Alchemy has been a dream of Human Civilization since ancient times. Throughout history, countless Warlocks dedicated their entire lives to this field, yet none ever succeeded.
He never expected that he, Li Qingsong, would be the one to unintentionally achieve it during his fleet’s flight through the Cosmos.
Creating gold from hydrocarbons may seem strange, but the principle behind it is actually quite simple.
Changes in matter at the atomic level, like nuclear fusion and fission, aren’t as esoteric as they sound. They don’t necessarily have to be carried out in sophisticated equipment.
The Cosmos is filled with high-energy interstellar radiation and Particles moving at extreme velocities and possessing immense kinetic energy.
Li Qingsong’s fleet was currently traveling at 8% the speed of light. As a result, Particles that originally lacked such immense kinetic energy were passively imbued with it upon impact. This caused high-energy collisions with interstellar Particles to become increasingly frequent.
Consequently, the hydrocarbon atomic nuclei making up the special plastic sheets could be struck by these Particles, either gaining or losing protons. Outwardly, this manifested as nuclear fission or fusion.
That’s right. During the voyage, within the very material of the plastic sheets, these transformations, capable of releasing immense energy, were occurring every single moment.
Their elemental composition was thus altered. In a material that originally contained only carbon and hydrogen atoms, atoms of dozens of other elements began to appear out of thin air.
After being refined and purified, they became the gold bars, iron ingots, and blocks of tin now laid out before Li Qingsong.
Of course, elements with higher atomic numbers were formed in smaller quantities, as they were more difficult to create.
Li Qingsong estimated that under the current conditions, approximately 30 grams of gold were being produced out of thin air each year on average.
Of course, if the fleet’s speed were to increase further, causing the high-energy interstellar Particle collisions to become even more frequent and intense, the efficiency of this "Alchemy" would also increase.
"Put them to industrial use."
After a moment of reflection, Li Qingsong sent the materials to the various factories. The plastic sheets, which had been "eroded" by these impurities until they were riddled with holes, were re-molded until they were as smooth as new and then sent to a warehouse for future use.
Aside from the "Alchemy" that even he found somewhat surprising, traveling at 8% the speed of light brought other peculiar phenomena to Li Qingsong’s attention.
He noticed that the colors of the myriad shining stars ahead of the fleet seemed to have changed slightly.
They seemed to have grown a little bluer.
The shift was minuscule. Even the Clone inhabited by Li Qingsong’s consciousness—a body that had undergone thousands of genetic optimizations and possessed superhuman eyesight—could only barely perceive it.
Behind the fleet, the stars had turned slightly redder, an equally minuscule change.
Li Qingsong knew this was due to redshift and blueshift.
Light waves have properties similar to sound waves. As an object moves toward an observer, its light waves shorten in wavelength and increase in frequency. As it moves away, the wavelength lengthens and the frequency decreases.
The color of light, in turn, is determined by its wavelength.
The fleet’s velocity of approximately 24,000 kilometers per second was causing the colors of the stars to change.
Using the Doppler formula, corrected for relativity, Li Qingsong calculated that the color of the celestial bodies ahead had shifted approximately 8.3% toward blue, while those behind had shifted about 7.7% toward red.
With such a minor shift, it was no wonder the Clone could only barely perceive it.
To his instruments, of course, the change was extremely obvious.
In fact, beyond the color shift perceptible to the naked eye, the high-speed travel was causing even more changes related to the stars.
Stars typically radiate electromagnetic waves across the entire spectrum, differing only in their energy levels. However, some of these waves—those with wavelengths that are too long and frequencies too low, or wavelengths too short and frequencies too high—fall outside the observable limits of scientific equipment.
Yet these specific wavelengths might hold many secrets about the internal mechanics of celestial bodies.
Previously, they were impossible to observe. But that was no longer the case.
Ahead of the fleet, previously unobservable electromagnetic waves with excessively long wavelengths and low frequencies were now being blueshifted. Their wavelengths shortened and their frequencies increased, moving them from the unobservable spectrum into a range that could be captured by radio telescopes.
Likewise, the redshift effect on the stars behind them brought previously unobservable waves with extremely short wavelengths and high frequencies into the observable range.
Thus, a flood of signals that Li Qingsong had previously been unable to observe or capture now poured into his instruments, revealing secrets that had been hidden behind many veils.
Li Qingsong had the distinct feeling that he had just pioneered an entirely new field of astronomy.
’Beyond visible-light astronomy, infrared astronomy, X-ray astronomy, neutrino astronomy, Gravitational Wave astronomy, and the others... could this new field... be called high-velocity astronomy?’
Li Qingsong knew he now had yet another means to explore the mysteries of the Cosmos.
Amidst all these peculiar phenomena, there was one that troubled Li Qingsong.
Namely, the effects of time dilation and length contraction.
Simply put, as an object moves, its rate of time flow changes.
At low velocities, the change in the rate of time is so minuscule it can be ignored. This is why Newtonian mechanics can be used to calculate an object’s motion.
But at 8% the speed of light, the change in the flow of time was no longer negligible. Continuing to use Newtonian mechanics would lead to significant errors.
For instance, Li Qingsong had always used neutron star triangulation to determine the fleet’s position.
By observing the fleet’s relative position and angle to several neutron stars with pre-determined coordinates, he could indirectly pinpoint the fleet’s precise location in the Cosmos.
But now, due to the extreme velocity, the flow of time itself had changed.
According to Li Qingsong’s calculations, the fleet’s time was now flowing approximately 0.32% slower than time in the outside universe.
In other words, for every 365 days that passed in the outside universe, only about 364 days would pass for the fleet—a difference of one full day.
This was causing huge errors in the navigation system. Moreover, the change in the rate of time would trigger a whole series of problems, even affecting the accuracy of scientific observation data.
Fortunately, this situation was not without a solution.
By incorporating relativistic formulas as a correction, the "distorted" data could be converted back to its original state, eliminating the interference from the fleet’s various operations.
Surrounded by these strange new phenomena, the vast fleet continued its high-speed advance.
And after a period of preparation, the various large-scale scientific instruments were finally ready to be brought online.