I live in the Martian wilderness!

Gu Yu strode toward the circular hatch leading to cargo hold number two.

There was no airlock, only a heavy, sealed door, inside which was a constant, dry, low-temperature environment of 4°C.

He turned the mechanical lock and went inside. He stopped beside a military green metal box at the very back of the cargo hold.

The container is painted with a conspicuous nuclear radiation warning sign and a line of small print in white template paint: [Candlelight-III Emergency Heat Source].

Opening the case, two black devices, resembling small server chassis, lay quietly in shock-absorbing foam.

Each device is about the size of a computer tower and weighs 10 kilograms, making it easy to lift in the low gravity of Mars.

Gu Yu easily lifted out two of them, one in each hand.

Back in the backyard, he placed the two small heaters on the open ground on either side of the track pool, creating a crossfire-like heating system.

Gu Yu knelt in front of a candlelight device. Its outer shell was not a smooth surface, but was covered with dense graphene heat dissipation fins.

At the top of the device, there are no complicated switches, only a mechanical interface that looks like a keyhole and is covered by a red protective cover.

刻度盘上清晰地标注着：【0%(锁定)】【25%】【50%】【75%】【100%】。

[Friendly Reminder: Lieutenant Colonel, we have detected that you are activating emergency power equipment. Please confirm.]

The candlelight's heat source is a passive decay heat source; once activated, the internal insulation layer will be permanently removed, and it cannot be shut off. It will continue to release heat for the next two and a half years.

Its core cannot be shut off. Temperature regulation relies entirely on the opening and closing angle of the mechanical heat shield.

"Once activated, it will continuously generate heat for the next two and a half years. Please confirm your operation."

"I confirm. Preheat at 50% power first." Gu Yu inserted the wrench into the socket, took a deep breath, and exerted force with both hands.

With a heavy, damped feel, he rotated the pointer counterclockwise from the [0%] position to the [50%] position, one increment at a time.

"Click—"

A crisp mechanical locking sound, like the bolt of a safe returning to its place.

Immediately afterwards, a very faint, continuous low-frequency humming sound came from inside the device.

"Buzz..."

That wasn't the sound of a motor turning, but rather the structural resonance produced when the multi-layered heat-insulating tiles surrounding the isotopic core slowly slid open under the drive of a precision stepper motor.

Gu Yuneng could clearly feel the faint vibration originating from the inside through the gloves placed on the outer shell.

The first thing to change was an inconspicuous indicator light on the top of the device.

It flashed a few times from white, which represented "safety locked," and finally turned orange, which represented "heat source exposed."

Immediately, a visible, distorted mass of air, like a mirage, began to slowly rise from above the heat sink fins on the top of the device!

That's a phenomenon of light refraction caused by the sudden change in density of the surrounding cold air after it is heated instantly.

Gu Yu immediately took a few steps back. The thermal imager inside his helmet showed that the heat dissipation fins on the surface of the device were heating up at a visible rate.

Within a few dozen seconds, it quickly changed from its original dark blue to orange-red, and finally stabilized in a bright yellow that represented a high temperature of 250℃.

Next up was the second one.

Once both candles were activated, it was as if two eternal suns appeared out of thin air in this enormous 600-cubic-meter ice cellar.

"Xuan, shut off the air supply to the Sky Shuttle and let it recharge quietly on its own."

"Command confirmed. External gas supply has been cut off."

As the roar of the Tissot fan ceased, the backyard fell silent instantly, save for the faint hissing sound of the air around the candlelight radiator as it heated up.

Gu Yu looked at all this with satisfaction, but a strong sense of exhaustion welled up inside him.

From building the wall to pressurizing and deploying the heat source, he has been working at high intensity for more than 10 consecutive hours.

As the roar of the Tissot fan stopped, the backyard fell silent instantly.

All that remained were the heat dissipation fins of the two "candlelight" heat sources, emitting a faint hissing sound, like the chirping of insects on a summer night, as they heated the surrounding air.

Standing in the warm, dry air, looking at the completely transformed world before him, Gu Yu felt a surge of exhaustion mixed with immense satisfaction.

From laying the first brick in the early morning to working through the last wisp of hot air late at night, he has been working at a high intensity for more than 12 consecutive hours.

He dragged his heavy steps back to the command center of Oasis One.

"Xuan," he asked as he took off his combat uniform, "let's take stock of today's achievements. How much of the hardware portion of our 'Shennong Project Phase I' is complete?"

"Report to the colonel: progress is exceeding expectations."

Xuanjian immediately projected a three-dimensional structural diagram of the backyard onto the holographic screen.

"Environmental renovation: 100%. The enclosure, pressurization, and temperature control of 600 cubic meters of space have been completed."

Temperature system: 100%. Permanent heat source deployed and operating stably.

"Agricultural facilities: 80%. The two racetrack-style culture tanks have been assembled and only need to be filled with water."

"Conclusion: The hardware is basically complete. Tomorrow, we only need to finish the final wiring, and then we can fill the pool with water and officially plant the spirulina in the afternoon."

"very good."

Looking at the green that represented victory, Gu Yu finally felt completely relieved.

I put on my eye mask and crawled into my warm sleeping bag. "Xuan, the rest is up to you. Monitor the temperature and air pressure in the backyard in real time, and wake me up immediately if anything seems amiss."

"Okay, sweet dreams, Colonel."

"By the way, Xuan, how's that tank of green liquid in the command module? If the problems are resolved, how many more days until the transplant?"

"Reporting to the colonel, the first batch of spirulina in the command module has completed 72 hours of recovery and proliferation."

"Based on the current biomass density, it is expected that the transplantation standard will be met in 3 days, which is the 15th Martian day."

"Three days..." Gu Yu nodded, there was plenty of time. He was just about to lie down when he suddenly thought of another question.

"Xuan, can we just scoop them out in three days and dump them into the big pond in the backyard?"

"No, Lieutenant Colonel. This would lead to the extinction of over 99% of spirulina."

Please look at the screen, Lieutenant Colonel.

Gu Yu could only remove his blindfold and look at the screen inside the command cabin, where a detailed animated explanation popped up.

Xuanjian explained, "Before transplanting, the backyard running track pool and piping system must undergo a final process—'sterilization and environmental conditioning'."

"Although Mars is sterile, our equipment is not."

"During the construction of the Tissot tracks and the surface of your combat suit, it is inevitable that some tenacious bacterial spores that hitchhiked from Earth will be brought into the backyard."

"For our delicate spirulina, these Earth bacteria are deadly invasive species that will frantically steal nutrients."

"We must first fill the pool with purified water, then turn on the electric heater to raise the water temperature to 80°C and keep it circulating for at least 30 minutes."

"Using high temperatures, we can completely kill all the Earth's bacteria that may contaminate the culture medium."

"Then comes the curing process. Newly printed carbon-sulfur composite plates will have trace amounts of unreacted elemental sulfur residue on their surface. Directly introducing algae will cause pH fluctuations."

"After repeated rinsing with hot water, these residues will be washed away and dissolved, and discharged with the first batch of wastewater."

After listening silently, Gu Yu said, "I understand. In other words, our job tomorrow isn't to plant seeds directly. Instead, we'll give the two pools a hot bath at 80 degrees Celsius."

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. Only after pasteurization and curing can we refill with clean culture medium to prepare for the growth of the first batch of spirulina."

"Xuan, besides disinfection and aging, are there any other drawbacks to this open-air farming method?"