Chapter 197 - Yamata no Orochi, Warming Up Mars
Niu Ben wasted no time to pass through the dimensional passage upon returning to the matriculation camp.
"Stop!"
Uncle Wang, who was guarding the dimensional passage, shot a glance at Niu Ben. "Why are you out again? I didn't receive instructions from the camp commandant this time."
"It is an emergency, Uncle Wang."
Niu Ben walked up to Uncle Wang and took out the photos he had just taken.
"I just discovered a new dimensional passage and found a new planet. I need to report to the camp commandant immediately."
"A new planet?"
Uncle Wang was startled as he took the cell phone and looked at the photos. "Go!"
"Thanks, Uncle Wang." Niu Ben immediately headed straight to the camp commandant's office.
"Madam!"
"Anything?"
The camp commandant looked at Niu Ben in bafflement.
As Niu Ben told of his discovery, the camp commandant's eyes lit up. She signaled Niu Ben to brief her more about it.
After a long while.
"It might not be a habitable planet, but we can terraform it. According to what you said, 96% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of this planet is good news for Mars," the camp commandant said.
"It was Ling Jiu who proposed to transfer some carbon dioxide to Mars," Niu Ben said. "He also said that if the carbon dioxide on this planet is transferred to Mars, the temperature of this planet will also be reduced, and there will be hope for the planet to become a habitable world."
"That is a real possibility," The camp commandant said. "You have done a good job this time. I will report this to the higher level of humanity and reward you."
"Thank you, Madam!" Niu Ben's face broke out in a smile.
"Leave this information to me. You may leave now."
"Yes, Madam!"
Off Niu Ben went.
The camp commandant was deep in thought as she continued to look through the materials about the planet.
Mars was a suitable candidate for terraforming, but the low temperature on Mars was delaying the project.
So those humans at the higher level planned to build CO2 factories on Mars. This method could increase the CO2 in Mars's atmosphere, but it was going to take a long time.
It could take hundreds of years before CO2 reached an ideal level in the atmosphere.
But now things were different.
Once Mars warmed up, Earth's plants could be introduced to produce oxygen.
In other words, they could kick-start Mars terraforming project immediately, which was undoubtedly good news for humankind.
"I didn't expect such a hostile planet could harbor such a large life form. And Ling Jiu devoured it just like that! What arcana is that? A devouring arcana? I didn't know that he was so powerful."
...
Sara Ohara was as if a small sun with dazzling lightning. It illuminated the entire underground space, echoing with the glow of the wormhole.
"Die!"
Immediately afterwards, bolts of lightning burst out from him and struck Ling Jiu, as if it was about to turn Ling Jiu's into coke and burn him into ashes.
Facing this aggressive attack, Ling Jiu opened his mouth and swallowed those lightning bolts, turning them into pure energy for his own use.
"How is this possible?"
His lightning was feared by even the fiercest Class-9 Beast Emperor. Yet Ling Jiu had devoured it. Was he even a human?
"Is that what you have got?"
Ling Jiu licked his lips, as if wanting for more. "If you have any, use them now. Don't say I didn't give you a chance."
"You arrogant bugger!"
Sara Ohara's face was hideous as his body suddenly swelled, and pieces of white scales crawled out of him.
In just a few breaths, he became a gigantic snake of over 100 meters long with snow-white scales and eight heads.
"This is…" Ling Jiu's heart skipped a beat. "A Body Morphing, Yamata no Orochi?"
Yamata no Orochi was a monster that existed in Japanese mythology and not in the real world. But at this moment, Sara Ohara had turned into one.
This came as a surprise for Ling Jiu.
But with the rise of the direbeasts and the emergence of arcanists, more and more mythical creatures appeared in the world.
For example, the Gigantization-type Arcanas, which was easily associated with the Titans; Christopher's Angelization Arcana that was reminiscent of angels; and Yamata no Orochi, which was reminiscent of the Japanese dragon.
In this era, Ling Jiu would not find it a surprise to see the dragon in Chinese mythology. When even the omnipotent arcanists had emerged, nothing else was impossible.
"I will kill you, kid!"
Sara Ohara-transformed Yamata no Orochi roared. Its eight heads opened their mouths at once, shooting out eight giant pythons of energy at Ling Jiu.
A fire python.
A water python.
An earth python.
A thunder python.
A python formed by acid fluid.
A python formed by white light.
A python formed by black smoke.
The eight giant pythons cut through the air and flew from eight directions, wanting to burn Ling Jiu into ashes, scorch him into coke, and melt him with corrosive fluid.
"That looks badass. But unfortunately, this type of attack is the most useless against me."
With the wave of his hand, Ling Jiu opened a dark dimensional crack in front of him. Before the eight giant pythons knew it, the dimensional crack had swallowed them.
"This is a child's play in front of a Dimensional arcanist like me. Now, it is my turn."
As soon as his voice trailed off, Ling Jiu opened his mouth and swallowed.
A black hole appeared with a terrifying suction force, pulling Sara Ohara-formed Yamata no Orochi towards it.
"No—"
Looking at the black hole in front of him and feeling the horrible tearing force, Sara Ohara panicked and fought back with all his strength.
But it was useless.
All struggles were futile.
The Yamata no Orochi plunged and disappeared into the black hole to the sound of its terrified scream. The black hole disappeared after that.
Sara Ohara was swallowed into the Inner World, attacked by flames from all directions. The terrifying heat scorched his body.
Most of the water on his body surface vaporized in the blink of an eye, his scales scorched, turning into a roasted Yamata no Orochi.
"What place is this? What place is this?"
Sara Ohara was screaming in agony, frantically looking for a way out. But there was fire in all directions. There was no escape.
"No—"
Amid the cry of anguish, Sara Ohara vanished from this world forever as he failed to escape the fate of being burned alive into ashes.
Boom!
A potent vitality poured into his mind again, absorbed by the cells, increasing the strength of his physique. Ling Jiu let out a long sigh after that.
"The combination of The Devourer and Inner World is the most lethal arcana, apart from Ultimate Physique."
As much as Ling Jiu understood the horror of these two arcanas, he was even more afraid of the Flame Astral Behemoth that was about to hatch.
The Flame Astral Behemoth was the original owner of The Devourer and Inner World.
Just like Ultimate Physique, The Devourer and Inner World worked the best in it. An imitation like him was never in the same league as the Flame Astral Behemoth.
"I must become stronger." Ling Jiu clenched his fists.
His cell phone rang. It was Niu Ben calling.
"Hey, Brother Niu."
"I have already met the camp commandant. It's done, bro," Niu Ben said, "You can come back now."
"All right."
Ling Jiu left a dimensional mark and then left. Instead of returning to the matriculation camp, he went to the forest.
"You are back!"
Seeing Ling Jiu returning safe and sound, there was a hint of relief in Bai Ya's eyes. But her face was still pallid as she continued planting her trees.
"Yeah."
Ling Jiu casually pointed with his finger, and the pit in front of Bai Ya expanded rapidly. A pit had formed in the blink of an eye.
Upon seeing this, Bai Ya planted a sapling inside, and soil automatically covered back the pit after that.
"Aren't you curious about what I did?" Ling Jiu could not help but ask upon seeing Bai Ya's silence.
"What have you done?"
Ling Jiu shook his head. "Senior Niu Ben discovered a new dimensional passage beneath Olympus Mons. There is a new planet on the other side of the passage. We have gone to explore. Do you know what kind of planet it is?"
"What planet is it?"
Ling Jiu talked non stop as he helped Bai Ya planting trees. As the blue sunset gradually appeared on the horizon, and their bodies cast a pair of long shadows on the ground until they came into one.
There was not much work the next few days. Niu Ben had called and said that the humans higher up there had dispatched a group of scientists over to conduct an in-depth study on the new planet.
At last, they determined that the new planet was actually Venus.
Of course, this was so not important.
The most important thing was, the scientists had unanimously approved the CO2 equalization plan proposed by Ling Jiu.
The plan finally unfolded after a series of careful calculations and computer simulations.
The first step was to remove the obstacles above the dimensional passage.
So Olympus Mons had to bear the brunt.
The camp commandant had come personally to remove the Olympus Mons.
As a result, the dimensional passage buried 30,000 meters underground was exposed.
At the same time, they had also cleared up the other end of the dimensional passage to expose the passage to facilitate the flow of CO2.
As the obstruction was cleared, Mars and Venus were now connected. What followed next was self-evident.
With the atmospheric pressure higher on one side and lower on the other, CO2 would flow naturally.
The atmospheric pressure of Venus was as high as 96 times of that on Earth, which was equivalent to the pressure of 1,000 meters in the deep sea.
What about Mars?
Mars's atmospheric pressure was only 0.75 times of Earth's.
In other words, the difference of atmospheric pressures between Venus and Mars was 128 times.
So there would be a massive amount of CO2 pouring into the wormhole, entering Mars, and then spreading from the now removed Olympus Mons to the entire planet.
According to scientists' calculations, with the speed of CO2 flow, it would only take 13 days for the CO2 level to reach the ideal level where Mars became hospitable.
By then, Mars would warm up to a level comparable to that of Earth.
Mars would warm up.