Wu Paulo’s slap sent Kikuchi Kohei flying backwards.
Wu Paulo had held back considerably, otherwise a single palm could easily have shattered the man’s skull.
Kikuchi Kohei lay crumpled in the snow, unconscious. Wu Paulo strode over, muttering curses. Seeing the injuries were serious and the man truly out cold, he briefly considered leaving him to his fate, but he needed answers about this new technology Kikuchi had mentioned. Grumbling through gritted teeth, he said, “Damn it, I slap you and then have to waste my spiritual energy waking you up. What a useless waste!”
He might hit and curse, but he would still save the man when necessary.
With no other choice, he channelled a few strands of spiritual energy into Kikuchi Kohei’s body to rouse him quickly.
When Kikuchi Kohei came round, he clutched his swollen, pig-like head, still groggy. Wu Paulo wasted no time. “This radar you mentioned, when can it be activated?”
Ignoring his dizziness, Kikuchi Kohei replied respectfully at once. “In answer to the Real Immortal, the ice radar can be activated at any time. However, I need to know the type of target you wish to detect and its approximate size. This detection technology is not highly precise. Anything too small cannot be picked up.”
Wu Paulo said, “What I am looking for is an underground city, or rather, an underground town.”
“An underground city?” Kikuchi Kohei blurted instinctively. “That… that is impossible. The Antarctic ice sheet has existed for hundreds of millions of years, far longer than human history. How could there be a town beneath it?”
Wu Paulo replied, “That is not something you need to worry about. Your task is to believe it exists and to find it!”
As he spoke, he reinforced the psychological suggestion.
Kikuchi Kohei’s eyes immediately blazed with conviction. He declared firmly, “The Real Immortal is right! Antarctica is vast. There must be some unknown underground town! If we discover it, it will surely be a world-shaking find recorded in history!”
At this point, Kikuchi Kohei had undergone double brainwashing by Wu Paulo and had entered a state of complete fanaticism.
Fanaticism had one advantage and one drawback. The advantage was that it unleashed greater executive drive than ever before. The drawback was that it often stripped away objective judgement.
Wu Paulo was satisfied with his attitude and ordered, “From this moment, you and your team must devote every effort to locating this underground town. It may not be a conventional town as you imagine, so pay close attention. The instant you detect any artificial traces underground, report to me immediately!”
Kikuchi Kohei said excitedly, “No problem! Rest assured, Real Immortal! We shall draw up an exploration plan at once. Three ground teams will set out in three different directions. We also have a helicopter. When weather permits, it can carry the radar for aerial searches. We will find it as quickly as possible!”
Thereafter, Kikuchi Kohei immediately ordered all snowmobiles to activate their ice radars. The personnel were divided into three teams and headed in separate directions.
Once the ice radars were engaged, exploration range and speed increased exponentially. Kikuchi Kohei planned to scan as much area as possible first, then have base personnel carefully analyse the radar images. In short, both front-line and rear teams would work around the clock. They absolutely had to locate the underground town the Real Immortal had spoken of.
Soon, however, they encountered a serious problem: detection range.
Centred on the Wu Han Palace base, a fully fuelled snowmobile had a range of roughly six or seven hundred kilometres in these frozen lands.
Yet because they needed to conduct scans en route, speed could not be high, and vehicles and equipment required power and heating, which greatly increased fuel consumption.
