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

Chapter 36 focuses on realism (please continue reading).
Zhang Beihai saw a blinding light, the radiance brought by the 'Opener' breaking through the clouds. The sun was solemnly standing in the western sky, and golden rays pierced through the thin clouds higher up, eventually shining through the observation window and into Zhang Beihai's eyes.

"Hey, soldier, was that Commander Chang Weisi who just spoke before the plane took off? He looks familiar. How come he's aged so much in just a few years?"

Next to Zhang Beihai's seat, an expert who clearly did not look like a soldier spoke up.

“It’s Chief Chang Weisi, do you know him?” Zhang Beihai said, turning his head, then his expression suddenly turned to surprise: “Professor Ding Yi, we meet again.”

“I know him. We met at a conference in 07 about the frontiers of science… Hmm, Beihai?” The expert had clearly only just recognized Zhang Beihai.

“It’s me.” Zhang Beihai nodded.

"I never expected to run into you on a new plane after a year. What a coincidence!" Ding Yi was clearly also surprised that he would encounter the soldier he had met a year ago during what was a routine space trip for him.

The odds are about the same as getting the same taxi driver twice in a row in the city.

A chance encounter between acquaintances can instantly warm up the atmosphere, even though Zhang Beihai and Ding Yi are both people who are not good at expressing themselves.

"Are you very familiar with Chief Chang Weisi?" Zhang Beihai asked.

"I wasn't familiar with him. I was dragged to the operations center by a policeman named Shi Qiang, and that's how I met this leader. After the decapitation operation against the ETO was over, I never saw him again."

"So that's how it is. Chief Chang did indeed preside over the Guzheng Project," Zhang Beihai remarked with emotion.

Ding Yi nodded, then changed the subject, asking, "How do you feel about the new plane?"

"It's updated and smoother now, it feels like a futuristic world."

Ding Yi said, "So sometimes we have to admit that those old guys who occupy high positions in the aerospace field are indeed quite capable. In just one year, they have already phased out the old space shuttle during the transition period. This new space shuttle breaks through the atmosphere and enters space, and no longer needs to discard its space booster."

Ding Yi spoke fluently about the "Opener," clearly demonstrating that his understanding and expertise in the new aircraft far surpassed that of Zhang Beihai.

Zhang Beihai listened quietly.

"During its spaceflight phase, the 'Opener' was no different from the old-fashioned Space Shuttle. However, when performing space missions, the 'Opener's' pulse detonation rocket engine could be overloaded and ignited, accelerating the spacecraft to the first cosmic velocity, breaking through the atmospheric constraints and plunging into the vast universe. Theoretically, there is no upper limit to its flight altitude; it can reach low Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, and even has the potential to reach lunar orbit."

"Does he have the potential to travel to interstellar space?" Zhang Beihai asked.

"Absolutely not." Ding Yi chuckled.

"The propulsion system and fuel system are major weaknesses. I told you this the first time. The limit for chemical fuel spacecraft is the Earth-Moon orbit. Let's wait until those old fogies come to their senses and decide to put the future of aviation on the right track of propellantless engines."

"Professor Ding Yi, you are the most renowned expert in cutting-edge physics in China. Why don't you use your influence to persuade them?"

"Me, try to persuade them?" Ding Yi pointed to himself and gave a self-deprecating laugh: "Theorists like me and those who do applications are not on the same level. They have much more say than me. After all, the sophon has sealed off the future of theory, but those old bones have actually researched and developed this thing." As Ding Yi spoke, he pointed to the airplane itself.

"Whoever can get things done has the right to speak," Ding Yi said.

Zhang Beihai was silent for a moment, then asked, "So, what are you planning to do going up there this time...?"

"I'm going to organize the restart of the space high-energy particle project. Most of the experts on this plane are here to assist me."

"Wasn't the space high-energy particle project suspended for a year? Has it been restarted?"

"Hmm." Ding Yi nodded: "Thanks to the agreement reached between the fifth Wallfacer and the Trisolarans, three sophons were evacuated to Jupiter. If the intelligence from the PDC is accurate, it means that there are only two sophons left on Earth. This gives us hope of breaking the blockade, so the higher-ups have given us the green light again."

Ding Yi smiled again: "Actually, it's quite good. For us researchers, as long as there's even a 1% chance of breaking through the sophon blockade, we should give it a try. They support us too."

Zhang Beihai comforted him, saying, "As long as the relative distance between the space particle projects is long enough, we will always be able to seize the opportunity. I heard that some Wallfacers have proposed building an ion accelerator on Mars to use the distance difference between Earth and Mars to circumvent the Sophon's blockade."

The maximum distance between Earth and Mars is approximately 4.01 million kilometers. This distance occurs when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the Sun and at their respective aphelions.

At this distance, even at the speed of light, it would take a sophon 22 minutes to travel. If humanity can create a time difference well enough, and there are indeed only two sophons left on Earth, then humanity does have a chance to create a time difference and break through the sophon blockade.

Ding Yi waved his hand upon hearing this: "You mean Radiaz, right? Don't listen to that layman's nonsense. The United States only successfully returned to the moon two years ago, and now they're struggling to build a lunar base. Going to Mars? That's probably another 50 years away."

There was another unspoken truth between the two: neither Ding Yi nor Zhang Beihai believed that the negotiation agreement reached between Wallfacer No. 5 and the Trisolaran civilization could last too long.

It's even possible that the three protons that were previously deployed on Jupiter have returned to Earth; after all, who knows?

Perhaps only the fifth Wallfacer had the means to verify this. After all, he was the first person in the world to force the Trisolarans and Earthlings to negotiate terms; one couldn't help but admire him. At least Ding Yi was very curious about how the fifth Wallfacer had done it, but unfortunately, the PDC had not revealed the truth, so he couldn't ask.

Just as the two were talking, a dazzling blue light suddenly flashed in the sky, almost completely cutting off the golden rays of the sun and making the people or seats near the observation window look like jade.

Immediately afterwards, a series of rumbling sounds came from all directions.

The sound was not like thunder, but rather like the clang of countless metals resonating within swords.

The soundproof cabin of the "Opener" seemed to have disappeared, and the more than thirty people in the room suddenly had the illusion of being exposed at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

"What's going on outside?"

Inside the cabin, experts and scholars exclaimed in surprise, while the space force soldiers remained relatively calm, but they all looked out the observation window together.

Zhang Beihai's seat was by the window, so he felt it particularly strongly.

He and Ding Yi looked out the observation window at the same time.

Both of them saw dozens of constantly moving black dots in the sky. The dots were not large; at least, with the clouds as a frame of reference, each dot was no larger than a person's volume.

Zhang Beihai examined them carefully for a while, but still couldn't identify what the black dots were.

Ding Yi, who had been interviewed many times, said incredulously, "The outlines of those black dots look like camera lenses to me?"

A dozen or so cameras are floating and dancing wildly in the sky?

What are they filming?
The answer was quickly revealed. In everyone's eyes, a sword cultivator in white robes leaped out from the clouds at the bottom, like a frost flower blooming in the clouds.

He wasn't moving fast, seemingly intentionally giving the camera enough time to shoot.

His eyes clearly showed some surprise when he saw the 'Opener' spaceplane.

What's wrong with the air traffic control staff? Didn't they clear the restricted airspace in advance?

But a good lead actor can always quickly balance his emotions. His long hair is unruly, the scabbard on his back is empty, and his figure floats forward. The vast and boundless sword light flows, as if slashing towards a certain camera.

Immediately afterwards, a red banner, like the mythical sash, rolled out from the clouds, obscuring the view of the 'Opener' spaceplane.

The red banner featured several large, gleaming gold characters.

The crew of "Cultivator Alliance 4: The Battle Between Dao and Demon" is currently filming. Unauthorized personnel are advised to stay away.

Like a raging storm, sword light howled across the sky, seemingly intent on engulfing everything in its invisible vortex. Thick, inky clouds blanketed the surrounding area, as if they would swallow the camera lens completely at any moment.

At the same time, Ding Yi and Zhang Beihai felt their reason being swallowed up.

An electronic female voice sounded in the cabin, pulling the passengers back to their senses.

[Urgent Notice: The 'Opener' spaceplane has mistakenly entered the filming location of The Wallfacer No. 5. The crew has received an emergency instruction from the PDC, following the request of the Air Traffic Control Coordination Command: The 'Opener' will urgently change its course to avoid the filming area of ​​The Wallfacer.]

Passengers are requested not to photograph, save, or distribute any previously seen footage to avoid spoilers for the film's plot and affecting the viewing experience when the movie is released. The flight segment will begin earlier than scheduled; please do not unfasten your seatbelts.

When the electronic female voice ended, not only Zhang Beihai and Ding Yi, but all the passengers in the cabin fell into an eerie silence.

After a long silence, one of the space force officers in the cabin whispered something.

"So, all the movies this Wallfacer acted in before were filmed on location, right?"

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This book is currently ranked 20th in the new book category of the "Infinite Heavens" book list, and has not yet entered the overall new book list.

The overall new book ranking is calculated based on the relative ratio of monthly votes to word count; the more monthly votes a book receives, the higher it ranks on the new book list.

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(End of this chapter)