In countless mines, massive pieces of mining equipment rumbled day and night, their work punctuated by an endless series of explosions.
Vast quantities of rock were shattered and sent on for subsequent processing. This pre-processed ore was then transported to smelters. Subjected to the intense heat of Nuclear Fusion Reactors, the ore was gradually separated from its impurities and refined into special alloys according to Li Qingsong’s exact specifications. Finally, these alloys passed through numerous foundries to be shaped into individual components.
On the numerous space elevators, countless shuttles roared day and night. They accelerated at dozens of Gs, either rocketing toward the stars or plummeting back down from space.
In space, countless asteroids moved in chaotic orbits, all under the control of Pegasus V432. Vast celestial nets were unfurled, blocking all potential threats from space that could interfere with the construction.
Countless transport ships of all sizes zipped through space. They nimbly dodged smaller celestial bodies, smashed them to pieces, or simply barreled straight through. Their mission was to deliver the facilities and materials that Li Qingsong had so painstakingly produced to over a thousand target planets.
Huge machines RUMBLED and ROARED, burrowing into the planets’ crusts like giant dragons. An endless stream of rock was excavated and piled high beside the construction sites, forming veritable mountains.
Myriads of Clones and general-purpose robots swarmed like ants. Whether working in control rooms or on the front lines, they constructed facilities on a scale so immense it seemed beyond human capability.
Using special welding techniques, high-precision interlocking steel plates were fitted together like building blocks to construct enormous water storage tanks. Ultrapure water factories, one for each proton decay Detector, were supplied with vast quantities of water ice, either harvested locally or shipped in from elsewhere. These factories worked relentlessly, raising the water’s purity with each cycle.
The ultrapure water used by the Detectors could not be transported from external sources. The reason was simple: during transit, it would inevitably become contaminated with atoms or molecules from other substances.
It could only be produced on-site and then infused into the tanks via special methods to ensure it remained uncontaminated.
Even then, the water required periodic repurification, because atoms and molecules from the tank walls themselves would diffuse into it over time.
This massive undertaking consumed the full attention of over 300 million of Li Qingsong’s Clones, as well as about five million Blutuk scientists and engineers.
At this stage, the population of the Blutuk People had grown to roughly 1.5 billion. They lived under Li Qingsong’s ruling philosophy of "science above all," a system where only scientists could gain status, honor, and direct praise from him. Contributions in any other field, no matter how great, went largely unrewarded. As a result, this population of 1.5 billion had produced approximately 12 million qualified scientific scholars, far exceeding the output of an ordinary civilization.
Furthermore, Li Qingsong had not concealed the details of their prior conflict with the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity from the Blutuk People.
The Blutuk People had keenly felt just how perilous that time had been.
If they had been defeated, both their master and they themselves would have been enslaved by the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity.
They had practically walked a tightrope, narrowly and precariously securing this precious time for development.
Knowing this, how could the Blutuk People not give their all?
’Even if our own scientific strength is weak and our numbers are few, making us unable to contribute much to our master’s technological advancement, we can at least fill in the gaps and eliminate the cognitive blind spots in his research framework.’
And so, with Li Qingsong leading the charge and the Blutuk scientists following behind to patch up any oversights, their respective scientific capabilities merged into an organic whole.
After decades of work, the massive proton decay Detectors were finally complete. Li Qingsong assigned approximately 120 million Clones to the daily research and maintenance required to keep them running. He then pivoted, pouring a vast amount of his scientific resources into another, equally critical construction project.
A magnetic monopole detector!
The magnetic monopole was another Particle predicted by Li Qingsong’s current Grand Unified Theory framework.
Unlike a normal magnet with both a north and a south pole, a magnetic monopole carries only a single magnetic charge. In other words, it has only a "south pole" or a "north pole."
Li Qingsong didn’t know if magnetic monopoles actually existed. But for the moment, his theoretical framework predicted this Particle’s existence.
If the existence of magnetic monopoles could be confirmed, it would serve as a crucial validation of Li Qingsong’s Grand Unified Theory, allowing many parts of the framework to be fleshed out.
The search for this particle was just as important as the search for proton decay; both were indispensable.
This was because these two types of detection would validate two different aspects of the Grand Unified Theory.
According to Li Qingsong’s theory, magnetic monopoles were abundant in the early Cosmos. However, as the Cosmos continued to expand, their density steadily decreased, making them exceedingly rare per unit of volume in the present day.
Furthermore, the lifespan of a magnetic monopole was extremely long, perhaps even comparable to that of a proton.
Therefore, any device designed to detect magnetic monopoles had to possess two key characteristics. First, it had to be sufficiently large.
Only a massive detector would have a reasonable chance of interacting with the incredibly rare magnetic monopoles scattered throughout interstellar space.
The probability of a magnetic monopole striking a planet is, after all, always higher than that of it striking a spaceship.
Second, it had to be capable of reacting with a magnetic monopole. Only through such an interaction could a detectable phenomenon be generated for Li Qingsong to observe.
For this field of detection, Li Qingsong decided to use a new type of Detector.
This Detector would be based primarily on helium-3, an isotope of helium.
At extremely low temperatures, helium-3 enters a superfluid state. When also placed within a magnetic field, this superfluid helium-3 forms quantized vortex lines.
If a magnetic monopole were to pass through the superfluid helium-3 in the Detector, its magnetic field would interact with the helium-3, causing a minuscule fluctuation in the helium’s own magnetic field.
By observing such a fluctuation, Li Qingsong could then confirm whether a magnetic monopole had indeed passed through the Detector, and also determine its properties.
Just like the proton decay Detectors, the magnetic monopole Detector was also extremely sensitive to interference. However, since it couldn’t be shielded by thick layers of rock to eliminate this interference, the only solution was to improve its resolution.
Therefore, to achieve the necessary precision, Li Qingsong had no choice but to build the magnetic monopole Detector on an immense scale as well.
In Li Qingsong’s plans, the first-generation magnetic monopole Detector would have a total volume comparable to a heavy transport vessel, a total mass exceeding 10 million tons, and its longest dimension would stretch over a kilometer.
Into this enormous Detector, Li Qingsong infused millions of tons of helium-3 and began his attempt to capture a magnetic monopole.