technological breakthrough

This was Xiao Yu's first time creating a hydrogen bomb and also his first time witnessing its detonation. Though he had mentally prepared himself in advance, the earth-shattering scene left him utterly speechless, his mind overwhelmed with awe.

In that instant, a thousand kilometers away at the main base, Xiao Yu detected seismic waves equivalent to a magnitude 4 earthquake. At Base No. 3, the seismic waves registered as the equivalent of a magnitude 7 quake.

Fortunately, Xiao Yu's factory buildings, made entirely of reinforced steel, remained largely unaffected by the seismic activity. At most, some unfixed machinery sustained minor damage, which could be easily repaired and put back into use.

The explosion unleashed a massive storm, sweeping across dozens of kilometers until it reached Base No. 3. Fortunately, Xiao Yu had anticipated this and moved all mobile machinery into secured buildings, so the storm had no significant impact on him. If anything, it merely blew away a layer of sand and dust, making rare earth extraction easier.

As the storm subsided, Xiao Yu surveyed the area before him, where insect corpses lay scattered chaotically, swept up by the wind. His eyes lit up with excitement.

"These... these are gifts from the heavens," Xiao Yu murmured to himself. If he still had hands, they would surely be trembling with exhilaration.

Before the hydrogen bomb's explosion, Xiao Yu had been filled with anger—frustrated by the relentless swarm of insects that seemed impossible to eradicate. But now, he found himself wishing for more of them, the more, the better.

Over the past few days, Xiao Yu had thoroughly analyzed the physical properties of the insect corpses. To his astonishment, he discovered that they possessed extraordinary radiation resistance and high-temperature tolerance.

Despite their bodies being a mere tenth of a millimeter thick, their radiation resistance was comparable to the entire radiation shielding layer of Xiao Yu's old spaceship. Even the searing temperatures from a flame thrower, reaching thousands of degrees, couldn't incinerate their remains.

"If I could just collect them... if I could just collect them and use them to create radiation shields and thermal insulation, then perhaps not even the radiation and heat of the sun a million kilometers away could harm me," Xiao Yu laughed heartily.

"Yes, I must immediately reinforce Base No. 3 and develop robots specifically designed to collect these insect corpses," Xiao Yu resolved without hesitation.

"By the way, I wonder if there are similar black insects in the other lakes?" The thought suddenly crossed Xiao Yu's mind.

Since this was on Titan, Xiao Yu had no concerns about disrupting the ecological balance. What a joke—was there even an ecological system on Titan? And if there was, it belonged to those insects, not to Xiao Yu. Killing them brought no guilt or burden to his conscience.

Rain began to fall from the sky. With a quick calculation, Xiao Yu realized the cause—Lake No. 2 had entirely evaporated, forming massive rain clouds overhead.

As the torrential rain poured down, Xiao Yu found himself in a rather disheveled state and hastily directed all the robots to retreat into the factory buildings to escape the rain. But in the next moment, something caught Xiao Yu's attention.

The heavy rain had caused a flood that swept away a large number of insect corpses from Base No. 3. Due to the low-lying terrain near Lake No. 2, the floodwaters flowed in that direction, threatening to refill the lake.

Xiao Yu cursed loudly, "Damn it! After all the effort I put into emptying Lake No. 2, am I just going to lose all my hard-earned resources? No way, I have to come up with a solution."

If Lake No. 2 refilled with liquid methane, collecting the insect corpses would become significantly more challenging. Even without much thought, Xiao Yu knew that the emptied Lake No. 2 must contain a vast quantity of insect corpses—an incredibly valuable resource that he couldn't afford to waste.

"Dammit, just wait and see," Xiao Yu muttered to himself. It took the powerful photon computer only three seconds to generate a plan, and after just two more seconds, the plan passed 3,700 feasibility tests. Xiao Yu immediately decided to implement it.

Prevent rain from falling near Base No. 3! Prevent Lake No. 2 from refilling.

At the main base, countless robots sprang into action. The waters of Blue Lake were extracted in large quantities, mixed with liquid oxygen, and converted into high-pressure incendiary bombs. The Fengshen No. 1 helicopter quickly took off, carrying these incendiary bombs to a desolate plain fifty kilometers behind Lake No. 2.

The plain was barren—no mineral deposits, no mountains, no lakes. It was here that Xiao Yu dropped one incendiary bomb after another.

Upon contact with the ground, the bombs ignited instantly, fueled by the liquid oxygen. Massive flames erupted, covering several square kilometers. The immense heat caused the air to rise rapidly, creating a powerful updraft. The Fengshen No. 1 helicopter, nearly destabilized by the strong currents, hurriedly dumped the remaining bombs and fled the scene.

Heated air becomes lighter and rises—this principle was elementary knowledge. Xiao Yu planned to use it to stop the rainfall over Base No. 3 and Lake No. 2, ensuring his hard work wouldn't be destroyed.

Under the influence of physical laws, the flames triggered a chain reaction. The intense heat caused more air to rise, creating a low-pressure zone in the area. Surrounding cold air rushed in to fill the void but was immediately heated and rose as well, prompting more cold air to flow in...

The inferno Xiao Yu had created set off a violent air current. And as the air moved, it generated wind, which in turn dispersed the rain clouds.

No clouds, no rain.

That was Xiao Yu's entire plan.

As he monitored the air currents, Xiao Yu felt immensely encouraged.

"However, the burning area isn't large enough, and the fire will die out in about twenty minutes," Xiao Yu thought as he piloted Fengshen No. 1 back to the base, loaded it with more incendiary bombs, and returned to the site.

By then, strong winds had already begun to blow, but the Fengshen No. 1, with its superior performance far surpassing Earth's helicopters, was unbothered by the gusts.

Following the same method, Xiao Yu dropped the incendiary bombs, then returned to the base to reload, repeating the process for five hours.

At Base No. 3, the wind sensors reported good news.

The wind had started to blow, and its strength was increasing. As Xiao Yu had predicted, the wind was heading toward the burning area.

"Excellent, excellent," Xiao Yu said with pride as he watched the rain gradually lessen and finally stop.

"It's likely that some liquid methane has already accumulated in Lake No. 2, but it shouldn't be much. No matter—I'll leave it there as a potential fuel source for Base No. 3."

Xiao Yu made up his mind.

Meanwhile, the robot production line was operating at full capacity. This time, it was producing vacuum cleaner-type robots. Given the minute size of these insect corpses, traditional collection methods would be inefficient. But these vacuum robots were perfect for the task.

Three days later, the first batch of fifty vacuum robots arrived at their destination.

Xiao Yu immediately deployed them to collect the insect corpses. Each robot was followed by a large mechanical unit, responsible for storing the collected corpses and refueling the vacuum robots. This setup allowed the robots to work continuously without having to return to the base frequently, greatly improving efficiency.

The robots were equipped with massive pouches on their backs and large vacuum arms. As they swept the ground, the insect corpses mixed with dust were sucked up and stored in the pouches. Once the pouches were full, the contents were transferred to the large mechanical units for further processing.

While the insect collection plan was underway, construction at Base No. 3 resumed. With a steady supply of materials from the main base, the base's construction progressed rapidly, and even some rare earth products had begun to be produced.

Xiao Yu estimated that in just three days, rare earth production would be fully operational, removing a significant bottleneck in his development.

Under Xiao Yu's vast computational control, everything proceeded in an orderly manner. With Base No. 3's tasks temporarily settled, Xiao Yu began planning the construction of Base No. 4 and Base No. 5.

These bases would each serve different purposes—some focused on silicon production, others on aluminum, gold, and so on. The raw materials they produced would be sent to the main base for refining, processing, and casting into components.

These components would be assembled into interstellar ships, ready to carry Xiao Yu on a grand voyage across the stars.

Meanwhile, the large-scale inspection for insects continued in full swing. After this period of construction, Xiao Yu realized that relying solely on Fengshen No. 1 was insufficient, so he promptly began building Fengshen No. 2 and Fengshen No. 3.

Fengshen No. 1 conducted a thorough survey of all methane lakes on Titan larger than one hectare. Heat sources were installed beside each lake so that if any black insects were present, they would be attracted to the heat, making it easier for Xiao Yu to detect them. Depending on their value, Xiao Yu would decide whether to deploy a hydrogen bomb.

As for Titan's ecology, so what if it's destroyed? After all, there were no intelligent beings on Titan, and the massive hydrogen bomb explosions wouldn't affect Xiao Yu himself.

The large-scale construction on Titan was in full swing. Meanwhile, good news came from Research Station No. 2's controlled nuclear fusion laboratory.

There had been a major technological breakthrough in controlled nuclear fusion research.