“But the very purpose of our auxiliary terminal intelligence is to help the master, to assist the master! But Grace can’t help at all right now, meow.”

　　Grace Green muttered in frustration, then a look of deep thought appeared in her eyes again: “Grace will figure it out sooner or later! I guess there’s a magnetic field in those medicines that’s beneficial to brainwaves, and you, Master, directly absorbed it—but that’s not scientific!”

　　At this point, Grace Green rubbed her hair in distress again: “And this planet is really strange! My previous calculations were clearly correct, so why did the starship crash? And all those subsequent escape pod launches failed too, none of them could get past the atmosphere.”

　　Seeing this, David Bolton just shook his head slightly: “I think you’re the crazy one here. I really wonder what that artificer who created you was thinking.”

　　This girl actually claimed that the place they were in was an unimaginably huge planet, with an area equal to the sum of all the Federation’s colonies, and gravity nearly four times that of ‘Earth’, orbiting an even larger sun.

　　Isn’t that nonsense? According to ancient tradition, the world is round above and square below, the heavens like a dome, the earth like a plate. Heaven above, earth below, the two arching together, separated by three hundred and sixty thousand li, with the sun, moon, and stars revolving with the dome, near things visible, distant things not, forming day and night and the four seasons.

　　—These are the principles recorded by the ancient divine masters, revered by all spirit masters as the ultimate standard. How could they be wrong?

　　He had already argued with Grace about this several times.

　　“Grace doesn’t want to argue with Master, doesn’t want to be locked in the dark room by Master.”

　　Grace Green looked dejected and dispirited: “Grace is building a new rocket over at the base, and now we’re just missing a few dozen parts. As long as we succeed in getting past the atmosphere this time and launch the satellite, so Master can see the scenery outside, Master won’t think this way anymore.”

　　Upon hearing this, David Bolton sneered: “And you’re confident this time?”

　　Grace Green’s expression grew even gloomier, and her cat ears drooped.

　　“The ancients said failure is the mother of success! Even if it doesn’t work this time, Grace will keep trying, and—”

　　At this, Grace perked up a little: “And this time Grace will use a different method. All the operations and control systems will be completely isolated, totally separated from Grace’s program!”

　　“Completely isolated?”

　　David Bolton raised his eyebrows slightly: “What do you mean by that?”

　　“Because Grace has records from the previous attempts—every time the craft entered the atmosphere, the system would have strange malfunctions, and then it would crash for no apparent reason.”

　　Grace Green propped her chin on her hand: “I guess Grace’s program was being interfered with by some unknown force, so this time I plan to completely separate the program and use the simplest systems and routines. And the shell and chip circuits will use anti-nuclear explosion technology from thousands of years ago, to block all magnetic fields, and things like transistors—”

　　But at this moment, David Bolton wasn’t really listening. He was staring intently at a chart: “What do these two boxes mean?”

　　They were “Unknown Substance One” and “Unknown Substance Two,” but the key was the content that followed. One read, “Suspected to stimulate the master’s pituitary gland, enhance secretion of cortical hormones, and strengthen the brainwave magnetic field.” The other read, “Stimulates cell nucleus structure, increases psychic power, accelerates physical recovery, and shows signs of loosening the gene lock.”

　　“This? It’s just as it says—one can strengthen the pituitary gland, the other can boost physical strength, but their effect on psychic power is minimal. Since we can’t analyze their molecular structure, we have to classify them as unknown substances for now.”

　　Grace Green glanced at it, then explained offhandedly, clearly not very interested: “This time, Master’s psychic power increased by a full ten percent, but the effect of these two substances only accounts for one-fortieth of that—so little it can be ignored.”

　　“That’s not the right way to look at it.”

　　David Bolton shook his head at this: “A spirit master’s strength certainly depends on the level of psychic power, but the physical body is just as important. I remember a spirit master once said, ‘Spirit is born of soul, the body is the vessel of the soul, and the physical body carries the spirit and soul—that is the foundation of everything. Only with a strong body can one generate more psychic power.’”

　　Just like him, David Bolton, who was a third-tier divine master in his previous life, but after changing bodies, his psychic power was less than a ten-thousandth of what it used to be. This was certainly because his spirit was damaged and, after seizing a new body, it was like starting over, but also because this body was holding him back.

　　“That’s why every sect has secret body-forging techniques to strengthen the body. If these two substances are as you say, then even if their effect is small, they can solidify and nourish the body’s foundation, and are actually the most precious part of these pills.”

　　Hearing this, Grace Green’s eyes lit up: “This is really useful for Master?”

　　David Bolton nodded emphatically: “Of course it’s useful—very useful!”

　　“Then I can try to extract them from other plants just for Master, and make them into injections. I’ll also see if I can analyze more similar components from that Spirit-Enhancing Pill.”

　　Grace Green grew even more excited, then with a flash, put away the holographic projection: “But Master, please wait a few more days, let Grace build a model and catch some creatures for testing first. We need to see what side effects these things have, and how best to combine them.”