Chapter 110: The Conversation

Crossing Worlds: The Tide Rider

That evening, Wei Hua returned to his bedroom early and lay down on the bed, then began absorbing electricity. Once he entered the state of inner vision, he hurried into the black hole to find Sophia. The moment he passed through the energy layer, a powerful force pulled him into the same great hall as the day before. Sophia appeared and asked, “Why have you come again? Didn’t I tell you to build a nuclear fusion generator? Why aren’t you studying the materials and making preparations? What have you come here for?”

“How did you know I was here?” Wei Hua asked.

“How could I not know? Ever since I sent the communicator out through the energy layer last time, I’ve developed a strange sensitivity to it. I can sense every change in the energy layer, but I can’t absorb or make use of even the slightest trace of its energy. Otherwise, I wouldn’t need your help. Now tell me—why have you come again?”

“I read through the materials you gave me, but there are far too many things I don’t understand. I’ve never even heard of the materials needed for the outer casing of the fusion chamber, let alone understood them! What am I supposed to do?”

“So that’s the problem. Very well. Ask me anything you don’t understand, and I’ll explain it.”

Wei Hua began asking questions like an elementary school student. Yet the more he asked, the more uncertainties emerged. It seemed the old saying was true: technology that appeared out of thin air was not so easily realized.

It took Wei Hua nearly a week to clarify everything he needed to know. But when he looked back over the matter, he reached a conclusion that left him deeply discouraged. Building such a generator would take at least thirty years.

The difficulties fell mainly into two categories. The first was materials. With the current state of metallurgy, even a complete formula and manufacturing process would be useless; the required temperatures, pressures, and precision in material ratios were simply beyond reach. The second problem was processing. Even with the necessary materials, existing methods could not produce parts of the required quality. Some components demanded machining precision at the nanometer level.

“Ah! All that effort for nothing! I got my hopes up for nothing! I don’t even know how to explain this to Sophia. Forget it—I’ll put it aside for now.”

Wei Hua decided to set the matter aside temporarily.

On January 20, 1982, shortly before the Lunar New Year, Wei Hua moved into the luxurious mansion he had built himself: Perching Garden.

His old friend Rong Zhijian personally came to offer his congratulations. Although the other wealthy men of Hong Kong did not attend in person, they all sent representatives bearing gifts. In any case, during the year since Wei Hua had returned to Hong Kong, he had experienced no conflicts with the local magnates, and relations between them remained fairly cordial. Those men had no desire to provoke friction with him. After all, Wei Hua was a genuine financial titan, one of the wealthiest Chinese in the world. With a mere movement of his finger, he could transfer tens of billions of dollars into Hong Kong at any time. Such financial power was difficult for anyone to withstand.

Three days later came Lunar New Year’s Eve. The people of Hong Kong placed great importance on the festival, and Wei Hua, who had come from the mainland, valued it even more.

Sakura Kinoshita, Mary, and Gislin all put aside their work and traveled to Hong Kong. On New Year’s Eve, Wei Hua invited the senior managers of several Hong Kong companies under his control to Perching Garden, where he held a banquet in their honor. Professor Yu and his family came as well. They had remained in Hong Kong and had not returned to the United States.

At the banquet, Wei Hua finally became acquainted with all the senior executives of his Hong Kong companies.

By then, he had essentially handed the management of the mansion over to He Xiaoya. After all, she was his personal secretary. Once the New Year holidays were over, Wei Hua planned to hire a British butler. He had heard that British butlers were efficient and loyal. A mansion this large involved countless matters that required a dedicated professional to handle.

The five members of the household enjoyed a warm and pleasant holiday together. A week later, in early February, Sakura Kinoshita, Mary, and Gislin each departed. Jessie also returned to work, leaving Wei Hua once again with nothing much to do.

The nuclear fusion generator could not be built for the time being. What should he do with himself?

Suddenly, Wei Hua remembered something. Before meeting Sophia, he had heard the communicator announce that deep fusion had been completed and that his body would undergo a second enhancement, while his brain region would be further developed. He had no idea how powerful his body had become or how far his mental development had progressed.

The moment he thought of this, the communicator’s voice rang out in his mind:

“Physical strength: one thousand times that of an ordinary human. At present, only a very small number of weapons in this world can injure your body. Brain-region development has reached—”

Wei Hua froze.

In the past, no matter how hard he tried to contact the communicator, it had never responded. What was happening today? The communicator had appeared on its own.

“After deep fusion was completed, I became a part of your body, and I am now entirely under your control. Before that, everything I did was predetermined and carried out under the orders of the Mother Goddess. The previous enhancement of your body and development of your brain region were directed by me. From now on, however, you must carry out both processes yourself. I will no longer perform this work.

“I can offer you some advice. Based on an analysis of the information obtained from Emperor Xuan Yi, these tasks must henceforth be performed by you personally. Only then will you be able to use the energy within your body more effectively and increase your soul energy more rapidly. Otherwise, you risk suffering the deviation into madness that Emperor Xuan Yi described.”

The communicator’s voice remained as rigid and mechanical as ever.

“You have intelligence?” Wei Hua asked.

“No. What I have described is the result of analysis and calculation. Without the information provided by Emperor Xuan Yi, I could not have arrived at this conclusion. I possess only basic intelligence and can perform tasks such as analysis, calculation, comparison, organization, and classification. I am now completely under your control.”

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