Pov: Vik
Soon, the spiritual energy in the environment began to gather around Lina. As she circulated the techniques I had taught her, sweat poured from her forehead. She felt pain while trying to break through to the foundation establishment. With my guidance, she finally started to circulate that energy in a loop, growing stronger and stronger.
Suddenly, like a glass shattering, Lina broke through and began establishing her foundation. Half an hour later, she woke up, her body now filled with the strength of a new foundation establishment realm cultivator.
Upon waking, she said, "Master, I broke through to the foundation establishment realm. Can I go look at that submarine?" Even after her breakthrough, her first question was about the submarine. I sighed. My disciple is truly a tech fanatic. Still, seeing her excitement, I replied, "Okay, Lina, let's go. It's time to improve our means of travel."
After that, Lina and I set to work on upgrading the submarine. I had to focus a lot as I suggested different ideas, while the main work was done by Lina and the system. The system provided her with all available technology in its database, which mostly included what exists in this world.
As Lina received direction from the system, she tried to improve that technology. Sometimes she failed, but she always did her best and managed to invent some new technologies to apply to the submarine.
It took nearly 20 hours of non-stop work to complete the upgrade. During that time, I asked Lu Xiaoran and Roman to practice in seclusion. Others, like Lu Xiaoran's parents and Sherry, were also trying to practice after seeing the energy-rich environment of Anonymous Hall. I told Lu Xiaoran and Roman to take care of Lu Xiaoran's parents and Sherry, who were not familiar with Anonymous Hall. Sherry, in particular, went into complete seclusion upon arriving, trying to break through to a minor realm in her cultivation. I asked Roman to help and guide her, and I was considering teaching her some techniques and accepting her as my disciple.
But that can wait. After 20 hours of continuous work, both Lina and I were very tired. By the time we finished, it was 2 AM. I told Lina to sleep first since she was more tired than I was. Only after confirming she had gone to her room in the disciple dormitories did I enter my own room.
There, Pushpa tried to cuddle with me as I walked in. However, I was too tired, so I hugged her and immediately fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke up with Pushpa lying on my chest. Today was a significant day. We were going to deploy our submarine and travel by sea. I couldn't wait to pilot it. Thinking about this, I headed out to the main hall of Anonymous Hall, where I greeted Lu Xiaoran's parents as they came out of their room. I also saw Lu Xiaoran, Roman, and Sherry.
I led them outside to prepare breakfast on the open grasslands of Great Fire Forest. The only thing missing was Lina. Eventually, I spotted her heading towards the lake to see the submarine. I was sure she was more excited than I was, but I stopped her to make sure she had breakfast first. While everyone ate, I mentioned that I needed to freshen up and took Pushpa with me to a nearby pond for a bath.
After my bath, I joined them for breakfast and then told everyone I had a surprise. I led them to the lake and showed them my submarine—or rather, our submarine, since most of the hard work was done by Lina.
Everyone was in awe when they saw it; it was a true beast. The submarine measured 1 kilometer long, 200 meters wide, and 100 meters high. I made it large to rival those continental cruisers. However, unlike those bulky vessels, its design was sleek and advanced.
Its entire body was white with purple lines running across it. These purple lines were actually nanobots developed by Lina that could change or repair the submarine's outer armor. There were many more features and upgrades that the nanobots could implement once I finalized the designs. Those purple liquids flowing on the submarine's exterior were more than just armor.
For propulsion, the submarine had newly developed marine turbine engines at its tail, pushing it forward at high speed. I learned that most continental cruisers operate at speeds of Mach 10, which would be impressive in my previous world. However, in this world, where distances are measured in millions of kilometers, it was merely the minimum speed needed to reach another continent before the year ended. Those cruisers took a month to travel to the next continent. I planned to reduce that time to just a few weeks, assuming everything went well. Lastly, the submarine used a compact, scaled-down version of the nuclear spiritual energy reactor found at Anonymous Hall.
While listing all the features of the submarine, I noticed that only Lina seemed to fully grasp its specifications. So, I changed the topic and said, "Lina, you did the most work in building this submarine, so please name it."
Lina looked from me to the submarine and said softly, "Its white color will make it beautiful in the dark ocean. I'll name it 'Great White.'"
"That's a very impressive name," I complimented her. After that, I teleported the now-named submarine, Great White, into the open seas away from the coastal city. My disciple, Lu Xiaoran, Roman, and Lina were already standing on the outer bridge of the submarine, gazing at the vast ocean. I took a deep breath and opened the hatch, allowing everyone to enter one by one.
I left Lu Xiaoran's parents and Sherry back at Great Fire Forest for safety reasons, as I wasn't sure what this ocean held. Still, I was confident we would have a great adventure on this journey before reaching the Western continent.