. It's a pity that I have too few samples here and not much time left to explore further. What a pity.]

Zhou Yi was astonished.

Building Life actually defecates.

He had absolutely no idea about this till now.

The alien employees never mentioned it either.

But…even if they did excrete, they wouldn't say, "Chairman, I had a bowel movement today, and it felt good."

However, this stone fecal matter releasing significant energy through decay could be worth further development.

Just collecting it to prevent radiation from affecting the local residents is necessary.

He got a very useful piece of information.

Zhou Yi's enthusiasm for mining suddenly surged.

However, for the next hour, he got nothing, no matter whether he used the shovel to dig through rubble or the pickaxe to break those hard Consciousness blocks.

Perhaps the newbie's luck had run out.

Both the shovel and pickaxe were worn out.

Having basically understood the situation, Zhou Yi temporarily ended his visit to the Great Holy Spirit.

…

Opening his eyes again, Zhou Yi found himself still standing in the same spot.

Only 1 second had passed by.

He first took out the Guangna Box, and inserted 5800 Light Seeds into the patched entrance.

Zhou Yi immediately inquired about the fecal matter with Jade City.

"Yes, Commissioner, there is the presence of excrement."

"They possess a special radiation-style energy."

Jade City answered, "We usually bury it deep underground, far from surface life, to avoid harming other lives."

"So, rest assured, it won't harm the company's employees or nearby residents."

Zhou Yi then asked Shi Gandang if he was aware of this.

"I know."

The Mechanical expert who works with Jade City said, "In the past experiments at Heavenly Kingdom, we had recorded it too. Those fecal matters are highly radioactive, resulting from the alien's continuous body adjustment and repeated restructuring; calling it fecal matter isn't quite accurate."

"It's more like shedding."

"Their shedding is different from that of flesh-and-blood life forms."

Shi Gandang explained, "Alien bodies contain a huge number of various Conscious entities. Over time, some Conscious entities become abnormal, uncontrollable, or chaotic, affecting the entire alien body."

"Thus, these parts of the Conscious entities and naturally decaying Consciousness Fragments are isolated and squeezed out by the alien, then carried and sealed by highly compressed substances and energy, stripped from the body. It's a process of self-detox and healing."

"So, the external radiation is because chaotic Conscious entities are sealed inside, and because they possess high levels of energy, presenting considerable danger."

So that's how it is.

Zhou Yi was a bit speechless: "Jade City, how come you know less about yourself than Shi Gandang?"

The alien employee replied, "Commissioner, I am still learning. There is no end to learning; there's a lot to learn. I strive to understand myself as Shi Gandang does."

"…"

Considering that Building Life itself cannot communicate with the outside world, knowledge accumulation and cognitive perfection require a process.

Oh well.

Shi Gandang added, "Chairman, this chaotic Stone Shedding itself is hazardous; just leaving it can create strong radiation and is inoperable."

"Because our understanding and development of Consciousness are very basic, Mechanical Life is making slow progress in this field."

"However, as you mentioned, someone had tried to push it along the energy direction. Theoretically, it is possible."

"Although our current devices and equipment can't induce material decay. But Jade City can."

"By managing the Stone Shedding collectively, the heat they generate could be converted into electric energy, which would save a lot of costs. This is feasible, and given the high Energy Level of Stone Shedding, it can be used continuously for many years."

Zhou Yi was overjoyed.

He immediately ordered.

"Jade City, unearth the Stone Shedding! Let me see it!"

"Yes, Commissioner."

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