Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 320 The Emperor's Hammer (3k)

Inside the "Mantis," the atmosphere was already tense due to the close encounter with the Trisolaran probe, and a gasp immediately drew everyone's attention.

"Look! What's that?" Lieutenant Colonel Xizi pointed in a direction outside the porthole, his expression full of surprise and doubt.

Everyone turned their attention away from the tattered Trisolaran probe and looked in the direction of the sound.

Due to the position and angle of the Mantis relative to Jupiter's orbit, they could only see one particularly conspicuous trajectory—a fiery meteor, so intense it seemed to be burning itself out completely, hurtling into deep space with an astonishing acceleration.

Its speed increases so rapidly that one can even visually sense a sense of decisiveness.

"Such rapid acceleration... What is that, our warship?" exclaimed the accompanying fleet lieutenant commander in shock.

"Judging by its size, it seems so," Xizi said uncertainly, looking at the fiery meteor.

Another major said gravely, "How could the warship be like this? Has it been pierced? It looks like it's on fire."

Ding Yi tucked the hammer into his waistband, observed carefully for a while, and realized that these silly children probably had never seen an ancient rocket before, so he explained, "It's a chemical propellant propulsion system. This warship carries multiple rockets."

The tall major said, "Holding rockets? What are they going to do?"

“I guess it’s an escape; the rumors about Hines are probably true,” another major said.

Xi Zi stared at the shrinking meteor, her eyes filled with confusion: "Is it an escape? At a time like this? Why?"

The tall major frowned deeply: "The spaceship is still accelerating. This terrifying thrust has probably exceeded 500G. Has the captain inside gone mad? Isn't he afraid the spaceship will disintegrate?"

"It can't be dismantled," Ding Yi said.

He floated to the porthole, and unlike the others who were amazed by the appearance, he squinted and carefully calculated the trajectory and acceleration changes of the fireball. As a physicist, he was very sensitive to energy and motion.

After completing the mental calculation, Ding Yi said, "This was a premeditated, organized, and technically well-prepared evacuation. Its acceleration curve is very stable, which indicates that they have made very thorough modifications to the ship. Let your superiors worry about it; focus on the work at hand."

Ding Yi withdrew his gaze from the distant fireball, glanced at the officers beside him who were still marveling, and finally fixed it on the rusty Trisolaran probe in the distance, which was firmly bound by the magnetic field.

This three-body probe was eventually named "Water Drop." The observers who were the first to observe the probe had very imaginative and beautiful interpretations of this rusty, "round-headed, cone-shaped streamlined object":
Observers believe that the probe must have been gleaming silver, like a drop of silver mercury, when it set off, but the long journey of two light-years eventually turned it into its current rusty state.

In the earliest plan, humans intended for the Mantis to extend its robotic arm to grab the probe and then stuff it into the Mantis's belly, thus making close contact.

This was something Ding Yi had always hoped for; he was eager to touch this macroscopic creation from the Trisolaran world with his own hands.

However, since the probe is bound by the magnetic bottle, any rash action by the Mantis would definitely disrupt the stability of the magnetic bottle. It has now been basically confirmed that the Trisolaran civilization has no sincerity in negotiating, which means that it would be very dangerous to let the probe break free from the magnetic bottle's restraints.

Therefore, the first round of observations was decided to be remote observations.

Ding Yi was somewhat disappointed, but there was nothing he could do; he understood the fleet's caution.

The rusty water droplet was suspended in the silent space, bound tightly by an invisible, powerful magnetic field. The binding force of this magnetic bottle was terrifying; the restraining force it generated was enough to suspend the entire West Lake upside down in the sky.

Not far from the Mantis were five star-class warships, their gamma laser cannons, electromagnetic railguns, and star-shaped hydrogen bomb silos—all the weapon systems that could be aimed at this place—were already aimed at the rusted droplet.

Moreover, all weapons are in a state of readiness to be activated.

"Dr. Ding Yi, this probe reminds me of the bronze artifacts I saw when I visited a museum on Earth as a child," said Lieutenant Colonel Xi Zi, standing slightly behind and to the side of Ding Yi, wearing a lightweight spacesuit.

“Bronze artifacts also come in different types,” Ding Yi hummed softly.

Xi Zi asked, "What do you mean?"

Ding Yi chuckled and said, "The Sword of Goujian, King of Yue, is a bronze sword, and Luo Qing's Three Green Swords are also bronze swords, but can you say that these two are the same thing?"

"Uh." Xizi didn't know how to reply.

Ding Yi's gaze never left the target. He said quietly, "Those guys at Fleet International may not be the brightest sometimes, but they've made thorough preparations this time. I just don't know if those preparations will work... Let's begin, starting with remote and non-contact methods."

The expedition proceeded methodically, with the Mantis extending various sensitive probes to send electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths—from long-wave radio to short-wave X-rays—to the "droplet" from different distances and angles, and even attempting to sense it with a weak gravitational wave detector.

The results were perplexing.

Thermal radiation scans revealed that its temperature was almost perfectly synchronized with the background cosmic radiation, making it unlike any normal macroscopic object. Electromagnetic wave reflections were extremely weak, suggesting that most of the energy was absorbed by its "rusted" surface, resulting in chaotic and unreliable signals. Magnetic field measurements showed an extremely complex and weak internal magnetic field structure, but these structures appeared to be constantly changing and completely irregular. Mass measurement was the only definitive result—it weighed only ten tons.

Upon learning these results, Ding Yi remained expressionless: "That's good. At least it eliminates the possibilities of antimatter, white dwarf matter, and neutron star matter."

Xi Zi couldn't help but ask, "Dr. Ding Yi, are you still unable to determine its internal structure?"

Ding Yi did not answer immediately. He floated back to the instrument panel, pulled up all the data and checked it repeatedly. The intuition brought about by his profound understanding of the nature of matter made him realize: this thing is too calm.

He thought of a famous saying by a great historian: "When something is truly bizarre, there must be a ghost."

"Prepare for exiting the capsule," Ding Yi suddenly ordered. "Dr. Ding Yi," the two majors cried out almost simultaneously, "this is too dangerous; we can't predict its reaction."

“The remote detection has reached its limit,” Ding Yi said. “There’s no need to shut down the magnetic bottle. I know the magnetic bottle will trap my spacesuit, so I’ll fly there directly without wearing it.”

At his insistence, the extravehicular activity (EVA) procedure was initiated. Ding Yi, Xi Zi, and two other fully armed majors entered space, where a safety tether connected them to the Mantis spacecraft.

Then, before Xizi and the two majors could react, Ding Yi snapped the safety rope with his bare hands and, like a standard butterfly swimmer, kicked hard with both legs on the Mantis.

The Mantis drifted backward a few centimeters due to the reaction force, and Ding Yi shot out like an arrow.

"Dr. Ding Yi!" all three shouted instinctively from inside their helmets, but Ding Yi couldn't hear them because of the vacuum.

The three tried to catch up using thrusters, but unexpectedly, the other party's speed increased.

Ding Yi suddenly held a hammer in his hand—a geological hammer commonly used by geologists, its head even showing signs of wear from use. In this space filled with warships, the hammer seemed utterly out of place.

However, it was precisely the hammer's influence that caused some of the magnetic field lines of the magnetic bottle to converge towards the tip of the hammer. The extremely strong pulling force dragged the hammer towards the central area of ​​the magnetic bottle, which was where the water droplet was located. Ding Yi, who was tightly gripping the hammer handle, naturally flew over with the hammer. This scene was somewhat like a Thor character wielding a hammer in a Park Era movie.

"Dr. Ding Yi, please be careful." Xi Zi's voice came urgently through the communication channel.

Ding Yi picked at his ear, took out the headset, and casually tossed it away. He threw it at a speed that did not exceed the third cosmic velocity, causing the small headset to turn into a small asteroid in the solar system.

The magnetic field suddenly contracted, transforming from a massive magnetic cage into a narrow, elongated magnetic bottle. This clearly indicated that the five warships had detected Ding Yi's anomaly and had jointly switched the magnetic field release mode to prevent the completely out-of-control Ding Yi from crashing directly into the detector.

Ding Yi adjusted his posture and slowly extended the geological hammer toward the edge of the magnetic bottle. The strong magnetic field caused some disturbance to the hammer, but he steadily controlled it with his perfect innate strength.

Although his hammer appears to be metallic, it is not actually made of metal. Therefore, the magnetic field has little effect on the hammer. Moreover, Ding Yi's orientation is exactly at the mouth of the magnetic bottle, so it is almost unaffected by the magnetic field.

Almost everyone could clearly see the scene of the geological hammer reaching towards the surface of the "droplet" through a remote telescope.

The hearts of the five starship pilots were in their throats.

If there's any possibility of this detector causing trouble, then now is the best time.

Ding Yi's movements were as gentle as if he were caressing a precious treasure. Finally, the slightly worn head of the geological hammer gently, almost silently, touched the rusted surface of the "water droplet".

Subsequently.

A sudden change occurred!

That dull, rough, rusty layer, which looked like it would crumble at the slightest touch, vanished without a trace in a fraction of a second. In its place was an absolutely smooth, absolutely perfect mirror surface that reflected the distant stars and the images of the five warships!
The entire detector was restored to its original form—a flawless water droplet.

Its force field generator has restarted!

The change was too fast, too abrupt, and exceeded everyone's reaction limits.

Almost instantly, the entire "water droplet" became clear and bright!
However, just as the mirror surface appeared, in that insignificant gap in time, Ding Yi made his move.

This seemingly elderly physicist reacted with the fastest speed he had ever used, as if he had anticipated this scene. Using the reaction force from the touch and a technique he had practiced countless times, he suddenly jerked his arm!
Hammer Shaking Technique!
The seemingly ordinary geological hammer, when shaken by him, had a fleeting layer of star-like diamonds flowing across its tip, seemingly capable of reflecting all light!

"clang!!!!!!!!--"

A sound that cannot travel in a vacuum, yet travels through the hammer handle, flesh and blood, human bones, and the hand gripping the hammer handle, is transmitted with unparalleled clarity to the depths of Ding Yi's mind.

A deafeningly sharp impact sound exploded!
A small burst of indescribable light and debris erupted at the point of impact!

Snap—Bang!

In the silent universe, a faint cracking sound could be heard.

The head of the geological hammer turned into a cloud of dust and dissipated into the vacuum. The hammer handle also broke in the middle. The powerful hammer that Ding Yi had spent a whole year refining and making was completely destroyed.

At the tip of the "droplet," which had just been restored to its perfect shape, where the geological hammer had struck, a glaringly visible crack appeared. A small, perfectly smooth fragment, about the size of a fingernail, had been smashed off!

Similarly, the enormous recoil caused his entire arm to go numb instantly.

"I knew it." Ding Yi's face was terribly gloomy.

The Trisolarans gave themselves too little time. There was only one hammer, an experimental weapon, and its strong interaction force could only be maintained for a moment after the hammer strike. After that, the hammer tip would immediately break apart, regardless of whether the hammer hit the target or not.

This is all the result of Ding Yi's tireless research over three years after obtaining the force field generator technology, and his ultimate derivation of the incomplete cultivation technique (crossed out).

The absolute perfection of the water droplet's overall shape has been broken!
Its mirror-like sheen even flickered slightly and rapidly a few times, as if the system had experienced a very brief malfunction!
When the Trisolaran world witnessed this scene through the Sophon, it fell into a brief silence.

(End of this chapter)